Discipline-Specific Language Instruction for International Students in Introductory Economics
This paper explores student perceptions of the effects of pairing discipline-specific language instruction with the traditional method of course delivery in economics. Our research involved teaching content-based English as an additional language (EAL) tutorials to a small group of ten internation...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
2015-12-01
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Series: | Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol6/iss3/7 |
Summary: | This paper explores student perceptions of the effects of pairing discipline-specific language instruction with
the traditional method of course delivery in economics. Our research involved teaching content-based English
as an additional language (EAL) tutorials to a small group of ten international students taking first-year
introductory economics courses. These voluntary participants completed pre- and post-treatment assessments
with exit interviews at the end of the project. Assessment results and interviews suggest that students perceive
that discipline-specific language instruction such as our EAL tutorials assists in the development of increased
content and language proficiency. They also believe that vocabulary development is one of the most critical
activities to support these goals; reading skills are also important but require more time and commitment than
students can afford to give. Despite the students’ interest in the project, their heavy class schedules prevented
many from participating; our group was limited to ten students which precludes any assurance of statistical
significance. In spite of the limitations, we believe that the project can still contribute valuable qualitative
lessons to the literature of content-based language instruction in which the discipline of economics has not
been well represented. |
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ISSN: | 1918-2902 1918-2902 |