Agency: A Potential Theoretical Framework for ESP Researchers

Agency could provide a fruitful theoretical framework to analyze specialized discursive practices by highlighting the links between individuals and structures. The notion has been widely used in ESP, to examine teaching and learning practices and their socio-political environments but it remains undertheorized in ASP, the French theory of ESP. This research note aims to provide some key conceptualizations of agency. I explore the way agency is discussed in ESP and EAP and present some research works which draw from the notion. I conclude that research in ESP tends to focus on the linguistic features of agency even if there are some attempts at discussing the expression of collective and individual responsibilities.