EAP Teachers Working in, with and through the Creative Arts

Abstract

In English for Specific Academic Purpose (ESAP), it is essential to understand context in order to best meet the needs of students and help them to understand the values and practices of their own academic discourse communities. These are already present within departments to be observed, and do not need to be artificially recreated. As Maton (2014, p.12) has observed: 'We [...] do not have to [...] attempt by ourselves to recreate what has taken, in the case of 'academic' knowledge, thousands of years and even more minds to develop.' Johns (1997, p.71) advocated that in order to truly understand the values and practices of a discipline, it is necessary to become 'campus mediators and researchers', ethnographers who explore texts, contexts and roles. Therefore, building on the foundations of ethnographic work already undertaken in EAP by Swales (1998) and EAP in the Creative Arts by Riley-Jones (2012), this chapter aims to:• explore the pedagogies of four EAP practitioners working in creative arts through themes emerging from reflections to gain a better understanding of the intertwining between EAP and creative pedagogies;