Editorial: Current Research and Practice in Teaching Disciplinary Literacies

Abstract

This Special Issue of ESP Today concerns the teaching of disciplinary literacies in tertiary ESP settings. ESP involves research and practice in the teaching and learning of English to prepare learners for competent performance in various workplace and academic settings (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). What is required in target performance situations, an ontological and epistemological question, and how to deliver ready participants in such situations, a pedagogical question, have long been major concerns of ESP researchers and practitioners and have engendered a number of conceptual frameworks. For example, target competence has been conceptualised with reference to professional expertise (e.g. Bhatia, 2004), genre expertise and professional identity (e.g. Dressen-Hammouda, 2008; Tardy, 2009; Zhang, 2017), and academic literacy (e.g. Hyland, 2017). Given the recognition of specificity as a key feature in academic literacy practices across disciplines (e.g. Hyland, 2011; Shanahan, Shanahan, & Misischia, 2011) and of diversity in tertiary students in the era of internationalisation of education, disciplinary literacies is arguably an important, if not essential, component of the target performance competence in tertiary ESP settings. Disciplinary literacies have been attributed increasing importance in recent publications concerned with discipline-specific writing, reading, speaking, listening, and viewing (e.g. Deane & O'Neill, 2011; Derewianka & Jones, 2016; Flowerdew & Costley, 2016; Paltridge & Starfield, 2013). Evolving in tandem with these changes in understanding disciplinary literacies are the innovations in teaching in English-medium Instruction (EMI) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). All this has implications for ESP teacher development. The goal of this Special Issue is to engage in discussion and open up the dialogue between language specialists, that is, researchers and practitioners in ESP, EMI, CLIL, literacy education, and applied linguistics, and discipline specialists who participate in communities of practice characterised by highly specialised knowledge and discursive practices, to advance our understanding of disciplinary literacies and of the methodologies for teaching them. This introductory paper to the Special Issue begins by unpacking the concept of disciplinary literacies by gleaning its major dimensions, then briefly explores current practice in teaching disciplinary literacies from an ESP perspective. This is followed by a discussion of the role of ESP teachers and their professional development needs. The eight contributions to this Special Issue are then reviewed in light of this discussion. Finally, several pending issues are suggested for further exploration.