ESP Genre revisited: Contributions, Issues and Solutions
The approach to genre classified as the ESP genre approach (Hyon, 1996) and often known as the Swalesian approach to genre after its main proposer and protagonist John Swales (e.g., Swales, 1981, 1990, 2004), has been highly influential in the field of English for Academic Purposes, not only in terms of research on academic texts but also in relation to the teaching of research and academic writing.
Research through the lens of ESP genre analysis has been conducted on the range of academic research genres in particular the academic research article (e.g., Brett, 1994; Kanoksilapatham, 2005; Samraj, 2005), as well as academic-related genres including research grant applications and proposals. (e.g., Connor and Mauranen, 1999; Connor 2000). Pedagogical texts such as, for example, the different forms of academic essay, design specification documents (Nesi and Gardner, 2010) business case reports (Nathan, 2013, 2016) and laboratory reports (Parkinson, 2017) have also been analysed using the ESP analytical framework, with a wide range of research conducted on teaching and learning conducted through the framework of ESP genre approaches (e.g., Johns, 2002; Flowerdew, 2000, 2002, 2015).
Initially developed through a study of short introduction sections identified in empirical research articles (Swales, 1981), Swales’s ESP genre theory, through a famous definition of genre (Swales, 1990: 57) posits communicative purpose as the central determinant for delineating genres (Swales, 1990, 2004; Swales and Askehave, 2001) with genre purposes recognised by the discourse communities in which they are embedded and these purposes established as constraining rhetorical structure and other genre features including style and content. A key feature of the ESP genre approach is the designation of rhetorical moves, these subsuming stages (Swales, 1981, 1990) or sub-moves (Bhatia, 1993, Nathan 2016) that provide a sub-structure within the wider moves and broader text.
Since its development, this Swalesian approach to genre has managed to sustain itself and thrive in the face of a number of criticisms (e.g., Askehave, 1999; Dudley-Evans, 2000; Nathan 2010) and has remained leading and prominent in the face of a range of alternative approaches to genre analysis and study such as Miller’s (1994) more ethnographic approach to genre analysis and the approach of the Australian genre school based in the work of Martin (e.g., Martin, 1993) originating in the work of Halliday, an approach which is seen as having similarities to the approach of the ESP genre school through its linguistic nature (Flowerdew 2002) .
It is now more than 40 years since John Swales’s first paper setting out his initial genre analysis. In this current paper I will revisit the Swalesian ESP genre approach overviewing the contribution of ESP genre analysis in the area of EAP and identifying some key issues and their potential solutions, in relation to both genre analysis and the teaching of genre and genres, and tied to central component ESP genre approach notions including communicative purpose, rhetorical moves, discourse community and disciplinarity.
