TAILORING AN EAP COURSE TO DISCIPLINARY NEEDS: THE UNIMAS EFFORT

Abstract

In this paper we sketch our response to the problem of matching the UNIMAS English for Academic Purposes curriculum with the various subject needs of our students. We start by accepting a functional view of language and the intimacy of language and context-in this case the contexts of various disciplines. We argue that the academic language needs of our students are closely related to the purposes of the disciplines they are being inducted into. That is, different disciplines foreground different types of language-in terms of genre, grammar and lexis. These variations aec noted, exemplified and explained. Finally, we outline the genre-based pedagogical cycle that we have adopted to translate theoretical insights into effective practice.