Background

This book is the culmination of twenty-one years' experience of teaching EAP at the University of Manchester and overseas. It has been written with the realisation that, although there are a number of practice books in EAP for students, no book currently exists for teachers that surveys the whole field of EAP. It is normally covered in small sections in ESP books. This, then, gives a comprehensive overview of the whole subject for teachers, and has arisen out of my 1989 state-of-the-art article on English for Academic Purposes for the journal Language Teaching (Jordan 1989).

In recent years, there has been a world-wide increase in demand for EAP or study skills courses, varying in length from two weeks to one year or more. EAP is needed not only for educational studies in countries where English is the mother tongue, but also in an increasing number of other countries for use in the higher education sector.

Readership

Because of the increase in demand for EAP, there has been a commensurate increase in demand for qualified and experienced teachers of EAP. This book is intended for experienced EFL teachers, native speakers or non-native speakers, perhaps with some experience of EAP/ESP/study skills. They may be attending a teacher-training or higher degree/diploma course, where EAP is a main or subsidiary component, perhaps combined with ELT, ESP or Applied Linguistics.