Making the switch from ESL to EAP

Jamie Clayton, Vietnam

Jamie teaches at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City). Outside EAP, his primary professional interest is in how to build a language syllabus completely based around the things that learners say and write in class. jamie.clayton@rmit.edu.vn

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Introduction
My background
The major issue
Lessons learned
Conclusion
References

Introduction

I recently took part in a British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP) webinar called ‘EAP in Context’. The six 10-minute webinars hosted by EAP practitioners from varying university contexts provided a snapshot of the challenges facing EAP teachers.

My context was that of a newcomer to EAP, navigating the tricky transfer from teaching EFL in a language school to academic English at a university.

My background

I recently took up an academic English instructor position in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). In the preceding few years I had invested much time and energy in improving my teaching skills: Delta, blogging, Twitter - the works. Having gained confidence in my language and methodology awareness, particularly in my ability to respond to students in class, I had dispensed with coursebook use and was eagerly exploring ways of using learner output as texts for input in future classes. Rather than skills-work, lessons largely focussed on learning language; content often depended on what the learners had produced in a previous class.

The major issue

I am now in the position of teaching pre-sessional students. Understandably, management want to ensure a consistently high-quality teaching standard and student experience, regardless of who the teacher is. We have to use a coursebook, classes are shared with another teacher, there is fixed coursework and two rounds of high-stakes exams over a ten-week period. Language work is not afforded much space in the material nor the curriculum; skills development and increased relevant genre awareness are paramount. To go from a love of teaching language in the relative freedom of the EFL classroom to the restraints and rigours of a skills-heavy EAP curriculum is a serious challenge which requires a significant change in mentality. How does an EAP newcomer adapt to these changing requirements?

Lessons learned

Fifty virtual voices attended the webinar, sharing experience and offering advice. The IATEFL Voices newsletter seems like an apt place to share what I learned.

Preparing, delivering, and reflecting on the webinar focussed my thoughts on one fundamental issue:

How does an EAP newcomer go from a love of teaching language to delivering a skills-heavy curriculum?

I discovered that many newcomers struggle to adapt and even begin to hold negative feelings toward teaching EAP. Below are a few key areas and suggestions to help with this process.

• EAP can still make use of different teaching approaches. The material and curriculum may be strictly fixed but it’s how you use the material that counts. The same go-to techniques for materials-light teaching, e.g. dictations and extensive board-work, can still be used in EAP while students should still be given choices and chances to control lesson content and procedures.
• EAP students still need and are often hungry to learn language, so the urge to work with learner output does not have to disappear. As in the ESL classroom, the teacher should remain vigilant for moments to correct, upgrade and increase the quality of student output. High-stakes EAP does not necessarily mean that the pre-determined, skills-heavy syllabus sucks away the teacher’s freedom to teach reactively. It just means that the teacher must compromise. Luke Meddings talks about ’50-Free’: the idea that 50% of our time can be devoted to teaching the pre-determined, testable syllabus, and the other half is free for teaching and learning the emergent syllabus. Obviously, this number may be too high in the demanding EAP context however that does not mean that a lower, more realistic percentage of class time cannot be dedicated to reactive teaching. A compromise can be reached.
• Fun is still an important element in the EAP classroom. There is, however, a delicate balance between fun and purposefulness. EAP teachers still need to incorporate fun into lesson plans but students should be given a rationale for these moments and see a link to their studies. Students can be involved creating game content, which crucially ties into learner autonomy.
• Professional development is key. Despite being experienced and qualified to teach ESL, EAP is different. To be an effective teacher an EAP newcomer must acquire new knowledge and experience. It is a mistake to assume that abundant ESL experience and qualifications automatically makes the transition to EAP easy. Fortunately, there are a range of avenues for professional development for EAP professionals. I was pointed in the direction of the online TEAP courses available, the TEAP portfolio scheme and the #tleap Facebook page. I was reminded of the mentoring role my peers at work could offer and motivated to ask my peers for help more often. The EAP staff room usually contains a lot of experienced teachers: make use of them.

Conclusion

The evolution from language school ESL teacher to university EAP teacher is not uncommon and presents a unique set of challenges. Thankfully, online communities and events like this are available to those who wish to find them. My thanks go to BALEAP for organizing this event and all the people who attended, answered my call for help and provided much of the content for this article.

References

Meddings, L. (2014) Teaching Unplugged: 50 Free, You Tube, Delta Publishing

Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.