JOINED-UP ESAP: DRAWING ON INSESSIONAL PROVISION TO ESTABLISH AN ESAP PRESESSIONAL PROGRAMME

While it is generally agreed that some level of specificity is beneficial for students of Academic English preparing for UK university courses, this is not consistently reflected in presessional course design. Although Hyland (2006a) stresses the importance of subject-specific content in contextualising EAP and making it relevant to learners, others, including Kuzborska (2011), Anderson (2014) and de Chazal (2012) have noted the difficulties its inclusion can present for teachers and course designers. Incorporating subject-specific content necessitates collaboration with subject specialists, but it can be difficult to engage subject lecturers with presessional courses. The positioning of presessional departments within wider institutional contexts can be a significant factor; EAP is often marginalised within universities (as noted by Turner, 2011 and Jackson, 2009) and many presessional departments have been privatised in recent years. Additionally, presessional students may be destined for a huge number of courses distributed across all faculties and departments in an institution, and all levels of study. This paper details the approach we took to setting up an ESAP component within an otherwise EGAP presessional course, and how we were able to meet some of the challenges by working closely with insessional lecturers.