INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS: CEFR AND ACADEMIC ENGLISH

ELENA FRUMINA

18 JUNE, 2015

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

Do they exist in EAP?

What are they?

WHAT IS EAP

EAP means Enabling Academic Participation

Steve Kirk, Durham University, UK

What is CEFR?

Can we use it for EAP?

ENGLISH IN THE ACADEMIC CONTEXT

Professional context

Academic context

Broad social and cultural

context

ENGLISH IN THE ACADEMIC CONTEXT

ESP

EAP

EGP

ENGLISH IN THE RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY CONTEXT

Are these contexts related to each others in real life?

Are they related in teaching/learning English in the Russian university context?

Are they related to each other in English medium universities?

WHAT TO TEACH

Specific skills related to academic context?

Discipline related skills?

Skills related to academic discourse?

SKILLS RELATED TO ACADEMIC CONTEXT

• Academic practices, values and conventions

• Cognitive capacity and metacognitive strategies required to cope with the courses

DISCIPLINE RELATED SKILLS

Recognizing and exploring disciplines and how they influence the way knowledge is expanded and constructed

SKILLS RELATED TO ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL GENRE

LISTENING AND SPEAKING GENRE

Introduction to place of work, study, laboratory, etc.

Professional telephone conversations

Interviews

Socialising, personal conversations

Consultations

Negotiations

Professional talks, presentations

Academic lectures, conference presentations

READING AND WRITING GENRE

Notices and memoranda

Instructions

Product descriptions

Applications, bids and tenders

Proposals and recommendations

Contracts

Research articles

Textbooks

Professional books

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES

ACADEMIC SPEAKING

Demonstrate presentation skills

Ask for advice and feedback

Respond to advice and feedback

Show disagreement

Take part in group work analysing and solving problems

Tell other people when they are wrong

Co-operate and complete group tasks

Contribute to discussion in seminars

ACADEMIC READING

Access non-literal interpretation of texts

Apply analytical approach

Understand relevance and status of academic journals

Scan texts and identify key points/sections

Analyse and discuss written texts as group activity

Synthesise information

GENRE ACROSS DISCIPLINES: GENRE FAMILIES1.Case study

2. Critique

3. Design specification

4. Empathy writing

5. Essay

6. Exercise

7. Explanation

8. Literature review

9. Methodology recount

10. Narrative account

11. Problem question

12. Proposal

13. Research

H Nesi & Gardner S (2012: 34)

Social function Genre families

Demonstrating knowledge and understanding

Explanation , Exercise

Developing powers of independent reasoning

Critique, Essay

Building research skills Literature Survey, Methodology, Recount, Research Report

Preparing for professional practice

Case Study, Design Specification, Problem Question, Proposal

Writing for oneself and others Narrative Recount< Empathy

H NESI & GARDNER S (2012: 36)

ACADEMIC GENRE NETWORKS

Stages:Descriptive

account with optional

explanations, evaluation with optional tests

Networks:Research report,

design specification, book

review

Genre family: Critique

Purpose: develop understanding of

the objects or ability to

evaluate/assess the significance of

smth Examples: academic paper review, approach

evaluation, business

environment analysis,

interpretation of results, project

evaluation

What are the most frequently used genre?

Critique and argumentation can be found across all family genre across all

departmentsNesi & Gardner (2012: 34)

THE ROLE OF STUDY SKILLS

“Study skills are the techniques….. They are the ways of thinking and behaving ….in order to learn any academic subject effectively”Waters &Waters (1995:8)

THE ROLE OF STUDY SKILLS

Study skills=

learning to learn skills=

life skills

QUESTIONS

Why should we teach study skills?

What specific academic competences should we teach?

Should we teach Academic English at A1, A2, B1 levels?

WHAT IS EAP SYLLABUS?

REFERENCESBALEAP Can-do Framework for EAP Syllabus Design and Assessment (draft 2012)

Gustafsson, M (Ed.) (2011). Collaborating for content and language integrated learning [Special Issue]. Across the Disciplines, 8(3). Retrieved February 28, 2014, from http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/clil/index.cfm

Nesi, N & S Gardner (2012) Genre Across Disciplines, CUP, Cambridge

West, R (2012) Proposal for academic English framework in E Frumina & R West . Internalisation of Russian higher education: The English language dimention. British Council.Moscow