Abstract Non-native English-speaking students at, or about to enter British Universities and other Western universities where the language of instruction is English may experience challenges with academic writing, often one of the most... more
Abstract Non-native English-speaking students at, or about to enter British Universities and other Western universities where the language of instruction is English may experience challenges with academic writing, often one of the most important means of assessing students. Pre-sessional and in-sessional English academic writingcourses have been developed to aid students, and traditionally covered a range of topics. This paper discusses essential ‘pre-writing’ tasks. It then outlines some of the essential elements of academic writing; these often focus on paragraph structure, basic components of an essay, and different functional types of essays. Other features covered by this paper include aspects of language such as level of formality, cohesive devices, caution and hedging, supplying evidence, and avoiding plagiarism, amongst others. This paper also emphasizes the growing importance of collaborative learning, critical thinking and autonomous leaning which may be insufficiently familiar to students from non-Western learning environments where traditionally factual recall is given the greatest importance. Inductive and deductive approaches to paragraph organization, and also essay development have also been introduced. These approaches may also contrast with the rhetorical features familiar to non-native students from various cultures around the world and require special attention. Contemporary pre-sessional courses are also becoming more specialized, targeting English suitable for specific sets of disciplines at the undergraduate at postgraduate level. For example, courses focusing in STEM subjects (science technology, engineering and mathematics) are replacing more ‘generic’ academic English courses.
Abstract Non-native English-speaking students at, or about to enter British Universities and other Western universities where the language of instruction is English may experience challenges with academic writing, often one of the most... more
Abstract Non-native English-speaking students at, or about to enter British Universities and other Western universities where the language of instruction is English may experience challenges with academic writing, often one of the most important means of assessing students. Pre-sessional and in-sessional English academic writingcourses have been developed to aid students, and traditionally covered a range of topics. This paper discusses essential ‘pre-writing’ tasks. It then outlines some of the essential elements of academic writing; these often focus on paragraph structure, basic components of an essay, and different functional types of essays. Other features covered by this paper include aspects of language such as level of formality, cohesive devices, caution and hedging, supplying evidence, and avoiding plagiarism, amongst others. This paper also emphasizes the growing importance of collaborative learning, critical thinking and autonomous leaning which may be insufficiently familiar to students from non-Western learning environments where traditionally factual recall is given the greatest importance. Inductive and deductive approaches to paragraph organization, and also essay development have also been introduced. These approaches may also contrast with the rhetorical features familiar to non-native students from various cultures around the world and require special attention. Contemporary pre-sessional courses are also becoming more specialized, targeting English suitable for specific sets of disciplines at the undergraduate at postgraduate level. For example, courses focusing in STEM subjects (science technology, engineering and mathematics) are replacing more ‘generic’ academic English courses.
Social media and other interactive online spaces have been identified as potentially useful tools for supporting learning activities, especially within language learning. It has been argued that these spaces are more appropriate for... more
Social media and other interactive online spaces have been identified as potentially useful tools for supporting learning activities, especially within language learning. It has been argued that these spaces are more appropriate for supporting informal rather than formal learning, particularly when social media platforms such as Facebook are used. As such, the use of these platforms within formal learning environments is understudied. This mixed-methods study is part of a larger action-research project that investigates the use of Facebook Groups to augment formal classroom activities by supporting student interaction around books they are reading. The discussed study specifically investigates how instructors appropriated different aspects of this technology’s user interface to support their pedagogical practices from a human-computer interaction perspective. The study considers instructor and student experiences and their perceptions of these blended learning experiences within two English for academic purposes courses that were offered through the University of Toronto. Data illustrate how students participated through this technology to support their learning of academic English even though Facebook Groups had not been designed to support learning. This study indicates how aspects of the technology mediate student-learning activities and it illustrates how this social media tool can be used to support student literacy activities within formal learning environments. Suggestions for better facilitating literacy activities through this tool are provided.
This small-scale study investigates how the flipped approach to learning helped a UK university teaching team deliver the Pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course remotely during the pandemic. The study draws on the... more
This small-scale study investigates how the flipped approach to learning helped a UK university teaching team deliver the Pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course remotely during the pandemic. The study draws on the theoretical framework of the flipped approach to learning to explore the use of the approach in the Higher Education (HE) context. The study suggests that the flipped approach to learning may be helpful in the delivery of pre-sessional EAP courses remotely as it offers students opportunities to engage in communicative activities and encourages independent learning and autonomy, both of which are key practices in EAP. However, teachers may find the approach challenging if they cannot monitor students' work or connect with them while completing the flipped activities. Only a few studies have focused on this issue to date. Further research involving more teachers and students is recommended to provide additional insights on this aspect of teaching remotely.
Academic reading is often misunderstood and gratuitously overshadowed by its literacy counterpart—writing. Considering this perception and the dearth of research on academic reading within the realms of English for Academic Purposes... more
Academic reading is often misunderstood and gratuitously overshadowed by its literacy counterpart—writing. Considering this perception and the dearth of research on academic reading within the realms of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), it begs the question of how it is employed in the EAP classrooms. This dissertation draws on literature that argues that academic reading is constructive, a source of knowledge, and inextricably linked to writing. It applies this knowledge by evaluating a London university’s Pre-Sessional (PSE) on its coursebooks and correlates the findings with the PSE students’ attitudes and opinions that were derived from a questionnaire. The data suggest that students learn vital academic reading skills on the PSE programme which they can employ in their studies. At the same time, there might be some room for improvement: the university might consider incorporating the teaching of reading as a constructive process and reading as a source of knowledge. Moreover, the skill of synthesising readings might be worthy of more attention. A final suggestion is to take the employment of original academic texts on the PSE programme under consideration.
