Globalisation has made higher education increasingly internationalised, reinforcing the importance of English as a means for academic communication. In this regard, many universities in non-English-speaking countries mandate that local first-year undergraduates take an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course. At the same time, native speakers of English and local students who attain outstanding English results in public examinations may be granted exemption. An important question to ask is: Are students of high English proficiency ready to use English for university studies without taking an EAP course? This study addresses this question by focusing on the cases of nine first-year high English proficiency undergraduates admitted to an English-medium university in Hong Kong. These students attained the highest level in English language in the local secondary school leaving public examination. Two in-depth interviews were conducted with each participant to evaluate their learning experiences in secondary school and taking the university EAP course. The findings reveal the challenges of learning EAP among those high-achievers and reveal the gap between secondary school English and academic English. The study offers insights into what first-year students need in EAP when they transition from the local secondary school context to the increasingly globalised higher education context. Copyright © 2018 Asia TEFL.

This study focuses on the perceptions of learning EAP of first-year undergraduates with high ESL proficiency admitted to an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Two in-depth individual interviews were conducted with nine participants and their written assignments were analysed. The data reveal several challenges facing the high achievers in learning EAP. One evident aspect is how to properly cite academic sources. The participants struggled with selecting suitable texts from sources, paraphrasing them, and using them to support their arguments. They also perceived a need to abandon the recited formulaic expressions which may have helped them score highly in the secondary school examination. This study reveals gaps between the English learnt in secondary school and EAP and offers insight into what first-year students need when they transition from secondary school to university studies. It argues that EAP should be made an essential component of first-year undergraduate programmes. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.