The Pedagogical Potential of Environmental Dystopia in the ESP Classroom: Using “Cli-Fi” with Science Students

Meeting the Challenge of Cli-Fi FASP as an ESP Teaching ToolFASP (fiction substrat professionnel), also known as "expert fiction", "specialised thrillers" or "specialised fictional narrative" is a genre identified by French linguist and English for specific purposes (ESP) scholar, Michel Petit (1999) as popular thrillers in which "the professional/specialised environment nourishes the author's imaginary, fuels the plot dynamics, defines the characters and leads to the denouement" (Isani 2004, 26).Although such fiction was already being used in ESP teaching, Petit's seminal work and subsequent research by ESP scholars transformed random practices into formalised research, and FASP studies are now a dynamic line of ESP research both in France and abroad.FASP is a widely overarching genre which embraces a sprawling network of sub-genres.While legal, medical and procedural FASP are undoubtedly the dominant sub-genres in terms of authors, readership, publishing figures and ESP research, less prominent subgenres, such as art and science, for example, also offer invaluable ESP potential, as demonstrated in Marie Thvenon's article, "The Pedagogical Potential of Environmental Dystopia in the ESP classroom: Using Cli-Fi with Science Students", which reports on using climate fiction FASP in an EST context.