In Sections I and II of this book, we considered general issues regarding

Variation in academic discourse
As you saw in the Reflection above, the notion of variation between texts is 
essential both for distinguishing academic from non-academic discourse and 
for making finer distinctions within academic discourse as a whole. Let us 
look, then, at some aspects of variation that are important in EAP.
Variation in register
When we approach a text, we can recognize that it arises out of a certain 
social context; in other words, it belongs to a certain register. For example, 
we recognize a student essay as belonging to an educational context because 
we make a connection between the characteristics of educational activity 
and the way in which language is used in that context. Here are three exam-
ples of texts that might arise in the context of academic life:
1 An examination question on the causes of World War I for an under-
graduate course in history
2 A conversation between two undergraduates about the history exami-
nation question above
3 An undergraduate seminar on the causes of World War I
When we assign a text to a register, we rely on three aspects of the social 
context (Halliday, 1978):
• Field covers the subject matter of the text and the social activity of the 
participants.
• Tenor covers aspects of the relationship and roles of the participants, 
including the level of formality.
• Mode is the way language functions in the situation and includes 
whether the text is spoken or written.
Thus we can characterize the register of 1 above by saying that the field 
is specialized history, the tenor is formal and the mode is written. The use 
of these three aspects also allows us to differentiate between 1, 2 and 3. 
Although they share the same field, they differ in terms of tenor and mode: 
2 is in spoken mode with an informal tenor, while 3 is in spoken mode with 
a formal tenor.

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Academic discourse 93
For students, the field is often specified, but learners may have difficulty 
achieving the expected tenor; for example, they may use features typical of 
spoken discourse in their written texts, or their spoken presentations may 
be too formal. Such problems lead to texts which are inconsistent in register. 
As EAP teachers, if we take into account the register aspects of field, tenor 
and mode, we can differentiate between texts that might otherwise seem 
similar, which helps us choose more appropriate texts for our students. This 
is especially important because different registers are associated with differ-
ent sets of lexicogrammatical features. While it might be tempting to base a 
task on a text from a newspaper because it is more accessible, the language 
that learners encounter in such a text will not be typical of written academic 
discourse.