制定学术英语能力量表对促进我国学术英语教学与研究的发展至关重要。学术英语能力除了语言外，还有语域、体裁和元话语等知识以及学术规范和伦理道德等学术素养。但相对学术英语能力内容的界定，对能力和知识的分类、分级更具有挑战性。与通用英语能力等级量表有所不同，学术英语能力似乎不能以听说读写能力分类，而要以学术任务分类；不能以学生年级层次分级，而应以学术英语需求分级。

Designing a competency framework of English for Academic Purposes (EAP)is critical to the development of China’s EAP teaching and research. The competency framework includes language proficiency, EAP knowledge (e.g. registers, genres and metadisourse) as well as academic literacy (e.g. academic and ethical rules).But compared with these, their classification is more challenging. Unlike a competency framework of English for general purposes, a competency framework of EAP might not classify the competency in terms of speaking, listening, reading and writing, but in terms of academic activities and tasks. It could not grade students according to their ages or education, but rather according to their academic needs.