Critical Glossary of ESP (especially EAP) Terms

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Abstract

The abstract is the first section of a report. It usually comes after the title and before the introduction. In some subject areas, this section may be titled “summary” or “executive summary”. The abstract provides an overview of the study based on information from the other sections of the report. The reader can read the abstract to obtain enough information about the study to decide if they want to read the complete report. Because it contains elements from the whole report, it is usually written last.

Academic Keyword List

The Academic Keyword List (AKL) was developed by Magali Paquot at the Centre for English Corpus Linguistics, Université Catholique de Louvain. It comprises a set of 930 potential academic words. Unlike the AWL, it includes the 2000 most frequent words of English.

Academic Literacies

The field of Academic Literacies has emerged over the last twenty years from empirical and theoretical enquiry into social practices associated with and constituting writing and reading in academic and professional contexts. From the academic literacies perspective, writing and reading are shaped conceptually and pedagogically by contexts and relationships rather than as only a set of linguistic forms to be learned. Many of the questions in the field centre on the relationships between ascribed writer identities, and assessments of ability, and institutional priorities, agendas and values. The notion of a singular and stable academic literacy is therefore challenged by this term, which has come to be identified with a critical, transformative approach to text production and practices and the ideologies that inform them. The methodological stance of researchers in the field tends to be ethnographic. As Teresa Lillis and Mary Scott commented recently ‘This involves a commitment to staying rooted in people’s lived experiences and an attempt to explore what may be at stake for them in specific contexts’ (2007, p. 13). Thank you to Mary Scott for this.

I do not see this as being in any way incompatible with EAP.

Academic Word List

The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The list consists of 570 word families which were selected because they appear frequently in a wide range of academic texts. The list does not include words that are in the GSL. It includes the next 10%. Use the Compleat Lexical Tutor or Sandra Haywood’s AWL Highlighter to identify them.

Accent

A person’s accent is the particular features of their pronunciation that identifies where they are from regionally and socially. Academic English can be spoken with any accent.

Action Research

Action Research is, basically, research into your practice. The idea is that you are doing something and you want to do it better. So you carry out research to enable you to do this. Many ESP/EAP teachers are involved in Action Research.

Active Voice

An active clause has the basic form: “John ate the fish.” Compare this with the passive voice: “The fish was eaten.” Some verbs do not occur regularly in the active form in academic texts.

Adjacency Pair

An adjacency pair is a two utterance sequence that commonly occurs. For example, statement – agreement, question – answer, greeting – greeting, offer – acceptance.

Adjunct Language Instruction

See Content Based Instruction – CBI.

Affix

An affix is a morpheme added to the beginning or end of a word to create another word. Affixes in English can be prefixes (before the original word) or suffixes (after the original word). In other languages there are infixes which occur within the word (“drink” – “drank”, “swim” – “swam”?) and circumfixes, which are around the word.

Agent

An agent is the performer of an action. In a simple clause, the agent may be the grammatical subject, but this is not necessarily the case. In a passive clause, the agent is often signalled by “by …”. However, in academic texts, the short passive – without the agent – is much more common than the long passive – with the agent.

Aims

The aims of a course are the overall statements of what the course should teach. Aims are aspirational – yet achievable – goals for students to work towards. Unlike learning outcomes, they are not usually measurable. “Practise” is not an aim, it is a means of achieving an aim.

“By aims I mean the purposes to which learning will be put after the end of the course” (Widdowson, 1983).

“Aims should reflect what we hope the students will be able to do, not what we are going to do” (Harmer, 2007, p. 371)

It is valuable for EAP teachers to look at the aims of the courses that their students are – or will be – studying.

(See Objectives & Outcomes)

Allograph

An allograph is a written variation of a graph or letter in a written language. A change in allograph would not change the word. “CAT”, “cat” and “cɑt” are all the same word.

Allophone

An allophone is a phonetic variation of a phoneme. It is determined by position in the word. A change in allophone would not change the word.

Ambiguity

An ambiguous word, group or clause has more than one possible meaning. For example “bank” can refer to the sides of a river or a place where you keep your money.

Anaphora

Anaphoric reference is when a general word refers back in the text to a more specific word. For example, in the sentence “John told me where he was going”, “he” refers anaphorically to “John”. In order to understand a sentence such as “He did that there”, you need to understand what “he” “that” and “there” refer back to. Anaphora is an important part of cohesion, and most EAP courses pay attention to it.

Anaphoric Noun

Anaphoric nouns (Francis, 1986) are nouns such as “view” in the following quotation:

“This led many later Greek thinkers to regard musical theory as a branch of mathematics. This view, however, was not universally accepted, the most influential of those who rejected it being Aristoxenus of Tarentum (fourth century BC).”

or “process” in the following extract:

“Genetics deals with how genes are passed on from parents to their offspring. A great deal is known about the mechanisms governing this process.”

They play an important role in the organisation of arguments in texts and are very useful in showing the connection between sentences and therefore in making sure that the paragraph flows. Other nouns typically used in this way are: “account, advice, answer, argument, assertion, assumption, claim, comment, conclusion, criticism, description, difficultly, discussion, distinction, emphasis, estimate, example, explanation, fall, finding, idea, improvement, increase, observation, proof, proposal, reference, rejection, report, rise, situation, suggestion, view, warning”.

Antonym

An antonym is opposite in meaning: “big” and “small.”

APA System

The most common version of the Harvard referencing system, defined by the American Psychological Association – APA. The other well-known systems are the MLA system, the Chicago system and the Vancouver system.

Apposition, in apposition

Apposition is a grammatical construction in which a sequence of units – usually nominal groups – are placed next to each other, with one element modifying the other. The units are said to be in apposition. In the following sentence “the Director of the Berlitz School at Bordeaux” has the same reference and is in apposition to “Dr. Maurice Aumont”.

“Dr. Maurice Aumont, the Director of the Berlitz School at Bordeaux, looked after him in an efficient and kindly way.”

Appositive postmodification is common in academic texts, accounting for over 15% of all postmodifiers (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999, p.639) . They are usually used to modify a proper noun or a technical name and are commonly given in parentheses.

“In arid country the weaver birds (small passerines related to sparrows) tend to be seasonally and sexually dimorphic.”

Assessment

Assessment is the process of forming judgements about the quality and extent of a student’s achievement or performance in a certain area. Most assessment is done by examinations or coursework.

Assignment

An assignment is a piece of work that a student has been told (assigned) to do. The mark received usually contributes to the total mark for the course and it is usually done in the student’s time. It often contrasts with exams, which are not done in the student’s time.

Authentic

In simple terms, authentic materials are materials that were not intended originally for language teaching purposes. It is important to distinguish between an authentic text and authentic purpose. Using an authentic academic text does not make it EAP.

AWL

Academic Word List. The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The list consists of 570 word families which were selected because they appear frequently in a wide range of academic texts. The list does not include words that are in the GSL. It includes the next 10%. Use the Compleat Lexical Tutor or Sandra Haywood’s AWL Highlighter to identify them.

Bachelor: A Bachelor’s degree is the title of the first university degree, usually after 3 or 4 years of university study.
Backchannel: A backchannel is a listener’s response in a conversation. It can be either verbal and non-verbal. Backchannels can consist of simple noises or gestures, simple words or phrases (for example, “Really?” or “Wow!”) or more substantial turns such as asking for clarification or disagreement.
BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals. See: www.baleap.org
Benchmark: A benchmark is a clearly defined standard against which a student’s performance can be measured. See criteria.
Bibliography: A bibliography is a list of books. It is often confused with a references list, which is a list of the works (books, periodicals, Internet) that have been used in a particular piece of writing.
Blended Learning: Blended learning means combining face-to-face classroom teaching with a relevant use of modern technology. The word technology can be used in its widest sense, to include a broad range of modern technologies. It includes, for example, digital audio and video; the Internet including the world wide web, e-mail, chat, blogs, wikis and podcasts; and VLEs as well as CD-ROMs, electronic dictionaries, mobile phones and interactive whiteboards.
Booster: A booster is a strengthening device used to increase the impact of an utterance.

CAI

Computer Assisted/Aided Instruction.

CAL

Computer Assisted/Aided Learning.

CALL

Computer Assisted/Aided Language Learning.

CARS

Create A Research Space. John Swales’s model for the structure of article introductions. It consists of three moves: Move 1: Establishing territory, Move 2: Establishing a niche, Move 3: Occupying the niche.

CBI

Content Based Instruction. Teaching language through content. It is often divided into:

Theme-based language instruction – the ESP/EAP class is structured around themes and taught by an ESP/ EAP teacher
Sheltered content instruction – content is taught separately by a subject specialist through the medium of English – see CLIL
Adjunct language instruction – involves two linked courses – content + ESP/EAP. When the content is sheltered, this kind of programme is often referred to as sheltered-adjunct. See team teaching.

(See: Brinton, Snow & Wesche, 1989)

CEFR

Council of Europe Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages. It is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasingly, in other countries.

Chicago System

A well-known referencing system. The Chicago Manual of Style presents two basic referencing systems: (1) notes and bibliography, usually mainly in the humanities and (2) author-date, used mainly in the physical and social sciences.

Citation/Reference

A citation or reference is a way of indicating in a piece of academic writing where the information has been obtained.

Claim

See: Voice.

Clause Relations/Rhetorical Patterns/Discourse Patterns/Textual Patterns

The relationship between the clauses in a text that contribute to the text’s coherence. Examples include: statement-reason, statement-example, situation-problem, problem-solution, general-specific, cause-consequence, instrument-achievement, statement-contrast, hypothetical-real, statement-comparison. (See: Hoey, 1979, 1994; McCarthy & Carter, 1994; Winter, 1977, 1994).

CLIL

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). A type of CBI, often in primary and elementary education, where content is taught by a subject specialist in a foreign or second language. Traditionally there is no explicit language teaching involved, but the term is increasingly used for what has long been known as “team teaching“.

CLT

See: Communicative Language Teaching.

CMC

Computer Mediated Communication.

Code-Mixing

Speakers’ switching from one language or dialect to another during a conversation, seemingly without discrimination.

Code-Switching

The intentional use of more than one language or dialect by bilinguals for a symbolic, strategic or communicative purpose. If ESP (including EAP) is considered to be a code, then ESP learners need to learn to code-switch.

Cognitive Genres

Cognitive genres are smaller text types that usually combine to make up social genres. They are defined by their cognitive or rhetorical purpose and include narrative texts, expository texts, descriptive texts, explanatory texts etc. (Bruce, 2008)

Coherence

Coherence refers to the functional or pragmatic connections that exist in a text.

Cohesion

Cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexical connections that exist in a text. According to Halliday & Hasan (1976) there are five types of cohesion: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction & lexical cohesion.

Collocate/Collocation

Words that collocate typically occur together. A word’s collocations are the words it typically occurs with. It is important for EAP students to learn the collocations of typical words in their subject area. Computer software such as Wordsmith Tools and Compleat Lexical Tutor can be used.

Colligation

A colligation is a grammatical pattern. It is important for ESP/EAP students to learn the grammatical patterns of typical words in their subject area.

Communicative Language Teaching

CLT or Communicative Language Teaching is a vaguely used term. It does, though, have two main meanings:

(Communicative Language) Teaching – this focuses on the syllabus design aspect of CLT and ensures that the language and skills taught are authentic and needed by the students. It depends on clear target language needs analyses and skills audits. This is important in ESP/EAP.
Communicative (Language Teaching) – this is related to views of language learning and teaching methodology and assumes that in order to learn students need to be involved in the communicative use of language. This does not necessarily lead to an oral approach to teaching. Students who only need to to read would read for meaning in an authentic way. Again this is important in ESP (including EAP) teaching and ESP teachers would be aware of the fact that students from different disciplines may learn, or prefer to study, in different ways.

In this sense ESP is perfectly compatible with CLT, with students working with academic texts on authentic academic tasks, even at a low level.

Common Core

The Common Core consists of those language items (grammar, vocabulary etc) that are common to all varieties of English. As it is common to ALL varieties, it is part of ESP. It, therefore, does not need to be taught before ESP or separately from it.

Compleat Lexical Tutor

A well-known and very useful website with tools for studying texts, by Tom Cobb. See: www.lextutor.ca

Comprehensible Input

See: The input hypothesis.

Comprehensible Output

See: The output hypothesis.

Concordancing

Nowadays, Concordancing refers to the use of specialist computer software to study word collocations. See Wordsmith Tools and Compleat Lexical Tutor.

Conjunction

One of the types of cohesion identified by Halliday & Hasan (1976). In cohesion, Halliday and Hasan (1976) identify four sub-types of conjunction – adversative, additive, temporal and causal.

Consonant

A consonant is one of the two main categories that speech sounds are divide into. The other is vowel. Consonants are formed by a closure or narrowing of the vocal tract so that noise is produced.

Constituency

The hierarchical relations among the units are related by constituency:

a clause consists of one or more groups
a group consists of one or more words
a word consists of more than one morpheme

The groups constitute or are constituents of the clause, and words constitute a group.

Content

The terms content and expression are used to refer to the two dimensions of a sign: meaning (content) and realisation (expression). The system of meanings is realised by a system of sounds, gestures and writing.

Content Teacher

A content teacher is a teacher who teaches a “real” subject, not ESP/EAP. This seems to imply that ESP/EAP has no content!

Content Based Instruction

CBI. Teaching language through content. It is often divided into:

Theme-based language instruction – the ESP/EAP class is structured around themes and taught by an ESP/EAP teacher.
Sheltered content instruction – content is taught to language learners separately by a subject specialist through the medium of English – see CLIL.
Adjunct language instruction – involves two linked courses – content + ESP. See team teaching.

(See: Brinton, Snow & Wesche, 1989)

Cooperative Principle

The idea, suggested by Paul Grice, that people understand language in the light of the assumption that the speaker is behaving rationally and cooperatively.

Corpus/Corpora

A body of text, spoken or written, usually in electronic form that can be studied using computer software.

Coursework

Coursework is the work that a student has been told to do in his or her own time. The mark received usually contributes to the total mark for the course. It often contrasts with exams, which are not done in the student’s time.

Criterion

The word criterion seems to be used in two different ways. On the one hand, it is sometimes used to refer to a property or characteristic; that which we are testing or that which the students should be learning, for example pronunciation or cohesion. “Criterion – A distinguishing property or characteristic of anything, by which its quality can be judged or estimated, or by which a decision or classification may be made” Sandler (2005, p. 178).

For other people, though, criterion refers to a standard or a criterion-level against which a student’s performance can be judged. “Standard – A definite level of excellence of attainment, or a definite degree of any quality viewed as a prescribed object or endeavour or as the recognised measure of what is adequate for some purpose” Sandler (2005, p 189).

It is important for ESP/EAP lecturers to be aware of this difference and make sure that they have clear standards or criterion levels against which they measuring their students’ abilities.

Criterion-Referenced Assessment

In criterion-referenced assessment or testing, students’ performance is compared to clearly specified standards or benchmarks, rather than other students. This is how ESP/EAP students are usually assessed. But see norm-referenced assessment.

Critical

In EAP, it can involve Critical Thinking, Critical Reading and Critical Writing.

Critical EAP

Critical EAP, on the other hand, is concerned with critiquing these existing practices. A critical approach criticises Pragmatic EAP for not questioning these existing norms. Pragmatic EAP expects, for example, international students in the UK to conform to UK educational practices, whereas Critical EAP might question them.

Critical Pragmatic EAP tries to unite these different approaches, by accepting that while learners need to be aware of these institutional norms, they have choices and may choose not to adopt a particular practice (See Benesch, 2001; Canagarajah, 2002).

Critical Pragmatic EAP

Harwood & Hadley (2004) distinguish between, Pragmatic EAP, Critical EAP, and Critical Pragmatic EAP. Pragmatic EAP is simply concerned with investigating the existing language norms in an institution, and teaching them. Its purpose is to prepare students for the linguistic demands they will face. It depends very strongly on needs analyses. Critical EAP, on the other hand, is concerned with critiquing these existing practices. A critical approach criticises Pragmatic EAP for not questioning these existing norms. Pragmatic EAP expects, for example, international students in the UK to conform to UK educational practices, whereas Critical EAP might question them.

Critical Reading

In EAP, critical reading may involve:

identifying the writer’s arguments and conclusions reached
evaluating the strength of the evidence the writer provides to support the conclusions
identifying any implicit assumptions and bias made in the arguments.

Critical Writing

In EAP, critical writing may involve:

showing familiarity with different points of view
evaluating these differing points of view
being aware of new evidence
presenting logical arguments which lead to conclusions
providing sound evidence and reasons to support the arguments
solving problems
being aware of limitations
having a clear voice

DDL

Data Driven Learning. Using computer analyses of authentic texts for language learning.

Dean

In the UK, many universities are divided into large subject areas or faculties. Each faculty is headed by an academic member of staff: usually the dean.

Demand High ELT

Demand High ELT is an approach to language teaching that assumes that our learners are capable of learning much more if appropriate tasks and techniques are made use of (Demand High ELT). See ESP.

Diagnostic Tests

Diagnostic tests measure what a student can or cannot do so that appropriate materials or courses can be developed.

Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language distinguished according to its user.

Directed Learning

Directed learning is learning which is given by the lecturer but done by the student in the student’s time.

Discourse

Discourse is the area of language study that deals with language in use. The term refers to any connected stretch of language that is doing a job within a social context. Discourse is text in context.

Discourse Community

A discourse community (Swales, 1990) is a group of people that share a discourse. It:

has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
in addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific lexis.
has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Discourse Mode

A term used by, for example, Bax (2011) to refer to high level classes of genre such as narration, description, argumentation, instruction & exposition.

Discourse Patterns/Textual Patterns/Clause Relations/Rhetorical Patterns

Dogme ELT

Dogme ELT is an approach to language teaching that challenges the over-reliance on materials and technical-wizardry in current language teaching. It emphasises the present and requires the teacher to focus on the actual learners and the content that is relevant to them” (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009, p 6).

While the focus on the actual learners and the relevant content is very relevant for ESPP, other aspects are more problematic. Here are some quotes from the ten key principles (pp, 7-8):

“the direct route [to language teaching] is located in the interactivity between teachers and learners, and between the learners themselves”

“rather than being acquired, language (including grammar) emerges: as it is an organic process that occurs given the right conditions”

While this may be fine for general English – whatever that means – courses for adults who have had a good secondary education and therefore have much passive knowledge of the language that can emerge during interactivity between teachers and learners, it is not the same for ESP, especially EAP. Bourdieu’s point that no-one speaks (or writes) academic English as a first language, therefore everyone needs to learn it (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1994, p. 8) is often quoted and this applies equally to other types of ESP. So my big question is: where does the language emerge from? The students do not know and the teachers may not, either. This approach could simply result in learners spending time doing what they can already do.

So what is needed in ESP is interaction between the teachers, the learners and the language. So the language needs to be provided in some way. Dogmé ELT is said to be “materials-light”, but for ESP it seems to be “language-light”.

“A common failing in teaching is to expect high level production without giving sufficient input” (Scott & Scott, 1984, p. 217)

In an early article on Dogmé ELT, Thornbury (2000, p. 2) writes

“Teaching should be done using only the resources that teachers and students bring to the classroom – i.e. themselves – and whatever happens in the classroom.”

This is related to another one of the ten key principles: “the content most likely to engage learners and to trigger learning processes is that which is already there, supplied by the ‘people in the room'”.

That is fine. Are we cheating, however, if we say that as academics and professionals, both students and teachers will always have pages of academic articles, textbooks, business reports, manuals etc. in our bags? So is it acceptable to use this in Dogme ELT? If students bring their own texts to class, which is often expected in ESP classes, is that acceptable in Dogme ELT? If so, there is no problem! If not, then my question remains: “Where does the language come from”?

DOI System

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a string of characters used to identify uniquely an object such as a document on the Internet. The DOI System is becoming more frequently used for identifying journal articles. APA now recommends that DOIs – when available – be given in the references list.

For example:

Gillett, A. J. & Hammond, A. C. (2009). Mapping the maze of assessment: An investigation into practice. Active Learning in Higher Education, 10, 120-137. doi: 10.1177/1469787409104786

EALF

English as an Academic Lingua-Franca. Concentrates on the fact that many EAP writers are writing for an international – not native-speaking – audience.

EAP

EAP – English for Academic Purposes – refers to the language and associated practices that people need in order to undertake study or work in English medium higher education. The objective of an EAP course, then, is to help these people learn some of the linguistic and cultural – mainly institutional and disciplinary – practices involved in studying or working through the medium of English.

EAP lecturers are often interested in areas such as cross-cultural studies, academic and study skills development, learning styles, effective teaching methods, integration of students into the wider community, and international education. However these fields are of interest to all lecturers in higher education, and are not part of the defining characteristics of EAP. The defining characteristics of EAP, that set it aside from other subjects in higher education, are its focus on the language and associated practices that learners need in order to undertake study or work in English medium higher education.

EAP Module

A module of study for academic credit in EAP. It may or may not be embedded into the subject.

EGAP

English for General Academic Purposes. It is becoming less popular as EAP comes to recognise the different practices involved in the different subjects (Blue, 1988). There is actually no such thing as a general academic purpose as all purposes are, by definition, specific. An EGAP course will therefore take language and texts from a range of academic sources, not those of specific interest to the learners.

This may be problematic for several reasons:

it may not be motivating for the learners to read texts unrelated to their specialisms;
some of the language taught may be used differently in the learners’ specific fields of interest;
the learners might waste time studying aspects of the language that are not necessary for their use.

See ESAP

EGOP

English for General Occupational Purposes. One of the main branches of ESP. It might include English for construction workers, English for tourist guides etc.

EGPP

English for General Professional Purposes. English for lawyers, doctors, architects engineers etc. An important branch of ESP

ELF

English as a Lingua-Franca. ELF usually refers to a means of communication between people who have different first languages. It often focuses on English as it is used between non-native speakers. However, as native speakers are often part of such interactions, they need to be familiar with it. See Björkman (2011).

Ellipsis

One of the types of cohesion identified by Halliday & Hasan (1976). Halliday and Hasan (1976) identify three sub-types of ellipsis – nominal, verbal and clausal.

Embedded EAP

This means viewing learners’ academic language development as part of their growing competence in their subject areas, and not as out of context skills and language improvement. EAP is taught as part of a content course and the texts, tasks and systems involved come directly from the content course. To some extent this has always been an important part of EAP and ESP. See team teaching.

Embedding/Embedded Clause

Embedding occurs when one clause functions as a constituent of another clause or group. For example:

Why the research funding was withdrawn was never adequately explained. (embedded clause as Subject in clause)

The whole Cabinet agreed that there should be a cut in the amount that the unemployed were receiving. (embedded clause as Direct Object in clause)

The question was whether any kind of compromise was morally possible.(embedded clause as Subject Complement in clause)

Humans have made the environment what it is today. (embedded clause as Object Complement in clause)

After they had left the tavern, there were always some globules of mercury on the floor. (embedded clause as Adjunct in clause)

Stuart Ball’s excellent account of the Conservative party in opposition is a book which casts an enormous amount of light on the inner life of the party. (embedded clause as postmodifier in Nominal Group)

See also: rankshift.

Emergent Grammar

Emergent grammar is an approach to the study of language, originally by Paul Hopper, which suggests that rules for grammar and syntactic structure are not innate but emerge as language is used.

English for General Purposes

Otherwise known as TENOR – Teaching English for No Obvious Reason – (Abbot, 1980), or General English. The alternative to ESP. As Halliday points out (1969, p. 25) “the distinction between a general register and a special register is without foundation; there is no such thing as a general register, in fact.” It is not necessary to teach general English before EAP. In fact there are many reasons not to do so:

it may not be motivating for the learners to learn language unrelated to their specialisms;
some of the language taught may be used differently in EAP and the learners’ specific fields of interest;
the learners might waste time studying aspects of the language that are not necessary for their use in academic contexts.

English in the Workplace (EiW)

English for Occupational Purposes or English in the Workplace. One of the three main branches of ESP, the others being English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Professional Purposes (EPP). It might include English for construction workers, English for tourist guides, English for hotel receptionists, etc.

English for Occupational Purposes (EOP)

English for Occupational Purposes, English for Vocational Purposes or English in the Workplace. One of the three main branches of ESP, the others being English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Professional Purposes (EPP). It might include English for construction workers, English for tourist guides, English for hotel receptionists, etc.

Ergative Verb

An ergative verb is a verb that can be either transitive or intransitive. However, when it is intransitive, its subject corresponds to its direct object when transitive. This particularly important when the passive is used. An example is “increase”.

Students often misuse words like “increase”. They often write sentences such as: “Inflation was increased.” when it would be more appropriate to write: “Inflation increased.”

These verbs are very common in academic language and other examples are: “accelerate, begin, bend, boil, break, broaden, bruise, burn, burst, change, close, combine, connect, cool, condense, crack, decrease, deflate, develop, diminish, disperse, drop, dry, end, enrol, evaporate, expand, finish, float, flood, fracture, freeze, grow, harden, ignite, improve, increase, industrialise, inflate, join, lengthen, lock, loosen, lower, melt, mend, merge, move, multiply, open, plunge, reload, reunite, revolve, rewind, rock, roll, run, scatter, separate, shake, shut, spill, spin, split, stand, start, stiffen, stop, strengthen, stretch, swing, tear, terminate, tighten, toughen, transfer, turn, twist, vaporise, weaken.”

EPP

English for Professional Purposes. English for lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers etc. An important branch of ESP

ESAP

English for Specific Academic Purposes. For example English for law students or engineering students. It is becoming more popular as the different requirements of the subjects are becoming better understood (Blue, 1988). As far as possible in regard to all EAP teaching, we need to be as specific as possible. However, for practical – management & finance – reasons it is sometimes not possible.

EST

English for Science & Technology. For example scientists or engineering students. An early and still important section of ESP.

ESOP

English for Specific Occupational Purposes or English in the Workplace. One of the three main branches of ESP, the others being English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Professional Purposes (EPP). It might include English for construction workers, English for tourist guides, English for hotel receptionists, etc.

ESP

English for Specific Purposes is an approach to English language teaching in which the teaching content and methods are matched to the real-world requirements of the learners. It assumes that the learners are motivated to learn and can deal with demanding texts and tasks in their academic field, profession or workplace. It is usually divided into English for Academic Purpose, English for Occupational Purposes and English for Professional Purposes.

These can be further subdivided into English for General/Specific Academic Purposes, English for General/Specific Vocational Purposes, and English for General/Specific Professional Purposes. These categories are, however, very broad and there are many overlaps and clines. For example: English for Business, English for the Hospitality Industry, English for Hotels, English for Vocational Hotel Work, English for Receptionists, English for Hilton Receptionists, English for Hilton Receptionists on the Night Shift, etc. Ken Hyland (2009) has recently written about English for Professional Academic Purposes.

ESP is not new. Strevens (1977) gives an example of an ESP course from 1576, and ESP is probably the oldest form of language learning, probably as old as civilisation itself. As McArthur (1983) points out “If you want to barter, buy or sell, then you need to be able to communicate”.

ESPP

English for Specific Professional Purposes. English for lawyers, family doctors, architects, electrical engineers etc. An important branch of ESP.

ESTEM

English for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics. For example scientists, mathematicians, technicians. or engineering students. An early and still important type of ESP.

EVP

English for Vocational Purposes, English for Occupational Purposes or English in the Workplace. One of the three main branches of ESP, the others being English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Professional Purposes (EPP). It might include English for construction workers, English for tourist guides, English for hotel receptionists, etc.English for Vocational Purposes. English for work. An important branch of ESP

Exam Board

An exam board is a meeting where students’ examination and other marks are considered. It usually consists of all the lecturers on the course plus external members from other universities to ensure comparability of standards.

Expanding Circle

The expanding circle is the outermost part of Kachru’s circles of word Englishes. The expanding circle refers to English as a foreign language speaking countries that were part of the third diaspora in the spread of English. Expanding circle countries are often said to be norm-dependent. Much ESP takes place in and between these areas.

Expression

External Examiner

An external examiner is a member of academic staff from another university whose job is to monitor the courses and assessment to ensure that they are equal to courses elsewhere.

Faculty: In the UK, many universities are divided into large subject areas or faculties. Each faculty is headed by an academic member of staff: usually the dean.
Family: Word families include words with affixes such as “-ly”, “-ness” and “un-“. A word family consists of a headword, its inflected forms, and its closely related derived forms.
Feedback: Information or opinions about a piece of academic work from a teacher, lecturer or peer. The work may be complete or not.
Feedforward: Used to emphasise the developmental and learning uses of feedback..
Field: In register, field is the subject matter of the text.
Five Paragraph Essay: The five-paragraph essay is a common type of assignment required in American schools. The essay would normally have five paragraphs: one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs with various kinds of development, and one concluding paragraph. It is also known as a hamburger essay, one-three-one. or a three tier essay.
Formative Assessment: Assessment that reports a student’s ability in order to promote reflection and learning.
Foundation Course: A foundation course is usually a one year course to prepare students for entry to – usually – undergraduate courses. Foundation courses normally include academic subject content and learning skills as well as EAP.

GDPR

The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Everyone responsible for using personal data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. They must make sure the information is:

used fairly, lawfully and transparently
used for specified, explicit purposes
used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary
accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
kept for no longer than is necessary
handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage

General English

Otherwise known as TENOR – Teaching English for No Obvious Reason – (Abbot, 1980). The alternative to ESP. However, there is no such thing as “General English” as every use of English has a purpose. As Halliday points out (1969, p. 25) “the distinction between a general register and a special register is without foundation; there is no such thing as a general register, in fact.” It is not necessary to teach general English before EAP. In fact there are many reasons not to do so:

it may not be motivating for the learners to learn language unrelated to their specialisms;
some of the language taught may be used differently in EAP and the learners’ specific fields of interest;
the learners might waste time studying aspects of the language that are not necessary for their use in academic contexts.

General Service List

The General Service List (GSL) of English words consists of the most frequent 2000 word families of English created by Michael West in 1953. The General Service List (GSL) covers almost 80% of the vocabulary in most academic texts. Although, they might not be thought of as “academic” word, they are important in ESP/EAP. Use Compleat Lexical Tutor to identify them.

Genre

Genres, in EAP, are families of complete texts with a clear purpose and audience. They are culturally evolved ways of achieving goals that involve language. Each genre is characterised by a distinctive schematic structure with a clear beginning, middle and end, through which the function of the genre is realised. Examples are essays, reports, literature reviews, theses, dissertations, oral presentations, PhD vivas etc. Genres are where texts and tasks meet.

Given/New

One way of describing the information structure of a clause. The given part is the information that is already known or shared by the participants; the new part is the new information provided. In a typical English written clause, the given information is in the initial part of the clause and the new information is at the end. In spoken language, intonation and stress can change the emphasis.

Another way is theme–rheme. The theme/rheme distinction was developed by the Prague School (especially Vilém Mathesius, see: Vachek, 1966). The distinction, however, between theme/rheme and given/new was not made. It was Halliday who introduced the distinction between theme/rheme and given/new:

If we use the – admittedly rather inappropriate – term ‘given’ to label what is not ‘new’, we can say that the system of information focus assigns to the information unit a structure in terms of the two functions ‘given’ and ‘new’. (Halliday, 1976b, p. 204).

GPA

Grade Point Average (GPA). GPA is calculated by taking the number of grade points a student earned in a given period of time and dividing that by the total number of credits taken.

Grading

Grading is the process of evaluating a student’s achievement or performance on a larger scale, for a module or entire course. Scores or marks serve as the raw material for grading. Grades may be shown by the use of letters (A, B, C, D etc), descriptive terms (Pass, Credit, Merit, Distinction etc), or numbers (e.g. 6, 7, 8, etc.).

Grammar

Grammar is an important part of ESP/EAP. As, ultimately, all that exists is words on the page or sounds in the air. These words are constructed from parts and inflect (morphology) and occur in sequences (syntax). Like all registers of English, ESP/EAP uses prepositions, articles, adverbs etc. However, the grammatical forms that are used in academic English differ in their distributions from other registers, and need to be studied carefully. See, for example, the relevant sections of Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999).

As ESP/EAP contains grammar, the grammar that is necessary in any academic context will be included in any well-planned ESP/EAP course. It is certainly not necessary to teach grammar before the ESP/EAP course starts and there are many reasons against doing this:

it may not be motivating for the learners to learn grammar that is unrelated to their specialisms;
some of the language taught may be used differently in ESP/EAP and the learners’ specific fields of interest;
the learners might waste time studying aspects of the language that are not necessary for their use in EAP contexts.

The grammatical forms required for use of language in a particular academic context will be clear from the texts and contexts encountered in planning and teaching the course. This is one of the important areas of ESP/EAP research.

Grapheme

A grapheme is a distinctive letter of a particular written language. The study of graphemes is graphology.

Graphology

Graphology is the study of the writing system of the language

GRE

Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) test is a well-known, widely accepted graduate admissions test in USA and worldwide. It is created and managed by ETS.

GSL

The General Service List of English words consists of the most frequent 2000 word families of English created by Michael West in 1953. The General Service List (GSL) covers almost 80% of the vocabulary in most academic texts. Although, they might not be thought of as “academic” word, they are important in EAP. Use Compleat Lexical Tutor to identify them.

Hamburger Essay: The five-paragraph essay is a common type of assignment required in American schools. The essay would normally have five paragraphs: one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs with various kinds of development, and one concluding paragraph. It is also known as a hamburger essay, one-three-one. or a three tier essay.
Harvard System: The most common referencing system is called the Harvard system. It is an author/date system. There is no definitive version of the Harvard system and most universities and publishers have their own, which they often believe are definitive. But the most common one – and best documented – is defined by the American Psychological Association – APA. The other well-know systems are the MLA system, the Chicago system and the Vancouver system.
HEA: The Higher Education Academy is an independent organisation in the United Kingdom that supports higher education institutions with strategies for the development of research and evaluation to improve the learning experience for students. See: www.heacademy.ac.uk/
Head: The key grammatical item in a group is the head. The other elements are modifiers. The head of a nominal group is a noun; the head of a verbal group is a verb, the head of an adjectival group is an adjective etc.
Hedging: A hedge is a weakening device used to lessen the impact of an utterance. Academic writers are usually cautious in the claims they make, and make use of hedges. They are therefore important in EAP teaching.
Hyper-New: A hyper-New is the concluding sentence – or group of sentences – in a paragraph. It summarises the new information that has been accumulated throughout the paragraph (Martin, 1993, p. 247). The hyper-New summarises the message that the paragraph is trying to communicate.
Hyper-Theme: A hyper-Theme is a paragraph theme, an introductory sentence or group of sentences which predict a particular pattern of development in the paragraph. It is a clause “predicting a pattern of ensuing clause themes” functioning as a “point of departure for the paragraph as a whole” (Martin, 1993, p. 245). The hyper-Theme relates to the paragraph in the same way that theme – in theme/rheme – relates to the clause. See Topic Sentence.

i+1

See: The input hypothesis.

Ideational

The ideational function of language is used to organise, understand and express our perceptions of the world and of our own consciousness – ideational meanings are split into experiential meanings and logical meanings. Experiential meanings deal with the way language represents our experience of the world.It is concerned with how we talk and write about actions, events, states, beliefs etc. (processes), the people and things involved in them (participants) and the relevant circumstances. Typically participants are realised by nominal groups, processes by verbal groups and circumstances by adverbial groups or prepositional phrases (Halliday, 1985, p. 100-103). The participant constituent can be further described in terms of various participant roles such as actor, agent, goal, carrier, sayer. The process divides into three basic process types: material, relational and projecting. Circumstances can involve time, place, manner etc.

Idiolect

An idiolect – idiosyncratic dialect – is the language used by one person.

IELTS

IELTS is an internationally recognised English language testing service, mainly in the UK. An IELTS test score gives a broad indication of a student’s level of English, but it does not give much useful information about the student’s ability to communicate in an academic context. See: www.ielts.org

Imperative Sentence

For example, “Eat the fish”. Word order PCA.

IMRD or IMRAD

Typical structure of a scientific or business report. It stands for Introduction, Methods, Results (And) Discussion. While many writers see these stages as simply descriptive terms, Susan Hunston (1994) describes the persuasive goal of each stage:

The purpose of the introduction section is to persuade the reader that the research is necessary and useful.
The purpose of the methods section is to persuade the reader that the research was done well.
The purpose of the results section is to persuade the reader that, for example, the statistical methods used were useful and informative.
The purpose of the discussion section is to persuade the reader that the results make sense and contribute to a consistent body of knowledge.

Implicature

Speaker’s meaning that comes about because of the cooperative principle.

Independent Learning

Independent learning is learning which is controlled by the student and done in the student’s time. UK universities believe this is very important and EAP courses need to facilitate it..

Indirect Object

Indirect object is one important type of complement, a functional element of clause structure. In the sentence “John gave the fish to Bill”, Bill is the indirect object.

Indo-European

The languages of the world are divided into groups, called families. Languages in language families have a shared history and are similar in many ways. English – and most other European languages – belongs to the Indo-European family.

Inner Circle

The innermost part of Kachru’s circles of word Englishes. The inner circle refers to native speaking countries that were part of the first diaspora in the spread of English. Inner circle countries are often said to be norm-providing. However, in EAP, the international academic community who publish in English may be providing these norms in the future.

Input Hypothesis

The input hypothesis (Krashen, 1982) explains how a language learner develops competence over time. A language learner at level i receives comprehensible input at level i+1, through use of the context of the language they are exposed to and their knowledge of the world. An ESP/EAP teacher can help to provide that context.

In-sessional

An in-sessional course is an EAP course held during the students’ academic study. In-sessional courses are normally held at lunch-times or Wednesday afternoons and can be subject specific or general. The best ones are embedded into the relevant academic subject.

Interaction

Interaction means talking to people and making relationships with them.

Interpersonal

The interpersonal function of language is used to enable us to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take on roles and to express and understand feelings, attitude and judgements. Interpersonal meaning has to do with the ways in which we act upon one another through language – giving and requesting information, getting people to do things and offering to do things ourselves. These acts are realised in the grammar in a system of clause types such as indicative (declarative, interrogative & exclamative) and imperative. and involve grammatical functions such as subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object etc.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term invented by Julia Kristeva to refer to the various relationships that any given text might have with other texts. The idea being that no text is original and unique in itself; it is a complex synthesis of references to and quotations from other texts. As EAP teachers, we have to help our students to deal with this, both from a productive and a receptive point of view.

Intonation

Intonation refers to the change in pitch of sounds during speech.

JEAP: The Journal of English for Academic Purposes, published by Elsevier.

Keyword: A keyword is a word in a text that is much more frequent, proportionally, in that text than it is in a general reference corpus. Very useful for identifying important vocabulary in an EAP text. Use Compleat Lexical Tutor or Wordsmith Tools to identify them.
Kinesics: Term for the uses of body language to communicate meaning. It typically includes: facial movement & expression, eye gaze & eye contact, head movements, posture and gesture. An important concept for academic oral presentations.

Language Audit

A Language Audit describes a large scale analysis of language needs in a particular region or company.

Learning Outcomes/Outcomes

The learning outcomes of a module or programme are what the learners should be able to do after they have studied something.

Learning outcomes are usually defined in the following categories (QAA):

Knowledge & Understanding
Intellectual (Cognitive) Skills
Practical Skills
Transferable (Key) Skills

Outcomes are assessable and should be assessed. “Practise” is not an outcome!

Learning Needs

Learning needs describe what the learners need to do in order to learn. These are distinct from Target Needs – what the learner needs to do in the target situation.

Legitimate Peripheral Participation

Legitimate peripheral participation describes how newcomers become experienced members of a community of practice (Lave & Wenger,1991). According to LPP, new members become members, firstly by participating in simple productive tasks that are necessary and further the goals of the community. By working with more experienced members of the community, they eventually come to be able to participate fully in the community.

Lemma

In vocabulary study, a lemma is a headword and its main inflected and reduced (n’t) forms.

Level

Language can be thought of as a series of levels linked by realisation – the main levels are the extralinguistic level (context of culture & situation), the content levels of discourse-semantics and lexico-grammar, and the expression levels of phonology and graphology.

Lexeme

In vocabulary studies, the term lexeme includes items such as multi-word verbs (catch up on), phrasal verbs (drop in) and idioms (kick the bucket).

Lexical Approach

An approach to language teaching that puts words and word combinations at the centre of the learning process. The lexical approach is compatible with most EAP thinking.

Lexical Bundle

This is the phrase used by, for example, Biber (2006) to refer to multi-word sequences. They are important in EAP and, as would be expected, noun-based bundles are much more common than verb-based bundles in most written texts. Classroom teaching also uses many more noun-based bundles than conversation. It is therefore important to spend time on them in ESP/EAP teaching.

Lexical Cohesion

Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a text are semantically related in some way – in other words, they are related in terms of their meaning. In Halliday and Hasan (1976), the two major categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration – including repetition, synonymy, superordinate and general word – and collocation.

Lexical Verb

A lexical verb is a verb with a dictionary meaning. It contrasts with auxiliary verb.

Lexico-Grammar

The lexico-grammar of the language is the vocabulary and grammar.

Linguistic Imperialism

Linguistic imperialism is the way a powerful country dominates less powerful countries by making them use its language. We need to be careful of this when working with EAP students.

Macroaquisition: Macroacquisition is the spread of language to new speech communities – rather than individuals – via a process of second language acquisition (Brutt-Griffler, 2002).
Macro-New: “a clause or combination of clauses collecting together one or more hyper-News” (Martin, 1993, p. 249) – often refers to the concluding paragraph or ending of a piece of writing that summarises what the text has been about. The macro-New relates to the text in the same way that new – in given/new – relates to the clause.
Macro-Theme: “a clause or combination of clauses predicting one or more Hyper-Themes” (Martin, 1993, p. 249) – refers to the introductory paragraph in a piece of writing that predicts what the remaining text will be about. The macro-Theme relates to the text in the same way that theme – in theme/rheme – relates to the clause.
Mapping: Mapping is the process of relating – or aligning – the raw score or mark obtained in assessment with defined standards. It gives meaning to the scores.
Marking: Marking – or scoring – is the process of representing a student’s achievement or performance by numbers or symbols. Note that marks or grades do not in themselves have absolute meaning.
Means Analysis: Means Analysis involves a study of the local situation in order to determine how a language course may be implemented.
Metadiscourse: Metadiscourse is language that is used by a writer to guide the reader’s understanding of a text. It includes, for example, sequencing markers, attitude markers, transition markers, hedging and boosting markers etc. It is an important component of a writer’s voice. (See Hyland, 2005)
Metafunctions: The 3 metafunctions are the ways in which human beings use language – the meanings that we can make with language. They are classified by Halliday (1978, pp. 36-58) into three broad categories or metafunctions: interpersonal, ideational and textual.
MLA System: A common version of the Harvard referencing system. It is an author/date system and is defined by the Modern Language Association of America – MLA. The other well-know systems are the APA system, the Chicago system and the Vancouver system.
Modal Verb: A modal verb is a type of auxiliary verb. Its function is to modulate the meaning of the verb. They have grammatical functions, helping to form complex verbal groups. Examples are “can”, “may”, might”, “must”. According to Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999, p. 456) modal verbs account for 15% of verb use in academic texts. It is therefore important to teach them from an early stage.
Mode: In register, mode is the channel of communication being used (is it spoken or written or some combination of the two?) and the rhetorical mode, what is being achieved by the text in terms of such categories as persuasive, expository, didactic, etc.
Modification: A group consists of one or more words; a head word which is modified either before the head word (premodification) or after the head word (postmodification or qualification) or both.
Module: A module is a defined and self contained amount of study with defined objectives, syllabus and assessment procedures. Students study a combination of modules. In the UK, a module is typically worth 15 credits and is regarded as one twenty-fourth of the study normally required to obtain an honours degree.
Morpheme: A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit. For example the word “eating” is made up of two morphemes: “eat” and “ing”. There are two main kinds of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes, such as “eat”, can occur alone; bound morphemes, such as “ing” cannot occur alone. There are two types of bound morpheme: Inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. The study or morphemes is morphology.

Native Speaker

A native speaker is a person who uses the language they learned as a child without formal instruction. It does not necessarily have any relationship with someone’s competence in using ESP.

Needs Analysis

The practice of assessing the language and learning needs of learners in order to design a relevant course. ESP/EAP understands the wide variety of stakeholders involved (e.g. students, ESP/EAP lecturers, content lecturers, receiving departments, sponsors, employers, parents etc) and will involve them as much as possible in any assessment of needs.

NICE properties

The four NICE properties distinguish auxiliary verbs from main verbs. Auxiliary verbs are involved in Negation, Inversion, Code and Emphasis.

Nominal Group

A nominal group is typically a group with a noun as its Head. That noun is likely to be modified either before the noun (premodification) or after the noun (postmodification or qualification) or both. A typical structure is dmhq – determiner, modifier, head & qualifier. Written academic language uses nouns and nominal groups to a much greater extent than other word classes (Biber, 2006, p. 48, 137).

It would therefore seem sensible for EAP teaching to concentrate on nouns and building nominal groups rather than verbs and verbal groups.

Nominalisation

The process of forming a noun from some other word class. e.g. “red” + “ness” = “redness”. EAP uses a large number of nominalisations, but see Billig (2013).

Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication refers to communication that does not involve the use of words. It does not mean writing.

Norm-Referenced Assessment

In norm-referenced assessment or testing, students’ performance is compared to other students, rather than external criteria. So students are ranked and marks are given according to the student’s position within the ranking. This is not common in EAP. See criterion-referenced assessment.

Noticing

According to the noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990), learners cannot learn the features of a language unless they become aware of them or notice them. Noticing alone is not enough for learners to acquire language, but it is an essential starting point for acquisition. Teachers can help learners to notice aspects of the language.

Noun

Nouns are words such as “Henry”, “England”, “letter”, “laughter” & “beauty”. They are defined partly by their form and partly by their position or function.

There are several word endings that indicate that a word is a noun. Typical examples are “-ity”, “-ment”, “-ness”, “-tion”, & “-hood”. They usually change their form (inflect) for plural:- “-s”, “-es”.

With regard to their position, nouns frequently follow determiners “a”, “the”, “this”, “that” and their main function is head of a nominal group. Nouns are often classified into common nouns, proper nouns and pronouns.

Written academic language uses nouns to a much greater extent than other word classes (Biber, 2006, p. 48).

It would therefore seem sensible for EAP teaching to concentrate on nouns and building nominal groups rather than verbs.

Number

In English nouns and verbs can be described as singular or plural, depending on the number of things being referred to. For example “cat” is singular, “cats” is plural.

Object

Object is one important type of complement, a functional element of clause structure. It includes direct object and indirect object.

Object Complement

Object complement is one important type of complement, a functional element of clause structure. In the sentence “They elected John president”, “president” is the object complement.

Objective

The objectives of a course are the more specific statements of what will be presented to the learners in the course.

“By objectives I mean the pedagogic intentions of a particular course of study to be achieved within the period of that course and in principle measurable by some assessment device at the end of the course” (Widdowson, 1983).

It is valuable for EAP teachers to look at the objectives of the courses that their students are – or will be – studying.

(See Aims & Outcomes)

Occluded Genre

According to Swales (2004, p. 18), an occluded genre is one that is “out of sight” to outsiders and apprentices. Examples include promotion letters, correspondence with editors, discussions between examiners etc.

Outcomes/Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes of a module or programme are what the learners should be able to do after they have studied something.

Learning outcomes are usually defined in the following categories (QAA):

Knowledge & Understanding
Intellectual (Cognitive) Skills
Practical Skills
Transferable (Key) Skills

Outcomes are assessable and should be assessed.

It is valuable for EAP teachers to look at the intended outcomes of the courses that their students are – or will be – studying.

Outcomes are what Scrivener (2011), for example calls achievement aims.

(See Aims & Objectives)

Outer Circle

The second part of Kachru’s circles of word Englishes. The outer circle refers to second language speaking countries that were part of the second diaspora in the spread of English. Outer circle countries are often said to be norm-developing. Much education from secondary school onwards takes place in English in these areas, so they are important for ESP/EAP.

Output Hypothesis

According to Merrill Swain’s (1985) output hypothesis, when pushed to produce language, learners may notice a gap in their knowledge of the language. This is when learning takes place as learners need to learn language to fill the gaps. So being required to use the language in communication is an essential stage in language learning. In this context, Swain distinguishes three functions of output:

Learners encounter gaps between what they want to produce and what they are able to produce and so they notice what they do not know in the language.
When learners produce language, the learner can test the rules they are using, especially by receiving feedback.
By reflecting about the language the students can learn.

An important role of the teacher in ESP/EAP, then, is to provide opportunities for output.

Paralanguage

Paralanguage refers to the audible but non-verbal aspects of language. It includes: silence, loudness, pitch, noises – ahem, tut-tut, ugh, shh, etc. It is useful for students of ESP/EAP to be aware of this.

Paraphrase

Paraphrasing means putting another person’s ideas into your own words. It is important for EAP students to learn to paraphrase. It must be remembered that, even when paraphrasing, the source of the idea must be acknowledged.

Passive Voice

A passive sentence has the basic form “The fish was eaten.” It includes a passive verb. According to Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999, p. 477) verbs in their simple form account for 25% of verb use in academic texts. The short passive (without “by …” ) is much more common than the long passive with “by …”). It is therefore important to teach passive forms from an early stage.

Some verbs in academic texts occur mostly in the passive form.

Periodical

A periodical is a publication which is published on a regular basis, such as yearly, quarterly, weekly. Examples are academic journals, magazines and newspapers.

PhD

A PhD is the highest university qualification usually obtained after doing a period of research and writing a thesis. It is also called a doctorate.

Phoneme

A phoneme is a distinctive sound of a particular language. The study of phonemes is phonology.

Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of the production and perception of the speech sounds made by humans. The basic unit of phonetics is the phone. Phonetics is usually divide up into articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics.

Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sound system of the language. It studies phonemes.

Pidgin

A pidgin is a language created by speakers of different languages so they can communicate with each other.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the representation of another person’s work as the student’s own, either by extensive unacknowledged quotation, unacknowledged paraphrasing or direct copying.

Plural

In English nouns and verbs can be described as singular or plural, depending on the number of things being referred to. For example “cat” is singular, “cats” is plural. Plural nouns are common in academic writing (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan, 1999, p. 291-292).

Position

See: Voice.

Post-Graduate

A postgraduate (or graduate) student is a student who has already obtained one degree and is studying for a more advanced qualification.

Post-Modification

A group consists of one or more words, a head word which is modified either before the head word (premodification) or after the head word (postmodification or qualification) or both. Typical postmodifiers are:

relative clause – students who have no previous experience

to-clauses – the solution to the problem of inflation, the question to be debated

ing-clauses – a brake consisting of a drum divided into twelve compartments

ed-clauses –canoes preserved by a hard plaster, a brake consisting of a drum divided into twelve compartments, the curve shown

prepositional phrase – we need to bring to the box a special tool with a ready-compressed spring

adverb (phrase) – the road back, the people outside

adjective (phrase) – varieties common in India, the festival proper, something different

According to Biber, Johansonn, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999, p. 606), nominal groups with postmodifiers are common in written texts. The most common postmodifiers in academic texts are prepositional phrases, followed by relative clauses.

Pragmatic EAP

Harwood & Hadley (2004) distinguish between Pragmatic EAP, Critical EAP, and Critical Pragmatic EAP. Pragmatic EAP is simply concerned with investigating the existing language norms in an institution, and teaching them. Its purpose is to prepare students for the linguistic demands they will face. It depends very strongly on needs analyses. Critical EAP, on the other hand, is concerned with critiquing these existing practices. A critical approach criticises Pragmatic EAP for not questioning these existing norms. Pragmatic EAP expects, for example, international students in the UK to conform to UK educational practices, whereas Critical EAP might question them. Critical Pragmatic EAP tries to unite these different approaches, by accepting that while learners need to be aware of these institutional norms, they have choices and may choose not to adopt a particular practice (See Benesch, 2001; Canagarajah, 2002).

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language use in context. It studies the ways in which context and interaction contribute to meaning. Pragmatics includes speech act theory, cooperation and relevance, reference, politeness, and conversational analysis. Pragmatics is the study of speaker or utterance meaning.

Prague School

The Prague School was an influential group of literary critics and linguists in Prague (1928–1939). It is associated with famous Russian scholars such as Roman Jakobson, Nikolai Trubetzkoy, and Sergei Karcevskiy, as well as the famous Czech scholars such as Vilém Mathesius – who developed the theme/rheme idea. It was an important influence on linguists such as Dell Hymes, Jan Firbas & Michael Halliday. See Vachek (1966).

Pre-Sessional

A presessional course is an EAP course held before the students start their academic study. Pre-sessional courses are normally held during the summer and vary in length for 12 to 4 weeks. They can be general or specific, but the best ones will focus on the courses that the students hope to study.

Pre-Masters Course

A Pre-Masters course is usually a one year course to prepare students for entry to postgraduate courses. Pre-Masters courses normally include academic subjects as well as EAP. They can be general or specific, but the best ones will focus on the courses that the students hope to study.

Prefix

A prefix is a morpheme added to the beginning of a word to create another word. Affixes in English can be prefixes (before the original word) or suffixes (after the original word.

Pre-Modification

A group consists of one or more words, a head word which is modified either before the head word (premodification) or after the head word (postmodification or qualification) or both. Typical premodifiers are:

adjective – the constitutional aspects

ed-participle – a balanced budget, from the confused events of 19-24 August, the emitted light

ing-participle – growing problem, one striking feature of the years 1929-31, existing structures

noun – market forces, cabinet appointments

According to Biber, Johansonn, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999, p. 589), nominal groups with premodifiers are three to four times more common in written texts than in conversation. Adjectives and nouns are the most common premodifiers in academic texts.

Post-modifiers can be either restrictive or non-restrictive. Overall, restrictive postmodifiers are more common (85%)in academic texts. See postmodification.

Prepositional Phrase

A prepositional phrase is a preposition followed by a nominal group – “in the town”.

Present Situation Analysis

The practice of assessing the language competence of learners at the beginning of the course. Target Situation Analysis studies the target situation and analyses the language needed at the end of the course. The difference between the two will help to design a relevant course. Cf: Target Situation Analysis.

Presentation

An oral presentation is an academic talk. Presentations are becoming increasingly important as a means of assessment and most EAP course will therefore have a presentation element.

Progress Tests

Progress or achievement tests measure what a student has learned on a particular course. They measure how much progress has been made.

Prominence

Prominence or stress refers to the change in volume of sounds within a word during speech.

Proof-Reading

Proof-reading is the reading of early drafts of a piece of work to correct errors. The extent to which EAP teachers should be involved in the proof-reading of student work is controversial.

See, for example, Turner (2010).

PTE Academic

PTE Academic is an internationally recognised test of academic English, published by Pearson. An PTE Academic score gives a broad indication of a student’s level of English, but it does not give much useful information about the student’s ability to communicate in an academic context. See: www.pearsonpte.com/Pages/Home.aspx

QAA

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, UK. The QAA is an independent body funded by subscriptions from universities and colleges of higher education, and through contracts with the main higher education funding bodies. It exists to assure standards and improve the quality of UK higher education. See: www.qaa.ac.uk/

Qualification

See postmodification.

Quoting/Quotation

Quoting means using another person’s words in your own writing. When quoting, the source – including the page number – must always be acknowledged. Academic subjects vary in the extent that they use quoting.

You may need written permission if you include long quotations. Many publishers – e.g. American Psychological Association – allow extracts of up to 400 words to be used without requesting permission.

Rank

Rank refers to the hierarchical relations among the units. The three main ranks in grammar are: word, group and clause.
In grammar, a clause usually consists of one or more groups, a group consists of one or more words, a word consists of more than one morpheme. However, there are circumstances in which a unit can include a unit equal to or higher than itself. See: Rankshift.

Rankshift

Rankshifting refers to the use of a unit as a constituent of another unit of the same or lower rank on the rank scale.

Why the research funding was withdrawn was never adequately explained. (rankshifted clause as Subject in clause)

See: embedding.

Realisation

Realisation refers to the relationship between the more abstract and the more concrete levels of language – e.g. the relationship between content and expression is one of realisation or encoding. The meaning is realised by the sound or writing; discourse-semantics is realised by lexico-grammar, subjects may be realised by nominal groups etc.

Reference/Referential cohesion

One of the types of cohesion identified by Halliday & Hasan (1976) They identify three sub-types of referential cohesion – personal, demonstrative and comparative.

Reference/Citation

A citation/reference is a way of indicating in an essay or other piece of writing where the information has been obtained.

References List

At the end of an essay or report, it is necessary to have a list of the works (books, periodicals, Internet) that have been consulted. This is called a references list.

Reflection/Reflective Writing

“It is not sufficient simply to have an experience in order to learn. Without reflecting upon this experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential lost. It is from the feelings and thoughts emerging from this reflection that generalisations or concepts can be generated. And it is generalisations that allow new situations to be tackled effectively” (Gibbs, 1988, p. 9).

Reformulation

A technique whereby a competent user of ESP/EAP rewrites a learner’s text, retaining the learner’s intended meaning. Reformulation thus provides the learner with a useful model to learn from.

Register

Register is a variety of language distinguished according to its use. It includes three main variables – field, tenor & mode – that largely determine the language choices that are made.

Relative Clause

A relative clause is a clause which functions as a postmodifier in a nominal group. They are usually introduced by a relative pronoun: which, where, who, that.

Stuart Ball’s excellent account of the Conservative party in opposition is a book which casts an enormous amount of light on the inner life of the party.

Research

Research is a systematic process of finding out information and investigating the unknown to answer questions or solve a problem. It involves identifying a problem, understanding what information is relevant to addressing that problem, getting the information and interpreting that information and its context.

The word “research” seems to be used in three main ways:

It is the process of investigating the unknown to answer questions.
It also involves communicating any findings by presenting them at conferences or publishing in journals.
It often involves gaining external funding in order to carry out the above.

EAP cannot exist without 1. It is always worth communicating anything you find to other people. It’s always nice to be funded for doing it.

Rheme

See Theme/Rheme

Rhetorical Patterns/Discourse Patterns/Textual Patterns/Clause Relations

Rhythm

Rhythm refers to the change in volume of sounds within a clause during speech.

RP

RP (received pronunciation) is the prestige accent of British English.

Scaffolding: The provision of instructional support. Often used in connection with Vygotsky’s ZPD, within which the learner will develop given adequate scaffolding.
Scan: A reading technique used to find a particular piece of information in a text.
Schematic Structure: In genre analysis, schematic structure refers to the set of different stages that a genre moves through.
Scoring: Scoring – or marking – is the process of representing a student’s achievement or performance by numbers or symbols. Note that marks or grades do not in themselves have absolute meaning.
Self-Assessment: Self-assessment describes a situation in which learners assess their own language abilities.
Self-Directed or Independent Learning: Self-directed learning is learning which is controlled by the student and done in the student’s time. This is very important in UK.
Semantics: Semantics is the area of language study that deals with language meanings. It is usually concerned with word, group and clause meanings.
Semester: Teaching at many UK universities is divided into 2 semesters: Semester A is from September to the end of January & Semester B is from February to May. Post-graduates often do a project or dissertation in Semester C.
Seminar: A seminar is one of the main ways of teaching at universities. A seminar is usually a formal meeting of a small group of students (about 15). Very often in seminars, one of the students will lead.
Semiology: Semiology is the study of signs or communication systems – hence semiotic, semiotics.
Sentence: A sentence in written English is a group of words that starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. It may consist of one or more clauses. It is not easy to identify a sentence in spoken English.; There are three main types of sentence: simple, compound and complex.
Sheltered Content Instruction: See Content Based Instruction – CBI.
Simple Sentence: A simple sentence consists of one clause that stands alone.
Singular: In English nouns and verbs can be described as singular or plural, depending on the number of things being referred to. For example “cat” is singular, “cats” is plural.
Situated Cognition: Situated cognition argues that knowing cannot be separated from doing and that all knowledge is situated in activity embedded in social, cultural and physical contexts. (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989)
Situated Literacies: “Literacies are situated. All uses of written language can be seen as located in particular times and places. Equally, all literate activity is indicative of broader social practices.” (Barton, Hamilton & Ivanič, 2000).
Skim: A type of rapid reading in order to get the main ideas from a text.
Social Genres: Social genres are complete text types defined by their social purpose. For example, essays, reports, research articles. They are clearly recognised as such in the communities in which they are known. They are typically constructed by combining a range of cognitive genres. (Bruce, 2008)
Stakeholders: The very wide range of people who have an interest in the EAP programme. They may include: students, EAP lecturers, content lecturers, receiving departments, sponsors, embassies, government, advisers, schools, employers, parents and family etc. Many of them can provide valuable input to the analysis of needs at the course design stage.
Stance: See: Voice.
Standard: A standard or a criterion-level is a characteristic against which a student’s performance can be judged. “Standard – A definite level of excellence of attainment, or a definite degree of any quality viewed as a prescribed object or endeavour or as the recognised measure of what is adequate for some purpose” Sandler (2005, p 189). See criterion.
Stress: Prominence or stress refers to the change in volume of sounds within a word during speech.
Structure: Structure refers to the ways in which an occurrence of one unit is made up of functional elements. Subject, Predicator, Complement & Adjunct are elements of Clause structure; modifier, head and qualifier are elements of Nominal Group structure.
Subject: Subject is a functional element of clause structure. A typical structure of a clause is SPCA – subject, predicator, complement, adjunct. Subject is typically realised by a nominal group, but may not be. For example, in the sentence: “Having to rewrite his dissertation was time-consuming,” the subject is an -ing clause.
Subject Complement: Subject complement is one important type of complement, a functional element of clause structure. In the sentence “John is a teacher”, “a teacher” is the subject complement.
Subordinate Clause: A subordinate clause is a clause which depends on another clause.
Substitution: One of the types of cohesion identified by Halliday & Hasan (1976). They identify three sub-types of substitution – nominal, verbal and clausal.
Suffix: A suffix is a morpheme added to the end of a word to create another word. Affixes in English can be prefixes (before the original word) or suffixes (after the original word).
Summative Assessment: Summative assessment is assessment that measures a student’s ability. Its function is to assign a grade to the student, which will contribute to the overall mark.
Supporting Genres: Supporting Genre is the phrase used by Swales & Feak (2011) for the less public types of genres that research students need to be able to deal with. For example, applications, letters of recommendation, e-mails, etc.
Syllable: A syllable is a unit of pronunciation. It consists of a vowel plus accompanying consonants. the word “university” consists of five syllables “u-ni-ver-si-ty”.
Synonym: A synonym is similar in meaning: “big” and “large.” EAP students need to learn synonyms in order to paraphrase. However, they need to be careful as words words with specific technically precise meanings cannot be paraphrased.
Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL): Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a theory of language which grew out of the work of J. R. Firth, a British linguist of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, but was mainly developed by M. A. K. Halliday. SFL places the function – what it does and how it is used – of language in the centre. From my point of view, it is the only complete theory of language, starting, as it does, with the social context – and genre – and including all the levels down to spelling or phonetics.

Target Needs

Target Needs describe what the learners need to do in the target situation.

Target Situation Analysis

The practice of assessing the target language needs of learners in order to design a relevant course. Target Situation Analysis studies the target situation and analyses the language needed in that situation. This will help to define what the learners will need to be able to do at the end of the course. Cf: Present Situation Analysis.

Task-Based Learning

Task-based language learning (TBL) focuses on the use of authentic language and on students doing meaningful tasks using the target language.

In a similar way to Communicative Language Teaching, Task Based Learning has a strong form and a weak form. For teachers who believe in the strong form of TBL, in order to learn, students need to be involved in the communicative use of language. The main methods of teaching would therefore be the provision of authentic academic tasks.

In a weaker version of TBL, the real world tasks needed by the learners would define the content to be learned. The weaker aspect of TBL is therefore concerned with syllabus and course design. It depends on clear target language needs analyses and skills audits. This is important in EAP. This would then be supported by various activities which focus on language.

EAP generally uses a task-based methodology, focussing on authentic academic tasks. In fact, some of the earliest examples of task-based learning are EAP.

TBL

See: Task Based Learning.

Team Teaching

A content teacher and an EAP teacher working together with a particular group. They may be both in the classroom at the same time, but this is not always the case. Team teaching is expensive but very useful.

Tenor

In register, tenor refers to the relationship between the participants.

TENOR

Teaching English for No Obvious Reason (Abbot, 1980). The alternative to ESP. As Halliday points out (1969, p. 25) “the distinction between a general register and a special register is without foundation; there is no such thing as a general register, in fact.”

Tense

Tense is an inflection of the verb that relates to time. English has two tenses: present (eat) and past (ate). According to Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999, p. 456) verbs in the present tense account for 70% of verb use in academic texts and verbs in the past tense for 15% of verb use in academic texts. It is therefore important to teach them from an early stage. See Aspect.

Text

The term text refers to any coherent connected stretch of language. It is used to refer to stretches of both spoken and written language. Text may be as short as one word, e.g. EXIT, or may be as long as a book such as a training manual or a thesis.

Textual

The textual function of language is the function of language used to relate what is said (or written) to the real world and to other linguistic events. Textual meanings are concerned with the interaction of interpersonal and ideational information as text in context. Textual meanings are realised by systems of Theme/Rheme and Given/New.

Textual Patterns/Clause Relations/Rhetorical Patterns/Discourse Patterns

Theme-Based Language Instruction

See Content Based Instruction – CBI.

Theme/Rheme

One way of describing the information structure of a clause. The theme is the initial part of the clause – the topic – and the rheme is the final part of the clause – what is being said about the topic. Another way is given/new. Knowledge of these relationships is useful in constructing coherent paragraphs in EAP. It is sometimes called topic/comment (e.g. Hocket, 1958, p. 201)

The theme/rheme distinction (although in the early days the distinction between theme/rheme and given/new was not made) was originally conceived by Henri Weil (1844/1887, p. 29):

“There is then a point of departure, an initial notion which is equally present to him who speaks and to him who hears, which forms, as it were, the ground upon which the two intelligences meet; and another part of discourse which forms the statement (l’énonciation), properly so called.”

and then developed by the Prague School (especially Vilém Mathesius, see: Vachek, 1966) and Halliday (e.g. Halliday, 1967b). It was Halliday who introduced the distinction between theme/rheme and given/new.

Thesis Statement

In an essay, the thesis statement summarises the main argument of the writer. It is usually quite short and can usually be found at the end of the first paragraph. Many textbooks teach the thesis statement as established fact and emphasise the importance of writing a thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph in every essay. However, it is typical of a short five-paragraph argumentative essay and may not be relevant in other genres.

TOEFL

TOEFL is an internationally recognised English language test, mainly USA. See: www.ets.org/toefl

Topic Sentence

A topic sentence is an important sentence in a paragraph which clearly states what the paragraph is about. It is often the first sentence of the paragraph, and the remainder of the paragraph goes into more detail about the information provided in the topic sentence.

Many textbooks teach the topic sentence as an established fact and emphasise the importance of writing a topic sentence as the first sentence in every paragraph. However, various people, e.g. Michael Hoey, have discussed “death to the topic sentence”. Despite that, it can be a helpful idea. See also hyper-Theme.

Topic/Comment

See: Theme/Rheme

Unit: A unit is a stretch of language that carries grammatical patterns or which operates in grammatical patterns – sentence, clause, group, word and morpheme.
UWL: University Word List. An early list of words used in academic texts (Xue & Nation, 1984). It is composed of 808 words, divided into 11 levels. It has now been superseded by AWL.

Vancouver System

A well-known referencing system commonly used in science and medicine. It is a numerical system, which involves putting a number (in brackets or as a superscript) in the text. The numbers are used to refer to the reference list. References are numbered in the list in the order they first appear in the text.

Verb

Verbs are words like “eat”, “singing” &”listened”. They are defined partly by their form and partly by their position or function.

Verbs usually change their form – that is they inflect. A typical verb such as “eat” has five main forms: “eat”, “eats”, “eating”, “ate” & “eaten”. These form as often referred to as “base”, “-s”, “-ing”, “-ed”, “-en”. Irregular verbs may have fewer forms. For example “walk” has only four forms: “walk”, “walks”, “walked”, “walking”.

With regard to their position, they often fit in the following patterns: “The boy … the fish”, “He … carefully”. “She … intelligent”.

Their main function is head of a verbal group. There are two main types of verb: lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs.

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication refers to communication that involves the use of words. It is not, strictly speaking, a synonym for speaking or oral language.

Verbal Group

A verbal group is typically a group with a verb as its head. That verb is likely to be modified either before the verb (premodification) with auxiliary verbs or after the verb (postmodification or qualification) or both. An example is “has been eaten”.

Voice

1. A verb – or a clause – may be in the active or passive voice.

2. In academic writing, or speaking, it is often necessary for the writer to make it clear to their reader what opinion they hold or what their position is with regard to a certain issue. This is often called their “voice” or their “position” or their “claim” or “stance“. This position may be based on other people’s research (e.g., Smith & Jones) or their own research (“it can be seen from Table 1”), but the conclusion the writer has come to is their own.

It is not enough for a writer to simply describe a situation or recall the facts, they need to take a stance or position themselves in relation to the situation or the facts. This is particularly important in assessment when they have to answer a question. Of course, the writer needs to know and reproduce the information, but they also need to use the information to give an answer to the question, to give THEIR answer to the question. It is therefore useful for writers to be able to recognise the different voices in a text and learn how to make their own clear.

Hyland’s (2005) concept of metadiscourse is an important component of voice.

Vowel

A vowel is one of the two main categories that speech sounds are divided into. The other is consonant. Vowels are formed by changing the shape of the mouth, without any close contact.

Weak Form: A weak form is one of two possible pronunciations of a syllable. The other is the strong form. For example the word “have” can be pronounced with its strong form /hæv/, or its weak form /həv/ or even /əv/.
Word: A word, in written English, is identified by having a space (or punctuation) before or after it. A word consists of one or more morphemes.Words combine to form groups.
Word Family: A word family consists of a headword, its inflected forms, and its closely related derived forms. It includes affixes such as “-ly, -ness” and “un-“. “tidy, tidies, tidied, tidying, tidily, tidiness, untidy, untidily, untidiness” belong to the same word family.
Word Order: The sequential arrangement of words in a larger linguistic unit.
Wordsmith Tools: Very useful computer software for studying texts, by Mike Scott. It can, for example, identify keywords, which is very useful for ESP/EAP. See www.lexically.net
Workshop: A workshop is one of the main ways of teaching at universities. Usually participants in a workshop will be expected to be active and contribute to the success of the session. See lecture, seminar, tutorial.

ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development. A Vygotskyan term, referring to the potential range of development for any given learner. It is determined in relation to the learner’s current abilities and is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help (or scaffolding). The ESP teacher’s role is to provide that scaffolding.