Assessing the Impact of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Instruction on the Rhetorical Features and Structure of Student Writing in an English Medium Instruction (EMI) University

This study looks at changes in the rhetorical structure and features of L2 university student writing after receiving English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction. Previous research suggests that the way ideas are presented in text can vary across different cultures. This potentially means that L2 students, who study in English Medium Instruction (EMI) universities, may have to learn how to organize and arrange their ideas in writing to align with what their content area instructors expect to see. The EAP courses that L2 students take, to prepare them for the challenges of studying in an EMI university, primarily focus on language use, but these also may draw students’ attention to possible differences in written discourse in L1 and L2 and help learners to produce the type of writing that is expected by their EMI instructors. To examine this, the present study looked at changes in the rhetorical features and structure of L2 student writing produced before and after learners had completed a 17-week EAP course. After the completion of writing, semi-structured interviews were also carried out with 10 randomly selected participants to gauge their opinions about possible rhetorical differences in written discourse in their first and second languages. Findings revealed that there were significant changes in the rhetorical structure and features of L2 student text after learners had completed EAP instruction. These results suggest that EAP instruction may help students to produce writing that aligns with the expectations of their instructors.