English for Specific Purposes最新文献

This study explores the changes in perceptions of transitional challenges faced by learners studying Chemistry through English-medium instruction (EMI) at a university in Japan over one academic semester. The research investigates the relationship between students’ English proficiency, academic performance, and their perception of transitional challenges. The study involves 27 students from an introductory Chemistry course and adopts a mixed-methods approach. The quantitative analysis utilises IELTS scores, as well as pre-and post-content tests, to examine the relationship between language proficiency and academic performance. Complementing these findings, the qualitative analysis provides insights from semi-structured interviews conducted at the start and end of a 12-week semester. These interviews offer an in-depth look into the individual transition processes of six purposefully selected students who represent a range of backgrounds and varying degrees of success in EMI, including both international and local students. The findings indicate that English proficiency alone does not guarantee a successful transition into EMI. Other factors play crucial roles in the rate and extent to which students overcome transitional challenges. The study recognises the need for ongoing support to help students navigate persistent transitional challenges in EMI. Implications are discussed regarding language support, EMI curriculum planning, and future research directions.

Despite a long history of citation research, its focus has been on the linguistic and rhetorical characteristics of citations rather than their semantic nature. Using a move-based approach grounded in the CARS model (Swales, 1990), this paper studies the sorts of source ideas cited in different parts of literature reviews (LR) of Information Systems research articles following the design science research (DSR) and interpretivist research (IR) paradigms. Findings reveal three types of epistemically-oriented semantic content – theoretical, research, and methodological – and one type that is non-epistemically-framed, which vary quantitatively and qualitatively between the DSR and IR LRs. For example, both types of LRs cite more often in Move 1 Establishing a territory than in Moves 2 and 3 Establishing a niche and Occupying the niche, with theoretical terminologies, definitions, propositions being referred to more frequently in the IR writing than in the DSR writing. On the other hand, citations in the DSR writing often display prescriptive propositions, design concepts, artefacts, and methods which are absent from the IR writing. These findings not only help us better understand how citation is shaped and constrained by rhetorical moves and research paradigms but also provide implications for the teaching of citation content.

As the most important journal for ESP research, The ESP Journal/English for Specific Purposes (ESPJ) is now more than 40 years old, having been launched in 1980. With source data from 705 articles published between 1980 and 2019 in ESPJ, we set out to trace the development of the journal in terms of the most frequently explored topics, the most highly cited ESPJ articles and the references of ESPJ articles, plus the changes in contributors with regard to countries/regions. The topic analyses highlight two broad trends in ESPJ over four decades. The first trend is the significantly increased focus on the analyses of target language varieties, which has grown in both research scope and depth. The second trend appears to be a shift from the coverage of a wide range of teaching issues in the 1980s to the primacy of writing and literacy since the 2000s. Given that the ability to use the target language variety to communicate effectively in writing is a main objective for the majority of ESP learners, ESPJ has been playing a leading role in the field by focusing more on issues central to this aspect of ESP teaching.

Evans (2013) analyzed the nature and frequency of Hong Kong professionals' workplace presentations as well as the challenges they faced when delivering these presentations. This commentary analyzes the pedagogical significance of Evans’ (2013) findings, recommends relevant classroom activities, and suggests directions for future research. Specifically, the commentary offers pedagogical activities to address each main challenge Evans (2013) identified from a robust needs analysis: “engaging the interest of the audience through the selection of relevant content, handling questions spontaneously and authoritatively, communicating in a natural spoken style, and integrating clearly designed slides into the flow of a presentation” (p. 205). As an initial step to narrowing the research-pedagogy gap which exists in business English, the commentary underscores the importance of a robust needs analysis which triangulates quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources to identify learner needs. To address these needs, practitioners can implement research-informed activities using authentic materials. Since some of the challenges identified by Evans (2013) have been discussed in other studies about oral presentations and are likely shared by learners in other contexts, it is hoped that the pedagogical activities targeting these challenges offer practitioners new ways to help learners hone the skills needed to excel at workplace presentations.

This commentary reflects on the significance of Chan's (2019) study of the communication needs of Hong Kong business professionals over time. It considers the implications of the study's findings for the field of ESP and offers suggestions for research and practice that build on Chan's work.

This commentary on "Just wanna give you guys a bit of an update": Insider perspectives on business presentations in Hong Kong (2013) explores the significance of the paper written by Stephen Evans, its influence on the study of business English, and its main contributions to business communication and presentations, including a number of highlights for future research projects.

This paper provides an overview of research results by Pamela Rogerson-Revell in ‘Participation and performance in international business meetings’ (2008). The role of English as a lingua franca and the challenges of participants in a specific context of international meetings is briefly described.