Anthony Townley

International Studies Professor

Biography

Anthony Townley completed his post-graduate degrees in Linguistics at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) and undertook research for his Ph.D. thesis in collaboration with a law firm in Istanbul, where he gained access to the authentic legal texts and discourse practices pertaining to the negotiation of a Mergers-and-Acquisitions type transaction, conducted in English, with European partners and counterpart lawyers. He adopted a Multi-Perspectival Research Model to analyze the Lexico-Grammatical Features and Rhetorical Structures of email communications and the negotiated contractual documents, in conjunction with analyses of the Range of Discourse Capabilities and the Interactional Roles and Relationships of the Legal and Business Professionals involved in the negotiation process, including their own interpretive agendas, repertoires and expertise. He accumulated 20 years of varied professional work experience, most recently as the Director of Academic Writing at at Koç University in Istanbul. He has also worked as a commercial lawyer in Sydney and as an English language instructor, in a variety of teaching and administrative roles in Australia, Turkey and Japan. His special teaching areas include: English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Academic Writing, Legal Writing and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and he is currently undertaking sociolinguistic research of legal/business discourse practices in Japan.

Research Interests

Legal/business communication,sociolinguistics

Final Education

Ph.D. , Macquarie University

Awards & Honours

(2019) Teaching Award 2018, Undergraduate. Kurimoto Educational Institute

Academic Papers

Anthony Townley (2024) A scaffolded speaking and writing ELP course for commercial lawyers: an action research case study from an undergraduate law school in Istanbul. Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Anthony Townley (2023) International Merger and Acquisition: A Site of Interdisciplinary and Intertextual Discourse Activity. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly :2329-4906
Anthony Townley (2022) The Use of a Multi-Perspectival Research Model for a Discourse Study of M&A Commercial Law Practice. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research 9 (1) :2376-760X
Anthony Townley (2022) The use of discourse expertise to control the provision of legal services and establish discursive hegemony in commercial law practice: a case study from Europe. International Journal of Legal Discourse :2364-883X
Anthony Townley (2021) The Use of Discourse Maps to Teach Contract Negotiation Communicative Practices. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly 84 (1) :2329-4906
Anthony Townley (2021) The intertextual nature of embedded email communication for contract negotiation activities. Text & Talk. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies 41 (4) :1860-7330
Anthony Townley (2019) A pivotal interactional role to oversee contract negotiation activity: Insights into a key interdisciplinary legal-business practice. Discourse & Communication :17504813

Book & Case Publishing

Anthony Townley (2023) Electric Vehicle Market Stalls in Japan. Case Centre Japan.
Anthony Townley (2023) The Plastic Plague in the Phillipines: A Coordinated Legal Approach to Waste Management. Case Centre Japan.
Anthony Townley (2023) Oysters from Hiroshima. Case Centre Japan.
Anthony Townley (2023) Agency: Massage Chairs in Vietnam. Case Centre Japan.