Perspective Chapter: English for Academic Purposes Teacher Education – Prerequisites, Predicaments, and Perquisites

Abstract

A scrutiny of the factors which sway language instruction in the context of the classroom has made the researchers cognizant of the fact that teachers perform a pivotal role in the process of instructed Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The apprehension of this issue has prompted a large number of researchers to use teacher education as a surrogate for the traditional term teacher training in order to illustrate the multi-layered nature of the prospective teachers’ preparation period. Meanwhile, SLA researchers have taken cognizance of the fact that even the state-of-the-art teacher education courses may not empower the language instructors, who teach English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses, to fulfill their potential in the pertinent courses. Considering the above-mentioned issues, this chapter strives to review the recent research in order to: (a) expound on the essential prerequisites for the development of EAP teacher education courses; (b) determine the probable major hurdles in the teaching of these courses; and (c) extol the virtues of the relevant courses in different academic settings.