Teaching Of English For Academic Purposes Research Articles

Language Ideologies and English for Academic Purposes Writing: A Case in Ontario

The field of language instruction is crucial in Canada, given the number of newcomers seeking to improve their English (or French) language skills after arrival. For those who plan to enter post-secondary education but do not meet required language proficiency scores, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs provide opportunities to strengthen linguistic and academic skills. These inarguably pragmatic goals are often unquestioned, yet EAP instruction is an ideological undertaking with social, economic, and political consequences. This qualitative study investigates language ideologies – rationalizations and justifications for language use and form – through interviews with EAP writing instructors. As participants discussed the material they taught, the language skills students developed, and the consequences of studying EAP writing, ideologies regarding what forms of language should be taught, the purposes of academic writing (instruction), and the social and political dimensions of language were (re)produced and resisted. Formative influences on these ideologies included education, upbringing, and personal language learning experiences. Developing a critical awareness of the understandings of language that inform teaching and learning can make more transparent the linguistic and social discourses that circulate within and beyond EAP writing classrooms and help instructors, students, and other EAP community members (re)produce or resist them strategically.

Research on the Promotion of EAP Teachers' Information Literacy under TPACK Framework in the Era of Digital Intelligence

Foreign language education is steadily transitioning into the digital teaching era, driven by advancements in digital information technology and artificial intelligence. The integration of digitalization technology into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction imposes increasingly demanding prerequisites on EAP educators' information literacy within the pedagogical landscape. Employing the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, this paper conducts a comprehensive examination of the knowledge components and distinctive attributes of EAP instructors in the age of digital intelligence. Through an in-depth assessment of the information literacy of EAP educators at a science and technology university, this study unveils a spectrum of challenges pertinent to information literacy in the domain of academic English instruction. Subsequently, the paper offers a set of recommendations for enhancing the information literacy competencies of academic English instructors, with the overarching objective of shedding light on the professional development of EAP educators.

Identity position and pedagogical agency negotiation in teaching EAP writing: A case study

In language education, little classroom-based research has been conducted regarding novice teachers of English for academic purposes (EAP), and even less on teaching EAP at graduate level and on graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), a significant but overlooked teacher population at universities. Thus, this ethnographic case study focuses on the exploration of a GTA’s self-positioning in a graduate-level EAP composition class, with which he was unfamiliar as he taught it for the first time. Classroom field notes, audio-recordings, and interviews, in addition to supportive data, were collected and analysed through the lens of positioning and agency. The analysis of the data revealed that the teacher took up three core identity positions: a considerate teacher of English as a second language (ESL), an experienced and knowledgeable researcher, and a limited writing teacher. The findings further indicated that the possession of or the lack of knowledge on research, EAP writing, students, and genre pedagogy influenced the teacher’s agency in constructing identity positions and making pedagogical decisions. The study contributes to the limited investigation of EAP research and further explores the relationship among teacher knowledge, identity positions, and pedagogical agency. The study bears implications for the teaching of EAP writing and professional training.

EMI, EAP, and pedagogy: An autoethnographic account of a case study at a university in Japan

ABSTRACT Kanazawa University, a national university in Japan, offers an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program to its first-year students as a required subject of general education. It is an English-medium instruction (EMI) program with an English-only policy. In this article, I utilize autoethnography as a method to examine this EMI EAP program based on my experiences as a teacher while contextualizing my personal accounts in the extant studies of EAP, EMI, and English language teaching. The article reveals that West-centric coloniality and the native-speakerist myth are operating behind the program as the guiding language ideologies in ways to curtail non-native English-speaking teachers’ and students’ multilingual capacity. The article ends by suggesting potential changes the program may be able to incorporate to decolonize its current problematic pedagogical practices and to transform the program into a space where equitable linguistic sensibility is pursued and nurtured.

Developing EFL teachers’ feedback literacy for research and publication purposes through intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations: A multiple-case study

The growing pressure for publication in prestigious English-medium journals and scholars’ increasing need to participate international research communities have given rise to the initiatives of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses or English for Research and Publication Purposes (ERPP) feedback service. Providing such ERPP feedback to students’ research papers brings forward the necessity for EFL teachers, who often give the feedback, to develop ERPP feedback literacy. Given the paucity of research on this topic, the purpose of this study is thus to explore how EFL teachers could develop their ERPP feedback literacy through feedback provision practices. Drawing upon teacher-provided written feedback collected from four EFL teachers over five years (i.e., 2017–2022), semi-structured interviews, and teachers’ verbalizations while giving feedback and stimulated recalls, this multiple-case study shows that through intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations when giving ERPP feedback, EFL teachers perceived an overall improvement in their ERPP feedback literacy. In particular, they moved beyond targeting feedback to surface-level linguistic errors and developed awareness in disciplinary knowledge construction in ERPP writing. We argue that the intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations can help develop EFL teachers’ ERPP feedback literacy, and hence strengthen their EAP teacher identity.

Academic word coverage and language difficulty of reading passages in College English Test and Test of English for Academic Purposes in China.

The field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has gained considerable attention, mainly due to the growing importance of English teaching and the need for preparing international professionals. The primary academic emphasis of this field is largely centered on the study of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). It has become increasingly important for China to provide EAP education to its vast population of college students, who represent a significant proportion of global tertiary-level English learners. By doing so, they can improve their academic literacy and participate more effectively in international academic communication. In 2016, China's College English Test Examination Board issued the National College English Test Syllabus which emphasized the importance of academic English literacy in the test design. This syllabus was released during a contentious debate among Chinese academics about the role of EAP in college English teaching and testing. Despite this heated discussion, there are currently few studies that have analyzed the linguistic nature of academic English tests in a quantitative manner. This paper calculates the academic word coverage of the reading passages in two crucial English proficiency tests designed for college students in China, the College English Test (CET) and the Test of English for Academic Purposes (TEAP). It is found that the academic word coverage of CET is increasing from the year 2013 to 2021 and that the academic word coverage of TEAP is slightly higher than that of CET. In this sense, these English tests can meet the requirements for measuring Chinese college students' academic literacy. It is also found that there is a positive correlation between academic word coverage and language difficulty as is indicated by Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. These findings provide an empirical reference for the study of academic English tests in China, and other parts of the world, and contribute to EAP teaching and testing reform for the development of students' academic literacy.

“Most of us are not feeling well”: exploring Iranian EAP practitioners’ emotions and identities

Although theory and research on English for Academic Purposes (EAP) practitioners have grown recently, there is little documented research on their emotions and identities. This study explored the emotion of 12 Iranian EAP practitioners and their role in their identity construction. Adopting a narrative inquiry methodology, the study examined the practitioners’ emotions across the Zembylas’s (2002) three-dimensional framework of teacher emotions and their role in the practitioners’ identity construction. Data analyses revealed that while the practitioners consider recognition from students as contributive to their positive emotions and identities, sociocultural-ideological discourses and power relations negatively influence their emotions and identities. Such idiosyncrasies were viewed to create huge dissonances between the practitioners’ self-images and their professional sense-making at personal, interpersonal, and macro-structural levels. The study offers implications regarding EAP practitioners’ emotions and identities situated within sociocultural localities of EAP instruction.

Exploring L2 Motivational Dynamics Among Chinese EAP Learners in an EMI Context From a Socio-cultural Perspective

This paper reports the findings pertinent to the motivational dynamics in learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which are a part of a large-scale mixed-methods study. The study was aimed to explore the adaptation of a cohort of Chinese tertiary students when transiting to an English-as-Medium-of-Instruction (EMI) university from Chinese-medium schools in China. Data sources include a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews over a 10-month length of time. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed that the participants became much more strengthened in the overall and dimensional level of motivation after being engaged into EAP learning at the EMI context for two semesters. The qualitative results indicated that the consolidation of the participants’ motivation might result from the newly mediational roles of socio-cultural elements at the EMI environment pertaining to the learning discourses, cultural artifacts, important others and the study of content subjects with the target language. This study crystallizes the situationally constructed disposition of second language (L2) motivation which is responsive to context. The pedagogical implications for EAP teaching are also discussed.

Grammatical complexity: Insights from English for academic purposes teachers

While grammatical complexity has received much attention in the past decades, little research has yet sought the insights of second language (L2) writing teachers who are on the front line of educating academic writers. Given that teachers’ understanding of the representation of complex grammatical structures may impact their students’ development of academic literacy, this study explored L2 teachers’ perception of grammatical complexity. Twenty English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers (N = 20) in a Chinese university evaluated a set of five texts including varying grammatical characteristics. Using their ratings and notes as stimuli, we conducted a consecutive stimulated recall with each teacher to elicit their rationales for judging the texts on grammatical complexity. The findings indicated that, in evaluating grammatical complexity, EAP teachers not only considered lexico-grammatical features, but also deliberated over the propositional complexity, coherence, and formality. Also, while cognizant of the importance of features associated with phrasal complexity, EAP teachers seemed to have overestimated the significance of subordination and underestimated the role of non-finite dependent structures in academic prose. Implications were discussed in terms of teacher training and further theorizing grammatical complexity.

Teaching the Nation(s): A Duoethnography on Affect and Citizenship in a Content‐Based EAP Program

AbstractThe plurality of nation in this title foregrounds the challenge of teaching a geopolitical entity whose survival depends on building emotional ties of belonging. These ties can be problematic in diverse societies in which collective identities compete for recognition. In Canada, nationhood tied to language and culture is claimed by French‐speaking Quebecers; it is also invoked by many Western‐Canadian politicians to express a growing alienation from Eastern Canada's perceived socio‐economic dominance. In Canada's constitution, the term First Nations represents the indigenous peoples who are the country's original inhabitants. In this context, teaching the nation(s) is indeed challenging. In response, the authors adopt duoethnography as both research methodology and pedagogy in their content‐based English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses. They first explore their experiences and emotional attachments to nationhood, reflecting on their influences on teaching around language and citizenship. They then provide two EAP assignments as examples: The first is a course assignment in which students critically examine hyphenated national identities through duoethnographic inquiry. The second is called the Get Involved project, which examines service learning and citizenship. Both examples demonstrate the importance of critical affective literacies to expand the pedagogical repertoires of EAP teachers and students in a time of resurgent nationalism.

PROFILES IN NOTETAKING: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT Students take notes in various different ways and for numerous reasons. They have specific preferences in terms of note organization, use, and encoding techniques. At a broader level, they have individual views on the value of and habits related to notetaking. To account for both performance aspects of and individual stances on notetaking, the present paper reports on a multiple case study of notetakers in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class in Sweden. Three students representing three levels of notetaker, namely, copious, average, and sparse, were identified based on initial quality analysis of note samples using the “information unit,” a measurement which aims to identify complete propositions in notes, as the focal point of reference. The notetaking of each student is explored via multiple data points (note samples, comprehension tests, surveys, and a written activity) in order to provide a profile of each type of notetaker. Pedagogic implications stemming from these profiles are then presented, including those for EAP teachers and students alike, arguing for the encoding and storage benefits of notetaking.

Mobile-assisted focus on forms in English for academic purposes instruction: Investigating the impacts on learning academic words.

Focus on forms (FonFs) is a pedagogical approach in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) that emphasizes students' conscious and direct attention to learning target language features in isolation and outside their meaningful context. FonFs has been employed extensively in foreign language vocabulary instruction, and earlier studies reported positive results for such interventions. The present study investigated mobile-assisted FonFs in the context of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to address the vocabulary learning needs of Iranian EFL students and examined developments in receptive and productive knowledge of academic words. In doing so, the participants in the experimental learning condition (N = 22) were exposed to academic vocabulary using digital flashcards on their mobile phones, and those in the control group (N = 15) used word lists. The participants' vocabulary knowledge was tested using different measures before and after the treatments, and the results were compared using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The findings indicated that mobile-assisted FonFs was effective in receptive and productive vocabulary learning, and the experimental group outperformed the control group in the post-tests. The effect size of the observed differences was also large; however, differences in productive aspects of academic vocabulary knowledge were associated with smaller learning effects for mobile-assisted FonFs. The study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on mobile-assisted language learning and highlights some implications for teaching academic vocabulary via mobile-assisted FonFs.

LEARNER FEEDBACK TO THE INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATOR’S EAP TEACHING: A REFLECTIVE STUDY

While the success of language instruction is unquestionably reflected in students’ performance in communicating in the target language, their voices generally can best express their success, disappointment, or complacency worth to reflect. This article, based on the study held at Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta in 2021, reports on a mixed-methods investigation that examines how an initial teacher educator (ITE) manages a course in English for academic purposes (EAP) from students’ perspectives. Fifty-five sociology education students selected through convenience sampling participated in a quantitative survey and focus group discussion. The quantitative data analysis shows students' positive views regarding the initial teacher educator's general performance, delivery, time management, material, media, assessment, and care. To complement the quantitative findings, the qualitative data scrutinized through thematic analysis suggest three imperative measures for more effective EAP instruction. Even though students rated ITEs performance as "Very Good" and her pedagogical competencies as "Very High," some qualitative data reveal the students' empirical voices that at least several adjustments must be made by acting on three imperative measures. This study provides insights into the self-study design for ITEs on upscaling their TPACK, professional commitments, and pedagogical identity.

Investigating Teacher’s Linguistic Competence in Teaching English for Academic Purposes

Being a language teacher means they are not only fluent in using the target language but also possess competence in the study of language. Hence, linguistic knowledge is one essential skill a language teacher needs to possess. Using a descriptive qualitative research design of the content analysis, this article aimed to investigate the linguistic competence of an English teacher and its implementation in the classroom. The recordings of online classroom sessions of an English for Academic Purposes course were observed. The teacher, as the main object of the study, was also interviewed to enrich understanding through open-ended questions. The collected audio-visual data was then analyzed and categorized based on the linguistic features employed by the teacher. While existing studies focus on the linguistic competence of pre-service teachers, the findings are inclined to negative results. Hence, by investigating the teaching practice of a teacher with 30 years of experience, the findings revealed the descriptions of linguistic features evident in the data and explained how those features helped the teacher in carrying out the teaching and learning session. Subsequently, it is recommended that English teachers increase their language awareness as well as linguistic competence so that they can perform better in meeting the students’ needs in acquiring and improving English language skills.

Designing Teaching for Transfer in English for Academic Purposes

Transfer of learning is an important goal of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) education where multilingual students learn knowledge and skills of academic literacy to use in other contexts of writing. Despite the importance of learning transfer in EAP, it does not often take place without mindful teaching for transfer. EAP teachers should make active efforts to help students shape the habit of transfer thinking and experience successful transfer while taking EAP courses. This action research aims at promoting learning transfer by designing and implementing pedagogical tools guided by the notion of high road transfer: (a) transfer guideline, (b) transfer feedback, (c) transfer journals, and (d) transfer imagination activity. The teaching for transfer innovation lasted over the 16-week semester in the target course where multilingual students, who use English as a second/foreign language, learned skills (e.g., how to design PowerPoint slides using different modes of communication, critical reading, source-use skills, synthesizing, finding sources, revising, editing, and reference style) and knowledge of writing (e.g., multimodality and rhetorical situation). Each pedagogical tool was implemented in the classroom so that students maintain their awareness of the importance of learning transfer while taking the target course. Overall, the teaching for the transfer project had positive impacts on articulating what students learn from the target course, leading to actual transfer of learning to other contexts of writing. Future pedagogical directions for promoting learning transfer in EAP are discussed.

Who Are We, What Can We Do, and What Do We Think? Review on EAP Teacher Development

Abstract In this review of the literature regarding English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher development, we focus on empirical studies of pedagogical initiatives, research potential, and the cognitive status of practicing EAP instructors. A selection of 107 articles published in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes between the years 2002 and 2021 was retrieved for our categorized review. Our investigation affirms that research by and about EAP instructors remains an underdeveloped area in the field. We also attempt to point out future directions for teacher-led research with a conceptual understanding of EAP as a research-informed practice as well as practice-motivated research.

Emotional tensions as rewards: An emerging teacher leader's identity construction in EFL textbook development

Textbook development plays an important role in teacher development and educational reforms. Although research has examined how textbook creation may afford teacher identity (re)formation, attention has rarely been given to how this process informs leadership identity construction, especially in times of educational change when leaders often serve dual roles: the role of seeking new teacher identity construction and the role of leader to guarantee the success of textbook development and thus the reform. The construction of both roles may involve great efforts to manage challenges and tensions encountered during the textbook creation process. Grounded in the Douglas Fir Group's (2016) framework of multilayered complexity of language development and situated in a Chinese higher education context, this 3‐year longitudinal case study examined how Gee, a newcomer in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching who also led the reform team, formed her identities as both an EAP teacher and a reform leader through her active tension engagement with an EAP textbook development process. Through Gee's narrations, we found that her emotional tensions were negotiated as a rewarding agentive resource for textbook development, from which she also learned to build her interactively co‐reinforcing EAP teacher and reform leader identities.

Novice EAP teacher identity construction: A qualitative study from Iran

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers' job description involves contextual particularities that have roots in sociocultural and disciplinary dimensions. Such complexities may profoundly influence the identities novice teachers construct as they need to handle different dimensions of their career. However, there is little documented research on novice EAP teachers' identity construction. The present study reports on the identity construction of a novice Iranian EAP teacher (Alborz). Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and classroom observations and the associated stimulated recall sessions. Our analysis of the data revealed three major themes in relation to Alborz's identity construction: (1) tensions between claimed and constructed EAP identities, (2) content-related emotional conflicts, and (3) EAP teacher as an undervalued professional. Alborz experienced various conceptual, emotional, and agency-related conflicts that had roots in contextual parameters of EAP teaching in Iran, yet at each stage of his development, these conflicts intensified, diminished, and took different shapes. In particular, managing the connection between language and content was a site of struggle for Alborz as he had to adopt identities that clashed with his professional understandings and idiosyncratic descriptions of EAP instruction.

A comparative analysis of English for academic purposes teachers' interactive metadiscourse across the British and Chinese contexts.

This exploratory research compares the interactive metadiscourse use by native English-speaking English for academic purposes (EAP) writing teachers in the United Kingdom and their non-native counterparts in the Chinese contexts. The analysis is based on a self-compiled corpus, including two sub-corpora, which were composed of instructor contributions to classroom discourse: eight sessions of EAP lessons from the Chinese context and eight sessions of EAP lessons from the British context. Adopting an interpersonal model of metadiscourse, the two sub-corpora were compared to examine the similarities and differences in their use of interactive metadiscourse. Findings of the comparative analysis reveal that EAP teachers from both contexts rely heavily on transition markers and frame markers to organize their teaching but differ in particular linguistic realizations. This may indicate the impact of a range of factors such as logical preferences, development order of acquisition, discourse community, and speech community on teachers’ interactive metadiscourse strategies. The article concludes with a few implications for metadiscourse research in spoken academic genres.

Developing English teachers' language assessment literacy in an EAP reform context through test design: A case study

As the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) reform in China calls for a corresponding reform in assessment to better serve the changing English curriculum, this case study investigates how three EAP teachers' language assessment literacy (LAL) was improved through developing EAP diagnostic tests while engaging themselves in classroom-based assessment and professional development. The scores of teacher-designed EAP writing tests were analyzed through the reliability and validity indexes to show the improvement in the test quality, serving as an indicator of teachers' LAL development. Further evidence of teachers' improved LAL was from student interviews in which students reflected on the effectiveness of EAP instruction and the quality of the teacher-designed EAP tests, and from teacher reflections in which teacher participants reported on their increased confidence in developing classroom-based assessments and designing the diagnostic EAP tests, through nine-month's test-writing practice and participation in professional workshops on assessment. This study presents a case to show how the process of test design, implementation, evaluation, and modification, together with professional workshops and classroom-based assessment, benefits EAP teachers' LAL improvement and professional development.