Integrating traditional and critical approaches to syllabus design: the 'what', the 'how' and the 'why?'

It is commonly assumed that most courses taking place in an English for Academic Purposes setting at universities are, in the main, concerned with various EAP issues, such as listening to lectures and writing academic reports (lab reports, final-year undergraduate project reports and dissertations etc.). This article describes a course which, while taking place in an academic setting, is designed to equip undergraduates with general skills training in English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) practices to meet students' future communication needs after graduation. EOP skills would include report writing (status; recommendation; proposal) and giving business presentations. A main feature of this EOP-oriented course is that it does not rely on any one single approach to syllabus design, but takes an eclectic approach by drawing on elements from a task-based syllabus, a text-based syllabus, and a content-based syllabus for the design of the programme, types of syllabi which can be considered as more established and traditional ones. However, the course is not solely designed with the aim of preparing students for workplace demands purely from an 'accommodationist' stance. It also attempts to address some of the more critical approaches to pedagogy whereby students are gently encouraged to develop a critical awareness of workplace practices in order that change might be implemented, where possible.