Language Centres at a Crossroads

Most EAP teachers, rather than viewing their role as that of a transmitter of knowledge, see their function as supporting or scaffolding the learning process. Since students and researchers in different disciplines must produce very different kinds of texts (Nesi and Gardner 2012), the scaffolding of learning how to write inevitably involves meeting diverse discipline-specific needs. Although it is unsurprising that such an approach, most commonly termed English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP), can deliver better outcomes in writing classes than broader approaches (Flowerdew 2016), it bears several concomitant disadvantages. Not the least of these for the writing instructor is the often-substantial extra work involved in designing, preparing, and delivering such courses, especially if the same instructor must prepare separate courses for a broad and heterogeneous range of disciplines. Consequently, many if not most writing instructors seek to develop techniques that help reduce their preparation effort without compromising the discipline specificity of their scaffolding.

This presentation contrasts two cases: one in which a general framework seems to provide ready help to writing instructors approaching the design of multiple courses, each for a separate discipline, and one in which such help is far more difficult to locate. Paradoxically, writers from many fields report that both these elements present particular difficulties. The first case is that of introductions to research articles (RAs) and MSc theses. This presentation shows how Swales's creating a research space (CARS) schema (Swales 1990) can be used to scaffold learning how to write the introduction to an MSc thesis in mechanical engineering (Maher and Milligan 2019). The second case involves the other end of RAs and MSc theses, sometimes titled discussions and/or conclusions and often structured in highly heterogeneous and discipline-specific ways, thus presenting ESAP writing instructors with significantly more work in the design and preparation of discipline-specific course materials. The presentation concludes with brief consideration of some practical techniques for reducing the work of ESAP writing course design and preparation without compromising the discipline specificity in scaffolding that learners find so helpful.

Obwohl der Ansatz von English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP, Englisch für spezifische akademische Zwecke) bessere Ergebnisse im Schreibunterricht erzielen kann als allgemeinere Strategien, zieht er mehrere Nachteile mit sich. Nicht zu vernachlässigen ist der oft erhebliche Mehraufwand für die Gestaltung, Vorbereitung und Durchführung von Spezialkursen. Folglich versuchen viele Schreiblehrer, Techniken zu entwickeln, die ihren Vorbereitungsaufwand verringern, ohne die disziplinäre Besonderheit ihres Aufbaus zu beeinträchtigen. Diese Präsentation stellt zwei Fälle gegenüber: Zum einen Einführungen im Forschungsartikel und in die Masterarbeit, in denen ein allgemeiner Rahmen für Lehrpersonen, die sich dem Entwurf mehrerer Kurse für verschiedene Disziplinen nähern, Hilfe zu bieten scheint. Zum anderen Diskussionen und Schlussfolgerungen, für die eine solche Hilfe weitaus schwieriger zu finden ist. Die Präsentation schließt mit einer kurzen Betrachtung einiger praktischer Techniken zur Reduzierung der Arbeit des ESAP-Schreibkurs-Designs und der Vorbereitung, ohne das Spezifische der Disziplin im Aufbau zu beeinträchtigen, die die Lernenden so hilfreich finden.

References:

• Flowerdew, John (2016) English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) Writing: Making the case. Writing & Pedagogy. 8. 5-32
• Maher, Paschal and Simon Milligan (2019) Teaching master thesis writing to engineers: Insights from corpus and genre analysis of introductions English for Specific Purposes, Vol 55
• Nesi, Hilary, and Sheena Gardner (2012) Genres across the Disciplines Student writing in higher education Cambrige: Cambridge University Press
• Swales, John (1990) Genre Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Simon Milligan has taught scientific writing at the Universities of Bern and Zurich and at the ETH in Zurich for over 10 years. He gained a PhD from the University of Ulster in 2006 and a PGCert TESP from Macquarie University in Australia in 2010. He has developed writing courses tailored to specific fields, including biomedical engineering, biochemistry, chemistry, climate science, computer science, environmental engineering, human geography, materials science, and psychology. He also has 20 years' experience as an academic language editor in both social and natural sciences and is a member of the European Association of Science Editors.