افاق للعلوم
Volume 8, Numéro 4, Pages 01-08
2023-10-14

A Systematic Approach Toward The Notion And Features Of Academic English In Higher Education Programmes

Authors : Saridaki Evanthia .

Abstract

Academic English refers to a variety or a register of English that is used in professional books and it is distinguished from General English by the specific linguistic features associated with academic disciplines. Academic English tasks involve reading abstracts, getting down the key ideas from academic lectures and also producing academic piece of writing such as critiques, summaries, reports, research projects or expository essays. The present article attempts to provide a multidimensional conceptual framework toward the notion of Academic English in higher education programmes. It also features the similarities and differences between Academic and General English in order to highlight the role of both types of English in language teaching practices. Furthermore, it describes the features and basic dimensions that Academic English should possess based on a theoretical model of academic literacy that is proposed by Kern (2000). The main conclusion is that the objectives of teaching Academic English should be diverse, including, apart from linguistic competence development, other subcompetences equally important to the process of learning English for Academic Purposes such as the sociocultural, strategic and metalinguistic competences.

Keywords

Academic English, General English, academic disciplines, components of Academic English, English language competence development