Late nineteenth-century German-English rivalry changed attitudes in Hamburg. Previously, the once fiercely independent city and its burgeoning mercantile middle class had developed an Anglophilia that justified Hamburg being labelled a "London suburb" and "the most British town on the Continent". The affinity for all things…

Numerous studies have investigated the occurrence of modifiers in a variety of settings, especially academic research writing and casual spoken contexts. This study extends previous research in two ways: (1) it examines pragmatic force modifiers (PFMs) (and) in lectures in BASE and MICASE in order to reveal their functions specific to the…

The internationalisation of universities often means that the language of learning and teaching needs to be changed -- at present most commonly to English. Apart from English-speaking countries, then, most European universities offer their degree programmes in a language that is not the first language of either the students or the teachers. This…

Several previous studies have investigated the use of questions to facilitate interactions in academic lectures in tertiary education. However, the issue of how disciplinary cultures influence the patterns of questions in lectures has received little attention. Therefore, this study aims to examine the interdisciplinary differences in professors'…

This review article extends the conventional notion of academic listening to include reciprocal (two-way) listening events in academic settings, as well as (one-way) listening to lectures. The introductory section highlights the comparatively low profile of listening in EAP research, due in part to the inherent complexity of listening and its…

This paper analyses laughter in spoken academic discourse, with the aim of discovering why lecturers provoke laughter in their lectures. A further purpose of the paper is to identify episodes in British data which may differ from those in other cultural contexts where other lecturing practices prevail, and thus to inform the design of study skills…

This paper explores the views of international students and academic staff on the use of prior professional experience in disciplinary academic writing in Australian higher education. The main finding of this case study indicates that disciplinary practice related to the issue of whether, and how, students should represent aspects of their prior…

This paper reports on the piloting of podcasts created to support Anglophone French Immersion (FI) students in academic listening. The authors developed a series of seven English language podcasts grounded in metacognitive and L2 listening theory to provide FI students with strategies to enhance L2 listening ability and note-taking skills for…

This article examines the language-related challenges that first-year students face when adjusting to the demands of English-medium higher education in Hong Kong. The article is based on the findings of a longitudinal study which tracked the university careers of 28 students from a range of backgrounds via in-depth, semi-structured interviews…

Lecture discourse has been conventionally known to be of a monological nature. However, lectures are more highly regarded if they allow for reciprocal discourse, especially for students of other languages who need help in understanding the content and in appropriating the language. In this paper, we will attempt a qualitative analysis of the…

Research in English for Academic Purposes has begun to show that non-native speakers of English have much difficulty in English academic listening at American universities. Chinese students, who are from a very different educational system and cultural environment, experience special challenges in English academic listening. This paper focuses on…

Research with ESL students has begun to show that Chinese students experience particular challenges in English academic listening. This study focuses on their challenges as reported by Chinese ESL students in understanding English lectures. Seventy-eight Chinese ESL students at an American university participated in this study. This paper focuses…

Research with ESL students studying at North American universities has indicated that Chinese students have difficulties in understanding academic lectures, taking notes, writing assignments, and giving presentations although they have obtained high TOEFL scores. The study investigates their English academic listening challenges as reported by…

Many recent authors have examined the new role that Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) programs are playing in the rethinking of academic culture and discourse at contemporary universities. In this essay, the author argues that the WAC movement is centered on an understanding of knowledge as being intertextual, interdisciplinary, dialogical,…

Interactive lectures play an important role in improving comprehension and in enhancing communicative competence in the English language for EFL university students taking content lecture courses. This article considers the interactive discourse in lectures of the English Studies Department at the University of Alicante, Spain. It describes an…