192 Book reviews / Journal of English for Academic Purposes 22 (2016) 191e198

volume accessible to international readership who may be looking for applications of theories in writing classes in different
contexts around the world. For those readers who look for more specific advice on textbooks, computer software, classroom
instruction and assessment methods, Chapter 9 provides some extracts from sample materials and practices. More specif-
ically, Chapter 9 presents various teaching writing practices including but not limited to writing teaching using the Academic
Word List (AWL), scaffolding school literacy using writing frames, and assessing writing performance through the use of
portfolios.
Section IV, “References and Resources,” provides a comprehensive list of resources related to teaching and researching
writing. Chapter 10 includes lists of key readings on literacy, rhetoric, scientific and technical writing, professional and
business writing, academic writing, journalism and print media, first-language writing, second-language writing instruction,
pragmatics and writing, translation studies, literary studies, texts, tweets, blogs and wikis, writing and multimodal texts,
writing and forensic linguistics, creative writing. Chapter 11 offers lists of key sources on writing such as books, journals (e.g.
Journal of Academic Writing, Journal of Second Language Writing, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, etc.), professional
associations (e.g. European Writing Centers Association, National Association of Science Writers, National Association of
Independent Writers and Editors, etc.), writing conferences (e.g. Symposium on Second Language Writing, College Compo-
sition and Communication, Association for Business Communication, etc.), email lists (e.g. Second language writing list) and
blogs (e.g. The Creative Penn), online corpora (e.g. British Academic Written English) and concordances (AntConc) and
websites for writers and teachers (e.g. Purdue OWL). As this section provides an extensive and updated overview of the key
content, it may be of interest to graduate students, teachers and researchers who look for a research topic on writing and/or
extensive reading list for future writing research and teaching practices. The book concludes with a glossary of terms used in
the book.
Overall, with this new edition, Hyland offers a very important contribution to our understanding of teaching and
researching writing. Bringing together the latest writing research and writing teaching practices, Hyland offers an extended
resource for teachers and researchers. As the volume impressively blends research findings with practical advice on how to
teach writing, it can be used in many different ways. For example, teachers and/or researchers may use this text as a reference
book to review and reflect on their writing teaching and research practices. In addition, the volume might especially be
suitable for teaching writing classes in pre-service and in-service teacher education programs worldwide. Furthermore, since
the book blends the latest writing research with teaching practices, it can be suitable for graduate level classes on current
issues in teaching and researching writing. There is no doubt that, like many other previous publications by Hyland, this new
edition of Teaching and Researching Writing will inspire many L2 writing teachers and researchers around the world.

Nur Yigitoglu
Middle East Technical University Northern Cyprus Campus, Teaching English as a Foreign Language Program Office SZ46, Kalkanli,
Guzelyurt KKTC, Mersin 10, Turkey
E-mail address: nyigit@metu.edu.tr

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2016.04.003

Introducing Business English, Catherine Nickerson, Brigitte Planken. Routledge, New York (2015). 172 pp., US $ 39.95,
ISBN: 978-1-138-01631-6.

With globalization expanding across the whole world, English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become more and more
prominent in international business communication. Consequently, many scholars are motivated to conduct research con-
cerning Business English and its teaching applications. Against this background, Introducing Business English discusses the
whole spectrum of Business English literature including up-to-date research and provides important insights for teaching
applications. Target audiences of the book are advanced undergraduate students, postgraduate students, teachers, and re-
searchers in the field.
This book comprises 13 chapters, which are divided into five parts. Part 1 (Chapters 1e2) provides the framework for the
following chapters. Chapter 1 defines Business English as an umbrella term to refer to any interaction, written or spoken, that
takes place in English, when the purpose of that interaction is to conduct business. It also illustrates a close connection
between Business English and the research approach inherent in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). In addition, it highlights
the importance of interconnections between written texts and spoken forms of communication.
Chapter 2 makes a distinction between Business English as a lingua franca (BELF) and international Business English. The
former term refers to interactions taking place between people for whom English is the second (or additional) language, while
the latter involves native speakers as well as non-native speakers. This chapter discusses various viewpoints from business
studies professors and banking professionals on teaching English as a business lingua franca and international Business
English. Concerning BELF, the chapter introduces the notion of “BELF competence” and considers it as an essential part of the
 Book reviews / Journal of English for Academic Purposes 22 (2016) 191e198 193

communication know-how and business expertise. In addition, based on a project outcome, it characterizes Business English
as a simplified, hybridized, and highly dynamic communication code. Finally, the chapter points out that though ELF is neutral
itself, the result of using business English is generally not neutral because people always bring their cultures into the
communication.
Part 2 (Chapters 3e5) is about spoken Business English. Chapter 3 firstly identifies the four characteristics of Business
English, namely, participants' different roles and relationships, task-orientation, standardized structures, and use of specific
and professional lexis. It also emphasizes the importance of authentic data for Business English research and teaching, using
three examples from the genres of meetings, negotiations, and telephone call services. Various research methods are adopted
such as genre analysis, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, speech act theory, and politeness theory.
Chapter 4 is about intercultural business interaction. It explains the importance of analyzing spoken Business English in
intercultural contexts and indicates a shift of focus from native-speaker models to non-native speakers' English interactions.
It also highlights the recent change in research focus, with studies mainly exploring what works rather than what goes wrong.
Finally, by adopting both linguistic and interactional perspectives, the chapter examines the genres of negotiation and
meeting in intercultural settings to identify relational strategies, facework strategies, and accommodation strategies.
Chapter 5 is concerned with teaching spoken Business English. This chapter selects three examples of research in this area
for close analysis. The first study (Dow, 1999) is about ritual exchanges in negotiation. In order to address the need for more
varied and complex contextualized examples, this study points out that teaching materials should incorporate a greater
variety of examples of “formulaic responses”. The second study (Handford, 2010) deals with essential language in business
meetings. The third study (Koester, 2012) finds five key characteristics of workplace discourse (i.e., goal orientations, specific
vocabularies, highly structured genres, problem-solving, addressing both relational and transactional concerns), with an aim
to enhance its awareness in learners and teachers.
Part 3 (Chapters 6e8) addresses written Business English. Chapter 6 concentrates on Bhatia's (1993) views on genre
analysis. In Bhatia's framework, a text can be analyzed at three different levels, lexicogrammatical features of the text, text
patterns or chunks of text, and structural organization of text. Based on the three-level analysis and a specific communicative
purpose, it then becomes possible to talk about a special type of text, called a genre. In terms of using the genre approach, the
chapter offers two examples, including a comparison of simulated application letters from American and Belgian students and
identification of a number of cross-cultural variations.
Within the scope of written Business English, Chapter 7 discusses the creation of texts and response to texts. In the section
on the creation of texts, the chapter focuses on two studies (Flowerdew & Wan, 2006, 2010), which make combined use of
genre analysis and ethnographic analysis in exploring the process of creating texts, represented by computation tax letters,
and audit letters. In the section on responses to texts, the chapter introduces an experimental way to investigate the effect of
using English in magazines, written business texts, and annual reports. Finally, the chapter shows how readers' response
could be incorporated into teaching written Business English.
Chapter 8 continues the discussion about teaching written Business English. It investigates the influence of context and
responses of business practitioners and provides useful suggestions as to Business English classroom teaching. The authors
introduce some relevant research studies in the field. One research study (Gimenez, 2014), based on computer-mediated
communication, discovers the prevalence of multi-communication tasks in the real business world and suggests that
classrooms should incorporate this essential competence into teaching practice. Another research study (Zhang, 2013) in-
vestigates the business professionals' response to students' written texts and finds some discrepancies between the class-
room and the workplace. Zhang (2013) recommends that teachers should equip students with a set of transferable skills
related to different genres, take a holistic view of a text or spoken interaction, and contextualize business writing.
While the first three parts address the basics of Business English, Part 4 (Chapters 9e10) discusses the impact of the
modern business world upon Business English. Chapter 9 puts forward the concepts of intertextuality and interdiscursivity.
Intertextuality is defined as a cross-reference between two different texts or spoken events, whereas interdiscursivity refers
to an interaction between two sets of activities. This chapter presents three relevant studies. One of the studies, conducted by
Devitt (1991), identifies three types of intertextuality, i.e., generic intertextuality, referential intertextuality, and functional
intertextuality. In terms of the application of intertextuality, this chapter discusses Warren (2013), who investigates different
types of referential intertextuality. The author suggests that this point forwards or backwards may raise students' awareness
of the embedded nature of e-mail communication and the highly networked nature of many Business English texts.
Chapter 10 highlights the impacts of new media on Business English. With the computer-mediated communication
becoming increasingly prevalent in business, this chapter brings multimodality and multimedia into focus. In particular, it
discusses two studies. Turner, Qvarfordt, Biehl, Golovchinsky, and Back (2010) investigates the situation of communication
practice in a small company and Jones (2011) discusses the views of employers toward the computer-mediated communi-
cation skills of employees. With regard to the application of new media and technology, the chapter gives two examples in a
Business English classdwebsite design and use of Facebook as a communication platform.
Part 5 (Chapters 11e12) is concerned with learners, teachers, and materials. Chapter 11 introduces three approaches to the
teaching of English for Specific Purposes, namely, project-based learning, team-teaching, and blended-learning. Project-based
learning is teacher-led, task-based, collaborative, and communicative. Team-teaching is beneficial for teachers who do not
have a business background to create a meaningful classroom experience. The blended teaching, which incorporates ICT
(information and communicative technology), is particularly relevant to business students because developing ICT skills is
also an important pedagogical objective.
194 Book reviews / Journal of English for Academic Purposes 22 (2016) 191e198

Chapter 12 addresses designing Business English teaching materials. Firstly, it discusses the use of needs analysis surveys,
communication audits, corpus-based approaches, and surveys of published materials. Secondly, it points out that assessment
of Business English may take different forms depending on specific contexts, and not just through the internationally
recognized Business English language tests. The authors illustrate the issue with two examples. The first example examines
how business professionals assess the texts written by Business English students in China, while the second describes the
development and use of an oral performance assessment instrument in a Filipino context.
Chapter 13 provides a list of a wide range of resources for Business English research and teaching including books and
textbooks, journals, professional associations, conferences and workshops, corpora of Business English, and online teaching
resources.
This book covers a wide range of Business English topics and provides a comprehensive picture of Business English
research. Though it contains abundant references for Business English researchers, there are still two possible improvements
that could be added to this volume. Firstly, the fourth section in Chapter 2 only embodies a study concerning BELF (Louhiala-
Salminen et al., 2005) and misses the topic of International Business English, which is also an important topic in Business
English research. Secondly, in spite of the growing importance of new media in business, this book only gives limited space to
a discussion of the relationship between new media and Business English. Although Chapter 10 discusses the current use of
new media in a small company and employers' attitude toward employees' competence of new media, the important impacts
of the new media upon different business genres are left unexplored.
Despite these limitations, Introducing Business English makes a significant contribution to Business English research and
teaching. Among other aspects, this book provides a broad analysis of Business English literature including up-to-date
research. It serves as a reference for future Business English studies. This book also indicates that ESP theories and
research are highly relevant to Business English, as they provide an important source for conducting relevant research and
teaching. Finally, it offers many useful and practical strategies for Business English teaching in terms of materials develop-
ment, assessment, content of teaching, and course design. Overall, this book is a comprehensive resource for Business English
readers who can draw upon the knowledge of this book to develop their learning, teaching, and research.

References

Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language in professional settings. London: Longman.

Devitt, A. J. (1991). Intertextuality in tax accounting: generic, referential and functional. In C. Bazerman, & J. Paradis (Eds.), Textual dynamics of the pro-
fessions: Historical and contemporary studies of writing in professional communities (pp. 336e357). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Dow, E. (1999). Negotiation comes of age: research in non-native contexts and implications for today's business English materials. In M. Hewings, & C.
Nickerson (Eds.), Business English: Research into practice (pp. 83e99). London: Longman.
Flowerdew, J., & Wan, A. (2006). Genre analysis of tax computation letters: how and why tax accountants write the way they do. English for Specific Purposes,
25(2), 133e153.
Flowerdew, J., & Wan, A. (2010). The linguistic and the contextual in applied genre analysis: the case of the company audit report. English for Specific
Purposes, 29(2), 78e93.
Gimenez, J. (2014). Multi-communication and the business English class: research meets pedagogy. English for Specific Purposes, 35, 1e16.
Handford, M. (2010). The language of business meetings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, C. (2011). Written and computer-mediated communication skills: an employer perspective. Business Communication Quarterly, 74(3), 247e270.
Koester, A. (2012). Workplace discourse. London: Continuum.
LouhialaeSalminen, L., Charles, M., & Kankaanranta, A. (2005). English as a lingua franca in Nordic corporate mergers: two case companies. English for
Specific Purposes, 24(4), 401e421.
Turner, T., Qvarfordt, P., Biehl, J., Golovchinsky, G., & Back, M. (2010). Exploring the workplace communication ecology. In CHI ’10: Proceedings of the 28th
international conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 841e850). New York: ACM.
Warren, M. (2013). “Just spoke to … ”: the types and directionality of intertextuality in professional discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 32(1), 12e24.
Zhang, Z. (2013). Business English students learning to write for international business: what do international business practitioners have to say about their
texts? English for Specific Purposes, 32(3), 144e156.

Jieyun Feng *, Junkai Huangfu

School of International Studies, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
 Corresponding reviewer.
E-mail addresses: fengjieyun88@126.com (J. Feng); huangfujunkai@163.com (J. Huangfu)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.12.001

Language, Literacy, and Learning in STEM Education, Mary Jane Curry, David I. Hanauer (Eds.). John Benjamins,
Amsterdam/Philadelphia (2014). 180 pp., ISBN: 978-9027-2575-05. SUS135.00, EUR90.00.

The book Language, Literacy, and Learning in STEM Education belongs to the series entitled Language Studies, Science and
Engineering. The primary goal of this book series, as stated in the preface, is to provide useful and interdisciplinary insights