Introducing Researching English for Specific Purposes

by Lindy Woodrow

Overview

Introducing Researching English for Specific Purposes is an accessible and practical guide to research in ESP. It’s for novice researchers, graduate students and for ESP practitioners who want to do some research themselves. The author takes the reader step by step through the stages of research, starting with choosing a topic and reviewing the literature through to writing up research findings. Examples are taken from academic journals and dissertations to highlight aspects of the research process.

The book covers the following areas:

• developing a research project
• research design
• theoretical approaches to ESP research
• choosing a research topic
• quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods in ESP research
• validity, reliability and ethics
• writing up research in ESP

The book includes recommendations for further reading and tasks. There is also a glossary and a chapter providing advice, templates and links to useful research sources.

Introducing Researching English for Specific Purposes is essential reading for anyone wanting to conduct research in ESP.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367503703
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/30/2022
Series:	Routledge Introductions to English for Specific Purposes
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lindy Woodrow is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is the author of Introducing Course Design in English for Specific Purposes (Routledge, 2017) and Doing a Master’s Dissertation in TESOL and Applied Linguistics (Routledge, 2020).

Table of Contents

List of figures x

List of tables xiv

Acknowledgements xvii

1 Introduction 1

Who is this book for? 1

What is ESP? 2

ESP research 3

2 Developing a research project 6

Typical stages in an ESP research project 6

Choosing a research topic 6

Topics covered in an ESP course 6

Topics relevant to a work situation 9

Topics of personal interest 9

Expertise of ESP staff/supervisor 9

Reviewing the literature in ESP 10

Stage 1: Getting basic knowledge of the area 10

Stage 2: Reading widely 11

Stage 3: Identifying the gap 12

Stage 4: Writing the literature review 13

Reading the literature 13

The research proposal 15

Further reading 17

3 Theoretical approaches to ESP research 19

Genre 19

Key aspects of genre theory 20

ESP tradition of genre 20

Systemic Functional Linguistics tradition of genre 22

Rhetorical Genre Studies 22

Typical methodological approaches in genre studies 23

Intercultural perspective on ESP research 25

Key aspects of intercultural rhetoric 26

Typical methodological approaches in intercultural rhetoric 28

English as a lingua franca 29

Key issues in ELF theory 29

Typical methodologies in ELF and BELF 30

Academic literacies (Ac Lits) 32

Key issues in academic literacies theory 32

Typical methodologies in academic literacies 33

Multimodality 34

Key issues in multimodality 35

Typical methodologies in multimodal studies 35

Critical perspectives in ESP 37

Key issues in critical ESP 37

Typical methodologies in critical ESP 38

Further reading 40

4 Researchable topics in ESP 41

Areas for ESP research 41

English for academic purposes 41

Major considerations in EAP 42

English for business, professional and occupational purposes (EBPOP) 45

Major considerations in English for business, professional and occupational purposes 46

Language analysis 49

Major considerations in language analysis 50

Needs analysis 53

Major considerations in needs analysis research 53

ESP language assessment 55

Major considerations in language assessment 56

Teaching ESP 60

Major considerations in teaching ESP 60

Learning ESP 63

Major considerations in learning ESP 63

Further reading 66

5 ESP research design: methodological approaches 68

Paradigm 68

Approach to research design 69

Quantitative research design 69

Qualitative research design 76

Mixed-methods research design 81

Further reading 85

6 Quantitative methods in ESP 87

How to choose the most appropriate methodological approach? 87

Types of research design using quantitative methods 87

Cross-sectional research 89

Longitudinal research 89

Survey 90

Experimental and quasi-experimental research 90

Correlational research 92

Evaluative research project 93

Quantitative data collection methods 93

Questionnaires 93

Likert scales 94

Can-do scales 94

Semantic differential scales 95

Multiple choice questions 95

Binary choice questions 96

Rating scales 96

Open questions 97

Developing questionnaires 97

Introduction to the questionnaire 98

Administering questionnaires 98

Validation studies 98

Predictive validity 100

Inter-rater reliability 101

Corpus studies 101

Participants 104

Data analysts 106

Descriptive statistics 107

Inferential statistics 109

t-tests 109

Assumptions of t-tests 109

ANOVA 110

Assumptions of ANOVA 111

Regression 112

Assumptions of regression 112

Correlation 113

Assumptions of correlations 113

Factor analysis 114

Assumptions of factor analysis 114

Non-parametric tests 116

Further reading 117

7 Qualitative methods in ESP research 120

Research design 120

Case study 120

Ethnography 124

Action research 129

Grounded theory 131

Qualitative research methods 132

Interviews 133

Group interviews 135

Focus groups 135

Think-aloud and stimulated recall 136

Interviewer effects 137

Observations 138

Observation schemes 140

The observer paradox 142

Diaries, journals and logs 142

Types of diaries, journals and logs 143

Qualitative data analysis 146

Content analysis 148

Discourse analysis 149

Grammatical analysis 150

Genre 150

Critical discourse analysis 152

Corpus analysis 154

Multimodal discourse analysis 154

Further reading 155

8 Validity, reliability and ethics in ESP research 159

Reliability 159

Validity 163

Ethics 166

The role of the researcher 170

Further reading 171

9 Using research findings 173

Writing the research report/dissertation 173

Writing a dissertation 176

The introduction 176

The literature review 176

The methodology chapter 178

The results chapter 180

The discussion chapter 184

Conclusion 186

Publishing research 188

Further reading 190

10 Resources for developing and conducting research in ESP 193

Published research in ESP 193

Academic journals 193

Handbooks 195

Other handbooks in ESP 196

Overviews of research approaches and methods in ESP in academic journals 196

ESP organisations 196

Master's dissertations 197

Research guidelines 197

Author guidelines for publishing 198

Quantitative research guidelines 198

Ethics guidelines 198

Data analysis software packages 199

Useful corpora for ESP research 199

Coronavirus corpus 200

Software for analysis of corpora - concordancers 200

Word lists in ESP 201

Tests used in ESP 201

Effect sizes 201

References 202

Appendices 219

1 Example of participant information statement 219

2 Participant information statement template 221

3 Example of participant consent form 222

4 Guidance on writing a research proposal in English for specific purposes (ESP) 223

5 Example of assessment criteria for research proposal 225

Glossary 226

Index 235