AI and discourse analysis: Implications for ESP genre pedagogy in EFL settings

The advent of generative AI is bound to revolutionize professional writing practices. This will inevitably have an impact on writing pedagogies, particularly in the ESP writing courses where speakers of English as a second language are taught to master the principles of domain-specific communication alongside general language skills. While concerns have been raised as to the future of professional writing and writing pedagogy in the era of AI, this article argues that learning to use generative AI tools offers an unprecedented opportunity for students to develop discourse analytical skills that have traditionally been sidelined in ESP genre teaching as they pertained more to the writing process than to the product, the latter taking typically priority—in the minds of students and teachers alike—over the former. This is a welcome development which does justice to the principles of genre pedagogy.