The emergence of EAP
The term ‘EAP’ is widely used in the field of English language teaching today. It can, however, mean different things to different people. Even within the same institution, EAP staff and management may disagree on what EAP is and, by implication, what to focus on when teaching it. There follows a brief historical account which serves to contextualize EAP and establish what it means today.
ESP and EAP
The concept of ‘ESP’, English for Specific Purposes, developed in different parts of the world from the early 1960s into the 1970s and 1980s and beyond. A number of countries and regions were central to this development, including the UK (particularly in the development of testing) and various other European countries, North Africa and the Middle East (with their fast-growing oil industries), countries across the Americas from Canada and the USA to Chile, various Asian countries such as Thailand, and India, where English-medium university teaching was widespread. In these early decades, much ESP and EAP activity centred on English-medium university departments around the world, in particular science and engineering departments. Certain organizations were involved in this early development, notably the British Council, who published volumes of articles relating to ESP and EAP, (for example Harper 1986; Chamberlain and Baumgardner 1988).
Branching out from ESP were different, broadly grouped English-for-specific-purposes sectors, notably English for science and technology (EST), English for occupational purposes (EOP) and English for academic purposes (EAP). EAP was a product of the 1970s with the rise in the number of students whose first language was not English studying at universities. The term ‘EAP’ appears to have been first used in 1974 by Tim Johns (Smith 2013). This phenomenon has grown steadily ever since as increasing numbers of students seek to study in English-medium institutions worldwide, particularly universities.
For a number of years, much of this EAP activity took place in the major English-speaking countries, notably the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In the UK, for example, EAP grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s as universities recruited increasingly large numbers of international students. This growth was characterized by a dominance of a few countries and regions, such as China and the Middle East. Many students had a level of English which was too low for academic study in English, as well as a limited background in academic English culture and practices. The teaching of English for academic purposes has aimed to fulfil these needs.
Increasingly, the dominance of English-medium universities in the major English-speaking countries has been challenged as English-medium departments and universities are being established globally. Major growth areas include European countries such as France, Sweden, and Spain, the Middle East, South America, Central and South-East Asia. Some countries, Turkey and Saudi Arabia for example, can count in dozens the number of recently established English-medium universities. The student growth rate in such institutions is typically very rapid.
Student needs
What ESP and EAP have in common is that they are primarily needs driven: students are learning English with a particular purpose in mind, which is identifiable and describable, and these descriptions form the basis of the ESP or EAP programme. Within ESP there are a very wide range of purposes, from learning English for business purposes (for example, to operate in a global logistics environment) through medical purposes (to be a doctor or nurse in an English-medium medical institution) to military purposes (to serve in an international peacekeeping force). Indeed, these labels themselves are over-simplifications; ‘business English’, for example, is itself complex and broad in scope.
Students in the disciplines
As its name suggests, English for academic purposes involves the teaching and learning of English language so that students can operate effectively in the disciplines, i.e. in their specific subject(s) in an academic institution, typically a university. The term ‘students in the disciplines’ simply refers to students who are currently following their academic programme of study; they may or may not also be studying EAP.
There is more to EAP, however. It is not so much driven by language as skills, tasks, and competences. In terms of skills, EAP certainly involves the familiar four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, particularly in an integrated way. Yet there are many more skills and competences, such as critical thinking skills, study skills (which include many conventional academic skills such as citation and referencing), and the practice of working towards familiarization within the target academic culture. Also, EAP is concerned with the development of student autonomy and independence. The term sometimes applied to cover many of these skills and competences is ‘academic literacy’ or ‘academic literacies’. The latter plural term is intended to convey the diverse sets of skills and competences in academic contexts in contrast to a unitary academic literacy. An academic literacies approach goes considerably beyond language alone and emphasizes academic practice in the disciplines. In almost any EAP context, language does remain a major area of focus, and language can be approached in many different ways.
EAP today typically recognizes that students plan to study or are studying in the disciplines and therefore need an approach which can help them acclimatize to their academic study in a broad sense.
The academicization of ESP
Some ESP activity has shifted from a professional orientation to an academic one. Traditionally, many ESP programmes have been geared mainly towards operating in the given specific environment, such as business and technology: there was often a practically oriented syllabus with plenty of functional/notional language, technical language, and communicative skills work. In many contexts this remains the standard practice, but with increasing professionalization and specialization, many students need more than such skills and language. Many students are aiming for a qualification in their field, such as a bachelor’s degree in business studies, a more specialist master’s degree or an MBA (Master of Business Administration). These academic aims are leading to a greater focus on academic skills and language.
While business English continues to thrive professionally in company settings, the phenomenon of academicization has resulted in a major concurrent growth in EAP. With the great popularity of business-related degree programmes, a significant proportion of EAP students are aiming to study a business-related subject; in the past, these business students might have been considered ESP rather than EAP students. In the early days, there was some confusion between English for business study (for example MBAs), which has a primarily academic focus, and English for business, which has a professional rather than an academic focus. By the 1980s, the considerable differences between these two branches of ESP were becoming clearer.
Complexity in the disciplines: the case of business students
A further level of complexity lies in the extremely wide range of subjects which students may be aiming to study. Several broad groupings of disciplines may be identified, although these can be grouped differently depending on the institution and context:
• medical sciences, including nursing
• life sciences, for example pharmacology
• engineering
• computing
• mathematics
• natural sciences, such as physics and chemistry
• professional disciplines, such as law
• social sciences, for example economics
• architecture, the built environment, urban planning
• arts, including art, music, and languages
• humanities, such as history
• education,