In this paper we analyse the generic structure of acknowledgements in four disciplines: Biology, Robotics, Education, and Art history. The study is based on a self-compiled corpus of acknowledgements and employs the rhetorical move/step structure analysis to investigate disciplinary trends of expressing gratitude in research articles. The results show that in hard sciences acknowledgements are more frequent than in soft fields. In addition, scholars in Robotics, Biology and Education frequently express gratitude for various types of resources provided, whereas researchers in Art history rely on academic assistance in the form of feedback on manuscripts and discussions. The most vivid and least formulaic expressions of gratitude are observed in research articles written by scholars in Art history. Overall, the study reveals certain distinct disciplinary practices in expressing gratitude and confirms the importance of acknowledgements in EAP/ESP fields. It also points towards the need to reconsider the communicative purpose(s) of acknowledgement texts.

In spite of being popularly regarded as examples of objectivity, two collections of Spanish and British judicial decisions related to the search terms migration, immigration and their Spanish equivalents were examined in search for evidence of the use of evaluative vocabulary, which appears to be considerably significant judging by the amount of such lexical items found in both corpora.This research thus introduces a contrastive corpus-based study of two legal corpora through the replication of the appraisal theory model.The frequency lists from both corpora, obtained using the software Lancsbox (Brezina et al., 2015) were compared by examining and classifying those vocabulary items amongst the top 2,500 types in the lists using the taxonomy provided by appraisal theory.The findings show that the British dataset contains a greater proportion of evaluative vocabulary, particularly as regards the category affect within the appraisal system.Such findings could be related to the very nature of its legal system, where the law is said to be judge-made, leaving greater freedom for the expression of stance as opposed to the Spanish system, which is codified and may somehow constrain legal actors in the way in which they convey their attitude towards the propositional content of legal texts.

EAP), and the few that do exist (e.g. Thus, by adopting ethnographic methods, the present study focuses on four teachers' transition from teaching English for General Purposes (EGP) to EAP in a new context -China, where the first policy concerning the introduction of EAP at Chinese tertiary institutes was published by the Shanghai Education Bureau in 2013. Findings revealed that during the transition the four teachers benefited from both their former teaching of EGP and their research experiences. The teachers concerned, to a varying extent, realized the importance of EAP, even prior to the commencement of the reform, and teaching EAP helped them overcome career crises, and stimulated their desire of becoming researchers. This study extends existing knowledge garnered from EAP teachers in the literature internationally, particularly those in transition from teaching EGP to EAP in China.

As internationalisation policies like English - medium Instruction (EMI) are increasingly implemented in European higher education, EMI and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classrooms become small international spaces where local students’ intercultural skil ls can be developed. I suggest that the internationalised higher education poses challenges also to non - mobile students, who find themselves in culturally diverse classrooms where English is used as the medium of instruction. The aim of this study is twofo ld. It first attempts to provide a research - based framework that accounts for the reasons why Intercultural Competence (IC) should become a learning outcome in ESP and EMI courses, with an emphasis on ESP. Second, it explores two ways in which this integra tion could take place drawing on Holmes & O’Neill ’s ethnographic model ( 2012). The seminar genre is proposed to showcase IC integration, as participation helps students practice their English skills and provides them with opportunities to develop disciplin ary knowledge while debating on a specific topic. In brief, this study suggests that both ESP and EMI courses have the potential of preparing students for a future professional career in a globalised world and that ESP lecturers, in particular, emerge as t he best prepared professionals for teaching intercultural skills.

This paper deals with the variation of idioms from sport which are used to talk about competition in business, e.g. a level playing field. In business English textbooks they are listed in one form, whereas corpus data show that they occur in two or more lexical and/or syntactic forms. Furthermore, it has been shown that alterations result in a change in the overall meaning of the idiom and that different variation types serve specific functions. In order to explore the variability of idioms included in business English textbooks, we conducted two corpus studies of ten competition idioms. The aim is to show that competition idioms vary lexically and syntactically, and that there may be considerable differences between the textbook form and those in which the idioms occur in the corpora. In addition, we will give a cognitive linguistic account of how different variation types affect the idiomatic meaning and what functions they fulfil. The findings may have implications for teaching figurative language in ESP given that (1) idiom variation presents a challenge to non-native users of English, (2) idioms are frequently creatively exploited in discourse, and (3) idioms are used not only to convey information but also evaluation.

This action research based case study addresses the situation of a first year class of Business English students at Universidad de Alcal and their attitudes towards using Web 2.0 tools and social media for language learning. During the semester, the students were asked to collaborate in the creation and use of some tools such as blogs, video repositories (YouTube), networking programs (LinkedIn), and communication tools (SlideShare). The data were obtained through an online questionnaire designed after a focus group had been held. The results, which are quantitative, suggest that the use of Web 2.0 tools and social networks for language learning facilitated collaboration within the groups when completing tasks, proved to be motivating, and made a clear distinction from traditional university language courses, often centered on the teacher and the syllabus contents. In addition, the students viewed the tools as being important for their future as professionals in the business world. While the sample in this study is limited and, hence, the results are not universally applicable, there is evidence that this method of learning may work well in a variety of international contexts.

As EMI involves the integration of content and discipline-specific communication, this study focuses on intersections between ESP and EMI, especially on how ESP can contribute to improving discipline-specific communication in EMI from the perspective of content lecturers' needs. Specifically, this study provides an overview of EMI training programmes offered by universities in Catalonia (Spain), and explores the written genres assigned by content lecturers in EMI subjects. EMI training programmes are classified according to their orientation: communication, pedagogy, and multilingualism/multiculturalism (Fortanet-Gomez, 2010; Kurtan, 2003). Our analysis pays special attention to the extent to which there is an ESP focus in such training and is complemented by a questionnaire to a group of EMI lecturers on their reported use/teaching of disciplinary genres, following Nesi and Gardner (2012). Findings shed light on practices and expectations related to discipline-specific genre pedagogy, an area that is at the crossroads between EMI and ESP. By examining lecturer perspectives on EMI alongside institutional policies and training programmes, this study can help lecturers cope with the challenges of EMI, and contribute to further developing EMI-ESP lecturer collaboration.

This paper presents a study of a program designed to address challenges in writing English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) Nordic and international exchange students enrolled in EMI humanities programs are fluent in conversational English and informal writing but lack disciplinespecific writing competencies for tertiary study in English. A program which operationalizes targeted core writing competencies was developed to improve writing in a single semester. The program design drew on research investigating the needs of competent L1 writers Based on pre-and post-surveys and students' reflections, this study examines the extent to which the new academic writing approach and curriculum met the semester goals of transitioning students to thesis-driven writing and developing a sense of autonomy for future writing assignments. The pre-study revealed that 10 years of EFL writing instruction developed students' awareness of the principles of academic writing, yet they failed to apply them when writing in the disciplines. The post-data analysis and reflections revealed increased genre awareness, greater writer efficacy and autonomy, and improved academic writing.