Learning to Learn & Teach EFL

What does AfL mean in EAP? This may be a prerequisite question to be addressed. Usually, subject learning emphasizes that deep learning which relates to understanding and construction of meanings is more desirable than surface learning which concerns rotation and memorization. But learning a (foreign) language is different from learning a subject. Language is more like a tool and the students are expected to be able to utilize the language tool smoothly. A student can understand the grammar and vocabulary well, but it does not necessarily mean that the student can use the language to communicate successfully. To be able to be a fluent communicator in a foreign language, the student needs to practice the language skills to such an extent that he/she is so familiar with the language that he/she can automatically and simultaneously understand or produce meaningful utterances during the communication process. In this case, deep understanding or construction of meanings which are vital in subject learning may not apply to ESL /EFL learning.

But EAP may be also different from ESL/EFL because EAP involves academic skills and conventions related to specific subject. According to my own experiences and feelings in EAP courses, there indeed are many things and skills to learn, such as the structure of essay writing / presentation, the process of essay writing, cooperation with other students, participation in discussion, taking notes, etc. Language is important but not the only or the most important component in EAP; or shall I say that language is a prerequisite for EAP at university level? For any EAP students of the university level, they are assumed to have already had adequate English language skills and proficiency so maybe language proficiency is not the No1 target of university level EAP course. If EAP includes learning content other than language proficiency skills, then will the EAP involves deep learning? Or the total concept of deep / surface learning doesn’t apply to ESL / EAP. I should see learning and AfL from a broader and different viewpoint. Understanding or construction of meanings is only part of the story about learning. As Pauline Rea-Dickens mentioned in her seminar, we can also see the evidence of learning “when a learner

²        is able to extend a concept

²        is able to relate the activity to own experience

²        uses ‘processes’ in a different context

²        is able to ‘focus attention’

²        provides evidence of engagement and ‘persistence on a task’

²        self- or peer assesses

²        is able to take ownership of and shapes an activity

²        is able to analyse an aspect of what it is they are learning (content of language)

²        is able to clarify or confirm an aspect of what it is they are learning (content or language)”

My tasks:

1.       Read more literature on university-level EAP: its purposes, features, content;

2.       Identify the differences and commonness between EAP and L2 and subject learning;

3.       Identify the areas where HKU’s EAP students are aimed to improve their learning;

4.       Explore the research focuses and study plan.

Today I studied for about 4 hours besides taking 3 hours’ course. But I am not very satisfied with my work efficiency. All the four hours were spent on reading articles. I planned to complete a draft of the methodology by last weekend but I didn’t make it. In the past couple of weeks, I think that I worked harder than before but I didn’t see much progress in my research. I formally started the pilot study recently. I gave the consent forms to 2 teachers and their students last week and will give to a third teacher tomorrow. I told the students that they had one week’s time (or even more because of the Easter holiday) to make the decision. All the three teachers are very generous and supportive to my study. But I am a little bit worried whether their students will be interested in participating in my study.

I don’t have a clear orientation now. I seem to be confused by so many urgent and important tasks in front of me:

- Reading more literature to shape my research focus. I become confused again why I would do the research? Why based at HK’s universities (even HKU only) instead of in the mainland of China? Should I include everything of formative assessment, such as teacher-student question-and-answer interaction, feedback, student self evaluation? Or is it too broad and I should limit myself to a specific aspect of formative assessment?

- Research design. Because of the unclear research focus, I also have problem in deciding the research design. Shall I conduct video-stimulated retrospective interview? Shall I also interview the students’ academic teachers for their perspectives on the students’ English development? Shall I focus on a couple of disciplines’ English courses or shall I include as many as possible?

- Improving my qualitative research skills. I absolutely need to improve my skills in classroom observation and interviews. I also need to be more hardworking, e.g. writing summaries immediately after the interviews or observation; transcribing the important data immediately.

I suppose that all the confusions and struggles are part of the learning processes. If at the end of the four years’ study I go through all these successfully, I may also acquire some necessary skills of doing research. That is one of the important purposes of my doing this study.

The practical reason is to gain better opportunities for myself to get a better job and better position. A doctoral degree is a must if I want to survive at a higher education institution. This is certainly a very important reason and motivation, but may not be so interesting. What else do I expect to gain from doing the doctoral study at HK? The procedure must be associated with my overall aim of my life. What kind of person do I want to be? What kind of personalities and qualities do I want to have? What contributions do I wish to make to the world or to other people? The answers to these question decide how I should spend the four years.

First, what kind of person do I want to become. I want to be a useful person, that is, I have some professional knowledge and skills that can help other people. More specifically, as a scholar, I have deep understanding about the principles and philosophy of education and have my own insights about the concerned educational issues; as a teacher, I have excellent teaching skills and can teach effectively. But now I have a major problem: what’s my field? TESOL? Or education in a more general sense?

Second, what kind of personalities and qualities do I want to cultivate through the doctoral study? Someone has said that a PhD student is like an apprentice of researcher / scholar. Through the apprentice procedure, I want to develop the abilities of critical thinking and become an independent and insightful thinker like Ms Long Ying-Tai. I also want to develop the habit and skills of writing. Writing! Writing! Writing! It is so important and it can be so daunting to me! I always tell other people and myself how scary and difficult writing is to me. But do I really lack the abilities to write? Once I asked myself the question and thought for a few seconds, I just realized that I could be a not-bad writer. I may not be aware that sometimes I even love writing: I tend to write to express my feelings and to sort out my thinking in my daily life, just as what I am doing now. Isn’t it exactly what I need to do in my academic career? Why do I fear academic writing so much? Maybe the only major difference between casual writing and academic writing is that for academic writing I need to read more before writing and be more cautious about the logic of my writing. Reading is not a big problem to me (even I may proudly claim that I have quite strong reading comprehension abilities) but I don’t read that much. Why? Laziness! I know that taking reading notes is important but I am not good at that. It often takes me a lot of time to summarize the article. This can be another excuse of mine that I am not good at writing. I also feel inadequate about synthesizing different ideas. Sometimes I don’t understand / daren’t decide what a scholar argues for or against. To solve these problems, maybe the best way is writing itself. Practice, practice, practice! It seems to be always the only and best solution. But I may practice more cleverly and effectively. For example, I may ask other more able people / scholars about how they take notes and synthesize different ideas; I may also reflect and check on my progress from time to time. Like today, I have an important new understanding: I AM NOT A POOR WRITER; INSTEAD, I LIKE WRITING AND CAN BE A GOOD WRITER! From today on, I will remind myself of this again and again! I have the potential to be a good writer and researcher! Also, I need to learn how to share with other people about my ideas. I need to take more initiatives. I may talk /write about this in future reflection note.  

 Question 3: what kind of contribution do I want to make to the world? I won’t be satisfied with myself if my research is only useful for career promotion but cannot solve any practical problems in education. I wish that my work can reach common teachers, parents, and learners and they find that my work helpful and practical for them.

My “holiday” also began with my supervisor took his holiday leave about ten days ago. After idling for about 10 days, at last I have to draw myself back to the study desk. In fact, under the shadow of the assignments and other study commitments,  I freqently struggled in between the complicated and mixed feelings of pain and joyfulness  

 Okay, let’s go back to the study theme. I read two journal articles about formative assessment in the last couple of days, one is Yorke (2003), the other Newton (2007).  It usually took me 2-3 hours to read the article and several hours to write the summaries and notes.  I wonder if the efficiency is too low - one day for one article – and if I should persist in doing this. Becasue sometimes I feel that I already get quite clear idea about an article simply after reading it (but I am very likely to forget most of the content in a couple of weeks); but while I am trying to take notes and writing summary from it, I tend to be lost and confused during the procedure. The original clear big picture seems to be blurred by the many details. Yes, sometimes writing is helpful for me to comprehend the article better and deeper. For me writing is like a process of digestion and my digestion seems to me to be very slow.  I cannot help suspecting sometimes whether it worths  so much time “digesting” a single article. How I wish that I could, like some other people can do, grasp the essence of an article immediately and precisely pick out the bits useful for my own study. Now I am like a sucker of all different resources of information (even understanding these information is a big task for me already), I am too easy to be overwhelmed by all sorts of different opinions and lose mine. Maybe it takes time and practices. Wanna know when and how I can develop such capacity  Do you know any strategies that can improve the efficiency of taking study notes? Do you have any good idea about synthesizing ideas? Or do you have any interesting experience  about these issues? You are more than welcome to share your idea or story here  

Last but not least, wish us all have a wonderful and peaceful 2008

1.       Writing habit. I will write more often and make it as a thinking tool. I think that if I can keep on writing something every day, either study notes, chapter drafts, or even reflection notes, my fear of writing will probably fade and my writing fluency and abilities will hopefully be improved. I joined a writing group consisting of about 10 research students of the Education Faculty. We agreed to meet once a week or two weeks. Each of us should set a writing task for ourselves at every meeting and we will check each other whether we have completed the task in the next meeting. The purpose of the writing group is to provide support, stimuli, and motivation for the group members to keep writing. I think this may also help me form the habit of writing.

2.     Task / time management abilities. If I can keep on writing every day, I may be able to meet the deadlines of written tasks more easily. In this way, my procrastination problem may also be alleviated to some degree.

 3.       Skills of literature research. I need to learn how to search for information and literature more effectively, how to read articles more efficiently and critically, and how to synthesize different ideas and find my own positions among them.