Chapter 7 wraps up the main theoretical and methodological arguments raised in the previous chapters concerning the evolutionary nature of genres in order to set an agenda for future joint research on research genres and languages of science. Some final reflections on ecological diversity, the ‘multilingualisation of science’ and ways of managing language diversity in research communication will validate previous seminal conceptualisations of genre. In closing, the chapter will underline the need to deploy systematic and robust methodologies when conducting genre research, in the belief that this will give greater rigour to the outcomes of future enquiries into research genres across languages.

Chapter 4 examines the situatedness of communicative practices to discuss the central role of languages in the dissemination of scientific knowledge. The concept of ‘fluid societies’ and Blommaert’s ‘sociolinguistics of mobility’ paradigm are used to propose a timely definition of academic and research settings as ‘fluid communities’ that engage in translingual and multilingual genre-mediated interactions. A critical review of the status and functions of English in the language ecology of such interactions introduces some reflections on language-related aspects – languaging practices, processes of language macroacquisition and coalescence of languages – that intersect with generified activity. Corpus and ethnographic (survey) data are used to describe ‘glocal’ and ‘translocal’ language use, language variation and change in and across genres. In contesting the monolingual habitus and foregrounding the plurilingual realities, the chapter closes with some final thoughts on the fact that ‘languages are still a major barrier to global science’.