Letter from the Editor
Kevin Knight, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan [1a_KK.author]
Hello, ESPers worldwide!
The TESOL International Convention & Expo 2026 will be held in March! Please read the Letter from the Chair, Gerlinde Koppitsch, and the Letter from the Chair-Elect, Anne Lomperis. Both Letters include information about TESOL 2026, as well as links to resources about AI and ESP (Gerlinde) and information about (and a link to) the launching of a new English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) group (Anne).
The TESOL 2025 Virtual Convention will be held in November (21-22), and the ESPIS Academic Session (yes, there is one in the Virtual Convention) will be about the 65 ESP Project Leader Profiles published to date. You can read the 65th profile in this issue of ESP News, as well as an article that introduces the profiles.
In the first article, a former Chair of the ESPIS, Charles Hall, discusses the “ESP for Medicine” course for 2nd year, undergraduate medical students at Al-Faisal University in Saudi Arabia, noting that in most of the world, medical school is an undergraduate program that begins immediately after graduation from secondary school. The aim is to teach learners to “deprofessionalize” their communication and speak “Humanese.” The participants learn to explain a public health issue in three minutes, using no more than seven slides, and no jargon to a specific, non-professional audience.
In the second article, Anila R. Scott-Monkhouse at the University of Parma in Italy describes the use of a simulated academic conference as the central pedagogical framework in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course for PhD STEM students, based on principles of Task-Based Learning (TBL). The advantages of this model include integrated language skills (i.e. reading, writing, speaking, listening and mediation), increased confidence in public speaking, critical thinking and time management, as the students progress through a sequence of tasks: abstract writing, peer review, research, presentation and question-and-answer practice.
The third article is the 65th ESP Project Leader Profile, and the featured leader is Elena Ellingburg, Curriculum Coordinator in the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. She is a Steering Committee Member for the TESOL CALL-IS Board and is the CLIL Strand Proposal Co-Coordinator (with Jennifer Roberts, ESPIS Immediate Past Chair) for TESOL 2026. (FYI, a former Chair of the ESPIS Mike Ennis is the TESOL 2026 Conference Chair!) In her narrative, Elena explains how she meets the challenge of communicating to “find the right balance of compromise between best practices, feasible solutions, and learners’ needs.”
In the fourth article, Kevin Knight, a former Chair of the ESPIS, a professor at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Japan, and the series editor of Leadership in Language Education at Candlin & Mynard introduces the 65 ESP Project Leader Profiles published to date. In his article, he considers the profiles from the perspective of Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) (as a means to an end) and discusses how the profiles came into being. Readers will learn how to access the profiles for professional development and research.In the TESOL Virtual Convention 2025, he will share how ChatGPT was used to explore the profiles.
This is an exciting time to become more involved in the activities of the ESPIS! If you have an idea for an article, please contact me. I look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you online in November!
All the best,
Kevin
PS – See the About This Community Section of ESP News to learn about the history of the ESPIS (including the names of all of the Chairs) and to see the names of the featured leaders in all of the 65 ESP Project Leader Profiles. The first 55 profiles have been published in one volume (and the PDF version is free to download at the publisher’s website: https://www.candlinandmynard.com/ESPprofiles.html).
Kevin Knight (PhD in linguistics, MBA, MPIA) is Professor in the Department of International Communication of Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan. His research interests include leadership conceptualization and development, ESP, and professional communication. He is series editor of Leadership in Language Education. (See https://www.candlinandmynard.com/leadership.html .)