Methods reported in ESP research articles: A comparative survey of two leading journals

•Research methods in 352 articles published over ten years were compared.•The methods were mostly qualitative, and most featured analysis of written texts.•A growing interest in qualitative/quantitative and mixed methods was noted.•An argument is made for more quantitative and mixed method research in ESP.

Research articles published between 2003 and 2012 in English for Specific Purposes were surveyed and compared with those in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes over the same timeframe. The aim was to discover the research methods most commonly used and the research paradigms underrepresented in the field. In both journals the research methods were overwhelmingly qualitative, with an emphasis on analysis of written discourse (particularly corpus-based). These results contrast with earlier studies in the field of applied linguistics and ESOL, where a preference for publishing quantitative research was noted. There was very little purely quantitative research in the two journals of the current inquiry, apart from corpus-based studies, but a growing interest in qualitative/quantitative and mixed methods was noted. This research and discussion note argues for greater variety in research methods in ESP, and more balance between quantitative and qualitative research in the journals.