JALT2025 - Tokyo

The Efficacy of Action Research for ESP Course Design

Oct 31, 2025, 2:15 PM

30m

National Olympics Memorial Youth Center / 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター

Research-oriented Presentation (30-minutes) Pedagogy Room 301

Speaker

Dr Anthony Townley (Nagoya University of Commerce and Business)

Description

This presentation discusses the action research rationales and processes I used to make changes to an existing ELP course syllabus as a means of improvement, while at the same time increasing knowledge about ESP pedagogy, and concomitant teaching and learning practices. The ELP syllabus was scaffolded so that students began learning the lexico-grammatical properties of a contract before participating in an oral advice role play activity and writing a client letter of advice.

Summary

This presentation discusses the action research rationales and processes I used to make changes to an existing English for Legal Purposes (ELP) course syllabus as a means of improvement (Rose, Rose, Farrington, & Page, 2008), while at the same time increasing knowledge about English for Specific Purposes (ESP) pedagogy, and concomitant teaching and learning practices (Ronen, 2020).