Specificity in LSP
Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: The defining feature of our field is the teaching and use of language for specific\npurposes. Not surprisingly, this has led to a debate over just how specific those\npurposes should be. The debate is longstanding, stirred initially by Hutchinson and\nWaters' classic 1980 article, 'ESP at the Crossroads' and reinvigorated most recently\nby Hyland (2002), who argues that the field has drifted away from specificity,\nbecoming too generalized and diffuse. This paper lays out the arguments on both\nsides and then stakes out a position that draws from each of them. While agreeing\nwith some of Hyland's criticisms of the 'wide-angle' position (for example, that\ngeneralized LSP can fail to appreciate the distinct linguistic and rhetorical features of\nspecialized discourses), the paper criticizes his 'narrow-angle' position as well by\npointing out that it can easily lead to a teacher-centered prescriptivism and to an\noverly rigid focus on certain forms and tasks at the expense of others. Furthermore,\nsuch an approach fails to prepare students for the unpredictable new forms of\ncommunication that await them in their professional careers. In general, a teachercentered\napproach, no matter how specific, is unlikely to have the pedagogical\neffectiveness of a student-centered approach, especially in heterogeneous classes.\nSpecificity, it is argued, must ultimately be supplied by the student, not by the teacher,\nfor it is the student more than the LSP teacher who is in the process of becoming\nan insider and whose interests are best served by becoming an astute analyst of the\nspecialist discourse. The teacher's role should be that of facilitator, instructing\nstudents in analytic strategies, both rhetorical and textual. The paper concludes with\na number of illustrations in how this can be done, drawing especially on work in\ngenre study
Author: Thomas N. Huckin
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1591926363