English for academic purposes

ENGLISH FOR

ACADEMIC PURPOSES

What is EAP(ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES)?

EAP is a branch of ESP in that the teaching content is matched to the requirements of the learners. It is also considered to be ESP if we take Robinson's (1991) features which are usually thought of as being criteria to ESP courses.

First ESP is goal directed - the students are not learning the English language for the sake of it, but because they need to use English. EAP students are usually current higher education students or they are hoping to go on to higher education after their EAP course. They need to learn English in order to succeed in their academic careers.

Often there is a very clearly specified period for the course. Most EAP students are doing fixed term courses in preparation for an academic course.

ESP learners tend to be adults rather than children. Most EAP students are over 18 and they will have made a difficult decision to study in an English medium university.

Students may need specialist language, but this is not necessarily so. It is the activities that the students will want to engage in that defines the course. As with all ESP, an EAP lecturer would not take a text and say, " What can I do with this?" The starting point is always, " What will my students need to do with this text and how can I help them to do it?"

In some cases, a very high level of proficiency is not required, as long as the students can succeed in their aims. Students need to be able to get good marks for assignments. Our job as EAP lecturers is to find ways to enable them to do this - getting their present tenses correct may not be as important the overall structure of the essay.

Academic Writing Classes

For many students this is probably the most important as it is the way in which most of their work is assessed. The aim of an academic writing class is to prepare students for academic writing tasks. These tasks vary very

much from writing short answers in exams to writing dissertations and theses.

The following would be typical content:

• Research and using the library: finding relevant information, using catalogues, books, periodicals, bibliographies and indexes.

• Using sources: making notes and writing up notes - paraphrasing,

summarizing, quoting & referring to

sources, writing a bibliography.

• Writing descriptions of places, objects etc. classifying and categorizing comparing and contrasting reporting and narrating.

• Describing processes & developments: expressing purpose, means and method, degrees of certainty, reasons and explanations/cause and effect describing developments and changes describing a sequence

of events/time relations.

• Writing instructions.

• Developing an argument: presenting arguments, ideas and opinions expressing certainty and doubt supporting an argument: illustrating and exemplifying ideas refuting arguments, ideas and opinions drawing conclusions.

• Writing skills: different kinds of writing, organization - presentation and layout spelling and punctuation including graphs, charts and tables style revising the essay - proof-reading.

Academic Listening Course

Academic listening usually involves the non-native speaker of English trying to follow a lecture or discussion in English and write adequate notes on it.

There is also a need for making students aware of the way lectures are organized, the particular kind of language that is used in lectures (Lynch, 1983) and making sure they know the language, particularly the pronunciation of familiar words, of their own subject.

A typical syllabus would include:• How to take notes.

• Recognizing lecture structure: understanding relationships in the lecture understanding relations within the sentence/complex sentences importance markers, signposts.

• Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words and word groups.

• Recognizing implications: information not explicitly stated recognizing the speaker's attitude. Evaluating the importance of information - selecting information.

• Understanding intonation, voice emphasis etc.

• Listening skills: skimming - listening to obtain gist scanning - listening to obtain specific information selective extraction of relevant points to summarize text.

Academic Speaking Skills Course

This is becoming increasingly important as teaching methods change to involve more group work, joint projects and group marks. Academic speaking classes try to help the students to be more aware of what is involved in seminar or group activity and to supply them with some of the interactional language that is used there.

Such a course might include:

• The purpose of seminars.

• Making a presentation: the structure of presentations making and using notes to speak from. Introducing the topic giving the information in detail sequencing, describing similarities and differences comparing and

contrasting illustrating

• a point - giving examples and referring to research emphasizing a point summarizing and concluding.

• Controlling the discussion: leading the discussion changing the subject - moving on speeding up things coming to a conclusion.

• Participating in the discussion: interrupting politely asking questions - asking for more information/clarification stating a point of view - supporting your view agreeing and disagreeing - challenging and commenting making suggestions checking - making sure

that you have understood holding the floor - preventing interruptions.

• Listening and note taking.

Academic Reading Course

These classes therefore aim to assist the non-native speaker of English studying in the medium of English at tertiary level to use a wide range of reading strategies in order to receive more benefit from the course. Many students still rely on painstakingly slow word by word reading. General efficient reading strategies such as scanning to find the book or chapter, skimming to get the gist and careful reading of important passages are necessary as well as vocabulary

building exercises in the student's own area.

An academic reading course could include:

• Understanding meaning: deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words and word groups relations within the sentence/complex sentences implications - information not explicitly stated, conceptual meaning, e.g. comparison, purpose, cause, effect.

• Understanding relationships in the text: - text structure the communicative value of sentences relations between the parts of a text through lexical and grammatical cohesion devices and indicators in

discourse.

• Understanding important points distinguishing the main ideas from supporting detail recognizing unsupported claims and claims supported by evidence - fact from opinion extracting salient points to summaries following an argument reading critically/evaluating the text.

• Reading efficiently: surveying the text, chapter/article, paragraphs, skimming for gist/general impression scanning to locate

specifically required information reading quickly.

• Note taking.

ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES

English for Specific Purposes-Business (ESP-Business, also referred to as English for Business Purposes, or EBP) is a dynamic, growing field in the world of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). With the globalization of trade, companies, universities, and individuals are increasingly turning to educational specialists from the field of ESP-Business to develop and provide high quality learning opportunities in language and communication skills.

Growing Demand for English for Specific Purposes-Business

At the same time, the need for technological competence in business is expanding. Far-reaching innovations in technology and telecommunications have rendered the global marketplace of today's "Information Age“ an ever-expanding world of networked businesses, stock market

ups and downs, news agencies, trade associations, and

country/regional information.

Knowing how to tap the wealth of information resources on the Internet and how to analyze and communicate that information effectively are critical skills in today's competitive world of international business.

and aspects of pronunciation. These skills-building classes can be taken in combination with other 15 hour courses as a one or two hour supplement.

Business CommunicationThese classes focus on speaking and

writing – the two skills that you need to be able to communicate in business effectively. The course also incorporates aspects of cross-cultural communication

An article about the different aspects of teaching Business English. Some EFL teachers may feel intimidated when faced

with the prospect of teaching Business English. This is generally because they are concerned that their possible lack of business experience or knowledge about the world of business will be exposed and they will be made to feel inadequate as a result.

Where teaching Business English differs from teaching General English will normally be in the choice of contexts for listening and reading texts and in the choice of lexis in grammar and vocabulary exercises.

In many cases learners will be in positions of authority and influence within their company. As such they will often expect their teacher to be informed and experienced and may react badly to someone who is noticeably younger or badly dressed.

There may also be an adverse reaction to statements such as "Oh, you’re an accountant. I know absolutely nothing about accounting." While the teacher is not expected to teach the learner how to be an

accountant, they will at the very least need to adopt the position of an informed layperson and ask relevant questions about the learner’s field of expertise.

Similarly, asking learners to give a presentation about their particular product, their company or their current research will also be a highly focused activity, where the teacher can both give guidance at the preparation stage and feedback on performance.

A particularly effective general approach for the teacher is to see this kind of teaching as both a teaching and a learning process for the teacher,

where a great deal of interesting information about a wide range of business processes can be acquired.

END

References:

http://www.sites.udel.edu/eli/programs/iep/tracks/eap/

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clie/english-for-academic-purposes

http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/english-for-specific-purposes/english-for-specific-purposes-aspects-of-teaching-business-english/146485.article