An Exploratory Study Of Effects Of Non-English Major Postgraduates’ Perceptions Of The EAP Course On Their Learning Needs For The Course

With the increasing globalization of higher education,English plays an increasingly important role in the international study and communication.Based on this situation,major research results,and academic papers are all published in English.However,most non-English postgraduates have highly limited knowledge of English for Academic Purposes(EAP),which means most of them have little idea of how to conduct effective academic reading and writing.Therefore,it is very urgent to offer EAP courses to them.However,only when students have perceptions of this course can they have clearer ideas of their learning needs for this EAP course.That means students’ perceptions of this course are also very important.Based on this background,this study attempts to investigate these non-English major postgraduates’ perceptions of this EAP course and the effects that their course perceptions have on their learning needs for this EAP course.Four case studies of EAP learners’ perceptions of the EAP course are presented according to semi-structured interviews,the EAP instructor’s and researcher’s observations,the four participants’ scores in the assessments,and some related multimodal resources.Results show that there are some similarities and differences among the four EAP learners’ perceptions of motivation(including the perception of empowerment,usefulness,interest,caring and success).With the further learning,their perceptions of motivation have changed.According to the research results,four EAP learners’perceptions of motivation,especially their perceptions of usefulness and caring have some effects on their learning needs for this course.What’s more,for the midterm and the final examination,four learners have different perceptions.According to them,their perceptions of assessments also affect their learning needs for the EAP course.In addition,the four EAP learners’ perceptions of assessments have some effects on their perceptions of motivation.These findings have some referential values for future EAP pedagogy and course design.