The Audit Report in Contrast: Developing Corpus-Informed Applications for Spanish Users of English for Business Purposes

Abstract

Background: This article argues for the intersection of intercultural technical and professional communication (TPC), contrastive rhetoric, and corpus linguistics as a powerful alliance to perform application-oriented genre analysis. Literature review: Research into technical and professional communication has long been interested in genre analysis from an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) approach. Genres are a frequent form of professional communication; reports, in particular, have received great attention in the field of English for Business Purposes (EBP). Nevertheless, existing research has criticized that many ESP/EBP coursebooks are not really tailored to the trade, let alone contain the language used in real-life professional settings. Consequently, specialized corpora for genre description pertain. Aim: This study analyzes the audit report business genre to develop applications of language use for EBP learners. Research questions: 1. What characterizes the audit report (AuR) genre macrostructure in English (EN) and Spanish (ES)? 2. Are there noticeable differences between EN and ES in terms of genre realization? 3. How can the findings of descriptive research be applied in professional contexts? Method: An ad-hoc comparable corpus of authentic AuRs was compiled, tagged at the rhetorical level and browsed following a top-down procedure. First, the macrostructure of the AuR was pinned down and then compared cross-linguistically in search of similarities and differences. Then auditors’ self-mention markers and verbs referring to their tasks were examined. Results: Minor differences were observed at the rhetorical level, as opposed to the findings at the level of grammatical realization. A two-fold proposal is made to transfer descriptive knowledge to an ESP educational setting and to the workplace.