Journal of
ENGLISH for ACADEMIC
ELSEVIER
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 8 (2009) 81-85
PURPOSES www.elsevier.com/locate/jeap
Theorizing and practicing critical english for academic purposes Sarah Benesch College of Slaten Island. City UlliH!rsily of New York
This JOllrnal ofEnglish/or academic pllrposes special issue on critical EAP (CEAP) explores a few key questions: How might critical be theorized in EAP contexts in today's globalizing world? What are some ways CEAP is currently being practiced? What does CEAP contribute to EAP, from the perspectives of theory, research, and pedagogy? The vitality of CEAP is seen in the variety of ways these questions are answered in this special issue. Yet, despite the range of contexts, methodologies. and pedagogies, the authors share certain assumptions about criticality and its relationship to EAP. All subscribe to a theory of language as discourses(s). Praxis, the reciprocal relationship between theory and practice, is a central concem for all. A reflexive stance toward praxis is apparent in each contribution. And, all situate praxis in the daily lives of students, instructors. and the institutional contexts in which they meet. A spirit of reflexivity and interrogation is perhaps the most important of the shared assumptions. Some authors pose explicit questions; others embed their questions more implicitly. Yet all report their findings tentatively, avoiding definitive claims and answers. They demonstrate humility about the limits of knowledge and acknowledge incomplete understanding of the complex issues addressed. In this introduction to the special issue I situate CEAP in its wider sociopolitical context, by discussing the exigencies of globalization and their impact on EAP students, teachers, and curricula. This is followed by a discussion of criticality in EAP, including its realization in the authors' praxis.
1. Globalization as rationale for critical EAP Critical EAP widens the lens of academic purposes to take the sociopolitical context of teaching and learning into account. This is not to say that CEAP overlooks on-the-ground requirements of academic genres and classroom interactions but, rather, that they are explored in relation to EAP students' and teachers' complex and overlapping social identities: class, race, gender, ethnicity, age and so on. Critical EAP considers hierarchical arrangements in the societies and institutions in which EAP takes place, examining power relations and their reciprocal relationship to the various players and matelials involved. This social tum necessitates a reckoning with contemporary globalization and its possible effects on the institutions and classrooms in which EAP is carried out. Definitions of globalization abound. However, whether celebratory or camionary, most acknowledge significant growth in the "scale, penetration, and velocity of global capital" and "momentous changes in state sovereignty" (Appadurai, 2005, p.l8). Due to the speed and flexibility with which capital and, in some cases, humans now flow, nation-states can no longer be considered self-contained sites with stable populations sharing a common culture. Coming to terms with these changes and processes in education requires, according to Rizvi (2000), an "integrated approach, which illuminates the changing global economic relations in terms of the changing social, pOlitical, and cultural landscapes" (p. 207), one leading to greater understanding of "the emergence of new cultural formations" (p. 208). E-fliatl address:
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