Asian Professional Discourse Communities: Pedagogical Focus on Speech Forms for Oral Performance

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce four areas of pedagogical importance for English for Specific Purposes (ESP), particularly in terms of training for oral performances. These are: 1) transitional phrases 2) opening / closing gambits 3) strategic competence in dynamic speech events and 4) academic and formulaic lexical phrases. These four areas were selected after comparing discrete features of both effective and less effective English performances by non-native Englishspeaking medical professionals observed at international medical conferences held in Asia. The results of this field study suggest that specialist terminology is not an area that demands explicit pedagogical addressing and that absolute formal accuracy in English speech is not a decisive factor in performance efficacy for professionals within the Asian region. The resulting suggestions should help ESP teachers prioritize lesson contents to enable learners to deliver more effective oral performances within their respective professional and academic discourse communities.