Teaching English for Academic Purposes to Non-native English Speakers

 

All students at English-medium universities encounter a variety of challenges. However, non-native speakers of English, in particular, will be presented with a unique set of challenges largely due to a lack of linguistic competence and possible educational and cultural differences. In this post, I highlight just a few of these challenges and suggest ways in which lecturers might help students overcome them. 

Key graduate attributes

Many of these challenges might be directly linked to the key graduate attributes of scholarship as outlined by Alexander, Argent & Spencer, 2018 (Fig. 1). Each of these comes with its own set of conventions and demands that might be new and alien to students from a different educational and cultural background. For example, the concept of autonomy, which is complex and perhaps not always clearly defined, might give rise to conflicting ideas and even resistance in some students. That said, students do need to be exposed to carefully designed challenges so that they can learn how to overcome them on their own initiative.

Main methods of teaching and learning

Laurillard, as cited in Alexander et al. (2018), puts the main methods of teaching and learning at university into 4 categories. These are, Acquisition, which involves lectures and reading, Practice, meaning exercises and problems, Discussion, referring to tutorials and seminars, and Discovery, which includes field trips and practicals. I have chosen to focus on Acquisition and Discussion. This is because, in my view, these potentially present non-native speakers of English with some of the biggest challenges. 

Acquisition: challenges and solutions

When it comes to Acquisition, students might feel overwhelmed by the amount of input, especially in terms of reading. To alleviate this feeling, students, first and foremost, need to be reassured that they can do it! I often ask my students, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer, of course, is piece by piece. I use this to illustrate that any big assignment is best realised through smaller tasks. When given an assignment, students might not know where to begin. Once they have identified the steps required to achieve the end goal, they need to plan what to do first and when to do it. The idea of planning should be instilled from the very beginning. Too often students put off starting the assignment or they rush into it blindly. Students also need to be taught how to read, and be shown how to become active readers. What this means is that they need to become familiar with how a particular text is constructed, and have a clear purpose for reading it. Knowing the construction of a particular text will help them understand where they need to go to get the information they need.

On the other hand, lectures might require students to listen to and understand various accents. To help improve comprehension, students might be given access to any relevant PowerPoint slides prior to listening to the lecture. Not only will this inform them of how the content is structured, but also expose them to unknown lexis. By coming to the lecture prepared in this way, students might feel less anxious and thus better able to focus on the content. They could also be given access to recordings of live lectures in order to listen again. Listening to the lecture again in less stressful circumstances, and being able to pause and rewind, is sure to help them process the content much better. 

Overall, students need to be taught the value of constructing knowledge collaboratively. They should be encouraged to share and compare their notes from lectures and reading so as to deepen their understanding of the materials. In my experience, this note-building also builds confidence and offers reassurance. 

Discussion: challenges and solutions

Discussion tasks and activities can be very stressful for students, especially for non-native English speakers. For a start, students might not have enough confidence to fully participate in tutorials and/or seminars. There might be a number of reasons for this, including personality and cultural aspects. 

One thing lecturers can do at the outset is to help students understand that they are in a safe space and that their input is valued. This might help students feel less embarrassed or worried about making mistakes. It might also help them feel less concerned about whether or not their opinions are valid. Lecturers could also scaffold discussion tasks. For instance, before getting students to participate in a tutorial or seminar, students might have a ‘dry run’ in pairs or groups of three.

Another challenge is that students might not have the necessary language to express their ideas. If this is the case, the lecturer could follow a genre analysis approach using a model tutorial or seminar, either live or recorded, highlighting procedures and sequences as well as linguistic features. Students could then be provided with sentence stems and be given time to practise in a more controlled environment.

Conclusion

Students, both native and non-native speakers of English, face numerous challenges in the higher education environment. In order for them to become active and productive members of their discourse community, they need to be socialised to the ‘ways’ of that community. To help ensure success in this regard, building confidence, offering appropriate support and guidance, and fostering a collaborative mindset might be helpful starting points of any teaching and learning endeavour.

Reference

 Alexander, O., Argent, S., & Spencer, J. (2018). EAP essentials: A teacher’s guide to principles and practice (2^nd ed.). Reading, England: Garnet Publishing Ltd.

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