English for Academic Purposes Programs: Key Trends Across Canadian Universities

Because of the large number of post-secondary English for academic purposes (EAP) programs and the varying ways they are structured, it can be difficult to identify how a particular program fits within the overall landscape of university education. To identify general trends across Canada, the webpages for 74 EAP programs at 50 public English-medium universities were examined for key information related to each program. Data analysis included descriptive statistics as well as graphical representation. The results pointed to typical EAP programs that are independent units that offer non-credit courses with some credit options, have international tuition fees around $9,000 per semester, provide approximately 22 hours of instruction per week, and generally require IELTS scores over 5.0 or TOEFL iBT scores over 59 for entry. These results provide an avenue of comparison and indicate the need for future research to better understand how EAP programming is conceptualized in the Canadian context.

When Princesses Become Dragons

In this article we offer curricular suggestions for teaching Elana K. Arnold’s young adult title Damsel, a subverted fairytale rewrite, using a critical literacy framework. In doing so, we outline how English curriculum has often upheld oppressive systems that harm women, and how our teaching can challenge such systems. We situate this work through the retelling of a fairytale trope given the ubiquity of such stories in secondary students’ lives. Our writings have teaching implications for both secondary English language arts classrooms and higher education fields such as English, folklore, mythology, and gender studies. We end by noting the limitations of such teaching.

Implementation of Reciprocal Teaching Strategies: Improving Reading Skills and Academic Performance of Secondary Students

Proficiency in reading comprehension is very important especially for secondary English language students. In this mixed methods study, the research proven methodological intervention “reciprocal teaching” is introduced to improve the reading skills and academic performance of 30 secondary students of grade 11. Reciprocal teaching is a scaffold dialogue technique that is built upon four strategies which competent readers use to understand text namely predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing. The four strategies of reciprocal teaching were each part of the four interrelated cycles that comprised the related activities implemented during the intervention. A general plan inclusive of activities, teaching resources, observation schedules, checklists and assessments was constructed and used for data collection. When the scores of pre and post assessments were compared using paired samples t test, they showed a significant amount of improvement in grades of students as well as their ability to effectively understand the text. The outcomes proved reciprocal teaching to be a significant technique for improving reading comprehension skills and academic performance. In addition, the implication for teachers who teach reading comprehension is that through modeling and implementation of the reciprocal strategies like predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing they can enhance the academic performance of students.

TEACHING SPOKEN ENGLISH IN SPAIN: CLASSROOM PRACTICES AND TEACHERS´' PERCEPTIONS

Aim. This article presents the results obtained in a qualitative research related to classroom practices and perceptions of teachers of English as a foreign language in Spain. The aim of this study is to present examples of good teaching practices, including the types of resources, materials and assessment used in spoken English teaching. Methods. A qualitative investigation that used ethnographic (non-participant) observation in primary and secondary English classes was implemented in thirty-two schools. Additionally, twenty semi-structured interviews with primary and secondary teachers were conducted. Results and conclusion. The results show significant differences between both applied methods Non-participant observation indicates that spoken communication in English is not practised sufficiently. However, based on interview results, teachers do apply appropriate language learning strategies that could allow them to successfully teach speaking skills in their students. The results imply that in Spain, there are still many teachers and educational institutions that follow the Grammar Translation Method and other traditional methodologies, which still focus primarily on writing skills. However, several examples of good practices and inspiring methodological and motivational strategies have been found throughout this research, which might be considered as a precedent for those that focus on writing approaches. Cognitive value. This article displays an original research supported by University of Oviedo, through which, the reader can approach to the teaching of spoken English in Spain by means of some teachers´ perceptions and examples of good practices.