On May 26th, Dean Gong and two teachers from our department attended a seminar on EAP (English for Academic Purposes) Course Design and Teaching in Fuzhou. It was sponsored by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, and held by Fujian Normal University and Fuzhou E-sky Network Technology Co., Ltd.
The seminar lasted a whole day and was bombarded with lectures by two foreign experts and two Chinese professors. They were John Slaght and Sebastian Watkins from Reading University of United Kingdom, and Dr. Gao Xiao from Hebei Economic and Trade University and Dr. Lin Dajin from Fujian Normal University. In the morning, John and Sebastian introduced EAP notions and principles by explanations and analysis of mainly the EAP methodology, language content, study skills and the roles of the EAP teachers and so on, which helped the participants realize the importance of being able to facilitate the students’ acquisition of the language, skills and strategies required for studying in a further or higher education context so as to improve their understanding of the approaches to interpreting and responding to the requirements of academic tasks and their related processes. Then, John talked about “Reading for Academic Purposes”, and he introduced the SQ3R(S: survey, Q: question, 3R: read, recall and recheck) reading and studying methods and asked questions based on the text he delivered. John also showed different methods of incorporating sources and discussed the importance of providing evidence in academic writing. Sebastian shared the methods of using abbreviations and symbols to save time when note-taking. The ways he introduced are also helpful for interpreting teaching. During the demo class, Dean Gong asked questions and participated actively in the seminar. In the afternoon, Dr. Gao introduced EAP orientations, teachers’ cultivation and project research. He mainly talked about the operational academic skills; cultivation of academic literacy through three conceptual models of study skills, academic socialization, academic literacy; approaches of nurturing critical thinking skills; introduction of academic language and its assessment; teachers’ professional development under the new situation. Dr. Lin Dajin lectured on nurturing cross-cultural ability. He clearly explained the notions of EGP (English for general purposes), ESP (English for specific purposes), EOP (English for occupational purposes), EAP (English for academic purposes), EGAP (English for general academic purposes) and ESAP (English for specific academic purposes) respectively. He also talked about the classified teaching through aspects of redefining cross-cultural ability, critical thinking, and culture courses. At the end of the seminar, all the participants were asked to feedback on their gain, problems and suggestions.
One thing worth mentioning was during the seminar Dean Gong had a short discussion with John about the possible connections between the two universities and all of us had a nice reminiscent meeting again with Dr. Lin Dajin, dean of College of Foreign Languages of Fujian Normal University, our alma mater.
Reported by Shirley