A Case for Critical EAP in Korea in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution

A Case for Critical EAP in Korea in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution

This article is to consider the theoretical positions and practices that English for academic purposes (EAP) is believed to have to adopt in view of the post-structuralist conception of language as discourse, and of the two mega-trends of globalization and the 4th industrial revolution, which are suspiciously expected to bring forth dimensions of dehumanization with excessive pursuit of efficiency and monetary profit. To ameliorate the gloomy expectation, it proposes that EAP be able to contribute not only to the improvement of students’ academic English competencies but also to the ethicalization of society, educational institutions, and classrooms. It then discusses cases of critical EAP reported in the literature as having blazed an indisputable path to ethicalization, so that EAP studies and practices in EFL settings such as Korea may estimate and pursue their own appropriate ways to ethicalize their own locales.