ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature of academic discourse and its linguistic dimensions. Academic discourse is regarded as a particular register of English with distinctive characteristics at the level of vocabulary, grammar, and text. The nature of academic discourse and spoken discourse is compared. Academic language differs from everyday spoken or written language in terms of the grammatical resources it makes use of and poses special difficulties for EMI learners who may only have encountered everyday spoken language prior to commencing EMI. Academic writing requires an understanding of the context as well as of grammatical patterns, word collocations, and formality. Disciplines employ different genres and text types. Each discipline has its own commonly used text types or genres, each with specific patterns for organizing information. Examples of disciplinary text types and their linguistic features are discussed.
