What purposes, specifically? Re-thinking purposes and specificity in the context of the ‘new vocationalism’

Discipline-specific approaches to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) tend to overlook the purposes of the disciplines themselves and the issue of transferability from academic to professional contexts. This becomes problematic in the context of the ‘new knowledge economy’ and emergent pedagogies in higher education, which are increasingly focused on attributes transferable to workplaces. This paper explores the chain effect of the ‘new knowledge economy’ on the purposes of newly vocationalized courses, on assessment tasks, and on the forms of learning and literacy required. I draw attention to a new set of generalisable skills and ways of thinking that are valued in this context, and to the implications this has for lecturers in the field of EAP. I argue that specific approaches to the development of literacy in these contexts need to focus on the purposes of pedagogies rather than on specific written genres. I suggest that a broader definition of literacy, which recognizes face-to-face interactivity as one of the important communicative modes in this context, is necessary.