Current Challenges in Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

In response to the growing spread of the English language as the medium of education and dissemination of research in higher education, curriculum developers in English-as-aSecond/Foreign (EFL/ESL) settings have designed courses to facilitate the process of university Join us on Tuesday August 28, from 4:30- 5:30 pm, with Mahmood Atai in Room 10-254 students’ transition to their target academic discourse communities. There is an extensive literature on EAP course design including triangulated analyses of the present and target situation needs of prospective learners (Long, 2005; Brown, 2016). Also, analysis of the target language use domain has accommodated the recent developments in discourse analysis, genre analysis, and critical discourse/genre analysis. However, only a few studies have addressed the pedagogy of EAP including teacher cognition, teacher burnout, and teacher education (Anthony, 2011; Atai & Fatahi-Majd, 2014; Ding & Campion, 2016). The global and local complexities involved in EAP instruction and, more specifically, the diversity of responsibilities of teachers as well as challenges posed by content and language specificity are among the issues to be addressed in this talk. The context will be the nationwide university EAP programs in Iran which currently form a significant part of compulsory EFL education. I will particularly highlight the themes that may also promise implications for EAP instructors in ESL contexts including Canada.

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Mahmood Reza Atai is currently a visiting research professor at the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Maryland. He is professor of applied linguistics at Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. He is also editor of Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics and has served on the editorial board of several international and national journals. He has published extensively on EAP themes including needs analysis, genre analysis and teacher education in national and international journals. He has co-authored five EAP books for university students. His recent papers appeared in English for Specific Purposes, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, System, RELC Journal, and Journal of Research in International Education, Teacher Development, and Journal of Educational Computing Research. Also, his most recent work in 2018 is ‘National Curriculum’ which appeared in TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching edited by John I. Liontas. Hoboken, NJ : Wiley.