In Malaysia, a lot of our EAP courses are 'in-sessional', often taught in the foundation and/or first, and probably second years of university. Most Malaysian students from state schools are already at a level appropriate for EAP studies when they enter university.

However, in recent years, due to the intakes of overseas students from the Middle East and other parts of Asia to study at tertiary education in Malaysia, the need to conduct 'pre-sessional English programmes' has arisen. Unlike in the UK, these pre-sessional English programmes are usually intensive General English with very little focus on EAP. The general objective is to raise the level of English proficiency of these majority foreign students before they can study EAP. The teachers of intensive GE can be just CELTA or any TESOL qualification holders, wheareas in-sessional EAP courses generally require Bachelor's or Master's holders in English or TESL etc., in accordance with the government regulations. On the other hand, it seems to me that the demand for EAP programmes with specific needs based on the students' fields of studies is becoming increasingly apparent in a lot of universities and colleges nowadays. English teachers are often expected to come up with specific English courses to suit the needs of students from different majors, namely English for Sepecific Academic Purposes (ESAP).

To be honest, as an English teacher, I am proud of this development. I also think that Malaysia has a great potential to be leading the development of ELT in Asia. The use of English as the medium of instruction in most of our private universities and colleges, as well as the big number of international students have created opportunities and posed great challenges to our English teachers here. However, after graduating with first degrees in TESL or Linguistics from universities, a lot of young teachers start off their careers immediately as EAP teachers without any proper EAP trainings. In fact, a lot of them do not even realise what they are teaching is called EAP or ESP. They do not know where to get training, help or support in their work. The head of department may not be someone knowledgeable and experienced in EAP/ESP; there is a serious lack of EAP books and teaching materials; there are no accreditation bodies for EAP etc. etc. To my disappoinment, I recently found out that even the one and only MA in ESP course run by a local university has already been shut down - really don't understand why.  

Dear elchwa and Carladelia

Thanks for your comments about teaching EAP in your contexts. I agree it is very difficult to motivate students who only need the language to get through exams. I find students on a pre-sessional in the UK are generally more motvated because they are in the country where they will study their degree and they can see how much improvement they need to make.

Unlike in the UK, these pre-sessional English programmes are usually intensive General English with very little focus on EAP. The general objective is to raise the level of English proficiency of these majority foreign students before they can study EAP.

...there is a serious lack of EAP books and teaching materials; there are no accreditation bodies for EAP etc. etc. To my disappoinment, I recently found out that even the one and only MA in ESP course run by a local university has already been shut down - really don't understand why.  

I've just been covering a general English class in our pre-sessional programme for a colleague who is unwell. Like elchwa we also run general English classes before students are considered to be 'ready for EAP'. But I don't really understand what this means. I believe that good EAP principles can be used right from the beginning so that students are learning how to get things done with language and also learning about the university context.

However, I do agree that there are not many good materials to help new CELTA trained teachers to deliver EAP to low level learners and I am sorry to hear about the MA in ESP which closed down. My colleagues and I used to run a very successful EAP Teacher Development course at my university to show ELT trained teachers how to cross over to EAP. However, it too was shut down recently - a victim of university politics!

We have written a book, EAP Essentials: a teacher's guide to principles and practice, which is published by Garnet Education http://www.garneteducation.com/ and they also have a number of new EAP coursebooks, in particular English for Specific Academic Purposes, which might be worth looking at.

Elchwa,

Your comments struck a chord with me

A lot of books are either too theoretical or the methodology sucks. 

This is my biggest dream in ELT - I wish we can all work at places where people teach with hearts for the sake of educating, not with superficiality and hidden agendas in politics and money making. 

In our book we tried to give a sense of the experience of an EAP teacher at the 'chalkface'. We included case studies of the situations we had found ourselves in during our EAP teaching careers and tried to use the research literature to make sense of our practical EAP experiences.

I am always struck by the fact that many research articles in applied linguistics, education and similar fields related to EAP end with the comment 'this has implications for the classroom' without ever saying what these implications are. In our book we tried to take insights from current research and say how these would play in the classroom.

I feel this is an important and neglected area in ELT more generally. What do you think?