Academic Literacy in a Pool of Academic Literacies? · PDF fileAcademic Literacy in a Pool of Academic Literacies? ... • de Chazal, Edward and Julie ... A Course in English for Academic

Academic Literacy in a Pool of Academic Literacies? Intercultural Needs of Students and the Role of EAP Teachers

Frank Lauterbach Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany

Anna Grynchuk Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany

Anna Grynchuk Frank Lauterbach 2

C- Student: “You gave me a C- on my last assignment for your Academic Writing course because you said it was badly written and lacked organization. I don't understand that because I used a paper from my German Studies class that the professor really liked and that I just translated into English."

Stakeholder Comments (1)


Director of the University Medical Centre: “I would like for our Ph.D. candidates to present and network at international conferences. They are all smart young people, but I am afraid they are lacking the skills to sell and defend themselves well enough in English. Can't you offer a course to support them?”



Lecturer in American History: “I expect my students to write their term papers in English. Therefore, I have been sending them to your Academic English class so that they could learn how to express themselves more academically in English, but what I get now sounds more like high-school essays rather than the type of German-style Hausarbeiten I expect."



C-

Stakeholder Comments (Summary)

Main Expectation of Stakeholders


Translatability of existing skills


Issue: Cultural Relativity

Assumption: Existing Literacy

Expectation: Building upon that Literacy

Ensuing Challenges for German EAP Teachers


Outline of the Presentation

1. State of EAP Teaching

in Germany

2. Analysis of

Writing Samples

3. Our Approach to

EAP Teaching


too German!

bad!

not adequate!

wrong!

Typical Teachersʼ Comments on Studentsʼ Writing


Focus of Textbooks

Developing General Literacy:

84%


Textbooks: Example

Identify at least two problems highlighted in the text. For each one, identify any solution(s) and evaluation given.

(Oxford EAP Advanced, p. 155)


Textbooks: Student Reactions

• I want to learn how to write and not how to complete exercises.

• Do we really need a textbook?


Key Challenges for German EAP Classes

• building upon existing literacies;

• developing academic identities;

• empowering students.


Writing Sample 1: Regular Student

You are eating pork for dinner with your dog sitting next to you. A normal situation to everyone who enjoys to eat meat, a so called omnivore. The term Carnism is made up by the social psychologist Melanie Joy and describes the classification of particular species as food. This classification relates to our culture. What then is our relation towards animals? Why do we pet dogs, eat turkeys and wear leather made out of cows?


Writing Sample 2: Doctoral Student

An antibody is a protein. It is produced by blood cells for the recognition of pathogens such as bacteria or viruses. Each antibody type recognizes and binds only one specific pathogen in the way of a lock-and-key principle. As a result of the binding, the pathogen is removed from the organism. This binding property is used in medicine and research. Medical applications include therapy and diagnosis. In research, they are used for the specific detection of targets of interest. Since these two fields require large numbers of antibodies, artificial mass-production methods of antibodies have been developed.


Our Approach

Native Literacy

Cultural Implications Reading Experience

3 Levels


1. Psychological Level

Students can see the need of the reader's perspective.

Focus on the students' own reading experience


2. Discursive Level

Students can distinguish between different contextual (cultural, disciplinary) discourses.

Focus on the students' personal and collective writing habits


3. Strategic Level

Students can assess the impact of their own writing.

Focus on the effect of alternatives within the students' own writing


Conclusion

Psychological Level

Strategic Level

Discursive Level

Native Literacy

LACK POTENTIAL X


References

• Alexander, Olwyn, Sue Argent and Jenifer Spencer. EAP Essentials: A Teacher’s Guide to Principles and Practice. Reading: Garnet, 2008.

• de Chazal, Edward and Julie Moore. Oxford EAP: A Course in English for Academic Purposes. Advanced / C1. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013.

• Siepmann, Dirk. "Academic Writing and Culture: An Overview of Differences between English, French and German". Meta 51:1 (2006), 131-150.

• Turner, Joan. Language in the Academy: Cultural Reflexivity and Intercultural Dynamics. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2011.

21

Documents

Academic Literacy in a Pool of Academic Literacies? · PDF fileAcademic Literacy in a Pool of Academic Literacies? ... • de Chazal, Edward and Julie ... A Course in English for Academic