SESSION 4E

Marcella Robertson
Teaching EAP: Issues and Challenges for teachers and course writers

Abstract
Concerns among both EAP teachers and course writers, such as how to develop successful academic readers and writers, including the teaching of summarising and paraphrasing, how to give effective feedback, and how to address students’ discipline-specific needs seem to be recurring topics for discussion.    This workshop will present common concerns often expressed by EAP teachers and course writers, and will then provide opportunities for participants to share their strategies and any other challenges they have.   This will be followed by a Panel Discussion among practising EAP teachers, who will share their own experiences in this regard.  The workshop will conclude by presenting ideas from a range of writers to enhance best practice and to address common challenges.

Bio
Marcella Robertson works in the University of Sydney Centre for English Teaching in Graduate Programs.  As part of this role, she is the Unit of Study Coordinator of the undergraduate TESOL methodology courses ‘Teaching English Internationally’. In addition to coordinating and developing the curriculum for these courses, she recently developed an additional course ‘Teaching English for Academic Purposes’, filling in a gap in EAP-specific training.  In developing this course, she came to recognise current good EAP practice, but also issues and challenges faced by EAP teachers.  The EAP course she developed aims to share good EAP practice and to reflect on how it can be adopted in teachers’ own contexts.