Speaker
Description
Part of preparing Vietnamese learners of English for ‘global readiness’ is to equip them with strong English skills in their target specialised fields of endeavour. This paper will present English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in a way that is not commonly seen in Vietnam, but which is in alignment with views of ESP internationally. In Vietnamese contexts ESP is often considered to be essentially ‘General English + specialized vocabulary’. Indeed, this is certainly how many (perhaps the majority) of Vietnamese ESP teachers perceive their job and their approach to teaching ESP. In this presentation I will not address the issue of specialised vocabulary, but rather I will focus on several other key dimensions through which ESP should also be considered. These include the notion of ‘discourse community’; genres; specialised grammar; types of talk; interpersonal communication; and intercultural communication. My purpose is to make a strong argument that shows the limitations of understanding ESP solely in terms of specialised vocabulary and, conversely, the advantages of expanding one’s view of ESP to include a range of dimensions that in fact also contribute significantly to ESP’s essential qualities.
Biography
Stephen H. Moore is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature at the University of Social Science and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh. He is also an Honorary Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He has worked in the fields of English language teaching, English for Specific Purposes, discourse analysis and language assessment for 35 years, including several periods in Vietnam. He has published widely in top journals and has co-authored two books (Palgrave Macmillan): Language for Specific Purposes (2015) and Exploring Discourse in Context and in Action (2017).
