{"title":"Changing EAP assessment practices in the age of generative artificial intelligence: The case of Scottish higher education institutions","authors":"Lewis Urquhart , Xuan Minh Ngo","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101609","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101609","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on higher education has been widely discussed since the public release of ChatGPT-3.5 in late 2022. However, there has been little empirical research on changes in English-for-Academic-Purposes (EAP) assessment practices in response to GenAI. This qualitative case study intends to fill this gap by examining how Scottish universities changed EAP assessments in response to GenAI, how effective those changes were perceived by EAP academics, and what recommendations EAP academics offered for future assessment practices. Data were collected from six semi-structured interviews conducted with EAP academics at five Scottish universities in mid-2024 and thematically analysed. The findings reveal that while substantial changes in assessment task design were limited, modifications to task requirements (e.g., GenAI declarations, context-specific prompts) and grading practices were more common. Moreover, our participants expressed scepticism about the effectiveness of some changes (e.g., AI use declarations) but positively perceived others (e.g., the use of context-specific questions, spontaneous speaking tasks, and named marking). As for their recommendations, the participating EAP academics generally advocated authentic and innovative tasks, such as portfolio-based assessment, reflections, multimodal projects, and GenAI output evaluation over reverting to traditional exams while simultaneously highlighting issues with workload and learning outcomes. The study implies a need for clearer institutional guidance, ongoing professional dialogue, and support for experimentation with GenAI-integrated assessment design in EAP contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101609"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145520894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Syntactic complexity in knowledge construction across disciplines: Evidence from dependency distance","authors":"Lingyu Yi, Zhongqing He","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101617","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101617","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Syntactic complexity is a defining feature of academic discourse that shapes how knowledge is organized, abstracted, and communicated across disciplines. Although previous research has developed various metrics to measure syntactic complexity and cognitive processing costs across genres, few studies have systematically compared how these structures differ across disciplinary domains or reflect discipline-specific epistemological orientations. This study addresses this gap by investigating variation in syntactic complexity across disciplines using mean dependency distance (MDD) as the primary measure. Using a self-compiled corpus of 200 research articles across four disciplines, this study employed spaCy to perform dependency parsing and extract MDD, sentence length, mean clause length, and other syntactic metrics. The results reveal significant differences in syntactic complexity across disciplines. Applied linguistics exhibited the highest MDD, reflecting a tendency toward layered clause structures that support theoretical abstraction. Sociology occupied an intermediate position, balancing clarity with conceptual elaboration. In contrast, biology and materials engineering demonstrated lower MDD values, employing structurally efficient forms to encode procedural precision and technical specificity. These findings demonstrate that syntactic complexity is not merely a structural feature but also an indicator of the communicative and epistemic functions specific to academic disciplines. This study contributes to our understanding of how grammatical form realizes disciplinary knowledge practices in written academic discourse and offers practical implications for EAP research and pedagogy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101617"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145736239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Knowledge construction modes in humanities and social sciences: A cross-disciplinary analysis through linguistic complexity lens","authors":"Jilong Hao, Qiu Jin, Yuan Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101600","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101600","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates linguistic complexity patterns in research articles (RAs) across humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines to understand their knowledge construction modes (KCMs). Analyzing 600 RAs from 10 HSS disciplines with automated tools for syntactic and lexical complexity measurements, we identified two major KCMs: KCM-N and KCM-P, each with distinct sub-modes. The former mode features longer sentences with extensive subordination and coordination, while maintaining relatively lower lexical sophistication. The latter exhibits higher lexical sophistication but simpler syntactic structures. Notable variations exist within each mode: Philosophy emphasizes logical subordination, History and Literature combine coordination and subordination for narrative development; disciplines like Psychology and Anthropology favor empirical description through coordination and specialized vocabulary. Linguistics uniquely displays complex noun phrases despite simpler overall syntax. These findings reveal how disciplinary knowledge construction preferences shape academic discourse through distinct linguistic patterns, offering implications for English for Academic Purposes instruction and cross-disciplinary communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101600"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145469164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of source text referential cohesion on integrated writing performance: A focus on textual integration and source use overlap","authors":"Seyyed Ehsan Golparvar , Mahmoud Abdi Tabari , Hossein Bazoubandi","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101627","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101627","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the impact of source text referential cohesion on textual integration (integration style, integration purpose, and interpretation accuracy), source use features (keyword overlap, synonym overlap, and semantic overlap), and cohesion in the written responses. To this end, 31 undergraduate students summarized two versions of a reading passage, one with high referential cohesion and the other with low referential cohesion, and their summaries for the two source texts were analyzed in terms of textual integration, source use features, and cohesion. The participants also answered questionnaire items measuring perceived cognitive complexity after completing each task. The instances of implicit source use were higher in the summaries written for the low-referential cohesion task, while verbatim source use, correct interpretation of source ideas, and using source ideas to support ones’ arguments decreased in summarizing the low-referential text. Moreover, it was found that keyword overlap and synonym overlap significantly declined when summarizing the low-referential cohesion text. In addition, the referential cohesion of the source text had a negative impact on local cohesion (use of connectives) in the written responses, while positively affected text cohesion (lemmattr). The results are discussed and the implications for writing pedagogy and assessment are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101627"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145839379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Informality features in AI-generated academic writing: A corpus-based comparison between human and AI","authors":"Ning Zhao, Lei Lei","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2026.101629","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2026.101629","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A comparison between AI-generated and human-written academic texts is crucial for assessing LLMs’ proficiency in academic writing and providing insights into academic writing instruction. While previous research has primarily focused on lexical, syntactic, and discoursal features, the investigation of writing style is relatively underdeveloped. The present study focused on a set of linguistic features, which are generally labeled as “informal” by style guides and writing manuals. We examined the differences between AI-generated and human-generated academic abstracts in terms of ten informal linguistic features. Our study was based on a large-scale dataset of scientific abstracts, consisting of comparable ChatGPT-generated and human-authored texts. The results showed that the use of informality features in AI-generated academic texts differs significantly from human-authored ones with small to moderate effect sizes. In addition, the writing style of AI is characterized by a consistent and standardized expression with less variability than that of human authors. We further underscore the similarities and disparities in the use of informality features between ChatGPT and human writers. By revealing AI’s strengths and limitations, these findings deepen our understanding of how AI reproduces or approximates the stylistic conventions expected in academic writing and offer valuable insights for integrating AI tools into writing instruction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101629"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145924544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Disciplinary identity in translation: A cross-disciplinary study of author self-reference in ELF research article abstracts","authors":"Yueyue Huang (黄越悦) , Yilin Yin (殷薏琳) , Ying Liang (梁楹) , Dechao Li (李德超)","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101628","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101628","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Translating local research into English as an academic lingua franca (ELF) enables non-anglophone scholars to project authorial identity and reach a global readership. However, the lack of cross-disciplinary research on self-reference use in translated discourse limits our understanding of their recontextualised identity in ELF discursive community. This study investigates three self-reference categories, i.e., first-person pronouns, third-person noun phrases (NPs), inanimate NPs, in translated and non-translated English research article abstracts (RAAs) across four soft/hard <em>vs</em>. applied/pure disciplines: anthropology (TAN/NAN), applied linguistics (TAL/NAL), medical sciences (TMS/NMS), and chemistry (TCH/NCH). Findings show that both translated and non-translated practices favour first-person pronouns and inanimate NPs over third-person NPs, though non-translated practices consistently use more first-person pronouns. Translated practices show lower, yet uneven, authorial explicitness across disciplines. TAN shows the greatest fall in first-person pronoun use than its non-translated counterpart among all disciplines. TAL maintains similar overall self-reference use with NAL by balancing decreased first-person pronouns and increased inanimate NPs, a pattern not observed in other disciplines. Translators also neutralise certain disciplinary variation despite its presence in academic Chinese. These findings suggest constrained translator agentic practices across disciplines, offering practical and pedagogical implications for discipline-specific academic translation and interlingual scholarly communication in ELF contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101628"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145924543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“I thought I knew how to write in my own language …” unveiling vulnerability in NES university students’ English academic writing experience","authors":"Mingyu Li , Fengqiang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101618","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101618","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While English academic writing has garnered growing attention in higher education (HE), scholarship has largely centred on English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) students' experiences, leaving those of native English-speaking (NES) students under-explored. To address this, this study explores NES university students' academic writing experience through a vulnerability lens, challenging the assumption that language fluency alone ensures academic success. Drawing on interviews with NES students, teaching staff, and writing tutors in three UK universities, the findings reveal that students’ initial confidence in their linguistic abilities often collides with the complexities of academic conventions. Moreover, students recounted emotional stress, self-doubt, and limited institutional support, highlighting how NES learners can “slip through the cracks” when services are primarily framed for those EAL. Nevertheless, once students recognised and addressed these shortcomings, they could leverage various self-regulated strategies to develop stronger writing practices, during which vulnerability emerged as a potential catalyst for development. By foregrounding the challenges and adaptive responses of NES students, the study underscores the importance of reframing academic writing support to be inclusive of all learners, advocating for discipline-specific scaffolding, and a “vulnerability-aware” pedagogy that fosters both equity and growth in HE.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101618"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding the collaborative assessment identity of English for academic purposes practitioners in higher education","authors":"Peter Levrai , María del Pilar García Mayo","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101621","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101621","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Collaboration is a valued learning outcome in Higher Education (HE) and students are likely to encounter collaborative assignments, such as a group essay or oral presentation, during their studies. While there are positive affordances to these types of assignments, their summative assessment may often represent a problematic area. In order to better understand the assessment practices of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) practitioners toward collaborative writing, a constructivist Grounded Theory approach was followed. Twenty practitioners were asked to evaluate four different models of collaborative assessment. In-depth discussion of these approaches highlighted the concerns and beliefs of EAP practitioners when it comes to collaborative assignments, with the key principles impacting practitioners’ approach to collaborative assessment being fairness, transparency and simplicity. These in turn shaped three guiding orientations: reward, practical and defensibility. Understanding what guides teachers in collaborative assessment gives us the opportunity for training and professional development to enable more principled and consistent collaborative assessment practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101621"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EAP in the digital age: Leveraging technology for language development","authors":"Soleiman Shahmohammadi , Hassan Soodmand Afshar","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101614","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101614","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the role of digital tools in enhancing EAP instruction in Iran, addressing the gap in technology integration within resource-constrained contexts. These contexts are characterised by limited technological infrastructure and restrictive internet policies, hindering the effective integration of technology. To date, no systematic research has explored how these contextual constraints influence the adoption and integration of digital tools in Iranian higher education. Using a sequential embedded mixed-methods design, we surveyed 153 students and 36 instructors using structured questionnaires to capture perceptions of the effects of digital tools on EAP skills. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 instructors, 18 students, and eight experts to provide deeper insights into pedagogical beliefs and institutional barriers. We observed 12 EA P classrooms across the Engineering, Medicine, and Social Sciences disciplines in 11 universities for two months to document actual teaching practices and tool use. The results revealed that digital tools, through their real-time feedback and interactive features, significantly influenced writing fluency and vocabulary acquisition. The classroom observations highlighted gaps in supporting speaking skills and discipline-specific needs, especially in Engineering and Medicine. The barriers that influence integration are limited access to premium tools, infrastructure issues, restrictive filtering policies, insufficient instructor training, and schooling cultures. To address these challenges, we propose a context-sensitive framework consisting of tailored digital solutions, blended learning models, and institutional support. The study underscores the potential of technology to transform EAP instruction in restricted settings and offers empirically grounded implications for practitioners and policymakers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101614"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Investigating L2 motivation among Chinese PhD students in an EAP course from a positive psychology perspective","authors":"Yue Yuan , Wei Kang","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While motivation has long been recognized as a key factor in second language acquisition (SLA), its role in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) remains under-explored, particularly from the perspective of Positive Psychology (PP). This classroom-based study investigates the components of learner motivation in EAP by drawing on the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) and the “Three Pillars” framework of PP, aiming to develop a dynamic model that explains the interplay among positive emotions, character strengths, institutional support, and L2 motivation. So, a qualitative research design was employed, involving 13 Chinese PhD students (3 male, 10 female) from various disciplines. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and classroom observations, and were thematically analyzed using NVivo 12. Findings suggest that learner motivation in EAP can be effectively interpreted through the lens of L2MSS when integrated with PP principles, with a dynamic relationship observed among L2 emotions, L2 traits, and the learning environment. The study offers pedagogical implications for enhancing motivation in EAP contexts and contributes to the broader integration of PP within SLA research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101619"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145736241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}