Here - EnglishAgenda - British Council

The coursesThe two EAP courses take place in the two semesters of the freshman year.Both courses are credit bearing and students need a pass grade in each one tograduate. Students come from various disciplines, including biological and physicalsciences, and engineering. Class sizes range between 200 and 400 for each teacher,with each student receiving two contact hours a week. A course runs for about13 weeks of a semester. In the first semester, course GNS 101 has the objective ofequipping students with information literacy and study skills. Topics taught include:time management; study skills; scientific word formation; parts of speech; listeningand lecture comprehension and note-taking/note-making. GNS 102 follows as an‘integrated reading and writing’ course designed ‘to equip students with skills inreading and writing in academic contexts and research skills.’ The course coverstopics such as introduction to reading for academic purposes, investigation andnegotiation of meaning, critical thinking and teamwork skills development. The courseculminates in writing a term paper after investigating a topical issue. At the end of thecourse students are expected to be able to read critically in academic contexts, raisequestions, reflect on their learning processes and use basic research and internet skills.The challengeFor the enrolled population, language teaching in the large classes remained aHerculean task. LoCastro (2001), among others, suggests that when a languageclass exceeds 15 in number problems arise, such as those of pedagogy,management and of the affective type, especially in a low resourced environment.In the last decade, the majority of students who enrol for university courses comewith low English language proficiency on account of declining standards in preuniversityeducation and the rising profile of Nigerian pidgin among young people.Observations and analysis of students’ oral and written interactions show widespreaduse of pidgin and its interference in formal writing. An increasing number of youths,especially from the Niger Delta, have pidgin as their first language (Ihemere, 2006;Marchese and Shnukal, 1983).For a language course, interaction is crucial. Therefore, the main driver of changeto incorporating technology in our practice is pedagogic – the large class situationthat made interaction in English, the target language (student–student, student–teacher), difficult, if not impossible. In class most students with difficulty in usingEnglish hardly spoke out but would communicate with peers in pidgin or their firstlanguage. With online discussions they would take time to compose whatever had tobe said and struggle to construct their ideas in English, even if in poor English withtraces of pidgin or mother tongue. Teachers were dissatisfied and frustrated withtheir practice in the face-to-face teaching-learning mode and felt a need for change,especially as students and core discipline colleagues ridiculed the programme forhaving little impact on students’ English language proficiency.36 | Blended learning in English for Academic Purposes courses