EAP offers courses, workshops, and other instructional events and materials designed to improve the use of English in academic discipline-specific writing and speaking.
The Unit for English for Academic Purposes is part of the University Library’s research support services and supports OsloMet’s departments and programs which use English as a working language in studies and research.
The unit’s staff consists of three PhDs (two associate professors and one full professor), all with extensive research and teaching experience and distinguished records of scientific publications.
The ability to use language effectively for writing and speaking in academic and professional settings is often perceived as a generic or “soft” skill, one that does not need to be taught explicitly as a part of professional training.
However, our work is rooted in a body of research and evidence-based practice in the well-established academic disciplines of Writing Studies, English for Academic Purposes, Professional and Technical Communication, and other related subfields.
Research in those fields holds that knowledge-making and knowledge acquisition, as well as professional training takes place through language use in writing and speaking, and that learning to use language effectively in academic and professional settings are necessary conditions for such education and training.
Furthermore, studies show that expecting students of all levels, as well as teaching and research staff to acquire the necessary skills in academic and professional language use on their own is not realistic.
Consequently, those skills need to be taught, explicitly and systematically, and that learners of those skills need to have multiple and frequent opportunities for practice and feedback from others.
Our unit provides OsloMet exactly with that kind of learning support. Specifically, our contributions include:
Conference: Norwegian Forum for English for Academic Purposes, 2024: EAP and Hybridity (13–14 June, 2024).