Pedagogies in English for Academic Purposes: Teaching and Learning in International Contexts

Abstract

This is the second multiauthor volume to appear in Bloomsbury’s New Perspectives for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) series. The editors, in their Introduction, argue that this book is ‘particularly timely’ in the light of the ‘relative lack of focus and attention’ that has been given to ‘pedagogies specific to EAP’, and also in relation to ‘the rise in importance and recognition of EAP as a relatively new discipline and the increasing variation in contexts’ (p. 4). However, what this agentless contextualization occludes is the extent to which EAP is a field shaped by economic pressures and the high stress that is often experienced by its actors, both learners and teachers. As higher education has been increasingly commodified, these economic pressures have grown. A university degree from an EMI (English as a medium of instruction) institution, either in an Anglophone country or elsewhere, has become a more valuable asset in the globalized economy, and EAP has become an ever more lucrative business for its providers, be they universities or educational businesses such as INTO and Study Group. These organizations, although key operators in the EAP market, are not represented in this volume. For learners, the EAP encounter is high stakes: it determines their access, via a pre-sessional or foundation course, to their chosen degree course, and their capacity to attain the grades necessary to graduate, most commonly through their written outputs. Teachers of EAP, likewise, experience stress in supporting learners to bridge the often wide gap between their current level of academic skills and language proficiency and the level they need to reach in order to function on their degree programmes. EAP courses are typically short, intensive and, in Anglophone countries, seasonal; the majority of EAP practitioners are on short-term and precarious employment contracts.