Exploring 65 ESP Project Leader Profiles
Kevin Knight, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan
Everyone loves a good story! This is a story about all of us! It is the story of the English for Specific Purposes Interest Section (ESPIS) of TESOL International Association. It is the story of ESPIS members, leaders, and colleagues worldwide. It is the story of the creation and compilation of 65 ESP Project Leader Profiles.
The first 55 profiles (1 -55) have been collected and replicated in one volume (Knight, 2022), and they can be accessed free of charge in the PDF version on the publisher’s website (https://www.candlinandmynard.com/espprofiles.html), where they are described as follows:
English for Specific Purposes Project Leader Profiles: The Leadership Communication of 55 ESP Project Leaders by Kevin R. Knight, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.P.I.A.
Open-access ebook in the Leadership in Language Education series
This volume is a collection of valuable and highly praised stories. These stories were co-constructed by the 55 featured leaders and by Kevin Knight in his role as the author/interviewer who created the two prompts to which the leaders responded. The profiles were created so that ESP (English for Specific Purposes) practitioners and researchers worldwide in the ESP Interest Section (ESPIS) of TESOL International Association (TESOL) could share their professional experiences with each other. The volume has been divided into three parts: 1) introduction to the profiles, 2) the 55 profiles, and 3) analysis of the profiles. In writing the two chapters introducing and analyzing the profiles, the author draws upon his previous publications and presentations as he tells his story of 1) why the profiles were created and 2) what we can learn about leadership and communication from the profiles.
Endorsement
…a uniquely innovative, comprehensive, and insightful account of wide-ranging experiences of 55 ESP Project Leaders stretching a substantial period of history of disciplinary engagement full of valuable insights for those interested in the theory and practice of ESP. It makes an interesting and engaging reading, which will certainly be illuminating for newly initiated professionals in the field.
Vijay K Bhatia
Chinese University of Hong Kong, and
Hellenic American University, Athens (Greece)
The preface, which is written by Ann M. Johns, is a leadership profile itself! Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) is relevant to exploring the profiles because a genre may be viewed as a means to an end. The profiles were launched at the time that TESOL International Association was encouraging members to use its new platform. I became an official ESP blogger on the platform (143 posts in total), and I was writing my doctoral thesis (on leadership discourse as a basis for L2 training) while working fulltime at my current university in Japan. As a blogger, I needed content, and at the annual TESOL convention, I found it. At the ESPIS Open Meeting, it was proposed that we share our stories with each other for professional development. The first 50 profiles were therefore written as blog posts, which had a limit of 1,200 words including references. (All of this is recorded in the book in more detail.) The next 15 profiles would be written as articles in ESP News (the newsletter of the ESPIS). The articles in ESP News are also accessible to the public. In sum, the profiles have been published in digital media as stories that can be shared for many different purposes, including the need of a featured leader to display (to a supervisor) evidence of leadership required for a job promotion.
As a researcher, for my doctoral thesis (Knight, 2015), I had been conducting semi-structured interviews with leaders and collecting their leadership communication stories. I had recognized that one interview question in particular could be categorized as a behavioral question in a job interview or in an MBA program admissions essay; e.g., Tell me about a time that you were in a leadership role and communicated with others to achieve a successful outcome. I had also been working as an MBA/LLM/Graduate school admissions consultant, so I knew that the response to such a question is often given with a STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or CAR (Context, Action, Result) framework. In a TESOL Blog post (Knight, 2013), I had written that leadership involves communicating to create and achieve visions, and this definition implied that leadership was the communication described in the A or action part of the STAR/CAR response. I was therefore able to frame as leaders the ESP practitioners and researchers in the profiles with the two prompts that they all had to answer: 1) Define leadership in your own words, and 2) Tell me an ESP project success story. Focus on your communication as a leader in the project. How did you communicate with stakeholders to make that project successful?
The development of English language programs was in alignment with how leadership was being defined. The featured leaders in the profiles could discuss how they had created programs at their institutions. (As an example, see the 65th profile of Elena Ellingburg of Emory Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in this issue of ESP News.) In the ESPIS, the definition of ESP has been to create and implement ESP programs that meet learners’ immediate English language communication needs for training (e.g., English for Academic Purposes) or for work (e.g., English for Occupational Purposes). When a learner has the need to do something NOW with the English language in school or on the job, we are truly empowering the learner when we meet that need for specific communication. (Talk with Margaret van Naerssen, who has championed the “power” of ESP, when you see her at TESOL 2026.) Although the ESP programs discussed in the profiles are connected to six of the seven continents, not all of the profiles are about the creation of ESP programs; e.g., my own profile is about the creation of the ESP Project Leader Profiles for professional development.
Another factor that has influenced how I have recently been exploring the profiles is the case method of Harvard Business School. I have graduate degrees, MBA and MPIA, from programs that had case-centered classes in which teaching was done with the case method; i.e., individual study, learning teams, and class discussion driven by the students and orchestrated by the professor to create new knowledge. In addition, I teach (or set the stage for discussions of) business cases to undergraduate and graduate students at universities in Japan, primarily to give them the experience of performing as leaders in meetings. In view of Ellet (2007), a case is a story without an ending. There is a protagonist (a leader, manager) who needs to make a decision, solve a problem, or evaluate someone or something. There is limited information and time to do so. The student is expected to step into the shoes of the protagonist and make a recommendation about what action the protagonist should take. By making that recommendation, the student is finishing the story. However, the other students in the class have different recommendations for different reasons, and therefore the correct answer to what the protagonist should do is often said to be, “It depends.” When you read the ESP Project Leader Profiles, you will see that there is much diversity in what is being created. You might ask yourself, “What are the factors shaping that program creation? Why is it being done that way?” The profiles illuminate the challenges that the featured leaders have overcome with communication.
One way in which I ask my students to finish the story in a case is by creating the challenge for them. For example, the Tokyo Disney Resort is located near the university where I teach. One case that I teach was written as a description of the international expansion of Disney theme parks. Tokyo Disneyland was the first Disney theme park built outside of the U.S. and became the most visited theme park in the world. The website of the Walt Disney Company shows the businesses in which it is involved as well as the Disney theme parks worldwide (U.S., Japan, France, China). My students need to take leadership roles when they make proposals for where the next Disney theme park should be located and how it should be designed. (See Knight, 2024.) I ask my students to use ChatGPT or other generative AI to help them with their task. Recently, I have been thinking about how ChatGPT can be used to analyze the ESP Project Leader Profiles.
In November at the TESOL Virtual Conference, you will be able to see how I have used ChatGPT to learn more about the profiles. I was using a free version, so I expect that if you are using a paid version, you will be able to gain much deeper insights into how to construct your own profile as an ESP project leader. I truly hope that this collection of 65 stories benefits you, your colleagues, and your students!
References
Ellet, W. (2007). The case study handbook: How to read, discuss, and write persuasively about cases. Harvard Business Publishing.
Knight, K. (2013, December 3). Looking at communication through a leadership lens. TESOL Blog.
Knight, K. (2015). Analysing the discourses of leadership as a basis for developing leadership communication skills in a second or foreign language [Doctoral dissertation]. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:42732
Knight, K. (2022). English for specific purposes project leader profiles: The leadership communication of 55 ESP project leaders. Hong Kong: Candlin & Mynard. https://www.candlinandmynard.com/ESPprofiles.html
Knight, K. (2024). Creating leadership “ways of being” in L2 learners for international business careers and social good. Hong Kong: Candlin & Mynard. https://www.candlinandmynard.com/waysofbeing.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.)