EAP (A 3) Adults

Sophie's EAP class

This is a 90 minute English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class focusing on giving academic presentations. The students are L1 speakers of Mandarin Chinese and the setting is in the UK.The students are enrolled on an intensive pre-sessional course with about 30 contact hours per week, which lasts about 10 weeks.  The course aims to prepare students for university study in the UK. In order to attend students must have a minimum IELTS score of 5.5 and students hope to pass language exams corresponding to IELTS score 6.5 at the end of the ten-week course. The lesson was recorded in week 5 of the course.

Notes:

This language course is high-stakes for the students involved as for most of them gaining a sufficient score on the final exam is a condition of entry to their chosen degree programmes.

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TEACHER EDUCATION TASK
1) Praise ‘em

Aim: to reflect on the effects of teacher praise on student engagement

Sequence:

 

• What types of praise can be used in classroom?

 

• Teacher praise can occur as the final stage in the “initiation-response-feedback/evaluation” sequence typical of many classroom interactions. At which other points in classroom discourse might teacher praise occur?

 

• What is the effect of praise? What is the effect of excessive praise? What is the effect of too little praise?

 

Now observe the first 30 minutes of the classroom. Identify all instances of praise by the teacher and classify them. Fill in the grid below!

 

• Compare your answers with another student.

 

• Consider the different types of praise in relation to the evaluation of the student’s statement as acceptable – expected – correct but incomplete – perfect.

 

• How does Sophie’s practice of praising students compare with your own? How often and in what way do you praise students in your lessons?

 

Thanks go to Marukh Shakir (MA Student 2012-13) for developing this task

The teacher's views

Listen to Sophie talk about her EAP class.

Video on Vimeo