This document discusses the evolving identity of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs from a "crisis of identity" to establishing legitimacy and collaboration with academic departments. It describes how the EAP program at Durham University shifted from being seen primarily as language instruction to being viewed as academic work, through professional development activities that increased engagement with academic scholarship. This transition benefited students by providing a more integrated preparation for academic study and a better understanding of academic practices.

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

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

3. 1| A CRISIS OF IDENTITY

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

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. 2| MISTAKEN IDENTITIES

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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?

11. 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)

12. 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?

13. 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?

14. 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?

15. 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?

16. Evolution of thinking and practice at Durham…

17. 3| EMERGING PLAUSIBILITY

18. Tipping Point / crystallising notion:
EAP as academic work

19. EAP as Language Work EAP as Academic Work

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

21. 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)

22. from:
language
academic work
work

23. to:
academic work
language
work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

31. 4| TOWARDS A THIRD SPACE FOR
LANGUAGE TEACHING

32. Curriculum Renewal:
(EAP as academic literacy…)

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

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

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

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

37. 5| SUMMARY INSIGHTS & QUESTIONS

38. 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 !

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

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

41. 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?

42. 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?)

43. thank you

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

46. 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/