Methodology in EAP: Why is it largely still an overlooked issue?

Abstract

In 2003 it was suggested that insufficient attention had been paid to methodology and pedagogy in EAP and that there had been an over-emphasis on the ‘what’ at the possible expense of the ‘how’. While conferences and other professional events have gone some way towards addressing this issue, in terms of EAP journal outputs, as a survey of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes (JEAP) shows, not very much seems to have changed. The pages of JEAP still suggest a dearth of research interest in issues related to EAP methodology. This paper argues that much greater prominence should be given to methodological matters in EAP, not least because teaching accounts for the bulk of what most EAP practitioners do. The paper further suggests that the transfer of pedagogical practices from mainstream ELT to EAP should perhaps be considered a little more critically than has hitherto been the case.