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In referencing the title of Chris Candlin's (2008) plenary, this paper focuses on the continuing concern to align research and practice in applied linguistics, and more particularly in language for specific purposes (LSP) and professional communication. We examine how Candlin identified practices for trading places between research and practice and for creating synergies between them -- and in so doing opened up new spaces for enquiry and understanding in the field. We identify and critically examine four approaches that Candlin developed to promote the alignment of research and practice: through particular research tools and methodologies, through the investigation of professional settings and inter-domain constructs (such as quality, trust and risk), through a concern with both rigour and relevance in relation to research and training, and through a focus on 'critical moments of interaction' in 'crucial sites of engagement' (Candlin 2008). To this end, we draw on the diverse domains and trajectories of enquiry outlined in the opening plenary symposium at the 4th Asia-Pacific Language for Specific Purposes & Professional Communication Association Conference from five standpoints: in recent impact case studies of professional communication in the Hong Kong context (Cheng 2017), in a 'multi-perspectival' account of Candlin's enacted philosophy of teaching and learning (Moore 2017), in examining the communicative basis of expertise (Sarangi 2017) and the concept of interdiscursivity (Jones 2017), and in the extensive fieldwork and analysis of workplace talk underlying the development of resources for new migrants in New Zealand (Holmes & Riddiford 2017). In conclusion, we pay tribute to an inspirational researcher and teacher whose influence will continue to impact applied linguistics for decades to come.

In this interview, Vijay Bhatia freely reflects on his personal experiences, perceptions, and views about the development of Genre Analysis in the early eighties towards Critical Genre Analysis today. He offers his impressions about how professionals construct, interpret, use and often exploit generic resources in their everyday practice to meet their professional objectives in specific contexts. Starting from the early conceptualization of Genre in the eighties in the United Kingdom, he points out how it was essentially inspired by the everyday concerns about the teaching and learning of English for Specific Purposes, and how it continued to gain popularity and is considered one of the most popular frameworks for ESP applications in the present-day context. However, he points out, it is not enough to analyze and describe just the specialist discourses; it is also equally important to understand how such discourses are employed in professional practice to meet specific requirements of a particular profession. Hence the need to develop traditional Genre Analytical framework further towards what he calls Critical Genre Analysis to demystify interdiscursive performance in specific academic and professional settings.

Use of complex noun phrases, complex nominals, and other nominalized expressions has been a controversial characteristics of academic and professional writing. To the specialist community it is an indispensable linguistic device that brings precision and clarity and removes ambiguity by promoting text cohesion and facilitating reference to associated technical concepts already mentioned. To the non-specialist this is often seen as a strategy to promote solidarity within the specialist community and keep non-specialists at a distance. It is argued here that the truth is somewhere in between. A number of texts from three different genres of academic and professional discourse (advertising, academic/scientific, and legislative) are examined for evidence of genre-specific considerations in the use of complex nominals and nominalizations. It was found that in advertising, nominals are more often in the form of complex nominals because the copywriter's main concern is to find as many syntactic slots as possible for adjectival insertion. Scientific research writing uses predominantly compound nominal phrases to refer to concepts either created as the discourse proceeds or refer to further refined and repeated concepts. Legislative language shows extensive nominalization, generally to condense long provisions into more unambiguous and all-inclusive statements. (MSE)

Point defects create exotic properties in materials such as defect-induced luminescence in wide-bandgap semiconductors, magnetism in nonmagnetic materials, single-photon emission from semiconductors, etc. In this article, oxygen defect formation in metallic TiN and semiconducting rock salt-(Al,Sc)N is investigated with a combination of first-principles density functional theory, synchrotron-based x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) analysis, and scanning transmission electron microscopy–energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy mapping. Modeling results show that oxygen in TiN and rock salt-(Al,Sc)N prefers to be in the defect complex of substitutional and interstitial oxygen (nON + Oi) types. While in TiN, the preferential interstitial sites of oxygen in ON + Oi are at the tetrahedral site, in rock salt-(Al,Sc)N, a split interstitial site along the [111] direction was found to be energetically preferable. Simulations performed as a function of the oxygen partial pressure show that under experimental growth conditions, four oxygen atoms at the substitutional sites of nitrogen (4ON), along with four Ti atoms, decorate around an interstitial oxygen atom at the tetrahedral site (Oi) in the energetically favored configuration. However, in rock salt-(Al,Sc)N, n in nON + Oi was found to vary from two to four depending on the oxygen partial pressure. Theoretical predictions agree well with the experimentally obtained XAS results. These results are not only important for a fundamental understanding of oxygen impurity defect behavior in rock salt nitride materials but will also help in the development of epitaxial metal/semiconductor superlattices with efficient thermionic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates student behaviour on collaborative assignments, looking at the relationship between task type and interaction, and considers the implications for task design. Students reported on interactions in a year-long workplace-focussed group communication project, comparing these with interactions on other academy-based group assignments. Differences were seen in the amount of brainstorming, the criteria for dividing up work, the intensity of editing, and how conflict was managed. Contributing factors to these differences included the presence or absence of a creative element, the instrumental nature of the task, and the need for a collective approach inherent in the task design.

The concept of Business English has undergone some major shifts in the last few years because of a number of developments, such as advances in genre theory and the coming together of English for Business Purposes and Business Communication, inspired by the realization that there is a gap to be bridged between the academy and the globalized business world. Drawing on advances in the analysis of business discourses, especially in applied genre analysis, this state-of-the-art review revisits the frameworks currently used in English for Business Purposes and Business Communication (or, more generally, Professional Communication) to suggest an integration of the two approaches for the design of English for Business Communication (EBC) programmes. The study incorporates an extensive review of much of the relevant published work in all the three areas mentioned above to identify some of the main issues in EBC, and illustrates a gradual shift in the rationale for the design and implementation of EBC programmes.

Studies of professional genres and professional practices are invariably seen as complementing each other, in that they not only influence each other but are often co-constructed in specific professional contexts. However, professional genres have often been analyzed in isolation, leaving the study of professional practice almost completely out, except as providing context for specific analyses, thus undermining the role of interdiscursivity in professional genres and practices. Drawing examples from a range of professional contexts, in particular from business and international arbitration practice, this paper argues for a shift towards an integration of discursive and professional practices, thus emphasizing the function of interdiscursivity in critical genre analysis.

A forum article on teaching English as communication examines the focus on the learning, developing a communicative curriculum, sociolinguistic issues, and teacher education. Two comments are provided on the article, and the author responds to these comments. (Author/VWL)

Five ethnographic studies located genres of public discourse most central to university students, thus enhancing understanding of those genres as a significant influence on students' use of language. The problem of divergence between school-based genres and genres of public discourse were addressed. Results highlighted are audience roles, sites of engagement, reading as social practice, implied readership, and code mixing. (SM)

The first doctoral student of linguist John Swales comments on three aspects of their advisor/advisee relationship: the relaxed atmosphere in which work was done; the collegial style of interaction; and the advisor's active participation with the student in the research process. (MSE)

Examines introductory genres and their various realizations, conventionally used to introduce academic books and variously named as "introduction,""preface,""acknowledgement," and "publishers blurb" to investigate their nature, function, and structure within the context of current theory in genre analysis and with a focus on promotional intentions. (23 references) (Author/CK)

Reviews current research to investigate the way the power and politics of genre is often exploited by the so-called established membership of disciplinary communities to keep outsiders at a safe distance. Argues that the privilege to exploit generic conventions to create new forms becomes available only to those few enjoying a certain degree of visibility in the relevant professional community. (35 references) (Author/CK)

Takes the communicative intentions of the writer to a typical type of business letter as the basis for a genre-analysis and suggests that such a perspective will allow English-for-special-purpose practitioners to teach business writing more effectively and economically. Examples from a Singapore government project are used to illustrate this process. (JL)