Chinese EAP teachers’ graduate-level English academic writing instruction and their professional development

Abstract

In China, it has been widely recognized that graduate students urgently need to develop capabilities in engaging in academic communication at the international level, above all through writing and publishing their research in English. This educational need has stimulated the growth of EAP and the teaching of English academic writing (EAW) to graduate students across disciplines at Chinese universities. In this paper we report an interview-based study which focused on understanding Chinese emerging EAP teachers’ graduate-level EAW instruction and their endeavors of professional development (PD). Our study adds to the limited existing literature on EAP practitioners’ contextualized teaching practices and their professional development, and generates insights that can be drawn upon by EAP professionals in other contexts.