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.