Fortnight Focus: The Transition of EAP Practitioners into Scholarship Writing

16.09.2026

This article complements others in the Fortnight Focus that discuss professional development through the lens of creating a scholarship profile. Although 4 years have passed since its first publication, Simon Webster’s article still resonates with EAP practitioners, many of whom are navigating the liminal professional worlds between teaching/managing EAP programmes and researching their own or others’ EAP practice.

I find myself returning to this case study from the Language Centre at Leeds University when discussing some of the challenges EAP colleagues in many contexts face with balancing various work priorities and actually finding the time for scholarship writing.

The paper raises interesting questions around professional identity and the need for dedicated time to be allocated in timetables to facilitate this “cultural shift” from practitioners to researchers. As well as pointing to the practicalities of finding the time to conduct and write up scholarship, the findings also show that developing a scholarship identity requires building a broader researcher skill set and the confidence to grow into that new identity.

All in all, a positive read, albeit one that shows how necessary institutional support is for developing EAP practitioners’ scholarship.

Access The Transition of EAP Practitioners into Scholarship Writing or read it below.