Language Teaching Research Quarterly

The aim of this study is to analyze the emerging trends in related research in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) from 2020 to 2024 using a systematic literature review (SLR). In higher education, the concept of EAP has expanded due to globalization and internationalization, providing essential language skills to enhance students' learning competency.  After setting the inclusion criteria for selecting papers and following PRISMA, there were 71 papers used for the analysis. The analysis was categorized into various aspects, including valuable information in the related EAP papers (25 lists of Q1-Q2 journals, countries of affiliation, years of publication, numbers of authors, keywords in abstracts, and titles of the studies) and thematic analysis (focuses, types of research, frameworks, research tools, samples or participants, key findings, and suggestions for further studies). From the systematic analysis, it is found that qualitative research is used the most, and the attention of previous studies is pedagogy, instructors, and learner experiences. Interviews are the most used tool for data collection, with sample sizes typically ranging from 11 to 50. Most importantly, the analysis in the suggestion for further studies highlights the investigation of social justices, multimodalities, digital tools, and technological integration in language learning.