Subject lecturers’, EAP tutors’, and students’ perspectives on the initial implementation of university-wide academic literacy support in an emerging EMI context

Abstract

It is now widely acknowledged that academic literacy support for university students is at its best when it is institution-wide, inclusive of all students, and tailored to students’ disciplines. While there have been a few examples of whole-of-institution, discipline-specific language and literacy development initiatives in universities in Australia, these are rare internationally and have not been evidenced within newer English medium instruction (EMI) universities. To address this lack, the purpose of this paper is to report on the design and implementation of discipline-specific, university-wide academic literacy provision applied in compulsory EAP modules in one EMI university in Lebanon, as well as the perceptions of the students and teaching staff regarding the new provision. Data collection in this case study included semi-structured interviews with the EAP tutors and discipline specialists, student focus groups, a student questionnaire, and classroom observations. The findings from this study show that the students, EAP tutors, and subject specialists all viewed the approach applied in the newly designed EAP modules positively. However, the findings also highlight the challenges the EAP tutors and the subject lecturers faced in applying the genre-based collaborative approach. This research contributes to the body of literature focused on institution-wide academic literacy support and will be of interest to those involved in the design and implementation of such support in higher education institutions across both long-established and emerging English medium educational contexts.