Taking ELF off the shelf: Developing HE students’ speaking skills through a focus on English as a lingua franca

Dippold, Doris; Bridges, Stephanie; Eccles, Sue; Mullen, Emma

doi:10.1016/j.linged.2019.100761

Cited by 15 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Peers and educators-both in pre-sessionals and the disciplines-thus need to understand the role their formal and informal feedback may play in students' development. Developing in all parties' skills in English as a lingua franca, which includes not only the effective use of strategies for negotiating meaning, but also a move away from a focus on accuracy to one on effectiveness is key to creating a culture of understanding (see Dippold et al, 2019).…”

Section: Implications For Educators and Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

International students’ linguistic transitions into disciplinary studies: a rhizomatic perspective

2021

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This paper offers a reconceptualisation of international students’ transitions into and through UK higher education. We present two case studies of students which explore their transitions in terms of their academic speaking skills from pre-sessional courses into their disciplinary studies. Students describe how the development of their confidence and performance in academic speaking was contingent on a number of factors and micro-moments, and how this progress into and within disciplinary studies often involved regression and discomfort. Nevertheless, they also talked of developing strategies to overcome challenges and the resultant learning. We argue that transitions to disciplinary studies in terms of academic speaking can be more helpfully understood as non-linear, fluid and rhizomatic. This study offers valuable insights for individuals and institutions to move away from a fixed student lifecycle perspective to consider instead how reciprocal, embedded and on-going support for international students may better reflect students’ experiences.

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Section: Implications For Educators and Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

International students’ linguistic transitions into disciplinary studies: a rhizomatic perspective

2021

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“…Although academic speaking in EMI has been a subject of intense interest in English as a lingua franca (ELF) studies (Jenkins 2011;Mauranen 2012;Doubleday 2018), and in the wider HE literature (Dippold et al 2019;Heron 2019), little attention has been paid to tutors' beliefs and classroom practice with regard to supporting academic speaking, and the link of such practices to policy. This is somewhat surprising given the crucial role of academic speaking to both the curriculum and the academic success of students, who, through the expansion of innovative and active pedagogic approaches, are faced with high demands on their speaking skills (Doherty et al 2011;Roberts 2017;Heron 2019).…”

Section: Academic Speaking Skills In Emimentioning

confidence: 99%

Tutors’ beliefs about language and roles: practice as language policy in EMI contexts

Heron

Dippold

Akşit

et al. 2021

Teaching in Higher Education

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It has been well established that for all students, but particularly second language (L2) English speaking students, academic English speaking skills are key to developing specialist terminology and disciplinary content in an English as a medium of instruction (EMI) context. However, what is less clear in many contexts is the institutional language policy necessary to guide and support both L2 English speaking students and disciplinary tutors. In this paper, we focus on disciplinary tutors' beliefs of language and their roles with respect to language support to surface implicit and covert language policies. We argue that in the absence of explicit policy, showcasing the range of tutor perspectives and practice around language support can provide a way forward in explicating good practice and highlighting an approach in which all stakeholders take responsibility for supporting students' academic speaking skills in an EMI context.

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“…Oracy skills is a term used widely in the literature in school settings (Gaunt and Stott 2018), and is an emerging concept in the higher education (HE) literature (Dippold et al 2019;Heron 2019). There is little agreement on the terms used to define oracy skills (for example, communication skills, academic speaking skills), a lack of consensus on what oracy skills involve and thus scant recognition of how to teach and assess such skills (Dunbar, Brooks and Kubicka-Miller 2006;Robles 2012).…”

Section: Social and Emotionalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Talking about talk: tutor and student expectations of oracy skills in higher education

Heron

Dippold

Hosein

et al. 2021

Language and Education

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Although participation in academic speaking events is a key to developing disciplinary understanding, students for whom English is a second language may have limited access to these learning events due to an increasingly dialogic and active higher education pedagogy which places considerable demands on their oracy skills. Drawing on the Oracy Skills Framework we explore disciplinary tutors' and students' expectations of oracy skills required for disciplinary study. An analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data found that disciplinary tutors placed importance on the cognitive dimension of oracy skills such as argumentation and asking questions, whilst students placed importance on linguistic accuracy. The findings also suggest that tutors and students lack a shared metalanguage to talk about oracy skills. We argue that a divergence of expectations and lack of shared terminology can result in compromising students' access to valuable classroom dialogue. The paper concludes with a number of practical suggestions through which both tutors and students can increase their understanding of oracy skills.

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Taking ELF off the shelf: Developing HE students’ speaking skills through a focus on English as a lingua franca

Cited by 15 publications

References 42 publications

International students’ linguistic transitions into disciplinary studies: a rhizomatic perspective

International students’ linguistic transitions into disciplinary studies: a rhizomatic perspective

Tutors’ beliefs about language and roles: practice as language policy in EMI contexts

Talking about talk: tutor and student expectations of oracy skills in higher education

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