ABSTRACT
This chapter looks to possibilities for future ESP genre work in two emergent and interrelated areas: genre play and genre learning transfer. Genre play as a phenomenon is most certainly not new, but ESP's interest in it has recently grown and promises to continue to do so for some time. ESP scholars and others have explored several varieties of genre play, including genre stretching, genre mixing, and genre parody. Self-promotion may, in fact, be a driving force behind much genre stretching, as illustrated well in an innovative lease-renewal letter Tardy received from her apartment building's rental company. Speakers and writers are more likely to have their inventiveness accepted if they are playing with genres whose conventions are frequently stretched. Even when a genre is tight rather than baggy or when the speaker or writer lacks obvious capital to innovate, genre play may still be successful if the audience perceives it to produce something of value.
