Exploring Teacher Views in Teaching EAP at Low Skill Levels

Abstract

Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) needs teachers skilled in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) to obtain further skills, abilities and methodologies. Views about CLT teaching may not be correct for teaching EAP, especially to low level learners. Making teachers aware of their opinions is the major step in helping them to change. Informed by the literature and the BALEAP Competency framework for Teachers of EAP, these statements were categorised as barriers to or success factors for successful EAP teaching. The results highlighted two key features where CLT and EAP approaches differ: the description of the language system within which teachers frame their talk and the approach to scaffolding student performance.