Hi Olwyn,

Part of what we have done in the past to help the students develop the skill for writing 'experiment reports' is explained here http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/forum/experiential-learning  I have purposely encouraged the use of Arabic for the completion of the tasks as input, output and genuine information exchanges during the tasks take place naturally in English.  We tend to focus quite a lot on the higher frequency vocabulary and the AWL - our lower ability students often have difficulty identifying less that half the 1K level.  I use Tom Cobb's Compleat Lexical Tutor and concordance readouts quite a lot for helping them develop their vocabulary acquisition, including trying, at a much less professional level, to replicate some of the activities he developed in Muscat.  The students are fully aware of the multiconc format and enjoy making the quizzes for themselves and each other. 

I'm afraid that I avoid trying to 'teach' grammar as the students have already had several years teaching, but try to approach grammar through the texts they are reading.  These tend to be more science/engineering than definitely oil and gas, but I also try to bring in many of the non-fiction A-Z Readers whenever possible.  I have also had some success in making the students 'grammar experts' and by using Alex Ding's superb POS tagger.  Unfortunately, it seems to have stopped working in IE7, so I'm now trying to get an older browser loaded into our labs.  At this level, we are not really using either full EAP/ESP techniques, but try to focus more in these areas.

Phil

Dear Olwyn

We also faced this problem and had hot discussions whether it is possible to start EAP/ESP university course if the students' entry level is below A2-B1 against CEF.  We didn't manage to come to consensus as they were extremely different opinions.

My own teaching experience proves that it is possible, especially if you are focusing on skills and learning strategies.  But here we need to find out whether we understand the same for  EAP.  Personally I understand it as English to be used by students in their academic environment (academic situations), i. e. skills both language and study, working knowledge of the English language, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence.

So, in this case:

Will the skills be different and dependent on the language proficiency level of students? - I think, no.

Will text types and genres be different?  - Again, no.

Will the functions be different? - No, but functional exponents - yes (in accordance with the level).

What will be different is the range of vocabulary, accuracy and pronunciation.

I've made a try to deliver a short course in EAP for newcomers in English. I can't boast, but there was a progress among the students and success in their communication both in writing and oral.  Of course, at their level which was not very high.  We are planning to continue our work.  At least there is a great desire of the students encouraged by their success.

What do you think? Are there any other arguments pro or con?