Table of Contents
Part 1 ...........................................................................................................................1
Introduction ..............................................................................................................1
Part 2 ...........................................................................................................................5
The Learners ............................................................................................................5
Needs Analysis ........................................................................................................5
Findings ...................................................................................................................6
General Information ..............................................................................................6
Learning Styles .....................................................................................................6
Motivation .............................................................................................................6
Self-Diagnosis ......................................................................................................7
Language Level ....................................................................................................7
Part 3 ...........................................................................................................................8
Aims and Objectives ................................................................................................8
Course Constraints ................................................................................................10
Syllabus Design .....................................................................................................11
Part 4 .........................................................................................................................13
Assessment and Course Evaluation ......................................................................13
Assessment ........................................................................................................13
Course Evaluation ..............................................................................................16
Part 5 .........................................................................................................................16
Conclusion .............................................................................................................16
Bibliography ...............................................................................................................19
Appendices ................................................................................................................23
II
III
Part 1
Introduction
I have chosen English for Academic Purposes (EAP) for my DELTA Module 3
Extended Assignment. The reason for this choice is that as a non-native speaker
who has recently gone through the intensive DELTA and an Applied Linguistics
Masters program, I have become more aware that academic skills are of seminal
importance if one is to be successful within an academic community. Hence, I have
decided to further expand my understanding of this subject area both to help myself
become a more successful academic and also to help the students whom I tutor.
The concept of EAP first manifested itself at an institutional level when the
British organization, Special English Language Materials for Overseas University
Students was formed in 1972 (Hamp-Lyons, 2001). As a sub-branch of English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) (Jordan, 1997), EAP can be described as programs
designed to prepare non-native users of English for English-medium academic
settings and as being a branch of applied linguistics (Hamp-Lyons, 2001:126).
Further to this, it has two main branches; English for General Academic Purposes
(EGAP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) (Jordan, 1997).
Before looking specifically at issues within EAP, we must briefly discuss how
EAP differs from General English Teaching (GET). In doing so, we will refer to
Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008).
1. EAP is goal driven whereas GET is level driven;
2. In EAP contexts, time for courses is usually limited and study is often a oneoff endeavour whereas in GET contexts, time parameters are more flexible;
3. EAP courses are high stakes as the outcome of the course dictates whether
students will gain entry onto their chosen courses/whether they will be
for the way teaching is organised (Hyland and Hamp-Lyons, 2002) and the training
EAP teachers need in order to perform their roles effectively.
In order to determine which approach is more suitable, we must look more
closely at ESAP and EGAP advantages and disadvantages. Hyland (2006:10-13)
states that an advantage of EGAP courses is that they help students with limited
English proficiency develop a set of language forms/skills that are transferrable
across disciplines which acts as a good base for them to begin tackling more subject
specific language/skills. Another important advantage is that EGAP courses may be
considered more practical as they tend to be less complicated in terms of course
design as they focus on and teach pre-determined core academic forms/skills.
Furthermore, it is easier to train EAP teachers to teach such courses as they do not
need a high degree of subject-specialist knowledge. However, this holistic approach
can also turn in to a disadvantage, especially when learners aim to go into
disciplines such as medicine, history, engineering etc. that do not share much in
common in terms of commonly shared language skills and academic conventions
(ibid.).
Despite the practicality of EGAP courses, today ESAP tends to be preferred
due to the notion that EAP teachers cannot rely on subject specialists to teach
discipline-specific literacy skills, as they are not trained to do so (ibid.). One
important advantage of this approach is that ESAP courses aim to equip learners
with subject-specific language skills and academic literacies that will be of great use
when they start their studies. Whilst this is a great advantage, in practical terms, it
may not be possible to organise EAP courses for specific disciplines due to the
constraints of the course centres (Lynch, 2001). Another disadvantage is that ESAP
approaches require EAP teachers to have subject-specific knowledge. Training EAP
teachers to conform to these qualities poses a great challenge for the teacher
training programs as they need to train teachers who either have specialistknowledge in a variety of disciplines, which is a formidable target to achieve, or have
specialist-knowledge in a specific discipline, which requires the course centres to
employ a greater number of ESAP teachers than they normally do. Having looked at
both approaches, it still remains problematic to determine which approach is more
comprehensive as EAP contexts vary vastly and each course brings about unique
needs and challenges; thus, the specific needs of the EAP course to be designed
and delivered will dictate which approach to be taken.
Finally, there are two other important ethical issues within EAP that must be
considered. The first is the dramatic growth of the field due to the hegemony that
English enjoys within the global academic community (Canagarajah, 1999), which
has negatively impacted scholarly writing in other national cultures (Hyland, 2006:8).
The second is EAPs aim to socialise learners into particular academic discourse
communities (Alexander, Argent, & Spencer, 2008), which is felt, by some, to be a
form of linguistic imperialism and therefore damaging to other cultures it maintains
unequal power relationships within the international community (Phillipson, 1992).
Whilst the above is undoubtedly unjust, all EAP teachers can do is to develop critical
awareness and the ability to de-naturalize the discourses that they are a part of in
order to become more critically aware of the environments they find themselves in
(Fairclough, 1989).
Part 2
The Learners
A..... and B..... are planning to come to the UK for their undergraduate degrees in
Economics and Medicine respectively. I chose them for this assignment because I
know them well as I was their English teacher.
Needs Analysis
Before devising the course for my learners, I carried out a needs analysis survey,
which as Jordan (1997) states, should be the starting point for any EAP
course/syllabus designer as it allows one to make decisions on materials and
teaching approach, which are apposite to the students needs.
I used the following needs analysis tools:
Firstly, I requested advanced documentation (suggested by Alexander,
Argent, & Spencer, 2008) from the students school in order to gain their perspective
on the learners linguistic needs and reviewed the results of a proficiency exam the
students had sat (IELTS) in order to gain an understanding of their general
characteristic level (Harmer, 2001). After this, I conducted a series of diagnostic
assessments in order to build up an analytic profile of the learners reading, writing,
speaking and listening skills. These tests came in the form of the Academic IELTS
reading, writing, speaking and listening papers that were marked using the IELTS
published analytic marking scales.
Subsequently, I asked the learners to complete three questionnaires;
Perceived Needs, as EAP learners tend to be very proficient judges of their own
needs Lynch (2001); Learning Styles; (online test based on Honey and Mumford,
2000); VAK test based upon Dun, Dun and Prices (1975) learning inventory in order
looking forward to studying aboard. I believe B....., contrastingly, was not as highly
motivated to learn English and was instrumentally motivated as he stated that he
found English hard and was learning because without it is impossible to study
abroad.
Self-Diagnosis
A..... states that she has difficulties with each of the four skills sometimes and B.....
states that he has difficulties with listening, reading, and writing sometimes but has
difficulties often with speaking. Within each skills area both students have also
identified more specific areas that they would like to focus on. For example, in
writing, both students would like to improve their ability to edit their own work and in
reading, B..... states that he has difficulty guessing the meaning of unknown words in
a text, and A..... states that she has difficulty locating specific information in a text. In
addition to this, both learners state that they would particularly like to improve their
lecture note-taking skills and B..... states that he would particularly like to improve his
speaking in small groups.
Language Level
Reviewing the IELTS results reveal that both learners are at a band 7. The
diagnostic tests reveal that writing is weaker than other skills for both learners, as
both learners obtained a band 6 in writing. For A....., her speaking, band 7.5, is her
strongest skill as she was very fluent and easily managed to get the meaning across
using circumlocution where necessary. B..... on the other hand was strongest in
reading, band 7.0, and listening, band 7.5. Indeed, in the listening paper he was
able to pick out key pieces of information in long and complex spoken texts well.
Some of the main difficulties the learners have, reveal in this test, are:
Part 3
The course was an intensive two-week, 40 hours course, taught by myself. (This
assignment will look at the first 20 of these hours). The course took place in
(country) in a private language school during 2012. During each week 20 hours of
tuition was timetabled. Lessons ran from 14.00pm - 18.30pm with a 10-minute break
between each hour.
Aims and Objectives
As Richards (2001) states, course aims broadly define the purpose of the course.
This course aimed to:
Develop the English language skills learners need to study for a degree at a
British university.
Raise learners awareness of what will be expected of them in their universitylearning environment.
Course objectives provide a basis for the organisation of teaching activity (ibid.).
This course aimed to help learners:
Writing
Reading
Speaking
Mark the main points or important information in spoken text through vocal
underlining and through verbal cues.
Listening
General
Course Constraints
As Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008) state, possible constraints on the course
may include availability of time, class composition, access to resources, teachers
experience/expertise, learners experience, and institutional practices. As this
course took place during the learners semester break there was a two-week time
constraint. Although there were only two learners, the needs analysis revealed that
despite both learners being of roughly the same English language level, their
motivation, learning styles, strengths and weaknesses, and target language use
situations varied considerably in some areas. I planned to overcome these
difficulties through differentiation where appropriate. As I had previous EAP teaching
10
experience both in Turkey and the UK I understood the differences between the
Turkish education system and the British education system and would be able to
guide these students appropriately. Further to this, I am a part-owner of a private
language school, therefore access to resources such as teaching materials, a space
to carry out the course etc. was not an issue. Finally, as I did not have access to
their prospective university tutors I could not analyse the target language use
situations to determine these learners subject-specific language needs. Therefore, I
decided to design an EGAP course.
Syllabus Design
The course syllabus was based upon the following important principles outlined by
Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008):
11
allowed me to centre learning, where appropriate, around the task types that the
learners may be required to perform at university (Alexander, Argent & Spencer,
2008) which made learning more authentic and meaningful for the students.
I took a learning-centred approach (described by Hutchinson and Waters,
1987) to ensure the course took into account the learners, their situations, and their
linguistic lacks. Furthermore, I sought to construct a negotiated syllabus (Lynch,
2001) with the learners based on their input during the needs analysis procedure, as
this would make the course more learner focused. For example, B..... stated that he
needed to work on communicating in small groups. Due to this, I included a focus on
this area.
As in university learning contexts in the UK autonomy is expected from
student members of the academic community (Lynch, 2001), the course not only
sought to strike a balance between all four skills, but also aimed to help the learners
develop greater autonomy. As the goal of autonomous learning is the negation of
the teaching-learning distinction (Benson, 1996, cited in Lynch, 2001:394), one way
this will be achieved is through methodology, specifically, by the teacher acting as a
facilitator, resource, and counsellor (Voller, 1997, cited in Lynch, 2001:394) rather
than as a transmitter of information. Another way in which this will be achieved is to
integrate strategy training into the course learning activities in order that learners
develop their own ways of working independently of their teacher.
In terms of materials, we used EAP Now! (Cox and Hill, 2004) as a basis for
the course as it takes an integrated skills approach, seeks to engage learners in
tasks and activities similar to those that they will encounter in their target language
use situations, and integrates strategy training into these tasks and activities. This
approach suits my multidimensional syllabus type well and will also help me to
12
Part 4
Assessment and Course Evaluation
Assessment
Assessment, incidental or intended, is an integral aspect of teaching and learning
(Brown, 2003) and refers to the ways we evaluate information about learners
language achievement or ability (Hyland, 2006).
Brown (2003) proposes the below main assessment categories:
1. Informal: mostly incidental and embedded in classroom tasks.
Formal: systematic and aims to appraise both teacher and students.
2. Formative: supporting learners progress; looks forward.
Summative: evaluates learners achievement; looks back.
3. Norm-referenced: aims to place test-takers along a mathematical continuum
in rank order.
4. Criterion-referenced: aims to give test-takers feedback usually in form of
grades.
13
14
40-hour course, the results of which were compared with the baseline assessment
IELTS test scores from the beginning of the course.
In terms of the formative assessment, in order to assess the learners
progress in speaking I conducted a performance test, asking them to deliver an oral
presentation which I graded using a self-constructed rubric which included elements
of the published IELTS speaking marking scale. As there was a cross over between
my rubric and the IELTS one, I was able to compare the learners performance in the
presentation to their performance in the baseline assessment mentioned above.
In terms of writing, again I conducted performance tests. For example, I
asked the learners to write a 1000 word explanatory essay describing and explaining
the Turkish education system. In order to grade this assessment, again, I used the
published IELTS assessment scale and was able to compare the results of this
essay task with the learners scores on the IELTS baseline assessment. This data
helped me to evaluate the usefulness of the course later.
In terms of reading and listening, the assessment was mostly based on the
learners performance in classroom activities and sought to emulate the type of tasks
the learners would have to carry out in their future target language use situations in
order that the assessments were more meaningful to them (Bachman & Palmer,
1996). For example, the learners completed section four of an IELTS listening
paper. Section four is an example of a lecture situation. After answering the
questions on the paper, I asked the learners to take notes on the lecture and judged
their listening in terms of their ability to select key points from the spoken text as this
is what they would have to do in a lecture situation.
Further to the above, as one of the objectives of the course was to develop
learner autonomy, I also sought to develop the learners ability to self and peer-
15
assess. Due to this, I supplied the learners with checklists so that they could check
their own written and spoken work. For example, I video recorded the learners oral
presentations, after which I got the students to watch themselves, supplied them with
a marking criteria, and got them to grade their own performance.
Course Evaluation
As suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), the course evaluation was planned
to be carried out during, at the end of, and after the course. In order to evaluate the
usefulness of the course, the degree to which the course met the learners needs
and its targets (ibid.), I held informal interviews with the learners throughout the
course to gain an understanding of their perception of its usefulness. Further to this,
halfway through the course and at the end I asked the learners to complete a
feedback form about the usefulness and delivery of the course and about their own
progress. Further to this, my students and I also agreed to meet to have an informal
discussion about the success of this course after they started their pre-sessional
courses at their future university in the UK, as at this point they would be better able
to judge the usefulness of the course (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987).
Part 5
Conclusion
In summary, to successfully address the learning needs, firstly, I gathered and
analysed the data, i.e. the diagnostic assessment results. Secondly, I determined
their learning needs, motivation to attend this course, and learning
styles/preferences. Finally, I analysed the target language situations, in light of
which, I designed a multidimensional syllabus EGAP course and delivered it.
16
Both learners improved their writing by one IELTS band which I believe was
mainly due to the intensive support they received and the content of the course
specifically addressing their learning needs. However, as in this 40 hours course
there was not enough time to study the varying genres and length of the papers they
will need to write when they get to their universities the students will need further
support in their writing when they start their pre-sessional courses in order to
broaden their understanding of the genres they will have to write in. Having said
this, the learners gained a solid understanding of how to reference, which is a very
good starting point for developing their academic writing as plagiarism is a serious
consideration within UK university contexts.
During informal interviews after the course, designed to evaluate the courses
usefulness to the students, B..... expressed great positivity with the level of
improvement in his speaking and stated that he started feeling more confident to
converse with people in small groups. In his school he did not get enough
opportunities to talk in classes of 25 and felt intimidated. As this course was a small
group and, unlike his classes at school, was fully delivered in English, he was
exposed to intensive use of English.
As is evidenced in the assessment data, the students reading also showed
progress. The intensity of the reading they did in this course was lower than their
future university, however, and although I used lot of authentic texts to support the
learners to become familiar with the academic style that they will encounter in their
future target language use situations, I believe they will need more support in
reading, which will hopefully be provided by the pre-sessional course they will attend.
Two main limitations of the course were its limited time (40-hour) and its
intensive nature. As there was so much to take in a short period of time, the learners
17
may not have internalised everything covered in the course. Further to this, we did
not have enough time for the learners to practice and therefore develop all of the
skills they will need when they go to university. However, any remaining issues I
believe will be addressed during the four-week pre-sessional programme the
learners are going to attend.
18
Bibliography
Alexander, O., Argent, S., & Spencer, J. (2008). EAP Essentials. Reading: Garner
Publishing.
Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1996). Language Testing in Practice: Designing
and Developing Useful Language Tests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Canagarajah, S. A. (1999). Interrogating the 'Native Speaker" Fallacy: non-linguistic
roots, non-pedagogic results. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-Native Educators in
English Language Teaching (pp. 77-92). Mahwah, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Dunn, R., Dunn, K., & Price, G. E. (1975). The learning style inventory. Lawrence,
KS: Price Systems.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. New York: Longman.
Hamp-Lyons, L. (2001). English for academic purposes. In R. Carter, & D. Nunan
(Eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other
Languages (pp. 126-132). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.
Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford:
Oxford University press.
Honey, P., & Mumford, A. (2000). The learning styles helper's guide. Maidenhead:
Peter Honey Publications Ltd.
19
Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Hyland, K. (2006). English for Academic Purposes: An advanced resource book.
London: Routledge.
Hyland, K., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (2002). EAP: issues and directions. Journal of English
for Academic Purposes , 1, 1-12.
Jordan, J. J. (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A guide and resource book for
teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lynch, T. (2001). Promoting EAP Learner Autonomy in a Second Language
University Context. In J. Flowerdew, & M. Peacock (Eds.), Research
Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes (pp. 390-403). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Spack, R. (1988). Initiating ESL Students into the Academic Discourse Community:
How Far Should We Go? TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1 , 22 (1), 29-51 .
Course Books / Materials
Bailey, S. (2003). Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (2nd
ed.). New York: Routledge.
20
21
22
Appendices
Appendix 1: Course Plan
Course Objectives
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Deduce meaning of
unfamiliar lexical
items.
Identify the main
point in discourse.
Distinguish the main
idea from supporting
details.
Extract salient details
to summarise.
Extract relevant
points from a text
selectively.
Skim to gain an
overall understanding
of the text.
Scan to locate
specifically required
information.
Write in a range of
different genres
appropriate to their
future target language
use situation.
Write in an
appropriate academic
style and register.
Successfully use
lexical, rhetorical, and
grammatical cohesive
devises and
techniques.
Understand how
grammar and
vocabulary are used in
academic texts.
Correctly refer to
sources and avoid
plagiarism.
Plan, structure, revise
and re-draft work.
Successfully use
markers in spoken
discourse to introduce
an idea, develop an
idea, transition to
another idea, conclude
an idea, to indicate
important information,
and to anticipate a
contrary view.
Express relationships
between parts of a
spoken utterance
through cohesive
devices.
Mark the main points
or important
information in spoken
text through vocal
underlining and
through verbal cues.
Planning and
organising information
in formal expository
discourse.
General
23
Day
Objectives
Hour
Suggested Activity
Suggested
Materials
To raise the
learners
awareness of
the skills and
language the
learners will
need to
succeed in an
English medium
university and
to discuss the
organisation
and goals of the
course.
To provide an
opportunity for
learners to
develop reading
skills including
prediction,
skimming,
scanning, and
selecting
relevant points
from a text
selectively.
To develop the
learners
understanding
of the structure
and features of
explanation
texts.
To develop
awareness and
understanding
of cohesion and
coherence.
To develop
understanding
of the rhetorical
function, cause
and effect.
1. N.A.
2. EAP Now! (p.
11)
3. N.A.
4. EAP Now! (p.
12 14).
5. EAP Now! (p.
14, Task A)
Subsidiary
Objectives:
Provide
1 3. EAP
Now!
(p. 21 24 +
page 13)
24
opportunities for
learners to
develop oral
fluency through
discussion with
other learners
and the
teacher.
Develop
listening for gist
and for specific
information
3.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Day
Objectives
To extend
learners
academic
vocabulary
range.
To raise
awareness of
vocabulary
study strategies
and vocabulary
recording
methods.
To develop
understanding
of academic
referencing and
of what
plagiarism.
To develop
positive writing
processes
including notetaking, planning
Hour
Suggested Activities
1. N.A.
2. EAP Now!
(p. 25 & 26)
& Academic
Writing
(Bailey,
2003:73-74)
3. Smartboard
Slide
4. Own
Materials
5. Smartboard
Slide.
Suggested
Materials
1. Smartboard
slides
2. Academic
Writing
(Bailey, p. 70
71)
3. EAP Now! (p.
21 24)
1. Own
materials
based on the
text from
EAP Now! (p.
21 24).
2. Check your
English
vocabulary
for TOEFL
(p. 110).
3. N.A.
4. Own
materials &
Smartboard
25
and drafting
skills.
3.
To develop the
ability to extract
relevant points
from a text
selectively.
Subsidiary
Objectives:
Provide
opportunities for
learners to
develop oral
fluency through
discussion with
other learners
and the
teacher.
4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.
slide
containing
link to the
academic
word list:
http://oald8.oxf
ordlearnersdic
tionaries.com/
academic/subl
ist01/
1. N.A.
2. http://www.me
b.gov.tr/stats/a
pk2002ing/apa
ge29_48.htm
&
http://en.wikip
26
edia.org/wiki/E
ducation_in_T
urkey &
http://www.fulb
right.org.tr/en/
aboutturkey/turkisheducationalsystem
27
Day
Objectives
Hour
Suggested Activities
Suggested Materials
To develop
proof-reading
skills and
develop learner
autonomy.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
To develop
note-taking,
planning and
drafting skills.
To develop
skim reading
skills
To develop the
ability to extract
relevant points
from a text
selectively.
To develop the
ability to plan
and organise
information in
formal spoken
discourse.
To develop the
learners ability
to express
relationships
between parts
of a spoken
utterance
through
cohesive
devices.
10
be.com/watch?v=
wXILI9Q1jIw &
http://www.youtu
be.com/watch?v=
KgObza4ek1U &
http://www.youtu
be.com/watch?v=
TtraR3gezQw
7. Own Materials
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.
http://www.exeter
.ac.uk/internation
alstudents/studys
kills/
28
3.
4.
11
&
12
1.
2.
1. Language
Scaffold own
material
(sentence
stems, cohesive
devises that
may be useful,
useful discourse
markers, key
vocabulary).
2. Marking key
from EAP Now!
(p. 248)
Day
Objectives
Hour
Suggested Activities
Suggested Materials
Develop the
learners ability
to mark the
main points or
important
information in
spoken text
through vocal
underlining and
through verbal
cues.
13
1. Laptop with
recording facility
2. Worksheet for
self-reflection
own material
3. N.A.
4. N.A.
To develop the
learners ability
to express
relationships
between parts
of a spoken
29
utterance
through
cohesive
devices.
To develop
awareness of
aspects of
connected
speech
including
stress,
intonation,
strong and
weak forms,
linking and
elision.
14
Provide an
opportunity for
learners to
develop the
ability to notetake from
spoken text.
Develop ability
to extract
salient points to
summarise
specific ideas in
a spoken text
and to
selectively
extract relevant
key points.
2.
15
Develop ability
to
independently
edit and redraft
the students
own written
work.
Develop the
ability to
organise
information at
1.
1.
2.
3.
16
1.
2.
1. Instant IELTS
(p. 26 27, but
not question 3 +
answer key),
note-taking
scaffold,
individual
headphones
and two laptops
so that the
learners can
play the track.
1. Academic
Writing (p. 52
55)
2. N.A.
3. N.A.
1. Academic
Writing (p. 56
59).
2. N.A.
30
paragraph level
logically and
coherently.
3. N.A.
Day
Objectives
Hour
Suggested Activities
Suggested Materials
Develop selfreflective
practices in
order to
facilitate further
learner
autonomy.
Develop oral
presentation
skills.
17
1. SMART
Board/Data
projector
2. As above & a
video camera &
checklist
3. Checklist
4. N.A.
5. N.A.
Develop active
knowledge of a
wide range of
academic
lexical items.
To develop the
ability to deduce
meaning of
unfamiliar
lexical items
from context.
To develop the
ability to identify
the main point
in discourse.
To develop the
ability to
distinguish the
main idea from
supporting
details.
To develop the
ability to extract
salient details to
summarise.
18
1. Focus on
Vocabulary (p.
2 10), SMART
Board/Data
projector
2. Own materials
3. Own materials
4. Focus on
Vocabulary
31
3.
4.
19
20
1.
2.
3.
4.
1. Focus on
Vocabular
y (p. 6
10)
2. Vocabular
y record
sheets
3. Evaluation
form
4. Notebooks
.
32
Language
Learning
Background:
English level
A.....
Female / 18
Turkish/Turkish
Turkey
A..... started her education at a private school in Ankara. This private school,
which has a good reputation for delivering high quality education at all levels
namely primary, secondary and high school, provided A..... with ample of
opportunities to develop intellectually. She has achieved high grades particularly
in social sciences and language studies at school.
A..... has been studying English since first grade at primary school. Although
she has been studying English in a target language removed context, the
school, especially the English department, has created an English intensive
learning environment as part of the schools CLIL approach. In addition to
English lessons, 8 hours a week, and core subjects delivered in English,
Science, Maths, ITC, she had the opportunities to attend the school trips to
abroad, where she used her English language skills for real communication in
authentic contexts. Her family trips to various countries with her advanced level
of English speaker parent also have been a valuable part of her English learning
background.
From the IELTS exam she took in December: band 7.0
Writing: 6.5 / Reading: 7.0 / Listening: 7.0 / Speaking: 7.5
From the diagnostic assessment IELTS exam: band 7.0
Writing: 6.0 / Reading: 6.5 / Listening: 7.0 / Speaking: 7.5
Learning style
Self directed
English study
Motivation
According to publishes IELTS band descriptors, she is a good user who has
operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies,
inappropriacies and misunderstandings in some situations. She generally
handles complex language well and understands detailed reasoning.
(http://www.ielts.org/institutions/test_format_and_results/ielts_band_scores.aspx
)
Pragmatist, who approaches studying
Visual learner, who prefer receiving
with logic and objectivity and likes to
information in visual formats.
think things through carefully. One
possible disadvantage of this learning
style that she may have the tendency to
be too much of a perfectionist.
In addition to her school studies, she takes part at the school theatre. They are
preparing a play in English. She spends 5 hours a week studying for her part
and 4 hours a week for rehearsal. She also watches TV shows in English and
reads fiction books in English, which overall take 20 hours a week.
She has both intrinsic and integrative, instrumental motivation for studying
English. Her intrinsic motivation results from the fact that she wants to study in
the UK and learn more about the culture and life there. On the other hand, her
instrumental motivation results from her parents who encourage her to study
33
Self perceived
needs
Advanced
documentatio
n
Strengths and
weaknesses
according to
diagnostic test
results and
need analysis
results
abroad, and from the scholarship she has been awarded, which requires her to
meet the university acceptance criteria including her language level.
A..... believes that she needs language support as she sometimes has
difficulties with her language skills. She believes that especially reading and
writing skills are of high importance at her studies. She thinks that she needs
support in her writing particularly in revising and editing her own writing, and in
reading particularly in terms of locating specific information given in texts.
According to her school records, A..... is in top-10 of her grade. She has
excellent English language skills. According to her English subject teacher this
year, she has excellent speaking and listening skills. Her teacher states that
A..... will need to adapt to reading and writing academic texts as at school this
particular area is not addressed enough.
Strengths:
She is a fluent speaker with small inaccuracies, and she can easily
manage to get the meaning across using circumlocution where
necessary
She can listen to and understand accurately long and complex speeches.
Weaknesses:
Lack of awareness of academic style and register
Lack of organisation of ideas, especially at paragraph level
Misuse of cohesive devises
Poor editing and revising skills
Reading is slow and laboured
Inability to select information from a text discerningly to support a point
they want to make
Language
Learning
Background:
English level
B.....
Male / 18
Turkish/Turkish
Turkey
B..... started his education in a small city, Kars, and graduated from government
primary and secondary schools in the same city. When his parents moved to
Ankara, he was offered a place by his current private high school as he had
exceptionally high marks from Grade 8 National exams. He is particularly
successful at science and maths.
B..... started studying English in secondary school where they had 2 hours
weekly English classes only. English only became an important subject to study
when his started his new school in Ankara, which has a special focus on English
as they follow a CLIL approach. He is particularly successful at Science and
Maths, which are delivered in English. He has been studying English in a
language-removed context and he hardly needed to use English out of school
environment.
From the IELTS exam she took in December: band 7.0
Writing: 6.5 / Reading: 7.0 / Listening: 7.5 / Speaking: 6.5
From the diagnostic assessment IELTS exam: band 7.0
34
Learning style
Self directed
English study
Motivation
Self perceived
needs
Advanced
documentatio
n
Strengths and
weaknesses
according to
diagnostic test
results and
need analysis
results
35
36