부산대학교 도서관

English for academic purposes (EAP) as the provision of English language training for international students entering or studying in higher education is widely unchallenged; its underlying ideology has been little researched. This study makes use of a novel combination of literature and methods to examine influences on EAP as practised in the UK universities accredited by EAP’s professional association, BALEAP. The methodology employs auto-ethnography triangulated by a wide-ranging semiotic analysis utilising not only critical discourse analysis but also layout, colour and typography. The literature informing the study lies at the tripart intersection of (neo-) colonial influences on English and the teaching of English, the global forces shaping British higher education, and aspects of professionalism. The study finds evidence, in both the researcher’s professional auto-ethnography and in BALEAP documentation of a deficit approach to students and argues this is traceable to the (neo-) colonial associations of English and related (neo-) racism. It also finds that it can be argued the hierarchy implicit in BALEAP’s professional framework reproduces the marginalisation of teachers of EAP at the lower end of the hierarchy while simultaneously protecting the elite status of those at the top of the hierarchy. It further finds that, in determining the scope of its provenance, BALEAP finds multiple ways to distance itself from English language teaching (ELT) more widely. The study concludes that EAP as practised by BALEAP would benefit from a more self-analytical – and self-critical – approach to both students and teachers of EAP, and from realigning itself with ELT.