3
BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals BALEAP supports the professional development of those involved in learning, teaching, scholarship and research in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) through Professional Issues Meetings (PIMs), a biennial conference and through the work of its sub-committees and working parties. 1. BALEAP working parties: TEAP, Testing and HEAL BALEAP members can become more directly involved in the activities of the organisation by joining one of the working parties, which are established to undertake specic projects of relevance to the professional development of members. The Teaching English for Academic Purposes (TEAP) working party was formed following a PIM on Teacher Training in EAP at the University of Essex in November 2004, at which it was decided to produce a competency framework for teaching EAP. The framework was intended to establish standards in EAP teacher knowledge, understanding, skills and abilities which could be used to accredit professional development courses and individual teacher portfolios. The working party conducted a three- stage survey of experienced practitioners in order to dene and describe best practice in EAP. The resulting BALEAP Competency Framework for Teachers of English for Academic Purposes 1 was published in 2008 and incorporated fully into the BALEAP Accreditation Scheme criteria for assessment in 2011. A schedule for classroom observation, based on the competencies, was presented at the BALEAP AGM and training day in May 2010 and is available at www.baleap.org . The working party, currently lead by Garry Maguire of Oxford Brookes University, is now revising the framework and preparing guidelines for a portfolio qualication for EAP teachers, which will accredit competence at three levels. The Testing working party was set up in 2009, under the leadership of Diane Schmitt from Nottingham Trent University, to promote a clearer understanding of tests and testing amongst BALEAP members and their respective institutions. Its initial task involved revising the BALEAP Guidelines on English Language Prociency Tests and working party members developed a detailed questionnaire for this purpose. A set of guidelines was designed, based on the questionnaire, containing a checklist of criteria to assist decision makers in interpreting test scores and setting fair and realistic standards for evidence of English language pro- ciency. The draft guidelines were presented at the BALEAP conference in April, 2011. The working party team are now working to incorporate the results of a questionnaire on the draft guidelines into the test reviews. The guidelines will remain a work-in- progress as more tests are evaluated and added. The rst set of reviews will published on the BALEAP website in January, 2012. BALEAPs newest working party is the Higher Education Academy Link (HEAL), led by Gail Langley at London South Bank University, which was established following the BALEAP conference in April, 2011. The conference theme, EAP within the HE Garden: Cross Pollination between Disciplines, Departments, Research and Teaching, highlighted the importance of estab- lishing links to other professional organisations within Higher Education, with one of the plenary presentations given by Janette Ryan of the Higher Education Academy Teaching International StudentsProject. The aim of the working party in the rst instance is to make links between the HEA Internationalisation project and the work of BALEAP members, by using and contributing to the International Student Lifecycle Resources bank. 2 The working party also aims to explore other potential links with the HEA such as the relationship between the Competency Framework for Teachers of EAP and the revised UK Professional Standards Framework (PSF),published in November 2011, which denes competencies for all teachers in higher education in the UK across 4 levels. 3 More general aims include exploring ways in which BALEAP membersexpertise can contribute to teaching and learning in the disciplines. The working party is a small but active group! 1 Available online at http://www.baleap.org.uk/media/uploads/pdfs/teap-competency-framework.pdf. 2 Available online at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle. 3 Available online at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ukpsf. 1475-1585/$ see front matter doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2011.12.002 Journal of English for Academic Purposes 11 (2012) 7678 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of English for Academic Purposes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jeap

BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals

  • View
    214

  • Download
    2

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals

Journal of English for Academic Purposes 11 (2012) 76–78

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Journal of English for Academic Purposes

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ jeap

BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals

BALEAP supports the professional development of those involved in learning, teaching, scholarship and research in Englishfor Academic Purposes (EAP) through Professional Issues Meetings (PIMs), a biennial conference and through the work of itssub-committees and working parties.

1. BALEAP working parties: TEAP, Testing and HEAL

BALEAP members can become more directly involved in the activities of the organisation by joining one of the workingparties, which are established to undertake specific projects of relevance to the professional development of members. TheTeaching English for Academic Purposes (TEAP) working party was formed following a PIM on Teacher Training in EAP at theUniversity of Essex in November 2004, at which it was decided to produce a competency framework for teaching EAP. Theframework was intended to establish standards in EAP teacher knowledge, understanding, skills and abilities which could beused to accredit professional development courses and individual teacher portfolios. The working party conducted a three-stage survey of experienced practitioners in order to define and describe best practice in EAP. The resulting BALEAPCompetency Framework for Teachers of English for Academic Purposes1 was published in 2008 and incorporated fully intothe BALEAP Accreditation Scheme criteria for assessment in 2011. A schedule for classroom observation, based on thecompetencies, was presented at the BALEAP AGM and training day in May 2010 and is available at www.baleap.org. Theworking party, currently lead by Garry Maguire of Oxford Brookes University, is now revising the framework and preparingguidelines for a portfolio qualification for EAP teachers, which will accredit competence at three levels.

The Testing working party was set up in 2009, under the leadership of Diane Schmitt from Nottingham Trent University, topromote a clearer understanding of tests and testing amongst BALEAP members and their respective institutions. Its initial taskinvolved revising theBALEAPGuidelines onEnglish Language Proficiency Tests andworking partymembers developed adetailedquestionnaire for this purpose. A set of guidelines was designed, based on the questionnaire, containing a checklist of criteria toassist decision makers in interpreting test scores and setting fair and realistic standards for evidence of English language profi-ciency. The draft guidelineswere presented at the BALEAP conference in April, 2011. Theworking party team are nowworking toincorporate the results of a questionnaire on the draft guidelines into the test reviews. The guidelines will remain a work-in-progress as more tests are evaluated and added. The first set of reviews will published on the BALEAP website in January, 2012.

BALEAP’s newest working party is the Higher Education Academy Link (HEAL), led by Gail Langley at London South BankUniversity, which was established following the BALEAP conference in April, 2011. The conference theme, ‘EAP within the HEGarden: Cross Pollination between Disciplines, Departments, Research and Teaching’, highlighted the importance of estab-lishing links to other professional organisations within Higher Education, with one of the plenary presentations given byJanette Ryan of the Higher Education Academy Teaching International Students’ Project. The aim of the working party in thefirst instance is to make links between the HEA Internationalisation project and the work of BALEAP members, by using andcontributing to the International Student Lifecycle Resources bank.2 The working party also aims to explore other potentiallinks with the HEA such as the relationship between the Competency Framework for Teachers of EAP and the revised UKProfessional Standards Framework (PSF),published in November 2011, which defines competencies for all teachers in highereducation in the UK across 4 levels.3 More general aims include exploring ways in which BALEAP members’ expertise cancontribute to teaching and learning in the disciplines. The working party is a small but active group!

1 Available online at http://www.baleap.org.uk/media/uploads/pdfs/teap-competency-framework.pdf.2 Available online at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle.3 Available online at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ukpsf.

1475-1585/$ – see front matterdoi:10.1016/j.jeap.2011.12.002

Page 2: BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals

Journal of English for Academic Purposes 11 (2012) 76–78 77

2. Professional Issues Meeting (PIM) and Research Training Event Series (ResTES)

BALEAP holds between three and four Professional Issues Meetings (PIMs) each year, organised by institutional memberswith support from the Events Officer, Andy Seymour. Each PIM is preceded by a Research Training Event Series (ResTES)workshop, organised by Research Officer Lia Blaj-Ward. The reports below provide a flavour of the events held in Sheffield on25th and 26th November,2011. More details can be found at www.baleap.org.

The PIM on English for Specific Academic Purposes brought together participants with an interest in discipline-specificEAP support for international students in UK universities. A PIM with a similar theme was held at Durham in 2006, whenthere was a debate about whether it was even possible to deliver specificity in EAP. The plenary speaker at that meeting, KenHyland, exhorted everyone to be as specific as they could. At Sheffield, it was clear that the need for specificity is now takenfor granted with the plenary speaker, Dr Julio Gimenez, proposing a new acronym EDSAP (English for Discipline-SpecificAcademic Purposes). He set out the challenges and opportunities for discipline-specific EAP, highlighting three key param-eters (criticality, voice and evidentiality) to guide EAP researchers, practitioners and students in their exploration ofdiscipline-specific discursive practices. Four parallel strands of presentations and workshops throughout the day offeredspace for professional debate about ways to overcome challenges and seize opportunities. Some themes which came acrossstrongly on the day were

� the need to ground EAP teaching within the conceptual approaches and the language of the disciplines;� the importance of developing materials based on discipline-specific texts and tasks;� the availability of web-based open education resources;� the sheer variety of assessment types, which makes it difficult to give specific practice in any one of these.

One of the strengths of the event was the variety of angles fromwhich discipline specificity was approached. For example,Jenifer Spencer introduced the audience to an extensive range of sources and strategies for assembling a specialist vocabularyand used the image of the fractal classroom to illustrate the level of diversity that may exist within a discipline. Fiona Gilbertshared findings from a systematic piece of research into written assessment briefs for Business courses in her institution, aswell as her experience of using research to inform course (re)design. In ‘How open are you to an exploration of educationalresources for ESAP?’, Alannah Fitzgerald and Ylva Berglund Prytz drew on their expertise in online and computer-based toolsand learning resources to offer guidance on open sharing of ESAPmaterials while preserving intellectual property rights. AlanLockett and Ruth Taylor explained how they introduced specificity into a generic International Foundation Programme bysupporting students to critically reviewan article in theirfield in a fair and reasonableway. Richard Lee andKlausMundt talkedabout cooperatingwith departments as part of developing, piloting, implementing and evaluating pre-sessional courses in theareas of Law and the Built Environment. Dr Alice Lawrence’s presentation in the final series of parallel sessions invited theaudience to reflect on issues of quality assurance and highlighted challenges in the systematic and consistent evaluation of EAPprovision. A panel discussion at the end provided an opportunity to reflect on the themes of the day.

The third ResTES event on action research and exploratory practice in English for Academic Purposes welcomed regularResTES attenders and new participants with an interest in research. Professor Glynis Cousin from the University of Wol-verhampton led a masterclass on research methodologies, problematising the division between quantitative and qualitativeresearch and emphasizing key aspects that researchers need to take into account when carrying out an in-depth explorationof higher education teaching and learning. Participants in the masterclass were encouraged to think about ways in whichlocal, small-scale practitioner research projects yield useful insights for the wider higher education teaching and learningcommunity and to think about research as a craft, requiring familiarity with a set of rules and practices but using thesecreatively and flexibly in order to generate new understanding. Participants were also given the opportunity to share theirresearch conundrums and explore these with support from colleagues present in the workshop.

The masterclass was followed by a set of complementary work-in-progress presentations. Judith Hanks focused on ethicaldilemmas and practical considerations related to carrying out Exploratory Practice research within the context of a doctoralproject. Ana Salvi shared highlights from a piece of Exploratory Practice research she completed for her Master’s dissertation.Diarmuid Fogarty presented an action research project set up in order to enhance the developmental aspect of evaluativeteacher observation. Larysa Sanotska gave an example of how practitioner research feeds into course (re)design, with specificreference to an academic writing course for Ukrainian students. The link between practitioner development and practitionerresearch was the key theme of the closing workshop. Garry Maguire, BALEAP TEAP Officer, encouraged participants to reflecton sources of evidence that EAP teachers could use to benchmark their expertise against the Competency Framework as wellas ways in which the framework can serve as a tool for continuing professional development. The framework recognisesresearch as an integral component of EAP practice.

The fourth ResTES event, scheduled to take place at the University of Kent on 25th February 2012, further emphasizes thelink between research and practice. ResTESwill be integrated as a strand within the PIM on Tracking Foundation, Pre-sessionaland EAP Students. This PIM has a substantial research focus and ResTES aims to build on that focus through work-in-progresspresentations on meaningful ways to collect, analyse, interpret and share findings from qualitative research data. Furtherdetails are available at www.baleap.org.

Future ResTES events include a one-day quantitative data analysis workshop on the 8th June 2012 at the University ofDurham and an event on disseminating research findings, provisionally scheduled for November 2012. Work-in-progress

Page 3: BALEAP: The global forum for EAP professionals

Journal of English for Academic Purposes 11 (2012) 76–7878

presenters from each ResTES event will be invited to revisit their projects and share key lessons learnt from their experienceof research at the next BALEAP Conference to be held at the University of Nottingham19–21 April, 2013.

Through ResTES, BALEAP is also continuing its fruitful collaboration with IATEFL’s Research SIG, mutually sponsoringattendance at training events and maximising opportunities for research and researcher development. ResTES organisers arekeen to receive BALEAP members’ views on how the series can be tailored to meet their research training needs fully andappropriately (please email [email protected]).