English for Academic Purposes

Abstract

English for academic purposes (EAP), a subdomain of English for specific purposes (ESP), is generally housed in formal academic contexts. EAP shares subdomain status with English for occupational purposes (EOP), which includes English language use by both professionals (e.g., in medicine, business, law) and by nonprofessional workers (in vocational contexts). EAP itself is further subdivided into two emphases: EGAP, English for general academic purposes, and ESAP, English for specific academic purposes, a distinction first articulated by Blue (1988; cited in Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). The principal difference between these two subdivisions of EAP is one of scope. EGAP emphasizes “common core” skills and activities where English is taught for general academic purposes, across multiple disciplines, and includes learning and study skills components of broadly relevant academic skills. Thus, the general purpose approach is largely associatedwith lower-level EAP courses inwhich students are preparing for later work in disciplinary contexts. In contrast, ESAP emphasizes higher order skills, student development, and authentic texts and features whileworkingwithin specific epistemological traditions associatedwith different disciplines. Overall, whether the emphasis is ESAP or EGAP, EAP concerns itself with the development of English for academic purposes and the transition from “pedagogic genres” (e.g., essay exams and term papers; see Johns, 1997) to increasingly authentic genres associated with various disciplines. This focus on learning academic language through academic tasks, texts, and content is the basis for claims that EAP instruction represents a highly pragmatic approach to learning, encompassing needs analyses, evaluation, academic skills, disciplinary content, and tasks in support of student learning in tertiary educational contexts.