Disciplinary Discourse Functions in an Agri-Food ESP Handbook: A Case Study

Abstract

This study examines how disciplinary discourse functions are represented and treated in a vocational English for Specific Purposes (ESP) handbook designed for the Agri-Food industries Branch in middle-and southern east Algerian Institutes of vocational training: namely those in El Menia, Ghardaia, Ouargla, Tamanrasset, and Tougourt. The study brushes on the difference between learning technical vocabulary and grammar and actual technical English use. A qualitative case-study design has been applied, combining discourse-function analysis of the handbook with an examination of the official training programme and a questionnaire completed by the two ESP teachers of the Ghardaia institute who were also present as editors in the work and production team when the handbook was being made in 2023. The analysis of the discourse disciplinary functions of Agri- Food industries aimed at finding out whether they were explicitly taught and assessed by the teachers of the branch. The findings showed that the handbook provides significant exposure to disciplinary functions, including identifying, defining, describing, expressing function and purpose, explaining, sequencing processes, instructing, reporting, and interpreting. However, the material shows more didactic emphasis on understanding recognizing, retrieving, and controlled practicing than it shows towards sustained autonomous production of disciplinary discourse.

 The questionnaire findings further indicate that teachers adapt the handbook according to the allocated instructional time, learner needs, and local conditions, while extended technical paragraph production and interpretation receive comparatively limited classroom attention. The study concludes that the main issue is not the absence of disciplinary discourse functions but the uneven progression from representation to learner performance. It also shows a clear contrast between the program objectives and those of the handbook of the branch. The findings provide a diagnostic basis for subsequent instructional intervention focused on explicit discourse-function development and learner production.