English for Academic Purposes-最新文档

English for Academic Purposes

What is EAP

English

for

Specific

Purposes

(ESP),

according

to

whey

they take place or discipline and professional area, is

traditionally

divided

into

two

areas:

English

for

Academic

Purposes

(EAP)

and

English

for

Occupational

Purposes

(EOP)

(Dudley-Evans,

T.,

&

St

John,

M.,

1998).

So

it

is

clear

that

EAP is the main branch of ESP and EAP is defined as “any

English teaching that relates to a study purpose”

(Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p.34). Other scholars gave

their definitions, too. For example, “EAP is concerned

with those communicative skills in English which are

required for study purposes in formal educational

systems” (Jordan, 1997, p.1).

Settings of EAP

According to Jordan (1997), EAP exists in different

settings. Teachers thus have to do a careful work before

designing the course and selecting relevant teaching

materials in order to match their teaching situations.

Dudley-Evans

and

St

John

(1998,

p.34)

also

pointed

out

that

“the

key

determin

ant

of

what

an

EAP

course

should

contain

is

whether

or

not

the

subject

course

is

taught

in

English”.

For this reason, four types of EAP situation should be

considered

when

we

practice

EAP

teaching

in

tertiary

level

context: EAP in an English-speaking country, EAP in ESL

(English as a second language) situations,

EAP situations

in which certain subjects are taught in English and EAP

situations

where

subject

courses

are

taught

in

the

national

language.

In an English-speaking country such as UK, USA or

Australia, a large numbers of international students are

enrolled every year and both their academic and cultural

background are often different from that of

English-speaking

countries.

The

most

remarkable

point

may

be the English language settings they are going to adapt

themselves to. Then EAP courses should be designed to

analyze

and

meet

the

needs

of

those

international

students,

“helping such students reach their full academic

potential” (Dudley

-Evans & St John, 1998, p.36).

Meanwhile,

EAP

work

is

also

done

in

ESL

countries

like

Zimbabwe,

Nigeria

and

some

South-East

Asian

countries

such

as

Singapore

and

Philippines

(Dudley-Evans

&

St

John,

1998).

In those ESL countries, English is mainly used in the

education system of all levels though the native language

still plays a dominant role in everyday life. Since

students of those countries have owned comparatively

higher language

proficiency, EAP courses then are working

to help students acquire study skills and prepare for the

specific study at the tertiary level. But one thing to

remark is the needs of such students “span the needs of

non-native

speakers

following

an

English-medium

course

and

those of native speakers in need of developing

communication skills” (Dudley

-Evans & St John, 1998,

p.37). The

most

successful

communication

skills

course

in

ESL countries turned out to be the combination of the

traditional ideas of EAP and the communication skills for

native speakers (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998).

As

far

as

the

method

of

delivery

is

concerned,

formal

teaching

programs, self- access situations, distance-learning

materials or CALL (computer-assisted language learning)

can be the choices for EAP instruction (Jordan, 1997).

The common core and subject specific work of EAP are

inseparable in the real EAP teaching practice though some

scholars

hold

their

opinions.

Hutchinson

and

Waters

(1987,

cited

in

Dudley- Evans

&

St

John,

1998)

and

Blue

(1988,

cited

in Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998) argued that EGAP should

be focused on in EAP teaching and ESAP can be acquired by

students

though

individual

project

work.

Dudley-Evans

and

St John made it more completed and clearer by adding that

“the common

-core EAP work makes more sense and is more

relevant if it supplemented by specific work”

(Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p.42). In addition, they

suggest the three-level cooperation for subject-specific

work: Cooperation, Collaboration and Team-teaching.

Cooperation “involves the language teacher taking the

initiative and finding out what happens in the subject

department

” (Dudley

-Evans &

St

John, 1998,

p.44). While,

Collaboration

require

the

language

and

subject

teachers

to

work together outside classroom. In contrast,

Team-teaching refers to their in-classroom cooperation.

Approaches to teaching EAP

According to the viewpoints of Paltridge (2001),

today’s EAP teaching practice employs a number of

approaches to highlight the language and discourse of

particular academic genres rather than that in academic

text. Meanwhile, the process of academic writing and the

context

of

production

and interpretation of academic text