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Teaching English to Second Language Learners in
Academic Contexts
Jonathan M. Newton is Associate Professor and Director of the MA TESOL pro gram at
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Dana R. Ferris is Professor of Writing and Associate Director of ESL at the University of
California, Davis, USA.
Christine C. M. Goh is Professor of Linguistics and Language Education at the National Institute
of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
William Grabe is Regents’ Professor of Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University, USA.
Larry Vandergrift was Professor Emeritus from the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute
at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series
Eli Hinkel, Series Editor
Visit www.routledge.com/education for additional information on titles in the ESL & Applied
Linguistics Professional Series.
Teaching English to Second Language
Learners in Academic Contexts
Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking
Jonathan M. Newton
Dana R. Ferris
Christine C. M. Goh
William Grabe
Fredricka L. Stoller and
Larry Vandergrift
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
The right of Jonathan M. Newton, Dana R. Ferris, Christine C. M. Goh, William Grabe, Fredricka L. Stoller,
and Larry Vandergrift to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Typeset in Galliard
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
This volume was the brainchild of Larry Vandergrift (Professor, Official Languages and
Bilingualism Institute, University of Ottawa). During the early stages of preparing the manuscript,
Larry became seriously ill, and he died on November 1, 2015. With Larry’s passing, we have lost a
great scholar in the field of second language learning. His dedication, warmth and generosity
touched the hearts and minds of researchers, teachers and graduate students all over the world,
and inspired many to continue in his footsteps. As colleagues of Larry, we are proud to dedicate
this volume to Larry’s life and his memory.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Glossary
SECT ION 1
Introduction to Reading
Principle #1:
Asking Students to Read for Well-Defined Purposes, Rather than Simply Asking Students to
Read (for No Purpose at All), Should Guide Reading and Re-Reading Tasks
Principle #2:
Reading a Lot and Reading Often Are Crucial for Reading-Skills Development
Principle #3:
Reading Requires the Coordination of Numerous Reading Abilities that Should Be Addressed
Explicitly Across a Reading Curriculum
Principle #4:
Teaching (Rather than Testing) for Main-Idea Comprehension Should Be a Standard
Component of Classroom Instruction
Principle #5:
Training Strategic Readers Is More Effective than Teaching Reading Strategies One at a
Time
Principle #6:
Making a Commitment to Vocabulary Teaching and Learning Is Foundational to Students’
Reading Success
Principle #7:
Reading Fluently—at Word and Passage Levels—Is Essential for Efficient Reading
Comprehension Abilities
Principle #8:
Building Students’ Motivation to Read Is Essential
Principle #9:
Connecting Reading to Writing Prepares Students for the Realities of Most Academic
Contexts
Principle #10:
Assessing Students’ Reading Progress Is an Essential Part of Teaching, Curriculum
Development, and Student Learning
Principle #11:
Selecting and Adapting Texts Should Be Driven by Students’ Proficiency Levels, Current and
Future Reading Needs, and Interests
Principle #12:
Structuring Lessons around a Pre-Reading, During-Reading, and Post-Reading Framework
Should Guide Class Planning
Chapter Summary
Discussion Questions and Tasks
Further Reading
Appendices
SECT ION 2
Introduction to Writing
SECT ION 3
Introduction to Listening
SECT ION 4
Introduction to Speaking
14 Language Skill Development and EAP: A Ref lection on Seven Key Themes
Author Biographies
References
Index
Acknowledgements
We are grateful, first and foremost, to Larry Vandergrift for his leadership in the early stages of
planning and writing this volume. We are also grateful to Naomi Silverman at Routledge who was
a staunch supporter of Larry’s vision for this book; Naomi provided invaluable guidance up until
her retirement in early 2017, at which time her role was most ably taken up by Karen Alder. Our
thanks also to Eli Hinkel, the series editor, for her support and expert advice.
We all acknowledge the pre-service and in-service teachers with whom we have interacted
over the years. They have offered us valuable insights into the teaching of skills to students
preparing for academic study in English.
Preface
We, the authors of this book, are all active in research on the language-skill development of
English language learners; we are also committed to making this research relevant and useful for
language teachers. Thus, we wrote this book to provide a one-stop guide—one that is theoretically
principled, evidence based, and practical—to teaching the four skills of reading, writing, listening,
and speaking in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching contexts.
Who Is This Book for?
We wrote this book for teachers, including practising teachers who wish to refresh their
professional knowledge and emerging teachers who are enrolled in teacher education programs.
With its emphasis on the application of principles to actual curriculum design and skills instruction,
the book is particularly relevant to TESOL methods courses in addition to pre- and in-service
teachers who are interested in English for academic purposes.
With these teacher audiences in mind, we have done our best to write in a readable style, to
avoid jargon, and to not overburden the text with citations. We have also provided a glossary of
acronyms and abbreviations for terms that we use but that may not be familiar to all readers.
Inevitably there will be instances when the reader may be motivated to gain a fuller
understanding of a concept or pedagogical tool that we have introduced. For this purpose, we
have provided a set of recommendations for further reading at the end of each chapter.
How Is the Book Organized?
The book begins with an opening chapter that explains why skills-based teaching is at the core of
EAP instruction. In this chapter, we provide a rationale for addressing each skill separately in the
book, but also illustrate how the four skills interact and interrelate in real-world contexts,
including in EAP and mainstream classrooms. The first chapter also introduces four overarching
assumptions that are viewed as fundamental for effective skills-based instruction in EAP contexts.
These assumptions center on the importance of motivation, meaningful language use, language
knowledge, and metacognitive awareness.
From these important introductory considerations explored in Chapter 1, the book is then
divided into four main sections, each addressing one of the skills: reading, writing, listening, and
speaking. Each section begins with a brief introduction to the particular skill, followed by three
chapters. The first of these chapters describes how the skill “works” and explains what research
has to say about successful skill performance. The second and third chapters are strongly
pedagogically focused, addressing principles and practical steps for building a curriculum focused
on each respective skill in the second chapter, and instructional activities and assessment options in
the third chapter. To ensure the value of the book as a useful teacher-development tool, we have
included short tasks for discussion, action, and reflection both within and at the end of each
chapter.
The book concludes with a final chapter in which we explore themes that run through all four
main sections and that provide a unified core of principles for teaching the four skills in programs
with EAP aims. The goal of the volume, in its entirety, is to help EAP teachers, curriculum
designers, and materials writers meet the skill development needs of their students and set their
students up for academic success.
Larry Vandergrift’s Leadership Role in the Conception
of the Volume
In late 2013, Larry Vandergrift—a widely cited researcher in ESL listening and a strong advocate
of making research relevant to second language teaching practice and practitioners—developed an
idea for an EAP skills volume that would cover the four major language skills. His vision was for a
volume that would provide both research and teaching-practice perspectives for each language
skill, be authored by key researchers for each of the language skills, and be accessible for language
teachers, curriculum designers, and materials developers who work with a wide range of EFL/ESL
students. This volume, Teaching English to Second Language Learners in Academic Contexts:
Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking, is the fulfillment of Larry’s vision.
As each of us begun drafting our contributions for the volume, Larry became seriously ill.
Despite his illness, Larry remained committed to the project and remained active in shaping the
volume until his death on November 1, 2015. At this point, Christine Goh, who had previously
published with Larry (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012) and who is a leading scholar with an international
reputation for her research on listening in the language classroom, accepted an invitation to join
the team of authors and complete the section on teaching listening skills.
As Larry’s co-authors, we would like to acknowledge Larry as the driving force for the
development of this book.
repetition: reading 61; speaking 234–235
rereading 60–61
Reznitskaya, A. 228
rhetorical and genre awareness 99–100
Richards, J. C. 142
Riddiford, N. 224, 258
Roberge, M. 85
role-play 224–226
Rossiter, M. J. 227
Rost, M. 126–127
352
Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers118–119
Stiggins, R. J. 240
Stoller, F. L. 97, 102
Storch, N. 214
student mini-podcasts 237–238
students: Generation 1.5 students 85–86; immigrant students 84–85; international (visa) students 84; roles for
students’ own languages in the classroom 206–207;motivation
survey-based speaking projects 226–227
syntactic knowledge, listening comprehension and 136
Tafaghodtari, M. H. 137
Tannen, D. 185
task-based language teaching (TBLT) 1, 3, 201–204, 212
tasks: communicative listening 163–165; non-participatory (one-way) listening tasks 165; participatory
(interactive) listening tasks 165–166; planning time and task repetition for speaking 234–235; poster
carousel speaking task 236–237; pre-reading/during-reading/post-reading 55–56; problem-solving
228–229; ranking 230–231; schema theory and cultural/content knowledge for writing 79–80; selecting
suitable 160; task-based metacognitive instruction for listening 154–155; values clarification 231–232;
word walls 54
TBLT seetask-based language teaching (TBLT)
technology, incorporating/utilizing 208, 254–255
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEF L) 1, 99, 219
textbooks 1, 243, 252; for reading skills 8, 29, 33, 39–41, 43, 49, 51, 66, 68
texts: higher-level processing for reading 16; identification and discussion of challenging parts 60; for
listening 146–147, 171–172; model of reading comprehension 17–18; selection and adaptation principles
39–41; selection of suitable 160; situation model of interpretation 17–18
think-pair-share (speaking activity) 229
Thompson, P. 227
TOEF L seeTest of English as a Foreign Language (TOEF L)
top-down and bottom up processing, listening comprehension and 128–130
Tsui, A. B. M. 138
Tyler, A. 193
353
van Zeeland, H. 136
variability and transience in speaking 186–187
variety and coherence in writing activities 108–110
visa (international) students 84
vocabulary building 34; f lashcards for independent 55; helping students with 51–52
vocabulary knowledge 135–136
Wang, L. 197
Willis, D. 203, 210, 212
Willis, J. 190–191, 203, 210, 212
Wilson, M. 139
Wood, D. 182
word and phrase recognition exercises 49
word splash and sorting activities 53–54
word walls 54
writing, introduction to 73–74
writing activities, feedback, and assessment 106–120; assessment issues for L2 writing courses 118–119;
lesson design for L2 writing courses 106–111; response systems for L2 writing courses 111–118; sample
student paper with written teacher feedback 121–122; summary 119; written teacher feedback 112–114
writing centers 83–84
writing curricula design 89–104; course calendars 96–97; course design 93–97; developing strategic writers
97–103; language development strategies 100–101; outlining major assignments and units 94; planning
for language development 94–96; process strategies 97–99; strategies needed by L2 writers 97–103;
summary 103–104; teaching L1 and L2 composition 89–91; trends in L1 composition 91–93
writing in a second language 75–87; contexts and characteristics of L2 writing/writers 81–86; differences
between L2 and L1 writing 76–77; experiences/backgrounds of L2 writers 78–80; foreign language (F L)
contexts 81; language acquisition of L2 writers 80; language knowledge of L2 writers 77–78; role of the
L1 when writing in L2 78; second language (SL) contexts 81; subgroup characteristics 84; summary 86–87
writing systems, differences across 77–78
Xiaoyue, B. 197
Young, L. 136
Zhang, C. 38
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