Plenary Speech

EAP in a Changing World: Towards a New Research Agenda

Abstract

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has evolved from its beginnings as a pragmatic branch of English language teaching into a mature, interdisciplinary field concerned with the linguistic mediation of knowledge. While continuing to play a crucial role in the higher education of students around the world, contemporary developments have radically reconfigured the conditions of academic communication in which it operates. English now functions within a global-digital-plural ecosystem characterised by multilingual practices, multimodal genres, and algorithmic mediation. These changes present EAP with new theoretical and pedagogical challenges that extend beyond language description or skills instruction, demanding critical engagement with the ethical, technological, and epistemic dimensions of academic literacy. This paper proposes that we need a new research agenda for EAP that addresses three intersecting domains: the impact of artificial intelligence on academic writing and authorship; the diversification of academic communication in a globalised and open-science environment; and the implications of disciplinary hybridity and epistemic pluralism for pedagogy and research. In doing so, it positions EAP as a critical and epistemic discipline central to understanding how language, technology, and knowledge co-evolve and operate in the contemporary academy.