‘We lose a lot of value’: feedback on English for academic purposes speaking skills in online teaching in a UK-China joint-venture university

Author(s):  
Qingyang Sun ◽  
Zeyang Yang
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8642
Author(s):  
Lucas Kohnke ◽  
Andrew Jarvis

COVID-19 and the shift to online teaching necessitated a change in approach for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers in preparing their students for university studies. This study explored how EAP instructors coped with and adapted their provision for emergency remote teaching. The study was conducted at an English-medium university in Hong Kong and a qualitative case study approach was adopted. The results revealed two overarching themes of opportunity and challenge. While the sudden shift to online teaching forced innovation and fostered collaborative learning and feedback, teachers experienced difficulties in communicating with students and monitoring their learning. The study voices teacher perspectives in delivering EAP courses online and highlights important implications for the successful delivery of future online EAP provisions.


RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822110149
Author(s):  
Kristin E Hiller

This article describes an innovative approach to introducing translanguaging in an English for academic purposes (EAP) course at a young Sino–US joint-venture university in China. To promote the use of Chinese students’ full linguistic and communicative repertoires in an English-medium-of-instruction university, I intentionally incorporated translanguaging into an EAP course through three components: explicit discussion of translanguaging, a short writing assignment on an extended definition of a Chinese concept, and a team survey project to test a generalization about Chinese culture. Observation and feedback from students indicate that these translanguaging writing assignments have the potential to contribute to students’ cultural knowledge, writing and communication skills, intercultural communication and awareness, and identity construction as translingual and transnational students. I describe the context and rationale for the innovative assignments, and the assignments themselves. I then reflect on the process and discuss implications and plans for expansion of activities that promote translanguaging.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Karlita Genyfer Cevallos Vélez ◽  
María Antonieta Palma Cedeño ◽  
Kenia Monserrate Cevallos Vélez ◽  
Gema Valentina Baquezea Ponce

Los entornos educativos virtuales en la educación superior brindan la oportunidad tanto a los estudiantes como a los docentes de poder conectarse desde cualquier lugar y en cualquier momento, permitiendo potenciar la destreza del speaking en el aprendizaje del idioma inglés. La enseñanza online puede reducir significativamente el efecto que tiene la ansiedad en los estudiantes a lo largo del proceso de aprendizaje. El desarrollo de la habilidad del speaking con la utilización de las herramientas tecnológicas brinda a los docentes y estudiantes un entorno educativo inclusivo con contenidos acorde a la vanguardia tecnológica que vivimos más aún ante la emergencia sanitaria que vivimos a causa del Covid-19. La realización de la presente investigación permitió determinar cuáles son los beneficios de las clases virtuales en la enseña del idioma inglés con la finalidad de evidenciar sus ventajas en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Para el desarrollo del presente artículo se empleó el método cuantitativo y a partir de una revisión minuciosa bibliográfica, acompañado de la aplicación de encuestas online, a los estudiantes que cursan las asignaturas de suficiencia en inglés I y II, de la Universidad Técnica de Manabí, facilitaron el análisis y discusión de la temática. PALABRAS CLAVE: Inglés como Lengua Extranjera: speaking; clases virtuales; aprendizaje cooperativo; habilidad; aprendizaje. TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH VIRTUAL CLASSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION ABSTRACT Virtual educational environments in higher education provide the opportunity for both students and teachers to connect from anywhere, anytime, empowering speaking skills in English language learning. Online teaching can significantly reduce the effect that anxiety has on students throughout the learning process. The development of speaking skills with the use of technological tools provides teachers and students with an inclusive educational environment with content according to the technological vanguard that we live even more in the face of the health emergency that we experience due to Covid-19. This research allowed us to determine what are the benefits of virtual classes in teaching the English language in order to demonstrate its advantages in the teaching-learning process. For the development of this article, the qualitative method was used and from a thorough bibliographic review, accompanied by the application of personalized interviews, they facilitated the analysis and discussion of the subject. KEYWORDS: English as a Foreign Language (EFL); speaking; virtual classes; cooperative learning; skill; learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-172
Author(s):  
Sarah Brewer ◽  
Karin Whiteside

AbstractThe Cara Syria Programme has been developed to support Syrian academics who have had abandon their academic positions due to the conflict in Syria and who have seen their careers compromised as a result. The Programme offers a means to re-establish their academic identities and develop new skills through participation in the learning activities and workshops provided on the Programme itself and through potential research collaborations with academics in universities in the UK. A key element is the training in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which is delivered in weekly online lessons and intensive language workshops in Turkey. Both the online teaching and the workshops are staffed by volunteers working in language teaching and specifically in English for Academic Purposes. One of the core principles of this teaching is to pitch content in a way that is intellectually motivating and relevant in terms of the participants’ academic identities, but scaffolded to take into account language proficiency levels, which can be as low as CEFR A1. Over the last eighteen months the technology, administrative structures, and language materials suitable for learners at all levels between A1 and C1 have been developed, and the process mapped to ensure sustainability.


Author(s):  
Victoria Kalogerou

The current pandemic experienced simultaneously worldwide has accelerated the demand for transitioning from traditional (face-to-face) education to its online equivalent. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the ubiquity of available online tools has become more apparent both for teaching and learning purposes but also for collaboration. Skepticism in relation to the use of online tools was quickly silenced not only due to the lockdown imposed by governments worldwide but also because of the major support these tools provide online, making themselves easy to use even to those who have traditionally objected to their effectiveness. Being part of this transformation of face-to-face classes and also someone with great experience in online teaching, the author explores in this chapter how this change has covertly affected students and teachers in tertiary education in relation to language classes. The study includes teachers of the languages and Literature Department and an international group of students, studying English for Academic Purposes at a private university in Nicosia, Cyprus.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Leopold

Despite the importance of public speaking skills for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students’ academic and professional success, few EAP textbooks in- corporate authentic, professional speech models. Thus, many EAP instructors have turned to TED talks for dynamic speech models. Yet a single TED talk may be too long for viewing in class and may limit students’ exposure to various speech styles. In the classroom activity described in this article, students listen to short clips from several TED speeches to learn techniques for making supporting points memorable; they then apply these techniques to their own extemporaneous speeches. This article highlights the critical need for authentic speech models in EAP courses; ful lls the need for authenticity by describing a lesson that utilizes several short, dynamic clips from TED talks to teach students how to use compel- ling support in presentations; and highlights positive student learning outcomes from student presentations and re ections over six semesters of instruction. Malgré l’important rôle que jouent les aptitudes à s’exprimer en public dans la réussite académique et professionnelle des étudiants d’anglais académique (EAP, English for Academic Purposes), peu de manuels d’EAP intègrent des modèles de discours authentiques et professionnels. Plusieurs instructeurs puisent donc dans les présentations TED pour trouver des modèles de parole dynamiques. Toutefois, une seule présentation TED peut durer trop longtemps pour montrer pen- dant un cours d’une part, et elle risque de limiter l’exposition des étudiants aux divers styles de discours d’autre part. Lors de l’activité en classe décrite dans cet article, les étudiants écoutent de courts extraits de plusieurs discours TED pour apprendre les techniques qui rendent mémorables les points de repère d’une présentation; par la suite, ils les appliquent dans leurs propres discours improvisés. Cet article souligne le besoin critique pour de modèles de parole authentiques dans les cours d’EAP; répond au besoin d’authenticité en décrivant une leçon basée sur plusieurs courts extraits dynamiques tirés de présentations TED et employés pour apprendre aux étudiants à développer des idées convaincantes qui appuient leurs présentations; et souligne les résultats d’apprentissage positifs découlant de présentations et de ré exions de la part d’étudiants au long de six semestres d’enseignement. 


Author(s):  
Anna Kalizhanova ◽  
Tatyana Pisareva

This article presents TED Talks materials as an educational tool of teaching English in secondary and higher educational institutions. The authors describe such advantages of TED Talks materials as their authenticity, availability, variety, utility, user-friendly usability of the website with the materials, and existence of scripts for each video. The authors prove that TED Talks materials are effective for developing students’ speaking skills and extending their vocabulary by describing the experience of conducting English classes with the use of TED Talks materials during the professional pedagogical practice, the results of which are also given in this article. After 34 English lessons with the use of TED Talks materials within the framework of the elective course «English for Academic Purposes» for 8-11 grade pupils, the participants of the classes demonstrated better public speaking skills and could speak on different topics for more than 10 minutes without any visual aids.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Robin Hailstorks ◽  
Karen E. Stamm ◽  
John C. Norcross ◽  
Rory A. Pfund ◽  
Peggy Christidis

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