1. Dr. Ellie Kennedy, NottinghamTrent University
BALEAPConference, April 2013

2.  Internationalised student body
 Somewhat internationalised curriculum
 Next step: work with tutors to
internationalise teaching styles in order to
take account of international students’
learning needs

3. ‘TEFL’ teaching skills have an application in HE far
beyond the EAP classroom
 Value of EAP/communicative techniques in HE
 ExIST Project – Excellence in International StudentTeaching
 Institutional Context (NTIC)
 Raising tutor awareness of IS needs
 ‘EAP’ Framework for subject tutors (FLUTE)
 Applying FLUTE to specific subjects
 Peer mentoring (tutors)
 Evaluating Project Success
 Outcomes and Next Steps

4. [F]aculty believe that the behaviors most responsible for
impeding international students’ academic success are: (a) their
lack of participation in classroom discussions, (b) their lack of
participation in debate with classmates or instructors, and (c)
their failure to ask for clarification of issues . . . that are unclear
(Tompson &Tompson, 1996).
 EAP tutors routinely employ communicative techniques to
foster student participation in class activities
 Also break down complex materials into simpler steps
 Academic subject tutors can employ these techniques
too, particularly in seminars for active discussion and debate

5. Academic research focuses on:
 International students in seminars alongside
home students (Lee 2009; Coward & Miller
2010)
 There is little on helping tutors teach
academic subjects in an international-only
environment

6. NottinghamTrent International College:
 Undergraduate and postgraduate students
 Mainly from China, Africa, Middle East
 Preparing to study at NottinghamTrent University
Students receive 2-3 terms of instruction in:
 Their academic subject (e.g. Business, Media, Art & Design)
 EAP (separated into English language classes and Study Skills)
Tutors:
 Academic subject lecturers and EAP tutors
 Permanent (full-time) and sessional
 Varying degrees of teaching qualification and experience with IS

7. Excellence in International StudentTeaching
Anecdote/observation suggested:
 Among EAP tutors, a desire for increased knowledge of
subject content
 Among subject tutors, varying degrees of
 awareness of barriers to international student
participation
 skills in lessening those barriers
 techniques to foster active participation

8. Excellence in International StudentTeaching
 Time frame: two terms
 Participation: voluntary (open to all tutors)
 Three elements:
 Introductory workshops
 Subject-specific workshops
 Peer mentoring
 Aim: bring together EAP tutors and subject tutors to
share skills and knowledge

9. Example case study for Business seminar: New Coke: A Classic Brand
Failure (Haig 2003)
Teacher’s aim: students debate the question: “was New Coke a
tactical manoeuvre or a mistake?”
‘Traditional’ approach:
 Set case study as pre-seminar reading
 Students arrive ready to engage in the debate
Workshop goals:
1. consider why this approach might not work for international
students
2. develop a more effective strategy

10. Participants worked in groups to brainstorm typical problems
faced by international students in seminars.
Compared their ideas with selection from published research:
 Linguistic inhibitions (Brown 2008)
 can’t follow the discussion
 can’t express own ideas quickly in English
 can’t always understand the seminar reading materials
 Cultural barriers to participation (Leki 2001)
 used to more passive forms of learning
 difficulty understanding instructions

11. ExIST/communicative approach
 Engagement with the case study follows a
series of steps (scaffolding) to familiarise
students with the language and content
 Critical engagement (debate) is the final step

12. Useable EAP framework for non-EAP trained
subject tutors.
Suggested steps:
Focus
Language
UnderstandingContent
ThinkingTime
Engagement

13.  Workshop Process
Introduce FLUTE framework for lesson planning
Apply FLUTE to New Coke case study
Plan effective seminar debate on the question:
“was New Coke a tactical manoeuvre or a
mistake?”
Compare with pre-prepared suggestion
Participants worked in groups of mixed subject/EAP
tutors.

14. what why
Focus Introduce main themes before
working with text
Identify/reactivate key ideas;
filter out less important ones
Language Key terms for using concepts
from the input
Identify, understand, use key
terms; map text structure
Understanding
Content
Most important things that
‘happen’ in the text
Basic understanding before
critical analysis
Thinking Time Prepare response & gather
evidence from text
Low-pressure: work with text
in academic way
Engagement Debate, discussion,
presentation, essay
Express stance and support
w. textual evidence

15. Corresponded with NTIC subject areas:
 Business
 Economics & Statistics
 Media
 Social Sciences & Law
 Art & Design
 Research Methods
 Computing

16.  Materials provided by subject tutors (e.g.
written text, video, assessment brief, lecture
slides, worksheet…)
 Subject tutors and EAP tutors worked in
groups to apply the FLUTE steps (and own
ideas)
 Goal: plan lesson to foster international
student critical engagement with seminar
materials

17. In applying FLUTE steps to materials from
own disciplines, workshop participants
started to consider pair work, group
tasks, construction of understanding
through collaboration and dialogue:
Communicative/EAP teaching by stealth?

18.  Subject tutors were paired with EAP tutors
for:
Reciprocal sharing of skills and knowledge
Keeping in contact
Helping adapt materials
Peer teaching observations
And any other relevant strategies

19. Workshop take-up
26 permanent staff (out of 31)
13 sessional tutors
Online survey to investigate:
 Tutors’ perceived awareness of international students’
specific learning needs (before and after workshops)
 Tutors’ rating of own ability to adapt materials for
international students
 Perceived effects of ExIST techniques on student
comprehension and critical engagement
Respondents: 19 EAP tutors; 9 subject tutors

20. 3.00
2.90
3.10
3.20
3.30
3.40
3.50
3.60
3.70
3.80
0
AverageResponses
Before Workshops After Workshops
Respondents’ rating
of own awareness of
international
students’ specific
learning needs
Respondents’ rating of
ability to adapt own
teaching approach for
NTIC students
Figure 1: NTIC tutors’ self-rating of their awareness of international students’
specific learning needs and ability to adapt teaching approach for NTIC students

21.  Shortly after the end of the project, half the
respondents reported an intent to try out
techniques from the workshops, and 45% had
already done so
 The latter (11 respondents) were asked
whether they had noticed any resulting
improvement in:
 student comprehension
 critical engagement

22. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Improved student
comprehension
Improved critical
engagement
not at all
somewhat
significantly
Figure 3: perceived improvements in student comprehension and critical
engagement when techniques from workshops were employed

23.  Bank of lesson plans/adapted materials from
subject-specific workshops
 Cross-curricular working relationships
 Tutors report increased confidence in ability
to adapt teaching for international students
 Tutors report improved student
comprehension and engagement

24.  Scaling up to larger groups
 less successful with a class of 35?
 Apply to more subjects
 sciences?
 Transfer to university setting with home and
international students
 useful for seminars and tutorials
 link to internationalisation agenda
 ‘interactive teaching styles’ benefit all

25. ‘EAP-style’ approaches which can help subject tutors
teach (international) students more effectively:
 consider barriers to student participation
 make language and content more accessible in
order to promote critical engagement
 incorporate structured ‘thinking’ activities
 employ ‘communicative’ tasks involving
pair/group work

26. Internationalise teaching styles to take account
of international students’ learning needs
 can apply for all students, whatever their
cultural background and language ability
Academic staff appreciate sharing skills and
knowledge across disciplines

27. Brown, L. 2008. Language and anxiety:An ethnographic study of
international postgraduate students. Evaluation and Research in
Education, 21(2), 75–95.
Coward, F.L. & Miller, P.C. 2010. Navigating the Graduate Seminar
Discussion:A QualitativeAnalysis of International Students’ Experiences.
InternationalJournal of Communication 4.
http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/780/472
Lee, G. 2009. Speaking up: Six Korean students’ oral participation in class
discussions in US graduate seminars. English for Specific Purposes. 28
(3), 142-156.
Leki, I. 2001.A narrow thinking system: Nonnative-English speaking
students in group projects across the curriculum. TESOL
Quarterly, 35, 39–67.
Tompson, H. B., &Tompson,G. H. 1996.Confronting diversity issues in the
classroom with strategies to improve satisfaction and retention of
international students. Journal of Education for Business, 72, 53–57.