Featuring a collection of newly commissioned essays, edited by two leading scholars, this Handbook surveys the key research findings in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). • Provides a state-of-the-art overview of the origins and evolution, current research, and future directions in ESP • Features newly-commissioned contributions from a global team of leading scholars • Explores the history of ESP and current areas of research, including speaking, reading, writing, technology, and business, legal, and medical English • Considers perspectives on ESP research such as genre, intercultural rhetoric, multimodality, English as a lingua franca and ethnography

Louis Trimble has been involved for nearly 20 years in the development of English for science and technology (EST), and in this book he describes the approach which he and others have developed. It starts from the premise that in order to understand the written EST found in technical manuals, textbooks, papers etc., it is first necessary to have an understanding of the discourse structure of these texts. Here he gives a very full description, with many examples, of the various significant features of EST discourse, such as types of classification, definition, instruction etc. The book also describes the 'individualising process' whereby students bring their own specialised material into the course; and the last chapter, demonstrates how a particular course can be organised and structured.

In early 2012, the global scientific community erupted with news that the elusive Higgs boson had likely been found, providing potent validation for the Standard Model of how the universe works. Scientists from more than one hundred countries contributed to this discovery—proving, beyond any doubt, that a new era in science had arrived, an era of multinationalism and cooperative reach. Globalization, the Internet, and digital technology all play a role in making this new era possible, but something more fundamental is also at work. In all scientific endeavors lies the ancient drive for sharing ideas and knowledge, and now this can be accomplished in a single tongue— English. But is this a good thing? In Does Science Need a Global Language?, Scott L. Montgomery seeks to answer this question by investigating the phenomenon of global English in science, how and why it came about, the forms in which it appears, what advantages and disadvantages it brings, and what its future might be. He also examines the consequences of a global tongue, considering especially emerging and developing nations, where research is still at a relatively early stage and English is not yet firmly established. Throughout the book, he includes important insights from a broad range of perspectives in linguistics, history, education, geopolitics, and more. Each chapter includes striking and revealing anecdotes from the front-line experiences of today’s scientists, some of whom have struggled with the reality of global scientific English. He explores topics such as student mobility, publication trends, world Englishes, language endangerment, and second language learning, among many others. What he uncovers will challenge readers to rethink their assumptions about the direction of contemporary science, as well as its future.

Issues spawned by the headlong pace of developments in science and technology fill the courts. The realm of the law is sometimes at a loss—constrained by its own assumptions and practices, Jasanoff suggests. This book exposes American law’s long-standing involvement in constructing, propagating, and perpetuating myths about science and technology.

Xix, 260 p. : ill. ;

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