Educational Change Amongst English Language College Teachers in China: Transitioning from Teaching for General to Academic Purposes

157 Pages·2020·2.644 MB·

by  Yulong Li

Yulong Li
Educational
Change Amongst
English Language
College Teachers in
China
Transitioning from Teaching for General
to Academic Purposes
Educational Change Amongst English Language
College Teachers in China
Yulong Li
Educational Change
Amongst English Language
College Teachers in China
Transitioning from Teaching for General
to Academic Purposes
YulongLi
Faculty of Humanities andSocial Sciences
City University of Macau
MacauSAR, China
ISBN978-981-15-3052-4 ISBN978-981-15-3053-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3053-1
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Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 An EAP Reform Coming to China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 EAP and EAP Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 The Concept of EAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Redefinition of EAP as Multiple Literacies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1 Under Traditionalism: Language as a System
and EAP as Academic Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.2 Under Progressivism: Language as Discourse
and EAP as Disciplinary Cultural Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.3 Under Criticalism: Language as Ideology
and EAP as Critical Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.4 Under Digitalism: New Meanings of Language
and EAP as Digital Literacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 EAP Teacher Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4 Research Rationales and Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Philosophical Paradigms: Interpretivisim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.1 Ethnography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.2 Phenomenology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.3 Phenomenological Ethnography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 Fieldwork Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.4.1 Participant and Non-participant Observations. . . . . . . . . . 31
3.4.2 Ethnographic and Phenomenological Interviews. . . . . . . . 32
v
vi Contents
3.4.3 Researcher as Tool: Etic and Emic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.4.4 Documentary Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.5 Positionality and Reflexivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.6 Plan for Data Analysis and Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.6.1 Thick Description: The First Layer of Data. . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.6.2 Multiple Case Studies: The Second Layer of Data. . . . . . 38
3.7 Trustworthiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.8 Generalisability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.9 Ethical Concerns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Thick Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.1 Field Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.2 Positionality of the Author as a Researcher Entering
the Field: Summary of Field Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 Case Study 1: Fielding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3.1 Life History of Fielding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3.2 Getting to Know Fielding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4 Case Study 2: Lisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4.1 Life History of Lisa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4.2 From Knowing to Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.4.3 EAP Is a Logic and “Disguised” Language for Doing
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.4.4 Lisa’s Perspective on the Distinction Between EAP
and EGP and the Shanghai EAP Reform. . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.4.5 Giving Prescriptive Discursive Samples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.4.6 Inserted Humanity into EAP Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.4.7 Empowering Students and Helping Them Make Their
Voices Heard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.4.8 Locating Problems in EAP Reform and Teaching . . . . . . 77
4.5 Case Study 3: Bluewitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.5.1 Life History of Bluewitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.5.2 My Interaction with Bluewitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.5.3 The Uniqueness of Bluewitch’s EAP Theory. . . . . . . . . . 85
4.5.4 What Does Bluewitch Think About the EAP Reform
and the EAP Courses Offered at Other Similar
Universities? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.5.5 The Features of Bluewitch’s EAP Course . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.6 Case Study 4: Rui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.6.1 Life History of Rui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.6.2 My Two Years of Contact with Rui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Contents vii
4.6.3 Rui’s Understanding of EAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.6.4 The Difference Between EGP and EAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.6.5 Rui’s Opinion on Shanghai EAP Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.6.6 Using the Classics to Enlighten Students’ Thinking . . . . . 103
4.6.7 Using Emotion to Teach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.6.8 The Influence of Rui’s Background on Her EAP
Teaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2 How Do the Teachers in a Pedagogical Transition from EGP
Formulate Their Epistemology of EAP?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2.1 Knowledge of EAP Is from the Teachers’ Eclectic
Theories and Experiences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.2.2 The Overlap Between the Teachers’ EAP Knowledge
and Current Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.2.3 Teachers’ Perception of Difference Between
EGP and EAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.3 HowDoestheTransitionfromTeachingEGPtoEAPInfluence
the Teachers’ Career as College English Teachers?. . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.3.1 The Transition from EGP to EAP Fulfils the Teachers’
Education Ideals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.3.2 EGP–EAP Transition as Teachers’ Self-growth . . . . . . . . 117
5.3.3 EAP Helped Teachers Boycott Career Crisis . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.3.4 EAP Stimulates Teachers to Become Researchers with
Visions of Home and Abroad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.4 How Do the Teachers Perceive the Challenges and
Opportunities Posed by the Shanghai EAP Reform? . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.4.1 “Teachers Are not Ready” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.4.2 Challenges Arising from Limited Resources . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.4.3 Potential Gaps for Chinese Students to Study EAP . . . . . 122
5.4.4 Problems with the Shanghai EAP Reform Policy
from Teachers’ Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6 Implications and Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.2 Implications for EAP Theory Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.3 Implication for Improving EAP Teachers’ Professionalism . . . . . 137
6.4 Implications for Updates to the Shanghai EAP
Language Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
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6.5 Implications for Preparing Students for Learning EAP . . . . . . . . 139
6.6 Implications for How to Optimise the EAP Pedagogy. . . . . . . . . 141
6.7 Implications for Coordinating Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.8 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.8.1 Recap and Significance of the Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.8.2 Limitations and Future Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Abbreviations
BA Bachelor of Arts
BALEAP British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes
BBS Bulletin Board System
CECR College English Curriculum Requirements
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CET College English Teaching
CET-4 College English Test Band 4
CET-6 College English Test Band 6
CETs College English Teachers
CFTEAP Competency Framework for Teachers of English for Academic
Purposes
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
CV Curriculum Vitae
DC The Capital of America
EAP English for Academic Purposes
EdUHK The Education University of Hong Kong
EFL English as a Foreign Language
EGP English for General Purposes
EGAP English for General Academic Purposes
ELT English Language Teaching
EOP English for Occupational Purposes
ESP English for Specific Purposes
ESAP English for Specific Academic Purposes
Gaokao The National College Entrance Exams in China
GCET Guidelines on College English Teaching
HKIED The Hong Kong Institute of Education
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IELTS International English Language Testing System
MA Master of Arts
MOOC Massive Open Online Courses
ix
x Abbreviations
PBL Project/Problem-Based Learning
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
QQ A social media software in China
RenRen A social media website in China
SFL Systematic Functional Linguistics
SPU Student Processing Unit
TBLT Task-Based Language Teaching
TED Technology, Entertainment, and Design Talks
TEM-8 Test for English Majors Band 8
TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
UK The United Kingdom
US/USA The United States of America
WeChat A social media mobile phone apparatus in China
WID Writing in Discipline