This article describes part of a European Commission Leonardo project that aimed to design a multimedia course for English language learners seeking work as ground staff in European airports. The structural-functional analysis of the dialogues written from the course showed that, across the four trades explored (security guards, ground handlers,…

This paper reports the findings of a study aiming to reveal the recurring patterns of lexical, syntactic and textual errors in student translations of a specialized EU genre from English into Hungarian. By comparing the student translations to the official translation of the text, this article uncovers the most frequent errors that students made…

This paper investigates spoken directive language use in office hour consultation contexts by international teaching assistants (ITAs) in training, individually and in comparison with practicing academic professionals. The purpose is to inform instruction in advanced spoken English for academic purposes, to contribute to intercultural pragmatics…

This paper reports the findings of a study which forms part of a larger-scale research project investigating the use of English in the documents of the European Union (EU). The documents of the EU show various features of texts written for legal, business and other specific purposes. Moreover, the translation services of the EU institutions often…

By means of an analysis of the genre of the audit report, this study highlights the respective roles of linguistic and contextual analysis in genre analysis, if the results are to be of maximum use in ESP course design. On the one hand, based on a corpus of current and authentic written auditors' reports produced in a large international Hong Kong…

This paper reports on an analysis of meetings data which forms part of a broader study investigating the use of English as a lingua franca in international business meetings. This discourse analytic stage of research builds on an initial survey which explored the use of English for International Business (EIB) in a particular European…

Some researchers have argued that voice is irrelevant to academic writing and that the importance of voice has been overstated in the professional literature [Helms-Park, R., & Stapleton, P. (2003). Questioning the importance of individualized voice in undergraduate L2 argumentative writing: an empirical study with pedagogical implications.…

In 1997, the Medical Faculty at Hong Kong University adopted a predominantly problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. At the same time, a sizeable PBL component was added to an already established English as a Second Language (ESL) Course for Medicine to help first-year students develop PBL discussion skills. However, it was felt that not enough…

Investigates variation in knowledge construction in three disciplines--sociology, economics, and physics--by drawing on Halliday' s notion of "metaphenomenon." Specifically, the study analyzed the frequency and type of agentive elements in textbooks to find the extent to which knowledge in these disciplines is attributed to individual scholars,…

Reports on part of a project that was investigating the reading requirements of second-language students beginning the study of a new subject. It is suggested that such students may have problems achieving full comprehension because of a lack of an appropriate schema for approaching the textbook. (19 references) (JL)

Examines the view that research writing is a modest, self-effacing task that involves authors eradicating themselves from their texts to gain acceptance for their work. Focuses on use of self-citation and exclusive first person pronouns in a corpus of 240 research articles in eight disciplines. Through analysis of texts and interviews with…

Discusses whether the "Economist" magazine is a suitable source for the analysis of the language of economics, and argues that its discourse is essentially journalistic and very different from that of a textbook. (Author/VWL)

Demonstrates the need to bridge the gap between theoretical descriptions of discourse and type of language description that should be used in the English for academic purposes classroom in accordance with recent approaches to teaching a second language. Compares accounts of causal metatext from a sample of textbooks on academic writing to results…

Reports on a pilot project in teaching and learning business English at the University of Botswana, where English is the language of instruction and, for most learners, a second language. The project was tailored to the prevailing social and academic context as described from the standpoint of discourse analysis. (Author/VWL)

Examines how evaluation works through a text to convey the overall purpose of the writer of the text by using a developing corpus of academic research articles from a variety of disciplines. Findings indicate that the type of evaluation varies according to the type of entity and that two categories of research entity exist: those related to…