Keep the Change Alive: Challenges and Chances for EAP Teacher Development Through the CHAT Lens

Abstract

EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teachers’ professional development remains an underexplored area despite its significance in higher education. This study employs cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) to analyze the internal and external contradictions within and between EAP teachers’ activity systems and other intersecting educational frameworks. The findings reveal that the marginalization of EAP teachers is rooted in the dominance of general English education, thereby limiting their research capacity and professional identity. High workload, lack of institutional recognition, and the enduring emphasis on learner needs inherited from the ESP tradition further constrain their academic growth. This analysis underscores the necessity of fostering reciprocal connections between EAP teachers and researchers to achieve systemic sustainability. By shifting from a service-oriented approach to an integrated research–teaching model, EAP professionals can reclaim their agency and establish a stronger academic presence. These findings contribute to a broader discussion on EAP teacher empowerment and provide insights into sustainable strategies for their professional development.

1. Introduction: Lost in Transition

English for Academic Purposes (henceforth EAP) stands out as one of the few disciplines prominently marked by the persistent teaching–research divide within global higher education. While often designated as language instructors, EAP practitioners are expected to engage in a broader professional trajectory that extends beyond teaching to include scholarship, reflective practice, and the accrual of ‘cultural capital’ through research [1]. However, despite the critical role they play in bridging disciplinary discourse and language development, EAP practitioners are frequently relegated to a service-oriented role and marginalized position. The dearth of professional recognition consequently engenders an unsettling sense of ideological insecurity and identity loss among EAP educators.

Ding [2] and Flowerdew [3] attribute the plight of EAP teachers to the commercial agenda of universities influenced by neoliberalism. As they argue, the escalating demand for course offerings has transformed EAP into a profitable educational industry, significantly depriving EAP teachers of the time required for research. Ding [2] further presents a metaphor of “self-inflicted wounds” to illustrate the damaging impact of the learner-centered ESP legacy on EAP teaching. The overt emphasis on learner needs, and the varying forms and norms prevalent in disciplinary discourse, as noted by Ding [2], often reinforce “a condescending and derogatory perception” of EAP practitioners. Joined by their EAP colleagues [1,4,5], Flowerdew and Ding advocate for EAP teachers to adopt a reflexive approach to understanding the power of EAP, reclaiming their sense of worth, and rearticulating their professionalism. As Flowerdew [3] states, battling with professional marginalization requires EAP teachers to obtain “a greater awareness and more strategic deployment of the limited power that EAP does have”.

In this study, I concur with Flowerdew, Ding, and many other EAP teacher–researchers on the identity crisis that arises from the ELT/TESOL to EAP transition. However, I remain cautious regarding neoliberalism or the commercialization of university education as the primary source of EAP teachers’ disempowerment. This hesitancy stems from the under-recognition of EAP teachers within the institutional context of universities in China, where the influence of neoliberalism on education remains relatively minor. In the Chinese context, EAP teacher development seems to have engendered a concern that transcends disciplinary, institutional, and national boundaries. Hence, a broader perspective and an alternative lens may be deployed to comprehend the historical formulation of this problem and explore practical resolutions.

This study employs a cultural–historical lens to examine the challenges and obstacles encountered by EAP practitioners in the transitional process from an ELT or TESOL background. The framework of cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) is utilized to offer a systematic analysis of the constraints and contradictions that impede the transition of teachers from ELT/TESOL to EAP. Additionally, the crucial significance of the object, as emphasized by CHAT, illuminates possible pathways toward transformative agency for EAP teachers.

2. Review of Literature

2.1. Four Generations of CHAT Studies

This section provides an overview of the fundamental concepts within the cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) pioneered by the Finnish school of activity theory in the early 1980s, with Yrjö Engeström at its forefront. Across four generations of theoretical development, CHAT centers its focus on the potential challenges and change possibilities in work settings, with the expanding unit of analysis from individual actions to collective activity systems, constellations of multiple activity systems, and heterogeneous work coalitions that transcend professional, institutional, and societal boundaries. Drawing inspiration from the Russian school of cultural–historical psychology, CHAT emphasizes the object-directed and contradiction-driven nature of work activity. It is renowned for the notions of expansive learning and transformative agency through double stimulation (TADS) [6,7,8].

The first generation of CHAT places significant emphasis on the historicity of work actions [9]. The model formulated during this phase (Figure 1) perceives the object as the cognitive orientation toward work activities. Meanwhile, the historically accumulated intellectual tools and material artifacts can serve not only as enabling resources to optimize the outcome of work actions. They may also operate as constraining factors to impede work performances when, for example, the under-recognized field contribution, and dissatisfied economic and emotional needs engender bad conscience among the working individuals, thereby hindering their willingness to perform qualitatively new actions.

Drawing primarily on Leont’ev’s [10] notion of activity, second-generation CHAT studies broaden the scope of analysis from individual actions to the activity system [11] (Figure 2). Activity is understood as a durable system wherein multiple goal-oriented actions that are organized through a division of labor jointly serve a collective object [12]. Object is a key concept in CHAT studies, and is identified as the true motive that gives the identity and direction of a collective activity, thus conveying both social significance and personal meanings. Given the interaction between the constituent elements in the activity system, individual goals are not always congruent with the systemic aim. Object, therefore, can be the source of tensions, dissonances, disturbances, and variations. However, when there is a merger of individual goals and the collective object, systemic transformation becomes possible, leading potentially to the creation of new social relations and novel instruments.

The third and fourth generations of CHAT studies build on the understanding that systems rarely exist in isolation or function independently. Horizontal and vertical collaboration across diverse work activity systems is recognized as key to formulating innovative practices and devising new instruments through the pursuit of a collectively embraced goal [13]. With particular attention to systemic change, third-generation CHAT inquiries highlight a central role that contradictions assume in driving systematic transformation and evolution. CHAT scholars discern the following two types of contradictions: internal dissonances entrenched within and between the constituent nodes of the system, and external disturbances generated between the activity system under investigation and other systems [14]. While object defines and directs systemic activity, contradictions provide the driving force of systemic development. Internal contradictions are believed to play a fundamental role in energizing concerted efforts for systemic change.

Transformative agency by double stimulation (TADS) is a key notion raised in fourth-generation CHAT research to indicate dialog and collaboration both horizontally and vertically across professional, regional, operational, and administrative boundaries [8]. As depicted in Figure 3, TADS essentially denotes a cyclical process of self-discovery, self-regulation, and self-enforcement, where individual or collective learners take volitional actions to reformulate their work circumstances and discover their professional capacities. Two stimuli are employed by the learner to develop transformative agency. The first stimulus arises when the learner encounters a dilemmatic situation fueled by conflicting motives because of the division of labor. The second stimulus entails the artifacts to which the learner attaches cognitive and emotional meanings. These artifacts can be tangible items like a clock or a cup of tea, or they can be discursive entities like questions, songs, and discussion topics.

TADS is often associated with expansive learning. As Sannino [8] put it, TADS is “both a core process and outcome of expansive learning”. In fact, expansive learning is a theoretical tool used to investigate learning in non-traditional situations where there is no well-defined target, pre-determined process, prescribed content, or competent teacher. Things are “learned as they are being created” and tend to have the potential to bring about systemic transformation [14]. Expansive learning is theorized by five principles [14]. The first principle, “activity system as the prime unit of analysis”, requires the interpretation of individual and group actions in the context of the entire activity system. The second principle, “multivoicedness”, advocates for the collection, translation, and negotiation of various perspectives, values, and interests of interacting activity systems. The third principle, “historicity”, emphasizes a developmental perception of local and global history to explore the problems and prospects of an activity system. The fourth principle, “contradiction”, proclaims the potential of change and innovation driven by tensions and conflicts internal and external to the activity system. Finally, the principle of “expansive cycles” indicates a long timescale of qualitative transformation initiated with individuals questioning the established patterns, rules, and norms, which may escalate into collective deliberation on systemic change.

With the aim of systemic change, a cycle of expansive learning is completed when both the collective goals and the individual motives are reformed. A matrix (Figure 4) cross-tabulating the five principles with the four critical questions serves as a framework to record the significant momentum of expansive learning.

In brief, co-existing in a complementary fashion, the Finnish school of CHAT studies highlights the object-directed and contradiction-driven nature of work activities. The concepts of TADS and expansive learning empower individuals in difficult situations to establish their own purpose, which grants them control over their actions. By intentionally pursuing a new goal, they create a personalized and self-regulated environment that helps them comprehend their abilities and the overall system they are operating in. Additionally, CHAT emphasizes the significance of grounded and adaptable learners, as the learning process is often lengthy, intricate, and filled with challenges and setbacks [7].

CHAT provides a valuable framework for understanding the professional development of EAP teachers by emphasizing the dynamic and socially mediated nature of teaching practices. As Ding and Bruce [1] highlight, EAP teaching is situated within a complex system of institutional policies, disciplinary expectations, and pedagogical practices, all of which shape and are shaped by teachers’ agency. Through the lens of CHAT, EAP educators’ professional growth can be examined as an evolving process influenced by their interactions with students, colleagues, and institutional structures. This perspective allows for a deeper exploration of how teachers navigate tensions and contradictions in their practice, leading to transformative learning and adaptive expertise. Thus, CHAT not only informs research on EAP teacher identity and agency but also provides practical insights into professional development programs aimed at enhancing their pedagogical effectiveness.

2.2. Empirical Research on EAP Teacher Development

Recent empirical studies have highlighted the multifaceted challenges faced by EAP teachers, particularly in relation to their professional identity, institutional recognition, and workload. Research suggests that EAP teachers often experience marginalization within academic institutions, as their work is frequently perceived as ancillary rather than integral to disciplinary teaching [1]. This marginalization contributes to identity struggles, as EAP instructors negotiate their professional positioning between language specialists and content area experts [15]. Additionally, studies have documented the heavy workload associated with EAP teaching, including curriculum development, student support, and institutional service responsibilities, which often go unrecognized in formal evaluation systems [16]. These challenges underscore the need for sustained professional development opportunities and institutional policies that acknowledge the critical role of EAP teachers in higher education.

By integrating these empirical perspectives, our study builds on the existing literature and applies the CHAT framework to further explore the complex professional landscape of EAP educators.

3. Methods

This research aims to examine the challenges and obstacles that practicing EAP teachers face in tertiary education settings in China. To guide this study, the following research questions were formulated to explore EAP teachers’ professional development through the lens of CHAT:

• What are the key challenges and opportunities that EAP teachers encounter in their professional development?
• How do EAP teachers negotiate their professional identity and agency within institutional and disciplinary structures?
• In what ways does the CHAT framework illuminate the contradictions and transformative learning experiences in EAP teacher development?

As the majority of EAP teaching groups come from a background in TESOL or ELT, we focus particularly on their difficulties and motivations in transitioning from general English education to EAP. This process of qualitative inquiry requires accurate categorization, abstraction, and gathering of information from multiple sources [17]. The data collection methods used in this study are primarily ethnographic and involve non-participant observations, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and informal communications [17,18].

The author of this study attended and observed a four-month EAP course co-delivered by an EAP teacher and a subject lecturer to a group of engineering freshmen (n = 30). The observer took field notes and occasionally talked with the lecturers during the break or after class. In addition, semi-structured interviews lasting 1.5 to 2.5 h were conducted face-to-face or online to obtain detailed information from a relatively small number of subjects. A total of 113 participants from six comprehensive universities were interviewed, including EAP teachers (n = 16), EAP students (n = 90), present and former heads of the College English department (n = 3), and content lecturers (n = 4) involved in the collaborative EAP course. To ensure impartiality, student interviews were cross-conducted without the course teachers present.

All of the interviews were transcribed verbatim. After initial reading and cross-checking, the interview data were imported into NVivo12 for coding, with the basic elements and tension types suggested by CHAT serving as the fundamental organizations of codes. These themes also direct the report and discussions on the research findings.

4. Findings and Discussions

This section reports the findings concerning the challenges and opportunities that arise when EAP teachers transition from the TESOL or ELT backgrounds. Aided by Engeström’s [14] matrix of expansive learning, the first part of this section provides an overview of the status of EAP teaching professionals in the context of tertiary education in China. The subsequent two sections present detailed reports and discussions on the object of EAP teachers’ practice, and the contradictions they encounter from within and outside their activity system.

4.1. Theorizing EAP Teacher Development Through the Framework of Expansive Learning

In our study, teaching professionals in the field of EAP formulate a particular collective subject due to their scattered or fragmented identity in reality and marginalized status in EAP literature [1,2]. The prime unit of our analysis is a constellation of three activity systems, including EAP teachers, subject lecturers, and subject students as EAP learners (Figure 5). Bounded by students’ academic competence as the shared object, participants in the three activity systems became collaborative learning subjects. As revealed in our interview data, EAP teachers consulted and collaborated most frequently with teachers and students from the content faculties. Meanwhile, other stakeholders, including the hosting university and the Ministry of Education, constitute a larger context of investigating EAP teacher development.

Our study found that EAP teachers remain a minority group with little recognition inside and outside the institute. Despite the ESP approach being mentioned occasionally in “The Guide to Teaching College English” by the Committee of Foreign Language Teaching in Higher Education [19], EAP teachers do not have an officially granted title or profession. Instead, they are commonly identified as English teachers specializing in ELT or applied linguistics. Although acknowledged by content lecturers as their “language teaching colleagues” in collaborative EAP courses, these teachers usually introduce themselves by saying “I teach academic/specific English courses” rather than “I am an EAP/ESP teacher”, as the latter may not be understood by others. During our study, we discovered that some courses designed specifically to foster academic skills were labeled similarly to general English courses in the university’s curriculum. This further aggravated the professional invisibility of EAP teachers. As stated by EAP teachers in an interview, they were officially affiliated with the Department of College English.

Collaborating with content experts has validated EAP teachers’ recognition of their ELT specialties in teaching EAP. However, identifying themselves solely as English teachers has constrained their learning to the field of language teaching and applied linguistics. As a result, they tend to accept the rules made by and for the ELT system, and read and practice research suggested by EAP literature, despite the increasing competition for publication with experienced, narrowly specialized researchers. While the EAP teachers’ dedication to facilitating students’ subject success is a well-justified responsibility, an awareness of a broader connection with heterogeneous activity systems might help them extend their research interests from linguistics, applied linguistics, language education, and socio-linguistics to cultural history and socio-economics. For instance, EAP teachers can take advantage of their living experiences and explore material and political issues in EAP, in which published research remains scarce [2].

The passion for and pressure of teaching were the two main factors driving EAP teachers to learn about disciplinary interactions. In other words, the learning effort made by EAP teachers was almost exclusively motivated by their concern for students’ academic or professional needs. This indicates their prioritization of pedagogical responsibilities above promotional opportunities. Such priority roots deeply in two key features that EAP inherited from ESP, namely, authentic texts and tasks, and discipline-relevant pedagogy [20,21], both demanding a significant investment of time, heavy workload, and a high degree of knowledge. As a result, EAP teachers found themselves “rushing constantly between identifying and meeting students’ needs” (EAP teacher interview).

While the pressure of teaching left little time for publication-oriented research, EAP teachers’ struggle between teaching and research was aggravated by their insufficient subject matter knowledge. Although the principle of authenticity encouraged EAP teachers “not only to use real texts but also process them as their students would in the real world” [20], lacking a basic understanding of the subject discipline made this mission practically impossible. As an EAP teacher said in the interview, “How can I analyze the logical construct of the texts if I do not know the meaning and subject significance of each sentence?”

Seeking pedagogical support from the collaborative systems was found by EAP teachers as the most common and most effective approach to learning. Sharing EAP instructors’ concerns about subject information, content lecturers reminded them of the value of questions rather than answers, as reported by a subject lecturer:

“We need to accept vagueness and uncertainty about the information detailed in the sample research articles because accurate understanding of the content knowledge is not the point of this course. We are the readers of students’ work, so our questions should aim at a good match of language and content in their written product. Instead of feeding them with correct answers to everything, we can raise realistic questions about students’ writing, such as, Are you trying to compare the methods used to enhance to effectiveness of something? What particular purpose does the comparison serve? Does your review eventually lead to or initiate a substantial breakthrough?”

(Informal talk with the subject lecturer)

Despite receiving reassuring advice and positive feedback from their subject counterparts, EAP teachers adopted a coping strategy to counteract the unfriendly rules that value scholarly publication by fully dedicating to teaching and giving up the intention of promotion. Aside from intermittent complaints with colleagues in private, they filed no official critique about the departmental rules and labor divisions. The perception of their work as subordinate to ELT or general English education seemed to have diminished their specific and irreplaceable contribution to facilitating students’ subject navigation.

Ding [2] and Du et al. [22] once expressed a poignant concern about the danger of EAP teachers’ lost sense of self-worth, proclaiming an unfortunate tendency “that practitioners withdraw their active personification to become passive executors of minimalistic and enforceable expectation”. Though public accusation of the established rules may seem radical in the context of political subtleties, EAP teachers should value their teaching experiences and strive to improve their working environment by exploring the cultural, historical, and economic factors that impede or propel their (re)professionalization. In other words, EAP teachers should broaden their research interests by further expanding their learning cycles with shifted theoretical lenses beyond students’ needs to the teachers’ professional development.

4.2. The Issue of Object: Learner Needs-Directed Activity System of TEAP

Our analysis of the activity system of TEAP (teaching English for academic purposes) through CHAT (Figure 6) indicates that the pedagogical aim stipulated or imposed by EAP/ESP literature was the main source of EAP teachers’ self-inflicted wounds [2]. In our study, all of the teacher interviewees transitioned voluntarily from an ELT background to teaching English for academic purposes (TEAP). They were convinced that “EAP provides a better approach to meeting university students’ needs for academic communication in general, and disciplinary navigation in specific”, and took up the challenge of endless learning of discourse norms, epistemological foundations, and canonical genres in students’ target disciplines [23].

In the long run, such ad hoc in situ socialization with established scholarship may yield EAP teachers’ discursive knowledge or specialized scholarship [1]. However, this stretched, incremental, and discursive peregrination towards a sophisticated understanding of EAP not only generated the issue of cost and effect, it also imparted a sense of ontological loss regarding the essence and nature of EAP and TEAP. A teacher interviewee shared the following confusion when reading EAP-related research:

“Every masterpiece tries to tell me what my students might need or how I should teach to meet the learner’s needs. … The more I read, the more I am confused: Is learner need what I am reading in the literature or what I am targeting in the classroom?”

EAP teachers’ ontological struggle and research endeavors observed in this study revealed an overindulgence in established methods and theories. Their teaching and research practices were almost exclusively directed at learners’ needs in academic activities, which is a sole object consecutively suggested by most of the EAP literature. Ultimately, the learner needs-oriented practice may lead to the practitioners’ reflecting on and reforming the concept of EAP. For many EAP teachers with a primary concern about and commitment to students’ academic success, however, the most probable outcome is the successful implementation of EAP pedagogy and effective development of course materials.

In brief, this study indicates that most EAP teachers have not recognized the complexity and fluidity of objects, nor have they realized the vital role of objects in generating new needs and motives for innovative actions. Driven by the immediate teaching responsibilities, EAP teachers acted as individual subjects to meet the teaching goals in the given moments. Academic publications and credentials, although highly desirable, remained secondary in their professional scheme. The personally defined objects not only restrained EAP teachers to the endless efforts for specialized knowledge but also impeded the collective growth of the larger EAP teaching community.

4.3. Internal and External Contradictions of the TEAP Activity System

In comparison to the increasing EAP provisions boosted by the educational market, the teaching of EAP in China remains a small-scale practice due mainly to the limited availability of teachers, indicating EAP as a non-dominant and novel activity system. In general, our study traced the root of EAP teachers’ disarticulation to the broader ELT system, wherein the teaching of English for general education maintained a dominant position.

Table 1. Inner tensions within the components of the EAP activity system.

Components	Inner Conflicts
subject	Dilemma between sustained experience in ELT and the need for a theoretical breakthrough in EAP
object	Tension between students’ EAP competence and teachers’ professional development
outcome	Disparity between the rich data collected and materials developed for teaching and the scarce articles written and accepted for publication
instrument	Clash between discursive knowledge and skills demanded EAP teaching and the narrowly focused EAP research
rules	Disparity between hourly based rewards received by EAP teachers at a regular rate and the profit and fame engendered by scholarly publication
division of labor	The discrepancy between EAP teachers’ discrete efforts for scholarship and researchers’ focused inquiries, as well as the different statuses of the two subject groups in the institute and the university
community	The polarized cultural capital of EAP teachers and researchers resulting from the post hoc vs. ad hoc socialization

summarizes the internal conflicts discovered within the constituent elements of the EAP system, bringing to light three key issues relating, respectively, to EAP teachers’ limited research capacity, high workload, and weak cultural capital. The first problem, EAP instructors’ inadequate research literacy, pointed to the instruments available for professional development, whereas the other two related to the rules that overlook the “high degree of knowledge on the part of EAP teachers” to facilitate students’ access to disciplinary discourse communities. Admittedly, these rules are not stipulated by the community of EAP but by the Department of College English (interview with the heads of the school of foreign languages).

Conflicts also arose between the constituent nodes of the EAP activity system. In Figure 7, these inter-node dissonances identified in this study are depicted with the aid of lightning-shaped two-headed arrows. All of the tensions inherent in the EAP activity system point to the object as the nexus of issues that hamper the development of EAP.

The primary contradiction was identified between the subjects and the object of the EAP activity system. Instead of finding support and forming a concerted effort with research, EAP teachers felt discouraged, frightened, and patronized by the existing EAP literature, which often projected “a condescending and derogatory perception of the practitioner” [2]. Unsurprisingly, the diverted effort of the two subject groups could hardly support a common object of the EAP activity system. Meanwhile, the goal of serving learner needs was unquestioned by either of the subgroups in EAP.

The subject–object dissonance stretches to affect a coherent connection between the object and the community of EAP. The synergy required by the collective object may never be achieved unless EAP develops into an academic discipline integrating rather than separating teaching, research, and scholarship. Although incongruities between the object and instruments, rules, and divisions of labor remained less noticed than those between the object and the subject of the EAP activity system, the conflictual nodes and particularly the research–practice divide could hardly formulate a collective force propelling systemic development. Since EAP teachers are discouraged and even patronized by their unsupportive academic counterparts, biased rules, and their low status in the division of labor, it is no surprise for them to give up the endless learning and consider leaving the activity system.

External conflicts relate to both lateral and vertical interactions of EAP with other activity systems. Our study found that EAP teachers faced external conflicts in their interactions with other activity systems, both laterally and vertically. Major disturbances and setbacks that hindered EAP teachers’ professional growth came from ELT or English for general education, as the immediate dominant system over EAP.

In most, if not all, Chinese universities, the EAP unit remained subordinated to the ELT or College English Department, with unquestionable controls over the number of EAP provisions and the pay rate for EAP instructors. Pedagogical and research endeavors made by EAP teachers were often taunted by the department leaders as “high-cost and low-profit self-amusement” (teacher interview), and various managerial rules were created to constrain EAP teachers to a minority group. The increasing demand for the EAP offerings by the subject departments was overlooked by the Department of College English for “management reasons” (interview with former heads of the College English Department). Meanwhile, EAP teachers received no material reward or status promotion unless they achieved high-ranking academic publications that helped raise the departmental reputation. The irony was, however, that the co-authored publication of the EAP teaching group was unrecognized by the department leader for “the potential risk of conflictual interest”, hence the denial of their access to funding sources due to the lack of reputable academic publication (interview with EAP teachers and a former head of the College English Department). Even more ironically, some heads of the ELT or College English Department sensed the advantage of EAP as a novel academic field and applied successfully for various funds on the university level and above. It might be in this sense that EAP was non-profitable for teachers [21] but of great interest to ELT or English for general education.

Overall, EAP teachers’ endeavor to make their pedagogy closely relevant to students’ subject success is in line with the long timescale of change in higher education. We thus share the scholarly suggestion that EAP teachers should strive for institutional support to “develop sufficient cultural capital to exercise agency, gain recognition and develop an academic identity” [2]. However, CHAT studies, especially the fourth-generation research, encourage us to anticipate the professional identity of the EAP teaching professionals recognized in and outside the field of language education. The hope resides with the following two CHAT-informed ideas: the fluctuation of stakeholders and the collective power generated from below [7]. Stakeholder systems, including department leaders in the case of our study, are unstable constellations with responsibilities and objects that can be redefined by the change in key actors. EAP practitioners should develop a transformative power to break the vicious circle not only by “slowly accumulating cultural capital through credentials, qualifications, scholarship, and research” [1], but also by stretching the exploration beyond the linguistic system to generate “a powerful organic glue for the expanding coalition” [7].

5. Conclusions and Implications

This article set out to trace the marginalization of EAP practitioners in the tertiary educational context in China, where EAP instructors are full-time staff at the Department of College English. Findings from interview data in our study corroborate the perspectives established by leading EAP scholars that the ESP legacy perpetuates a considerable gap rather than a close coalition between EAP teaching and research.

Aided by the theoretical lens and analytical models developed by CHAT research, this study highlights the importance of object and contradiction in forging a promising future for EAP teaching professionals. Empirical data obtained mainly through interviews indicate many, if not most, practicing EAP teachers fail to conceptualize the personal and social meaning, as well as the historical dynamism of the object of their work activity system. This may count for their identity loss when EAP teachers struggle to find the meaning of self and the significance of their work. Undoubtedly, dedication to facilitating students’ academic success provides a primary motive of action at the beginning of EAP teachers’ professional pursuit. However, as their pedagogical efforts have received respect and appreciation from subject specialists and students, they should set a fresh goal and undertake research practice based on their reflections on their lived experiences. With professional development as the collective object, research performed by EAP teachers can be teaching-oriented inquiries built on their close contact with subject matter specialists and consecutive access to learner data. It can also include teacher-oriented studies concerning the cultural, political, and economic dimensions of EAP teacher development. In brief, teaching EAP means a broader scale of collaboration where EAP teachers cooperate with their subject counterparts, linguists, and other scholars and literature within and beyond the realm of social sciences.

Contradictions revealed in the interview data attribute the vulnerable and marginalized status of EAP teaching professionals to rules stipulated or applied by ELT or general English language education as the immediate neighboring or dominant activity system of EAP. While EAP may not signal a profit motive for researchers and teachers, both subgroups in the EAP activity system need to develop a reciprocal connection by working for and with one another. If EAP teachers continue to be marginalized, the future of EAP as “an academic field that contributes fully to teaching, scholarship, and research” may never be sustained. Echoing the advocate for reflectivity as an approach to EAP teachers’ professional development [2], we encourage EAP teachers to strengthen their healthy sense of self-worth by recognizing and theorizing the important role they play in the field of EAP, as well as within the larger context of higher education.

The findings of this study also highlight the importance of the research literacy required of EAP teachers to scrutinize institutional rules relating to their cultural status and material needs. Although the timescale of EAP as an academic domain is in line with the relatively longer timescale of higher education in China, in the case of our study, it is crucial for EAP teachers to exercise their transformative agency to maintain their professional faith. In fact, the systemic sustainability of EAP as research-informed educational practice relies heavily on the joint efforts of EAP teachers and researchers because changes “must be initiated and nurtured by real, identifiable people, individual personas and groups” [7].