Language as academic purpose

Abstract In this article, I argue for an understanding of EAP to be mobilised more around language, its materiality, especially in written form, and the intellectual challenge of learning it. Concomitantly, I argue against the increasing technicisation of language, as it is embodied in the regulatory framework of institutions and its emaciation as an intellectual challenge, partly as a result of the language/content dichotomy which positions language in the subordinate role, and partly because of the self-understanding of EAP practice itself. I argue for a shift in conceptualisation from language as instrument to language as constitutive, and that language proficiency in the academic context is as important as content. With such a re-conceptualisation comes a need for EAP to re-think its practices and to seek to enhance the value of language work in the market of intellectual labour.

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