A Socio-Cultural Approach to ELP: Accessing the Language and Culture of Law through Fictional Television Series

Abstract

Although the field of ESP studies is, comparatively speaking, a relatively new area of academic enquiry, it has nevertheless well over half a century of existence and evolution to its name. Present in the most far-flung reaches of the world today, ESP is undoubtedly one of the most cross-cultural of disciplines and as such subject to constant processes of adaptation and reinvention, at times calling into question the epistemological core of the discipline itself. In a two-step approach, this study first presents a theoretical overview of the main epistemological trends in ESP studies today. Having established the general theoretical framework, the paper focuses on practitioner-orientated concerns in relation to implementing a wide-angled socio-cultural approach for university level English for Legal Purposes (ELP). In this dual perspective, it looks at the potential offered by the use of specialised fictional narrative in the form of popular television series or fiction à substrat professionnel (FASP).