English for Academic Purposes

US-China Foreign Language, February 2021, Vol. 19, No. 2, 27-31

doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2021.02.002

D

DAVID PUBLISHING

English for Academic Purposes

MA Yuan

Shanghai University for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

WU Zeyang

Shanghai University for Chinese Traditional Medicine, Shanghai, China

The world has witnessed the development of China in different fields. The increasing international cooperation, the

Belt and Road Initiatives, disciplinary journal articles, and exchanging research with international colleagues

require more Chinese to learn English in a larger scale. But most colleges still focus on General English teaching,

helping students to follow the rules of grammar, to memorize more vocabulary, etc., and to pass kinds of exams.

The fact is more than 80% of the college students have adequate ability to read their disciplinary specific journal

articles, or finish their written assignments which follow academic conventions. This paper aims at the necessity of

the paradigm shift in tertiary English teaching from General English to English for academic purposes (EAP),

paving the way for the transformation of English education and improvement of the teaching syllabus for

EAP/English for specific purposes (ESP) students.

Keywords: EAP/ESP, applied linguistics, needs analysis, study skills

Introduction



English for academic purposes (EAP) is a kind of English for specific purposes (ESP), and it means “any

English teaching that relates to a study purposes” (Dudley-Evans & Swales, 1998, p. 34). And it can be

explained in a more specific way, which is “concerned with those communication skills in English which are

required for study purposes in formal education systems” (ETIC, 1975), such as the program of training foreign

language teachers. It is an approach to learning English, and it is more than that. EAP is also a branch of

applied linguistics including the research into effective teaching and assessment approaches, methods of

analysis of the academic language needs of students, analysis of the linguistic structures of academic texts, and

analysis of the textual practices of academics (Hamp-Lyons, 2001).

Background

History

The practice of teaching EAP has been widely used in classrooms, but the term was not put into use until

1970s, when people realized that it is a branch of the larger field of ESP, for the purpose of the academic study

was not limited to only languages, but more practical fields, like medicine, law, etc. The term of “EAP” first

appeared in 1974, and was in more general use in 1975 through the British organization Special English

MA Yuan, Master, lecturer, Foreign Language Institute, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.

WU Zeyang, Master, lecturer, Foreign Language Institute, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai,

China.

28

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Language Materials for Overseas University Students (SELMOUS) on “The English Language Problems of

Overseas Students in Higher Education in the UK”, and the term was renamed and clarified in 1989 when this

organization changed its name to British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP)

(Jordan, 1997, p. 1).

EAP and General English

Born for its specific purposes, the course of EAP has different characteristics with general courses. EAP

starts from the learner and the situation while general English starts from the language itself; the focus of EAP

courses is usually put on reading and writing while general English puts emphasis on speaking and listening;

moreover, EAP courses tend to teach formal, academic genres, while general English courses tend to teach

conversational and social genres of the language (Hamp-Lyons, 2001). To some extent, EAP equals to general

English plus another major. For example, if there are two graduates hunting for jobs, both of them have applied

for the same position of the sales department in a medical company which requires qualified English. Both

applicants are good at English but one’s major is English and he is quite good at speaking and listening and the

other majors in medicine with a relatively worse English. Which candidate will be chosen as the lucky guy? Of

course the latter one, for his English is “academic”, which is more useful than his opponent’s in this “academic”

company.

EAP and ESAP

EAP “may be either common core or subject-subject-specific” (Coffey, 1984), so to a more detailed extent,

according to Blue (1988), EAP can be divided into two parts: English for general academic purposes (EGAP)

and English for specific academic purposes (ESAP). A large part of the EGAP concerns much with study skills,

as listening and academic writing, will be discussed in the later part of the article. So EGAP refers to the skills

and language that are common to all disciplines (Dudley-Evans & Swales, 1998, p. 41). While ESAP refers to

the teaching of the features that distinguish one discipline from others, that is, it is the language needed for a

particular academic subject, like medicine, law, economics, etc. It integrates the skills work of EGAP with help

for students in their actual subject tasks (Dudley-Evans & Swales, 1998, p. 41), and it includes the vocabulary,

structure, the particular skills needed for the subject, etc. The views on the relationship of the two terms,

however, vary from linguist to linguist. Widdowson (1983) regards ESAP courses as more concerned with

training while EGAP courses with education (Dudley-Evans & Swales, 1998, p. 42). (In his idea, training aims

at the development of certain skills and familiarity with specific schemata, while education aims to develop a

general ability to deal with a wider range of needs.) But Dudley-Evans argues that these two courses should be

equaled, and the only difference is that ESAP courses focus on the actual tasks while EGAP courses are

adopted to deal with more general contexts. The third idea of linguists, like Hutchinson, Waters, and Blue, are

against the subject-specific work, and they argue that EGAP should be put emphasis on for students themselves

can learn and develop ESAP through their individual work on the basis of skills of EGAP. The fourth point is

for a two-pronged attack on their needs and difficulties, which is thought to benefit both motivation and the

transfer of skills and language learnt in the EGAP courses. The author prefers the argument of Widdowson

under the condition of China where the courses are mainly taught in native language and the total English level

is not very high. By learning the courses of EGAP, students can master the basic and comprehensive skills

needed in dealing with any academic language. The process is like that of learning to drive: Learning the skills

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

29

of driving is the general academic courses, during which you will know how to brake, how to speed, etc., and if

you want to learn to drive a truck when you have practiced enough skills of driving, then come the specific

academic courses in driving a truck, and you will master the specific skills more quickly than those who have

never learnt how to drive, to some extent.

EAP Situations

According to Kachru’s concentric circles model, there are three circles showing the situations of English

in different countries; they are inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle. The inner circle includes the

countries where English is spoken as the mother tongue, such as British, USA, Australia, etc. The outer circle

includes the countries where English is spoken as a second or significant foreign language, like Singapore. And

expanding circle includes the countries where English has acquired cultural or commercial importance, but is

used in more restricted way for academic or business purposes, like China (Kachru, 1985). The types of EAP

situations can also be divided into similar circles as Kachru’s and to be more detailed, the expanding circle can

be divided into two parts (see Table 1).

Table 1

Situations in which ESP is taught

Situations in which ESP is taught

Situation 1

e.g., UK, USA, Australia

Situation 2

e.g., Zimbabwe

Situation 3

e.g., Jordan

Situation 4

e.g., Brazil

Students come from another country to study in a foreign system; for them both general and

academic culture may be different; everything around them operates in English.

Education at all levels has been mainly in English; the Civil Service uses English, but people

mostly use their first language (L1) in everyday life.

In tertiary education some subjects are taught in L1, but others, such as medicine, engineering,

and science, are taught in English.

All tertiary education is taught in the L1; English is an auxiliary language.

Source: Dudley-Evans & Swales (1998, p. 35).

Getting known the difference of these four situations will help us in designing the EAP courses effectively.

In the universities of Situation 1, there are many students coming from different countries, and they have to

take English Language Units as the pre-sessional courses whose responsibility is to help such students reach

their full academic potential by teaching them both academic and the study skills related to all the main skills.

And during the in-sessional work, the skills taught will be more specific on the subject. In the countries of

Situation 2, English is used throughout the education system and the students’ language level is quite high, but

they need help with study skills and adjust to the demands made of them when they begin and continue

academic courses. So it is difficult to find suitable general academic materials for those students whose English

level is quite high, and they need more specific courses concerned with their subject which should be largely be

in-sessional and included as part of the general timetable. In Situation 3, English-medium education is not a

tradition while early all the subjects are taught in their native language expect for science, medicine, and so on,

so their English level is relatively low, and even the lecturers will mix English and native language together in

class. And their marks concern more with the class attendance, but not very much with linguistics. The

difficulty in Situation 4 is that it is difficult to decide what students’ real needs are. Reading skills are usually

put more emphasis on, while in practice, other skills may motivate students on delayed needs (Dudley-Evans &

Swales, 1998, pp. 36-42).

30

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Key Issues

Needs Analysis

Needs analysis is a fundamental element to an EAP approach to course design and teaching, and it can be

described as: “the process of determining the needs for which a learner or a group of learners requires a

language and arranging the needs according [it] makes use of both subjective and objective

information” (Richards, J. Platt, & H. Platt, 1992).

Needs analysis can help us focus on the subject in EAP courses by collecting the data from the learners or

asking questions on the course, for at first, we need to know what we did not know so as not to waste learners’

time. The questions can be why the analysis is taken, whose needs are, who perform the analysis, what is to be

analyzed, when and where, etc. After analyzing these questions, we will have a picture of what the learners

want to obtain so that appropriate approaches can be decided to deliver the course. The needs include

necessities (the type of need determined by the target situation), lacks (the gap between target and existing

proficiency), and wants (the learner’s view of what they need), and so on, which demand kinds of approaches

to realize.

We can follow the listed steps in needs analysis:

1. Purpose of analysis,

2. Delimit student population,

3. Decide upon the approach(es),

4. Acknowledge constraints/limitations,

5. Select methods of collecting data,

6. Collect data,

7. Analyze and interpret results,

8. Determine objectives,

9. Implement decisions (i.e., decide upon syllabus, content, materials, methods, etc.),

10. Evaluate procedures and results (Jordan, 1997, p. 23).

There are several kinds of approaches to needs analysis, and they are Target-Situation Analysis (TSA),

Present-Situation Analysis (PSA), Learning-Situation Approaches (LSA), strategy analysis, means analysis,

language audits, diagrammatic summary and methods of collecting data, etc. The first three are the most

important. A TSA includes objective, perceived, and product-oriented needs, an LSA includes subjective, felt,

and processed-oriented needs, and a PSA estimates strengths and weaknesses in language, skill, learning

experiences (Dudley-Evans & Swales, 1998, p. 124).

Therefore, needs analysis leads to the specification of objectives for setting a course, and to an assessment

and constraints, which in turn leads to the syllabus and methodology’s being made effective.

Study Skills

According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, “study skills” means the

abilities, techniques, and strategies which are used when reading, writing, or listening for study purposes

(Richards et al., 1992, p. 451).

Generally speaking, the “skills” used in EAP is almost the same as that in ESP, EOP, EBP, and it can be

used in both micro-skills of reading, listening, listening and speaking, speaking and writing, and micro-skills of

much detailed and specific techniques, like using cohesive and discourse markers.

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

31

As we stated before, EAP courses focus more on reading and writing. First of all, texts should be carefully

chosen from which learners can get something correct and useful. In addition, learners need to get information

quickly and accurately from the material, so they must learn to change the reading style from Text As a

Linguistic Object (TALO) to Text As a Vehicle of Information (TAVI). Being fussy on structure of the

materials will be the obstacle in extracting the significant thing from them. The story is the same in writing.

Grammar is not the key when the meaning will not be misunderstood. That’s why teachers in non-native

speaking countries will always be so kind to ignore the linguistic mistakes. Listening to monologue, especially

lecture, is very vital for EAP learners to keep up with the whole event, like conference. And speaking

monologue usually means presentation, which is likely to aim at structuring, visuals, voice, advance signaling

and confidence as well as language. Listening and speaking are highly required in a communicative situation,

and besides the good skills in speaking and listening, the skills of where to say the right thing in an appropriate

way are also important.

The above five micro-skills are not separated while in use. Only when these fie skills are taught and learnt

in an integrated manner can the EAP courses be effectively absorbed and applied.

References

Blue, G. M. (1988). Individualising academic writing tuition. In P. C. Robinson (Ed.), Academic writing: Process and product.

Retrieved from /sites/teacheng/files/ELT-14-screen_

Coffey, B. (1984). English for specific purposes (ESP). Language Teaching, 17(1), 2-16.

Dudley-Evans, T., & Swales, J. M. (1998). Developments in English for specific purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

ETIC. (1975). English for academic study: Problems and perspectives. London: The British Council.

Hamp-Lyons, L. (2001). English for academic purposes. In R. Carter and D. Numan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching

English to speakers of other languages (pp. 126-130). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jordan, R. (1997). English for academic purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Kachru, B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism; the English language in the outer circle. In R. Quirk and H.

G. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world; teaching and learning the language and literatures (pp. 11-30). Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2000). Longman dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics. Beijing: Foreign

Language Teaching & Research Press.

Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). Longman dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics (English-Chinese ed.).

Beijing: Addison Longman China Limited 1998 (Original work published 1992).

Widdowson, H. G. (1983). Learning purpose and language use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.