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His main research interests are quantitative research of register variation and the compilation and use of language corpora in the field of applied linguistics. He is an Official Translator appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for many years was in charge of the teaching of legal English at the Faculty of Law in the University of Murcia, Spain. His book Researching Specialized Languages, co-edited with V. Bhatia and P. Sánchez, John Benjamins, was awarded the "Enrique Alcaraz" research award by the European Association of Languages for Specific Purposes in 2013.

In the last few decades, the field of specialised languages (LSP) has attracted increasing attention not only as a discipline in itself but also as a multidisciplinary area which feeds from and serves other related disciplines. This collection of articles, edited by Vijay Bhatia, Purificación Sánchez Hernández and Pascual Pérez-Paredes, offers a varied and rich perspective on LSP with the insight of corpus analysis and discourse and genre analysis, among others. The volume represents a welcome and relevant contribution to the study of a wide range of topics within the domain of LSP, from micro-genres such as conference abstracts to the meta-analysis of the lexicogrammar of specialised discourses.This edited volume is divided into two sections: the first part, entitled "Research based on corpora", includes six chapters which have in common the corpus-based approach they take in their respective studies. The second section, "Research based on meta-analysis and applications in LSP", is made up of five chapters which apply meta-analysis as their main research methodology and offer interesting applications in the area of specialised languages.Chapter one, "The historical shift of scientific academic prose in English towards less explicit styles of expression: Writing without verbs", by DOUgLAS BIBER and BETHANy gRAy, offers a historical analysis of the grammatical devices used in research articles to mark explicitness and structural elaboration, in contrast with the patterns found in conversation. The study draws on a 3-million-word corpus of research papers from four disciplines: Medicine, Education, Psychology and History. Pedagogical implications for the teaching of academic reading and writing at the university level are also discussed.The second chapter, "Heteroglossic (dis)engagement and the construal of the ideal readership: Dialogic spaces in academic texts", by CARMEN PéREZ-LLANTADA AURíA, examines the rhetorical functionality of specific lexico-RESEñAS / BOOK REVIEWS Ibérica 27 (2014): 217-234

On the basis of previous lexical bundle studies, this paper examines the forms, structures and functions of 4-word bundles in three corpora of spoken English, one of them of native speakers of English and the remaining two of non-native speakers of English, corresponding to university students in their first year of an English Studies degree and to the same students after two years of university instruction. The study focuses on three major characteristics: the overall distribution of bundles, their typical structures and their functions. The findings show significant differences in the types of lexical bundles used by native and non-native students, as well as in their structure and function. Our results support the idea that lexical bundles are important components in oral discourse. One of the pedagogical implications of this paper is that Spanish students should be exposed to more samples of spoken language.

This paper examines the design and implementation stages of a course of English given at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Murcia, Spain. The course was programmed regardless of the particular individuáis and no previous requirements were needed. Two initial tests were passed to the students at the beginning of the semester: the first one to evalúate their needs and motivation and the second one to measure their general communicative competence. The results were heterogeneous. The students were informed of their results and also of the level they should reach to pass the course, especially those with low marks. With respect to their motivation they manifested two orientations: Labour and integrative reasons. Taking into accounttheir 'labour reasons' some units closely related to their speciality were included and the final evaluation was modified giving some weight also to the specific English component (75 % GE, 25 % ESAP). The analysis reveáis that, according to our initial assumption, those students with a better communicative competence at the beginning of the course obtained the best results in the final exam. A correlation between those students with intrinsic motivation and communicative competence and the best final marks has also been found. 230 Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses