Research in English for Academic Purposes.docx

Research in English for Academic Purposes.docx

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ResearchinEnglishforAcademicPurposes

ResearchinEnglishforAcademicPurposes

　　Abstract:

EAPisthemainbranchofESPandEAPisdefinedas“anyEnglishteachingthatrelatestoastudypurpose”.FourtypesofEAPsituationshouldbeconsideredwhenwepracticeEAPteachingintertiarylevelcontext:

EAPinanEnglish-speakingcountry,EAPinESL（Englishasasecondlanguage）situations,EAPsituationsinwhichcertainsubjectsaretaughtinEnglishandEAPsituationswheresubjectcoursesaretaughtinthenationallanguage.Today’sEAPteachingpracticeemploysanumberofapproachestohighlightthelanguageanddiscourseofparticularacademicgenresratherthanthatinacademictext.

Keywords:

EnglishforAcademicPurposes（EAP）;EnglishforSpecificPurposes（ESP）;EnglishforOccupationalPurposes（EOP）;SettingsofEAP;studyskills

WhatisEAP

EnglishforSpecificPurposes（ESP）,accordingtowheytheytakeplaceordisciplineandprofessionalarea,istraditionallydividedintotwoareas:

EnglishforAcademicPurposes（EAP）andEnglishforOccupationalPurposes（EOP）（Dudley-Evans,T.,&StJohn,M.,1998）.SoitisclearthatEAPisthemainbranchofESPandEAPisdefinedas“anyEnglishteachingthatrelatestoastudypurpose”（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998,）.Otherscholarsgavetheirdefinitions,too.Forexample,“EAPisconcernedwiththosecommunicativeskillsinEnglishwhicharerequiredforstudypurposesinformaleducationalsystems”（Jordan,1997,）.

ThehistoryanddevelopmentofEAP

EAPteachingpracticehaswidelycarriedoutforalmost30years.EveryEnglishlanguageteacherofaroundnone-nativestudentsinacademiccontextswouldchoosetoteach“withaviewtothecontextratherthanonlytothelanguage”（Hamp-Lyons,2001,）.Theterm“EnglishforAcademicPurposes”wasfirstintroducedin1974andputintogeneralusein1975（Jordan,1997）.Initshistory,theBritishorganizationSELMOUS（SpecialEnglishLanguageMaterialsforOverseasUniversityStudents）contributedalot.ThepublishedpapersofitsannualmeetingwasentitledEnglishforacademicpurposes（CowieandHeaton,1977,citedinJordan,1997,p.1）.Laterin1989,SELMOUSbecameBALEAP（BritishAssociationofLecturersinEnglishforAcademicPurposes）andtheprofessionalismintheteachingofEAPattertiarylevelwasthenpromoted.Besides,itisStrevens（1977,citedinHamp-Lyons,2001,）whoconsideredEAPasanareaofESP.Heemphasizedtheteachingforpracticalcommandoflanguageandthatlanguageteachingshouldmeettheneedsoflanguagelearners（Hamp-Lyons,2001）.

DifferentfromgeneralEnglishcoursesbeginningwithlanguage,EAPisaneducationalapproachbeginningwiththelearnersandsituations;mostgeneralEnglishcoursesfocusonspeakingandlistening,whileEAPonreadingandwriting（Hamp-Lyons,2001）.What’smore,EAPcoursestendtoteachlearnersformal,academicgenresofthelanguageratherthanconventionalandsocialgenresasgeneralEnglishcoursesdo（Hamp-Lyons,2001）.

EAPcoursesareusuallyrunbyacertainbodieslikeLanguageCenters,EnglishLanguage（Teaching）CentersorUnitsinUK,ordepartmentswithsimilarnamesandfunctions.Thesituationisalsosimilarinothercountries（Jordan,1997）.

SettingsofEAP

AccordingtoJordan（1997）,EAPexistsindifferentsettings.Teachersthushavetodoacarefulworkbeforedesigningthecourseandselectingrelevantteachingmaterialsinordertomatchtheirteachingsituations.Dudley-EvansandStJohn（1998,）alsopointedoutthat“thekeydeterminantofwhatanEAPcourseshouldcontainiswhetherornotthesubjectcourseistaughtinEnglish”.Forthisreason,fourtypesofEAPsituationshouldbeconsideredwhenwepracticeEAPteachingintertiarylevelcontext:

EAPinanEnglish-speakingcountry,EAPinESL（Englishasasecondlanguage）situations,EAPsituationsinwhichcertainsubjectsaretaughtinEnglishandEAPsituationswheresubjectcoursesaretaughtinthenationallanguage.

InanEnglish-speakingcountrysuchasUK,USAorAustralia,alargenumbersofinternationalstudentsareenrolledeveryyearandboththeiracademicandculturalbackgroundareoftendifferentfromthatofEnglish-speakingcountries.ThemostremarkablepointmaybetheEnglishlanguagesettingstheyaregoingtoadaptthemselvesto.ThenEAPcoursesshouldbedesignedtoanalyzeandmeettheneedsofthoseinternationalstudents,“helpingsuchstudentsreachtheirfullacademicpotential”（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998,）.

Meanwhile,EAPworkisalsodoneinESLcountrieslikeZimbabwe,NigeriaandsomeSouth-EastAsiancountriessuchasSingaporeandPhilippines（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.InthoseESLcountries,Englishismainlyusedintheeducationsystemofalllevelsthoughthenativelanguagestillplaysadominantroleineverydaylife.Sincestudentsofthosecountrieshaveownedcomparativelyhigherlanguageproficiency,EAPcoursesthenareworkingtohelpstudentsacquirestudyskillsandprepareforthespecificstudyatthetertiarylevel.Butonethingtoremarkistheneedsofsuchstudents“spantheneedsofnon-nativespeakersfollowinganEnglish-mediumcourseandthoseofnativespeakersinneedofdevelopingcommunicationskills”（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998,）.ThemostsuccessfulcommunicationskillscourseinESLcountriesturnedouttobethecombinationofthetraditionalideasofEAPandthecommunicationskillsfornativespeakers（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.

AsforEAPsituationsinwhichcertainsubjectsaretaughtinEnglish.Froexample,inmanyMiddleEastcountries,thereisnoEnglish-mediumteachingtraditionasESLcountriesdo.AlmostallthesubjectsaretaughtintheirnativelanguageatschoollevelthoughinsomecountriesEAPworkhavebeenincludedatuppersecondaryschoollevel.Attertiarylevel,however,onlyacertainsubjects,likescience,medicineandengineering,aregiveninEnglish.ButitisalsotruethattheteachingandlearningarenotstrictlyEnglishrequiredduetothecomparativelylowerEnglishlevelofeitherlecturersorstudents（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.

InEAPsituationswheresubjectcoursesaretaughtinthenationallanguage,forexampleinEastAsiancountries,Latincountries,mainlandWesterncountries,EasternEuropeandsoon,nationallanguagesareadoptedasthemediuminteachingandlearning（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.TakeChinaforexample,almostallsubjectsaredeliveredinChinese,nomatterwhatlevelstudentsareat.TheonlyexceptionissomeuniversitylevelcourseslikeTechnicalEnglishandBusinessEnglish,whichareusuallyconsideredasEAPapplications.Englishisanauxiliarylanguage.

TheteachersofEAPmaybeeithernativespeakersofEnglishornon-nativespeakers.“Thecoursesmaybepre-sessional…orin-sessional…”（Jordan,1997,p.2）.Tobespecific,pre-sessionalcoursesareusuallyfull-timeonesandheldbeforeanacademiccoursebegins（Jordan,1997）.Incontrast,in-sessionalcourses,usuallypart-time,aredeliveredduringanacademicsemesterandstudentscantakethemwhilestudyingtheirmajorcourses（Jordan,1997）.

AccordingtoJordan（1997）,thelengthofcoursesisnotfixed.Itcanbe“‘short’,　4-12weeks,or‘long’,　6-12months,orlonger”（Jordan,1997,p.2）.

Asfarasthemethodofdeliveryisconcerned,formalteachingprograms,self-accesssituations,distance-learningmaterialsorCALL（computer-assistedlanguagelearning）canbethechoicesforEAPinstruction（Jordan,1997）.

IfwelookintoEAPwithamicroview,wecanseethatEAPhastwodivisions-EnglishforGeneralAcademicPurposes（EGAP）andEnglishforSpecificAcademicPurposes（ESAP）（Blue,1988,citedinDudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）,whichcanhelpusachieveabetterunderstandingofEAP.Dudley-EvansandStJohndefinedthesetwotermsasfollowing:

“EGAPreferstotheteachingoftheskillsandlanguagethatarecommontoalldisciplines;ESAPreferstotheteachingofthefeaturesthatdistinguishonedisciplinefromothers”（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998,）.

EGAPseesstudyskillsasindividualonesboundtorespectivestudyactivities.Forexample,thereare“listeningtolectures;participatinginsupervisions,seminarsandtutorials;readingtextbook,articlesandotherreadingmaterials;andwritingessays,examinations,answers,dissertationsandreports”（Blue,1993.citedinDudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.Foreachofthesestudyactivities,somespecificskillsareinvolved.

Incontrast,ESAPconsiderstheskillsworkofEGAPasawholeandaimstohelplearnerstomakeuseofthoseskillsintheirspecificsubjecttasks（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.Veryoften,ESAPworkneeds“cooperationwiththeactualsubjectdepartment”（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998,）.

ThedifferencebetweenEGAPandESAPmaylieinthedifferentfocuses.Thatis,EGAPcoursesareofmoregeneralcontexts,whileESAPputtheemphasisonmorespecifictasks（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）.

ThecommoncoreandsubjectspecificworkofEAPareinseparableintherealEAPteachingpracticethoughsomescholarsholdtheiropinions.HutchinsonandWaters（1987,citedinDudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）andBlue（1988,citedinDudley-Evans&StJohn,1998）arguedthatEGAPshouldbefocusedoninEAPteachingandESAPcanbeacquiredbystudentsthoughindividualprojectwork.Dudley-EvansandStJohnmadeitmorecompletedandclearerbyaddingthat“thecommon-coreEAPworkmakesmoresenseandismorerelevantifitsupplementedbyspecificwork”（Dudley-Evans&StJohn,1998,）.Inaddition,theysuggestthethree-levelcooperationforsubject-specificwork:

Cooperation,CollaborationandTeam-teaching.Cooperation“involvesthelanguageteachertakingtheinitiativeandfindingoutwhathappensinthes