English for Academic Purposes (EAP) vs. general English—a 101 crash course. Zoe Smith

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) vs. general English—a 101 crash course

Presenter: Zoe Smith Commissioning Editor for Macmillan Skillful series

My job =

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Summary:

EAP has been one of the most recent booms in English language markets across the world, with a free flow of international students wishing to gain access to higher education courses taught in English. But what does EAP mean exactly, and how should a teacher trained in traditional ELT methods adapt to students who need to operate in a higher education learning environment? This presentation offers an overview of some of the differences between teaching and studying EAP vs. general English, featuring excerpts from Macmillan’s brand new EAP series, Skillful.

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Unit 1: At the Shops

Exciting Role Play

Storekeeper: Hello. How can I help you?Customer: Hello. I would like to buy a loaf of bread.Storekeeper: Sure. Bread is in aisle 3.Customer: Where is aisle 3?Storekeeper: It’s over there. It’s next to the pasta.Customer: And how much is the bread?Storekeeper: I don’t know. It’s on the price tag.Customer: Oh, okay. Thank you.Storekeeper: You’re welcome. Have a nice day. And we’ll discuss

quantum physics next time.

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Types of oral production for EAP:

debate

presentation

argument (NOT fighting)

seminar participation

negotiation of roles

reformulation of ideas

proposal

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Angry Bread

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However, many international students fail to reach their potential at an overseas university. Why?

Knowing how to structure the language they know effectively.

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Teachers have a responsibility to prepare students for the real demands of studying overseas. A lot of teachers think academic English is about preparing students for exams. But, as we have our own experience of, many of our students who perform well in English exams still struggle to communicate in English. Teaching English for test taking is more about the strategy of test taking. It doesn’t consider some of the wider key areas of being able to perform in a real world academic setting.

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Key area #1: Being confident to take part in academic debate

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Sub issue a:

Cultural difference – in a Western university, students must not be afraid of expressing their opinion. To some extent, this is about CONFIDENCE.Critical thinking - It’s also important your students understand the word ‘CRITICAL’. It doesn’t mean that you say bad things about your teacher’s clothing, for example. The word ‘critical’ has had a much more sophisticated concept for around 500 years, related to the word ‘crucial’, and being about deciding what is most important in the meaning of something.

CRITICAL THINKING is at the heart of EAP.

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Solution:

A scenario of a student – a mirror of the student using this book

Think about and reflect on how the scenario relates to yourself.

Whole construction of page doesn’t really need teacher input, so very easy to use!

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Sub issue b:

Students feel linguistically inadequate alongside native-speaker students. After all, surely only a native speaker is going to say something such as:

“Well if you’d care for my impartial view on the matter, which pertains to the utmost thought of the philosopher in question, I’d surmise that the answer to your question would be ‘no’.”

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Solution:

said – “reported”

asked – “queried”

thought – “calculated”

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Key area #2:

Knowing how to write an academic essay in English

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Sub issue 1:

Cultural difference – some cultures favour indirect, vague language, that never gets to the main point.

Some cultures also favour plagiarism – after all, why try to disrespect text that another author has already written perfectly elsewhere?

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Solution:

It is as much about understanding organizational frameworks of language as it is to understand the content and all the words within a text.

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Solution:

Writing skills

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A reading task…

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…extends into a writing task:

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Sub issue b:

Students feel linguistically inadequate alongside native speaker students. After all, surely only a native speaker is going to be able to know how to select the correct modal verbs to make this sentence sound really respectful:

Well if you’d care for my impartial view on the matter, which pertains to the utmost thought of the philosopher in question, I’d surmise that the answer to your question would be ‘no’.

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In EAP, you can practice ‘traditional’ grammar, too…

… but it’s helpful when you can put the grammar into an academic text.

Solution:

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Extra tips:

• Encourage students to bring in authentic texts from the academic subjects that they will be studying at university.

• Students could keep a reflective learning journal.

• Skillful has extended online practice through the Digibooks.

• Any other good ideas?

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Questions?

=The End=Presenter contact: zoe.smith@macmillan.comSkillful website: www.macmillanskillful.com