Ready for the changes? Exploring EAP teachers’ competencies and training needs in tertiary level in China

Chen, Yu

doi:10.3389/feduc.2025.1707419

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ., 12 January 2026

Sec. Higher Education

Volume 10 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1707419

Ready for the changes? Exploring EAP teachers’ competencies and training needs in tertiary level in China

Yu Chen^*

College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

English for academic purposes (EAP) has become increasingly prominent in tertiary education in China, as the focus of college English is shifting from general language proficiency toward supporting students’ academic studies and research engagement. Particularly in the digital era of teaching and learning, the expectations placed on teachers have become more diverse, further underscoring the need for targeted preparation and support. With this growing importance, greater attention is now being given to the professional preparation and development of EAP teachers. This study aimed to identify the challenges TEAP (Teacher of English for Academic Purposes) face in EAP implementation, examine the competencies required for their roles, and propose suggestions for TEAP training and education in China. A mixed method was designed to address this issue. Questionnaires were first presented to 21 EAP teacher participants to collect their demographic information and their perceptions of key aspects of EAP courses, including course scheduling, instruction methods, teachers’ competence and requirements. This was followed by semi-structured interviews with the same group of teachers, and the data were analyzed thematically. The findings of this research highlight the diverse responsibilities of EAP teachers, the challenges they face in the transformation from teachers of EGP to EAP. Moreover, insights are provided into EAP teacher training and professional development. The success of EAP will rely on a systematic and sustainable approach to teacher education and professional support.

1 Introduction

Over the last half-century, driven by globalization, the internationalization of higher education, and the growing dominance of English as the lingua franca in academic publishing and corporate exchange (Bruce and Bond, 2022; Hyland, 2022), English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) have established themselves as “a major force in English language teaching and research” (Hyland, 2007, p. 391) within universities worldwide. To equip students for thriving in global academic and professional environments, ESP/EAP instruction has been integrated into existing General English (EGP) programs or fully transitioned from EGP to ESP/EAP curricula. This curricular expansion has correspondingly increased the demand for ESP and EAP educators (Ding and Campion, 2016), a majority of whom transition from teaching EGP, TESOL, or General English—often coming from humanities-oriented academic backgrounds (Alexander, 2012; Ding and Bruce, 2017).

For these teachers, moving from EGP to ESP/EAP instruction entails considerable pedagogical and professional adaptation, underscoring the need for robust support from institutional leaders as well as access to research that documents successful transition strategies and effective teaching practices in ESP/EAP contexts. Although their background in EGP teaching and prior training offers a foundational basis in language pedagogy and classroom management within ESP/EAP contexts (Ding and Bruce, 2017), teachers transitioning into ESP/EAP have indicated that their General English experience falls short in equipping them to meet the specific demands of ESP/EAP instruction (Meihami and Krajka, 2023). Numerous studies have reported significant difficulties encountered by these teachers during this shift (e.g., Martin, 2014; Suherman, 2024).

In China, college English teaching and learning are undergoing fundamental changes. The curriculum system and teaching objectives have gradually changed from EGP to EAP, which means English courses are becoming increasingly focused on catering to students’ needs in their future professional studies, occupational development, and further research in specialized fields. In contrast, English teachers find themselves unprepared to meet the special challenges of coaching academic content in English language teaching, since the teaching materials and methods, teachers’ theoretical level, teaching ideology and teaching strategies are noticeably more complex. Despite some development in the implementation of EAP, teachers’ professional education and training continue to “lag behind the vast expansion in the need for teachers of EAP” (Hamp-Lyons, 2011, p. 18). Because of this lag, thorough studies are required to be conducted on how to assist and train teachers in their capacities for the teaching of EAP. ESP/EAP teachers often suffer from heavy teaching loads and administrative work (Ding, 2019) with little support in developing a knowledge base in EAP or pursuing scholarship of teaching and learning (Ding and Bruce, 2022).

This study investigates the concerns, challenges, and needs experienced by TEAPs in China. The research aims to identify major obstacles in the transition process and proposes strategies to better support EAP teacher professional development. The findings not only contribute to the design of more effective ESP/EAP teacher education programs, but also offer valuable insights for educational institutions and policy-makers to facilitate successful teacher transitions across diverse academic settings.

2 Literature review

2.1 Shifting roles and responsibilities in the transition from EGP to EAP teaching

Since its emergence in the 1970s, the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has attracted significant research attention. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) were among the first to outline the knowledge domains and professional competencies required of EAP teachers. They identified five key roles performed by TEAPs: (1) teacher, (2) course designer and provider, (3) collaborator, (4) researcher, and (5) evaluator. This framework was later reinforced by Bruce (2011), who aligned it with the Competency Framework for Teachers of English for Academic Purposes (CFTEAP).

The emphasis on specificity-- that is, the need for language instruction to be highly specific and tailored to particular academic disciplines and tasks--necessitates (Hyland, 2006) of EAP practitioners assume the roles of TEAP are considerably more complex and multifaceted than those of general English (EGP) teachers. Studies such as Cowling’s (2007) research on Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) teacher needs, Forey and Lockwood’s (2007) work on specialist discourse, and Basturkmen’s (2010) analysis of EAP teachers’ skills in curriculum and materials development all highlight the expanded scope of EAP practice. Furthermore, more recent studies have expanded these responsibilities to include enhancing student motivation (Kaivanpanah et al., 2021) and fostering critical thinking skills (Derakhshan et al., 2024).

Consequently, specialized training for Teaching English for Academic Purposes (TEAP) is essential—distinct from and broader than that provided for EGP teachers. In addition to foundational skills in applied linguistics, EAP practitioners require training in EAP-specific methodologies, materials design, curriculum development, assessment, administrative coordination, and, as Master (2005, P66) argues, an “in-depth focus in at least one area of EAP.” Hall (2013) categorizes these training needs into three core domains: pedagogy, context-embedded language and discourse, and management. Amidst the flourishing development of teaching technology, research (Dhillon and Murray, 2021) has also examined the growing digital literacy demands on EAP teachers within the digital-intelligent education landscape. Despite the clear need for such targeted professional preparation, Basturkmen (2017) notes that research on EAP teacher roles, the demanding nature of EAP teaching, and corresponding teacher education remains surprisingly limited. In this sense, ESP/EAP teachers are often suffering from heavy teaching loads and administrative work (Ding, 2019). EAP directors often fail to support practitioners in developing a knowledge base in EAP or pursuing scholarship of teaching and learning (Ding and Bruce, 2022). This situation “places the burden on practitioners themselves to develop without the institutional support” (Ding, 2019, p. 68).

The varied roles and multifaceted responsibilities inherent in ESP/EAP instruction pose considerable challenges for teachers transitioning from a General English (EGP) background (Alexander, 2012; Campion, 2016). As a result, engaging in continuous professional development becomes essential for these educators to attain the necessary expertise and competencies required for effective ESP/EAP teaching.

2.2 Development of teaching of EAP in higher education in China

For most ESP/EAP in China, the development has experienced various ups and downs during the past 40 years. While the general concept of EAP (in the form of ESP) was first proposed in the middle of 1960s in Europe, the ESP idea was first introduced to China in the late 1970s. With the progress in the social and economic reform and the opening-up of China, it became apparent that ESP was strongly needed for international academic communication in the fields of economics, politics, culture, science and technology.

In 1979, the Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering [SIME, now named University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST)] instituted its foreign languages department and enrolled the first class of students majoring in English for Science and Technology (Lu, 1991), and SIME became the first university with English major students as ESP (EST) professionals. In 1980, the issue of The Guidance of College English Teaching which is supported by the National Education Committee oriented the English teaching for undergraduate college students in ESP (Cai, 2016). Over the next several years, the development of ESP has enjoyed a swift progress. A number of universities followed SIME in founding their foreign language departments with a focus on ESP, as the demand grew for students with good English proficiency and knowledge of other majors.

But whether ESP should be implemented to non-English major undergraduates was always in dispute. In 1999, the National Syllabus of College English Teaching oriented the teaching of English for non-English major undergraduates to General English. This is because, at that time, the English level of most college students were far limited for getting ESP courses, for most of them had less than 1,000-word vocabulary storage, and the preliminary purpose of college English teaching was to improve their general English proficiency. With the advancing economy in China, more and more educators and students begin to realize that the teaching and learning of EGP could not meet the changing needs of college students or the demands of social and economic development. National craze for English has resulted in students entering colleges with improved English proficiency. This has “prompted teachers of English to rethink the goal of English teaching at [the] tertiary level” (Cheng, 2016, p. 101). In this sense, the simply language-oriented English teaching model is not suitable for the ever-growing demand for college students’ English proficiency (Cheng, 2002), then ESP and EAP need to be practiced for college non-English majors (Lu, 2016).

In August 2013, The Committee for Guidelines on College English Teaching (GCET), which was directed by the National Foreign Languages Teaching Advisory Board of China, was set up to formulate new criteria and requirements for teaching English to non-English major undergraduates in China’s colleges to satisfy the social and economic needs for English language proficiency. The committee conducted a national-wide investigation and research on the overall situation of college English teaching and learning in China, including syllabus, course design, teaching assessment, pedagogy, teaching management, teacher development (Wang, 2016). Based on the analytical results from the investigations and researches, in February 2017-- almost 40 years after the introduction of the concept of ESP in China – GCET were issued by China’s Ministry of Education, re-directing the focus of ELT on the development of EAP competence for undergraduate non-English majors. From that point on, EAP has come back to stage in English language teaching and learning in higher education in China again.

2.3 The current condition of EAP teachers in China

EAP instruction has now become a cornerstone of College English Teaching (CET) reform (Li and Wang, 2018). This shift requires English language teachers’ transition from teaching EGP to EAP, generating a strong demand for qualified EAP instructors who are proficient in both disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical skills. As Cai (2015) contends, teachers’ professional development (TPD) serves as the “spearhead” of educational reform. It represents an ongoing process of learning that spans an educator’s entire career.

As it might be anticipated, EAP courses in China are characterized by several distinctive features. First, students enrolled in a given EAP class typically come from diverse academic majors, rather than being intentionally grouped by discipline or research interest. Second, due to varied academic backgrounds of the students, EAP courses tend to avoid high degrees of specialization and instead address common academic needs across fields. Consequently, English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) is generally implemented in China context, which focuses on skills and language common to all disciplines (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998)—such as listening to lectures, participating in tutorials and seminars, reading academic texts, and writing essays, reports, and dissertations, all within general academic contexts. Finally, EAP instruction is primarily delivered by experienced EGP teachers who are assigned to teach EAP with limited preparatory time.

As the ongoing reform of College English Teaching (CET) in China increasingly embraces EAP and ESP principles, scholars have turned greater attention to the professional development of EAP lecturers. For instance, Wang (2010, p 75) and Zhang (2012, p. 80) examined the shifting roles of ESP instructors, emphasizing that competent ESP lecturers must possess “adequate language teaching techniques and professional expertise.” Building on this, Gao and Cui (2021) used metaphorical identity analysis to show how EAP teachers actively reconstruct their professional identities amid curricular reform. More recently, Gao and Cui (2024) highlights the significant role of Community of Practice (CoP) in educational reforms and teacher development and advocate for a CoP of dynamic power relations and multiple power positions.

An EAP teacher is expected to possess what Ding and Bruce (2017) term “specialized knowledge”—distinct from full disciplinary expertise—yet still aligned with students’ academic needs. However, numerous studies indicate that a major obstacle for TEAP lies in addressing subject-specific content and materials relevant to learners’ disciplines (Alexander, 2007). Although Li and Wang (2018) indicated that teachers’ transitioning from General to Academic English instruction can leverage existing teaching expertise to foster professional development and stimulate research engagement, EAP teachers often occupy a lower institutional status compared to their disciplinary counterparts (Hadley, 2015), resulting in limited administrative recognition and support (Chanock, 2017; Simpson et al., 2016). In a similar vein, empirical studies by Tao and Gao (2018) and Cai (2021) explored the identity formation of lecturers during their shift from General English (EGP) to EAP instruction, revealing that they often experience significant marginalization.

Despite a growing body of international research, there remains a scarcity of studies concentrating on the actual PD experiences and educational needs of EAP teachers (Cheng, 2016) within Chinese context. EAP lecturers’ competence is ultimately pivotal to the success of EAP reform initiatives (Li, 2022). It is evident; therefore, with the recent push of EAP in college education in China, the elaboration of the challenges they meet, the roles teachers need to play and the training and education they need in EAP education is deemed essential.

3 Research questions

This is exploratory research on TEAP’s need in college in China context. This study has the following two research aims: (1) ascertain the challenges faced by TEAP in the implementation of EAP by probing into the teachers’ roles in order to investigate the qualities and competence TEAP needs to fulfill their responsibilities. And then (2) possible suggestions will be given on EAP teacher training and education in China context.

4 Method

4.1 Participants

The participants of this study are 21 Chinese EAP teachers (non-English natives) in one university in China. The first reason for choosing teachers from this university is that it is among those universities who first implemented ESP since 1979 (as mentioned in part 2.2 of this paper). Though EGP had gradually become dominant in ELT afterward for decades, the early ESP programs in this university successfully cultivated students who later developed into the elites of different fields. The second reason is that in the last couple of years, during which the importance of EAP has been re-recognized and Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (2020) has re-directed the focus of ELT to the teaching of EAP, this university has been one of the pioneer universities in China to restart EAP teaching for its non-English major undergraduates, and its EAP teachers have been actively seeking to learn to play the roles as qualified EAP teachers.

For qualitative studies, the purposive sampling method was applied by taking homogeneous sampling and by using typical sampling strategies (Dornyei, 2007). The 21 participants chosen shared important homogeneity in that they are teachers of EAP for undergraduate students of non-English majors in higher education in the selected university. However, they were selected out under the inclusion criteria of their degrees, qualifications, and length of time in ELT and EAP. The description of the profiles of the participants is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Table 1. Distribution of the teachers’ background.

The above table shows the backgrounds of the participating teachers. The participants study English literature, linguistics or translation at the postgraduate or doctoral level. Only five of them (H, J, K, N, T) have their degrees in subjects other than English. The teachers with a PhD degree in linguistics (A to F) have fewer years of ELT teaching (2–6 years), while most of the teachers who have an MA in linguistics (G to U) have at least 10 years of ELT experiences, some even close to 30 years (S, T, and U). But all are similar in terms of their comparatively shorter years of EAP teaching, due to the fact that the EAP program in China only started in recent years. This demographic information of the teacher participants is representative TEAP in Chinese universities. On one hand, small number of them have degrees or qualifications other than English, hence it is hard for them to offer instruction to students in subject-matter knowledge domains. On the other hand, the present situation is teachers all have limited EAP teaching and training experience, and most of them, due to their long time EGP teaching experience, need to improve their teaching ideologies to cope with EAP teaching and learning.

4.2 Instrumentation: questionnaire and interview

In order to elicit more comprehensive views regarding the teaching of EAP, two main instruments were selected to carry out the study, namely questionnaire and a semi-structured interview.

Due to its qualitative nature, the present study was designed to find “a matter of emphasis” (Stake, 2010, p. 19) in a particular situation with regard to the teachers’ training and education in China context. In order to render the findings and conclusions more convincing and accurate, a corroboratory mode of collecting data was used, which is a rationale for using multiple sources of evidence (Yin, 2009).

The questionnaire was researcher-designed based on previous validated instruments and empirical literature on ESP/EAP teacher competencies and professional development (e.g., Basturkmen and Wette, 2016; Hüttner et al., 2009). It was also adapted from key dimensions identified in existing frameworks, including pedagogical knowledge, linguistic competence, needs analysis, materials development, and assessment literacy. To ensure content validity, two experts in EAP teacher education and three experienced EAP instructors reviewed all items for clarity, relevance, and coverage. To examine the internal consistency of the questionnaire, a reliability analysis was conducted using SPSS 26. As shown in Table 2 below, Cronbach’s α values for all subscales ranged from 0.85 to 0.87, indicating good internal consistency. The overall reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was α = 0.87, confirming satisfactory reliability for subsequent analysis.

Table 2

Table 2. Reliability analysis of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire used in the study was designed to investigate the overall and basic attitudes of those teachers concerning EAP courses. In this way, the questionnaire sought information regarding the fundamental viewpoints among the participants, which then, paved the ground for further interview investigation. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were used to summarize responses to the questionnaire items. Given the small and purposively selected sample (n = 21), inferential statistical analyses were not conducted, as the study was exploratory in nature and aimed to provide contextualized insights rather than generalizable claims. However, basic descriptive comparisons were made across subgroups (e.g., degree background and years of EGP teaching experience) to highlight potentially meaningful tendencies among participants.

Five interview questions, the answers to which are expected to be more elaborative, comprehensive and diverse, were asked in a semi-structured interview. It was designed to elicit in-depth insights into participants’ perceived competencies, challenges, and training needs. Five guiding questions were developed to complement the questionnaire findings. In this way, the interviews are used to conduct a multi-dimensional exploration and analysis of the data gathered from the questionnaire.

It should be noted that the questionnaire and the interview were conducted in Chinese (the mother tongue of the teachers sampled) in order to avoid any unclear interpretations or misunderstandings of the questions and answers in the study.

4.3 Procedure

The data were collected sequentially. First, all 21 participants completed the questionnaire individually. Then, follow-up interviews were conducted within 2 weeks to further explore emerging issues identified in the survey responses. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) in NVivo 12. Two trained coders independently conducted open and axial coding. A codebook was jointly developed after an initial reading of three transcripts. The coders discussed discrepancies until consensus was reached, achieving an inter-coder reliability (Cohen’s κ = 0.82). An audit trail documenting analytic decisions and code evolution was maintained throughout. Representative quotations were selected to illustrate key themes.

To enhance qualitative trustworthiness (Lincoln and Guba, 1985):

• Credibility was ensured through triangulation of questionnaire and interview data, member checking with three participants, and peer debriefing among the research team.

• Dependability was addressed via a transparent coding protocol and versioned NVivo files.

• Confirmability was maintained through reflective memos and audit trails.

• Transferability was supported by providing detailed participant and contextual descriptions.

5 Findings

5.1 Results from the questionnaire

The objective of directing the questionnaire was to obtain demographic information of the participants as well as to gather varying perceptions regarding basic EAP course factors, such as class division criteria, general English competence, class size, classroom language, course length, basic EAP teaching skills and course content. The information obtained from the questionnaire is presented in Table 3.

Table 3

Table 3. Questionnaire results.

As shown in Table 3, the teachers have a high rate of consistency in their answers to questions 1–5. Most teachers (85.71%) agree in their response to Question 1 that there should be an entry general English standard for the students who can choose EAP courses. This consensus shows that teachers generally consider EAP to be a higher-level English language class which requires students to work on their general English before taking an EAP course. Usually, in EAP classes, teachers are expected to develop students’ core academic skills which are common to all disciplines, or specific “study skills” required of them during their academic course (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998, p. 34). These kinds of requirements show that students are expected to have higher General English level in order to satisfy EAP course requirement. This is a good explanation to the manipulation that first-year college students will have a placement test to divide them into different levels of English proficiency. Generally speaking, students who receive higher scores on the placement test may have a better chance to choose more EAP courses (i.e., listening and speaking, reading and writing of different levels).

Another question involving student classification is Question 2, which probes into teachers’ opinions on whether students need to be divided for EAP purposes on the basis of their different majors or specialties. Most of the teacher participants (76.19%) indicated that there was no need for the students to be segregated according to major. The apparent reason being that EAP courses which are taught by former EGP teachers, are focused on English EGAP, which means the courses are designed to train students in English language skills which are common in the study and research of all disciplines.

In connection with course duration and timing (Questions 3, 4 and 5), nearly half of the teachers surveyed (47.62%) thought that it was appropriate for students to have 4 h of EAP courses per week, while over a third (33.33%) believed that there should be 6 h or above. With respect to the number of terms that students should be required to take EAP classes, 80.95% answered two terms, while 14.29% felt that such classes should be offered for three terms. Also, 28.57% of the teachers surveyed believed that EAP classes should be offered in the first year, and 61.90% felt that they should be offered in the second year of undergraduate study. These numbers reflect a belief that EAP courses are a time of preparation for students’ further study in their own disciplines during their junior or senior years, or even for their master’s or PhD studies.

As regard to course assessment (Question 7), the mode chosen by all teachers was a combination of formative and summative assessment. Significantly, except for this unanimity, puzzles still remain about assessment-making in the teaching of EAP, which is indicated in the interviews. The question of assessing EAP teaching will be discussed further in the interview analysis section of this paper.

Questions 8–9 focus on TEAP’s knowledge development. Several pertinent terms used in the current ESP/EAP literature include content knowledge, specialized knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Zhao and Li, 2025). Specialized knowledge refers to “knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values,” “knowledge of the epistemological basis of different disciplines,” and “knowledge of genre and discourse” (Ferguson, 1997, p. 85). PCK denotes teachers’ understanding of how to present and formulate the specific subject matter or content to make it comprehensible for their students (Han et al., 2021). Besides, teachers also need to note about their own academic literacy development to effectively model, teach, and critique the complex language and discursive practices of academia that their students need to master. And the near universal use of electronic learning in higher education today requires that teachers are equipped with the requisite digital literacy skills (Dhillon and Murray, 2021), and teacher participants’ consensus (Q 9) on the necessities of digital literacy reveal their recognition of the adaptation to the e-learning environment.

While the descriptive statistics in Table 3 provide an overview of teachers’ shared perceptions, it is important to note that the quantitative findings cannot be generalized to all EAP teachers in China due to the purposive and limited sample. Nonetheless, some subgroup trends emerged: teachers with PhD degrees placed more emphasis on disciplinary and research-based competencies, whereas teachers with extensive EGP experience tended to prioritize pedagogical training and assessment literacy. These trends, though non-inferential, complement the qualitative insights discussed later.

5.2 Results from the semi-structured interview

In order to gain more insights from the data collected from the questionnaires, semi-structured interviews for 21 subject teachers were conducted, in which five questions were asked individually to each teacher. The answers were audio-recorded, translated into English, and transcribed and analyzed. The questions chosen for the study can be classified into the following three categories:

1. Challenges teachers face before and during teaching;

2. Roles TEAP need to play and competence TEAP need to have to deal with the challenges;

3. Teacher training and education strategies in response to the challenges.

Due to the qualitative and interpretative nature of this research, the thematic analysis method was chosen to code the transcriptions of teachers’ responses during the interview. The recording data were analyzed, using the tool Nvivo, to summarize the frequent ideas that appeared in the participant responses, to refine those frequent ideas, and develop them into integrated and coherent themes. Any theme that was considered to be too diverse or not supported by the data was discarded. In this way, this overall approach carried out the overriding purpose of this study to shed light on the possible ways of training TEAP in China.

The descriptions of the teachers’ responses and the analysis of those responses will be summarized below, in the sequence of the questions asked. In order to seek out the significant ideas coming from the participant teachers, only similar ideas mentioned by three and more teachers were collected and analyzed, then are embodied in the tables below. The frequency was the ratio between the number of teachers mentioned that certain idea and the total teacher number 21.

5.2.1 Q1. Challenges you face before starting teaching EAP

As can be seen in Table 4, most of the subject teachers expressed a sense of reluctance when they were assigned to teach EAP. The reasons given for this reluctance include: quite “unconventional” (Teachers E, H, J, L, R); “demanding” (Teachers A, B, F): and “uncontrollable” (Teachers D, K, O). Teacher (C) even had a strong complaint that she felt just like “being handled with a new textbook and being required ‘to be ready to start’.” The teachers’ awareness of teaching EAP as “a separate activity within English Language Teaching (ELT)” (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998, p. 1) is very clear. Considered together, these findings illustrate the importance and necessity of initiating teachers into the study of EAP before they start, instead of taking it for granted that ELT teachers can naturally be transitioned into (Post, 2010) TEAP without any preparation.

Table 4

Table 4. Based on interview Question 1: teachers’ quandaries before teaching EAP.

The sampled teachers’ unwillingness and uncertainties about accepting EAP assignments stemmed mainly from two concerns. Firstly, what are the students’ needs and how prepared and committed are the students for EAP learning? Teachers A, C, F, G, K, Q indicated that they “have no idea” about what the students want to learn from the course. And some (Teachers D, H, T) stated that they do not know the “students’ prior learning or values” that they are likely to bring from their original learning cultures, i.e., whether their general English level is sufficiently adequate for taking the EAP course or whether they are motivated enough to join EAP learning or not. Without ascertaining the students’ accurate needs, teachers B, C, E, I, and M feel “at a loss” when designing their course. It is the awareness of need that is the central element of EAP course design— the feature which distinguishes it from general language teaching (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p. 19). Thus because of the need to understand the “specific purpose” of EAP class, the implementation of the course plan or syllabus cannot be based simply of guesses of students’ needs. Teachers need to be instructed concerning students’ need analysis and then employ that analysis to direct their course design, or they need the benefit of students’ need analysis in continuing to adjust their teaching to meet the need of students.

Second, Teachers C, I, J, N, and R, are not very clear about the aims of teaching EAP classes. What exactly should the EAP teaching focus be? Should it be general academic language features and norms, discourse analysis ability of different genres, or general academic research method, or specialized knowledge of a certain domain, or all of these? Also, the study findings demonstrate that the differences between EAP and EGP teaching puzzle teachers A, B, E, F, L, M, N and T, further signifying the importance of pre-service training regarding the content of EAP teaching, teaching methodology, course design and techniques of assessment.

5.2.2 Q2. Challenges you face while teaching EAP

1. First, when asked about the challenges they encounter while teaching EAP, the participants unanimously pointed out that they are not very sure about how to implement EAP. In another words, they are unsure about the content and methodology of EAP teaching (Table 5).

Table 5

Table 5. Based on interview Question 2: challenges encountered while teaching EAP.

Quote (Teacher A): I think the teaching methodology should be different from the teaching of EGP. Since I didn’t have systematical training or education of the EAP teaching method, I was not sure about how to implement teaching in the class.

Quote: (Teacher S): Teachers need to have clear idea of the difference between teaching EAP and EGP. And need to be trained with the EAP teaching method. The teaching aim should be clear-cut.

The above quotes of the teachers’ words show that they mainly approach their EAP classes based on their EGP teaching experiences and are not clearly aware of the features of EAP teaching methodology. Consequently, recognition of the differences between EGP and EAP teaching methods sets the stage for effective and proper EAP classes, and it becomes highly important to understand that developing the ability to implement the teaching of academic language requires specialized cycles of analysis and synthesis for successful EAP teaching.

Quote (Teacher C): … teachers need to have… discourse analysis ability for different genres.

Quote (Teacher F): So the EAP teaching should be focused on discourse and genre-analysis. And that specialized knowledge may need to be taught by a specialist of individual subject domains, who is more content sensitive, after students have had the EGAP training by language teachers.

As former EGP teachers, most of them find there is a need to get trained to master EAP knowledge skillfully before they start teaching. That knowledge is associated with the academic features of the language teaching, and consists of knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values, knowledge of the epistemological basis of disciplines and knowledge of genres and discourse (Ferguson,1997, p.85). Elements of language must be presented and practiced as a whole in which it functions as a part (Widdowson, 1983, p. 84), with text-analytical approaches (Bruce, 2011, p. 116), in another word, discourse analysis.

As for whether “specialist knowledge,” which is defined as subject matter discipline or profession of the students taught (Ferguson, 1997, p. 80), is needed or not, some teacher participants considered that it is unnecessary, or not practical for teacher training. The English courses involving specialist knowledge are also needed but it would be more practical if it is implemented by specialist with specific subject knowledge and a good command of the English language.

Quote (Teacher G): I think EAP teachers need to know some subject content, but they don’t need that much, ….

Quote (Teacher O): We need to have our focus on general academic language skills and general research method. Don’t get involved in teaching of the subject specific content.

The reason is that due to the fluctuating nature of the participant teachers’ responsibilities, some felt that it is quite possible for a teacher who is being trained in one specialized area to teach EAP courses in another specialized subject domain. But we can also see the effect of pre-training in subject-specific area from the responses of teachers H and K, who stated that they think they can be more helpful an TEAP to students of their similar majors other than English major.

Quote (Teacher H): And I feel students don’t expect English teachers to teach them content. But if teachers have some background… they don’t need too much… of a subject, I feel I can help the students of that subject better, because teachers can direct students more toward literature study.

Quote (Teacher K): …students’ needs for EAP vary…. teachers should know some content-specified knowledge…

2. The second challenge mentioned by some of the participant teachers is the teachers’ own research competence. Teachers (D, E, H, I, Q and T) responded that it is important to be skillful and experienced in academic research in order to guide their students in learning and practical language skills served for their future academic needs. Some teachers (A, E and U) also indicated that as TEAP, they need to be active researchers themselves and have strong academic research background.

Quote (Teacher T):…teachers need to have profound academic research experiences to help students in language and academic skill studies.

3. The third challenge noted by the teachers interviewed was that of dealing with teaching materials. Since the materials provided by the textbooks are far from sufficient to teach EAP. The problem raised by the teachers were as follows:

Quote (Teacher D): I feel that I always need to find more materials for students to study, esp. in the prevalent e-learning environment, it is more complex to combine technology with the preparation of teaching material….

Quote (Teacher I): I want teaching materials coming from authentic sources. …and most importantly, schools should offer accesses for the latest developments in teaching content and supplementary reading.

Students needs authentic and attractive materials to serve as effective supplements to textbook materials. Under the communicative teaching method, and mostly under task-based instruction, TEAP need to provide learners with a variety of form-focused (Basturkmen, 2017) materials to extend their understanding of the subject area and to develop their familiarity with the requirements of discipline-specific study. However, what kinds of materials that need to be chosen, how to tailor them to the students’ interests, and how to design instructions to guide students’ learning are all problems teachers must face when they do not have sufficient expertise in materials development.

In the context of e-learning, these material-related challenges become even more acute. Teachers often struggle to locate, evaluate, and adapt digital resources. Those resources or materials, which are from academic databases and corpora, need to be authentic and engaging with appropriate online task-based instructions. Moreover, integrating these materials meaningfully into digital classrooms adds another layer of complexity. In order to ensure interactivity, accessibility and pedagogical coherence of the materials, TEAPs need to navigate the technical and pedagogical demands of digital resource development with greater efforts.

4. Fourth, some factors of EAP teaching like the set-up of teaching objectives and form of assessment are not decided by individual teacher, instead, they usually rest on a collaborative decision of a teacher group or that of a few team leaders. In this sense, some teachers expressed their attitudes to unclear objectives and unsatisfactory ways of assessment.

5. Fifth, one of the teachers brought up one challenge she met, and since this might be prevailing phenomenon in China, so there is a significance in the discussion about it.

Quote (Teacher I): I meet the large-class problem. usually in our university, there are 30-40 students in one class, but in some other universities, 60-70 students a class is not rare. I feel it is hard to practice EAP in a class with more than 30 students….

The size of English language classes in China for non-English majors are usually large, varied from 30–40 to 60 or even 70 students. And students who are deeply imbued by Confucian culture in China are inclined to receive instruction passively from the teacher, rather than to become actively involved in activities. EAP teaching is oriented to make learners aware of the practical value of English and it employs communicative language teaching (CLT) methodology. But it is difficult to use CLT—which involves heavy emphasis on group activities --in a large class full of reluctant students. In this process, classroom activities, course design and materials and even assessment should have its own characteristics.

5.2.3 Q3. Roles TEAP play while teaching

In response to the challenges suggested above, the participant teachers suggest the roles they play or want to play in the teaching of EAP. The responses of teachers varied from person to person, as shown in Table 6.

1. Among all the roles teachers think they can play, to be a guide is one of the mostly mentioned roles in the interview. Teachers do not want to be the “sage on the stage” anymore and duck-fill students with the required learning points. Instead, they want to cultivated students’ autonomous and creative learning abilities by acting as a “guide by the side.” This conforms with what is required by CFTEAP (p.6) as one of the important EAP teacher competence which is to understand and develop students’ autonomy in academic contexts, because the students need to develop autonomous learning practices in order to cope with the expectations and requirements of academic courses in higher education (Bruce, 2011, p. 112). On the other hand, TEAP feel that, as language teachers, it is beyond their abilities to follow up with all the discipline-specific requirements which students might need. The best way is to set up standards, models or samples and inspire student’s autonomy for their own academic learning.

2. Additionally, teachers often think it is necessary to maximize student exposure to the language by providing additional EAP materials. In this study, some teachers expressed their dissatisfactions with the material provided by the textbook, by stating that it is “too limited” and the design of the textbooks is still “in a traditional way” -- usually a reading passage with uninteresting comprehension tasks and activities. Due to insufficient emphasis on EAP during the past 40 years, teaching materials are found to be inadequate for students’ needs. Most of the so-called EAP textbooks were used by subject-matter teachers who were not trained in language teaching. Hence, they are not language-oriented. Today the development of EAP course books is still in its preliminary stage (mostly reading and writing, rather than listening and speaking), and schools are exploring ways to edit more interactive and motivational material coming from authentic sources. Teachers, as major material providers for students’ learning, should shoulder that responsibility, based on their teaching experience.

3. Some participant teachers feel that their autonomy in course designing and evaluation is limited. The reason for this is that the classes are completely textbook-oriented. Also, for all the teachers in one teaching team, they use the same text-book for 800–1,000 students selected by the placement test. The design of the course objectives, syllabus, and teaching schedule are highly dependent on the objectives, unit-setting, and teaching tasks of the textbook. It is interesting in this regard that teachers, for example B, are not satisfied with the course design, thinking it is “too unified,” “with little flexibility,” and “may not be suited to students of different needs.” Yet some other teachers considered this type of course design to be “less risky” and “the easiest.”

4. Assessment is “a measurement instrument designed to elicit a specific example of an individual’s behavior” (Bachman, 1990, p. 20). As members of the same EAP teaching team, teachers discussed the question of assessment modes among themselves, but they also admitted that by and large, the decisions are made from their previous EGP teaching experiences before, due to the lack of EAP assessment training. Although, most of the teachers surveyed say they agree to the combination of formative and summative assessment, they admit that they do not have much autonomy to test students, because most of the contents for testing have already been decided by the textbook and unified for all students. In EAP, identifying the criteria for assessment involves operationalizing the use of language in academic contexts, an activity that can be multi-faceted and constantly changing (Bruce, 2011, p. 199). This means that assessment should focus on testing learners’ ability to apply EAP knowledge to different and specific requirement. So, the assessment fit for EGP cannot be applicable for EAP. Also, the teachers involved in the study (Teacher T, G, and Q) also expressed their dissatisfaction concerning how to evaluate students’ after-class autonomous learning activities, which are an essential phase in EAP teaching and learning.

5. Among all of the roles teachers think they play in their teaching, the “co- and continual- learner” role has been mentioned for several times in the interviews conducted in this study. Teachers F, M, O, P, and T feel “they are learning to implement EAP teaching effectively by constantly considering students’ responses and feedbacks.” And teachers C, F, G, and S stated that they are learning from their students of experience of academic study involved and also their students’ subject-specific knowledge.

6. Being a negotiator is the role teachers would like to play to maximize the effect of the teaching in accordance with students’ need. In this process, teachers make adjustments from what they want students to achieve to what students want to achieve by constantly negotiating with them. The negotiation helps teachers to get clearer ideas of what students want to accomplish and do the best to fulfill them.

Table 6

Table 6. Based on interview Question 3: Roles EAP teacher play.

All in all, teachers’ roles varied to some extent compared with the five roles introduced by Dudley-Evans (1998). And teachers are or want to be “guide,” “co- and continual-learner,” and “negotiator” shows that teachers’ strong intention of changing from a traditional EGP teacher to EAP teacher so as to provide students with specialized and goal-oriented EAP teaching. And those roles are essential to cultivate students’ collaborating, team-working and problem-solving abilities which are necessary for their future academic study and exploration.

5.2.4 Q4. Skills or competence needed to be TEAP?

The skills and competence needed to become an effective EAP teacher are generally associated with the challenges teachers meet during their EAP teaching. The effective ways to cope with such changes will lie in teacher’s perception and ideology of teaching and the desire to meet the ever-rising demand coming from the changes.

Teachers’ views on the skills or competence needed are closely related to their qualifications and levels of experience. Teachers with fewer than 5 years in ELT and limited exposure to EAP (e.g., Teachers A–C) consistently highlighted the need for structured, practice-oriented training to address immediate classroom challenges. In contrast, those with more extensive experience (over 15 years in ELT, e.g., Teachers H, I, K, Q–U) emphasized the importance of professional renewal, particularly in relation to specialized knowledge and interdisciplinary pedagogy.

Differences in academic qualifications were also reflected in teachers’ preferences to the competence they need. PhD holders in Linguistics or Literature tended to stress the theoretical and research-based dimensions of EAP pedagogy, including curriculum design and academic literacy development. By comparison, teachers with Master’s degrees in TESOL or related fields often prioritized practical classroom strategies and material adaptation. Those with academic backgrounds outside ELT (e.g., Management, Physics, Law, Chinese History) highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of EAP, calling for training that prepares teachers to support students’ engagement with subject-specific academic discourse.

Across all demographic groups, teachers unanimously agreed that digital efficacy is an essential component of EAP teacher education. This consensus underscores the extent to which digital environment have been embedded into academic life. The digital environment includes learning platforms, research databases and corpus-assisted pedagogy. However, the pervasive adoption of digital environment does not indicate that digital efficacy is already well established among EAP practitioners, instead, it is widely recognized as a pressing educational need. Without structured and tailored support, the gap in digital readiness among teachers—often shaped by generational and professional differences—threatens to weaken EAP instruction as it moves into increasingly technology-driven academic settings.

Overall, the demographic analysis underscores that teachers’ needs are not uniform: early-career teachers require foundational guidance, experienced teachers seek opportunities for pedagogical renewal, and those with interdisciplinary backgrounds call for training that bridges language teaching with disciplinary communication. These findings highlight the necessity of differentiated professional development that accounts for variations in qualification, experience, and disciplinary orientation.

After teaching EGP for years, teachers who are asked to teach EAP classes are often, as described by Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.158), “too reluctant dwellers in a strange and uncharted land.” Unquestionably, it takes enthusiasm, devotion and training to make the transition, so that they can become qualified for EAP teaching. However, these challenges should not be viewed merely as the result of individual teachers’ lack of preparation. They also reflect systemic and institutional constraints—including heavy teaching workloads, limited administrative and policy support for EAP training, and the abrupt policy shift from EGP to EAP mandated by recent national curriculum reforms. Without institutional mechanisms to reduce teaching load or provide dedicated time and funding for professional development, even motivated teachers struggle to sustain the transition to EAP pedagogy. Hence, the issue of teacher competence must be understood as a shared institutional responsibility, not only an individual one.

5.2.5 Q5. The effective TEAP training and education strategies?

The participant teachers were unanimous in stating that TEAPs will need to be systematically trained to deal with the challenges stated above. In China, TEAP are in high demand due to the development of EAP teaching, but EAP, regrettably, is frequently absent in pre-service training (Jing and Garner, 2017). Most of the teachers welcome all kinds of training programs, short or long, but very concern about whether they have sufficient time to join those programs due to their tight teaching schedules. Some teachers suggest that there should be a long-term pre-service education for teachers before their EAP teaching on a regular bases, and short-term while-service training programs to help teachers solve problems encountered in their teaching. But these training programs (especially, short-term ones) need to be goal-oriented, as some teachers suggested, because training sessions with many topics are often too “densely-informative” and “not focusing” enough. Hence the teachers feel those training sessions cannot be used to solve actual problems “in a specific way.” In order to be trained effectively, teachers need policy support and the support from a learning-friendly environment. Teachers need to be encouraged to take part in all the trainings by giving less workload or more economic support. These should be guaranteed by policies from administration. Also, learning-friendly environment is essential to build the culture for teachers get effective and constructive feedbacks from experts and peer teachers. And this culture is very important to foster teacher’s autonomy and enthusiasm for self-development (Table 7).

Table 7

Table 7. Based on interview Question 5: teacher training and education.

To further understand variations within the sample, subgroup analyses were conducted according to teachers’ qualifications, years of EAP experience, and educational background. As shown in Table 8, Teachers with advanced degrees (Master’s or PhD) emphasized curriculum design and research-informed teaching, whereas those with only a Master’s degree prioritized practical classroom strategies and assessment skills. Less experienced teachers (<5 years) highlighted the need for support in assessment and academic writing instruction, while more experienced teachers (≥5 years) focused on curriculum planning and discipline-specific material development. English-major teachers reported confidence in language instruction but expressed demand for training in academic writing conventions, while non-English-major teachers indicated broader needs in EAP methodology. These variations illustrate the importance of tailoring professional development programs to teachers’ specific profiles.

Table 8

Table 8. Subgroup analysis of EAP teachers’ training needs.

Although this study is limited to a single institutional context, our findings align with patterns reported in other studies of EAP teacher training across diverse settings. Research in Chinese higher education has similarly highlighted the need for targeted professional development in areas such as assessment, curriculum design, and discipline-specific pedagogy (Li, 2020; Sun and Wei, 2023). International studies also underscore comparable challenges: Hyland (2018) emphasized that EAP teachers worldwide often struggle with balancing linguistic instruction and disciplinary specificity, while Ding and Campion (2016) identified gaps in teacher preparation for academic writing instruction in the UK context. These convergent findings suggest that the training needs identified in our sample are not unique to one institution, but rather resonate with broader trends in EAP teacher education. Situating the present study within this wider body of research enhances the credibility and transferability of our conclusions, while also underscoring the exploratory contribution of the work.

6 Discussion and implications from the questionnaire analysis and the semi-structured interview

The questionnaire investigates the participants’ viewpoints on the basic factors of EAP course, which pave the ground for further discussion in the interview analysis. The interview explores the qualities and competence TEAP need to play the various roles needed in EAP teaching in order to meet the challenges coming from the EFL teaching and learning changes in China context. The findings derived from the analysis of the interview data are as follows:

1. Challenges teachers meet in students’ needs, teaching objectives, material developing skills, and assessment prove their willingness to be the course designer, material provider and evaluator. Teachers need to understand their students’ needs, which include students’ prior knowledge and the specific language knowledge and skills they need to learn, as illustrated by the present study. Using Hutchinson’s and Waters’ (1987) proposals for present situation and target situation analysis, Bruce (2011) proposes frameworks for performing needs analyses for EAP students at different levels. And as Long (2005) states that it is essential to design courses to meet the needs of particular learners, and also to make courses more efficient due to the “special concern” of certain target groups of students. Additionally, the learner-centered curricula and task-based syllabi must be built up by considering the students’ interests and needs which, in turn, result in higher motivation on the part of the learners (Dooey, 2010). The result of such a need analysis, of course, can provide a foundation for the development of teaching materials and testing materials. In present situation in China, teaching materials developed for EAP teaching are very limited. Take USST for example, all the students who take EAP courses use the same textbook. It is difficult to see how the text is suitable to achieve the need of the teaching for the students of different majors and of different needs. For EAP teaching, tailor-make teaching material other than unified teaching material is the necessity for students’ learning. Thus, it is imperative to have the ability and consciousness to conduct need analysis to understand the requirement of the students’ target context in relation to their current educational expectations. And then, based on the need analysis, teachers will be more prepared to focus on continuous improvement of their EAP teaching program.

2. It is necessary for a teacher to be a good academic researcher for being an effective and successful TEAP. Experiences in specialized academic activities can also help qualify teachers with adequate competence to design courses, provide teaching materials, and organize activities to guide students’ study in academic skills used in their future academic research. Those teachers’ own research experiences and backgrounds can provide evidence for refine and improve their EAP teaching, or in another word, provide evidence-based practice in teaching. So, in this sense, therefore, TEAP who come from General English teaching backgrounds must recognize that being a researcher in a specialized field is one of the fundamental starting points to become a qualified TEAP. Many EGP teachers who have been general language teachers for years do not have the intention, commitment or the enthusiasm to play an academically-active role, as long as they can fulfill their basic work responsibilities each year. Based on present situation, it is hard to generally qualify English teachers fully to conform with the standard of being a researcher (Lu, 2016). In large part, the initiative to do research on EAP teaching and other academic field is becoming a competence of an EAP teacher.

3. In this study, it is good to notice that TEAP is trying to play an inspiring and promoting role while teaching, and recognize the significance of employing CLT and student-centered teaching method by indicating that they would also be willing to play the roles like “guide,” “co- and continual- learner” and “negotiator.” Those roles, though different from each other, unanimously, show teachers’ recognition and intention to cultivate students’ autonomous and creative learning abilities as well as competencies, like collaboration, team-working and problem solving, which are very important for the future exploration and research in their own specialized domains. There is a need for the implementation of teaching method shifting from EGP to EAP. As it can be identified from the study, teachers of varying ages and different lengths of teaching experience have different tendency of their teaching methods. Grammar Translation Method (GTM) is more skillfully employed by teachers with more years of EGP teaching, but it is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and student-centered teaching method that need to be practiced in EAP teaching. There are literally tens of thousands of college English teachers in China, who have been teaching EGP for years, and many of them need to be transitioned into teachers of EAP. There must be an inertia for EGP teachers to emphasize on language points, vocabulary, and translation of teaching materials when implementing EAP teaching. This is supported by what Alexander (2007) suggested that the shift from EGP to EAP lies in the concomitant shift from focus of “delivery” to that of “content.”

4. The necessary training for teachers can be provided from the following perspectives.

a. The training can be long-term pre-service programs. For those English linguistics and literature Masters or PhD students who are the main source of new EFL teachers in China’s colleges, they need to be provided with the trainings to enhance their specialized entry knowledge related to different subjects tailored to their panoply of interests. Just as one of the teacher participants (K) suggests, her physics background can provide helpful guidance in becoming an TEAP, directing students in language materials in the field of physics. Also, the overall training of EAP pedagogy, academic research competence, students’ needs analysis, program implementation, and assessment practices should be undertaken to make them theoretically ready for their future EAP teaching. Post (2010) and Alexander (2007) similarly suggest that the pre-service training should be the responsibility of institutions due to the current lack of consensus of a national level training preparation for new TEAP.

b. The most urgent and feasible approach at present is to strengthen short-term, in-service training that directly responds to teachers’ classroom challenges. These programs should be modular, goal-oriented, and supported by local institutions through reduced workloads and recognition incentives. Examples include peer mentoring, micro-workshops, and collaborations with domestic EAP associations. Such short-term initiatives can deliver visible improvements in teachers’ confidence and competence within existing policy and budget constraints.

c. Regarding EAP teacher’s knowledge domain, the question of who can teach EAP always rises. Starfield (2016, p.157) points out that it depends on language teachers’ abilities to access corpora of academic and professional texts and to use them in language teaching. In fact, the need for collaborative and team teaching activities among language teachers and specialist has been a frequent subject chosen by many researchers (Flowerdew and Peacock, 2001; Street and Verhoeven, 2001; Hyland, 2002; Johns and Swales, 2002). Subject specialists, however, even in teaching the same ESAP or ESP class, “cannot resist teaching content” and taking “features and forms of language for granted,” while language teachers often cannot appreciate fully the “challenges that learning specialist language use can pose for the second language learner” (Basturkmen, 2017, p. 68). Consequently, issues of who is more qualified for EAP teaching, and also the feasibility of carrying out the desired collaboration, are an ongoing subject of research and discussion. Although none of the studies were conducted in China context, the present-existing studies will undoubtedly prove useful and will likely have the constructive significance for the future growth of Chinese teacher education. The fact is that progressing and developing as an EAP practitioner is a “limitless process” (Campion, 2016).

d. The subgroup analyses provide further insights into the differentiated nature of EAP teacher training needs. Teachers’ qualifications, experience, and disciplinary backgrounds were found to shape their priorities, suggesting that professional development cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all model. That highlights the necessity of tailoring professional development programs to teachers’ profiles, ensuring that training initiatives address both common challenges and subgroup-specific needs. Such differentiation may enhance the effectiveness of capacity-building efforts and contribute to the sustainable development of EAP teaching expertise. The findings of this study should be interpreted in light of broader trends reported in the literature on EAP teacher education. Similar needs for professional development have been identified in other Chinese university contexts. Internationally, comparable challenges persist: global tension between linguistic instruction and disciplinary specificity were highlighted, while ongoing gaps in academic writing instruction were report in the UK. Taken together, these parallels indicate that the training needs observed in our sample reflect wider patterns rather than being confined to a single institution. This convergence with existing research enhances the transferability of our findings and suggests that addressing these recurring challenges is critical for the advancement of EAP teacher education more broadly. In practice, the results point to the importance of designing professional development programs that not only target local institutional contexts but also draw on shared international experiences to equip EAP teachers with both linguistic and disciplinary pedagogical competence.

5. As demonstrated by the above discussion, the shift from EGP teachers to the teachers of EAP is a very arduous, and resource-intensive task, which cannot be achieved within a short time (Lu, 2016). It is essential to help teachers adopt right attitudes in the process. During the transformation period, the education committees of all levels, universities and administrative authorities should provide enough support to teachers and foreign language department personnel to ensure effective and successful teacher training. The implementation of structured incentive plans and financial subsidies by educational authorities serves as a critical strategy for motivating English teachers to engage in continuous professional development.

7 Limitations

This study has certain limitations. The most notable is the small sample size (n = 21) drawn from a single university. This tends to limit generalizability. However, all the participants in this study were purposefully selected from a university with a distinctive historical and contemporary role in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in China. It was one of the first universities to implement ESP programs in the late 1970s and a pioneer in re-establishing EAP teaching following the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (2020) guidelines. In another word, the EAP instruction at this university is highly representative in both its breadth and depth. The 21 teachers, all undergraduate EAP instructors, varied in degrees, qualifications, and teaching experience, providing both comparability and diversity within the sample. While larger, multi-institutional studies are needed to confirm and extend these findings, the current research offers valuable insights into a representative and contextually significant group of EAP teachers in China.

This study is limited by its focus on a single institution and by the absence of longitudinal data. However, the subgroup analyses conducted—based on teachers’ qualifications, years of EAP teaching experience, and educational background—provide additional insights into variations in training needs within the sample. Teachers’ needs differed across these profiles, highlighting the importance of tailoring professional development programs. Furthermore, our findings were triangulated with existing studies from other higher education institutions, situating the results within a broader empirical context and enhancing their transferability. Collectively, these steps strengthen the robustness of our conclusions regarding EAP teacher training needs while acknowledging the exploratory nature of the study. Future research should adopt longitudinal and multi-institutional designs to further validate and extend these findings.

8 Conclusion

Since EAP is increasingly important to the future EFL teaching in Chinese tertiary level, EAP teachers are beginning to be given increasing recognition and attention. Having investigated 21 teachers of EAP in one university, the present study findings are exploratory in nature. It is of paramount importance to develop the EAP teaching to qualify students for their future development in the fields of economy, science and technology, etc., and cross-cultural communication in our increasingly-globalized world. In the process of making this transition from EGP to EAP, the most significant challenge is the training and development of teachers who need to be capable of practicing EAP pedagogy. Acquisition of EAP teaching and linguistic expertise, as well as knowledge of specific disciplines, fulfilling the multiple roles required by a qualified TEAP, and enhanced academic and digital efficacy within TEAP practice empowers transformative impacts on student outcomes and societal engagement. This study sheds insightful light into teacher education strategies and help EAP teachers to recognize, understand, and overcome their challenges.

There is a need to conduct further studies in TEFL with China Universities due to the sheer numbers of college English learners and teachers in China which may give rise to entirely different needs and instructions. In addition, the relationship between students’ needs and teachers’ training needs, and the different requirements for teachers who are teaching of EGAP and EGSP are issues which should properly await greater consideration. The careful and thoughtful solutions to these issues will undoubtedly help to build up a clearly-defined direction for the progress of EAP teaching in China as a whole so as to prepare tertiary students to use English more proficiently in an increasingly globalized world.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

YC: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization.

Funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by a grant from the 12th China Foreign Language Education Foundation Project (ZGWYJYJJ12A008) of the National Research Center for Foreign Language Education.

Conflict of interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Generative AI statement

The author declares that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.

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References

Alexander, O. (2007). “Groping in the dark or turning on the light: routes into teaching English for academic purposes” in Teaching languages for academic purposes. ed. T. Lynch (Edinburgh: IALS, Edinburgh University).