ABSTRACT
The chapter reviews current trends in English for specific purposes (ESP), focusing on the shift from an instrumental perspective to a more sociocultural conceptualization of language, pedagogy, and research. ESP has moved from a focus on lexicogrammatical structures, genre, and rhetorical moves to one that recognizes the situatedness and complexity of communication. Tensions exist between providing vocabulary, structures, and pragmatic practices as conduits for communication and the social and political power structures those tools may enact. These tensions spill into assessment practices predicated on individual mastery of lexicogrammatical and genre content. The complexity of ESP can be well-served by a sociocultural approach that assumes that language and language practices emerge from social interactions by examining relationships rather than discrete variables. Sociocultural theory (SCT), and in particular activity theory, focuses on the interactions of individuals with one another and with the socially created tools, symbols, artifacts, practices, conventions, and meanings rather than solely on the individual cognitive process and external forces. The chapter uses a research study to illustrate how an SCT perspective and methodology, specifically, activity theory, affords insights not possible with traditional analytical frameworks.
