Transcript Document

Using what you know
to teach EAP
Marcie M. Williams
•Student Problems
•Student Needs
•Sustained Content
•How to Incorporate it Into
Your Classroom
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Power Struggles
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Coercive Struggle(Cummins, 1994)
Financial Struggle
ESL Program location (Gaies,
1991 see also Celce-Murcia, 1987;
Dunnett, 1985; Rose 1985, 1998)
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Stereotypes and Racism
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Hispanic and Asian stereotypes
(DeVillar, 1994: Cornell, 1996;
Gay, 2000; Dunn & Griggs, 1995;
and Penfield, 1987)
Threat to Asian students
(Washington, 1996)
Consequences are low self-esteem
and “acting dumb” to fit in (Min,
cited in Gay, 2000)
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Teacher
Expectations
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Teachers get what they expect
from students (DeVillar, 1994;
Goldenburg, 1996, Moll, 1998;
Gay, 2000; and Solomon &
Winguard 1991)
Lower standards for ESL students
(Gaies, 1991)
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Learning Styles
Definitions
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Reid (1987) “cognitive, affective and
physiological traits that are relatively
stable indicators of how learners
perceive, interact with and, and respond
to the learning environment” (p.87)
Gay (2000) – “a learning style is the
process one habitually uses for cognitive
problem solving and for showing what
one knows and is capable of doing” (p.
150).
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ESP/EAP/ESAP/EGAP
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ESP - Richards, Platt and Platt (1992) “the role of English
in a language course that or programme of instruction in
which the content and aims of the course are fixed by the
specifics needs of a particular group of learners” (p. 125)
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EAP - Jordan (1997) “being concerned with those
communication skills in English which are required for study
purposes in formal educational systems” (p. 1)
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ESAP -
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EGAP – the skills and language needed to participate in
what would be need for engineering students or
those studying medicine
general university courses. These skills include, but are not
limited to, note-taking, writing, reading, and acquiring
academic discourse patterns
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Ostler 1980 v. Johns 1981
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Ostler – students rated reading
textbooks, taking notes and asking
questions as key skills to learn.
Also ranked were summary and
test taking skills.
Johns – Faculty members ranked
reading as most important for
international students to have.
What are the discrepancies?
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Writing
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Academic writing is unlike any other
(Elbow, 1991).
Horowitz (1988) discovered that
synthesis of multiple sources was most
assigned by instructors but Leki and
Carson (1997) learned that in EAP
courses students are mostly asked to
write about personal experiences.
Other skills include 
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Responding to readings
Research paper writing
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Writing cont.
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Leki and Carson (1994) concluded that
students need to learn how to supply
relevant material, what to include from
sources and how to logically support
their arguments. Learning rhetorical
forms ranked second.
Santos (1988) discovered that
professors graded content over language
errors.
Plagiarism
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Reading
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According to Mokhtari and Sheorey
(1994) say it is the determining factor in
student success.
Four problems with reading
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poor vocabulary
Inability to see how sentence structure
relates to to meaning
Inability to recognize organizational
patterns
Lack of background knowledge (Corson,
1994; Richgels, McGee, Lomax and
Sheard, 1987; and Fitzgerald, 1995)
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Listening & Note-taking
Benson (1989) posits that the listening
skills needed in the university are
“quantitatively and qualitatively different
than those within an ESL classroom” (p.
422)
 Professors do not modify their speech,
use friendly banter, idioms, stories, and
figurative language.
 Students do not know what
is important and what is not.
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Speaking
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Cultural
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Psychological Factors
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Do not want to offend professor
(Flowerdew and Miller, 1995)
Fear of being laughed at
Fear of irritating people
Language Factors
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Pronunciation
Limited repertoire for discussing
(Kinsella, 1996)
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Vocabulary
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Students need to learn academic
vocabulary
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Solomon and Rhodes (1996) vocabulary
is a key “feature of academic language”
(p.5)
53% of their students reported it was their
biggest set-back as did 70% of students
in a study done by Scarcella and
Zimmerman (1997).
Language backgrounds
Dictionary use
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Tests
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Multiple choice tests (Statman,
1988)
Essay tests
Professors are not expert test
writers!
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Sustained Content
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Hess and Ghawi (1997) have stated that
it is impossible for teachers to become
experts in all the undergraduate fields.
Carrell and Carson (1997) point out that
“under prepared students benefit most
from instruction in reading and writing
tasks that resemble the actual literacy
demands of university coursework” (p.
48)
Need to use the language in a typical
and real context. Not act out roles but
use the language to fulfill real
communicative purposes (Eskey, qtd. in
Carrell and Carson)
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Sustained Content cont.
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Content of the course is second to
the skills learned but students
need to see the validity of the tasks
done.
Depends on needs and interests
but many of the students’ courses
are not related to their majors.
Content is related to skills – essay
example, reading ex. (all from Carrell and Carson,
1997)
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Sustained Content cont.
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Pally (1999) – students learn
academic skills through content
“Without sustained content there is
little for the students to
compare/contrast, question or
synthesize” (p. 8).
Kasper (qtd. in Pally) students who
had taken sustained content
courses had higher pass and
graduation rates!
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Sustained Content cont.
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More interesting to study one thing
– equals higher motivation (Pally,
1997)
Peters & Saxon (1998) claim that
attaching the curriculum to current
events makes it more interesting to
the students (p.116)
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Fromkin and Rodman
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One content area is more interesting
according to Pally (1997)
More to do task with – essays,
compare/contrast etc.
Current (bilingual ed or English Only
movements always in the news)
Relevant to their lives – might even help
Is introductory level so it would make the
students feel as if they were participating
in “real” academic tasks
ESL teachers are trained or at least are
familiar with linguistics; therefore, could
answer in depth questions.
Could focus on one type of writing (see
Spack, 1988)
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EAP Textbooks
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What content areas are taught
Folklore/Atmospheric Science
American History
Anthropology
Anthropology/Literature
Economics/Ecology
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Skills areas - see OHP
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Student Voices
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Was the class helpful?
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Was the class interesting?
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1 always – 2 usually
2 always – 1 usually – 1 often
7 very helpful – 3 helpful – 1 not
1 very helpful – 2 helpful
1 always – 2 usually
2 usually – 2 often
Change the textbook
Was interesting
Academic Skills improve
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6 very much – 6 some
1 very much – 2 some
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Student Voices
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“The subject was very
interesting….it is for us to practice
a real-life-college course with a
real subject and college textbook,
so it’s OK”
“ do more writing”
“more presentations”
“my writing and understanding is
getting better”
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Student Voices
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I started to study at FIT this
semester and it's been hard. But
it's interesting and more worth
doing. I miss Pace though. Plus
what I learned in your class really
helps me! I am not just saying it. I
mean it! I feel thankful.
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Things to Change
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Be explicit with academic skills
Video/audio tape lectures?
Spend more time on skills
Library skills
Internet skills (get rid of!)
Dictionary use
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