Revitalising the essay in an English for academic purposes course: critical engagement, multiliteracies and the internet

Abstract

This paper describes a content-based English for academic purposes (EAP) course, ‘Language and Public Life’, and its major assignment, a research essay that critiques media coverage of a current event or social issue. The pedagogical context in which this assignment is realised underpins the forms of critical inquiry expected. The selection of course materials integrates a variety of print- and image-based media, complemented by readings that encourage a multiliteracies framework with which to analyse and compare the various informational domains employed. Other important elements of context are the university setting and the formal expectations that arise in any EAP programme. Drawing on the work of Benesch, the course is conceptualised in terms of critical EAP, a dual strategy in which academic language learning and critical inquiry co-develop, towards the added goal of encouraging English as a second language (ESL) students to question the institutional arrangements in which they are positioned. The final section of this paper provides an example of a student essay. One of the key features of this particular essay is the utilisation of the internet, which offered access to diverse voices excluded in the mainstream media. The implications for the course and critical EAP are then developed.