John Flowerdew
Lancaster University, Linguistics and English Language, Department Member
- John Flowerdew is a professor of applied linguistics, focusing on discourse studies (including academic discourse ana... moreJohn Flowerdew is a professor of applied linguistics, focusing on discourse studies (including academic discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, political discourse analysis, and corpus-based approaches to discourse) and language education. He is currently a visiting chair at Lancaster University and a visiting research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Previously he was a professor at City University of Hong Kong and at University of Leeds. He is active in research and publication and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences. Notable more recent books are Introducing English for Research Publication Purposes (with P. Habibie) (Routledge); Signalling Nouns in Discourse: A Corpus-Based Discourse Approach (with R.W. Forest) (CUP); Discipline-Specific Writing: Theory into Practice (with T. Costley) (Routledge); The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies (with J. Richardson); and Discourse in English Language Education (Routledge).edit
Signalling nouns (SNs) are abstract nouns like 'fact', 'idea', 'problem' and 'result', which are non-specific in their meaning when considered in isolation and specific in their meaning by reference to... more
Signalling nouns (SNs) are abstract nouns like 'fact', 'idea', 'problem' and 'result', which are non-specific in their meaning when considered in isolation and specific in their meaning by reference to their linguistic context. SNs contribute to cohesion and evaluation in discourse. This work offers the first book-length study of the SN phenomenon to treat the functional and discourse features of the category as primary. Using a balanced corpus of authentic data, the book explores the lexicogrammatical and discourse features of SNs in academic journal articles, textbooks, and lectures across a range of disciplines in the natural and social sciences. The book will be essential reading for researchers and advanced students of semantics, syntax, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, in addition to scholars and teachers in the field of English for academic purposes.
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Genres are staged, structured, communicative events, motivated by various communicative purposes, and performed by members of specific discourse communities (Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993, 2004; Berkenkotter & Huckin 1995). Since its... more
Genres are staged, structured, communicative events, motivated by various communicative purposes, and performed by members of specific discourse communities (Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993, 2004; Berkenkotter & Huckin 1995). Since its inception, with the two seminal works on the topic by Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993), genre analysis has taken pride of place in much of the ongoing research in languages for specific purposes (LSP). The goal of much of this research is pedagogic, the understanding being that good genre descriptions can feed into pedagogy in the form of syllabus and materials design. Whereas genre analysis usually focuses on language as action, this paper argues that analysis needs to focus also on content and identity. The discussion sketches out what this might mean in terms of pedagogic application.
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... of our findings (although this is done briefly Á readers can refer to the original publications for ... to-write is a strategic process; citations often in v olv e textual plagiarism in student ... identified a range of problems that... more
... of our findings (although this is done briefly Á readers can refer to the original publications for ... to-write is a strategic process; citations often in v olv e textual plagiarism in student ... identified a range of problems that confront Hong Kong Chinese scholars in writing for publication in ...
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This chapter will first provide some very brief background about Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is the focus of the discourses analysed in this book. The chapter will then review the literature on the three key theoretical terms in the... more
This chapter will first provide some very brief background about Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is the focus of the discourses analysed in this book. The chapter will then review the literature on the three key theoretical terms in the title of this book: critical discourse analysis, historiography and identity. After this, something will be said about other theories and the methods used in this study. This will be followed by a summary of each chapter. Finally, a checklist will be given of the main discourse theories and methods of textual analysis used in each chapter.
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The goal of this chapter is to document, by means of a case study of a political meeting, an important aspect of what Fairclough (1992: 96) calls ‘discursive change in relation to social and cultural change’, as was currently taking place... more
The goal of this chapter is to document, by means of a case study of a political meeting, an important aspect of what Fairclough (1992: 96) calls ‘discursive change in relation to social and cultural change’, as was currently taking place in Hong Kong at the time of the study (1992). The approach of this chapter is based on Fairclough’s ideas (1992) on the reflexive relation between discourse and social change (see Chapter 1). For Fairclough, changes taking place in society may be reflected in changes in the structure and function of discoursal events. At the same time, changes in the structure and function of such events may be reflected in changes taking place in society in general. The methodology here employs a range of discourse analysis techniques developed over recent years in the overlapping fields of political discourse analysis (e.g. Atkinson, 1984; Wilson, 1990; Gastil, 1992), critical discourse analysis (e.g. Fowler et al., 1979; Hodge and Kress, 1979; Fairclough, 1989, ...
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The relative calm and cordial relations between the parties involved in the Joint Declaration following the signing of that document were shattered in June 1989, with the brutal crushing of the Tiananmen demonstrators by the People’s... more
The relative calm and cordial relations between the parties involved in the Joint Declaration following the signing of that document were shattered in June 1989, with the brutal crushing of the Tiananmen demonstrators by the People’s Liberation Army. This created great nervousness in Hong Kong about how serious China was in the promises made in the Joint Declaration and Basic Law.
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ABSTRACT The use of word frequency and concordancing programmes has primarily been directed towards providing quantitative data about language corpora, including that of learners. In this paper I demonstrate a more qualitative application... more
ABSTRACT The use of word frequency and concordancing programmes has primarily been directed towards providing quantitative data about language corpora, including that of learners. In this paper I demonstrate a more qualitative application of such programmes, to identify teacher education students' attitudes towards language learning and language in general. As part of an English language teacher education programme in my university in Hong Kong, students are required to take a language learning experience course in which they learn an additional language from the beginning, the idea being that they undergo a similar experience to that of the pupils they will themselves teach when they go out on teaching practice and qualify as practicing teachers. As part of this course, in addition to learning the language, reflection sessions are held in which participants focus on various aspects of the learning process, language itself, and their attitudes towards both the learning process and the language. For this part of the course students are required to keep a weekly diary in which they record their reflections. Based on the diaries of three cohorts of students in this programme the analysis in this paper shows how, through the identification of key words by means of a word frequency programme and the identification of the stretches of text in which these words occur by means of a concordancer, a picture can be built up of the students' important preoccupations as language learners. By comparing these preoccupations with the goals of the reflection sessions in the course a measure is obtained of the course's effectiveness.
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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In this <jats:italic>Perspectives</jats:italic> article I would like to look back over my over 25 years as a researcher in English for Research Publication Purposes... more
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In this <jats:italic>Perspectives</jats:italic> article I would like to look back over my over 25 years as a researcher in English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP) and consider some of the milestones, both in terms of my own contribution and of those of others in the field, as I have encountered them. Most ERPP research has been conducted following one of two broad theoretical approaches: social constructivism, on the one hand, and discourse analysis, on the other. The social constructivist approach views text production as a social practice, while discourse analysis is more concerned with text as product. While I have been interested in my career in both approaches, in this overview, I will limit myself to the former one, with the focus firmly on how the scholarly text comes about and is dealt with by human agents, rather than the nature of the text itself.</jats:p>
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Since the late 1980s, there has been a growing interest in the direct application of corpora, or data-driven learning (DDL), in language education. This relatively novel teaching approach has been particularly applied in the teaching and... more
Since the late 1980s, there has been a growing interest in the direct application of corpora, or data-driven learning (DDL), in language education. This relatively novel teaching approach has been particularly applied in the teaching and learning of English for Academic Purposes (EAP)/academic writing, especially since the turn of the century. This paper synthesizes and evaluates the research progress in the field of EAP/academic writing since the year 2000 by critically reviewing 37 empirical studies focussing on applications of DDL in this context. Based on the critical review and a discussion of some contentious issues, a set of five recommendations for the way forward in DDL research and practice for EAP/academic writing is presented.
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Academics are coming under increasing pressure to publish internationally. Given the global dominance of English, this very likely means publishing in English-medium journals and with publishers which publish in English. This raises the... more
Academics are coming under increasing pressure to publish internationally. Given the global dominance of English, this very likely means publishing in English-medium journals and with publishers which publish in English. This raises the important question of the possible disadvantage of those scholars whose first language is not English and who therefore have the additional burden of having to develop adequate proficiency in an additional language, English. As a student of modern languages to university level and of other languages to rather lower levels of proficiency and as a teacher of English for academic purposes (EAP) and of English for research and publication purposes (ERPP), since I became aware of this issue, I have always believed this extra burden on the English as an additional language (EAL) academic writer to be a self-evident truth. Ken Hyland, however, in a recent book (Hyland, 2015) and an article titled ‘Academic publishing and the myth of linguistic injustice’ (H...
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This article is conceptualised within the framework of a historiographical approach to critical discourse analysis (Flowerdew 2012). It focusses on a critical moment in Hong Kong’s socio-political development, the Occupy movement, and a... more
This article is conceptualised within the framework of a historiographical approach to critical discourse analysis (Flowerdew 2012). It focusses on a critical moment in Hong Kong’s socio-political development, the Occupy movement, and a specific language event, an interview on a local Hong Kong English-language television programme discussing the rationale for the movement. A micro-analysis of the interaction focusses on important features of the historical context, intertextual links, the backgrounds and the roles of the participants, and the argumentations strategies used by them. The article shows how a focus on a critical moment in discourse can shed light on the bigger socio-political picture and how arguments regarding particular topics may reflect larger ideological struggles, the political agendas of different groups, and the ways arguments are constructed dialogically in response not only to the words of interlocutors, but also in relation to prior (and future) discourses.
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Within the context of a critical discourse historiographical (CDH) approach to critical discourse studies (CDS), this article applies a range of theories to the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, or Hong Kong Occupy Movement, to understand it... more
Within the context of a critical discourse historiographical (CDH) approach to critical discourse studies (CDS), this article applies a range of theories to the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, or Hong Kong Occupy Movement, to understand it as a discursive event. The CDH approach argues that a diachronic, historiographical approach can contribute to historiography, the writing of history, in that it can create first readings and interpretations of important events. The approach focuses on critical moments in discourse, of which the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement is considered an important one in the context of Hong Kong’s ongoing socio-historical development. Four theories are applied, in addition to the historical analysis, to further interpret the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement phenomenon: social movement theory, performance theory, identity theory and social action as text theory. It is concluded that the CDH approach to CDS and findings of the study may be useful in the consideration of o...
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ABSTRACT Signalling nouns are abstract nouns the meaning of which is only fully realized in context. Because this class of noun is particularly prevalent in academic discourse, this paper examines to what extent the use of these nouns... more
ABSTRACT Signalling nouns are abstract nouns the meaning of which is only fully realized in context. Because this class of noun is particularly prevalent in academic discourse, this paper examines to what extent the use of these nouns varies across two different academic genres: textbooks and lectures. The research was based upon two corpora. The first of these consisted of transcribed recordings of an undergraduate lecture course in biology (92,939 words). The second corpus was made up of the relevant sections of the prescribed textbook for the lecture course upon which the lectures were based (90,482 words). Both corpora covered the same subject matter; therefore, the differences between them can be attributed to the genres rather than the subject matter. Analysis was assisted by the use of Wordsmith Tools (Scott 1999). Using Halliday&#39;s contextual parameters of field, tenor and mode, differences were noted in each of these domains. The most striking finding was that the total usage of signalling nouns is much more prevalent in the textbook than in the lecture--more than twice as frequent. Finer distinctions were found, however, according to Halliday&#39;s contextual parameters. The findings are used as the basis for recommendations for pedagogy.
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Studies of intercultural discourse provide opportunities for investigating real-world issues and communication problems, on one hand, while adding to our knowledge about important theoretical constructs in discourse theory, on the other... more
Studies of intercultural discourse provide opportunities for investigating real-world issues and communication problems, on one hand, while adding to our knowledge about important theoretical constructs in discourse theory, on the other (Tannen, 1985). This chapter, which presents a case study of Sino-British relations over Hong Kong, has as its twin goals the development of our understanding of a difficult historical period in the relationship between two countries, while at the same time testing the applicability of a theory of intercultural communication — that of face — to a field — that of international relations — where it is not normally applied. Acknowledging the universality of the notion of face, the chapter argues for the need for such models to allow for cultural relativism in their application.
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As indicated in Chapter 1, the British took control over what is now known as Hong Kong in three stages. First, Hong Kong Island was ceded, in perpetuity, in 1842. Next, the Kowloon peninsula was ceded, in 1860. Finally, the New... more
As indicated in Chapter 1, the British took control over what is now known as Hong Kong in three stages. First, Hong Kong Island was ceded, in perpetuity, in 1842. Next, the Kowloon peninsula was ceded, in 1860. Finally, the New Territories came under British control, according to the terms of a 99-year lease, in 1898.
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... Second, ifwe return to a study I reported on earlier, the one I con-ducted with Alina Wan (Flowerdew &amp; Wan 2006), in observing the group of tax accountants who were the focus of this study, we arrived at one very important... more
... Second, ifwe return to a study I reported on earlier, the one I con-ducted with Alina Wan (Flowerdew &amp; Wan 2006), in observing the group of tax accountants who were the focus of this study, we arrived at one very important finding: the tax accountants made tremendous ... TESOL. ...
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In September 1982, Margaret Thatcher, fresh from her victory in the Falklands war, visited Beijing.1 By this time, it was clear to British diplomats that China intended to reclaim Hong Kong in 1997. Taiwan was no longer to be seen as the... more
In September 1982, Margaret Thatcher, fresh from her victory in the Falklands war, visited Beijing.1 By this time, it was clear to British diplomats that China intended to reclaim Hong Kong in 1997. Taiwan was no longer to be seen as the model which Hong Kong would follow. Instead, Hong Kong would provide the model for reunification with Taiwan. Thatcher states in her memoirs that Britain’s negotiating position was founded on ‘Britain’s sovereign claim to at least a part of the territory’, but that she ‘could not ultimately rely on this as a means of ensuring the future prosperity and security of the Colony’. Britain’s aim was ‘to exchange sovereignty over the island of Hong Kong in return for continued British administration of the entire Colony well into the future.’2
Research Interests: Sovereignty, Political Science, Negotiation, China, Beijing, and 3 moreProsperity, Prime Minister, and Victory
During the 18th century, the ancient Chinese civilisation was held in high esteem by educated Britons.1 Its porcelain, furniture and other artefacts were the source of admiration and widespread imitation. The interior of the Brighton... more
During the 18th century, the ancient Chinese civilisation was held in high esteem by educated Britons.1 Its porcelain, furniture and other artefacts were the source of admiration and widespread imitation. The interior of the Brighton Pavilion, an extravagant essay in chinoiserie built by John Nash for the Prince Regent, represents perhaps the most extreme example of such imitation. By the mid-19th century, however, views had changed and China came to be seen as an obstinate nation, refusing to open its doors to trade. By this time, the British Empire was reaching its apogee, its wealth built upon a powerful navy and unrestricted trade with both its official and unofficial empires. Only China, where trade was more or less restricted to the southern port of Guangzhou (Canton), refused to open its ports to British ships. For China, the Middle Kingdom, a country which considered itself superior to any other and self-sufficient, permission to trade was a special privilege bestowed on other countries by the Emperor. Within China, according to the Confucian social hierarchy, merchants were accorded a very low status, the lowest of four categories, beneath the warrior-administrators at the top, the peasants, or primary producers, next, and the artisans, or secondary producers, third. For the aristocrats who created this order, the economic value of merchants was dubious.2
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This chapter will step back from the’ story’ of Patten’s governorship, to examine some of the theoretical issues concerning ideology and values which it raised. Ideology has been defined as ‘essentially a set of beliefs which cannot and... more
This chapter will step back from the’ story’ of Patten’s governorship, to examine some of the theoretical issues concerning ideology and values which it raised. Ideology has been defined as ‘essentially a set of beliefs which cannot and must not be questioned. It is buttressed by dogmas, and, indeed, depends on them for its existence and survival.’1 Political leaders strive to present a single coherent unified ideology capable of grouping together a range of potentially different individual positions in a single constituency or social base.2 This is essentially what was referred to in the Introduction to this book as a ‘discourse’, where discourse was defined as ‘a domain of language use which is underpinned by a set of common presuppositions’. Where a new political party is being formed, a leader needs to weld together a collection of previously disparate discourses in order to accommodate individuals from varying positions.3 Similarly, where a new leader who wants to bring about a change in the ideology of a party takes over, new discourses need to be brought together. The discourse analyst, Fairclough, describes the way Margaret Thatcher brought about a shift in British Conservative Party ideology, in the 1980s, to what he labels an ideology of ‘authoritarian populism’, as follows: ‘What is involved is essentially a matter of projecting onto the audience a configuration of assumptions, beliefs, and values which accord with the mix of political elements which constitutes what I referred to above as the ‘authoritarian populism’ of Thatcherite politics.’4
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Chris Patten1 was born in 1944, the son of a jazz musician and publisher. He was successful at his Catholic school, St Benedict’s, Ealing, and won a scholarship to Oxford, where, according to one commentator, he was more interested in the... more
Chris Patten1 was born in 1944, the son of a jazz musician and publisher. He was successful at his Catholic school, St Benedict’s, Ealing, and won a scholarship to Oxford, where, according to one commentator, he was more interested in the theatre than politics, being quite effective in comedy roles. On graduating from Oxford he won a travelling fellowship to the United States, where he gained his first experience in politics as a political researcher for John Lindsay, who was campaigning to be Mayor of New York.
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... authenticity. English for Specific Purposes, 16, 1, 2746. Flowerdew, J., and Miller, L. (2005) Second language listening: Theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Flowerdew, J., and Tauroza, S. (1995). ...