Studying language, discourses, and contexts of use—as well as student needs, in the broadest sense—and then applying these findings to the pedagogical practices, is what distinguishes ESP from other branches of applied linguistics and language teaching. The fundamental arguments in this volume are that ESP researchers must use all of the tools available to systematically assess the needs, identities, and issues faced by learners and the language and discourses of their contexts—as well as the “frames' brought to the context by the researchers themselves. In addition, ESP researchers must continue to develop the convergence between research, teaching, and learning as the profession continues to advance.

This volume has two parts: Issues in ESP Research, which includes chapters by Ken Hyland, Brian Paltridge and Wei Wang, An Cheng, Diane Belcher and Lauren Lukkarila, and Anna Mauranen, and Methodologies and ESP Research, which includes chapters by John Flowerdew, Christine Tardy, Sue Starfield, Ann Johns and Leketi Makalela, Lynne Flowerdew, and Magdi Kandil and Diane Belcher. Fittingly, John Swales, the father of ESP and author of Episodes of ESP, has contributed some remarks to close this important volume about the future of ESP.