Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, UK; 15–16 May 2009

The overall co-ordinators of this seminar were Steve Mann and Sue Wharton. C. K. Jung was web co-ordinator, and the supporting committee was made up of Tilly Harrison, Duncan Hunter, Stefanie Stadler, Fei Chuang and Tim Kelly. Approximately 27 people attended, from institutions in Austria, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the UK.

The objectives of the seminar were to engage in cross-disciplinary discussion on the following issues:

• • written and spoken communication in professional contexts

• • professional identity in communication events

• • studies of professional genres via work-based learning

• • the integration of professional genres into academic contexts

• • the role of universities in professional communication training

• • the teaching of transferable discourse skills in universities

• • what discourse analytic tools are useful for studying communication events in different disciplines and professional settings

• • accounts of successful collaboration between academic and professional institutions in the area of professional communication.

In the field of Applied Linguistics there has been renewed international interest in professional communication and in the analysis of texts produced in institutional contexts. Many professionally orientated programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels are designed to prepare students for professional practice (e.g. business, engineering, medicine and teaching). This seminar asked questions about the relationship between the discourse produced and used in professional settings and discourses produced in university settings.

The recently established Professional and Academic Discourse (PAD) Research Group at University of Warwick is particularly interested in understanding the situated nature of written and spoken text production and use, and the implications for those involved in associated language events. In hosting a seminar at this time we aimed to promote the role of discourse analysis in raising awareness of the nature of professional talk and writing.

Plenary speeches

Srikant Sarangi (University of Cardiff) opened the seminar with a talk entitled ‘Bringing together communities of interest: Applied linguistics and professional discourse studies’. He argued for a view of professional discourses as knowledge-based expert systems, rather than as examples of language for specific purposes. The applied linguist needs to work in long-term collaborative relationships to enable a richer view of situated practices.

Meredith Marra (Victoria University of Wellington) reported on the ongoing evaluation of a course designed to advance the workplace communication skills of migrants to New Zealand. The course aims to foster discourse analysis skills among participants, so that they can critically reflect on their interactions at work and engage in an action-research-style process to identify and address their development needs.

Papers

On the first day, Almut Koester (University of Birmingham) presented a paper on figurative language in the context of workplace and academic interactions. Adrian Stokes (University of Warwick) focused on the professional identity of medical doctors. Stokes looked particularly at the notion of the doctor as teacher, and the influence of this notion on discussions of professional communication in medicine. María Stella Martínez Contreras (Carinthia University of Applied Sciences) reported on an interdisciplinary problem-based learning course used in the Department of Systems Engineering at her university.

Tim Rapley (Newcastle University) presented a study of multidisciplinarity in action within the context of paediatric rheumatology. He used ethnographic fieldwork and focused on multimodal behaviours of members of the medical team, patients and parents. Barry Stierer (University of Westminster) discussed ongoing research into the everyday workplace writing of university lecturers. He argued that writing was an instantiation of professional practice.

Duncan Hunter (University of Warwick) focused on the development of the language and content of a particular professional publication, ELT Journal. He argued that the journal over time could be seen as representing and instantiating an identifiable and changing professional discourse.

On the second day, Fiona Copland (Aston University) examined the notion of professionalization in the context of initial teacher training in TESOL. She showed how features of the post-observation-feedback talk help to foster a teacher's identity as a TESOL professional. Steve Walsh (Newcastle University) reported on a comparative study of reflective practice in two teacher education courses. The study indicated a gap, in both contexts, between student-teachers’ and teacher-educators’ perceptions of reflective practice.

Marga Menendez Lopez & Doris Dippold (University of Surrey) examined the pressure on language degree programmes in the UK to demonstrate their relevance for the world of work. They argued in favour of an approach to professional communication which is based on sociolinguistic principles and on fostering reflection on the part of students.

C. K. Jung (University of Warwick) looked at the Engineering laboratory reports in both the professional and academic contexts. He explored the very different consequences of failure in academic and professional contexts. Jo Angouri (University of the West of England) & Stephanie Schnurr (Hong Kong University) looked at models of interactive decision-making presented in materials for learners of Business English. They contrasted the relatively unproblematic representations found in such materials with data from decision-making interactions collected in workplace contexts.

There were two poster presentations. Olga Zayts (Hong Kong University) & Stephanie Schnurr's poster presentation was titled ‘Organisations here are just not interested in this. Or are they: Negotiating ways of giving feedback to professionals in Hong Kong’. Veronika Koller's (Lancaster University) poster was titled ‘Connecting academic and professional discourses in an undergraduate course on corporate communication’.

Post-conference dissemination

Many details of the plenaries and papers given at the seminar, including video extracts from plenary speeches and presenters' powerpoint slides, can be found at the PAD seminar webpage:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/groups/pad/events/baal_cup_2009/.