English for Academic Purposes

Stephen Evans and Christopher Green discuss research they did on English for Academic Purposes in their article "Why EAP is necessary: A survey of Hong Kong tertiary students." They gave a large pool of university students a survey about their perception of their ability to read, write, speak, and listen in English. English is the main language for academia in Hong Kong, which creates problems for students who come from secondary institutions who use Chinese for instruction. Therefore, an EAP program is necessary to help these students with the rigorous demands of their university education. The results show evidence that students have the most trouble with academic writing and students have low confidence in this area. Students seem to have much more trouble with the language than the organization and content of their texts. In the area of reading, students have a great deal of trouble understanding new vocabulary that is specific to their content area and do not have the strategies to understand difficult words. Overall, the results suggest "that the cumulative effect of inadequate vocabulary for processing information and producing assignments is probably the key factor in creating students' negative overall view of their competence in English."

This seems very relevant to me as an English language teacher. I will need to be sure to concentrate on increasing my students' vocabulary and helping them become independant and self-sufficient when they get stuck on words. The latter is the most important because I will not always be there to help them figure out a word. They need the tools to help them advance on their own.