Category EAP
Improve writing with confidence (using a model and the mark scheme)
In this activity, students “marked” a ChatGPT-generated text in order to become familiar with the mark scheme. As they had already tried the task, they noticed differences between this text and their own. (Spoiler: the text was grammatically sound and fairly well organised, but not amazing in terms of the organisation required by this particular […]
Features of Academic English: a poster.
As I see it, one of the most important aspects of my role is to teach academic English. Of course, all subject teachers are teachers of academic English too, but I’m aware that they are sometimes unsure about this part of their role. To make a neat little list of structural (pink) and lexical (blue) […]
EAP Resources
Lizzie Pinard has a list of her top 10+ EAP Resources BALEAP’s list of EAP-related sites How to read and understand a scientific paper from Jennifer Raff’s blog, Violent Metaphors. Watch Jennifer MacDonald’s Getting Discipline Specific in the EGAP Classroom presentation from the BALEAP 2015 conference. Tyson Seburn’s Academic Reading Circles. Buy the book here. Visual Metaphors […]
Academic texts – “Explain” tasks
This lesson came about because a Y10 student had asked me how best to write their ideas for a 6-mark extended response question in Chemistry. This sort of task presents a challenge for EAL students who may know the content well, but can lose marks due to their language. Students should be aware that they […]
All teachers are teachers of Academic English
I was lucky enough to secure a slot during a teachers’ meeting last week. Unfortunately it was just before an announcement giving details of a radical change to our timetable, so I know there were some anxious minds in the room. The main points I made were as follows: We all speak two Englishes – […]
Adapting Academic Reading Circles for a short pre-sessional course
This has been Week 2, or the first full week (minus the bank holiday) of the pre-sessional course. The students have been learning about thesis statements and how to organise their ideas in their essays, what it means to participate in a seminar, how to get the most out of a lecture, and they’ve done a timed essay. […]
Teaching English For Academic Purposes: my first experience
For the last week I’ve been in delightfully dinky Durham. Three days were spent on a super well-organised and enjoyable induction course for the university’s PARSE (Preparatory Academic Research Skills and English) programme, after which I met my students, helped them get orientated and taught their first classes. EAP is something new for me and the […]
A Hive of Activities 