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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 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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My group of learners is a diverse one, which may be a double edge sword for a

teacher, especially in a short-intensive course. The learners do not belong to one

nationality or ethnic group, they have different learning styles, different

preferences, and different cultural backgrounds. Given the fact that some of them

are still going through cultural shock, may not help the matters. One of my

students has been studying in a religious school (madrassah) and is not

comfortable with the idea of studying English at all. He seems to have enrolled

reluctantly, as he has to improve his English to survive at university level. My

previous experience tells that students from madrassah background are

generally very obedient and hold teachers at a high esteem; they come from an

environment where they don’t question anything and show complete submission.

Hence if a teacher motivates them, convinces them, they may accept this new

environment. For example in past while dealing with such students, I would tell

them that seeking worldly education is an obligation for a Muslim, and when I

cited many examples from religious sources, they often fell in line.

Another constraint may be the time constraint, since this is an intensive eight

week course, to achieve much in this short span of time may not be possible and

sometimes these intense courses put immense pressure on students. Hence all

learning targets may not be achieved, as they might have in a long course. What

can be done in practical terms is to measure progress continuously and give

encouraging feedback.

Goals and Objectives

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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

 To improve EAP skills of learners that includes academic reading, writing,

listening and speaking

 To make them creative and critical, as both skills are fundamental to their

success at university level

 To motivate learners and give them self-belief

 To make them confident enough to learn on their own

 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

 To enable learners use language according to the cultural and social

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context

 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, ‘ 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 ‘teach 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 ‘ones’ 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 ‘pre-processed texts’

learners will not try to cope with a difficult passage on their own. The strategy of

not providing a ‘pre-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 ‘reading for information’. John and

Davies( 1983) maintain that in EAP a text is a ‘vehicle 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 ‘linguistic 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 ‘activates 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 ‘ Great Expectations’, along with selected texts from the

modern day novels, such as John Grisham’s ‘The Rainmaker’ or ‘ 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 ‘affective 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 ‘real-time communication

pressures. Impromptu speaking activities create a ‘real-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 ‘ 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 ‘giving 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 ‘fairer 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 ‘real

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
 25

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?
 26

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?

 27

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

Breakdow Reading Writing Listening & Study

n of Activities Activities Speaking Activities Skills
Activities Activities
in Weeks
First Pre-reading Pre-writing Introducing oneself, Lectures
Week activities, ( discovering followed by a question and note
brainstorming, new ideas, & answer session, taking
 28

priming, group sharing watching movie clips, activities

work experiences, followed by speaking ( Videos of
(newspaper gathering activities on themes lectures will
articles will be information, taken from movies be used,
used) organizing ( Clips from The Spirit, students
ideas, students Lion King, JFK etc will will be
will be asked to be used for these taken to
work in groups activities) the possible another
and draw up a themes from Lion King class and
list of topics, may be ‘Lust for asked to
they will be power’, or any other take down
asked to theme highlighted by notes of
brainstorm on ‘ learners, From The lectures,
My First Week Spirit, the likely theme they will
in EAP class, may be ‘ Freedom, or also be told
later they will Love, or Family, about the
write on this students may be basic
topic, it will not asked to narrate the techniques
only be an story of the Stallion of note-
interesting (The Spirit) to their taking,
writing activity peers and tell what ( how to jot
but will also they find inspirational down main-
provide a quick in the story, from JFK ideas, using
feedback on the final court scene their own
how they view will be used for class symbols etc
this EAP discussion. )
course One session will be on
analysing spoken
grammar, students will
be shown clips from
any of the above-
mentioned movies
followed by an
analysis of the spoken
grammar, (if possible
I will record some of
these discussions and
will replay them to give
students an idea of
how they speak and
give them feedback on
the choice of words,
their spoken grammar,
body language etc,
these recordings may
serve as ‘Speaking
 29

Portfolios’

Second Guessing Preparing first, Exposing students to Research

Week meanings from second and different speaking and
context, looking third drafts, accents (Clips from referencing
for contextual, editing, peer news channels e.g activities
syntactical, correction, self- CNN, BBC, Sky, Fox ( Quotation
cultural clues, correction, and Pakistani English s,
confirming and teacher News Channels footnotes,
correcting evaluation ( Dawn, Express bibliography
guesses from ( writing as a News) followed by a
dictionaries, process) theme-based group
sensitizing. For Teacher’s discussion and
homework feedback may listening task,
students will be also be form Predicting by watching
given passages focused as a movie clip without
for reading some of the sound
followed by learners may
exercises on desire form
guessing focused
meanings from feedback,
context given their
academic
backgrounds.

Third and Skimming, Free writing on Persuasive speaking Seminars

Fourth scanning, ‘ Life in modern activities, using non- and
Week reading for age’ (15 min) verbal factors of presentatio
understanding Descriptive communication, n activities
the relationship writing impromptu speaking,
between main ( describing an Interviews, Panel
ideas and their object,( The interviews, students
expansion, most prized will be taught how to Using
reading between possession of give an effective library and
the lines, mine) presentation, they will web
(newspapers, describing be given a home task recourses
both national and scenes of a to prepare a
international movie, movie presentation
short stories, clips which
travel brochures, students have Calling banks, mobile
annual report of seen in first phone companies’
International week will be help lines for seeking
Islamic university recycled for information
or any other this activity but
material which the focus this
students may time will be
 30

find interesting describing

will be used, scenes and
activities from characters, this
Developing activity will be
Reading Skills by followed by
Grellet ( 1981) giving students
will be used in a list of useful
class words which
they may need
in describing
people and
objects)
autobiographic
al accounts
( describing
oneself)
Narrative
writing,
Comparison
and contrast,
Argumentative
writing,
Drawing
conclusions,

Fifth Defend and Giving presentations Test-taking

Week argue a on topics negotiated techniques
position e.g with learners followed ( how to
The issue of by peer review, prepare for
Co-education individual and peer an exam,
in Pakistan, presentations will be how to
Writing arranged by students ward-off
activities will anxiety
be recycled during
into speaking exam
tasks, students preparation
will give a short etc)
talk on the
same topic
which has
already been
used in a
writing task
(students will
also maintain a
writing journal),
 31

Analysis of
academic
writing
(Hedging and
vague
language,
examples of
vague and,
over-
generalized
language will
be given to
students,
previous years’
students’
assignments
can be used
for this
purpose)

Sixth Matching Writing job Listening to lectures Time-

Week pictures with application, e- followed by speaking manageme
text , Speed mail, Resume, activity nt skills
reading activities Sending E-
from Developing cards, Formal
Reading Skills by and informal
Grellet letters,
summarizing
and
paraphrasing
text

Seventh Activities focused Creative and Delivering a short talk Summative

and at improving critical writing ordering and assessment
Eighth vocabulary activities sequencing of study
week through reading (writing a story information, the mini- skills
with focus on on a lead) research project (Students
most useful Writing picture activity which was will be
vocabulary first , story, writing used in writing class asked to
introducing about will be recycled into a write brief
learners to emotions, speaking activity answers to
figurative feelings etc) where students will questions,
language writing a share their findings the time
through reading critique of a with their peers in the duration of
texts newspaper form of a class this test will
 32

( diverse material article, writing presentation be an hour,

will be used a book review. some of the
which may Students will study skills
include travel be given a such as
accounts, mini-research research
biographical project for and
accounts, movie instance referencing
reviews, recipes, Problems skills, etc
book reviews faced by will be
etc) students living tested
in Hostel, they through
will interview tasks
students and designed
share their for
findings in the assessing
form of a report writing skill)

Questioning the Writing

author activities assignments,
as suggested by Analyzing a
Beck, McKeown, writing text for
Hamilton and tone, mood
Kucan
(1997)newspape NOTE: Writing
rs editorials and portfolios of all
passages from students will be
books will be maintained
used for this
activity
READING WRITING LISTENING/SPEAKIN
ASSESSMENT ASSESSMEN G ASSESSMENT
T
 33

APPENDIX 4

ASSESSMENT GRID
SKILL: WRITING

Organisation

A Organisational skills and development of ideas clearly visible

throughout the assignment, flow of ideas fluent and properly
sequenced
B Organisational skills visible though loosely organized, main
ideas 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.

Content
A 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 irrelevant
information which limits the development of ideas at some
places
C Limited knowledge of subject, major gaps in relevance and
development of ideas
D Bears no resemblance to the assigned topic, redundant and
shows 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 range
of references, some evidence of research
C Inadequate critical analysis, very few references, very little
evidence of research
 34

D No critical analysis, only descriptive, no or minimal evidence of

research

GRAMMAR
A Very few grammatical inaccuracies, effective complex
constructions sustained throughout the assignment

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 with

sentence construction running through the whole assignment

VOCABULARY

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 words

and register

C Limited range of vocabulary, frequent errors of word choice and

register

D Vocabulary inadequate, little or no knowledge of word form and

using the right words, inappropriate use of register through out the
assignment

Some features adapted from Jacob’s et al.’s (1981) scoring profile and TEEP writing
scales ( Weir, 1990) cited in Weigle (2002) pp.116-117)

A=Excellent B=Good C=Unsatisfactory D=Fail

 35

APPENDIX 5

COURSE EVALUATION QUESTIONAIRRE

1. Do you think the course achieved its objectives?

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

 36

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANDERSON, N.2003. Reading. In NUNAN.D.ed. Practical English Language

Teaching. International Edition: McGrawHill.pp.67-86

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
 37

JORDAN, R. 1997. English for Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

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