The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes

The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes, 2nd Edition, edited by Sue Starfield and Christoph A. Hafner, provides a comprehensive reference on specialized language research and instruction. Tailored for upper-level undergraduate students, graduate students, scholars, researchers, and educators in TESOL, ELL, ELT, applied linguistics, and language studies, this volume addresses how targeted English instruction functions across academic and professional disciplines.

The thematic arcs within the volume synthesize key research across specialized domains, including medical English, business English, academic English, and legal English. The text examines core communicative skill areas comprising speaking, reading, writing, and language assessment, supported by research methodologies such as intercultural rhetoric, multimodality, ethnography, and English as a lingua franca.

A defining structural feature of this second edition is a new historical overview of the field written by Prof. Vijay K. Bhatia. This reference volume provides language researchers, educators, and advanced students with an established foundation for analyzing specialized discourse and curriculum design.