Critical perspectives

This chapter charts the rise, decline, and potential future of critical EAP as an ideological frontline in the ‘EAP story’. The chapter sets out the emergence of CEAP in the 1990s and 2000s, and its origins in the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School of the 1930s. As developed by Benesch and Pennycook, CEAP was also conceived as a discourse and pedagogy of emancipation, challenging the educational status quo. This is termed ‘first wave’ Critical EAP. The chapter then highlights the risk that Critical EAP becomes simply another regime of truth, a new status quo, that in turn imposes a new hegemony on learners; a potential ‘crisis of the first wave’. The chapter then explores the scope for a ‘second wave Critical EAP’ located in local practice, creating space to better critique the critical and empower learners and their communities. The chapter concludes with a look at how, though EAP has entered a productive era of self-reflection and taken a ‘social turn’, Critical EAP has, to some degree, faded from view. Nevertheless, it is argued that the grand narratives advanced by CEAP remain relevant and underpin much of the social turn.