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

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The Discourse Flows of the Professionals in Today's Globalised World

Winnie Cheng

Department of English, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Language and Culture: Creating and Fostering Global CommunitiesThe National University of Malaysia

5-6 May 2009

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

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.

Two goals of RCPCE research projects

1. To provide a description of the purposes, nature and patterns of communication through the medium of English in business and professional contexts.

2. To promote ESP teaching and research through collaboration across different disciplines, businesses and professions.

Recent projects

1. Language Use in the Professional World in Hong Kong

2. Hong Kong Professional Corpora: Towards the Computer-assisted Investigation of English Phraseology

3. Assessment of Professional Communicative Competencies

4. Discourse Processes and Products: Professionals in Hong Kong

5. An Initial Professional Communication Audit in the Field of Logistics: Project Management in Geomatics

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Research methodologies

Textual and corpus-based analyses: websites primarily written discourses collected from different research sitescritical discourse analysis, critical genre analysis, pragmatics, communication theories, conversation analysis, etc.

Ethnographyfield notesProfessional Discourse Checklist

Survey research: interviews at different project stagesParticipating professionals, industry, professional associations, etc.

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Online RCPCE Profession-specific Corpora

http://langbank.engl.polyu.edu.hk/HKFSC/

1. Hong Kong Financial Services Corpus (HKFSC) (6.7 million words)

2. Hong Kong Engineering Corpus (HKEC) (5.2 million words)

3. Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (HKCSE) (1 million words)

4. Hong Kong Budget Speech Corpus5. Hong Kong Surveying and Construction

Engineering Corpus, on-going

http://langbank.engl.polyu.edu.hk/HKFSC/

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Hong Kong Financial Services Corpus (6.7 million words)

Annual ReportBrochureBank Service Charge CodeCorporate AnnouncementCircular Fund DescriptionFund ReportFactsheetGuidelinesGeneral MeetingsInsurance Policy

Interim ReportInsurance Product DescriptionInvestment Product Description Model AgreementMedia ReleaseOrdinance ProceduresPrinciple ProspectusRulesResults AnnouncementStandards Speech

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

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Individual participants

1. Fun• Communications Manager, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

2. Paul• Electrical and Mechanical Engineer, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation

3. Kate• Marketing Manager, ABC International (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd.

4. Yan• “officer in a supporting unit to provide support (esp. drafting/editing/translating

documents) to other staff members”

5. 5. Andy• IT Manager, Bank

6. Edward– PR Manager, a five-star hotel

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Fun: Communications Manager

Communicative activities Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Read Email 21 15 14 34 21

Write Email 12 11 6 16 6

Read Covering Note 2 1

Write Covering Note 3 3 4

Unclassified (Read) 3 1

Unclassified (Write) 1

Business Phone Call 15 11 5 4 9

Informal Office Phone Call 1

Personal Phone Call 3 1 2

Formal Meeting 1 1

Informal Meeting 2 2 1 1 2

Give Verbal Instruction 3 6 4 3 5

Business Related Discussion 3 1 3 2

Informal Office Talk 1 6 5 4 2

Unclassified 5 2 4 3

Total: 70 62 47 69 49

13

Paul: Electrical and Mechanical Engineer


Read Email 19 20 9 16 20


Read Letter 1

Write Report 1 4

Read Contract Specification 1 1

Consultant's Comments 2

Request of Information 3

Read Covering Note 1

Business Phone Call 3 6 3 4 1

Informal Office Phone Call 1 2 1 1

Personal Phone Call 1 3

Formal Meeting 1

Receive Verbal Instruction 1

Business Related Discussion 2 2

Informal Office Talk 1 3 2

Site Inspection 4

Unclassified 2

Total: 37 40 24 29 31

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Kate: Marketing Manager


Read Email 9 5 17 20 12


Write Letter 1

Write Covering Note 1

Business Phone Call 3 4 6

Informal Office Phone Call 4 1 1 1

Personal Phone Call 2 1

Formal Meeting 1 2

Informal Meeting 3 3 5

Receive Verbal Instruction 1 2 1

Give Verbal Instruction 3 1


Total: 36 25 31 42 28

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Yan: Officer in a Supporting Unit


Read Email 8 8 1514 8


Business Phone Call 2 3 5 2

Informal Meeting 3

Receive Verbal Instruction 2 1

Business Related Discussion 1 1 4

Informal Office Talk 3 1 3 2 3

Unclassified 2

Total: 28 24 30 30 15

Andy: IT Manager

www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/RCPCE 16

17

Quantitative comparison of communicative activities in a five-day period

Number of occurrences

1. Fun 397

2. Paul 161

3. Kate 162

4. Yan 127

5. Andy 317

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

Communicative activities Fun Paul Kate Yan

Read Email 105 84 63 53

Write Email 51 19 39 36

Business Phone Call 44 17 13 12

Informal Office Phone Call 1 5 7

Personal Phone Call 6 4 3

Formal Meeting 2 1 3

Informal Meeting 8 11 3

Give Verbal Instruction 21 4

Receive Verbal Instruction 1 4 3

Business Related Discussion 9 4 6

Informal Office Talk 18 6 12

Read Covering Note 3 1

Write Covering Note 10 1


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Communicative activities specific to profession(al)

Paul - Electrical and Mechanical Engineer

Read Contract SpecificationsRead Consultant's CommentsFill in and read Request of Information FormsSite Inspection

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Fun

Internal ExternalEnglish

(E)Chinese

(C)Both

(E + C) Frequency

Day 1 (11 Apr 2005) 58 11 37 31 2 70

Day 2 (12 Apr 2005) 52 16 32 30 0 62

Day 3 (13 Apr 2005) 35 12 21 26 0 47

Day 4 (14 Apr 2005) 54 14 45 20 3 69

Day 5 (15 Apr 2005) 41 6 30 16 1 49

Total: 240 59 165 123 6 297

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Paul

Internal External BothEnglish

(E)Chinese

(C)Both

(E + C) Frequency

Day 1 (9 Jan 2006) 5 6 1 12 0 0 37

Day 2 (10 Jan 2006) 4 9 0 13 0 0 40

Day 3 (11 Jan 2006) 7 2 0 9 0 0 24

Day 4 (12 Jan 2006) 7 3 0 9 1 1 31

Day 5 (13 Jan 2006) 8 3 0 11 0 0 17

Total: 31 23 1 54 1 1 149

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Kate


(E)Chinese

(C)Both

(E + C) Frequency

Day 1 (12 Nov 2007) 17 10 0 18 18 0 36

Day 2 (13 Nov 2007) 11 9 0 13 12 0 25

Day 3 (14 Nov 2007) 8 17 0 24 7 0 31

Day 4 (15 Nov 2007) 23 9 2 38 4 0 42

Day 5 (16 Nov 2007) 16 8 1 19 9 0 28

Total: 75 53 3 112 50 0 162

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Yan


(E)Chinese

(C)Both

(E + C) Frequency

Day 1 (12 Nov 2007) 17 11 0 16 1 27

Day 2 (13 Nov 2007) 14 10 0 18 6 0 24

Day 3 (14 Nov 2007) 12 18 0 13 12 5 30

Day 4 (15 Nov 2007) 10 20 0 23 4 3 30

Day 5 (16 Nov 2007) 6 5 4 2 10 3 15

Total: 59 64 4 72 32 12 126

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Internal and external communication

Participant

Internal External Total

Fun 240 (81%)

59 (19%) 299

Paul 31 (58%) 23 (42%) 54

Kate 75 (59%) 53 (41%) 128

Yan 59 (48%) 64 (52%) 123

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Use of English vs. Chinese

Participant English Chinese

Fun 165 (57%) 123 (43%)

Paul 54 (100%) 0

Kate 112 (70%) 50 (30%)

Yan 72 (70%) 32 (30%)

Andy: IT Manager: 109 discourse flows


　 SubjectRE: / FW:

Role of

Andy

No. of Participa

nts

No. of

Senders

No. of PRNo. of

SRSent Date

Time Frame(Dates,

Duration)

No. of Texts

1Migration Concept

N.A. N.A. 13 1 8 42-Apr-

08

2 Apr 08 -

18 Jun 08 (7,

2mths16days)

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2 　 FW: N.A. 2 1 1 03-Apr-

08

3 　 FW: N.A. 6 1 3 29-Apr-

08

4 　 RE: N.A. 7 1 1 59-Apr-

08

5 　 RE: N.A. 6 1 1 49-Apr-

08

6 　 RE: N.A. 6 1 1 49-Apr-

08

7 　 FW: N.A. 3 1 2 011-Apr-

08

8 　 RE: N.A. 3 1 1 111-Apr-

08

9 　 FW: N.A. 6 1 1 411-Apr-

08

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Systematic data profile for PB

N.A. N.A. 3 1 1 123-Apr-

08

11

PB Products - Data Profiling from GDW (crest)

N.A. PR 14 1 11 217-Jun-

08

12　 RE: N.A. 2 1 1 0

18-Jun-08

Andy: Discourse Flow 007

　 SubjectRE: / FW:

Role of Andy

No. of Participa

nts

No. of

Senders

No. of PR

No. of SR

Sent Date

Time Frame(Dates,

Duration)

No. of Texts

1

Meeting minute - GCS HK Wave 1 project presentation on 28 May

N.A. PR 14 1 1 12 2-Jun-08

2 Jun 08 -

16 Jun 08

(6, 15 days)

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2 　 RE: SR 5 1 1 3 2-Jun-08

3 　 RE: SR 7 1 1 5 4-Jun-08

4 　 RE: Sender 12 1 1 10 6-Jun-08

5 　 RE: PR 11 1 1 9 6-Jun-08

6 　 RE: Sender 11 1 1 9 6-Jun-08

7 　 RE:Sender & PR

12 1 2 9 11-Jun-08

8 　 RE: PR & SR 12 1 1 10 11-Jun-08

9 　 RE: Sender 11 1 1 9 13-Jun-08

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<Urgent> please confirm approval from RPCCB GCS HK Wave 1 project presentation on 28 May

N.A. SR 6 1 2 3 16-Jun-08

11　 RE: SR 6 1 1 4 16-Jun-08

12　 RE: PR 3 1 2 0 16-Jun-08

Andy: Discourse Flow 019

Analysis of two discourse flows

Discourse Flow 007

Discourse Flow 019

Total number of emails

12 12

Number of emails sent / forwarded to Andy 1 (No. 11) 12 (No. 1-12)

　 SubjectRole of

AndyRE: / FW:

I / ENo. of

Participants

Sender

No. of PR

(no.) U / D / H

No. of SR

(no.) U / D / H

1

Meeting minute - GCS HK Wave 1 project presentation on 28 May

PR N.A.7 I 6 ?

14 H 1 　 122 U 1 D 3

H 6 ?

2 　 SR RE: 4 I 5 H 1 1 H 3 2 H

3 　 SR RE:4 I 2 ?

7 H 1 1 H 5 2 H 2 ?

4 　 Sender RE:10 I 1

?12 　 1 1 H 10

3 U 1 D 5 H 1 ?

5 　 PR RE:9 I 1 ?

11 H 1 　 93 U 1 D 4

H 1 ?

6 　 Sender RE:8 I 2 ?

11 　 1 1 ? 93 U 1 D 4

H 1 ?

7 　 Sender & PR

RE:9 I 1 ?

12 　 2 1 H 93 U 1 D 4

H 1 ?

8 　 PR & SR RE:9 I 1 ?

12 H 1 　 103 U 1 D 4

H 1 ?

9 　 Sender RE:9 I 1 ?

11 　 1 1 H 93 U 1 D 4

H 1 ?

10

<Urgent> please confirm approval from RPCCB GCS HK Wave 1 project presentation on 28 May

SR N.A.3 I 2 ?

6 H 2 1 H 1 ? 3 1 H 1 ?

11　 SR RE:

3 I 2 ?

6 H 1 1 U 4 1 H 2 ?

12　 PR RE:

1 I 1 ?

3 H 2 1 ? 0 N.A.

Discourse Flow 019

Analysis of Andy’s role Role

No. of times

(Email no.)

Sender PR SR Mix

Discourse Flow 007

1

(no. 11)

Discourse Flow 019

3

(no. 4,6,9 )

3

(no. 1, 5,12)

4

(no. 2, 3, 10, 11)

Sender & PR (no. 7)

PR & SR

(no. 8)

Analysis of internal or external communication Discourse Flow

Email no.

007 019

1 7 I 6 ?

2 4 I

3 4 I 2 ?

4 10 I 1 ?

5 9 I 1 ?

6 8 I 2 ?

7 9 I 1 ?

8 9 I 1 ?

9 9 I 1 ?

10 3 I 2 ?

11 5 I 8 ? 3 I 2 ?

12 1 I 1 ?

Note:

I: Internal Email E: External Email ? : unknown

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

　Role of

Andy

No. of Participant

s

Senders

No. of PR

(no.) U / D / H No. of

SR(no.) U / D /

H

11 PR 14 H 11 2 D 1 H 7 ? 2 1 H 1 ?

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

　 Role of Andrew

No. of Participants

SenderNo. of

PR(no.) U / D / H

No. of SR

(no.) U / D / H

1 PR 14 H 1 　 12 2 U 1 D 3 H 6 ?

2 SR 5 H 1 1 H 3 2 H

3 SR 7 H 1 1 H 5 2 H 2 ?

4 Sender 12 　 1 1 H 10 3 U 1 D 5 H 1 ?

5 PR 11 H 1 　 9 3 U 1 D 4 H 1 ?

6 Sender 11 　 1 1 ? 9 3 U 1 D 4 H 1 ?

7 Sender & PR 12 　 2 1 H 9 3 U 1 D 4 H 1 ?

8 PR & SR 12 H 1 　 10 3 U 1 D 4 H 1 ?

9 Sender 11 　 1 1 H 9 3 U 1 D 4 H 1 ?

10 SR 6 H 2 1 H 1 ? 3 1 H 1 ?

11 SR 6 H 1 1 U 4 1 H 2 ?

12 PR 3 H 2 1 ? 0 N.A.

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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.

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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:1. Land Surveying (19 staff members)2. Works and Environment3. Contractual and Mainline4. Quantity Surveying5. Administration

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‘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 officeshadowed a few land surveyors in office and on siteinterviewed some land surveyors collected samples of written discourses

Selected land surveyors filled in a ‘Professional Discourse Checklist’

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Main discourse products and medium of

communication in LS Department

Written discourse Medium of communication

1. Design Plan Linguistic text in English, with maps, graphs and diagrams

2. Tender invitations and proposals English

3. Business letters English

4. External and internal e-mails English

5. Project Works Linguistic text in English, with maps, graphs and diagrams

6. Phase Division of Project Works Linguistic text in English, with maps, graphs and diagrams

7. Forms: ‘Request for Inspection’ and ‘Request for Information’

English

8. Contractor Submission Report English

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Spoken discourse Medium of communication

1. Formal and informal meetings

•Most formal meetings are attended by RLS, and sometimes by SSOs; those with government and contractors are conducted in English

•Informal meetings are primarily in Cantonese, and are in English with English-speaking land surveyors working for the Contractor

2. Phone calls Cantonese

3. Site visits and inspections Cantonese

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Discourse processes and products among parties in external communication

Parties involved in external communication

External discourse products between different parties and Contractor and Sub-contractors

Client (Highways Department, Hong Kong Government SAR)

Contracts

The Consultancy Firm Letters

Resident Land Surveyor in LS Department of Consultancy Firm

Meetings, e-mails, Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Senior Surveying Officer in LS Department of Consultancy Firm

Meetings, e-mails, Phase Division of Project Works

Surveying Officer in LS Department of Consultancy Firm

‘Request for Inspection’, ‘Request for Information’, Phase Division of Project Works, meetings, e-mails

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Discourse processes and products among parties in internal communication

Parties involved in internal communication

Upward communication Downward communication

The Consultancy Firm

Meetings (including telephone meetings), e-mails, Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Meetings (including telephone meetings), e-mails, Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Resident Land Surveyor

E-mails, Phase Division of Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams), Phase Division of Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Senior Surveying Officer

E-mails, meetings, Phase Division of Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Meetings, e-mails, Phase Division of Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Surveying Officer E-mails, meetings ‘Request for Inspection Form’, ‘Request for Information Form’, e-mails

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Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in discourse flow of LS project

management

Project Works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) Drawn up by Highways Department, Hong Kong Government

Invitation for tenders

Tender proposals

Letters of acceptance/rejection

Contracts between parties

Meetings between parties

Meeting notes/minutes

E-mails (internal and external)

Phase Division of Project Works(text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

Meetings between parties

Meeting notes/minutes

Daily worksheets/Site inspection report forms

E-mails (internal and external)

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Discourse flow key

Communication remains at this level

Communication copied down

Communication copied up

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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

meetings meetings e-mails e-mails

phase division of project works (text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

SO reports, phase division of works contractor meetings, e-mails

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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-mails e-mails project works phase division of project works

(text, maps, graphs, diagrams) (text, maps, graphs, diagrams) SSO e-mails meetings contractor

meetings meetings e-mails e-mails phase division of project works

(text, maps, graphs, diagrams)

SO report forms contractor meetings e-mails

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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:1. Project works – text, maps, graphs, diagrams2. E-mail3. ‘Request for Information’ (RIF) form, etc.

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

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‘Request for Information’ forma (RFI

#3)

Request for Information Subject: Construction Detail for the U-channel along xxx Retaining Wall

PLEASE SUPPLY THE FOLLOWING DETAILS:

QUERY:

According to your response to our previous RFI No. xxxx[1], the finishing ground level for the front and xxx xx Road – xxx xxx side of xxx RetainingWall shall be followed the level as indicated in the Contract Drawings No. xxxxx/xxxxx and xxxxx i.e. +6.3mPD.

Based on the above information, the proposed slope profile from the end of xxx Retaining Wall at xxx xx Road – xxx xxx side to xx xxx is too steep andthe proposed U-channel along the toe slope cannot be constructed. (For your easy reference, sections of the slope is attached).

Please review and advise, otherwise we will proceed the works as per your previous response.

RESPONSE:

The u-channel along the xxx xx Road side of the xxx retaining wall shall be constructed to chainage 187.5 as per the attached Sketch No. xx/xxxxxxx.

Encl.

[1] An ‘x’ represents

one letter or one digit

anonymised.

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Intertextuality in RFI form(Enclosed project Works: design sketches) (Prior texts)

Request for Information Contractor’s nameTo: The Companycc: Subject: Construction Details for the U-channel along AB2 Retaining WallAccording to your response to our previous RFI No. XXXX, the finishing

ground level for the front and XXXX Road – the XXXX side of the AB2 retaining Wall shall be followed the level as indicated in the Contract Drawings No. XXXX, i.e. +6.3mPD.

Based on the above information, the proposed slope profile from the end of AB2 Retaining Wall at XXXX Road – XXXX side to CH 218 is too steep

and the proposed U-channel along the toe slope cannot be constructed. (For your easy reference, sections of the slope is attached).

Please review and advise, otherwise we will proceed the works as per your previous response.

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Intertextuality in RFI form

ResponseFrom: The Company to: contractor The u-channel along the XXXX Road side of

the AB2 retaining wall shall be constructed to chainage 187.5 as per the attached Sketch No. XXXXX.

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Analysis of intertextuality in RFI form

Intertextual link with preceding texts Intertextual link with enclosed texts

your response to our previous RFI No. xxxx (line 5)

U-channel along xxx Retaining Wall (line 2)

our previous RFI No. xxxx (line 5) the finishing ground level for the front and xxx xx Road – xxx xxx side of xxx Retaining Wall (lines 5-7)

the above information (line 9) the Contract Drawings No. xxxxx/xxxxx and xxxxx i.e. +6.3mPD (lines 7-8)

your previous response. (lines 13-14) the proposed slope profile from the end of xxx Retaining Wall at xxx xx Road – xxx xxx side (lines 9-10)

the proposed U-channel along the toe slope (lines 11-12)

For your easy reference, sections of the slope is attached (lines 11-12)

The u-channel along the xxx xx Road side of the xxx retaining wall (line 16)

the attached Sketch No. xx/xxxxxxx (line 17)

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Analysis of interdiscursivity in RFI form

1. A linguistic text that requests for information

2. A form, with boxes to take and blanks to fill in

3. ‘Query’ and ‘Response pair’ (c.f. adjacency pair in conversation analysis)

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Conclusions　The discourses of land surveyors might not be as ‘glamorous’ or as inherently interesting to a wider audience as the discourses of doctors, lawyers, politicians etc. who have all been the subjects in a number of professional communication studies. Nonetheless, this study demonstrates that land survey professionals engage in a complex web of profession-related discourses worthy of study.

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Need to capture all the discourses in the discourse flow in order to fully analyse each one and how they all fit together.

Need for stakeholders' input to fully understand the discourses and their inter-relationships.

Need to study the ways in which language use evolves within the discourse flow.

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Novice Land Surveyors need to acquire

these profession-specific discourse skills:• ability to refer to and accurately reference prior

discourses• ability to summarise prior discourses and then

succinctly revise specific aspects of them• heightened awareness of all of the parties

involved in a particular discourse flow• mastery of multimodal texts and communication

Land surveyors at all levels of the profession engage in high stakes discourses every single day. For example, the RFI, one of the staple discourses throughout a project, can, and not infrequently do, result in legal claims between the parties often over financial matters (i.e. disputes over Variation Orders).

The few examples of findings produced by academic (REPCE, English Department) and business (e.g. engineering, land surveying, financial services, etc.) collaborative research have illustrated areas of useful investigations that have potential benefits and value for various interest groups and stakeholders, including the government, business people, business organisations, ESP and LSP specialists, researchers, and learners.


In each of the examples, the findings were discussed and disseminated through project meetings with the companies and seminars for professional associations.

In the past year, seminars have been organised for accountants, securities and investment practitioners, and engineers. Meetings and seminars have shown to be a very useful platform for further communication between academics and business practitioners.


References

Bhatia, V. (2004 ). Worlds of Written Discourse. London: Continuum.

Cheng, W. and Mok, E. (2008). Discourse Processes and Products: Land Surveyors in Hong Kong. English for Specific Purposes, 27(1): 57-73.

Cheng, W. (2009). Professional communicative competences: Four key industries in Hong Kong. In W. Cheng and K.C.C. Kong, (Eds.). Professional Communication: Collaboration between Academics and Practitioners (pp. 31-50). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Cheng, W. (in press). Bridging the divide between business communication research and business communication practice. In F. Bargiela-Chiappini (Ed), The Handbook of Business Discourse .Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.


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

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