ABSTRACT
Qualitative approaches, such as interviews, questionnaires, and observations can bring to light issues in research which can help guide quantitative research and potentially help learning and teaching communities in unexpected ways. This chapter focuses on future directions for vocabulary in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and frames around five main avenues for future research into vocabulary and ESP. The first avenue of research is the need for more qualitative studies and what they might bring to the field of vocabulary in ESP. The second is the need for more testing research, because this is a major gap in the field. The third is a push for theorising vocabulary studies overall and ESP lexical acquisition in particular. The fourth avenue is the need for comprehensive evaluations of research and replication in the field of vocabulary and ESP. The chapter ends with the final avenue for research, which calls for more work in particular in spoken, professional and multi-word unit vocabulary.
