Plenary

Transcending ESP Boundaries1
Judy Noguchi
Kobe Gakuin University
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) began as a way of teaching nonnative English speakers
how to function in a world in which English had become the lingua franca. Over the pasthalf a century, ESP practitioners and researchers have developed a field of study enriched bytheory and practice. This paper will propose taking the ideas and methods garnered fromthis work to teach even native English speakers how to communicate better in professionalsituations. The need for good communication skills is especially urgent in the sciences,where experts can influence policy making in a post-normal science world. To reach a wider
audience, the use of narratives is suggested in order to transcend disciplinary boundaries.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as noted by Dudley-Evans and St. John
(1998), enjoyed an:
original flowering…from general developments in the world economy in the
1950s and 1960s: The growth of science and technology, the increased useof English as the international language of science, technology and business,the increased economic power of certain oil-rich countries and the increased
numbers of international students studying in the UK, USA and Australia.
(p. 19)The field, since its beginnings in the late 1960s, has been enriched by morethan 50 years of research and practice. Today, the methods that have beendeveloped to teach the skills needed for professional communication can even be
useful for native speakers of English.
This paper will argue that ESP has no native speakers and that rather
than rely on “nativeness,” the aim should be for effective communication withmembers of a discourse community, one of the important concepts in ESP.
Such communities have developed “genres,” or communication events that recur
19

Noguchiamong their members. Genres possess distinctive features, which can be used
to aid teaching and learning. Finally, while progress in science and technology
played an important role in the flowering of ESP after World War II (Hyon,
2018), we are now finding the need to shift to STEAM (science, technology,
engineering, arts and mathematics) and the use of narratives to transcenddisciplinary boundaries and deal with the issues of post-normal science.

ESP Has No Native Speakers

Here we are focusing on ESP but all languages have genres that can be used forspecific purposes (LSP). For example, a native Japanese speaker with no training
in medicine would find it almost impossible to understand a medical treatise
written in Japanese. Orr (2002) stated that “The ESP that is primarily taught or
researched consists of spoken and written discourse in academic and workplacesettings, which is unfamiliar to most native and nonnative speakers and thus
requires special training” (p. 2).
As an example of what can occur when a native speaker with no training
in a specific field attempts to deal with its specialized language, here is what
happened with the editing of a medical research paper abstract (Petersen, 2002,
pp. 24–26). A Japanese speaker wrote the following two sentences to start theabstract:
Calcineurin inhibitors such as cyclosporine A and FK506 have been used
for transplant therapy and autoimmune disease. However, the inhibitionof calcineurin outside of the immune system has a number of side effects
including hyperglycemia.
A native English speaker edited it according to the following points: Using“however” at the start of a sentence is not stylistically good; the phrase “such as”
should be separated with the noun placed between the two words; the first two
simple sentences should be combined. The edited result was:
”While such calcineurin inhibitors as cyclosporine A and FK506 have beenused in transplant therapy and autoimmune disease treatment, the inhibitionof calcineurin outside of the immune system has a number of side effects,
20

Transcending ESP Boundaries, OCJSI 2, pages 19-27

including hyperglycemia.”
However, examination of a corpus (database of texts) of medical abstracts
revealed that about 60% of the instances of “however” was at the beginning of
the sentence; almost all instances of “such as” did not separate the two words;
and research paper abstracts usually start with the keyword to quickly inform thereader of the field being covered. In other words, the nonnative speaker, a medical
researcher, had prepared a text which met the expectations of that discourse
community and would have a better chance of being accepted for publication
than the version edited according to native speaker intuition.

The Discourse Community Is
The Communication Target

The discourse community was defined by Swales (1990, pp. 24–27) as
having a broadly agreed set of common public goals, having mechanisms ofintercommunication among its members, using its participatory mechanisms
primarily to provide information and feedback, utilizing and hence possessing
one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, having
acquired some specific lexis, and having a threshold level of members with asuitable degree of relevant contacts and discoursal expertise. The “mechanisms ofintercommunication” are the “genres.”Successful communication among discourse community members thus
necessitates fulfilling discourse community expectations and does not rely
on “nativeness.” Even for oral communication, Trippe and Baese-Berk (2019)advise that “…all learners of Aviation English, regardless of their native language
background, will benefit from dedicated exposure to the prosody of this registerof English” (p. 42). While acknowledging that native speakers will probably
be able to learn with practice, they urge training to reduce “the risk of lack oflanguage proficiency contributing to an aviation accident. … regulators cannot
assume that native speaker English fluency entails Aviation English fluency.”
Specialized language, both written and oral, requires specialized training for
efficient acquisition.
21

Noguchi

A Socio-Cognitive Perspective Supports
Genre Teaching

The concept of teaching the genres used by the communities that a student hopes
to enter finds support from many sources. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educatorand philosopher who advocated critical pedagogy, is well known for his book
Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In a filmed interview, Freire (1997) talks of the“dominant syntax” as follows: “The more the oppressed, the poor people, grasp
the dominant syntax, the more they can articulate their voices and their speechin the struggle against injustice…It’s impossible to think of language without
thinking of ideology and power.” Freire recognizes that teachers need to teachthe “cultivated” pattern to empower their students with the ability to send out
effective messages.
The proper use of genres also enables participation in the construction ofknowledge. Canagarajah (2002) refers to this as participating in a language game:“It is the linguistic activity of the members in debating, revising, and legitimizing
the ‘paradigms’ that make sense to them that constitute knowledge” (p. 30).
In other words, the community decides on what is accepted and, to become amember, one must use its accepted genres. Gross (1990), in The Rhetoric of
Science, states that, “The truths of science…are achievements of argument…
Facts are by nature linguistic—no language, no facts” (p. 103). Myers (1990)
recognizes this knowledge construction process by stating “I argue…that writing
produces biology” (p. xii). Thus, knowing the genres for a target discourse
community is essential for professional communication.

Genres Can Be Deconstructed
For Efficient Learning

Fortunately, genres, because they are repeatedly used, have assumed patterns
which can be deconstructed to facilitate learning. Swales (1990) points out thata discourse community must have certain types of texts, or genres. To bettergrasp the concept of a genre, let us turn to Miller (1984): “A rhetorically sounddefinition of genre must be centered not on the substance or the form of discourse
22Transcending ESP Boundaries, OCJSI 2, pages 19-27

but on the action it is used to accomplish” (p. 151). She states that the impact ofa genre, or its action, on the community is its most important feature. Thus, fora researcher, publishing a research article in a reputable journal would have themost impact. From the viewpoint of teaching ESP, the other two components ofsubstance and form are crucial features.
Recognizing the difference between the substance and form of a genre text
is crucial for an ESP practitioner. This means that to teach a class of medical
researchers, the ESP practitioner does not have to be an expert in medical
science. What the ESP practitioner should focus on is the form, or the genrefeatures needed to effectively present the substance, or knowledge of the field.
The responsibility of deciding what information should be presented lies withthe medical researcher. The job of the ESP practitioner is to know what language
features are needed to properly package that information.

STEAM And Narratives Are Needed
For Post-Normal ScienceAs explained above, ESP received its initial impetus from developments in scienceand engineering. For most of the 20th century, much emphasis was placed on
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, but now there
are calls for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math). Gunn
(2017) explains why: “This sequestration of knowledge into categories that don’t
connect is ultimately detrimental to our students because in the real world, all ofit blends together” (para. 10). In other words, a scientist who makes an importantdiscovery must be able to communicate this effectively to gain funding for thework and to collaborate with others to develop it. “This multi-skilled individual isa representation of a student who understands how academic subjects are meant
to be a genuine symphony and not a collection of discordant solos” (para. 10).
Scientists must now be able to describe and explain their work to thoseoutside of their exclusive research communities. Dahlstrom (2014) points tothe need to build trust in society, to ensure that the facts do not get mixed withfake news and opinions in social media, and to help people base their decisionmaking on accurate information. Stanchak (2016), in a report on the “Top 10
23

NoguchiTrends Driving Science,” considers that “communication is at the heart of manyof the biggest challenges facing scientists today” (para. 3). It is their expert
testimony that can affect laws and regulations.
The science of today is different from the classical science that many ofus encountered in our schooling. Kuhn (1962), in The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, talked about how “normal” science, which is based on rules, isreplaced when a paradigm shift occurs to change the rules themselves. For
example, the Copernican revolution caused such a shift, after which there was“new normal” science. However, Ravetz and Funtowicz (1999) claimed that weare in an age of “post-normal” science where we are confronted with complex
issues for which there is no conclusive scientific evidence. A Nature editorial(2016) warns that “Urgent science touches on issues that rank high on the social
agenda. Theorists have classified fields such as climatology and global-change
research as post-normal science, in which socio-economic stakes are high anddecisions are pressing” (p. 7). To resolve such issues, we need to harness theknowledge and wisdom of “extended peer communities” (Ravetz & Funtowicz,
1999, p. 642), which includes not only experts but the lay public.
This leads to the question of how to reach nonexpert audiences. One answer
lies in “narratives.” Dahlstrom (2014), in the Proceedings of the National Academyof Sciences, writes that “Although storytelling often has negative connotations
within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded
when communicating science to nonexpert audiences” (p. 13614). He contrasts
logical-scientific communication with narrative communication, noting that theformer follows deductive reasoning with the aim to provide abstract truths togeneralize and predict. Narrative communication, on the other hand, follows
inductive reasoning from a specific case and has been suggested to be the default
mode of human thought.

Science News Podcasts Offer
Narratives Of Science

One way to learn how to talk to a nonexpert audience is by explaining yourresearch as though it were a news broadcast. For example, 60-Second Science by24

Transcending ESP Boundaries, OCJSI 2, pages 19-27

Scientific American (https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/60-secondscience/) presents examples of short (one- to three-minute) news items describing
cutting-edge science from the specialist journals in a very easy-to-understandradio-program-like format with audio and transcript. A recent podcast is entitled“Artificial intelligence learns to talk back to bigots” (Intagliata, 2019). Analysis
of such podcast texts reveals that they usually have an eye-catching title, a hookat the beginning to catch the attention of the audience, an explanation of who
is doing this research and where it was published. Understanding the language
features of such texts can help a researcher prepare a lay explanation of his or her
own work.

Conclusion

ESP began in an effort to find effective ways to teach nonnative English
speakers how to participate in global discourse communities but is now ready totranscend this boundary to help even native English speakers with professional
communication. Another boundary to transcend is that of the specialist discourse
community. Scientists must be ready to address an extended peer communitythat includes the lay public in order to help resolve the post-normal science issues
that confront us today.

Notes

1. This paper is based on a plenary talk given at the 2019 JALT CUE & BizCom
ESP Symposium held at Uchida Yoko Osaka on Sept. 20, 2019.

References

Canagarajah, S. (2002). Multilingual writers and the academic community:
Towards a critical relationship. Journal of English for Academic Purposes,
1(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1475-1585(02)00007-3
Dahlstrom, M. F. (2014). Using narratives and storytelling to communicate
science with nonexpert audiences. Proceedings of the National Academyof Sciences, 111 (Supplement 4), 13614–13620. www.pnas.org/cgi/
doi/10.1073/pnas.1320645111
25

NoguchiDudley-Evans, T., & St. John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English forSpecific Purposes: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. Cambridge University
Press.
Freire, P. (1997). Paulo Freire—An incredible conversation. Interview
conducted at the 1996 World Conference on Literary organized by theInternational Literacy Institute, Philadelphia, USA. [Motion picture]https://repository.upenn.edu/literacyorg_multimedia/7/
Gross, A. (1990). The Rhetoric of Science. Harvard University Press.
Gunn, J. (2017). Why the “A” in STEAM Education is just as important
as every other letter. Resilient Educator. November 8, 2017. https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/importance-of-arts-in-steameducation/
Hyon, S. (2018). Introducing Genre and English for Specific Purposes. Routledge.
Intagliata, C. (2019). Artificial intelligence learns to talk back to bigots.
[Audio broadcast]. Scientific American 60-Second Science. https://www.
scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/artificial-intelligence-learns-totalk-back-to-bigots/#transcripts-body
Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago
Press.
Miller, C. R. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70,
151–167.
Myers, G. (1990). Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientificknowledge. The University of Wisconsin Press.
Nature, Editorial. (2016). Future present, 531, 7–8. https://www.nature.com/
news/future-present-1.19474
Orr, T. (2002). The nature of English for specific purposes. In T. Orr,
(Ed.), English for specific purposes (pp. 1–6). TESOL.
Petersen, M. (2002). Eigo ronbun ni mi rareru rojikku to hyōgen no seikaku-sa[Logic and accuracy of expression in English writing]. Journal of Medical
English Education, 3(1), 18–28.
Ravetz, J., & Funtowicz, S. (1999). Editorial: Post-normal Science—an insightnow maturing. Futures 31, 641–646.
26

Transcending ESP Boundaries, OCJSI 2, pages 19-27

Stanchak, J. (2016). Why science communication is an essential skill in 2017.
ACS Axial. ACS Publications. https://axial.acs.org/2017/02/06/sciencecommunication/
Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings.
Cambridge University Press.
Trippe, J., & Baese-Berk, M. (2019). A prosodic profile of American Aviation
English. English for Specific Purposes, 53, 30–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
esp.2018.08.006

Author bio

Judy Noguchi is professor emerita of Kobe Gakuin University. She currently is an
adjunct lecturer specializing in ESP courses and continues to be involved in KAKEN
research projects related to ESP. B.A./B.S., chemistry, University of Hawaii; M.Ed.,
TESL, Temple University; Ph.D., applied linguistics, University of Birmingham.
<jnoguchi@gc.kobegakuin.ac.jp>
Received: October 20, 2019
Accepted: August 23, 202027