Exploring how language is used in specialized discourse: Pedagogical and practical applications in the ESP classroom

The increasing concern for protecting the environment has led hotels to disclose their sustainability policies on their websites to promote their green responsibility (Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2014). Corpus-based research has been conducted to examine how the language used to present information on sustainability attempts to raise tourists’ ecological awareness (Ruffolo, 2015) through the use of a specific discourse (Frandsen & Johansen, 2001). Understanding how environmental reports are perceived by potential customers can provide practical implications for current and future operators of the field. In the ESP classroom, the use of corpus-based discourse analysis can offer learners new opportunities to discover language-related issues of particular interest to them (Bárcena, Read, & Arus, 2013) through activities created to explore how language is used to express different meanings in specialized discourse. This chapter illustrates an example that can easily be adapted to other ESP contexts.