English for Academic and Specific Purposes in the Classroom: From Theory to Practice

This volume showcases curriculum designs, instructional strategies, classroom challenges, and assessment practices in courses around the world introduced to meet the demand for English language skills for academic (EAP) or specific purposes (ESP) in higher education settings. Particularly in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) institutions, the courses are frequently part of the curriculum, regardless of discipline or specialization. Given the prevalence of such courses, it is important to understand how they are implemented.

Many theories and models have inspired and underpinned these courses, including genre-based instruction, Writing in the Disciplines, Systemic Functional Linguistics, the academic literacies model, and translanguaging. Often, these are combined with various pedagogical approaches such as constructive alignment, flipped learning, learning-oriented assessment, Galperin’s theory of Systematic Formation of Mental Actions (SFMA), the study skills models, pedagogical cultural-historical activity theory, and the TESOL teaching-learning cycle. This book showcases how these are implemented in EAP/ESP classrooms.

This volume gives a voice to instructors whose experience in real-life classrooms is invaluable to inform research and policies as well as to refine theories. It serves as a venue for conversation among the community of practitioners and researchers of applied linguistics and language teaching.

Rosmawati is an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on academic writing in English. Recently, she guest-edited, with Marjolijn Verspoor and Anne Burns, a special issue on action research in EAP/ESP classrooms for the Journal of English for Academic Purposes.

Marjolijn Verspoor is a Professor Emeritus of English Language at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Pannonia, Hungary. Her main research interests are second language development from a dynamic usage-based perspective and instructional approaches in foreign language teaching.