PLAUSIBILITY, POWER & PROGRESS
enhancing student language learning through
professional collaboration
Chris Macallister | Steve Kirk
Durham University English Language Centre

OVERVIEW
1. A Crisis of Identity
2. Mistaken Identities
3. Emerging Plausibility
4. A Third Space for ‘Language Teaching’
5. Summary Insights & Questions

1| A CRISIS OF IDENTITY

EAP Unit Identity: what are we for?
• Language teaching
• Academic literacy
• Education studies
• Service provider
• Research

Where does The Academy want to put us?
Different homes around the country demonstrate
our ‘crisis of identity’…
• A Central Department (King’s College London and Bristol)
• Part of the International Office (Cardiff)
• Within a school of Education (Nottingham)

Where does The Academy want to put us?
Different homes around the country demonstrate
our ‘crisis of identity’…
• Within the Arts and Humanities Faculty (Durham)
• Integrated with a Modern Languages Centre (Glasgow and
Northumbria)
• Outsourced completely to a private provider (Newcastle)

2| MISTAKEN IDENTITIES

Mistaken Identities I: from one Extreme…
1 TEFL approach: EAP only as language practice
The false universalism of CLT:
academic content reduced to a carrier vehicle;
language largely seen as a global practice

Mistaken Identities I: from one Extreme…
1 TEFL approach: EAP only as language practice
Problems:
• Inter-knowingness and Ignorance
• Power structures and barriers
• A deficient student language learning experience

Mistaken Identities II: to another Extreme
2 Approach of teaching language only as academic content
(metalinguistic lectures)
Problems:
• A misdirected student language learning experience –
our students are not students of linguistics!
• professional image management –
the EAP tutor masquerading as a lecturer?

Mistaken Identities III: Fragmentation
3 The EAP centre as a ‘diaspora’ unit: each department
is given its own in-house language teacher(s)
Similar to CLIL (Coyle et al 2010), and some
Critical EAP approaches (Benesch 2001)

Mistaken Identities III: Fragmentation
3 The EAP centre as a ‘diaspora’ unit: each department
is given its own in-house language teacher(s)
Problem: a lack of a central identity and pedagogical vision
• A potentially inconsistent student language learning
experience
• Professional image management –
the EAP centre as a supplier of EAP tutors:
Why not outsource at this point?

Mistaken Identities III: Fragmentation
3 The EAP centre as a ‘diaspora’ unit: each department
is given its own in-house language teacher(s)
Problem: a lack of a central identity and pedagogical vision
• How do you achieve language curriculum renewal &
inter-knowingness?

Mistaken Identities IV: Activism
4 CEAP – EAP as a pedagogy of liberation (Benesch 2001)
Mistaken view of ‘empowerment’…
Legitimacy –
do the departments or students actually want this?

Mistaken Identities IV: Activism
4 CEAP – EAP as a pedagogy of liberation (Benesch 2001)
Problems:
• A potentially inconsistent student language learning
experience
• professional image management – the EAP tutor as
‘political officer’ and unofficial student representative?
• A head on clash with power structures?

Evolution of thinking and practice at Durham…

3| EMERGING PLAUSIBILITY

Tipping Point / crystallising notion:
EAP as academic work

EAP as Language Work EAP as Academic Work

EAP as Language Work EAP as Academic Work
Grammatical Accuracy
Vocabulary Choice
Spoken Fluency
Pronunciation & Intelligibility
(etc)

EAP as Language Work EAP as Academic Work
Grammatical Accuracy Understanding the Practices of the Academy
Vocabulary Choice Disciplinary Differences
Spoken Fluency Writing and Speaking for Content Learning
Pronunciation & Intelligibility Integration and Synthesis of Reading
(etc) (etc)

from:
language
academic work
work

to:
academic work
language
work

Shift in Professional Identity (i):
More legitimacy at Durham
Greater sense of ability to contribute
Discoursal shift  Plausibility

Shift in Professional Identity (ii):
Engagement in Scholarship
Legitimate (peripheral?) Participation
Research Activity & Researcher Learning

Shift in Professional Identity (iii):
Increasingly shared set of values and principles
underlying our practice

We’re beginning to think we know who we are (!)
And this is helping us to:
Forge connections
Create collaborations

Strategy:
Waving the flag: presenting at every opportunity
Getting a good rep: in every Durham department
Watching our language: talking for academics

Results:
Doctoral training sessions
Admissions training
Geography Induction Course for UGs
Committee representation

Results:
Visibility Raising
Increased Plausibility
Positive Feedback
Reinforcing of emerging identity

4| TOWARDS A THIRD SPACE FOR
LANGUAGE TEACHING

Curriculum Renewal:
(EAP as academic literacy…)

Curriculum Renewal:
E.g.
Writing & Speaking:
now always emerge out of (academic) reading
Content matters. Cognitive challenge matters.

Curriculum Renewal:
E.g.
Language work as
the surface reflection of academic work
e.g. the passive…

Curriculum Renewal:
Teaching the why…
Genuine dialogic space between:
language work & academic work
student acculturation & empowerment

Student Learning:
Better preparation for Durham:
Academy-invested sense of language work
More realistic management of expectations
Demystification of the road ahead

5| SUMMARY INSIGHTS & QUESTIONS

Impacts of Being in a Third Space:
Students are being increasingly better prepared
Teaching materials are evolving in this new space
We’re sitting at the table, not (we hope) on the menu !

Impacts of Being in a Third Space:
We’re sitting at the table: E.g.
IT skills audit project
Employability Skills
Lecturer Training

Summary Insights:
Theorisation of Practice. Practicalisation of Theory
‘Epistemic Artefacts’ for change
Dialogue. Collaboration. ‘With’ not ‘for’.

Questions for MFL:
What is the relationship (& dialogue) btwn lang. teachers & academics?
Do lecturers teach language? Do lang. teachers engage in scholarship?
How far does content matter?
Does it change who you are as a teacher?
Who your students are…
and what they (should be) do(ing) with language?
To what end?

Questions for MFL:
How far do (e.g.) international offices draw on language teacher expertise
in language and culture (do they draw only on academics?)

thank you

s.e.kirk@dur.ac.uk | c.j.macallister@dur.ac.uk
(@stiiiv)

ABSTRACT + LINKS
• Inherent power structures across departments and (mutual) ignorance
are barriers to collaboration - and thus barriers to language curriculum
renewal and teaching that meets learner needs. Through a narrative
account of our own experience, we reflect in this talk on the highly
productive inter-knowingness that has emerged and evolved between
the English Language Centre and academic departments at Durham
University. We relate how professional image management and the
development of our own 'plausibility' among academic staff has led to
a change in relationship, from 'working for' to 'working with'. Most
importantly, we examine how this evolution has benefitted the student
language learning experience.
• Conference Link: http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/mlac/aulc/conference2013timetable2.pdf
• http://www.dur.ac.uk/mlac/aulc.2013/