Teaching English to Second Language Learners in Academic Contexts

Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking

Jonathan M. Newton, Dana R. Ferris, Christine C.M. Goh, William Grabe, Fredricka L. Stoller, Larry Vandergrift

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317236542
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: English Language
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Teaching English to Second Language Learners in Academic Contexts: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking provides the fundamental knowledge that ESL and EFL teachers need to teach the four language skills. This foundational text, written by internationally renowned experts in the field, explains why skills-based teaching is at the heart of effective instruction in English for academic purposes (EAP) contexts. Each of the four main sections of the book helps readers understand how each skill—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—works and explains what research has to say about successful skill performance. Pedagogically focused chapters apply this information to principles for EAP curriculum design and to instructional activities and tasks adaptable in a wide range of language-learning contexts. Options for assessment and the role of digital technologies are considered for each skill, and essential information on integrated-skill instruction is provided. Moving from theory to practice, this teacher-friendly text is an essential resource for courses in TESOL programs, for in-service teacher-training seminars, and for practicing EAP teachers who want to upgrade their teaching abilities and knowledge bases.

1
Teaching Language Skills in EAP Contexts

Jonathan M. Newton, Fredricka L. Stoller, William Grabe, Larry Vandergrift, Christine C. M. Goh, Dana R. Ferris

Skills-based teaching is at the core of EAP instruction. One of the key goals of EAP instruction is to prepare students to use English effectively in their academic studies, whether in managing heavy reading demands, writing varied academic genres, comprehending lectures, or participating in tutorials and group discussions. Our emphasis on language skills is not meant to diminish the importance of systematic instruction focused on building students’ language knowledge, including vocabulary and grammar. Such language-focused instruction should continue throughout formal EAP classes and be integrated into skills-based EAP instruction. Ultimately, EAP programs should aim to help students develop the skills, strategies, and metacognitive awareness needed to achieve success in academic study (Alexander, Argent, & Spencer 2008; Charles & Pecorari, 2015; de Chazal, 2014).

Although we have chosen to address each of the four skills in a separate section in this volume, we are not suggesting that each skill is to be taught separately. Far from it. The skills inter-relate in many ways in language-classroom settings (and in mainstream academic classes); for example, speaking rarely occurs without listening, writing is typically connected to reading, and listening (to lectures, for instance) is usually linked to reading and writing. Even in classrooms where the skills are timetabled separately, the complex embedding of skills is usually inevitable, as when a listening comprehension activity requires students to read questions before listening and later answer the questions in writing. This kind of seamless integration of skills is also intrinsic to popular approaches to language teaching such as task-based language teaching (TBLT) and content-based instruction (CBI),¹ just as it is fundamental to using English for academic study.

Nevertheless, there are good reasons to explore the nature of each skill in its own right. First, the four skills continue to provide an organizing principle for many EAP curricula, as they do for published textbooks and high stakes international English proficiency tests such as IELTS and TOEFL. Second, to be an effective teacher of any of the four skills (taught in discrete-skill classes or in an integrated fashion) is best achieved with an understanding of the intricacies of the skills as well as expertize with skill-specific pedagogic principles and practices. For example, effective writing instruction is best accomplished when teachers (a) understand the writing process and (b) have an awareness of the various options for providing feedback on written work and the research evidence in support of these options. As another example, listening instruction is enhanced when teachers have expertize in structuring listening experiences so that students can systematically develop both bottomup listening skills and top-down listening skills and strategies. For all four skills, teachers benefit from being familiar with skill-specific practices and understanding why certain activities or approaches are more effective than others for developing each particular skill. To this end, the guidance that we provide in this book is based on extensive research into the four skills and the effectiveness (or otherwise) of skill-specific pedagogic options.

Four Overarching Assumptions

Across the major sections in this volume are four overarching assumptions, which the reader should view as fundamental for effective skills-based instruction in EAP contexts. The first underlying assumption centers on the importance of students’ positive motivation to achieve both short-term and long-term (language learning) goals. The other underlying assumptions relate to (a) the importance of meaningful language use, (b) the need to pay attention to the development of students’ language knowledge (specifically vocabulary and grammar), and (c) the role and importance of students’ meta-cognitive awareness in EAP contexts. In our explanation of each assumption in the sections that follow, readers will notice that we pay a little more attention to the first underlying assumption (motivation) than the others; we have done this in part because motivation is typically underrepresented in discussions of language skills instruction.

Promoting Motivation

The first underlying assumption that is relevant to all sections in this volume is the importance of students’ positive motivation to achieve both short-term and long-term (language learning) goals. Understanding motivation in language-learning contexts requires a synthesis of psychology-based theories of motivation and language-learning research on motivation.

An effective synthesis of psychology-based theories of motivation highlights students’ goals, values, and beliefs. These internally established factors translate into student behaviors through engagement, as measured by intensity of student effort, time on task, persistence in attaining outcomes, and amount of practice (Guthrie, Wigfield, & You, 2012; Schwanflugel & Knapp, 2017). The relationships among motivation, engagement, and achievement can be thought of in the following way: Motivation, facilitates engagement, which, in turn, facilitates achievement (Eccles & Wang, 2012). Motivation, in this framework, is multi-dimensional, based on several general motivation theories: Self-efficacy theory, expectancy-value theory, self-determination theory, and social motivation theory. These theories highlight student self-efficacy, values, intrinsic motivation, and peer values (Klauda & Guthrie, 2015).

Our understanding of motivation from a second language (L2) learning perspective requires that we consider other variables, which are not addressed in first-language (L1) psychology research. As an example, Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) combine well-established psychology-based theories of motivation with a much wider range of issues particular to L2 learners, including varying levels of language proficiency, age, educational backgrounds, differing L1s and cultures, reasons for learning the L2, and family/societal expectations. The L2 learner not only has attitudes about and motivations toward learning and success, but also attitudes about L1 and L2 sociocultural contexts that impact motivation for learning as well as engagement and ultimate achievement.

Overall, research in educational psychology and L2 learning has affirmed the importance of motivation (and its complex nature). What is perhaps most important for the purposes of this book, and the teaching of the four skills, are the ways in which teachers can help build student motivation (and counter de-motivation) across EAP curricula. To build student motivation, language teachers, whatever skills they are teaching, should strive to do the following:

1. Create a learning environment that generates interest among students and that is relevant to their learning goals.
2. Talk with students about their goals for learning and relate their goals to course and curricula objectives.
3. Create a class environment that builds collaboration among students.
4. Provide many opportunities for different types of group and pair work during which students complete tasks, compare task outcomes, and reflect on what they did well and what they need to work on.
5. Provide students with plenty of opportunities for practice, along with useful feedback.
6. Give students choices with aspects of task assignments.
7. Match students’ growing skills with increasing challenge in terms of learning.
8. Ensure that students carry out a good percentage of tasks successfully.
9. Give students the time needed to be successful.
10. Give students opportunities to provide you, the teacher, with feedback on how well they are learning and/or what challenges they are facing.

Structuring Lessons for Meaningful Language Use

The second of the overarching assumptions that run across this volume is that meaningful language use constitutes a core of skills-based instruction. This idea will not be a surprise to anyone familiar with contemporary communicative approaches to second language teaching and learning such as CBI and TBLT. The key point here for skill-based teaching is that the uses of language required in academic study should be addressed in the language classroom to prepare EAP students for future academic pursuits. In other words, academic skill development requires opportunities to practice meaning-focused target performance. This principle resonates with research on the transfer-appropriate processing (TAP) model of memory (Goldstein, 2015), which has shown that the way we process information determines the facets that we remember or get better at.

Developing Language Knowledge and Skills

The third assumption that pertains to language-skill instruction centers on language learners’ need for opportunities to develop their language knowledge, which entails explicit attention to vocabulary and grammar. With regard to vocabulary, all EAP teachers, no matter the teaching context, should be committed to introducing and recycling vocabulary to promote not only vocabulary growth but also the strategies that students can use on their own to continue building their vocabulary (Nation, 2013). The number of words that are used in academic settings is large. Whatever the actual number is (there are debates about this), we know that language teachers in all classrooms should attend to students’ vocabulary learning needs.

Grammatical knowledge also contributes in important ways to reading and listening comprehension as well as effective speaking and writing. Early versions of communicative language teaching (CLT) emphasised learning through communication to the exclusion of opportunities for attending consciously to language form; such approaches have been shown to be ineffective in fostering balanced language development. Much debate in second language acquisition (SLA) theory and among English language teaching (ELT) professionals involves the question of just how explicit instruction on language forms can be best realized in practice. There is no simple answer. The nature of the forms (e.g., simple or complex grammatical rules), students’ language proficiencies, the learning context, and students’ purposes for studying language all inform teacher decision-making in this area (Doughty & Williams, 1998). In EAP contexts, generally, the goal is to provide students with plenty of guidance to increase their language knowledge alongside language skills development.

Raising Metacognitive Awareness

Fourth and finally is the assumption that skill development in EAP contexts can be enhanced through learner metacognition. Metacognition is our ability to think about our thinking and how we process information and manage learning. For the purposes of this volume, we are referring to the learning of language skills for academic purposes. The good news is that metacognition can be taught. An important outcome of raising students’ metacognitive awareness is the ability for students to self-regulate learning; that is, they set goals for their learning and then monitor, regulate, and control their cognition and motivation (Pintrich, 2000). In language-learning contexts, self-regulated language learners have the ability to manage the language-learning process and the outcome(s) of specific language tasks to maximize learning. Self-regulated learners can also select, manage, and evaluate their own language development inside and outside the classroom. Students who are aware of the benefits of specific language-learning strategies may also consciously use these strategies to improve their overall ability to process and use the target language. Students who are conscious of the challenges that they face in their own language learning may also be motivated to find ways of addressing them.

Given the important role of metacognition in successful language learning, the pedagogical approaches and activities presented in this book will help students develop richer metacognitive knowledge about themselves as language learners in addition to the nature and demands of each of the four language skills. With teacher guidance, students will learn to plan, monitor, problem solve, and evaluate the effectiveness of their language use and the progress of their overall language development. When integrated with well-planned tasks, the building of students’ metacognitive awareness can be a powerful tool for improving skill development and learner motivation.

These four overarching assumptions—namely motivation, meaningful language use, attention to students’ language knowledge (vocabulary and grammar), and metacognitive awareness—represent basic foundations for our understanding of skills-based language teaching. In addition to these foundational ideas, the reader will notice a number of common themes explicitly addressed across the four sections of the volume. In the final chapter of the book, we offer our views on these important themes, common across language skill areas.

Further Reading

Alexander, O., Argent, S., & Spencer, J. (2008). EAP essentials: A teacher’s guide to principles and practice. Reading, UK: Garnet Education.

Charles, M., & Pecorari, D. (2015). Introducing English for academic purposes. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dalton-Puffer, C. (2017). Same but different: Content and language integrated learning and content-based instruction. In M. A. Snow & D. M. Brinton (Eds.), The content-based classroom: New perspectives on integrating language and content (2nd ed., pp. 151–164). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

de Chazal, E. (2014). English for academic purposes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Doughty, C. J., & Williams, J. (1998). Pedagogical choices in focus on form. In C. J. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 197–261). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eccles, J., & Wang, M. (2012). Part I commentary: So what is student engagement anyway? In S. Christiansen, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 133–145). New York, NY: Springer Science.

Ericsson, A., & Pool, R. (2016). Peak: Secrets from the new science of expertize. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Guthrie, J., Wigfield, A., & You, W. (2012). Instructional contexts for engagement and achievement in reading. In S. Christiansen, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 601–634). New York, NY: Springer Science.

Klauda, S., & Guthrie, J. (2015). Comparing relations of motivation, engagement, and achievement among struggling and advanced adolescent readers. Reading & Writing, 28(2), 239–269.

Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Pintrich, P. R. (2000). The role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (Vol. 451, pp. 451–502). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Schwanenflugel, P., & Knapp, N. (2017). The psychology of reading. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Notes

1 Also known as content and language integrated instruction (CLIL) in Europe (Dalton-Puffer, 2017).