Critical English for Academic Purposes: Creating connection and community

This presentation is based on my research into English-language learners’ motivation and teachers’ perceptions of their learners’ motivation (Harvey 2010). In this work, and through my continuing doctoral research, I am developing an understanding of English-language learning motivation as inextricably linked to imagination, identity and participation. My aim in this presentation is to explore the implications of such an understanding for the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and for the participation of international students in the UK university system. I will review my own completed study and the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) literature to demonstrate that critical English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (Benesch 2009) may offer an educational space for recognising these implications. International students now comprise a significant proportion of the UK university population. However, increasingly commodified education may mean that students absorb the ‘exchange value’ of the outcome of learning rather than the ‘use value’ of increasing participation (Lave and Wenger 1991), potentially leading to demotivation. Critical EAP may provide a space in which ways to address demotivation can be negotiated, enabling international students to become more engaged with navigating their role in the world as English speakers (Morgan 2009). Through engagement with critical EAP, students may come to understand communicating in a multicultural environment as a norm of the global culture to which they belong, and thus more readily connect with students from both ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ speaking backgrounds. In beginning to deconstruct the privilege of ‘native speaker’ interaction, opportunities for participation and inclusion may open up, and integration may be understood as reciprocal. This has the potential to transform the student experience not only for international students, but for all students, as participants in a variety of real and imagined communities both locally and globally. References:Benesch, S. (2009). Theorizing and practising critical English for academic purposes. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 8 (2), 81-85.Harvey, L. T. (2010). The social and pragmatic parameters of L2 motivation: EAP teachers’ perceptions. Unpublished MSc dissertation, University of Manchester.Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambrige: Cambridge University Press.Morgan, B. (2009). Fostering transformative practitioners for critical EAP: Possibilities and challenges. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 8 (2), 86-99.