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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 derivable 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 Uvins 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 doesnt 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. Its 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) goals 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 rationale for the course.

When a teacher breaks down goals, it gives a direction to course and helps to

conceptualize course in teachable chunks ( Graves, 1996, p.17). Nunan also

shares the same view, he asserts that objectives provide a sharper focus and

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 Sterns 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, 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