English for Specific Purposes最新文献

In the past, whereas much attention has been paid to exploring doctoral dissertation writing as a whole or the move analysis of results section, there is a dearth of studies examining how the problems keep posing for doctoral EFL students in writing such a section. The current study focused on students' problems when they write the results section of their dissertations in the fields of education and chemistry, and investigated the degree to which students' understanding was in line with that of their supervisors through semi-structured interviews with ten pairs of supervisors and students. The results showed that (1) disciplinary differences played an important role in writing the results section; (2) supervisors and students in the same discipline understood the purposes of writing the results section to a certain extent, but the overall result varied in different disciplines; (3) there was a lack of agreement between supervisors and students regarding the reasons for the students' problems, especially in the field of chemistry; and (4) students, regardless of discipline, tended to attribute their problems to limited language proficiency while their supervisors provided reasons other than that. In light of the findings, the pedagogical implications for writing instruction are discussed.

Thesis writing (used here as an umbrella term to cover both master's and doctoral postgraduate-level writing) is a high-stakes genre for postgraduate students. This important student genre has been well-researched from a corpus-based perspective. Corpora of theses and also research articles have been used for data-driven learning (DDL) of this key genre. The purpose of this article is to critically examine key DDL initiatives, some of which take a ‘research into practice’ orientation. Importantly, the discussion is framed around the notion of ‘specificity’ in the context of needs analysis, and whether the initiatives take a wide-angle, narrow-angle or move from a wide-angle to a narrow angle approach. Accounts which focus on DIY (do-it-yourself) mini-corpus compilation and use by students are also reviewed. The final section of the article presents a critique of current pedagogic applications, taking a closer look at the issue of ‘specificity’ within the wider context of needs analysis and mapping out areas for future consideration. It is suggested that an ethnographic perspective may be particularly useful for conceptualising specificity relating to students' present situation needs. The article also considers the impact of AI/ChatGPT on future corpus-based pedagogy of thesis writing.

Scholars in the medical field have described medical writing as particularly challenging and have called for instructional support for both novice writers and L2-English medical scholars. One of the main challenges is that there exist conventionalized terms that express a wide range of concepts, and any inappropriate use of such terms can lead to miscommunication with real consequences for practitioners, researchers, and the public. Therefore, the investigations of such conventionalized expressions could constitute a good starting point in addressing some of the challenges in medical writing. Thus, the present study investigates the use of multiword collocations (a type of register-specific word combinations) in medical research articles and the medical case reports, using two corpora of over a million words, representative of the two registers. The subsequent structural and functional analyses revealed that the majority of multiword collocations in both registers consisted of complex noun phrases mostly formed through noun premodifications (e.g., fine needle aspiration, fluorescence in situ hybridization, single nucleotide polymorphisms). The identified sequences served distinct discourse functions that reflect the differences in the specific communicative functions of the two registers. Some pedagogical applications are suggested in this paper.

ESP students need to develop their multimodal literacy to become literate in today's professional spaces. For this purpose, ESP teachers should revisit pedagogy practices to best engage students in the navigation and construction of multimodal genres. As a case in point, we explore PechaKucha (PK) presentations. This multimodal genre consists of 20 slides, which are automatically advanced every 20 s. PK presentations entail a complex format that requires speakers to choose how to convey content, design suitable visuals, and engage audiences. The dataset for the study consists of 7 PK presentations delivered during a social event at an architecture conference. Adopting a multimodal discourse analysis lens, we analyse this set of PK presentations in terms of rhetorical structure and the way in which intersemiotic relations unfolded (synchronisation between speech and visuals and the modal density of slides). The analysis demonstrates that PK presentations entail an intricate multimodal composition consisting of three moves in which professional and personal narratives intertwine. The examination of intersemiotic relations reveals how speech and visuals interplay effectively to transmit meaning and engage the audience. The results of this study provide critical information to design a research-informed pedagogy to enhance ESP students' multimodal literacy.

Research articles in English have witnessed a growing emphasis on self-promotion, posing challenges for Spanish social scientists when writing for English-medium journals. One difficulty lies in effectively promoting their own research without compromising necessary content and exceeding word limits. To address this issue, this study explores strategies for making room for research promotion in the discussion/closing sections of social science research articles. A comparative analysis of these sections in English and Spanish was conducted, focusing on the communicative functions fulfilled by different segment types. The findings confirm that authors in English prioritise promoting the quality and applicability of their research over its contribution and relevance. They also reveal that these authors tend to include fewer non-promotional segments restating results, providing background information, and elaborating ideas compared to their Spanish counterparts. However, both groups of authors consistently include segments commenting on the results, as well as making recommendations for future research/practice. These segments are considered essential in this part-genre. This study provides insights for Spanish social scientists balancing self-promotion and other communicative goals in English research writing. The practical implications extend to English for research publication instruction, as well as the work of reviewers and editors of English-medium journals.

Much of the recent research in English for nursing has focused on the specialised spoken discourses rather than the written documentation that nursing students need for patient care. However, patient documentation can be challenging to learn, particularly for some students for whom English is an additional language. This study investigated how novice English as an additional language students learned to read patient documentation during their work placements, and the role that their workplace supervisors played in helping them learn. An ethnographic approach and discourse analysis of workplace interactions with three supervisors and 16 students in three Australian hospitals showed that most nursing students observed required explicit guidance from their supervisors to read the documentation and to understand the linguistic and rhetorical functions of those notes. The findings suggest that developing reading skills in the workplace should involve explicit guidance in learning to read the requisite documentation. It is recommended that English for Specific Purposes courses for nursing students pay attention to written as well as spoken discourses and that language specialists work with nursing educators to provide professional development for workplace supervisors and to ensure that guidelines and expectations for reading documentation are clear for supervisors and students.

Despite the wealth of productive ESP/EAP research on promotional genres over the past decade, such research has yet to spotlight Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statements (DEISs) for academic job application purposes in U.S. higher education. To address this gap, this study systematically analyzes the rhetorical features of 80 DEISs and explores the perceptions of faculty administrators, ESP/EAP writing teachers, and novice writers regarding the genre analysis findings.

A step-driven rhetorical move analysis targeting the frequency and distribution of rhetorical moves/steps, as well as patterns in inter- and intra-move sequences within the DEISs, was implemented. The analysis unveiled five reoccurring moves, each consisting of multiple steps, with varying frequencies across different texts. It also identified a mixture of circular, linear, and somewhat disorganized patterns in inter-move sequences.

Furthermore, through subsequent semi-structured interviews with three faculty members and one L2 student writer, the study revealed a consensus among the interviewees regarding the practical value of the genre analytic findings, particularly for ESP/EAP writing instruction and professional assessment. Meanwhile, it highlighted the interviewees’ mixed reactions concerning specific rhetorical features of the DEISs and their collective doubts surrounding the writing and use of DEISs.