Is Extra English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Support Required for Degree Holders Pursuing Master Programmes in Less Familiar Fields?

With a view to identifying academic significance of English for Academic Purposes as a core subject in English across curriculum in a vast majority of universities and tertiary educational institutions in Hong Kong and other non-English speaking countries and cities, the research aims at studying university learners’ strategies in transcending master degree programmes in fields that learners are not familiar from bachelor degrees. With the questionnaires and interviews, the study first compares undergraduates and postgraduates’ acknowledgement of Academic English as a measurement of their English competency at universities, as evidenced by their recount of university classrooms in bachelors and masters in Hong Kong and/or outside Hong Kong, in addition to reading, listening, writing and speaking experience in workplace and social life. The research then analyzes the psychological behaviors of these learners towards English for Academic Purposes in application to real life experience, which is subjected to the contexts of communication and needs.