Professional Development (PD) for EAP Practitioners: A Transitional Readiness for

Abstract

In response to the 2030 Bilingual Policy, EMI (English Medium Instruction) has been rapidly developed and implemented at the tertiary level in Taiwan, but one of the major concerns is the readiness of learners' proficiency in the target language (i.e., English) to master the disciplinary content and the language used to deliver it. In this talk, we argue that there is an urgent need to prepare EAP (English for Academic Purposes) practitioners to bridge this gap. We will review what the existing literature addresses in order to highlight our need. First, we discuss the history of the development of EAP, a sub-discipline within ESP and a branch of English language teaching, focusing on academic contexts, together with EAP pedagogy and its actual practice in the classroom. We then go on to explain why teacher education for EAP is currently overlooked, and what needs to be done to prepare qualified EAP practitioners who can improve the learning experiences of EMI learners in the future. Different models of PD provision for EAP teachers and various factors influencing its design are also reviewed. Finally, we argue that a sustainable PD framework should include theoretical foundations, practical application, technology integration and collaborative learning opportunities to effectively support EAP learners and help them make a seamless transition to an EMI classroom.