Researching the HE Context Outside the EAP Classroom

Abstract

EAP provision orients itself to the wider higher education context and EAP research is contextualised, broadly or narrowly, within higher education settings. As mentioned in the previous chapter, a text that makes an excellent starting point for research into the wider context in which EAP provision is embedded is Tight’s (2012) mapping of areas and approaches to the study of higher education. Tight’s overview of key aspects of university life covers teaching and learning, course design (which subsumes technologies, student writing and assessment), the student experience, quality, system policy, institutional management, academic work and, finally, knowledge and research as such. The present chapter focuses on the areas of students’ academic experience, writing and assessment, and use of technology in teaching and learning, areas which the majority of EAP practitioners would be interested in exploring in more depth; research into professional services is also included, given the important role that these services have in shaping international students’ academic experience in a university outside their home country.