View Content #19281

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

Research on the critical nature of language for specific purposes and genre/rhetoric studies offers a number of insights relevant to beginning, intermediate, and advanced level classrooms. However, the classification of LSP as a field in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition is not represented. In addition, the practical application of rich linguistic analyses is varied, inconsistent, and difficult to categorize (Swales, 2000). This month, we attempt to synthesize key takeaway points from LSP research to offer a variety of insights relevant to classroom practice.

This week we ask the question – Why LSP?

While the answer is complex, ultimately LSP research offers a great deal in terms of both content and skill set.

In 2007, the Modern Language Association released a detailed report highlighting the critical need for interdisciplinary language studies in which content, domain, and skills are built together. LSP research represents a key resource for deciding what to teach and identifying potentially problematic contexts and language patterns across specific domains. Detailed needs analyses include the identification of patterns across a number of professional domains (e.g., business meetings, scientific publication, digital discourse, and institutional talk). These patterns can inform curricular development efforts as well as everyday classroom practice. For example, a teacher might consult LSP summaries for information about how their students should write resumes for internships in Mexico or an international business summit. In addition, learners can be asked to dive into LSP research and discern relevant discourse patterns for themselves. Exploration allows for a deductive approach to language structures, patterns of interaction, and contexts most closely tied to their own interests and professional goals.

In addition, LSP research offers an approach to language in which language learning becomes highly contextual, relevant, and specific to particular domains. This helps learners build a body of knowledge relevant to their context of use and, at the same time, the skills to consider ways in which close analysis and attention to domain can add to a more general linguistic repertoire in any language. We look forward to the rest of the month where a number of guest contributors explore ways in which these affordances can best be applied in the classroom context.

Swales, J. (2000). Languages for Specific Purposes. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (2000) 20, 59–76.