English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is traditionally conceived of as a materials-based and teaching-led movement, catering to specific student needs in specific learning contexts. ESP thus serves as an umbrella term covering uses of English in academic and professional settings, ranging from business communication, scientific or workplace discourse to conversational practices in intercultural settings. More recently, the scope of ESP has been broadened to include variationist approaches to studying field-specific uses of language on the basis of their distinct language and discourse features.
This course therefore aims to familiarise students with the formal and functional variation of English used in specialist domains. Using a range of resources and techniques for analysing text and dialogue, we will identify the distinctive properties of specialised discourse in order to determine its level of specificity, as compared to general language. The questions we will investigate throughout the semester are the following: How can language for specific purposes be described and identified? What is the relationship between ESP and language skills (speaking, writing, vocabulary)? What are the central areas of ESP (English for Academic Purposes, English in the Workplace, English for Science and Technology, Business or Legal English) and how can they be characterised? What are the specifics of ESP teaching and learning? How can specialist language be studied empirically?- Dozent/in: Christine Simone Sing