MY FIRST STEPS in EAP

 

After having celebrated my fifty-fifth-year birthday, I decided to undertake something which had always been part of my life and that for different reasons I could not fulfil yet. Currently it has not been something simple since it requires not only much more time and endeavour than I expected but also the essential development and attainment of writing academic skills. Certain formal elements such as proficiency in language use, style, register and genre(s), are essential.  Completing assignments and turning them in on time is not everything. The purpose of academic writing is not merely to narrate events or describe people.

Furthermore, as members of a discourse community, teachers are bound together by the acquisition of specific lexis and conventions. Working collaborative is something which has to follow definite  requirements; particular  goals – to complete the given assignment this time, participatory mechanisms- creating a google document so as we can all contribute   information exchange – sharing what we know, discussing our points of view  and following  the given directions,  specific genres – currently as learners we have to achieve, highly specialized terminology. That means the use of specific vocabulary which we are not used to it. And a high general level of expertise is something we are expecting to fulfil at the end of the career.

From my point of view, sharing and discussing ideas and information with my peers is giving me a sense of belonging to a new community – a discourse community where I am developing academic writing skills which will lead me not only to accomplish future professional demands but also personal expectations.