Implementing a university-wide credit-bearing English language enhancement programme: issues emerging from practice

Abstract

Many nations now enrol large numbers of tertiary students with English as an additional language, raising concerns over academic literacy standards. As a result, calls for whole-institution approaches to enhance language proficiency have grown. This paper describes the issues faced by one university that attempted such an approach. We first outline three theoretical assumptions, that is, that academic literacy is facilitated by (1) the attention to discourse at the discipline-specific level, (2) the engagement of students with their social, institutional and cultural surroundings, and (3) the provision to students of the tools for self-directed, ongoing learning. The paper then explains how one Australian university implemented a mandatory programme of credit-bearing discipline-specific English language enhancement courses as foundational units across all degree programmes. Describing the first programme of its kind in Australia, the paper focuses on the issues emerging from practice identified from the first five years: (1) stakeholder perceptions, (2) student reception, (3) materials development, (4) programme management, (5) assessment and (6) measuring outcomes. Rather than a panacea for a notoriously complex issue, the paper presents strategies for dealing with the challenges that emerge for other institutions that might be contemplating reform of a similar magnitude.Keywords: academic literacy; English as an additional language; English for academic purposes; English language enhancement; higher education; English as a medium of instruction IntroductionFrom 2000 to 2010, the number of foreign students globally increased by a staggering 99%. By 2012, 4.5 million tertiary students were enrolled in institutions outside their country of citizenship (OECD 2014) and a doubling of this to 8 million is projected by 2020 (Forest and Altbach 2006). Anglophone countries are popular destinations, attracting over 42% of all cross-border students (OECD 2013) with the USA enjoying the largest global share at 16.5%, followed by the UK (13%), Australia (6%) and Canada (5%) (OECD 2013). As cultural and linguistic diversity ramps up, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) universities in particular are realising that traditional approaches to learning and teaching must change.

Employability of international students: Strategies to enhance their experience on work-integrated learning (WIL) programs

“…The literature is unequivocal in arguing that high impact student learning occurs when communication skills are integrated and embedded within disciplinary learning and assessment (Arkoudis, Baik, & Richardson, 2012;Dunworth, 2013;Wingate, 2015). There are a number of studies that provide evidence to support the move in this direction (see for example, Arkoudis, 2014;Briguglio, 2014;Dunworth 2014;Murray & Nallaya, 2014;Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, Walkinshaw, Michael, & Lobo, 2015). One strategy would be to embed common vocabularies or terminologies in the field into the courses and units.…”

Conditions of English language teaching to prospective biology teachers in Kazakhstan

“…The methodology of the research is study and analysis of psychological, pedagogical, methodological and normative literature. The basis is taken of the works in the field of language training of future specialists (O. Vitchenko [5] [10], D. Freeman [12], P. Humphreys [10], A. Lobo [10], R. Michael [10], I. Walkinshaw [10]); competence approach in education (V. I. Baydenko 3 [8], D. J. Short [13] and etc.…”

“…The standard academic program of the discipline "Professionally Oriented Foreign Language" for the specialty 5B011300 -Biology, recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2016, includes a description of the purpose and objectives of the course, expected results of training, knowledge, skills and abilities received by students in the end of studying the discipline, the thematic plan of the discipline and its brief content 10 .…”

“All These Nouns Together Just Don’t Make Sense!”: An Investigation of EAP Students’ Challenges with Complex Noun Phrases in First-Year College-Level Textbooks

“…Several of the participants spoke of the importance of designing discipline-specific EAP materials so that some of this new terminology could be tackled in their preparatory EAP courses. It is noteworthy that many college-and university-based EAP programs, notably in Australia (Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, Walkinshaw, Michael & Lobo, 2017), have piloted the implementation of disciplinespecific EAP streams (e.g., business, engineering, social sciences) at the preparatory noncredit level, and there are a few programs in Canada that have adopted this approach (Tweedie & Kim, 2015). However, the majority of EAP programs in Canada do not divide their university-bound students into discipline-specific streams due to budgetary constraints (Languages Canada, personal communication).…”