This document discusses the evolving identity of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs from a "crisis of identity" to establishing legitimacy and collaboration with academic departments. It describes how the EAP program at Durham University shifted from being seen primarily as language instruction to being viewed as academic work, through professional development activities that increased engagement with academic scholarship. This transition benefited students by providing a more integrated preparation for academic study and a better understanding of academic practices.
1. PLAUSIBILITY, POWER & PROGRESS
enhancing student language learning through
professional collaboration
Chris Macallister | Steve Kirk
Durham University English Language Centre
2. OVERVIEW
1. A Crisis of Identity
2. Mistaken Identities
3. Emerging Plausibility
4. A Third Space for ‘Language Teaching’
5. Summary Insights & Questions
4. EAP Unit Identity: what are we for?
• Language teaching
• Academic literacy
• Education studies
• Service provider
• Research
5. Where does The Academy want to put us?
Different homes around the country demonstrate
our ‘crisis of identity’…
• A Central Department (King’s College London and Bristol)
• Part of the International Office (Cardiff)
• Within a school of Education (Nottingham)
6. Where does The Academy want to put us?
Different homes around the country demonstrate
our ‘crisis of identity’…
• Within the Arts and Humanities Faculty (Durham)
• Integrated with a Modern Languages Centre (Glasgow and
Northumbria)
• Outsourced completely to a private provider (Newcastle)
8. Mistaken Identities I: from one Extreme…
1 TEFL approach: EAP only as language practice
The false universalism of CLT:
academic content reduced to a carrier vehicle;
language largely seen as a global practice
9. Mistaken Identities I: from one Extreme…
1 TEFL approach: EAP only as language practice
Problems:
• Inter-knowingness and Ignorance
• Power structures and barriers
• A deficient student language learning experience
10. Mistaken Identities II: to another Extreme
2 Approach of teaching language only as academic content
(metalinguistic lectures)
Problems:
• A misdirected student language learning experience –
our students are not students of linguistics!
• professional image management –
the EAP tutor masquerading as a lecturer?
11. Mistaken Identities III: Fragmentation
3 The EAP centre as a ‘diaspora’ unit: each department
is given its own in-house language teacher(s)
Similar to CLIL (Coyle et al 2010), and some
Critical EAP approaches (Benesch 2001)
12. Mistaken Identities III: Fragmentation
3 The EAP centre as a ‘diaspora’ unit: each department
is given its own in-house language teacher(s)
Problem: a lack of a central identity and pedagogical vision
• A potentially inconsistent student language learning
experience
• Professional image management –
the EAP centre as a supplier of EAP tutors:
Why not outsource at this point?
13. Mistaken Identities III: Fragmentation
3 The EAP centre as a ‘diaspora’ unit: each department
is given its own in-house language teacher(s)
Problem: a lack of a central identity and pedagogical vision
• How do you achieve language curriculum renewal &
inter-knowingness?
14. Mistaken Identities IV: Activism
4 CEAP – EAP as a pedagogy of liberation (Benesch 2001)
Mistaken view of ‘empowerment’…
Legitimacy –
do the departments or students actually want this?
15. Mistaken Identities IV: Activism
4 CEAP – EAP as a pedagogy of liberation (Benesch 2001)
Problems:
• A potentially inconsistent student language learning
experience
• professional image management – the EAP tutor as
‘political officer’ and unofficial student representative?
• A head on clash with power structures?
20. EAP as Language Work EAP as Academic Work
Grammatical Accuracy
Vocabulary Choice
Spoken Fluency
Pronunciation & Intelligibility
(etc)
21. EAP as Language Work EAP as Academic Work
Grammatical Accuracy Understanding the Practices of the Academy
Vocabulary Choice Disciplinary Differences
Spoken Fluency Writing and Speaking for Content Learning
Pronunciation & Intelligibility Integration and Synthesis of Reading
(etc) (etc)
24. Shift in Professional Identity (i):
More legitimacy at Durham
Greater sense of ability to contribute
Discoursal shift Plausibility
25. Shift in Professional Identity (ii):
Engagement in Scholarship
Legitimate (peripheral?) Participation
Research Activity & Researcher Learning
26. Shift in Professional Identity (iii):
Increasingly shared set of values and principles
underlying our practice
27. We’re beginning to think we know who we are (!)
And this is helping us to:
Forge connections
Create collaborations
28. Strategy:
Waving the flag: presenting at every opportunity
Getting a good rep: in every Durham department
Watching our language: talking for academics
35. Curriculum Renewal:
Teaching the why…
Genuine dialogic space between:
language work & academic work
student acculturation & empowerment
36. Student Learning:
Better preparation for Durham:
Academy-invested sense of language work
More realistic management of expectations
Demystification of the road ahead
38. Impacts of Being in a Third Space:
Students are being increasingly better prepared
Teaching materials are evolving in this new space
We’re sitting at the table, not (we hope) on the menu !
39. Impacts of Being in a Third Space:
We’re sitting at the table: E.g.
IT skills audit project
Employability Skills
Lecturer Training
40. Summary Insights:
Theorisation of Practice. Practicalisation of Theory
‘Epistemic Artefacts’ for change
Dialogue. Collaboration. ‘With’ not ‘for’.
41. Questions for MFL:
What is the relationship (& dialogue) btwn lang. teachers & academics?
Do lecturers teach language? Do lang. teachers engage in scholarship?
How far does content matter?
Does it change who you are as a teacher?
Who your students are…
and what they (should be) do(ing) with language?
To what end?
42. Questions for MFL:
How far do (e.g.) international offices draw on language teacher expertise
in language and culture (do they draw only on academics?)
46. ABSTRACT + LINKS
• Inherent power structures across departments and (mutual) ignorance
are barriers to collaboration - and thus barriers to language curriculum
renewal and teaching that meets learner needs. Through a narrative
account of our own experience, we reflect in this talk on the highly
productive inter-knowingness that has emerged and evolved between
the English Language Centre and academic departments at Durham
University. We relate how professional image management and the
development of our own 'plausibility' among academic staff has led to
a change in relationship, from 'working for' to 'working with'. Most
importantly, we examine how this evolution has benefitted the student
language learning experience.
• Conference Link: http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/mlac/aulc/conference2013timetable2.pdf
• http://www.dur.ac.uk/mlac/aulc.2013/
Notas do Editor
Frame this in terms of a view into different practice that may or may not have direct application for MFL – but is itself interknowingness.Keep coming back to student learning: without a firm sense of (academy invested) identity, students probably don’t get the best deal, given the context they’re in…
Maybe important to hear that the ‘crisis’ comes from both sides: it would appear The Academy doesn’t quite know where to put us…and this means the Sector is, arguably, still a little unsure of itself – at least on the ground.
Maybe important to hear that the ‘crisis’ comes from both sides: it would appear The Academy doesn’t quite know where to put us…and this means the Sector is, arguably, still a little unsure of itself – at least on the ground.
In this view, there is no need for collaboration, as we (plural) have different jobs. We teach the English; departments take care of the rest. Crucially, this leaves ELCs open to privatisation, as ‘anybody’ can provide language training. Need to see this from the perspective of both the ELC and the departments, changing programme heads etc (and thus the need for collaboration, to continue the awareness raising). It also legitimizes a steady-state curriculum – which is what we tend to see in waves of EFL (and EAP) textbook editions
In this view, there is no need for collaboration, as we (plural) have different jobs. We teach the English; departments take care of the rest. Crucially, this leaves ELCs open to privatisation, as ‘anybody’ can provide language training. Need to see this from the perspective of both the ELC and the departments, changing programme heads etc (and thus the need for collaboration, to continue the awareness raising). It also legitimizes a steady-state curriculum – which is what we tend to see in waves of EFL (and EAP) textbook editions
Interesting to consider whether the label ‘lecturer’ impacts on self-perception and identity (we are ‘teaching fellows’ – that feels quite different). Key example of classroom impact: use of powerpoint in every EAP class.
The story of our evolution in ideas and practice, and the benefits this brought – and continues to bring…
Thediscoursal shift in particular is part of the ‘professional image management’ mentioned in the abstract.
One of the knock-on effects here is on the kind of staff we hire now for PS – and our sense of the skills and knowledge they need to have to enact our curriculum
+ re-writing Section 1.3 of the Learning and Teaching Handbook.
Cuts the right line, we think, between ‘the lecture’, the ‘language lesson’ and the ‘critical dialogue’ extremes that Chris alluded to earlier.Analogy here with the relationship we forged and try to sustain: two-way dialogue between the ELC and other University units (service and academic) – Canagarajah type (e.g. effect of EdD on discourse, teacher induction, speaking to Ss, and then speaking with depts)
And feedback is good. E.g. Geography, Law School internal review.
Plus, in passing, upcoming session on Jan 30 co-run by Judith Jurowska and Philip on ‘Academic Integrity’, coming out of the Geography project
Interesting aside: in Northumbria MFL teachers were to be implicated in teaching EAP (mistaken identity 1)…
Interesting aside: in Northumbria MFL teachers were to be implicated in teaching EAP (mistaken identity 1)…