Will Baker

Learning strategies in reading and writing: EAP contexts

Presently, the importance of culture and context is becoming a significant feature of research in the field of learning strategies. To date, there has been little research into learning strategies utilized for reading and writing in Asian EAP (English for Academic Purposes) contexts, and in particular in the Thai context. With this in mind, this research investigated learning strategies employed by undergraduate students at a Thai university studying EAP reading and writing courses. The research aimed to identify the most frequently used strategies and different strategy use between ‘successful’ and ‘less successful’ learners. Learning strategies were classified following Oxford’s (1990) six category taxonomy and an additional category of negative strategies. The results revealed metacognitive, cognitive and compensation as the most frequently used strategies overall. Differences in strategy use for successful and less successful readers and writers were also demonstrated. A number of affective and social strategies were identified in the quantitative analysis which needed further investigation. Furthermore, various strategies investigated in earlier learner strategy research seemed, based on this research, to be culturally inappropriate in the Thai context.

Intercultural awareness: modelling an understanding of cultures in intercultural communication through English as a lingua franca

Abstract The use of English as a global lingua franca (ELF) raises challenges concerning how we understand the relationship between languages and cultures in intercultural communication. In the dynamic contexts of ELF this relationship needs to be viewed as situated and emergent entailing a new approach to understanding intercultural competence in intercultural communication. This paper offers the concept of intercultural awareness as a model of the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to communicate through English in diverse global contexts. Data will be presented illustrating how different elements of the model can be utilised in understanding intercultural communication through English.

Research into Practice: Cultural and Intercultural Awareness.

This article examines the role of cultural awareness (CA) and intercultural awareness (ICA) in classroom theory and practice. CA and ICA can be roughly characterised as an awareness of the role of culture in communication with CA focused on national cultures and ICA on more dynamic and flexible relationships between languages and cultures. There will be a consideration of findings from CA and ICA research that have not been well applied, those that have been well applied and those that have been over-applied to classrooms. In particular, it will be argued that CA and ICA are more prevalent in pedagogic theory, and to a lesser extent policy, than they are in practice. While the cultural dimension to language learning is now fairly mainstream, where elements of CA and ICA are applied or translated into the classroom they typically take the form of comparisons between national cultures, often in essentialist forms. There is still little evidence of classroom practice that relates to the fluid ways cultures and languages are related in intercultural communication, especially for English as a lingua franca or other languages used on a global scale.

Culture and complexity through English as a lingua franca: rethinking competences and pedagogy in ELT

Abstract English as a lingua franca (ELF) research highlights the complexity and fluidity of culture in intercultural communication through English. ELF users draw on, construct, and move between global, national, and local orientations towards cultural characterisations. Thus, the relationship between language and culture is best approached as situated and emergent. However, this has challenged previous representations of culture, particularly those centred predominantly on nation states, which are prevalent in English language teaching (ELT) practices and the associated conceptions of communicative and intercultural communicative competence. Two key questions which are then brought to the fore are: how are we to best understand such multifarious characterisations of culture in intercultural communication through ELF and what implications, if any, does this have for ELT and the teaching of culture in language teaching? In relation to the first question, this paper will discuss how complexity theory offers a framework for understanding culture as a constantly changing but nonetheless meaningful category in ELF research, whilst avoiding essentialism and reductionism. This underpins the response to the second question, whereby any formulations of intercultural competence offered as an aim in language pedagogy must also eschew these simplistic and essentialist cultural characterisations. Furthermore, the manner of simplification prevalent in approaches to culture in the ELT language classroom will be critically questioned. It will be argued that such simplification easily leads into essentialist representations of language and culture in ELT and an over representation of “Anglophone cultures.” The paper will conclude with a number of suggestions and examples for how such complex understandings of culture and language through ELF can be meaningfully incorporated into pedagogic practice.

Global Cultures and Identities: Refocusing the Aims of ELT in Asia through Intercultural Awareness

English is used in Asia as a vehicle of communication for knowledge, economics, cultures, and identities; as a first language, second language, and lingua franca; and at local, national, regional, and global levels. This deep embedding of English in the region suggests that English should be treated as an Asian language in its own right (Kachru, 2005) and the norms decided locally. However, this has not been the case. Much control over the English language, at least in terms of codification, acceptance of varieties, and prestige, still rests with those countries associated with Kachru’s (2005: 14) “Inner Circle” (i.e. North America, the UK, and Australia). This is particularly the case in English language teaching (ELT), where Inner Circle regions dominate in the production of teaching materials, methodology, expertise, and most significantly, in providing the models and norms that are taught.

English and more: a multisite study of roles and conceptualisations of language in English medium multilingual universities from Europe to Asia

ABSTRACT The rapid increase in English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has resulted in the need for a greater evidence base documenting EMI in practice spanning a range of settings. Studies of EMI focusing on linguistic issues are beginning to emerge but there are few comparative studies looking at multiple sites, levels and stakeholders. In response to this, the study reported here examined the roles of and conceptualisations of English and other languages in three EMI programmes in Thailand, Austria and the UK. A mixed-methods approach was adopted making use of a student questionnaire (N = 121) and interviews (N = 12) with lecturers and students, supported by documentary analysis and observations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed diverse roles of English and other languages, various levels of recognition of multilingualism, and a sophisticated range of conceptualisations of language by stakeholders. In particular, English as discipline-specific language use emerged as a key concept, straddling language and content learning and teaching, as well as problematising simplistic divides between language and content. Furthermore, the complex understanding of the diverse roles of languages by participants offers a counter to perspectives of English in EMI as an unambiguous, monolithic entity.

Mastering the online Master’s: developing and delivering an online MA in English language teaching through a dialogic-based framework

With an ever increasing array of technologies offering potential for the delivery of educational e-content and support of online communication and interaction, distance learning has an opportunity to make the transition to authentic online learning and teaching as never before. However, it seems that institutions are only slowly exploiting this opportunity, particularly in the field of language teacher training. This article presents a reflective case study of a course which attempted to translate many of the features of a successful face-to-face (f2f) programme for an e-learning medium. A key element of the course was an activity-based framework based on a dialogic learning approach which aimed to retain the interactive features of f2f learning. Data will be drawn from development, delivery and evaluation of the course illustrating the manner in which the online environment was fully exploited to create an e-learning community with a range of learning opportunities.

English as an academic lingua franca and intercultural awareness: student mobility in the transcultural university

ABSTRACT The increasingly international orientation of many higher education (HE) institutes and the growing role of English as an academic lingua franca have far-reaching implications for how we conceptualise universities and student mobility. In this paper, it is argued that the complexity and diversity of languages, communities and cultures present in many HE institutes mean we can no longer assume a connection between the language of instruction, a local host community and a national culture and language. This is particularly the case in English medium instruction programmes outside of Anglophones settings but also in international universities in Anglophone settings, both of which will be the focus of this paper. The term transcultural university is adopted to reflect this complexity and to move beyond nation-based conceptions of universities. In educating students for mobility in such environments, it is suggested that pedagogy needs to go beyond essentialist language, culture and nation correlations. Intercultural awareness is proposed as a crucial element in preparing students to negotiate the diversity and fluidity of communicative practices in transcultural universities in which mobile students need equally mobile communicative resources.

English as a Global Lingua Franca: Lingua Frankensteinia or Intercultural Opportunity?

The global spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF) can be viewed as providing an unprecedented opportunity for intercultural exchange. However, there have been concerns that the dominance of English may result in linguistic and cultural ‘imperialism’ by the Anglophone settings from which the language originates. Yet the empirical evidence demonstrates a de-centering of English and a shift in ownership of the language away from its Anglophone origins toward the majority of additional or second language (L2) users. Studies of ELF reveal adaptable and fluid uses of English enabling it to function as a powerful medium for intercultural interaction. This has major implications for language education and educational exchanges, which have yet to be taken up in practice.

‘A more inclusive mind towards the world’: English language teaching and study abroad in China from intercultural citizenship and English as a lingua franca perspectives:

With the status of English as a global lingua franca (ELF), English is no longer the sole property of its Anglophone native English speakers (NES) problematizing the current dominance of Anglophone cultures and NES in the field of English language teaching (ELT). The notion of intercultural citizenship education offers a critical alternative model in language education. To investigate how ELF, intercultural approaches and the concept of intercultural citizenship might be integrated within the field of ELT, a study was conducted in a university located in southeast China. Due to the large number of ELT learners and high degree of student mobility in China these are issues of much relevance in this setting. The research collected qualitative data through face-to-face interviews, email interviews and focus groups with students on study abroad programmes who have both ELT and first-hand intercultural experiences. Many students spoke positively about aspects of intercultural citizenship, but classroom instruction offered only limited channels for students to experience and understand intercultural communication and citizenship. In contrast, most of their understanding and experiences were gained outside the classroom during study abroad. Furthermore, many students spoke about the importance of English in their development of intercultural connections and citizenship. We conclude that more in-depth and critical approaches to teaching language, culture and intercultural communication in ELT are needed which foster and cultivate students’ sense of intercultural citizenship.