Encounters in the EAP Classroom

Episode 11: Learners, academic discussions, and flow

Laura — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 07:09:00 +0000

In this episode, Laura celebrates a major moment of witnessing EAP learners who had fantastic discussions. She then analyzes the success of those discussions using the 8 factors of flow as presented by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his 1990 publication, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. This analysis starts with a discussion with Ao Shen, a former EAP student of Laura's, who read the book and submitted a review in her class. Turning to the idea of flow, Laura examines the successful discussions, how flow was evident, and notes what type of learning activities might still be needed for those students who have not yet achieved a learning exchange in their discussions.

Csikszentmihalyi describes eight characteristics of flow:

Complete concentration on the task;
Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback;
Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down);
The experience is intrinsically rewarding;
Effortlessness and ease;
There is a balance between challenge and skills;
Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination;
There is a feeling of control over the task.

Taken from: https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row.

Episode 10: EAP and active reading for active learning

Laura — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 02:54:00 +0000

In this episode, Laura reflects upon and explains some teaching activities she has recently used with EAP students in an effort to increase learner understanding of reading texts. Laura introduces her newly created schemata of EGGS (establish the topic and definition, gather understanding, generate new ideas and opinions, and share the ideas) that she utilizes in her classrooms to guide students through the learning process. EGGS incorporates the 6 levels of learning as described in Bloom's Taxonomy of Higher Learning.

Laura also reflects on the significance of learning to understand information that has been structured according to the more Anglo-Saxon style of academic writing and how tightly interconnected the main ideas are to both the topic and each other. Laura likens this to a spiderweb, which she finds students can understand as they attempt to decode the written texts of higher-level writers than themselves.

Websites where you can find more information on the topics to which Laura refers.

https://fortelabs.com/

https://bloomstaxonomy.net/

https://www.simplypsychology.org/constructivism.html

The Complete Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, first published 1645

Episode 9: learning, unlearning, and relearning writing

Laura — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 04:27:00 +0000

In this episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Viviana Marcel, an English language specialist, who has been teaching EAP at different levels during her career. A conversation with Viviana is always a pleasure for me because she brings such passion and enthusiasm to her teaching and it always gets me further inspired. In this conversation, we discussed the difficulties students often have with learning the medium of writing as they do not often come from a background of learning English for communicative purposes. Through her experiences, action research, and reflection, Viviana has put together a process to help learners first learn that writing is to communicate, then unlearn what they have previously tried without success, and then relearn a writing process that will benefit them. Join me for a journey through Viviana's process, her experiences, and her own learning about teaching writing.

Episode 8: EAP teacher in the role of participant

Laura — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 12:29:00 +0000

This episode addresses the roles of the EAP teacher and how those roles have migrated to the online classroom. One specific role that Laura focuses on is that of participant; when the teacher is a participant in a classroom learning activity. While this role can seem fluid and organic in the onsite classroom, it presents a few challenges in the online classroom. Laura discusses actions that she has taken to keep the role of participant thriving and also the issues that have arisen. The teacher as participant allows the teacher to role model target language and provide students with examples of co-constructing meaning or negotiating for meaning in the context of small group discussions.

During this episode, Laura refers to the following sources.

Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and Symbolic Power. J.B. Thompson (Ed.), (G. Raymond and M. Adamson, Trans) Cambridge: Polity Press.

Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice Of English Language Teaching The Practice Of English Language Teaching (4th Ed.). USA: Pearson Education Limited.

Episode 7: Students as Partners in EAP

Laura — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 04:58:00 +0000

This episode addresses the benefits and challenges of utilizing and incorporating students as partners (SaP) or student partnerships in the EAP classroom. Student partnership brings student engagement to a new level as students become collaborators in their own learning development, both with the instructor and their classmates.

However, as Laura discusses, it is easy to take a wonderfully formed partnership in one semester and turn it into drudgery and prescription in the following semester...simply because the partnership and collaboration often get passed over. A collaboration one semester becomes a prescribed learning activity or assessment the next semester.

Check out these sources for better understanding of student partnership or Students as Partners (SaP).

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Engaging+Students+as+Partners+in+Learning+and+Teaching%3A+A+Guide+for+Faculty-p-9781118434581

https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/TLI/article/view/57438

Contact Laura directly at windowsoflife@gmail.com

Check out her website at www.windowsoflife.com

Episode 6: Academic Storytelling in Writing

Laura — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 07:06:00 +0000

This episode addresses the challenges of academic writing for EAP students. Laura discusses the idea that academic writing is storytelling but with different structures and conventions compared with personal and fiction writing. Many students in higher ed EAP classes are not struggling to write, but rather to tell a compelling and engaging story, to have a dynamic message.

For students who are unfamiliar with English language study for communicative purposes, academic storytelling adds more complexities. However, students soon learn that the writing conventions and expectations are less restrictive and more supportive than they thought. Students can use instruction and guidance as they stop using writing as a demonstration of their English and begin using it as a medium of storytelling and message transmission. As Laura points out, writing is not the end goal, but rather the medium for the message.

Episode 5: Communicative Language Teaching with EAP higher education students

Laura — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 12:14:00 +0000

This episode addresses the challenge of the communicative language teaching (CLT) classroom for EAP students who have no familiarity with this teaching approach. Not only do these students need to decode language, but then they must determine whether the language is the target language for the lesson, the metalanguage to discuss the target language, or classroom language giving direction and instructions. Hence, the CLT classroom, contrary to its goal of inclusivity, becomes overwhelming and daunting for such students.

Cao Liu, an EAP lecturer at a transnational education university in China, joins me today to provide more insight into the EAP students who are failing their EAP courses. She speaks specifically of Chinese mainland students who are unfamiliar with CLT classrooms and struggle with the language and the expectations. She also gives some suggestions of how EAP lecturers can address the struggles of these students.

https://ontesol.com/communicative-approach/

A helpful summary article "Revisiting communicative competence" by Shona Whyte can be retrieved at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1290295.pdf

The CEFR, to which I often refer, is available here in connection to classroom learning https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/cefr-in-the-classroom

Episode 4: Constructivist EAP Teaching (for mediation)

Laura — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 06:40:00 +0000

This episode addresses constructivist teaching theory and its implications for the EAP classroom, especially in consideration of mediation. For many students, a constructivist teaching approach is strange and daunting and they may not understand immediately how to exploit this environment. Looking at the five main theorists behind constructivism, we can find terminology that will allow teachers to clearly and compassionately introduce and usher students into a flourishing learning experience. Students can learn to construct their own meaning, to build their own EAP knowledge and skills.

A helpful synopsis of the five theorists can be found at http://constructivism512.weebly.com/meet-the-theorists.html

A full description along with the 10 sublists for the Academic Word List can be found at https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/academic/awllists/

Just search up "active learning activities" to discover a huge assortment of ideas for your classroom.

Episode 3: Reading for mediation in EAP

Laura — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 04:42:00 +0000

This episode addresses the difficulty that many EAP students struggle with in the skill of reading. For many students, simply increasing reading comprehension is a big task. However, EAP classrooms can out of the dominant linguistic focus on vocabulary and main ideas. Instead, there can be more focus placed on helping students understand the greater purpose of reading. Students can read to create a 'team' of sources that the student can then mediate ideas from these reading texts into discussions and essays. Working with teams, both 'reading text teams' and 'classmate teams', expands the student's application of reading beyond merely comprehension assessments.

However, to motivate students to read extensively and intensively, EAP classrooms need to envisage a wider scope for application. Merely producing essays and giving presentations to a single instructor is not likely to encourage students to do the hard work of reading more.

www.jessestommel.com Learn more about Jesse Stommel's idea of ungrading and how study is about much more than assessments.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/authors/benjamin-tak-yuen-chan Learn more about Benjamin Tak Yuen Chan's ideas to reimagine the EAP classroom.

Episode 2: Mediation and teamwork in small group discussions

Laura — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 04:33:00 +0000

This episode takes a closer look at how EAP students can cooperate and collaborate as a team to deepen and increase each member's understanding of the topic. While some discussions are designed to allow students to demonstrate their stored knowledge of a topic, many discussions can be utilized in the Socratic manner of developing each participant's understanding of a topic. Just as a basketball team works together to set up scoring, or any other sports team, so too can a discussion that works like a team.

Episode 1: Learning mediation in the EAP classroom

Laura — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 04:22:00 +0000

This episode begins the exploration of the skill of mediation as laid out in the CEFR macro-strategies. Students need to learn not only the content and how to communicate, but to communicate ideas mediating other sources into the discussion, essay, or presentation for support and evidence. Mediation is more than just maintaining academic integrity, it is part of navigating topics and communication in the target community. In the EAP classroom, mediation can be taught with the intention of bringing students into the academic community.