EAP practitioners: foxes or
hedgehogs?
Mary Carr (mmc9@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Outline
• The role of the EAP practitioner: are we foxes or are we hedgehogs?
• How do these roles inform two apparently quite different approaches
to in-sessional academic writing workshops?
• How do these different approaches interact with learner motivation?
“The fox knows many things…
…but the hedgehog knows one big
thing.” (Archilochus)
The EAP fox knows many things: language +
content (economics/music/chemistry/philosophy)
Sees content as the prior knowledge (without
which language is irrelevant)
Focuses on language in subject-specific
contexts; essentially an ESAP approach
The EAP hedgehog knows one big thing:
language (discourse/text analysis)
Sees language as the prior knowledge (without
which content knowledge is useless/impossible to
obtain)
Strong focus on the transferability of language
skills from one context to another
Essentially, an EGAP approach.
University
Week
Date
Focus
1
16 Sept
General Introduction to Critical Thinking
2
23 Sept
Critical Thinking in Reading & Writing
3
30 Sept
Paraphrasing
4
07 Oct
Quoting
5
14 Oct
Summarising
6
21 Oct
Your Voice
7
28 Oct
Exemplification
8
04 Nov
Classification
9
11 Nov
Comparing & contrasting
10
18 Nov
Describing cause & effect
11
25 Nov
Problem, solution & evaluation
60
Attendance at Academic Writing Workshop by Week: Semester 1
50
40
Attendance 30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Week of Workshop
7
8
9
10
11
Possible reasons for decline in numbers
1.
2.
3.
4.
Poor teaching
Material not of perceived relevance
Lack of motivation
Competing time pressures
The classes are really useful! However, the last few weeks the attendance of
students is limited. I really appreciate Mrs Mary Kar and her fantastic way of teaching, so I would like to
inform you that it is very difficult especially for the postgraduate students to follow all the classes as we
don’t have free time at all! In other words, it is the fear of the deadlines and
not the quality of teaching the reason of low attendance!
EC5901 International Finance
Writing workshop 1
Tutor: Mary Carr (iels@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Task
Prepare a briefing for the ECB President addressing the following
questions:
1. Critically assess the prospects for introduction of a common
currency in the GCC Member States.
2. Discuss the feasibility and potential benefits of this currency union.
3. Will this be an optimal currency area?
4. What lessons can the GCC Member States learn from the European
experience?
EC5901 International Finance
Week 1
Understanding the task: definition, analysis, argument
Identifying key features of IMF briefing document
Research skills
Week 2
Writing definitions (short, sentence-length, and
extended)
Use of articles in definitions
Relative clauses in definitions (focus on reduced
relatives)
Week 3
Using questions to develop criticality
Evaluative language; use of sources
Nominalisation
Hedging language
Week 4
Tutorials
SD5001 Extended Essay
Tutor: Mary Carr (iels@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Task
Critically evaluate the viability of any given infrastructural project from
an environmental, social, and economic standpoint.
SD5001 Extended Essay
Title analysis; identification of task elements
Use of questions to develop criticality
Use of sources
Definition of key terms
Overall structure of extended essay
Active, engaged participation
Dörnyei : Directed Motivational Currents
(DMCs)
• “There are specific periods when we seem to find ourselves in a
particularly intensive state of focused productivity which allows us to
achieve a great deal, often much more than we would have believed
possible at the outset.”
• “A DMC is an intense motivational pathway which occurs when a
variety of time- and context-related factors come together in an
individual to prompt a firm decision to pursue a goal/vision which is
considered personally significant, highly relevant to one’s desired
identity and emotionally satisfying.”
(Dörnyei, 2015)
Four key dimensions to DMCs (Dörnyei, 2015)
1. Goal/vision-orientedness
2. Triggering factor and launch
3. A facilitative structure
4. Positive emotionality
EAP practitioners: Hedgefoxes
Questions
1. Are you a hedgehog or a fox?
2. Are you perceived by your students/ by colleagues in the academic
community as a hedgehog or a fox?
3. Do you have any questions for me?