Abstract The study of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is compulsory in many higher education institutions, particularly in settings where English is not the students' first language. Since more students are entering academia, the population of students with special educational needs (SEN) is increasing. Students with SEN struggle with academic requirements in their first language and more so with EAP courses. In order to impact teacher practices, it is first necessary to uncover their understandings of SEN. To this end, our study examined the mental models of SEN among eight EAP teachers. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews. Qualitative thematic content analysis revealed that their mental models were complex, constructed of impersonal (common parlance labels of SEN, institutional knowledge regarding placement levels and accommodations) and personal knowledge (in‐class and prior personal/professional experiences). Moreover, these themes were often entangled in particular ways as participants provided epistemic warrants: building attributions and grounding knowledge claims from one knowledge set in another. We suggest these insights may be useful in constructing in‐service training courses for EAP teachers.
Russak et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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