sampe esol
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TESOL- Managing ESOL Provision
G105965
Designing an EAP Course for students of International Islamic University,
Islamabad, Pakistan
English Language Centre (ELC) at International Islamic University Islamabad,
provides language support to the new students, who will soon join their
respective faculties. This centre works independent of the department of English
at International Islamic University, but often gets teaching support from the
department. ELC runs short EAP and ESP courses. EAP courses organized by
this institute are quite popular with students. These courses help students learn
skills which they will use through-out their academic careers.
I am a Lecturer at the department of English, International Islamic University. I
have been asked by the Director ELC to teach an eight week EAP course to a
group of eight learners. Classes will be held for five days a week, and the
duration of teaching input for each day will be five hours. The language centre
has provided me the profiles of the students who have joined this course. These
profiles are based upon the interviews of these students at the time of their
admission and their bio-data forms. I know that these profiles are by no means a
substitute for a detailed needs analysis (Please see appendix 1 for learners¶
profile).
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Needs Assessment
According to Graves, needs assessment is seeking and interpreting information
about students¶ needs so that the course effectively caters to it (Graves, 1996,
p.12). It is fundamental to course designing and without assessing the needs of
students, it is difficult to imagine a successful course. From the learners¶ profile
and the nature of EAP courses it is quite clear that students in my group would
like to acquire language skills which will enable them face the rigorous
challenges of university life. Generally speaking students are required to have the
following academic skills, listening and note-taking, academic writing ( formal
writing, using right register) understanding spoken and written instructions,
reading skills which include skimming, scanning, predicting, guessing meanings
from context, improving reading speed and vocabulary, writing effective
paragraphs, descriptive essays, analytical essays, comparison contrast, narrative
essays, writing assignments, presentation skills, referencing, writing a
bibliography etc. Some of these skills are outlined by Jordan ( Jordan, 1997, p.7)
When we talk about EAP courses in Pakistan, the focus in generally on reading
and writing skills. However, there are students in this group who will join faculty
of law, journalism, media studies, and business management. For these
students, it is of paramount importance to improve their listening and speaking
skills along with their reading and writing skills. The assessment system of
university is such that in each module, a student is required to give at least one
presentation, which has 20% weighting. Hence, only a reading and writing based
syllabus will not cater to the needs of my students.
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While assessing learning needs of students, it is important to take into account,
both objective and subjective needs. Brindley (1979: 70) defines objective needs
as ³derivable from different kinds of factual information about learners, their use
of language in real life communication situations as well as their current language
proficiency and language difficulties, he explains subjective needs as cognitive
and affective needs in the learning situation, which can be derived from learners¶
attitudes, personalities or the level of their confidence´ ( cited in Graves, 1996,
p.13). For a course to be successful both subjective and objective needs should
be assessed. The example of Uvin¶s course for Chinese workers ( Graves, 1996,
p. 14) clearly tells us that unless subjective needs are not taken into account,
objective needs may not be met.
It is also important to state that this group of learners is quite diverse in terms of
their choice of academic disciplines. Therefore, it will be useful to visit the
departments, which these students will join, and meet the senior faculty members
to assess the academic skills these students may need. Before the course
officially starts, I have arranged an informal orientation session. In this session, I
will tell my students the objectives of this course and elicit their opinions about it.
I understand that sometimes the needs assessment questionnaires may not be
successful in seeking the information a teacher is looking for. In such an event,
an informal discussion with students helps to extract the required information.
According to Graves ( Graves, 1996, p.16) many students are not familiar with
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needs assessment process, they find it hard articulating their needs and it may
make the whole learning scenario appear complex for them. In the light of my
previous teaching experience, I agree with Graves¶ view. Many a times the initial
needs assessment doesn¶t work for the reasons given above. So it needs to be
an ongoing process, and I will carry it through the course.(Please see appendix 2
for needs assessment questionnaire)
Constraints
Physical Constraints
Since this course is scheduled in summer, so we will be fighting frequent power-
cuts. There is an acute power-shortage in summers and it does take its toll on
education institutions. It¶s a real shock for international students who are
struggling to adjust in a new environment and new culture. Most of my students
are living on campus, so we can start our lessons at 8 a.m. It will help us finish
most of our work before noon, when these power-cuts become more frequent
and painful because of the soaring temperatures. With frequent power-cuts it
becomes difficult to use multimedia, DVDs, Internet etc in the class, but I still feel
that I can manage to use realia, though it may not be as regular as I would have
liked it.
Other Constraints
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According to Graves (Graves, 1996, p. 17) ³goals are general statements of the
overall, long-term purposes of the course. Objectives express the specific ways
in which the goals will be achieved´. Hence according to Graves, goals
represent destination and objectives are how this destination will be reached.
Nunan believes ( Nunan, 1998, p.24) that goals provide µrationale for the course¶.
When a teacher breaks down goals, it gives a direction to course and helps to
µconceptualize course in teachable chunks¶ ( Graves, 1996, p.17). Nunan also
shares the same view, he asserts that objectives provide a µsharper focus µand
tell learners about what they can expect from the course ( Nunan, 1988, p.61). In
the light of needs assessment and the learners¶ profile, I believe the main goals
of my course should be
y To improve EAP skills of learners that includes academic reading, writing,
listening and speaking
y To make them creative and critical, as both skills are fundamental to their
success at university level
y To motivate learners and give them self-belief
y To make them confident enough to learn on their own
y To help them improve their general English ability, which includes
development in their listening, speaking, reading, writing and vocabulary,
ability to understand and correct their own mistakes
y To enable learners use language according to the cultural and social
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context
y To introduce learners to study skills which they will need at university
level
While setting these goals, the model I have chosen is the one proposed by
Stern(1992). According to Stern, there are four types of goals for language
learners, and these are proficiency goals, affective goals, cognitive goals and
transfer goal ( cited in Graves, 1996, p.17). The learners¶ profile indicates that
there is hardly a single learner in the group, who is good at all four skills. Hence
their proficiency in these skills should be improved. Some of my learners do not
feel motivated to learn English, and lack self-confidence. Hence encouraging and
motivating them will be pivotal to their learning. For a student to do well at
university level he must learn how to learn on his own, and in Stern¶s model
Transfer goals take care of this aspect as well. Transfer goal addresses learner
autonomy. Learner autonomy is explained in the later part of this assignment.
How to achieve these goals (Conceptualising content/ Activities/ Material)
In the light of learners¶ profile, I think if both the EAP skills and general English
skills are blended together, the course may be a success. According to Jordan
( Jordan, 1997, p.75-76) the purpose of including non-EAP component such as
social/survival English, familiarisation with TV news and newspapers, videos,
grammar, vocabulary development etc is threefold, µ to serve as a necessary
adjunct to the main study skills, to fulfil a perceived present or future needs and
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to provide useful variety¶. Looking at my learners¶ present language proficiency,
this non-EAP input may help them receive EAP input more confidently and they
will make sense of what is happening.
I will also take a cue from the way Blyth designed and taught an EAP course to
the postgraduate students in Ecuador, where her focus was to µteach students
how to take responsibility of their own learning¶ and to build their confidence so
they can build on what they already know, and how they can expand their ability
to learn independently ( Graves, 1996, p.116). To me, the most important thing is
my learners¶ ability to learn on their own, and this will be a life-long asset.
In short, I intend to design a balanced course which will take into consideration
all these factors. Therefore, Instead of it being an academic reading or writing
course, it should be all encompassing.
(Please see appendix.3 for detailed course grid)
Reading
The students in my group have experienced academic reading in their first
languages, but many of them have unsatisfactory reading skills in English.
Students coming from traditional academic backgrounds generally don¶t realize
that reading can be of several types, depending on µones¶ reasons to read¶. My
previous experience suggests that most of Chinese and Pakistani students have
the tendency of using dictionary while they are reading, hence depriving
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themselves of the pleasure of reading. So right from the outset, my aim will be
teaching how to guess the meanings from the context, a skill they will need
throughout academic and general reading. Some teachers teaching reading have
a pre-reading session to explain meanings of difficult words. According to Grellet
(Grellet, 1991. p.14) inference is using syntactic, logical and cultural clues to
understand the meanings of unknown words. He adds that it is better not to
explain unfamiliar words to learners beforehand, with such µpre-processed texts¶
learners will not try to cope with a difficult passage on their own. The strategy of
not providing a µpre-processed text¶ may pose a challenge as most of my learners
come from such backgrounds where they expect teacher to supply them the
meanings before they even start reading. I think if readers are provided such
texts, which they find interesting and enjoyable, they may feel encouraged to
infer meanings from the context. Hence, negotiating themes of reading passages
with students may be a good idea. Other skills which will be part of my reading
syllabus are skimming (reading quickly for the main idea) scanning (reading
quickly for specific details), critical reading, distinguish between relevant and
irrelevant information, discovering facts, opinions ideas, and predicting. Some of
these skills, sub-skills are also outlined by Jordan ( Jordan, 1997, pp.143-144).
Students will be taught techniques of using contextual clues such as prefixes,
suffixes, etc to understand meanings. In order to practice skimming and
scanning, first newspapers will be used and then there will be a gradual move
towards academic texts. I think that using English newspapers from different
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countries may help in exposing students to different writing styles, and offer
different perspectives, which may be helpful in grooming them as critical readers.
Most of the academic reading is focused upon µreading for information¶. John and
Davies( 1983) maintain that in EAP a text is a µvehicle for information¶, not a
linguistic object¶( cited in Jordan, 1997, p.145). Most of my learners have been
studying in such learning environments where the main emphasis is on reading
as a µlinguistic object¶, hence it will be vital to explain students the need to
change their approach. Some of the reading activities may be recycled into
speaking and writing tasks. For example students may be asked to read a
newspaper article on a contentious issue and same can be used in a group
discussion task. They may also be asked to read an article and comment on it in
a short talk. According to Nunan ( Nunan, 2004, p.36) recycling helps learners
encounter target language items in a range of different environments, hence it
maximises opportunities for learning and µactivates organic learning principle¶. A
learner becomes a good reader when he starts to apply reading skills
automatically without conscious efforts, then it can be said that these skills are
now part of his academic armoury.
Activities on improving reading speed also figure in the reading syllabus. Before
moving to reading speed, students must be told that reading a passage quickly
shouldn¶t be at the expense of comprehension, and it is important to adjust
reading speed according to the purpose and nature of what one is reading. An
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interesting activity is one-minute reading, (Iwano, 2004) in this activity students
read for exactly a minute, and then they count their words (cited in Nation, 2009,
p.71). According to Nation ( Nation, 2009, p.71) the pressure of reading quickly
can be source of stress for students. Hence it is important to emphasize reading
speed at such a point in time when students are aware of other sub-skills and
reading strategies.
Some reading activities may be recycled into grammar lessons. In these lessons,
I don¶t intend to teach grammar explicitly, a reading text can be analyzed for this
activity.
Writing
In a typical language class in Pakistan, writing is viewed as a product and not a
process. Hence the process of encouraging reflection and interaction suffers a
serious set-back, casting its shadow on learner¶s communicative competence. In
writing classes, learners are not involved in brainstorming, priming, sharing ideas
in groups, gathering information, peer-feedback, editing, self-correction, etc. On
the other hand, the process approach is linked with the principle of learner-
centeredness. According to Jordan ( Jordan, 1997, pp. 167-168) the process
approach encourage learners to take responsibility of their own learning by
involving them in activities such as drafting, discussion, feedback, revisions and
informed choices, so learners can make clearer decisions about the direction of
their writing.
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Hence, I intend to include pre-writing activities such as brainstorming,
discovering new ideas, sharing experiences, gathering information and
organizing ideas. Learners will be encouraged to work in groups, so that they
may interact, scaffold, share experiences, gather information, organize ideas,
and feel that they are in charge of their learning process. This will make them feel
more confident and relaxed while writing. This may be an important milestone
towards achieving transfer goals mentioned in the course objectives. Learners
will be asked to prepare first, second and third draft, through a collaborative
effort. This will be followed by peer-correction, editing and finally teacher¶s
feedback. According to Nation, (Nation, 2009, p.139) sources of feedback can be
a teacher, peers and learner himself, the use of self-assessment improves
metacognitive awareness. I will keep their writing portfolios with me, so that their
continuous assessment can be done, it will also help me decide when to give
feedback on their grammar. Learner¶s progress in writing depends upon
continuous and specific feedback. Zamel ( Zamel, 1985) noted that teachers
often put generalized comments on students¶ writing, specific guidelines should
be given to students (cited in Jordan, 1997, p.17).
The emphasis in writing syllabus will be on purposeful, real life activities (Please
see appendix 3 syllabus grid for detailed writing activities). For descriptive
writing, I will recycle some of the listening and speaking activities into writing
tasks. For example, students will be shown movie clips for listening and speaking
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activities, they may be asked to describe some scenes and characters in their
writing tasks. At the end of this activity, students will be given list of useful words
for describing people and places.
As it has already been indicated that one of the aims of this course is to make
students critical and creative. Therefore, one of the key activities will be
argumentative writing, where students will defend and argue a position (please
see appendix 3 for likely tasks). Students will also be asked to write an
assignment and will share their findings in the form of a presentation in class.
Hence a writing activity will be recycled into a speaking task.
In order to give students practical examples of narrative and descriptive writing,
extracts from novels will be used. For this activity texts from (abridged version) of
literary classics such as µ Great Expectations¶, along with selected texts from the
modern day novels, such as John Grisham¶s µThe Rainmaker¶ or µ The Brethren¶,
may be used. One of the reasons to use extracts from Grisham¶s novels is that
these novels are suspense thrillers and appeal to the tastes of young audience.
Though one may argue that language of these novels may not be academic, but
for activities such as analyzing how a writer describes a character, such fiction
can be helpful. Using text from abridged classics and modern day novels can
provide an interesting mix. Novels, in my view, are perhaps the best medium to
show a model of narrative and descriptive writing, and can be linked with
activities such as learning new words, usage of figurative language etc. Finally
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students will be given samples of well-written assignments, and will be taught
how to reference in a proper academic way.
Listening and Speaking
Learners¶ profile indicates that some of them are hesitant and shy in spoken
communication and have high µaffective filters¶. The reason is that most of the
learners have been studying through Grammar Translation Method. They didn¶t
get opportunities and motivation to speak English. Speaking didn¶t figure in their
syllabi, or even if it did, the huge emphasis on accuracy was the main hurdle in
gaining fluency as it was thought that a learner¶s first aim was to achieve
accuracy through mastering grammar. Fluency is defined as (Schimidt, 1992:
358) the processing of language in real time when learners take-part in meaning
focussed activity (cited in Nation and Newton, 2009, p.151). So it is vital to have
meaning-focused activities and exposing learners to µreal-time communication
pressures. Impromptu speaking activities create a µreal-time communication
pressure¶. These activities will be introduced in the third week of the course, as
by that time learners will hopefully have settled and feeling relaxed.
The first activity will be introducing oneself, at the end of this activity, useful
words and phrases, which are used in introduction, will be given. Another activity
of the first week will be group discussion. The objectives of group discussion
listed by Beard and Hartley ( 1984) are promoting critical and logical thinking,
problem solving, giving practice in oral presentations of reports, widening of
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interests, changing attitudes and importantly µ to obtain more intimate and
personal contact with students than is possible in lectures¶ ( cited in Jordan,
1997, p.10). Jordan maintains ( Jordan, 1997, p.11) that the main problem in
group discussion is students¶ lack of participation, which is due to shyness, lack
of self-confidence, unwillingness to begin, lack of knowledge etc. So in order to
ward-off these problems, instead of giving a topic for discussion straightaway, I
will integrate group discussion with a listening task. Students will be shown a
selection of movie clips taken from The Spirit, The Lion King, JFK and Al-Gore¶s
documentary, The Inconvenient Truth, for a listening task. After watching a clip,
students will be asked to share their general responses, some new vocabulary
items may be highlighted. By this stage, this activity may have aroused students¶
interests and they have some general idea about the clips. This will be followed
by a group discussion based on themes taken from the clips, these themes could
be threat of global warming (Inconvenient Truth), lust of power (Lion King),
freedom (The Spirit) etc. Hence introducing group discussion through this step by
step approach may help students settle their nerves and feel confident during
discussion. The success of a discussion activity also depends upon the role of
teacher. Jordan believes ( Jordan, 1997, p.12) that some likely roles of teachers
during such activities are, translating a poorly worded statement into a clear one,
elaborating with examples, making sure that all learners get a chance to speak,
harmonizing learners by reducing tension and getting them to explore their
differences.
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Video-clips and clips from talk-shows selected from CNN, BBC, SKY NEWS,
Dawn News, Express News (both are Pakistani news channels) will be used to
expose learners to spoken grammar that includes heads, tails, discourse markers
etc. These clips may also help students to see how communication strategies
such as, paraphrasing, appealing for help, formulaic language, are used. Variety
of channels are chosen to expose students to variety of accents and speaking
styles. Students will also be told how to make the effective use of their non-
verbal language, stress and intonation. Their body language will be closely
monitored when they give class presentations (Please see appendix 3 for
speaking and listening tasks)
Assessment and sample assessment tasks
In Pakistan, the most prevalent way of assessing learners¶ language abilities is
through holistic scoring, while analytic scoring method is seldom used. Thornbury
(2005, p.127)) explains that µgiving a single score on the basis of an overall
impression is holistic scoring while giving a separate score for different aspects
of the task is analytic scoring. It is clear from the above explanation that holistic
scoring can be unfair, as one answer may invoke different reactions, and forming
a general impression may have too much of subjectivity. In analytic scoring
subjectivity of examiner may not largely impact the scoring, and hence could be
fairer. Thornbury( 2005, p.127) also agrees that in analytic scoring, an examiner
has to take into account variety of factors, and if properly chosen, such scoring
may be µfairer and more reliable¶. I will adopt analytic scoring plan for assessing
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reading, writing, listening, speaking and study skills. One reason for doing so is
explained above i.e analytic scoring is more reliable and fairer, and secondly the
course objectives and the way these objectives will be realized, demand analytic
scoring. For example while teaching writing, I will introduce writing as a process,
which entails introducing students to different steps and processes involved in
writing. Hence, assessment should not be carried out on the basis of general
impression, but on seeing how well students have followed different steps of the
way. According to Weigle (2002, pp.114-115) in analytic scoring such features as
content, organization, cohesion, register, vocabulary, grammar or mechanics are
taken into account while marking scripts, so it provides more detailed information
about a learner¶s performance at different stages.
The assessment of writing will be formative as well as summative. Formative
assessment is an ongoing achievement. Monitoring learners¶ progress in class,
and observation are key parts of formative assessment, the purpose is to
improve the learning process and providing feedback to learners ( Brindley,
2003, p.321). Formative assessment will mainly be carried out through viewing
writing portfolios, this will give an idea about the progress and will help me give
feedback to students individually. Hamp-Lyons and Condon ( 2000) believe that
using portfolio assessment helps in many ways, for example it enables learners
to display a wide range of writing activities and affords learners the opportunity to
self-assess and reflect (cited in Weigle, 2002).
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For summative assessment, a written assignment will be given to students, on
the pattern of what they may expect in their faculties. The likely topics will be
decided towards the end of course. It is important to choose topics which are
appealing to students, so they feel comfortable while researching and writing on
them. This writing project will test students¶ academic writing skills and their
general study skills. For example, ability to research, gather, organize and
present information, argumentative writing ability, building an argument and
defending it, comparing and contrasting, creative and critical writing skills, ability
to use academic language, richness of vocabulary etc, besides testing their
grammar, overall structure and layout. Study skills which may be tested through
this activity will be, referencing and researching abilities (quotations, footnotes,
bibliography) using a library and web-recourses. (Please see appendix 4 for
writing assessment grid)
As syllabus grid shows that most of the tasks are integrated, if assessment also
follows the same pattern, it will be in sync with the overall structure. Therefore,
for assessing speaking skill, students may be asked to give a presentation on
their written assignments. This task will test their general speaking skills, with
special focus on persuasive speaking abilities, fluency, using non-verbal factors
of communication, confidence, motivation level, using multimedia, etc. These
presentations will be followed by a question and answer session, which will test
how confidently and convincingly a learner responds. Second part of summative
assessment will be an impromptu speaking activity, each individual will be given
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a topic to speak for 3-5 minutes. This task will test their ability to handle a µreal
time communication pressure¶. The activity will be peer assessed. As during the
course students will have done peer assessment in many tasks, hence this will
fall in the overall pattern and corresponds with the learning objective of enabling
them learn on their own through self and peer-correction. Brindley ( Brindley,
2003, p.318) comments that the main advantage of basing assessment on
course objectives is that both are closely linked and this allows teachers, learners
and external parties to see to what extent the intended course objectives are
met.
In Pakistani institutes, interviews are often used as an assessment task, but I
have not opted for this activity. The problem with this task is that it may lack
reliability, as students often repeat memorized answers. Besides in the view of
Thornbury ( Thornbury, 2005, p.125) students often underperform in interview-
type conditions, and it is difficult to eliminate the effects of the interviewer, his
questioning style and if he is assessor too then judging the speaker¶s abilities
and maintaining the flow of the talk at the same time could be hard. In addition to
summative assessment, students will be assessed throughout the course
through different speaking activities mentioned in syllabus grid, and continuous
feedback will be given to each individual.
Buck ( 2001) comments that listening test should be designed in such a way that
the ability to process extended samples of realistic, spoken language,
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automatically and in real time is tested. Speaking syllabus contains many such
activities which expose students to realistic spoken language. In listening
assessment the first task will be a video clip from a talk show taken from a local
English news channel. Students will be asked multiple-choice questions based
on the clip. Questions will be designed to test the ability to infer meanings
through the context (body language, stress, intonation etc) and understanding
the gist of the massage. In second listening activity, students will be shown a ten
minutes video of a lecture, followed by ten multiple-choice questions based on
this video. These questions will test their ability to understand the specific details,
the theme of the lecture, understanding the examples which lecturer has given to
explain concepts, drawing inferences etc. In the third assessment task students
will be shown clips from BBC documentary Planet Earth followed by multiple-
choice questions based on it. In these assessment tasks, I have tried to test
students listening abilities by exposing them to different speaking accents and
variety of situations. These three tasks are taken from three different sources and
represent different situations.
In Reading assessment, three reading passages will be given, each taken from a
different source. One passage will be academic; it will be selected from a text
book. The second one will be taken from a newspaper, and the third one will be a
narrative, taken from a novel. Students will be allowed 20 min to read each
passage and then answer the questions. The questions will be set in a way to
test the ability to guess the meanings from the context, skimming and scanning
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skills, drawing conclusions, ability to read and understand a passage in a short
time, and understanding figurative language. (Please see appendix 5 for course
evaluation questionnaire)
(WORD COUNT=4971)
APPENDIX 1
LEARNERS¶ PROFILES
Ahmad
Ahmad is 20. He has done his graduation in Commerce (B.Com). He is aspiring
to become a lawyer. His interest in law was ignited by the lawyers¶ movement in
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Pakistan, which brought about what can be termed as a mini-revolution. Ahmad
followed this movement keenly, the fiery speeches of lawyers and their massive
rallies fuelled his passion to become a lawyer. He has been studying English
since his childhood, he can write English with considerable ease, but when it
comes to speaking, he is tongue-tied. He reads newspapers regularly and
occasionally watches English movies. He understands that if he wants to be a
good lawyer his communication abilities in English must be very good. He has
taken admission in Faculty of Law and will join the faculty soon after this course.
Hasan
Hasan has taken admission in faculty of Economics. He is 24. He is quite good at
speaking English, which is mainly due to the fact that he did his matriculation
from a private school, where lot of emphasis was laid upon encouraging students
to communicate in English. When he went to college, he had to negotiate with
the traditional method of English language teaching, which had a dampening
effect on his motivation. He likes to get involved in speaking and listening
activities but his written expression is quite poor. He struggles with academic
writing, his vocabulary is not a refined one, he tends to use slangs in his writing.
He likes playing computer games, watching movies and going out with friends.
Omar
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Omar(28) has received his education from a religious school (madrassah) .
These institutions use very traditional rather outdated learning approaches and
are known for their overdrive in maintaining strict discipline. Omar learnt Arabic in
madrassh but can only understand Quranic Arabic. He will join Faculty of
Usuludin( Religious Studies). Coming from a typical madrassh background, he
has an aversion to English language and doesn¶t feel motivated to learn English.
He wants to be a religious scholar and thinks that English will not be of any use
to him. He knows grammar quite well and is good at translating sentences from
Urdu to English. He reads religious books only. Before joining madrassah, he
received formal education from a government school, where he learnt English
grammar, essay writing and translation from Urdu to English, but he couldn¶t
have any real exposure to listening and speaking.
Ma Chao
Ma Chao (21) is from China. He is set to join Arabic Faculty. He is very introvert.
He likes football and basketball. He finds speaking tasks difficult but enjoys
reading. His written expression is quite average as the range of his vocabulary is
limited. He is good at grammar while his listening skill is quite unsatisfactory.
The whole academic environment is very new to him and he is going through the
process of settling down in a new culture. He appears motivated which is a good
sign.
Nasir Shah
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Nasir (28) is from Somalia and will join BBA( Hons). He is an ardent football fan.
Due to some family issues he had to discontinue his studies for more than three
years. He likes reading but is not comfortable with writing. His spoken English is
also not fluent. He looks a confident individual who seems to be all geared up for
getting the maximum out of this new opportunity. His knowledge of grammar can
be termed as satisfactory.
Shamaas
Shamaas (19) is from Islamabad. He has done his B.A in Journalism and has
taken admission in MA in Media Studies. He has learnt English, like most of
Pakistanis, in a teacher-centred environment and through grammar based
activities. His written ability is reasonably good, but still there is room for
improvement. He struggles to communicate his ideas freely due to lack of
vocabulary and foreign language anxiety. He is keen to improve his written and
spoken skills, as the career path he has chosen for himself requires him to be
very good at communicating his ideas freely. His listening skill is above average,
he likes to watch English news channels, which means that there is every
likelihood that he can further improve his listening skills.
Mustafa Buraq
Mustafa (18) is from Turkey. He has joined Faculty of Engineering and
Technology. He doesn¶t feel shy in speaking but isn¶t inclined towards reading.
He cites lack of vocabulary for this tendency. His makes mistakes while speaking
English but seems open to learning new concepts. He likes communicative way
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of teaching and is never comfortable with a teacher-centred environment, where
he is made to play a passive role. He learnt English grammar at school. His
writing skill needs improvement. His writing lacks organization and coherence,
and exhibits limited range of vocabulary. His listening skills are much better as he
is used to watching English news channels and movies.
Junaid
Junaid is 29. He has taken admission in MA English. His BA is in Arts. He has
joined this course because he is concerned that his EAP skills are far from being
satisfactory. He realises that doing MA English will be a challenging task. He has
done his BA through distance learning, so his exposure to academic life in a
university is quite limited. He is also doing job in a telecom company. He has
never been a full time student after his matriculation. This will be his first
opportunity to be a full-time student as his employer has granted him a study
leave for a year. He is quite good at formal writing, makes many mistakes in
speaking, and needs to improve his listening skill as well.
APPENDIX.2
Needs Analysis Questionnaire
1. Describe your previous experience of learning English, which skills you were
taught?
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2. Describe how you were taught English, was it a teacher-centred class? (a
learning environment where you seldom got opportunities to speak and share
your experiences). Were you given tasks which you had to complete through
pair-work or was it only lecture-based?
3. What was usually the size of your class?
4. Can you describe a language learning experience which you found most
helpful and enjoyable, this could be an experience inside or outside class?
5. Which skill you think you are good at, listening, speaking, reading or writing?
6. Which skill you enjoy the most?
7. Which skill you don¶t enjoy at all?
8. What is the main reason behind your joining this EAP course?
9. Which specific skill or area you would like to improve during this course?
10. What expectations do you have from this course and how do you think this
course could help you in your future studies?
11. Do you feel encouraged and motivated to learn English?
12. Do you think you can speak English with considerable ease without making
too many mistakes?
13. Do you feel shy or hesitant while speaking English, if yes could you give
reasons, why?
14. Have you ever done group-discussion in class?
15. Have you ever given presentations in class?
16. Do you struggle to find words when you write or speak English?
17. What is your method of learning new words?
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18. Do you often consult dictionary while reading?
19. What type of material you enjoy reading, newspapers, novels, books etc?
20. When you come across an unfamiliar word while reading, do you look it up in
dictionary or try to guess its meanings form the context?
21. Do you regularly read newspapers?
22. Have you ever done creative writing?
23. Have you ever written an academic assignment, do you find these
assignments difficult?
24. Do you watch English movies, documentaries, news channels etc, if yes how
often?
(Some questions are adapted from Jordan&Mackey (1973) cited in Jordan,
English for Academic Purposes,1997, Cambridge University Press,(p.285-286)
APPENDIX.3
SYLLABUS GRID
Breakdownof ActivitiesinWeeks
ReadingActivities
WritingActivities
Listening & SpeakingActivities
Study SkilActivities
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First Week Pre-readingactivities,brainstorming,priming, groupwork (newspaper
articles will beused)
Pre-writing( discoveringnew ideas,sharingexperiences,
gatheringinformation,organizingideas, studentswill be asked towork in groupsand draw up alist of topics,they will beasked tobrainstorm on µ
My First Weekin EAP class,later they willwrite on thistopic, it will notonly be aninterestingwriting activitybut will alsoprovide a quickfeedback on
how they viewthis EAP course
Introducing oneself,followed by a question& answer session,watching movie clips,followed by speaking
activities on themestaken from movies( Clips from The Spirit,Lion King, JFK etc willbe used for theseactivities) the possiblethemes from Lion Kingmay be µLust for power¶,or any other themehighlighted by learners,From The Spirit, the
likely theme may be µFreedom, or Love, or Family, students may beasked to narrate thestory of the Stallion(The Spirit) to their peers and tell whatthey find inspirational inthe story, from JFK thefinal court scene will beused for class
discussion.One session will be onanalysing spokengrammar, students willbe shown clips from anyof the above-mentionedmovies followed by ananalysis of the spokengrammar, (if possible Iwill record some of these discussions andwill replay them to givestudents an idea of howthey speak and givethem feedback on thechoice of words, their spoken grammar, bodylanguage etc, theserecordings may serve
Lectures annote takingactivities( Videos oflectures wi
be used,students wbe taken toanother class andasked totake downnotes of lectures,they will alsbe told abo
the basictechniquesof note-taking, ( hoto jot downmain-ideasusing their own symboetc )
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as µSpeaking Portfolios¶
SecondWeek
Guessingmeanings fromcontext, lookingfor contextual,syntactical,cultural clues,confirming andcorrectingguesses fromdictionaries,sensitizing. For
homeworkstudents will begiven passagesfor readingfollowed byexercises onguessingmeanings fromcontext
Preparing first,second andthird drafts,editing, peer correction, self-correction,teacher evaluation( writing as aprocess)Teacher¶s
feedback mayalso be formfocused assome of thelearners maydesire formfocusedfeedback, giventheir academicbackgrounds.
Exposing students todifferent speakingaccents (Clips fromnews channels e.gCNN, BBC, Sky, Foxand Pakistani EnglishNews Channels( Dawn, Express News)followed by a theme-based group discussionand listening task,
Predicting by watchinga movie clip withoutsound
Researchandreferencingactivities( Quotationfootnotes,bibliograph
Third andFourthWeek
Skimming,scanning, readingfor understandingthe relationshipbetween mainideas and their expansion,reading betweenthe lines,(newspapers,both national and
international shortstories, travelbrochures, annualreport of InternationalIslamic universityor any other material which
Free writing on µLife in modernage¶ (15 min)Descriptivewriting (describing anobject,( Themost prizedpossession of mine) describingscenes of a
movie, movieclips whichstudents haveseen in firstweek will berecycled for thisactivity but thefocus this time
Persuasive speakingactivities, using non-verbal factors of communication,impromptu speaking,Interviews, Panelinterviews, students willbe taught how to givean effectivepresentation, they willbe given a home task to
prepare a presentation
Calling banks, mobilephone companies¶ helplines for seekinginformation
Seminarsandpresentatioactivities
Using libraand webrecourses
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students may findinteresting will beused, activitiesfrom Developing Reading Skills by
Grellet ( 1981) willbe used in class
will bedescribingscenes andcharacters, thisactivity will be
followed bygiving studentsa list of usefulwords whichthey may needin describingpeople andobjects)autobiographicalaccounts (describing
oneself)Narrativewriting,Comparison andcontrast,
Argumentativewriting, Drawingconclusions,
FifthWeek Defend andargue a position
e.g The issue of Co-education inPakistan,Writing activitieswill be recycledinto speakingtasks, studentswill give a shorttalk on the sametopic which hasalready beenused in a writingtask (studentswill alsomaintain awriting journal),
Analysis of academicwriting (Hedging
Giving presentations ontopics negotiated with
learners followed bypeer review, individualand peer presentationswill be arranged bystudents
Test-takingtechniques
( how toprepare foran exam,how to waroff anxietyduring exampreparationetc)
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and vaguelanguage,examples of vague and,over-
generalizedlanguage will begiven tostudents,previous years¶students¶assignmentscan be used for this purpose)
SixthW
eek Matching pictureswith text , Speedreading activitiesfrom Developing Reading Skills byGrellet
Writing jobapplication, e-mail, Resume,Sending E-cards, Formaland informalletters,summarizingandparaphrasingtext
Listening to lecturesfollowed by speakingactivity
Time-managemeskills
Seventhand Eighthweek
Activities focusedat improvingvocabularythrough readingwith focus on mostuseful vocabularyfirst , introducinglearners tofigurativelanguage through
reading texts( diverse materialwill be used whichmay include travelaccounts,biographicalaccounts, moviereviews, recipes,
Creative andcritical writingactivities(writing a storyon a lead)Writing picturestory, writingabout emotions,feelings etc)writing a critique
of a newspaper article, writing abook review.Students will begiven a mini-research projectfor instanceProblems faced
Delivering a short talkordering andsequencing information,the mini-researchproject activity whichwas used in writingclass will be recycledinto a speaking activitywhere students willshare their findings with
their peers in the formof a class presentation
Summativeassessmenof studyskills(Studentswill be asketo write brieanswers toquestions,the time
duration of this test wilbe an hoursome of thestudy skillssuch asresearch areferencing
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book reviews etc) by studentsliving in Hostel,they willinterviewstudents and
share their findings in theform of a report
skills, etc wbe testedthroughtasksdesigned fo
assessingwriting skill
Questioning theauthor activities assuggested byBeck, McKeown,Hamilton andKucan(1997)newspapers
editorials andpassages frombooks will be usedfor this activity
Writingassignments,
Analyzing awriting text for tone, mood
NOTE: Writing
portfolios of allstudents will bemaintained
READINGASSESSMENT
WRITINGASSESSMENT
LISTENING/SPEAKINGASSESSMENT
APPENDIX 4
ASSESSMENT GRIDSKILL: WRITING
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Organisation
A Organisational skills and development of ideas clearly visiblethroughout the assignment, flow of ideas fluent and properly
sequencedB Organisational skills visible though loosely organized, mainideas stand out, logical but not properly sequenced
C Little organisation of content, lacks logical sequencing or disconnected ideas in most parts
D No apparent organisation of content, logical development of ideas missing completely.
ContentA Relevant to the assigned topic, knowledgeable and
substantive which adequately helps the development of ideas
B Mostly relevant but there may be some gaps and irrelevantinformation which limits the development of ideas at someplaces
C Limited knowledge of subject, major gaps in relevance anddevelopment of ideas
D Bears no resemblance to the assigned topic, redundant andshows no knowledge
Critical Analysis and Referencing Skill A Depth of critical analysis adequately displayed running through
the whole of assignment supported by a wide range of references, thoroughly researched
B Critical analysis evident in most parts supported by limited rangeof references, some evidence of research
C Inadequate critical analysis, very few references, very littleevidence of research
D No critical analysis, only descriptive, no or minimal evidence of research
GRAMMAR
A Very few grammatical inaccuracies, effective complexconstructions sustained throughout the assignment
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B Some grammatical errors, effective but simple construction
C Grammatical errors and problems with construction frequent
D Almost no knowledge of grammar evident, major problems withsentence construction running through the whole assignment
VOCABULAR Y
A Appropriate register, effective use of words, wide range of vocabulary evident through out the assignment
B Adequate range of vocabulary, occasional error of choice of wordsand register
C Limited range of vocabulary, frequent errors of word choice andregister
D Vocabulary inadequate, little or no knowledge of word form and
using the right words, inappropriate use of register through out theassignment
Some features adapted from Jacob¶s et al.¶s (1981) scoring profile and TEEP writingscales ( Weir, 1990) cited in Weigle (2002) pp.116-117)
A=Excellent B=Good C=Unsatisfactory D=Fail
APPENDIX 5
COURSE EVALUATION QUESTIONAIRRE
1. Do you think the course achieved its objectives?
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2. What changes would you suggest to improve the course?
3. Which skill you improved the most?
4. Which skill you enjoyed doing the most?
5. Has the course lived up to your general expectations?
6. What are your comments on the quality of teaching?
7. Do you think the atmosphere in class was interactive?
8. Did your teacher answer your queries satisfactorily?
9. Which activity you found the most boring?
10. Was there any particular problem you faced during the course?
11. Please comment on the teaching material
12. Please comment on homework
13. Please comment on the assessment tasks
BIBLIOGRAPH Y
ANDERSON, N.2003. Reading. In NUNAN.D.ed. Practical English Language
Teaching . International Edition: McGrawHill.pp.67-86
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BLYTH, M. 1996. Designing an EAP course for postgraduate students in
Ecuador. In: GRAVES. K.ed. Teachers as Course Developers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. pp.86-104
BRINDLEY, G. 2003. Classroom-based assessment. In NUNAN.D.ed. Practical
English Language Teaching . International Edition: McGrawHill. pp.309-328
BUCK, G.2001. Assessing Listening . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
FRANCO, M. 1996. Designing a writing component for Teen courses at a
Brazilian Educational institute. In: GRAVES. K.ed. Teachers as Course
Developers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.119-150.
GRAVES, K.1996. A Framework of Course Design. In: GRAVES. K.ed. Teachers
as Course Developers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.12-35
GRELLET, F.1981. Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
JORDAN, R. 1997. English for Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
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NATION, I.S.P. 2009. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. New York:
Routledge, Taylor & Francis
NATION, I.S.P & NEWTON,J. 2009. Teaching ESL/EFL Listening & Speaking.
New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis
NUNAN, D. 1998. Syllabus Design, Oxford: Oxford University Press
NUNAN.D, 2004. Task-based Language Teaching . Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
THORNBURY, S. 2005. How to Teach Speaking : Pearson Longman
WEIGLE, S.2002. Assessing Writing . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press