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EAP practitioners: foxes or hedgehogs?

This article discusses the roles of EAP practitioners as hedgehogs or foxes and how these roles inform academic writing workshops. It also explores the interaction of these approaches with learner motivation.

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EAP practitioners: foxes or hedgehogs?

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  1. EAP practitioners: foxes or hedgehogs? Mary Carr (mmc9@st-andrews.ac.uk)

  2. Outline • The role of the EAP practitioner: are we foxes or are we hedgehogs? • How do these roles inform two apparently quite different approaches to in-sessional academic writing workshops? • How do these different approaches interact with learner motivation?

  3. “The fox knows many things… …but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” (Archilochus)

  4. The EAP fox knows many things: language + content (economics/music/chemistry/philosophy)

  5. Sees content as the prior knowledge (without which language is irrelevant)

  6. Focuses on language in subject-specific contexts; essentially an ESAP approach

  7. The EAP hedgehog knows one big thing: language (discourse/text analysis)

  8. Sees language as the prior knowledge (without which content knowledge is useless/impossible to obtain)

  9. Strong focus on the transferability of language skills from one context to another

  10. Essentially, an EGAP approach.

  11. Possible reasons for decline in numbers • Poor teaching • Material not of perceived relevance • Lack of motivation • Competing time pressures The classes are really useful! However, the last few weeks the attendance of students is limited. I really appreciate Mrs Mary Kar and her fantastic way of teaching,  so I would like to inform you that it is very difficult especially for the postgraduate students to follow all the classes as we don’t have free time at all!In other words, it is the fear of the deadlines and not the quality of teaching the reason of low attendance!

  12. EC5901 International Finance Writing workshop 1 Tutor: Mary Carr (iels@st-andrews.ac.uk)

  13. Task Prepare a briefing for the ECB President addressing the following questions: • Critically assess the prospects for introduction of a common currency in the GCC Member States. • Discuss the feasibility and potential benefits of this currency union. • Will this be an optimal currency area? • What lessons can the GCC Member States learn from the European experience?

  14. EC5901 International Finance

  15. SD5001 Extended Essay Tutor: Mary Carr (iels@st-andrews.ac.uk)

  16. Task Critically evaluate the viability of any given infrastructural project from an environmental, social, and economic standpoint.

  17. SD5001 Extended Essay

  18. Active, engaged participation

  19. Dörnyei: Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs) • “There are specific periods when we seem to find ourselves in a particularly intensive state of focused productivity which allows us to achieve a great deal, often much more than we would have believed possible at the outset.” • “A DMC is an intense motivational pathway which occurs when a variety of time- and context-related factors come together in an individual to prompt a firm decision to pursue a goal/vision which is considered personally significant, highly relevant to one’s desired identity and emotionally satisfying.” (Dörnyei, 2015)

  20. Four key dimensions to DMCs (Dörnyei, 2015) • Goal/vision-orientedness • Triggering factor and launch • A facilitative structure • Positive emotionality

  21. EAP practitioners: Hedgefoxes

  22. Questions • Are you a hedgehog or a fox? • Are you perceived by your students/ by colleagues in the academic community as a hedgehog or a fox? 3. Do you have any questions for me?

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