Bright or Gloomy? Some Speculations on the Future of EAP

Abstract

As with many other disciplines within contemporary Higher Education, the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is now finding itself in a state of considerable flux. Changing attitudes to the role and wider purpose of tertiary education; an ongoing move towards privatization and outsourcing; the recent emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) and global changes to the demographics around international student mobility are just some of the issues continuing to have an impact on EAP’s forward trajectory. Offering a critical evaluation of these and several other factors, this paper speculates on what the coming years might hold for EAP and considers whether the future prognosis for the discipline is most likely to be bright or gloomy.

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