Research-teaching links
What is the role of research in EAP teaching?
Should an EAP practitioner be an active researcher?
Should they have experience of doing research, e.g. an MA?
Tell us about your involvement with research projects and what the outcomes were.
I think it must be very difficult to properly teach EAP without some kind of experience of research. I have taught in many different areas of EFL, and it is the one area where I feel that experience in that field is quite important.
I agree with both Andy and Kevin but I think it is particularly difficult for someone who has not done research before to know how to start.
I've been at the BALEAP conference in Portsmouth, where we started the first of a Research Training Event Series (ResTES) as a pre-conference event. This was aimed at practitioners with little or no research experience who are interested in becoming research active. The first event was about Defining the Research Space and looked at research questions and literature reviews. There was a nice combination of research in progress and also teachers talking about how they help their students to define their research space. This fitted well with the BALEAP ethos that Andy mentions of teacher-researchers.
You can read more about ResTES on the BALEAP website and the next event will be held on 24th June at Leicester, just before the Professional Issues Meeting on the International Student Experience. Non-members of BALEAP are welcome to attend.
I think everyone teaching EAP should be involved in some way in research. Simply because that is what the academic world is about. I've just been reading the THE (Times Higher Education in UK) and found a very interesting letter from a Pauline Cooper at University College Plymouth St Mark & St John. This is how is starts:
"I have the privilege of working in a small institution whose staff prioritise the education of students. We receive a very small amount of research funding, yet staff here do research. Our students, many of them "non-traditional" entrants, learn in an environment where research is happening, where the staff who teach them are familiar with its uncertainties and ambiguities."
I agree entirely with this and do not see how we can help our students without the research involvement.
Research is a difficult word and I think people mean different things when they use the word.
Firstly research is to do with finding out things you did not know before. This is essential for any EAP teaching as you need to be continuously finding out about your students, what they are doing, what they need to do etc.
Secondly research is connected with telling other people about what you have found. This again is essential; we do not have the time to keep reinventing the wheel. This is often linked to publishing in high-quality journals to bring prestige to your institution, but it does not have to be. Online forums, such as this, and small conferences, can be just as useful.
Thirdly, research often means gaining external funding. It is often difficult for EAP teachers to obtain large government grants, but smaller organisions such as IELTS, UCKISA, IATEFL, BALEAP can be good sources of income as well as your own institutions.
As I said, I do not think you can teach EAP without the first. If you find something out, you might as well tell others, and it's always nice to get funding!