The D iscourse F lows of the P rofessionals in T oday's G lobalised W orld Winnie Cheng

1. Department of English, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Language and Culture: Creating and Fostering Global Communities The National University of Malaysia 5-6 May 2009 The Discourse Flows of the Professionals in Today's Globalised WorldWinnie Cheng

2. Department of English • Mission: Linguistic excellence in professional contexts • Programmes • BA (Hons) in Language Studies for the Professions (phasing out) • BA (Hons) in English Studies for the Professions (since 2008/09) • BA (Hons) in English for Business and Professional Communication (part-time, self-financed) • MA in English for the Professions (all MA programmes are mixed-mode, self-financed) • MA in English Language Studies • MA in English Language Teaching • MA in English Language Arts (starting 2009/10) • MPhil and PhD programmes

3. Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE) • Established in Jan 2006 • Mission: To pursue applied research and consultancy so as to deepen our understanding of professional communication in English and better serve the communication needs of professional communities.

4. Two goals of RCPCE research projects • To provide a description of the purposes, nature and patterns of communication through the medium of English in business and professional contexts. • To promote ESP teaching and research through collaboration across different disciplines, businesses and professions.

5. Recent projects • Language Use in the Professional World in Hong Kong • Hong Kong Professional Corpora: Towards the Computer-assisted Investigation of English Phraseology • Assessment of Professional Communicative Competencies • Discourse Processes and Products: Professionals in Hong Kong • An Initial Professional Communication Audit in the Field of Logistics: Project Management in Geomatics

6. Research methodologies Textual and corpus-based analyses: websites primarily written discourses collected from different research sites critical discourse analysis, critical genre analysis, pragmatics, communication theories, conversation analysis, etc. Ethnography field notes Professional Discourse Checklist Survey research: interviews at different project stages Participating professionals, industry, professional associations, etc. 6

7. Online RCPCE Profession-specific Corpora http://langbank.engl.polyu.edu.hk/HKFSC/ Hong Kong Financial Services Corpus (HKFSC) (6.7 million words) Hong Kong Engineering Corpus (HKEC) (5.2 million words) Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (HKCSE) (1 million words) Hong Kong Budget Speech Corpus Hong Kong Surveying and Construction Engineering Corpus, on-going 7

8. Hong Kong Financial Services Corpus (6.7 million words) 8

9. Example of a discourse flow prior discourses prior discourses prior discourses prior discourses  telephone discussion project report meeting prior e-mail  e-mail  predicted e-mail predicted meeting predicted telephone

11. Individual participants • Fun • Communications Manager, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre • Paul • Electrical and Mechanical Engineer, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation • Kate • Marketing Manager, ABC International (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd. • Yan • “officer in a supporting unit to provide support (esp. drafting/editing/translating documents) to other staff members” • 5. Andy • IT Manager, Bank • Edward • PR Manager, a five-star hotel

12. Fun: Communications Manager

13. Paul: Electrical and Mechanical Engineer

14. Kate: Marketing Manager

15. Yan: Officer in a Supporting Unit

16. Andy: IT Manager www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/RCPCE

17. Quantitative comparison of communicative activities in a five-day period Number of occurrences • Fun 397 • Paul 161 • Kate 162 • Yan 127 • Andy 317

18. Quantitative comparison of common activities over five days: vertical and horizontal reading

19. Communicative activities specific to profession(al) Paul - Electrical and Mechanical Engineer • Read Contract Specifications • Read Consultant's Comments • Fill in and read Request of Information Forms • Site Inspection

20. Fun

21. Paul

22. Kate

23. Yan

24. Internal and external communication

25. Use of English vs. Chinese

26. Andy: IT Manager: 109 discourse flows www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/RCPCE

27. Andy: Discourse Flow 007

28. Andy: Discourse Flow 019

29. Analysis of two discourse flows

30. Discourse Flow 019

31. Analysis of Andy’s role

32. Analysis of internal or external communication Note: I: Internal Email E: External Email ? : unknown

33. Analysis of relationship of participants with Andy (Discourse Flow 007)

34. Analysis of relationship of participants with Andy (Discourse Flow 019)

35. Inter-faculty research project An Initial Professional Communication Audit in the Field of Logistics: Project Management in Geomatics, 2005-2008 • Department of English (ENGL) • Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) • Cheng, W. and Mok, E. (2008). Discourse Processes and Products: Land Surveyors in Hong Kong. English for Specific Purposes, 27(1): 57-73.

36. Project site • A construction site office of the consultancy firm - “Road XX and Associated Roadworks” • The site office, set up for more than a year, provided consultancy to a main Contractor employed by the Hong Kong Government to work on a highway project. • The site office had 83 staff members in five departments: • Land Surveying (19 staff members) • Works and Environment • Contractual and Mainline • Quantity Surveying • Administration

37. ‘Fly-on-the-wall’ case study • Six whole days in Feb 2006 in Land Surveying Department • A trained research staff • took field notes about communicative events and discursive activities in the office • shadowed a few land surveyors in office and on site • interviewed some land surveyors • collected samples of written discourses • Selected land surveyors filled in a ‘Professional Discourse Checklist’

38. Main discourse products and medium of communication in LS Department

40. Discourse processes and products among parties in external communication

41. Discourse processes and products among parties in internal communication

42. Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) Drawn up by Highways Department, Hong Kong Government Meetings between parties Invitation for tenders Meeting notes/minutes Tender proposals E-mails(internal and external) Phase Division of Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) Letters of acceptance/rejection Meetings between parties Contracts between parties Meeting notes/minutes Daily worksheets/ Site inspection report forms Intertextuality and interdiscursivityin discourse flow of LS project management E-mails (internal and external)

43. Discourse flow key Communication remains at this level Communication copied down Communication copied up 43

44. Discourse flow (down) letters, tendering proposals Client (i.e. Govt.) contracts contractor  The Company meetings(including telephone meetings)  contractor e-mails, letters project works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)  e-mails, letters Resident Land Surveyor  meetings contractor meetings  e-mails project works phase division of project works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)  (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) SSO  e-mails, meetings, plan of work contractor meetingsmeetings  e-mails e-mails  phase division of project works  (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) SO  reports, phase division of works  contractor meetings, e-mails 44

45. Discourse flow (up) letters, tendering proposals Client (i.e. Govt.) contracts contractor  The Companymeetings(including telephone meetings)  contractor e-mails, letters project works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)  e-mails, letters Resident Land Surveyor  meetings  contractor meetings  e-mailse-mails project works phase division of project works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)  (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) SSO  e-mailsmeetings contractor meetingsmeetings  e-mailse-mails  phase division of project works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) SO  reportforms  contractor meetingse-mails 45

46. Intertextuality and interdiscursity • Intertextuality: the intertwining of textual connections among texts within the discourse flow • Interdiscursivity: the mix of genres and discourses within a text Discourses studied include: • Project works – text, maps, graphs, diagrams • E-mail • ‘Request for Information’ (RIF) form, etc.

47. Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in discourse flow of an external e-mail

48. ‘Request for Information’ forma (RFI #3) [1] An ‘x’ represents one letter or one digit anonymised.

49. Intertextuality in RFI form (Enclosed project Works: design sketches)(Prior texts) Request for Information Contractor’s name To: The Company cc: Subject: Construction Details for the U-channel along AB2 Retaining Wall According toyour response to our previous RFI No. XXXX,the finishing ground level for the front and XXXX Road – the XXXX side of the AB2 retaining Wallshall be followed the level as indicated in theContract Drawings No. XXXX, i.e. +6.3mPD. Based onthe above information,the proposed slope profile from the end of AB2 Retaining Wall at XXXX Road – XXXX side to CH 218is too steep andthe proposed U-channel along the toe slopecannot be constructed. (For your easy reference,sections of the slopeis attached). Please review and advise,otherwise we will proceed the works as peryour previous response.

50. Intertextuality in RFI form Response From: The Company to: contractor The u-channel along the XXXX Road side of the AB2 retaining wall shall be constructed to chainage 187.5as per the attached Sketch No. XXXXX.