School of Languages at XJTLU Conference 2024

In this presentation I will review current trends in the field of EAP, including the multilingual and translingual turn, academic literacy in a post-modernist era, and the ever more complicated context in the age of gen AI. I will argue that academic literacy needs to be viewed holistically, considering power dynamics and stakeholders’ agency in the local context. I will then draw on preliminary findings from my study of lecturers’ and students’ perceptions of academic literacy in an EMI university to illustrate the variation in their beliefs. 13 lecturers and 18 students participated in the study. Q methodology was employed to tap into their overall position on literacy as a whole. It was found that both participants groups downplayed the Chinese language and informal learning activities in completing coursework, but there were also differences across participant groups. Q methodology was regarded useful for investigating the participants’ subjective beliefs of academic literacy, instead of studying the instruments as in traditional quantitative studies. Implications will be discussed for EAP teaching.