English for academic purposes (EAP), commonly known as Academic English, entails training students, usually in a

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

setting, to use language appropriate for study. It is one of the most common forms of

English for specific purposes English for specific purposes (ESP) is a subset of English as a second or foreign language. It usually refers to teaching the English language to university students or people already in employment, with reference to the particular vocabulary and ...

(ESP). It is also a course found in

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

in Australia.

Program

An EAP program focuses instruction on skills required to perform in an English-speaking academic context across core subject areas generally encountered in a college or a university setting. Programs may also include a more narrow focus on the more specific linguistic demands of a particular area of study, for example business subjects. Programs may be divided into pre-sessional courses and courses taken alongside students' other subjects. In the former case, sometimes EAP courses may be intended to raise students' general English levels so that they can enter a college or a university.

Scores

In the United Kingdom, this often means endeavoring to help students get a score of 6 or above in the IELTS (

International English Language Testing System International English Language Testing System (IELTS ) is an international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native English language speakers. It is jointly managed by the British Council, IDP and Cambridge English, a ...

) examination. In the US, this can mean helping students attain a score of 80 or greater on the TOEFL ( Test of English as a Foreign Language) or more than 4 on the ITEP ( International Test of English Proficiency). Outside Anglophone countries, English-medium universities may have a preparatory school where students can spend a year or two working on their English and academic skills before starting degree courses. EAP courses running alongside other degree courses may be based on the American English and Composition model, or may employ content-based instruction, either using material from the students' degree subjects or as an independent, elective-like course. These in-sessional courses may be desirable more to help students develop study skills and required academic practices than for language development.

Units

In common with most

language teaching Language education refers to the processes and practices of teaching a second or foreign language. Its study reflects interdisciplinary approaches, usually including some applied linguistics. There are four main learning categories for lan ...

, EAP instruction teaches

vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

and the four skills (

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

speaking Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, su ...

– including

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. To This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or all language in a specific dialect—"correct" or "standard" pronunciation—or si ...

– and

listening Listening is the act of attention, paying attention to sounds. It includes listening to the sounds of Natural environment, nature, listening to music, and perhaps most importantly, Interpersonal communication, interpersonal listening, i.e. liste ...

), but usually tries to tie these to the specific study needs of students; for example, a writing lesson would focus on writing essays rather than, say, business letters. Similarly, the vocabulary chosen for study tends to be based on academic texts. In addition, EAP practitioners often find that, either directly or indirectly, they are teaching

study skills Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. Study skills are an array of skills which tackle the process of organizing and taking in new information, retaining information, or dealing with assessments. They are discrete ...

and often having to tackle differences in educational culture, such as differing attitudes to

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

. This trend has become more prominent as the numbers of foreign students attending UK universities, and other institutions across the

English-speaking world The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English language, English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the ...

, has increased over the last decade.

Disputation

There is some debate amongst EAP teachers as to the best way to help students with academic English. On the one hand, students might be taught particular conventions but not expected to understand why they need to adapt their writing; a pragmatic approach. On the other hand, students might be encouraged to challenge writing conventions and only adopt them if they seem justified; a critical approach. Recently attempts have been made to try and reconcile these opposing views. A critical pragmatic approach to EAP encourages students to develop writing conventions required by colleges and universities while also encouraging them to think about the reasons why these conventions exist.

References

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External links