English for academic purposes

Hello 
    Readers,

                    This blog is a part of ELT classroom activity. My views on the following research paper are presented in this blog.

        English for academic purposes written by Liz Hamp Lyons.

English for academic purposes: 
                             English for academic purposes(ESP) is not only a teaching approach. It is also a branch of applied bilingualism consisting of a significant body of research into effective teaching and assessment approaches, methods of analysis of the academic language needs of students,  analysis of the linguistics and discoursal structure of academic texts, and analysis of the textual practice of academics.

     The term 'EAP' ( English for academic purposes) First come into general use through the British organization SELMOUS(special English language materials for overseas university students), which was formed in 1972.The field of ESP was first characterised within a longer perspective by Stevens. EAP is an educational approach and a seat of beliefs about TESOL that is unlike hat taken in general English courses and textbooks.

          In discussing ESP and EAP, strevens argued that courses can be specific in four ways.

            1) by restricting the language taught to only those skills which are required for the learners immediate purposes;

              2)by selecting from the whole language only those items of vocabulary, grammar patterns, linguistic functions, etc..,which are required for the learners immediate purposes;

             3)by including only topics, themes and discourse context that are directly relevant to the learner's immediate language needs; and

            4)by addressing only those communicative needs that relate to the learner's immediate purpose.

                              Need analysis is fundamental to an EAP approach to curse design and teaching The language is attached to at the levels of following:

      1) register: Lexical and grammatical/ structure features.
      2) discourse:the effect of communication context; the relationship between the text / discourse and it's speakers/ writers/hearers/ readers.
     3)genre: how language is used in a particular setting, such as research papers, dissertation,formal lectures.

      In research part she has describe the academic language needs of student is more humanistic than research that looks at texts, genres and academic context; it incorporates a wider view of ' needs' and typically includes students ' wants' and preferences as well as more concrete needs. 
  
        at the end of these research paper she conclude that EAP is a thriving and important aspect of TESOL that has far received less attention from researchers than it deserves. it is also more complex and potentially problematic than most English language teachers recognise at the beginning of their EAP teaching.