Oral communication fulfils a number of general and discipline-specific pedagogical functions. Learning to speak is an important goal in itself, for it equips students with a set of skills they can use for the rest of their lives. Speaking is the mode of communication most often used to express opinions, make arguments, offer explanations, transmit information, and make impressions upon others. Students need to speak well in their personal lives, various social interactions, academic surrounding and their future professional context, where they will have meetings to attend, presentations to make, discussions and arguments to participate in, and groups to work with. (http://www.com.uri.edu/comfund/cxc.shtml)

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is a fast developing area of the English language teaching. Speaking in academic contexts is becoming increasingly important due to transition to innovative methods of teaching. Speaking in a foreign language is twice a big challenge for a university student. Every student can have different needs, depending on the chosen discipline, language skills, cognitive level, cultural background, and many other factors. The above indicates the problems related to foreign language teaching at university level and presupposes the need to transition of teaching a foreign language for academic purposes, and, thus, innovating a foreign language subject syllabus.

For the purpose of finding the solution to the problem, the following objectives have been set: (1) to study scientific literature related to teaching academic speaking in foreign language; (2) to develop an instrument for finding out students’ needs in the field; (3) to carry out a survey and work out recommendations for the innovations in the foreign language subject syllabus.

The paper aims at presenting the results of the survey carried out in two higher education institutions (Vytautas Magnus University and Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) with different areas of study orientation in order to compare student academic speaking needs and find out core needs common to the students studying various disciplines and, therefore, finding out the ones relevant to the needs of most students studying at university level.

BALEAP. 2008. BALEAP Competency Framework for Teachers of English for Academic Purposes. BALEAP. BALEAP. 2013. BALEAP Can Do Framework for EAP syllabus design and assessment. BALEAP. Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad and E. Finegan. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman. de Chazal, E. and J. Moore. 2013. Oxford EAP Advanced/C1 Student’s Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press. de Chazal, E. 2014. English for Academic Purposes (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers). Oxford: Oxford University Press. de Chazal, E. and S. McCarter. 2012. Oxford EAP Upper Intermediate/B2 Student’s Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reinhart, S. M. 2002. Giving Academic Presentations (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.