English for Prospective English Teachers in Hong Kong: Classroom Language in English Lessons

Informed by Critical Genre Analysis (CGA), an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) lesson on classroom language is designed for prospective English teachers in Hong Kong to assist them in demystifying their discursive performance in the professional context of English language classrooms in local schools and achieving pragmatic success in their professional practice of conducting English lessons. Needs of target learners are analyzed with respect to the professional culture, professional practice, and genres relevant to English teachers in Hong Kong. On the basis of the needs analysis, a recorded English lesson language is selected as an input material for the lesson and analyzed at textual, socio-cognitive, and socio-critical levels. Pedagogical procedures of the lesson embody genre analysis, generic transfer, and free genre production. After completion of the lesson, students’ genre ownership, discursive performance, and competent specialist behaviour are expected to be assessed by means of a weblog recording prospective English teachers’ discursive performance during their teaching practice in a local school.


Introduction
Being an interdisciplinary notion, English for Professional Communication is an umbrella term covering three inextricable fields of study: Genre Analysis, which originates from sociolinguistics (e.g. Jones, 2012), Business Communication, which is inspired by communication theories (e.g. Mehrabian, 1967;Mehrabian & Ferris, 1967), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which possesses both linguistic and rhetorical roots (Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010). Unlike other areas of English Language Teaching (ELT), ESP, which is a hypernym of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), lays emphasis on specialized varieties of the English language and is grounded upon concepts of discourse community, communicative purpose, and genre (Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010). Capitalizing upon specific genres as communicative events to achieve their common goals, members of the same discourse community possess specific demands for language use and conceptual content (Basturkmen , 2006;Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010); this warrants specificity in their literacy development and effectuates ESP professional practice, and professional culture. The syllabus of the teaching unit, which is presented in Figure 1, steers a course between linguistic analysis of genres relevant to prospective English teachers in Hong Kong and the social context around which their professional practices take place (Lockwood, 2012). The sequence of genres studied in the ESP teaching unit is determined by relevance of the genres to students' immediate needs, the sequence of a genre set in authentic interactions, and levels of difficulty of genres (Hyland, 2007). Not only learners' immediate wants, such as those in the teaching and learning domain, but also their future needs, such as those in the school development domain, are involved in the teaching unit, yet instruction on genres more relevant to students' immediate needs are arranged to be taught prior to those more relevant to their future needs to enhance the surrender value of the unit (Brunton, 2009).
Amongst all items in the syllabus of the ESP teaching unit presented in Figure 1, subsequent sections of the present paper delineate a lesson on the shaded segment, which serves as a pilot instructional design of other segments of the unit. By the end of the lesson, which comprises three interrelated tasks, students will be able to exploit appropriate language of instruction interaction to achieve specific communicative purposes in English language classrooms. Following one another in a predictable chronological order, certain genres, such as lesson plans, classroom language, assessment tasks, and written corrective feedback, form a genre set and are thereby taught in a sequence akin to that they appear in real-world events (Hyland, 2007). The reason why the shaded segment is selected as the pilot is that it is more relevant to students' immediate needs and possesses a lower level of difficulty in terms of instructional design.
Note. Possible genres are in italics whilst professional practices are underlined.

Selection of input
In accordance with a flowchart on the process of ESP materials development put forward by Bocanegra-Valle (2010), selection of input for ESP teaching units predominantly involves evaluation of existing materials and design of in-house materials. Suitability of existing materials for a certain ESP teaching unit can be evaluated against predetermined yardsticks such as Sheldon (1988)'s textbook evaluation sheet. Coping with a complex audience configuration, representing a broad area of available knowledge, offering a vision, and incorporating new findings, textbooks play an indispensable role in ESP (Swales, 1995). Limited publication of textbooks on classroom discourse however motivates development of inhouse materials.
The primary input selected for the lesson on classroom language is a set of two video clips, which are combined to form a 70-minute secondary three English grammar lesson on the topic of "infinitives anding participle" conducted by a local teacher in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Such input represents a typical English lesson in Hong Kong as observed and validated by teacher educators in a public university in Hong Kong and exemplifies classroom language for distinct communicative purposes in English language classrooms. The audiovisual input of a recorded lesson is supplemented by a written lesson plan of the lesson.
Reasons for selection of the input for the ESP lesson can be explicated with reference to Bocanegra-Valle (2010)'s commandments for design of in-house materials for the ESP classroom. Apart from being appropriate for target students' levels of linguistic and subject knowledge, the selected input possesses subject knowledge and language that are relevant to target students' needs. Concerning recyclability of the input, both the recorded lesson and the lesson plan are appropriate in terms of timing and are recyclable.
More importantly, both in-house materials, videlicet the recorded lesson and lesson plan, are authentic. In the context of ESP, authenticity denotes language produced by a real author conveying a real message bestowed by a real audience in lieu of inherent in the text itself (Gilmore, 2007). The recorded lesson comprises classroom language produced by a a real speaker to real listeners conveying a real message. This is also applicable to the lesson plan, which is written by a teacher to other teachers. It is not uncommon to adopt authentic content materials in ESP, where target students are mostly at an intermediate or advanced level of English proficiency, for the sake of motivating students (Gatehouse, 2001). Survey results reveal that authenticity in input manages to arouse students' interest and stimulate their motivation to learn in ESP lessons (Vaiciuniene & Uzpaliene, 2012). For such reasons, selection of authentic input is profitable for the ESP lesson on classroom language.

Analysis of input
Discourse analysis is a study of language in action that can operate in multiple directions: poststructuralists are interested in discursive practice larger than language itself whilst traditional linguists embrace a close analysis of language use and discourse (Hyland, 2013;Macgilchrist & Van Hout, 2011). Genre analysis is conceptualized as a specific form of discourse analysis focusing on elements of recurrent language use where individuals develop relationships, establish communities, and achieve communicative purposes (Hyland, 2013). The primary input selected for the ESP lesson, videlicet the recorded lesson, will be analyzed using Bhatia (2002)'s theoretical applied genre analytical model with three levels of analysis of the genre of classroom language; such an analytical model is congruent with Fairclough (1995)'s threedimensional framework for Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the potential for application to ESP of which has been confirmed in antecedent studies (e.g. Hidayat, Septiawan, & Sufyan, 2020).

Discourse as text
Textualization of discourse pertains to statistically significant lexicogrammatical attributes. Conducting an English grammar lesson, the teacher mostly incorporates metalanguage into declarative clauses for presentation of concepts. Not only metalanguage but the preterite form of the modal auxiliary verb 'would' is also prevalently observed in declarative clauses produced by the teacher for provision of polite requests or instructions (Huddleston, 2002b). Declarative clauses are also sprinkled with prepositional phrases functioning as temporal location adjuncts every now and then for signaling of transition amongst stages of a lesson (Mittwoch, Huddleston, & Collins, 2002). Interrogative clauses produced by the teacher embody closed interrogatives and open interrogatives, both of which function as directives.
Organization of discourse is pertinent to global and cognitive patterns of the rhetorical structure. On one hand, the recorded lesson conducted on the basis of the lesson plan, the information structure of classroom language is basically akin to the teaching procedure enumerated in the lesson plan. On the other hand, the move structure of classroom language can largely be summarized using the Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE) structure of classroom interaction put forward by Mehan (1979) albeit presence of not all three components in all turns. Classroom language can be mapped onto such a move structure by means of tagging systems developed by corpus linguists (Flowerdew, 2005).

Discourse as genre
Achieving distinct communicative purposes, classroom language is perceived to be a hybrid genre in lieu of a pure genre and can be further categorized into language of instruction and language of interaction (Bhatia, 2008). Language of instruction, such as that for presenting, giving instructions, and signaling, aims at conveying information from teachers to students in a unidirectional fashion whereas language of interaction, such as that for eliciting, responding, and providing feedback, is intended to maintain dialogues between teachers and students in a bidirectional fashion (Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority [HKEAA], 2011). Classroom language is thereby a genre comprising a hybrid of two sub-genres: language of instruction and language of interaction.
Other than being a hybrid genre itself, classroom language also involves appropriation of textexternal generic resources across professional genres and professional practices (Bhatia, 2008). The genre of lesson plan is appropriated into classroom language in that lessons where classroom language is produced are conducted on the basis of the lesson plan, so some components of the lesson plans are appropriated into classroom language. The professional practice of planning English lessons is also appropriated into the practice of conducting English lessons. Planning and conducting a lesson are conventionally treated as two sequential professional practices carried out by English teachers. From such a perspective, interdiscursivity is instantiated in the genre of classroom language as well as the professional practice of conducting an English lesson.

Discourse as social practice
The classroom language in the recorded lesson is produced by an English teacher to carry out the social practice of conducting an English lesson. Such classroom language enables the teacher to construct an identity as a caregiver. Unlike natural interactions outside the classroom, classroom language reflects a professional culture that the teacher possesses the authority to decide the speaker, the topic of the interaction, and the duration of the interaction (Heath, 1978). In the social setting of a classroom, the professional relationship between a teacher and students is that the teacher serves as an arbiter of order facilitating control of students in the class (ibid.).

Pedagogical Specification
On the basis of the input presented in antecedent sections, three pedagogical tasks have been designed for the ESP lesson on classroom language. Prospective English teachers' positive opinions on the pedagogical tasks corroborate their pedagogical efficacy.

Genre analysis
The ESP lesson on classroom language commences with a genre analysis task (see Appendix A), which requires students to analyze lexicogrammar and the rhetorical structure of a standard or model sample of classroom language in an English lesson with respect to a lesson plan. The entirety of the task is divided into four parts, each of which comprises an explication of regularities of the genre of classroom language followed by clear instructions on the exercise. Requiring students to identify stages of an English lesson in relation to teaching procedures in a lesson plan, Part A of the task is designed to familiarize students with the discourse structure of the genre of classroom language, in particular the interconnection between the rhetorical structures of classroom language and a lesson plan (Bhatia, 1991). Concentrating on the formfunction mapping between classroom language and communicative functions, Parts B and C of the task pinpoint significant lexicogrammatical realizations of various communicative purposes subsumed under language of instruction and language of interaction (ibid.); the former requires students to map function onto form whereas the latter requires them to locate language forms serving particular functions. Involving linguistic modification of classroom language to cater for needs of learners at different ages and levels of English proficiency, Part D of the task introduces creative variation in style to students (ibid.).
Text-task relationship is concerned about relevance of tasks to selected texts in ESP instruction. The social situation of an ESP classroom bestows legitimacy, authenticity, and reality upon the classroom, so students' interaction with the authentic input in the classroom is authentic in nature (Gilmore, 2007;Taylor, 1994). For instance, pinpointing the stages of the recorded lesson, Part A of the task attempts to simulate students' authentic engagement with an authentic text with reorganization of the rhetorical structure of the text as an easification device to make the text more accessible to themselves and guide themselves through the text (Bhatia, 1983). Providing opportunities for prospective English teachers to appreciate how authentic classroom language is utilized in English lessons to achieve distinct communicative purposes, Parts B and C of the task are authentic and relevant to them in that interpretation of the function of classroom language is a premise for production of appropriate classroom language in the classroom (Bhatia, 1993). Involving recontextualization and identity manipulation, Part D requires prospective English teachers to practise linguistically manipulating their classroom language in a specific classroom context and for a specific group of students (ibid.).
Students expressed that the input materials provided, videlicet the recorded lesson and lesson plan, enabled them to notice and acquire declarative knowledge on lexicogrammar and the rhetorical structure of classroom language, and that Part D of the task provided them with opportunities to produce comprehensible output on the basis of learnt explicit knowledge.

Generic transfer
Following a genre analysis task is a generic transfer task (see Appendix B), where students transfer the genre of lesson plan into the genre of classroom language. Directed to an online platform named English Teacher Education on the Net, which comprises myriads of sample lesson plans developed for English language classrooms in local schools, students are required to work in groups of four and transform a teaching procedure in a lesson plan into a teaching demonstration in front of other students. Students proceed from simplified language exercises in the genre analysis task to guided language production in the generic transfer task (Bhatia, 1991); transfer from one genre to another enables students to take heed of the distinction between the genres of lesson plans and classroom language in terms of lexicogrammar and rhetorical structure.
The generic transfer task is a consciousness-raising activity integrating discursive and professional respects of learning. Stressing knowledge of the underlying systems of language, consciousness-raising or language awareness activities hook students' conscious attention to instances of language in discursive and professional practices in an attempt to discover, articulate, and eventually produce patterns of language use (Cheng, 2006;Thonrbury, 1997). Having engaged in a discovery-based genre analysis task, students are expected to have already discovered and be capable of articulating lexicogrammar and the rhetorical structure of classroom language. Transferring a teaching procedure in a lesson plan into classroom language, prospective English teachers integrate their disciplinary and linguistic competence and produce appropriate classroom language to carry out the professional practice of conducting an English lesson; the text-task relationship is thereby said to be inextricable.
Students' anticipated social action in the generic transfer task is to conduct a segment of an English lesson using appropriate classroom language on the basis of a predetermined lesson plan. Even though students are expected to have acquired genre competence in the genre analysis task, there is a clear distinction between genre competence and genre performance. Notwithstanding presence of a standard or model sample of a genre, variations in individual performance of a genre do exist (Devitt, 2015). The generic transfer task enhances students' genre performance via provision of opportunities for creative variation and linguistic manipulation of classroom language contingent upon distinct lesson plans.
Students reported that consciousness-raising tasks were effective in developing their ability to analyze language from primary language data as well as awareness at a level of understanding. They also enjoyed the collaborative learning in groups of four, which enabled mediation and peer scaffolding to occur within the zone of proximal development for production of pushed output.

Free genre production
The final task of the ESP lesson on classroom language is a free genre production task (see Appendix C), where students plan and demonstrate a 15-minute English language learning activity in pairs using appropriate classroom language on the basis of a given class profile. The free genre production task requires students to carry out two professional practices, videlicet lesson planning and teaching demonstration. The task accentuating creative variation and stylistic appropriateness of classroom language, both learner autonomy and creativity can be demonstrated (Bhatia, 1991).
Being a combination of a web-based project and Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), the free genre production task possesses strong text-task relationship with an integration of research skills, content knowledge, and classroom language. \Creating new tasks previously inconceivable, the advent of information technology profoundly transforms students' learning process and effectuates built-in authenticity in the social situation of an ESP classroom (Gilmore, 2007;SAMR Model, 2018). In addition, students' application of their content knowledge to lesson planning is an instance of CLIL and simulates genuine professional practice. Being a dual focused educational approach, not only does CLIL promote students' language and literacy development, it also enhances their competence in domain-specific subject matter concurrently (Lyster & Ballinger, 2011;Nergo, 2016). Such an authentic and integrated learning experience provides prospective English teachers with a sense of inextricable relationship amongst genres, classrooms, and disciplines (Johns, 2008); this primes them for their professional practice of planning and conducting English lessons, where use of digital technology and an integration of content and language are inextricable, in the future.
Students reflected that the free genre production task promoted fluency in language use and provided them with experience of the dynamics of real-life communication in the classroom context. They also conceived their engagement in computer-assisted enquiry-based learning an avenue for enhancing their digital literacy.
After completion of the ESP lesson on classroom language, students' genre ownership, discursive performance, and competent specialist behaviour ought to be assessed to evaluate whether learning outcomes of the lesson have been achieved. Although a small minority of scholars (e.g. Davies, 2001) contend that there need not be any distinction between a general proficiency assessment and an ESP assessment by virtue of their common focus on ability to manipulate language, the vast majority (e.g. Jacoby & McNamara, 1999) call for task-related, context-related, specific, and local ESP assessments specifically designed for each professional context. In light of the nature of ESP, which puts stress on specificity in literacy development as well as interdiscursive performance, ESP assessments ought to provide consistent measurement of students' specific purpose language ability, which varies with context, is precise, and interacts with both background and subject matter knowledge (Douglas, 2005(Douglas, , 2013Weir, 2005).
The assessment designed for the ESP teaching unit for prospective English teachers is a weblog recording prospective English teachers' discursive performance during their teaching practice in a local school, and the segment of the weblog of particular relevance to the lesson on classroom language is a set of recorded lessons, which manifest their classroom language. The design of a weblog is akin to the concept of an ePortfolio put forward by Gonzalez-Mujico (2020). Each prospective English teacher in Hong Kong is arranged by his/her tertiary institution to partake in a teaching practice in a local school for about eight weeks, during which s/he serves as a student teacher in the school and takes up duties of an English teacher. In fulfilment of assessment requirements of the ESP teaching unit, prospective English teachers have to keep a record of all duties performed during their teaching practice on their own weblog. Each recorded lesson is assessed on the basis of an assessment form (see Appendix D). The assessment exerts positive impacts on students. Enabling teachers to monitor students' progress and provide them with timely feedback, the assessment task assists prospective English teachers in deciphering strengths and weaknesses of their classroom language from teachers' descriptive feedback (Hana & Eleonora, 2017).
Critically evaluated, the ESP lesson on classroom language possesses two limitations and can be optimized in the future. The first limitation is concerned about the input selection for the lesson. Generalizable to other types of English lessons as classroom language in the recorded grammar lesson is, more recorded lessons of various types, such as those teaching distinct language skills, can be incorporated into the lesson design to show learners how classroom language can be applied to distinct types of lessons. The second limitation is that only does the paper present the instructional design of one lesson of the entirety of the teaching unit. Rationale for the unit will be established more clearly given availability of instructional design and materials of all components of the unit.

Appendix A: Genre Analysis
Links to input materials Recorded Lesson (Part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyNcwX1S1Sw Recorded Lesson (Part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0wz_hpiyUg Lesson Plan: https://sites.google.com/view/ngchiwui/teaching-portfolio/secondary-three-englishlanguage/grammar?authuser=0 Part A Explanation An English lesson proceeds in stages. As the recorded lesson is conducted based on the lesson plan, different stages of the lesson can be mapped onto different teaching procedures in the lesson plan. However, not all teaching procedures in the lesson plan are present in the lesson as some procedures may be skipped or moved to another lesson due to time constraints.

Instructions
Watch the recorded lesson, and read the lesson plan. Then, fill in the missing time and label the missing stages of the lesson in the table below based on teaching procedures in the lesson plan.

Time
Stage of the lesson

Part B Explanation
Classroom language can be categorized into language of instruction and language of interaction, depending on the interaction pattern between the teacher and students. Each category can be further categorized into different communicative purposes.
Adapted from HKEAA (2011) Instructions Watch the first part of the recorded lesson (Part 1 0;00 -Part 1 4;53), and pay attention to the following excerpts of the teacher's classroom language. Match the excerpts with different communicative purposes.

Excerpts
Communicative purposes "I would like you to look at those four questions and see whether you … are able to answer these questions correctly" (Part 1 1;04) A. To present information to students B. To give instructions to students when conducting activities C. To indicate stages of a lesson to students D. To help students provide a response E. To respond to students' responses F. To acknowledge, evaluate, or comment on students' responses "Can anyone read aloud the whole sentence including the answer?" (Part 1 1;14) "Very good" (Part 1 1;59) "There is a change in part of speech" (Part 1 2;04) "Bernice, read aloud the whole sentence" (Part 1 4;06) "How do you pronounce this word?" (Part 1 4;17) "After the revision, we are going to start today's lesson" (Part 1 4;48)

Part C Explanation
English teachers usually use different language features in their classroom language to achieve different communicative purposes.

To present information to students
• Metalanguage (language talking about language) e.g. grammar terms 2. To give instructions to students when conducting activities • Modal auxiliary verb 'would' • Imperatives 3. To indicate stages of a lesson to students • Temporal location adjuncts e.g. prepositional phrases, temporal adverbs 4. To help students provide a response • Questions (closed and open) 5. To respond to students' responses • Questions (closed and open) 6. To acknowledge, evaluate, or comment on students' responses • Exclamative phrases (exclamations)

Instructions
Watch other parts of the recorded lesson again, and look for ONE more example of the teacher's classroom language that achieves each of the six communicative purposes.

Communicative purposes Examples
A. To present information to students