kang 49 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 49-50 book review the non-native teacher, 3rd edition péter medgyes callander, scotland, uk: swan communication, 2017, 172 pages isbn 978-1-901760-11-8 (paperback) reviewed by phoebe eun kyung kang university of toronto (oise) the non-native teacher was originally published in 1994 by péter medgyes, an english as an additional language (eal) professional who self identifies as a non-native speaker of english. while the book remains a highly personal text that draws from the hungarian eal context, the main argument for equity remains relevant in other teaching contexts, such as canada. for example, as laura brass (2017) notes in her article “a ‘non-native speaker’ in a ‘native speaker’ world,” non-native english speaking teachers (non-nests) continue to struggle in english language teaching (elt) contexts in british columbia. the third edition maintains its contentious binary structure comparing native-english speaking teachers (nests) and non-nests, two terms which have fallen out of favour over the last two decades. however, while silvana richardson argues in her foreword, the book “may at times sound slightly out of step with contemporary thinking” (p. v), she further asserts that “the fact that this text is still relevant today is symptomatic of the scale and magnitude of the nonnest issue in our industry” (p. v). the latest edition is divided into six symmetrically arranged parts, with each section containing two chapters. the most striking change in the third edition is the decision to separate the new content from the original using a striking two-colour format. the original text is black, while the newly added focus points, margin notes, and further readings are in blue. this decision in the updated edition simultaneously shows reverence to the original as a seminal work, while also making it more contemporary. parts 1 and 2, entitled “being a non-native speaker” and “being a non-native teacher” respectively, deal with issues facing non-nests that illustrate the subtle power dynamics between educators and learners. the author asserts that “students can only be motivated and helped after teachers have understood themselves” (p. 24). the next section, “the two sides of the coin,” remains the most transformative and essential section of this book. using subversive and provocative language, the author offers two contrasting perspectives of the non-native professional. the negative perspective looks at issues of self-worth and identity, whereas the positive perspective highlights being a good role model for language learning and being empathetic towards learners’ needs. kang 50 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 49-50 in chapter 7 of part 4, “who’s worth more: the native or the non-native?,” the author argues against proficiency in language as a superior model of teaching. when answering the question related to what the ideal learning environment is, the author provides a diplomatic response maintaining “there should be a good balance of nests and non-nests, who complement each other in their strengths and weaknesses” (p. 84). the author offers a balanced perspective that still feels ahead of its time. part 5 and 6 go on to offer practical ideas and activities for non-nests and newly added material highlighting learner perceptions of nests and non-nests. throughout the third edition, one of the merits of the new material is the further reading section at the end of every chapter. pre-service teacher educators will likely find the articles presented form interesting debates on issues in eal and elt. in summary, the author’s idiosyncratic voice can still surprise and provoke in equal measure. the third edition is likely to be a catalyst for discussion in pre-service eal teacher education in british columbia as well as other parts of canada. although samimy’s (1997) review of the first edition noted weaknesses, such as the uneven treatment of language teaching factors and an overemphasis on the linguistic deficits of non-nests, which persist in this updated edition, the non-native teacher is an essential primer for teacher education and nonnest studies. as the profession continues to evolve and develop to be more inclusive, the call for balanced collaboration between nests and non-nests remains relevant for educators looking for a book that questions and pushes established boundaries. references brass, l. (2017). a ‘non-native speaker’ in a ‘native speaker’ world. retrieved from http://teflequityadvocates.com/2017/10/22/nnes-nes-world-laura-brass/ samimy, k. (1997). a review on “the non-native teacher.” tesol quarterly, 31(4), pp. 815817. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://teflequityadvocates.com/2017/10/22/nnes-nes-world-laura-brass/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): i-ii editorial a journal for teaching english as an additional language in british columbia scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan campus) it is with a huge sense of accomplishment that the inaugural issue of the bc teal journal is presented to the public. the journal is the official peer-reviewed scholarly publication of the association of british columbia teachers of english as an additional language (bc teal), a professional organization devoted to the advancement of english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning to support the goals of english language learners in british columbia. the launching of this journal aligns with bc teal’s commitment to creating a space for its members “to share their knowledge and experience, challenge theories and assumptions, and engage with others who share similar goals” (bc teal, 2016a). it further aligns with bc teal’s mission statement and commitment to support research and encourage professional development throughout the province (bc teal 2016b). the goal of the journal is to include articles that explicitly reflect and relate to the varying contexts and settings of the bc teal membership. furthermore, the journal is committed to providing open access to scholarly work, and it is freely available to both the bc teal membership as well as anyone interested in eal teaching and learning in british columbia. the bc teal journal thus joins the growing ranks of other regional open access journals related to eal teaching and learning such as: catesol journal: http://www.catesoljournal.org/ gatesol in action journal: http://georgiatesoljournal.org/ intesol journal: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/intesol minnetesol journal: http://minnetesoljournal.org/ nys tesol journal: http://journal.nystesol.org/ ortesol journal: http://ortesol.org/publications.html sunshine state tesol journal: http://sstesol.org/?page_id=468 tesl ontario contact: http://www.teslontario.net/publication/research-symposium the first issue of the bc teal journal includes six articles. the issue starts with an examination of the rhetorical features of successful teachers of english to speakers of other languages (tesol) conference abstracts, with the goal of helping teachers write their own successful conference proposals. in particular, the article provides guidance and makes connections for members of local tesol international association affiliates, such as bc teal. the next article reports the findings of a group of british columbian researchers who examined the relationship between canine assisted therapy, stress, and english language development for international students from linguistically diverse backgrounds. they found that canine therapy in university settings has the potential to lower stress, increase a sense of belonging, and increase opportunities to practice the target language. the third article focuses on gathering feedback from students with eal backgrounds at a writing centre at a university in british columbia. the feedback reflected a wide range of findings, with valuable information for student academic http://www.catesoljournal.org/ http://georgiatesoljournal.org/ https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/intesol http://minnetesoljournal.org/ http://journal.nystesol.org/ http://ortesol.org/publications.html http://sstesol.org/?page_id=468 http://www.teslontario.net/publication/research-symposium douglas ii bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): i-ii support services seeking to enhance their needs-based programming. also in a university setting in british columbia, the fourth article takes a look at the concept of metanoia, sudden moments of learning and realization, and how it relates to learning english for academic purposes (eap). participants enrolled in eap courses reported experiencing growth in their confidence, language learning, academic skills, and organization. the final two articles both relate to theoretical analysis and classroom practice. in the fifth article, the author explores academic language in k12 settings to try and understand what it is, how it is learned, and how it can be measured. illustrative writing samples are provided and suggestions are made for policy reform, curriculum development, and assessment approaches with a focus on alberta and british columbia. the last article in this issue turns to supporting adult english language learners with refugee experiences, with a recognition of the bc teal refugee project. suggestions are make for understanding refugee experiences along with ideas for lesson planning and instructional strategies. the first issue of the bc teal journal is the work of many hands. in particular, the editorial team consists an editor, copy editor, bc teal journal advisory board, and bc teal journal reviewers, listed here: http://ejournals.ok.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/about/editorialteam. the journal is a volunteer effort, and sincere thanks go to everyone involved. further thanks go to the scholarly communication librarian at the university of british columbia’s okanagan campus and to the university of british columbia for hosting the journal. as we move into 2017, the editorial team is looking forward to new article submissions, and bc teal’s membership are encouraged to contribute to the success of their very own scholarly journal. references bc teal. (2016a). what is bc teal? retrieved from http://www.bcteal.org/about/ bc teal. (2016b). mission statement. retrieved from http://www.bcteal.org/about/missionstatement/ the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://ejournals.ok.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/about/editorialteam http://www.bcteal.org/about/ http://www.bcteal.org/about/mission-statement/ http://www.bcteal.org/about/mission-statement/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): i-ii editorial free and open access: how english language teaching associations can foster the dissemination of knowledge through scholarly journals scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan campus) this editorial marks the completion of the second issue of the bc teal journal. with its successful publication, another year of scholarly articles related to teaching and learning english as an additional language in british columbia and beyond have been made freely available to the public. the hallmark of this publication is its commitment to open access. suber (2012) has defined open access as scholarly work available on the internet without charge, with people able to “read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself” (p. 7). to this definition, suber adds that authors retain copyright over their work, and when their work is reproduced or distributed, they receive proper attribution. according to willinsky and alperin (2011), there is a further ethical aspect to promoting open access to information. they maintain that people have the right to know what other people know, and it benefits humanity as a whole for information to be shared as broadly as possible in the most effective ways possible. the bc teal journal is the very embodiment of suber’s (2012) definition and willinsky and alperin’s (2011) ethics of open access. while maintaining high editorial and peer-review standards (douglas, 2017), the journal never charges fees to either readers or authors. it is entirely put together by a team of dedicated volunteers who donate their time and expertise to producing a quality scholarly journal. furthermore, authors keep the copyright for their work through a creative commons license that allows authors and readers to distribute and copy the work as long as the authors are credited, the articles are not used for commercial purposes or modified, and the bc teal journal is recognised as the place of first publication. thus, the bc teal journal plays a major role in fostering the dissemination of knowledge related to english as an additional language teaching and learning in british columbia. to date (january 2018), the articles published in the first two issues of the bc teal journal have been viewed over 6,450 times. authors benefit because they can reach a wide range of readers and have a positive impact on the field. readers benefit because they can read the latest research and scholarship and apply that knowledge to their own teaching and learning contexts. as the journal of a provincial english language teaching association, it also plays an important role in supporting knowledge creation and dissemination throughout the region. for example, the bc teal association encourages members to seek knowledge through initiatives such as the teacher inquiry groups and the project funding award. this seed funding is an important first step to encouraging members to engage in inquiry and write up their findings for submission to the journal. as the first encounter with academic publishing for some bc teal members, the journal also plays an important mentorship role for novice writers as they navigate through an eight step process towards publication (douglas, 2017). invaluable for learning more http://ejournals.ok.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/about/editorialteam https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://www.bcteal.org/about/initiatives/teacher-inquiry-groups/ https://www.bcteal.org/tcf/awards-scholarships/project-funding-award/ douglas ii bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): i-ii about the genre of scholarly writing and contributing to the quality of the journal, bc teal members can also become involved as peer reviewers who provide feedback to writers on how to strengthen their work for publication. local knowledge dissemination is further encouraged through the reading and sharing of the articles in the journal and the encouragement readers can provide to themselves as well as their colleagues to submit their work and benefit the wider field of english as an additional language teaching and learning. the second issue of the bc teal journal contains four articles and two book reviews. the issue starts with a considered look at service-learning for english as an additional language students in british columbia, with findings pointing to the effectiveness of service learning for english language learners. next, portfolio-based language assessment is compared to the assumptions and principles of andragogy to assess its suitability for adult learners, particularly in the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program. the article on portfoliobased language assessment is followed by an autoenthographic exploration into the conceptualization of a theoretical framework as part of a doctoral program of studies. the final article turns to students with refugee experiences studying in a canadian high school and the potential of trauma-informed teaching practice as illustrated through the journal entries of a preservice teacher candidate. following this set of four articles, the journal issue concludes with two book reviews. the first book review examines garcía and wei’s (2014) work on translanguaging, and the second book review looks at medgyes’ (2017) work on non-native english speaking teachers. already, the journal is accepting and reviewing submissions to the 2018 issue. all readers are encouraged to consider how they might contribute to the journal, either through volunteering as a peer reviewer or through submitting an article for publication. details can be found on the journal website. references douglas, s.r. (2017, fall). the pathway to scholarly peer-reviewed publication. teal news, 1011. retrieved from https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/teal-newsfall-2017.pdf garcía, o. & wei, l. (2014). translanguaging: language, bilingualism, and education. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. medgyes, p. (2017). the non-native teacher, 3rd ed. scotland, uk: swan communication. suber, p. (2012). open access. cambridge, ma: mit press. willinsky, j. & alperin, j.p. (2011). the academic ethics of open access to research and scholarship. ethics and education, 6(3), 217-223. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://ejournals.ok.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/teal-news-fall-2017.pdf https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/teal-news-fall-2017.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): i–iii editorial contributing to open access journals with peer review: a meaningful opportunity for engaged continuing professional development scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan campus) abstract this editorial reinforces the bc teal journal’s commitment to open access, opportunities for continuing professional development, and knowledge creation related to english as an additional language teaching and learning in british columbia. in particular, it outlines how peer reviewers benefit from taking part in the intellectual life of their scholarly and professional community through access to new ideas, practical skill development, and reducing the separation between theorists, researchers, and practitioners. the editorial continues with a description of the six articles and one book review in the 2018 issue, and it ends with a friendly invitation to everyone interested in english as an additional language teaching and learning in british columbia to become more involved in the journal. from the editor the bc teal journal is an open access peer-reviewed academic journal that focuses on english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning, with implications for eal teaching and learning in british columbia. the journal does not charge readers to access articles, nor does it charge authors to submit and publish their work. instead, a dedicated team of volunteers ensures it remains free for everyone. these volunteers are inspired by a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons is perhaps an engagement in continuing professional development that is meaningful and relevant to a volunteer’s own scholarly practice. the largest cohort of journal volunteers are the peer reviewers. to create the current issue, 12 peer reviewers donated their time and energy to bring the contents to publication. the reviewers, who remain anonymous to the authors (and vice versa), look at the level of interest to the association of british columbia teachers of english as an additional language (bc teal) members, the connections to teaching and learning in british columbia, the originality of the work, the understanding authors have of the topic, the research plan, methods, and theoretical framework, the conclusions and recommendations, the formatting, and the quality of writing. the peer reviewers offer comments and feedback to the authors, and if the authors meet the basic journal requirements, they then have the opportunity to incorporate that feedback to strengthen their work for publication. while authors benefit in a number of ways as they receive feedback and suggestions to prepare the next draft of their work, peer reviewers also benefit from the opportunity for continuing professional development. peer reviewers are taking part in the wider intellectual life of their professional and scholarly community, and they have the chance to access the latest ideas and research before it is broadly available. they get to consider how these ideas and research douglas ii bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): i–iii apply to the local context while contemplating core issues related to eal teaching and learning. these considerations may, in turn, encourage reviewers to come up with new ideas, identify areas for further study, and lead them to engage with theory and research they may not have encountered otherwise. there is also the opportunity for practical skill development. peer reviewers can enhance their critical understandings of scholarship and gain a greater familiarity with a range of research methods. they can hone the ability to identify logical arguments and understand the reasonable connections authors should make between their methods, findings, and conclusions. being a peer reviewer can also have a positive washback effect on the reviewer’s research skills, academic writing ability, and delivery of constructive feedback. thus, the process strengthens local scholarship and contributes to improving eal teaching and learning in the province and wider region. the process further encourages stronger connections between theory, research, and practice while blurring the demarcation lines between theorists, researchers, and practitioners. in effect, knowledge creation in the field of eal teaching and learning becomes a shared endeavour in which bc teal journal reviewers and authors bi-directionally benefit from each other’s scholarship and professional knowledge. the benefits of the peer review process, for both reviewers and authors, are evident in the current issue of the bc teal journal. the 2018 issue starts with an investigation of student perceptions of portfolio-based language assessment (pbla) in government funded eal programs (drew & mudzingwa, 2018). the issue then turns to elementary school english language learners (ells) and the importance of having a strong instructional focus on vocabulary (roessingh, 2018). next, findley (2018) looks at the role of belongingness in achieving academic success in higher education, and chang (2018) explores academic misconduct and integrity as it relates to multilingual university students. the fifth article in the 2018 issue presents how a high school in british columbia transformed its english as a second language (esl) program into a culturally responsive english for academic purposes (eap) program (li, 2018), and the last full article investigates how accurately eap students use words from the academic word list in their writing (mcdonough, neumann, and hubert-smith, 2018). finally, the issue concludes with a book review by naismith (2018) of the lazy teacher trainer’s handbook (coney, 2017). as preparations begin for the 2019 issue, the journal remains committed to open access, providing opportunities for continuing professional development, and fostering knowledge creation related to eal teaching and learning in local contexts. many thanks go to the team of volunteers who contributed to making the 2018 issue a success, and a friendly invitation is extended to everyone who is interested in eal teaching and learning in british columbia to become more involved in the journal and consider it a meaningful opportunity for engaged continuing professional development. references chang, d. (2018). academic dishonesty in a post-secondary multilingual institution. bc teal journal, 3(1), 49–62. retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/ article/view/287 coney, m. (2017). the lazy teacher trainer’s handbook. (n.p.): the round. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/287 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/287 douglas iii bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): i–iii drew, r., & mudzingwa, c. (2018). the portfolio-based language assessment model: perceptions of adult immigrant english language learners. bc teal journal, 3(1), 1–21. retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/267 finley, a. (2018). fostering success: belongingness pedagogy for english language learners. bc teal journal, 3(1), 37–48. retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/ article/view/273 li, g. (2018). from stigma to strength: a case of esl program transformation in a greater vancouver high school. bc teal journal, 3(1), 63–76. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/303 mcdonough, k., neumann, h., & hubert-smith, n. (2018). how accurately do english for academic purposes students use academic word list words? bc teal journal, 3(1), 77– 89. retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/293 naismith, b. (2018). review of coney, m. 2017. the lazy teacher trainer’s handbook. (n.p.): the round. bc teal journal, 3(1), 90–92. retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/ index.php/bctj/article/view/292 roessingh, h. (2018). unmasking the early language and literacy needs of ells: what k–3 practitioners need to know and do. bc teal journal, 3(1), 22–36. retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/276 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/267 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/273 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/273 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/303 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/303 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/293 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/292 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/292 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/276 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ naismith 90 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 90–92 book review the lazy teacher trainer’s handbook magnus coney (n.p.) the round, 2017, 122 pages asin b078yrhn2w (e-book) reviewed by ben naismith university of pittsburgh magnus coney’s first book, the lazy teacher trainer’s handbook (ltth), is a collection of practical sessions for english language teaching (elt) teacher trainers which can be used as part of continuing professional development (cpd) programs. easily accessible online in e-book format and affordable at $5.99 us, ltth is a valuable resource for teacher trainers seeking new ideas for material-light workshops which promote communication and reflection. ltth is relatively short at 21,780 words, divided into an introduction and five “chapters” with different overarching themes. and yet, within this space, there are 52 standalone workshop ideas, each with a brief description of any necessary preparation, groups the session may suit, step-by-step procedures, and possible variations. prior to the sessions in the introduction, coney provides a succinct rationale for what is to follow, and he offers concrete steps that trainers can take for maximizing the impact of the sessions before, while, and after they take place. it is also here that coney’s writing style becomes apparent: clear, concise, and very approachable, in the tone of one experienced colleague talking to another. overall, the theoretical background of the book is clearly inspired by dogme elt, adhering to the same core precepts that teaching be conversation-driven, materials-light, and focused on emergent language (or in this case emergent needs) (meddings & thornbury, 2009). through the application of these principles, coney advocates for teachers and trainers to coconstruct knowledge together, in the vein of sociocultural learning theory, whereby the trainer provides “scaffolding” in the session to allow for learning to be mediated (thornbury, 2006). ultimately, it is proposed that by giving greater agency to participants, the sessions are more likely to be motivating and impactful. given the combined wealth of experience and expertise of teachers in many professional development sessions, such an approach seems well-suited to maximizing this human resource, in-line with meddings and thornbury’s (2009) belief that dogme’s emphasis on “learner-centred, experiential learning, applies equally to teacher training” (p. 101). the first chapter, “sharing and collaboration,” naturally focuses on highly-interactive sessions designed to develop new practices or insights. these sessions cover a range of topics, from different methodologies, to types of classes, and specific classroom situations. chapter 2, “feedback and reflection,” then offers ideas for sessions which prompt teacher reflection on their existing beliefs and practices, as well as sessions related to reflective practice tools like student naismith 91 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 90–92 questionnaires. in chapter 3, “lessons and planning,” the focus shifts to having participants plan parts of lessons, thereby combining professional development with actual planning for their upcoming lessons. similarly, chapter 4, “materials and resources,” includes elements of real material creation, but also looks at how teachers can assess and critically analyze existing materials themselves so as to maximize their usefulness. finally, in chapter 5, “planning and reflecting on cpd,” the sessions focus on promoting teacher autonomy in terms of their own professional development, with ideas relating to action research, lesson observations, and selfanalysis. across all five chapters, what stands out is the breadth and originality of the session ideas. some of the sessions, it is true, are based on more traditional (but still useful) task types like consideration of case studies, role plays, and creating/using checklists. however, at least to me, there were a number of session ideas i had not previously considered, for example tasks for increasing lesson planning speed, creating evidence-based review activities, or having teachers create tips for teacher trainers. to see for myself one of these sessions in action, i selected a half dozen i thought might be useful for the teachers i was working with, who were certificate in english language training to adults (celta) trainees in the last week of a four-week pre-service course in vancouver, canada. after giving them a brief description of each session, they voted on one entitled “devil’s advocate” from the “sharing and collaboration” section of the book. in this session, “teachers are encouraged to question some of [the] received wisdoms” (loc 687), the kind of “wisdom” which are often dispensed on initial teacher training courses. essentially a reflective session, trainees collaborated to compile slips of papers with teacher practices, both widespread and controversial. these practices were then hotly debated in groups, forcing trainees to consider possible underlying beliefs and justifications for their inclusion in the classroom. despite many of the trainees having only started teaching three weeks prior, based on their limited teaching experience and extensive learning experiences, a natural and lively debate ensued, easily taking up the allotted 75 minutes. as the trainer, my role was essentially one of moderator, getting the task started, monitoring and providing support, and managing the final class feedback. during this final stage, there was greater trainer input, as i touched on what research has suggested in relation to the points made. what was most apparent from this experiment was the flexible nature of the suggested session; in other contexts, with other participants or trainers, the output would have likely been drastically different. while some may see this unpredictability as a shortcoming, i appreciated the truly personalized and communicative nature of the session’s primary task which promoted real trainee interaction with the material and opportunities for responsive trainer input. based on the unanimously positive reaction from the participants, i will be sure to include both this, and other, sessions in future courses. considering possible readers of ltth, it may be true that these particular sessions are not ideal for trainers seeking detailed materials, extensive background theory, or convenient answer keys. likewise, the word “lazy” in the title should not be taken literally; though no material design or preparation in advance is needed, once in the classroom the trainer must be engaged naismith 92 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 90–92 and an active participant to successfully facilitate the session. with that said, for trainers interested in expanding their repertoire of ideas and delivering participant-centred sessions, ltth is a highly worthwhile investment. based on both the wide variety of session types as well as my own experience in testing one in the classroom, i would recommend teacher trainers to investigate ltth for themselves, regardless of whether for in-service or pre-service training contexts. my one suggestion for ltth would be that a hard copy option be made available, convenient for staffroom libraries and sharing amongst trainers. references meddings, l., & thornbury, s. (2009). teaching unplugged: dogme in english language teaching. surrey: delta. thornbury, s. (2006). an a–z of elt. oxford: macmillan education. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ james 46 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 46-48 book review translanguaging: language, bilingualism, and education ofelia garcía and li wei new york, ny: palgrave macmillan, 2014, 175 pages isbn 978-1-349-48138-5 (softcover) reviewed by connie lam james simon fraser university in translanguaging: languaging, bilingualism and education, garcía and wei challenge more traditional views of bilingual education by inviting readers to consider language through a translanguaging lens. pushing for an epistemological shift in how multilingual students’ language practices are viewed, the authors present translanguaging as more than an alternative category to notions such as bilingualism, multilingualism, and plurilingualism. with translanguaging, language practices are not seen as separate autonomous systems but as one linguistic repertoire, better addressing the complex linguistic practices of diverse and multilingual students and therefore potentially enacting change in societal and educational structures. throughout its seven chapters, this book delves into the concept of translanguaging in relation to other corresponding concepts, with the authors ultimately arguing towards a translanguaging pedagogy in bilingual education. the book is divided into two parts, with part one consisting of two chapters that situate translanguaging in the context of related theories of bilingualism. in chapter 1, garcía and wei introduce readers to different conceptualizations of language. the authors examine definitions of bilingualism, multilingualism, and plurilingualism and critique more traditional notions of bilingualism and multilingualism that take an additive approach to language education, framing languages as discrete and autonomous systems that must be kept separated, especially in learning contexts. however, whereas some scholars such as makoni and pennycook (2007) would go as far as contesting the existence of languages as a whole and positing languages as invented and constructed, garcía and wei acknowledge that bilingual speakers must navigate languages as part of their lived realities. they therefore stress the need for concepts such as translanguaging in order to encompass individuals’ complex language practices in today’s constantly changing and shifting world. chapter 2 provides a more in-depth examination of translanguaging, beginning with its welsh origins, and then tracing how translanguaging has since been expanded upon by different scholars. in solidifying their own definition of the term, garcía and wei particularly accentuate the criticality and creative aspects of translanguaging. by positioning “the language practices of bilingual people as the norm” (garcía, 2012, as cited in garcía & wei, 2014, p. 22), translanguaging addresses different sociocultural issues such as hybridity in culture and identity, and the oftentimes liminal and marginalized spaces people can live within. individuals play with james 47 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 46-48 language and negotiate different identities within and against conflicting dominant ideologies; by conforming to certain ideologies but resisting others, transformation can occur. part two consists of five chapters which take the discussion of translanguaging specifically into the realm of education. it begins with chapter 3 in which the authors deem current models of bilingual, second language, and foreign language education insufficient because of how they separate languages and/or homogenize language groups. they proceed to review several studies that showcase different ways of integrating students’ home languages into students’ learning. however, the authors insist that these strategies are only paving the way for reform; to truly harness students’ linguistic resources, there needs to be a change in epistemology that advances beyond just scaffolding students’ understanding of a lesson. in order for readers to imagine this potential, garcía and wei refer in chapter 4 to education in the united states where there is an ever-emergent population of diverse and multilingual students. in addition to cognitive engagement, translanguaging in education should involve giving students a voice that challenges monolingual ideologies, traditions, and educational practices, giving consideration to different and often delegitimized language practices and cultures, and thus developing students’ critical awareness of these practices and cultures. chapters 5 and 6 focus on translanguaging in the classroom. chapter 5 summarizes studies that demonstrate students translanguaging, processing information through interaction using their home languages, and thereby leveraging their linguistic resources to mediate and expand learning possibilities. chapter 6 explores different classrooms in different subject areas where teachers have adopted a translanguaging pedagogy. garcía and wei present teachers who have made room for students to share and challenge ideas but who are also co-learning and establishing bonds with their students as they learn bits and parts of students’ languages and cultures. to conclude, chapter 7 articulates the main strategies, principles and goals of translanguaging pedagogy that can be elicited from previous chapters and studies discussed in the book. the authors provide concrete examples of what to do in the classroom by breaking down which translanguaging strategies can potentially be used for what purposes, while providing suggestions for further readings to expand on these strategies. the authors close by posing the main challenge: translanguaging is not an accepted legitimate pedagogy and practice, especially in teachers’ assessment and evaluation practices. they argue for the restructuring of the education system and deeply-rooted epistemologies in order for change to occur. altogether, garcía and wei offer a comprehensive and informative introduction to not only translanguaging but also related concepts. in order for the authors to make the argument for translanguaging in education, they provide a useful and detailed description of relevant theories, and thus their introduction can serve almost as a small survey course in language and bilingualism. regarding translanguaging in particular, the book can be useful for those who have continuously seen the term in recent literature but in a more abstract discussion without concrete examples. for a more nuanced awareness of the topic of bilingualism and multilingualism, however, it might be useful to read this book alongside other works and studies (on language maintenance or minoritized languages, for example) that might better situate the concept of translanguaging amidst debates surrounding language in an ongoing dialogue. james 48 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 46-48 finally, as a key element in this book is a change in epistemology, the book’s inclusion in some shape or form in teacher education courses would be very beneficial. garcía and wei state that we are living in a world with “new patterns of global activity characterized by intensive flows of people” (p. 9) highlighting the possibility for teachers to find multilingual students in their classrooms. in the british columbia (bc) context specifically, there is an existing diverse population—with a continuous influx of new immigrants, transnationals, and refugees—who are learning english as an additional language (eal) or are in varying eal scenarios for a myriad of reasons and purposes, but who also have their own complex language repertoires, backgrounds, and mixed social and cultural practices. translanguaging potentially offers the field of eal in bc new possibilities for learning, while simultaneously celebrating the language and cultural practices that are representative of contemporary learners in bc, canada. overall, this book can be for all educators, starting a discussion that questions structures and traditions in order to reimagine new approaches and possibilities for bilingual education. references garcía, o. (2012). theorizing translanguaging for educators. in celic, c. and seltzer, k. (eds.) translanguaging: a cuny-nysieb guide for educators (pp. 1-6). retrieved from http://www.nysieb.ws.gc.cuny.edu/files/2013/03/translanguaging-guide-march2013.pdf makoni, s., & pennycook, a. (2007). disinventing and reconstituting languages. clevedon, uk: multilingual matters. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://www.nysieb.ws.gc.cuny.edu/files/2013/03/translanguaging-guide-march2013.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ khatri 82 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 supporting adult learners with refugee experiences through english language instruction raj khatri university of victoria abstract canada welcomes around 24,000 refugees annually (citizenship and immigration canada 2015; 2016). many adult learners with refugee experiences join english as an additional language (eal) classes every year, whether these classes be federally or provincially funded. these adult learners with refugee experiences bring to eal classes varied educational and life experiences. some of these learners have little or interrupted schooling (finn, 2010). learners with this profile may have also encountered forced displacement, loss of identity, torture, and trauma. these experiences, along with post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), which some people with this background may suffer from, can lead to concentration difficulties and memory loss (hauksson, 2003). this, in turn, can negatively impact additional language acquisition (finn, 2010). when eal instructors are unaware of refugee experiences, they may find it difficult to deal with these circumstances appropriately, which may create uncomfortable situations both for learners with refugee experiences and their instructors in class. to work with such learners, it is important that eal instructors be very skilled, experienced, and patient. the present article provides readers with an opportunity to understand various refugee experiences, the acculturation process these learners may go through, and lesson planning strategies that can be incorporated when supporting adult learners with refugee experiences. introduction canada welcomes approximately 12,000 refugees from around the world and provides asylum to more than 10,000 persecuted persons annually (citizenship and immigration canada [cic], 2015). in addition, 25,000 syrian refugees arrived in canada between november 2015 and february 2016 (cic, 2016). immediate service that includes food, accommodation, and medical support is provided upon their arrival in canada. in addition to these provisions, refugees have access to educational opportunities after their arrival in canada. these educational opportunities, especially in eal, are crucial for refugees in their resettlement process (perry, 2013). supplementing these services on the provincial level, bc teal has recently begun its pilot phase of the bc teal refugee project to provide learners with refugee experiences with eal support in the province (bc teal, 2016). however, the path to helping these newcomers is challenging. for example, some learners with refugee experiences have little or interrupted schooling (finn, 2010). adult eal programs for learners with refugee experiences thus face several challenges, and working in such programs warrants high levels of professionalism, determination, and dedication. when providing language support, eal instructors should be well prepared and adequately equipped to work with the specific language learning needs of these adult learners with refugee experiences. since eal instructors often serve as the first link for learners with refugee experiences to their new home as well as serve as a major source of cultural information and early contributions khatri 83 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 to refugee acculturation (gordon, 2011), eal instructors have several responsibilities to perform when teaching these learners. they need to incorporate skills and procedures to cater to the needs of learners with refugee experiences, pay special consideration to the classroom environment, and support learner participation in and outside the classroom. it is important that strategies be identified to help these learners with the ability to retain and recall new information during language learning. it may be that eal instructors need to constantly strive to raise learner selfesteem and provide a non-threatening environment for these learners to grow and succeed. they need to understand the impact of refugee experiences in language learning in adult eal classrooms, conduct needs analyses for learners with refugee experiences, take into account cultural sensitivity, and gather strategies, tools, and resources important for teaching this profile of learner. a positive environment should be created for learners with refugee experiences to thrive and succeed in a new country and culture, which they can do by having a clear understanding of refugee experiences, identifying the process of resettlement or acculturation along with awareness of cultural diversity, and planning eal instruction to suit the needs of these learners. understanding the refugee experience as refugees arrive in canada, whether it be through government or privately sponsored sources, sponsors typically engage in significant preparation and set aside a considerable amount of resources to welcome and help these newcomers integrate into canadian society. eal instructors are encouraged to consider a number of issues related to refugee experiences when designing lessons for this profile of learner. learners with refugee experiences come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds, and their challenges and needs are different from other adult learners (perry 2009; muth & perry, 2010). such learners typically have overcome several adverse challenges before they arrived in canada. many of them may have escaped from persecution and conflicts at home, which might have been followed by severe adversity during a prolonged stay in refugee camps with limited or no access to healthcare. they may have been facing complex physical and mental challenges as a result of torture, conflicts, and displacements. leaving their country, culture, and home behind and making new homes and new friends in a completely new country can be challenging for these learners who may have even lost some of their loved ones because of persecution or displacement. some learners with refugee experiences may have either experienced interrupted schooling or have never had an opportunity for formal education in their countries of origin (finn 2010; british columbia ministry of education, 2015). they may have been living their lives in poverty and experiencing depleted financial resources. they generally may face a loss of identify and self-esteem and suffer from isolation and loneliness. these learners sometimes carry with them a sense of instability, fear, and despair. since knowing the language of the new land is one of the opportunities that contributes towards refugees’ having employment and better health status (tshabangu-soko & caron, 2011), it is essential that these learners be provided with language learning opportunities in a warmly welcoming environment upon their arrival. for this, eal instructors who understand the experiences these refugee learners have undergone can begin to create a warm, welcoming environment, and help these individuals learn the language and the culture to thrive in a new society. khatri 84 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 learners with refugee experiences may have been exposed to painful threatening experiences and traumatic events, and victims of trauma may undergo attention and memory loss (kosa & hansen, 2006). under such conditions, learners’ ability to acquire an additional language may be adversely affected (finn, 2010). as both shortand long-term memory plays a significant role in language acquisition (finn, 2010), it is important that teaching methods and pedagogies that help learners with cognitive difficulties retaining new information be continuously explored and incorporated in class. providing repetition and review and using flashcards that learners can take home are some of the techniques that can be used with beginnerlevel learners of english for fostering additional language acquisition (finn, 2010). pedagogical practices related to the theory of multiple intelligences (gardner, 2006) can also be employed with learners to process new language in a better way that enables them to “draw on the intelligences that work the best for them” (medley, 2012, p. 115). mutual trust should develop between the instructor and learners and among learners, and one way to establish rapport and understanding could be by playing icebreaker games (hart, 2007). in sum, it is practical for instructors to understand various refugee experiences and seek strategies and procedures that can help these learners with additional language learning. resettlement and the acculturation process as with immigrants and international students, refugees also take time to become adjusted during their resettlement process in canada. the resettlement or acculturation process may take several months and years, depending on refugees’ individual circumstances, such as the frequency and length of displacements learners have experienced, the length of dealing with trauma, the severity of consequences of war and violence, feelings of loss and loneliness, and the language barrier. social adjustment according to stein (1981), there are four stages of refugee adjustment: (1) the initial period of arrival, (2) the period of the first couple of years, (3) the period after about half a decade, and (4) the period after about a decade. in the initial stage, which lasts until the first few months after their arrival, refugees can overwhelmingly feel the loss, whether it be social, occupational, or personal. they are completely in a new land where they may depend on others for everything. they often seem withdrawn and fatigued and easily distracted. during the second stage, people with refugee experiences start to gradually move ahead from their recovery of losses and begin their new life all over again (keller, 1975). in their new move, they may join school and change their jobs. in the third stage, which occurs after four or five years of arriving in the new land, people with refugee experiences are mostly adjusted to their new society (stein, 1979). they have “acquired” both the culture and the language (stein, 1981, p. 326). however, if people with refugee experiences are unable to meet their goals at this period, they are discouraged from pursuing their aims in life. at this point, they are likely to pass their aspirations and expectations on to their children (soskis, 1967), thinking that their children would accomplish what they could not do themselves. as they reach the fourth stage or period, people with refugee experiences reach stability to a greater extent although they still continue to recover from their lost status (stein, 1981). this is the final stage on the way to integration. at this stage, they may start to see the positive things in the new land and culture. they may gradually begin to come to khatri 85 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 terms with both the past and the present conditions of their circumstances. people with refugee experiences might possess a sense that the new land is their home and the new culture is part of their life, too. they typically make friends and help themselves become part of a multicultural society. they may go through all of these stages or skip a stage in the process of acculturation, as the process of acculturation relies on their individual situations and their resilience in dealing with the changes and difficulties they encounter. eal instructors can support these learners’ pathways to integration by incorporating into their eal instruction themes and areas related to integration, such as opportunities to explore local communities and mingle with local community members. it is important that learners’ decisions to integrate be thoroughly appreciated and supported throughout their eal instruction (british columbia ministry of education, 2015). during the initial stages, as learners with refugee experiences may be anxious about their future and might have unsure feelings about the new land and culture, they may not retain what is taught in class. it can become worse if they are suffering from traumatic stress at the same time. they may develop misunderstandings about their new place of residence and may even start to experience feelings of dislike towards the new culture and its norms. it is important that learners with refugee experiences be provided with opportunities in which they can start to mingle with people from the community they live in, and build their self-confidence and selfesteem. learners with refugee experiences may demonstrate different learning speeds in different stages. in some stages, they may display adequate knowledge of the english language according to the proficiency level they are placed in. at other times, they may be demonstrating english language skills below the proficiency level they may have initially been tested at for their placement at an english language school. therefore, it is important that eal instructors take into account the stages of acculturation for these learners, understand these refugee learners’ varied learning needs, know their personal circumstances, and provide eal instruction accordingly. eal instructors should initially know their learners and their cultural and social milieu well before eal teaching begins (burgoyne & hull, 2007). while getting to know more about their learners, instructors may need to familiarize their learners with school environments and level expectations in the initial stages of language learning. cultural diversity along with these stages of acculturation for learners with refugee experiences, cultural diversity is another aspect that eal instructors can take into consideration, as it is cultural diversity that contributes to learners’ taking time to acculturate to the surrounding community. while there are numerous advantages to having people together from around the many cultures, it also brings challenges at the same time. people from different cultural backgrounds may bring with them different expectations, strengths, and needs. whether it be the teaching and learning process, living style, working hours, friendships, traditional beliefs, or eating habits, different cultural aspects may be carried out or observed differently in different cultures. as instructors, it may be important for them to explore learners’ cultural norms, values, and expectations, help learners become aware of each other’s culture at least to some degree among learners, and share instructors’ cultural backgrounds in the process. this may help build up mutual understanding and shared responsibility among learners and between learners and instructors and may also help learners with refugee experiences gradually move towards acculturation. as acculturation is a khatri 86 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 slow process, perseverance is extremely important, which is salient for eal instructors helping learners with refugee experiences understand their acculturation process. planning lessons and preparing for lesson delivery working with adult learners with refugee experiences requires high levels of educational skills and commitment, since some of these learners who have experienced limited or interrupted education may have very distinctive educational, social, and psychological needs (benseman, 2014). since instructors are also concerned with the psychological wellbeing of their learners in addition to their education (due, riggs, & mandara, 2015), it is vital that instructors be prepared to consider the needs of survivors of torture and plan and deliver their lessons carefully, keeping in mind refugee experiences and the acculturation process. while eal instructors may be well prepared for teaching english to language learners in general, they may be in need of more professional development when working with learners with refugee experiences because of various strengths and learning needs these learners may come with. a warm and welcoming environment should be created so that learners feel free to express themselves during their language learning process. since these learners’ healing may first begin with eal instructors in class (canadian centre for victims of torture [ccvt], 1995), instructors need to design appropriate lesson plans and effectively deliver these plans among these learners in class. it is equally important that eal instructors be flexible in their daily lesson planning. when teaching, instructors may realize that the lesson they have prepared with so much effort may not work on a particular day if this plan makes learners with refugee experiences uncomfortable. it may sometimes be difficult for instructors to know what may frustrate this profile of learner when, so it is essential that instructors come to understand these learners’ circumstances and be flexible in what they teach when. along with such flexibility, there may arise a need for flexibility in outlining course outcomes and contents to be taught (burgoyne & hull, 2007), which may also warrant instructors working with their supervisors or members of the curriculum team. therefore, when preparing long-range or daily lesson plans for classes including learners with refugee experiences, factors, such as learner participation, classroom arrangement, units themes and activities, and testing and assessment should appropriately be considered well in advance. learner attendance typically, instructors encourage learners for their regular participation in class, as regular participation is very important for the language learning process. however, instructors may notice that learners with refugee experiences have irregular attendance, stray off-task when in class, or sometimes leave the class halfway through. such issues with attendance or off-task behaviors may cause inconvenience to the instructor whose responsibility also lies in motivating all learners to actively participate in class while not creating an unfair or biased environment. however, it is critical that the instructor understand why learners with refugee experiences may behave in a particular way. learners with refugee experiences may be going through numerous difficult situations at the same time as taking their language classes, such as struggling to settle down in a new place, experiencing traumatic stress, and dealing with a variety of other issues. therefore, instructors may want to give special consideration related to understanding why khatri 87 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 learners might have low attendance or remain off-task and provide solutions to minimize learner absences. learners with refugee experiences may feel uncomfortable letting their instructor know time and again the reasons for their irregularity or absences, so the instructor sometimes may not get a response instantly from learners. under such circumstances, the instructor has two choices: to meet with their learners and discuss with them a time that the instructor and learners can meet to make up for learners’ missed classes, or the instructor may choose to incorporate various strategies to encourage learners with refugee experiences to attend classes on a regular basis if possible (ccvt, 1995). for example, learners can be asked to take responsibility for attendance records, instead of the instructor marking attendance, and learners can mark themselves present upon arrival in class (ccvt, 1995). providing guest lectures from time to time is another idea that can be implemented for learner motivation and participation. if possible, guest speakers who, in spite of similar refugee experiences, have achieved success in canadian society can be invited to speak to learners, and this can also motivate learners to attend classes, learn the language, and succeed with their goals as the speakers have. classroom arrangement when planning lessons, instructors should think of the classroom arrangement in advance. it is preferable that classrooms be arranged in such a way that whenever needed, furniture can be moved around for different grouping patterns without much effort and noise. classrooms should not be cramped or confining at all. learners with refugee experiences who have spent their time in prison or a dark, cramped room for long periods of time may feel uncomfortable or scared (ccvt, 1995). some other suggestions are making the classroom open and bright by leaving blinds, curtains, and classroom doors open as long as possible and encouraging learners to organize the classroom depending on how they would like the classroom to look (ccvt, 1995). school-based environments may remind them of negative experiences in their homeland and may have detrimental effects. psychologist dr. y. de andrade (as cited in british columbia ministry of education, 2015) has suggested that dark hallways, the presence of police, fire and earthquake drills, certain body language and gestures, use of masks, and the burning of firecrackers are some of the anxiety triggers to be avoided or minimized as much as possible when arranging the classroom. unit themes and activities themes and classroom activities are equally important for instructors to take into account during lesson preparation. activities should be planned such that learners feel comfortable and their motivation to learn the language and their self-esteem is promoted. based on the school’s policies, trips can be arranged. field trips can be very interactive and motivating events that provide learners with opportunities to explore their community through activities, such as a scavenger hunt, and learn from each other in the group as well as from the members of the community. learners have the opportunity to mingle around in a non-threatening environment. they can talk freely, share ideas, and perform or see others perform daily chores. field trips can be esteem-building exercises and learners can be given the opportunity to plan and organize such trips (ccvt, 1995). in addition to such field trips, topics, such as foods from around the world, learners’ countries of origin, and home remedies be included (ccvt, 1995). learners can be asked to bring and share dishes from their culture and give a presentation on the dishes they khatri 88 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 share with their classmates. these activities can lead to learners feeling confident and free to talk about topics of interest, which may provide motivation and encourage participation. adult learners with refugee experiences bring to classes various skills, such as cooking, carpentry, farming, and salesmanship, and these activities can also be included in class. eal instructors can encourage these learners to share their skills with other learners and instructors. this may help learners feel proud of themselves, which eventually leads to their increasing motivation to attend classes, learn the language, and socialize gradually at the same time. against some anxiety triggers, anxiety buffers can be created. surprise activities can be avoided, and instructors can provide learners with a schedule that is regularly followed in class. learners should be advised well in advance in case a change is going to take place in class. changing daily routines and schedules is a sign of unstable situations that learners with refugee experiences have already experienced, and this may trigger fear, which may discourage learners from attending classes. posting daily schedules on the board and notifying learners ahead of time in case of a major deviation from the set schedule (cole et al., 2005), introducing limited amount of tasks at a time or on a day, using group work so that attention is not drawn towards a single learner, and familiarizing learners with some sounds that are sometimes heard at school are some of the ways to reduce refugee learners’ fear of unexpected change. testing and assessment testing is an integral part of learning, and it assesses instructors’ teaching and learners’ learning, which is based on the assessment purpose: assessment for learning, assessment as learning, or assessment of learning (khatri, 2014). it is important that learners be assessed on the same subject in a variety of ways so that no learners are left behind in their assessment, as these learners can prove their learning in a variety of ways. eal instructors can take into consideration that the purpose of assessment is to improve learner learning and that clear communication, without any surprises, be carried out among learners. at the same time, it is essential that assessment not be tough and tiring, and that it not discourage learners from using the language. post assessment discussion is important for eal instructors to carry out with learners with refugee experiences to make sure assessment needs meet the needs assessment carried out at the beginning of the course and learners are motivated to continue their language learning. selfassessment can also be an excellent way to assess learners, as it helps them reflect on their learning process and be responsible for their own learning. conclusion learners with refugee experiences may have escaped from war-torn countries and armed conflicts, perhaps lost family members and friends, and possibly endured torture and violence. when these adult learners with refugee experiences turn to eal classrooms, instructors should be aware of their situations and create conditions in which learners feel welcome and safe, whereby these learners can see a positive future for themselves and their families. some learners with refugee experiences may have escaped persecution, and conflict and undergone subsequent experiences in refugee camps and severe adversity in the journey to their new home, so these learners may be overly dependent on their instructors in the beginning. however, eal instruction can be carried out such that learners gradually move towards independence and self khatri 89 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 82-90 sufficiency. eal instructors can be aware of the strengths and needs of learners with refugee experiences and provide eal instruction accordingly. eal instructors can thus consider the refugee experience and the acculturation process that these learners may go through before planning or delivering their lessons. acknowledgements the author extends his sincere thanks to the bc teal journal editorial team and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and support in bringing this article to publication. references bc teal (2016). bc teal 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(1967). the adjustment of hungarian refugees in new york. international migration review 2(1), 40-46. stein, b. n. (1979). occupational adjustment of refugees: the vietnamese in the united states. international migration review 13(1), 25-45. stein, b. n. (1981). the refugee experience: defining the parameters of a field of study. international migration review, 15(1), 320-331. tshabangu-soko, t. s., caron, r. m. (2011). english for speakers of other languages: improving english language acquisition for preliterate and nonliterate adult african refugees. journal of immigrant and refugee studies, 9(4), 416-433. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/working-documents/cpt-2003-91-eng.pdf http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/working-documents/cpt-2003-91-eng.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 36 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays trauma-informed teaching practice and refugee children: a hopeful reflection on welcoming our new neighbours to canadian schools m. gregory tweedie university of calgary carla belanger calgary board of education kimberley rezazadeh calgary board of education karen vogel calgary board of education abstract given the canadian government’s focus on refugee resettlement in light of global crises, many schools are receiving increased enrolment of students who have experienced the trauma associated with living in, and fleeing from, regions experiencing armed conflict. as well as the effects of complex trauma, children from these backgrounds will likely have experienced disrupted schooling during the migration process (e.g. in refugee camps), and as a consequence lack literacy in their first language. the authors assert that given the numbers of such students entering canadian classrooms, it is important that educators have at least some knowledge of trauma-informed teaching practice. illustrated through the journal entries of a student teacher, the implementation of blaustein & kinniburgh’s (2010) arc framework is described, as applied in one canadian high school, in a classroom of newly-arrived refugees from war-torn countries. the effect of trauma on key areas of attachment, self-regulation, and developmental competence are considered, alongside illustrations of classroom intervention strategies. while acknowledging the challenges inherent in trauma-informed teaching practice, the article encourages a move away from a deficit perspective on children from refugee backgrounds, toward one of hope, befitting the resiliency such children bring to their new country. introduction according to immigration, refugees and citizenship canada, our country admitted a total of 26,172 refugees between november 2015 and march 2016. while the majority of these were settled in ontario (41%), 13% and 9% were bound for alberta and british columbia, respectively (ircc, 2017). while british columbia on average receives 1,600 refugees annually (government of british columbia, 2017), the total number of syrian refugees alone resettled in the province was (as of december 2016), 2,100 (iss bc, 2016). syrian households are typically larger than the canadian ones, with bc arrivals reporting an average of six household members (iss bc, 2016, p. 8). the relatively young age of syrian refugees (60% of bc’s resettled refugees are under 19, for example) implies that growth in school enrollments is expected, and tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 37 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 the alberta education annual report for 2015-2016 indicates an enrollment of 1,250 resettled students with refugee experiences into alberta schools (government of alberta, 2016). the numbers of such students arriving in our schools, in a compressed time frame, highlight the need for teachers to consider teaching practices which support the learning needs of children from refugee backgrounds. though the circumstances endured by many children with refugee experiences prior to entering our schools may seem crippling, the authors assert that we do well to avoid adopting a “deficit” lens through which to view these new students, who bring “strengths, abilities and qualities to share, with hope of thriving in a new country” (british columbia ministry of education, 2015, p. 13). it is with this hopeful outlook that we as authors explore, through experiences shared in a student teacher’s reflective journal, how educators might build learning communities that support our newly arrived neighbours from refugee backgrounds. entry from a student teacher’s journal1. february 8, period 4. today the class of refugee kids are studying heart idioms in preparation for valentine’s day, a celebration which for most of these teenagers, will be another one of those “canadian firsts” in a year that will have seen so many. have a heart, heartache, a change of heart, wear my heart on my sleeve, learn by heart, cross my heart, warm-hearted, all heart… the students each choose a heart idiom, and use their beginning english literacy skills to write the idiom on a heart-shaped cut-out, which will then adorn the classroom bulletin board for a follow-up reading activity. as i circulate among the desks, observing, and giving spelling help when asked, i’m struck by how much care goes into the formation and placement of each letter, with colours carefully chosen—no one’s racing through this activity. as with every lesson in this class of new arrivals (most are from syria), there’s that one poignant moment, when we chatty teachers look at a student’s work, and—very uncharacteristically—have nothing to say. one student has chosen, aptly, the idiom heartbroken for his card. “i am heartbroken,” his sentence reads, “because i haven’t seen my brother for 6 years.” refugee arrivals: meet our new neighbours article 1 of the 1951 refugee convention, of which canada is a signatory, defines a refugee as someone who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it (unhcr, 2007, p. 14). the above circumstances make it important to distinguish refugees from immigrants, a distinction sometimes lost in the perception of the general public. though both groups will experience the many challenges of settling in a new place, immigrants are likely to have 1 on condition of anonymity, permission has been granted by a student teacher to use excerpts from a reflective journal, submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of a teaching practicum field experience course. tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 38 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 developed familiarity with their new country before arrival, often precipitated by pre-move visits. this period of preparation for immigration means that their children are less likely to have interrupted schooling, as arrangements for basic needs are often made in advance of the move to canada (british columbia ministry of education, 2015). contrast this with the situation of many children from refugee backgrounds. prolonged time periods in refugee camps may have led to interrupted schooling, with the consequence of illiteracy and innumeracy in their first language (l1), and the effects of trauma from war and involuntary displacement (block, cross, riggs, & gibbs, 2014). these reflect the reality of forced migration for refugees, juxtaposed with the choice of destination and timing of settlement exercised by immigrants. canada has been recognized for its leadership in providing protection for refugees (canadian council for refugees, 2016), and canadian educators have acknowledged the crucial role of teachers and schools in the resettlement process. the literature includes explorations of issues surrounding refugee education across a range of canada’s provinces: prince edward island (macnevin, 2012); ontario (feuerverger, 2011); manitoba (kanu, 2008; stewart, 2012); alberta (miles & bailey-mckenna, 2016; wilkinson, 2002); and newfoundland (li & grineva, 2017); as well as from a diversity of research methodologies such as case studies (e.g., beauregard, papazian-zohrabian, & rousseau, 2017) and narrative inquiries (e.g., kovinthan, 2016). entry from a student teacher’s journal. february 6, afternoon. heavy snowfall today, with -20 c weather coming out of nowhere. all the buses were late, and when they did finally come, were packed full and so didn’t do any pick-ups at bus stops where kids from our class were waiting. got word that one refugee student from our class had been taken to the hospital severe frostbite while waiting for the bus. his winter clothes were the same as the canadianborn kids (read: underdressed for the weather) but students who grew up here knew to find somewhere indoors to wait after the first bus passed without stopping. my mentor teacher threw out the lesson plan that morning and taught everyone the “skin test”: seeing pale yellow or white means one’s skin is in the early stages of frostbite. trauma-informed teaching practice the impact of war and its aftermath on children’s well-being in the areas of health, mental health, and cognition has been well-documented (e.g., williams, 2007; wolmer, hamiel, & laor, 2011). teachers typically rely on school psychologists to support children’s particular mental health concerns (reinke, stormont, herman, puri, & goel, 2011), and such supports may be effective when two or three refugee children from war-torn regions enter a classroom. but when the entire class consists of children who have experienced the horrors of war first-hand (as is the case in some canadian classrooms at present), it is important that teachers have at least some awareness of trauma-informed teaching practice. in traumatic events, “the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force,” which may “overwhelm the ordinary systems of care that give people a sense of control, connection, and meaning” (herman, 1997, p. 33). terr (2003) distinguished one-time traumatic incidents (type i) tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 39 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 from type ii events (also known as repetitive or complex trauma) which recur for an extended period of time, typically making recovery more difficult (courtois & ford, 2014, p. 11). entry from a student teacher’s journal. my mentor teacher quote of the week: “teaching this class requires a lot of emotional stamina.” complex trauma affects cognition in children, which can directly impact success in the classroom. growing up in conditions of constant threat, with all resources focused on survival, may result in an adolescent who has difficulty thinking clearly and working reasonably through a problem to consider multiple alternatives. over-responses to sensory stimuli are a result of growing up under extreme stress, and an adolescent who has experienced complex trauma may be hypersensitive to sounds, touch, or light. when experiencing what would be considered ordinary levels of stress in a canadian school, children with refugee experiences may exhibit the physiological effects of extreme stress, even “shutting down” entirely (national child traumatic stress network, n.d.). downey (2013) identified four characteristics of complex trauma which have direct impact upon academic performance: reduced cognitive capacity; sleep disturbance; memory difficulties; and language delays (pp. 12–13). reduced cognitive capacity through hyperarousal may lead to difficulties retaining information and maintaining attention on a task. exposure to the trauma of war while growing up may have developed a sleep avoidance pattern, with the child fearing what will happen if they go to sleep, or recurring nightmares as trauma is relived may prevent restful sleep. a student retaining these sleep patterns in their new canadian environment will inevitably be drowsy during lessons, often sleeping in class and thus missing learning opportunities. with respect to memory difficulties, children who have experienced complex trauma may be overwhelmed with memories of traumatic events, which impact upon their ability to “hold” one set of information while working on another, a skill required, for example, in solving mathematical problems. finally, given that complex trauma restricts the ability to “listen and retain information, to understand complex concepts and to express ideas and thoughts” (downey, 2013, p. 13), refugee children may be developmentally behind their peers in regard to their first language, let alone the challenges of acquiring proficiency in a second. entry from a student teacher’s journal. february 10, friday. everything seemed to be going well in the weekly quiz: students were engaged in the task and for the most part the classroom of newly arrived refugee adolescents (mostly from syria) was unusually calm. then, out of the blue (at least to the teachers), sobs erupted from one student, and the calm suddenly disintegrated. two of the boys became fiercely angry and announced they were going home. one of the girls spoke to the sobbing student in a threatening tone, then closed her book and resolutely refused to work. another student who’d been engaged in the task suddenly appeared panic and needed “fresh air”, and this set off a flurry of requests for washroom and water breaks. my mentor teacher tried valiantly to get the quiz back on track, but emotions were now running high across the room. she circulated among the desks, trying to identify how to best help the sobbing student, while attempting to calmly diffuse the rising tide of anger. so much for “summative assessment” … tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 40 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 it is tempting, when considering the devastating impacts of complex trauma, to envision only a bleak picture of what a classroom of children from refugee backgrounds might look like, and, like the student teacher quoted above, feel woefully inadequate for the task. yet, there are many teachers across canada who are refusing to accept a “deficit” viewpoint—neither of refugee children as learners, nor of themselves as educators—and, despite the many challenges, persist in creating classrooms of hope. i was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in one such classroom daily for several weeks, and the remainder of this article is devoted to a description of how a team of dedicated teachers are striving to warmly welcome their new neighbours to a canadian high school, told through the eyes of a student teacher. the arc framework—applied the acronym arc (attachment, regulation, and competency) is used to describe a framework of strategies addressing these three core issues in assisting a child’s recovery from complex trauma (blaustein & kinniburgh, 2007, 2010; kinniburgh, blaustein, spinazzola, & van der kolk, 2005).the teaching team described in this article utilize classroom practices informed by the arc framework, but readers should not infer that the teachers are continually consulting a manual on what to do next—there isn’t time! in fact, the creators of arc distinguish their framework from other “manualized” approaches, preferring instead to call it a “guideline” to inform practice, while being cognizant of the uniqueness of each context (kinniburgh et al., 2005, pp. 425–426). entry from a student teacher’s journal. as a student teacher, i feel discouraged today by my estimate, i currently have about 10% of the skills required to teach in this program. :-( attachment attachment (the “a” in the arc framework) refers to the nurturing relationship between children and their caregivers, which when secure, provides a solid base to establish identity and sense of self (main, 1996). children living in, or fleeing from, the inherently insecure conditions of war zones may experience disrupted or severed attachment and its consequences. key to countering the effects of insecure attachment is the establishment of predictable and structured routines, in an environment where a sense of safety and security is paramount. predictable classroom routines and rituals help to restore a sense of stability for children whose lives have been characterized by “extraordinary chaos and unpredictability” (blaustein & kinniburgh, 2010, p. 38). entry from a student teacher’s journal. february 22. school fire drill scheduled for 2 pm today. my mentor teacher is really concerned that the fire drill might be a trauma trigger for the students from refugee backgrounds. how could i not have thought of that??? am i ever going to get it?? following the completion of the drill she put everyone in a circle, and led the students in describing their feelings when they heard the alarm, and then when we all lined up outside in the snow for a head count. “i want everyone to feel safe,” she kept saying. tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 41 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 i hope all that i’m observing here is somehow “going in” by osmosis—i can’t read from a manual while teaching … self-regulation children who experience complex trauma often, as a coping tool, learn to disassociate from their experiences, both emotionally and physically. danger, experienced repeatedly in a war zone for example, will “activate” physiological and psychological survival resources, but “de-activate” higher cognitive functions (kinniburgh et al., 2005, p. 428). these students may then have difficulty monitoring their emotions at school when (even relatively mild) stressful events occur; some children who have had traumatic experiences “shut down” when encountering the daily ups and downs of school life, while others seem to explode. learning to identify and regulate emotional responses is a key focus of trauma-informed teaching practice. entry from a student teacher’s journal. march 1. intense debriefing session today. my mentor teachers spent their lunch hour and the first period in the afternoon sorting out a simmering conflict. some of the syrian boys sit in the hallway during lunch hour, laughing and joking (probably too loudly) in arabic. a group of canadian-born kids passing by interpreted the arabic talk as aggression, and some threats were exchanged. rumours of an impending brawl spread through our class, and emotions reached a fever pitch. the lesson plan for the afternoon was ditched—again—and the teachers spent the first afternoon period with the class in a circle. ms v. focused on getting the students to label emotions, using her ultra-calm voice: “m, how did you feel when that happened? …. oh, m. felt angry. how about you, y how did you feel? … oh, m felt angry, but y felt scared.” after most of the class had named their emotions (it turned out to be a pretty good vocabulary lesson, too!), ms b. moved the group along: “so how can we solve this problem? what are your ideas? n, what are your ideas to solve this problem?” an hour later, a peaceful calm had settled over the classroom. another crisis averted for now … self-regulation describes “the capacity to effectively manage experience on many levels: cognitive, emotional, physiological, and behavioural”, and requires both an “ability to tolerate a range of arousal and affect”, as well as “an understanding of the interconnections among aspects of internal experiences (i.e., sensations, feelings, thought, behaviour)” (blaustein & kinniburgh, 2010, p. 111). clearly, these capacities do not develop overnight, and teachers (or their school leadership) solely focused on getting through the syllabus will encounter inevitable frustration. a patient, nurturing approach, with a willingness to see the ups and downs of daily school life not as interruptions to the real teaching but as invaluable teaching opportunities in and of themselves, will go a long way toward creating a welcoming learning environment for our new neighbours. entry from a student teacher’s journal. quote of the week from my mentor teacher: “with these kids, the relationship is the teaching.” tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 42 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 competencies developmental competencies, representing the “c” in the arc framework, reflect the reality that the complex trauma experienced by children in zones of conflict typically interferes with normal developmental stages, and the competencies that accompany them. difficulties with problem-solving, concentration, attention to tasks, and abstract reasoning (kinniburgh et al., 2005) are among the developmental competencies impinged upon by the experiences many of these children have encountered. entry from a student teacher’s journal. one of my mentor teachers used a what you had for breakfast prompt as a way to create an orderly procedure for putting away readers. when she found out three boys hadn’t had breakfast, she sent them to get some from the foods classroom. financial hardship often goes hand in hand with being a newly arrived refugee, and some of our kids come to school hungry. felt conflicted about how i am often a slave to the lesson plan—get through the agenda at all costs! key to reconstructing these competencies is restoring a sense that children have control over their own outcomes and that an individual decision made today has direct effect on tomorrow’s consequences—something the uncertainty of life in a war zone quickly erodes. teachers can foster this through deliberate use of the language of choice, decision, and consequence, and through activities that involve students in shortand longer-term planning toward concrete, achievable goals (kinniburgh et al., 2005). one school utilized the expertise of a nearby retreat centre, which operated outdoor team-building camps focused on challenging activities requiring teamwork and goal orientation. there, students from refugee backgrounds, against the backdrop of canada’s breathtaking natural beauty, worked together to plan, execute and evaluate activities like the scaling of rock walls or the safe negotiation of creek crossings. entry from a student teacher’s journal: my mentor teacher was coming back from a school outdoor activity, walking alongside a student, when a helicopter flew overhead (the city’s air ambulance). the student noticeably stiffened, so my mentor teacher asked, “how do you feel in canada when you see a helicopter?” “in syria,” the student answered, “when you see a helicopter—it means run! run fast! the helicopter will drop …” the student didn’t complete the sentence, and my mentor teacher avoided supplying the missing word. they walked the rest of the way back to the school in a reflective silence. teacher self-care many educators report that teaching and learning with classrooms of children from refugee backgrounds is a deeply fulfilling, rewarding, and even life-changing experience. at the same time, however, it requires, as the mentor teacher quoted above notes, considerable emotional stamina. student work towards the restoration of disrupted attachment, self-regulation, and developmental competence does not take place without many ups and downs, gains and losses, victories and setbacks, often with accompanying tears (on the part of students, and, occasionally, teachers). in the context of such emotional investment, it is essential that teachers cultivate habits tweedie, belanger, rezazadeh, & vogel 43 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 36-45 of self-care. self-care strategies might include: finding colleagues especially skilled at listening; keeping a sunshine file of positive feedback; developing the ability to laugh at oneself; not neglecting hobbies that replenish; learning to breathe deeply in stressful situations; recognizing when one needs a break; custom-made cappuccinos every friday; long walks; preventative timeouts (for the teacher!) when classroom emotions are surging; after-work chats with supportive colleagues. such battery rechargers are essential in maintaining the emotional stamina needed for this challenging, but deeply rewarding work. conclusion this article has described, through the reflections of a student teacher, how the arc framework is being applied in one classroom. we argue that a focus on rebuilding attachment, selfregulation, and developmental competencies in children from refugee backgrounds can provide such students a strong start to their canadian school life. evidence suggests that despite overwhelming odds, many children who have experienced trauma somehow not only learn to survive, but to thrive (werner & smith, 1992, 2001). our new neighbours have witnessed firsthand some of the worst that humankind has to offer, yet bring with them a remarkable sense of resilience and hope for a new life in a new country. educators taking up the challenging task of teaching and learning with children who 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(2002). factors influencing the academic success of refugee youth in canada. journal of youth studies, 5(2), 173–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260220134430 williams, r. (2007). the psychosocial consequences for children of mass violence, terrorism and disasters. international review of psychiatry, 19(3), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540260701349480 wolmer, l., hamiel, d., & laor, n. (2011). preventing children’s posttraumatic stress after disaster with teacher-based intervention: a controlled study. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 50(4), 340–348.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2011.01.002 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022714 https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2012.691136 https://doi.org/10.1176/foc.1.3.322 http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10 https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260220134430 https://doi.org/10.1080/09540260701349480 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2011.01.002 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ landry 123 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 123–124 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371 book review research methods in applied linguistics: a practical guide, 2nd edition brian paltridge and aek phakiti london, uk: bloomsbury academic, 2015, 590 pages isbn 987-1-4725-2501-7 reviewed by michael h. landry university of british columbia in the latest edition of research methods in applied linguistics: a practical guide, authors brian paltridge and aek phakiti bring together 31 of the leading scholars in the fields of applied linguistics and additional language acquisition to provide a contemporary overview of approaches and methods used to explore a wide array of research topics. the book, which consists of 31 chapters in total, is divided into two parts. part 1, “research methods and approaches,” consists of 16 chapters. each one is dedicated to exploring a different approach to conducting research. although each chapter explores a unique approach, each one follows the same structure. most chapters in part 1 contain an initial overview of the research methodology. in this section, the focus is on methodology, or the theoretical principles that guide the research, less on the methods—or the actual things we do to collect and analyse data. overviews of each methodology are followed by procedural considerations and are closed by a sample study. a list of additional readings is included at the end of each chapter. part 1 begins with the main authors providing an overview of the landscape of the different ways information in applied linguistics has been collected. continuing on, chapters 2, 3, and 4 highlight the key elements of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research analysis respectively. the novice researcher would be well-served by reading these first four chapters followed by chapter 14 on ethics and chapter 15 on developing research projects. the more experienced researcher might find greater value in exploring the more specialized research approaches such as case studies (chapter 7), critical research (chapter 9), and research synthesis (chapter 13). part 2, “areas of research,” consists of 15 chapters dedicated to presenting clear examples of how different areas of applied linguistics are typically investigated. each chapter contains a short overview of the respective topic, which is followed by a description of the methodologies and approaches typically applied to investigate the respective topic. each author provides a sample study to help bring everything together. as in part 1, each chapter closes with a list of additional readings. the layout of the book is quite handy as it affords the chapter authors in part 2 the opportunity to relate the contents contained within their chapters to key points referenced earlier in part 1. this layout acts as a form of spaced retrieval, thereby, compelling the reader to return to those earlier points and consider them in a new context. in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371 landry 124 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 123–124 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371 particular, phakiti’s chapter on quantitative research (chapter 2) and holliday’s chapter on qualitative research (chapter 3) are referred to in several of the chapters which constitute part 2. this approach certainly helps the reader connect the overall content to concrete examples. similar to part 1, in part 2, the reader has the freedom to delve into the areas of interest to them. overall, the scope of the topics in part 2 is broad, and there is something for researchers interested in researching language and skills, socio-cultural elements, and teacher education. as an eap instructor who is interested in eal learners’ writing and intercultural communicative competence in the eap classroom, i was naturally drawn to hyland’s chapter on researching writing (chapter 19) and block’s chapter on researching language and identity (chapter 30). similarly, as a professional development workshop designer, i gained great insight from borg’s two chapters on researching teachers’ beliefs and researching teacher education (chapters 5 and 6 respectively). although each contributor presents a unique aspect of the field, there are key themes which emerge throughout and contribute to the overall coherence of the book. in particular, the reader is left with a genuine appreciation of the importance of bracketing, which is the process of self-reflection during which scholars examine and remove their biases from the research process so that those biases do not impact the analysis of the results, and the need to place ethics at the fore of any research project. in addition, there is a reminder throughout that the methods are determined by the problem. finally, the authors place a high value on methodological transparency, reflexivity, and employing a multi-method approach to data collection to enhance rigour. in summary, the authors do an excellent job of taking a huge amount of information and truncating it into manageable chunks without skimping on the details. this efficient conveying of key information makes the book required reading for anyone serious about conducting research in the field of applied linguistics. providing an introduction to approaches in part 1 and elaborating via concrete examples in part 2 contribute to the overall flow of the book. in addition, the inclusion of a variety of resources, including books, journal articles, and websites, in the additional reading sections of each chapter also lends to the overall accessible nature of the book, making it less overwhelming for readers who might be intimidated by the stylistic features of some journal articles in the field. the well-chosen panel of authors presents a case for either a cover-to-cover or à la carte approach to reading this publication. these content and format strengths, bolstered by the easy-to-read nature of the writing, make it a great choice for novice researchers who are looking to embark on exploring topics related to additional language acquisition and need a combination of theoretical grounding and techniques for data collection. for more experienced researchers, it stands as a reminder that the field is still evolving, and the numerous cited projects and suggested readings inspire the reader to continue to challenge and provoke future research design, implementation, and evaluation. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mudzingwa 14 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla): suitable for adult learners? calisto mudzingwa s.u.c.c.e.s.s. english language programs abstract the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla) literature explicitly states the suitability of using pbla in english as an additional language (eal) learning contexts. an underlying assumption is that it is also suitable for adult learners. this paper tests this assumption by comparing pbla against the assumptions and principles of andragogy—a theory of adult learning. andragogy was chosen as the yardstick because it created a portrait of adult learners and adult learning that is still considered a cornerstone of the best practices in adult education (merriam, 2001). akin to andragogy, which states how adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction, pbla involves participants in the planning and evaluation of their learning via needs assessments, peerand self-assessments, goal-setting, and student-teacher progress conferences. furthermore, like andragogy, which highlights how adult learners want to learn things that have immediate application, pbla assesses participants on content that is of immediate relevance to their personal lives. finally, similar to andragogy, pbla allows participants to draw from their life experiences during the learning process. after comparing pbla and andragogy, the conclusion is that in its totality, pbla is consistent with andragogy—and therefore suitable for adult learners. introduction there is a dearth of literature on the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla)—an assessment model used in the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program. the few available research articles include singh and blakely (2012), ripley (2013), pettis (2014), drew (2015), and holmes (2016). however, singh and blakely (2012) did not write about the pbla per se. they provided an invaluable overview of the history and development of language training in canada since the inception of the federally funded linc program and the cours de langue pour les immigrants au canada (clic) in 1992. focussing on the pbla, ripley (2013) examined the benefits and challenges of implementing pbla in the linc program. he interviewed six linc instructors who were part of the group of instructors piloting the pbla. his conclusion was that pbla had more benefits than challenges. in contrast, drew (2015), investigated students’ perceptions of pbla and the different aspects of the assessment model students found most helpful in their language learning. her overall conclusion was that learners felt that the pbla model was a good assessment approach that is helpful to their language learning. moving away from research, pettis (2014) provided a guide on the effective implementation of pbla. the guide is an overview of the theoretical foundations, principles, essential features, and assessment strategies fundamental to pbla. in a similar vein, holmes (2016) proposed a model of sustainability for pbla, and critically discussed implications for its application and suggested a way forward. mudzingwa 15 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 the predominant message in the current discourses on pbla is that it is an appropriate model of assessment in english as an additional language (eal) learning. the underlying assumption is that pbla is also suitable for adult learners. in this context, this paper undertakes to examine the plausibility of this assumption, with a view to contributing to a body of knowledge that informs adult education, best practices in adult eal learning, portfolios in general, and the pbla in particular. this paper specifically addresses the following question: is the pbla suitable for adult eal learners? in this study, andragogy is used as the yardstick for assessing the plausibility of the assumption that pbla is suitable for adult learners. to this end, individual components of pbla are compared against the portrayal of adult learners as depicted in andragogy. andragogy was chosen for three reasons: first, it created a portrait of adult learners and adult learning that is still considered the cornerstone of the best practices in adult education (merriam, 2001). second, all things considered, andragogy offered a well-received model for designing, implementing, and evaluating educational experiences with adults (merriam, 2001; sandlin, 2005). finally, it is indisputable that andragogy has had “an enormous and far-reaching influence on the field of adult education practice” (brookfield, 1989, p.201). background the background section describes the linc program, and in turn, the portfolios in general, and pbla. the language instruction for newcomers to canada in canada, the federal government’s department of immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (ircc) funds english and french language classes for adult immigrants and refugees to help them settle in canada (saint germain, 2012; singh & blakely, 2012). the english language classes are known as linc and are free to eligible newcomers. linc was established in 1992, and is free to eligible newcomers. like in other provinces, in british columbia, there are several immigrant serving agencies that provide linc classes and other complementary settlement services to eligible immigrants. what is a portfolio? there are numerous definitions of portfolios and pulling together different aspects from these captures the essence of what a portfolio is. a portfolio can be defined as a classroom-based, purposeful, and collaborative collection of materials assembled over a period by the teacher and the learner to provide evidence of skills, abilities, and competencies of the learner (o’malley and pierce, 1992; hamp-lyons and condon, 1993; moya and o’malley, 1994; pettis, 2014). there is consensus that portfolios nurture students to assume ownership of their learning among other benefits (hamp-lyons & condon, 2000; paulson, paulson & meyer, 1991; pettis, 2014). mudzingwa 16 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 portfolios in eal: merits and weaknesses portfolios were introduced largely as a response to standardized tests that were deemed unfair and unsuitable for assessing language learning. moya and o'malley (1994) reported that standardized tests were routinely criticized for their summative nature and a clear link between the standardized tests and consistently low scores for minority students. by the same token, flood and lapp (1989) argued that summative assessments, including standardized tests, are not the best tools to evaluate language proficiency because they assess at a single point in time. such assessments are neither comprehensive nor accurate because of the longitudinal nature of language learning and the multidimensional nature of language (cummins, 1983). brown and hudson (1988) mentioned that portfolios enhance students’ learning by increasing their involvement in the learning processes through collaboration between the students and the teacher and amongst students. furthermore, learners are observed using language in authentic settings. despite their strengths, portfolios have inherent weaknesses. first, lack of objectivity is a recalcitrant problem that has dogged portfolios since their inception (hamp-lyons & condon, 2000; weigle, 2002). for example, weigle (2002) noted that portfolios may be less reliable than traditional tests, particularly “when portfolios are being read by people other than the classroom teacher, who may not be familiar with the students or the curriculum especially when the stakes for the individual student are high” (p. 208). second, by their very nature, portfolios inherently lack standardization: individual teachers create, administer and score their own assessments in collaboration with their students. clearly, in such contexts, standardization is a potential problem (gillespie, ford, gillespie, & leavell, 1996; sweygers et.al, 2009). commenting specifically on scoring, damiani (2006) asserted that, “…it can be quite difficult to establish scoring systems that are reliable over raters or time. reliability across raters is especially important if major decisions are to be based on the assessment outcome” (p.123). finally, for both the teacher and the learner, portfolios are time consuming when putting them together and maintaining them (johns, & leirsburg, 1992; wolf, 1993). as observed by mcmullan (2006), “… students, [and] mentors find portfolios very time-consuming and stressful, mainly due to the large amount of paperwork” (p. 341). similarly, short (1993) commented that “…developing and evaluating portfolios is time-consuming; they do not provide a quick picture of student knowledge” (p. 640). despite their limitations, however, portfolios can still be considered more reliable and fair assessment tools in language learning contexts than standardized tests. the portfolio-based language assessment to bring standardization in language learning, then citizenship and immigration canada (cic), now ircc, authorized the pbla as the sole official assessment method in the linc and clic programs across canada. the pbla is a longitudinal classroom-based assessment approach implemented by the teacher, which involves instructors and learners working together to set language-learning goals and gather samples of assessment tasks to demonstrate a learners’ language proficiency in a range of contexts. together they analyze the data and reflect on progress (pettis, 2014, p. 7). drew (2015) and pettis (2014) stated that pbla comprises the following major features: (1) baseline personal information, (2) needs assessment, (3) language learning-goals, (4) assessments (teacher-assessments, self-assessments and peer mudzingwa 17 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 assessments), (5) self-reflection, and (6) student-teacher progress conferences. together, the different components of pbla make a learning cycle (drew, 2015). the baseline personal information section comprises the learner’s autobiography, their canadian language benchmarks (clb) scores, needs assessment, and learning goals. a needs assessment is conducted during the first few days of class to identify and rank the topics learners are interested in. likewise, at the inception of each new topic, a needs assessment is conducted. related to their needs, learners complete language-learning goals, stating what they hope to accomplish using english. goal setting in pbla is an ongoing practice throughout the instructional cycle. learners revisit their goals assessing how they are doing towards achieving them (drew, 2015). continuous and consistent assessment is the mainstay of the pbla model, and three types of assessment are conducted: (a) teacher-assessments, (b) peer-assessments, and (c) selfassessments. the teacher-assessments are administered and graded by the teacher. in contrast, peer-assessments involve students providing feedback on each other’s work based on set criteria. with self-assessments, learners assess themselves, also based on set criteria. self-reflections involve learners reviewing what they learned, how they learned, and how this learning relates to the real world. reflection also affords learners the opportunity to review their own portfolios, see their own progress, and adopt strategies on how they could improve (hamp-lyons and condon, 2000; pettis, 2014). furthermore, self-reflection gives a learners a chance to reflect on how akin to self-assessments, regular self-reflections increase the learners’ self-awareness, including their learning styles. finally, the student-teacher progress conferences are an opportunity for the teacher and the learner to “review the student’s progress in learning english in relationship to the student’s specified needs and goals” (pettis, 2014, p.52). it is also an opportunity for learners to set a new direction, including new language learning goals. andragogy and the portrait of the adult learner although there is consensus that there is no single theory that explains how adults learn, there is broad consensus that andragogy is one of the pillars of adult learning (merriam 2001; pratt, 1993). for instance, merriam (2001), noted that adult education is informed by “…a mosaic of theories, models, sets of principles, and explanations that, combined, compose the knowledge base of adult learning. two important pieces of that mosaic are andragogy and self-directed learning” (p.3). in 1968, malcolm knowles proposed andragogy to differentiate adult from child learning. as defined by knowles, andragogy is “the art and science of helping adults learn,” and this was contrasted with pedagogy which is “the art and science of helping children learn” (knowles, 1980, p. 43). andragogy comprises five assumptions and four principles, which provide a depiction of the adult learner and is the bedrock of traditional pedagogy for adults. table 1 below presents the five assumptions and four principles proposed by knowles. mudzingwa 18 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 table 1. assumptions and principles of andragogy assumptions assumption 1 self-concept: as people mature their self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality towards one of being a self-directed human being. assumption 2 adult learner experience: as people mature they accumulate a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning. assumption 3 readiness to learn: as people mature their readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of their social roles. assumption 4 orientation to learning: as people mature their time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly their orientation towards learning shifts from one of subject centeredness to one of problem centeredness. assumption 5 motivation to learn: as people mature the motivation to learn is internal. principles principle 1: adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. principle 2: experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities. principle 3: adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact on their jobs or personal lives. principle 4: adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented adapted from knowles (1980) besides the principles and assumptions, knowles also proposed a classroom learning atmosphere which allows adults to “feel accepted, respected, and supported” and there must exist “a spirit of mutuality between teachers and students as joint inquirers” (knowles, 1980, p. 47). critiques of andragogy despite its foundational status and far-reaching influence, andragogy has its critics. the earliest criticism against andragogy was whether it is a theory or not (davenport & davenport, 1985; elias 1979; hartree, 1984; houle, 1972; griffin, 1991). sandlin (2005), for example, observed that a growing number of scholars agree that andragogy is not a theory but a set of assumptions or a framework. furthermore, andragogy has been criticized for its portrayal of adult learners as homogeneous. it has been argued that such a depiction overlooks the fact that adult learners are unique individuals with diverse circumstances (cercone, 2008). in fact, studies have shown differences among adult learners, such as motivation, capability, and readiness to learn (davenport & davenport, 1985; long, 1988; pratt, 1988). the criticisms of andragogy https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/jots/summer-fall-2000/holmes.html#elias1979 mudzingwa 19 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 notwithstanding, scholars still seem to agree that, to this day, andragogy remains the single most influential “theory” in the field of adult education, and that the assumptions proposed by knowles are still considered best practices in adult education (merriam, 2001; sandlin, 2005). a comparison of andragogy and pbla this section compares components of the pbla model and those of andragogy, with the goal of demonstrating the suitability of pbla in assessing adult learners. needs assessment in pbla, a needs assessment establishes themes and topics learners are interested in and also the contexts in which they want to use language. this is consistent with principle 3 of andragogy, which articulates how adults are most interested in learning content that is of immediate relevance and impact on their personal lives. some of the literature on adult education underscores the importance of doing a needs assessment. cervero and wilson (1999), for example, stated that “… the highest professional and moral principle for adult educators … is to involve learners in identifying their needs” (p.29). similarly, in independent studies, roberts (2007) and mcgrath (2009) made a similar observation and stated that adults generally tend to resist situations in which they feel that others are imposing their will on them. conducting a needs assessment in pbla is also consistent with andragogy’s principle 1, which highlights the need to involve adult learners in the planning of their own instruction. this allows linc participants to decide what they would like to learn. furthermore, it is an acknowledgement that the participants are mature, responsible, and self-directed adults. additionally, this closely matches andragogy’s assumption 1, which highlights the autonomy, independence, and self-directedness of adult learners. in general, in pbla, choosing relevant topics that adults would like to learn about should intrinsically motivate them to learn since the topics and themes they select would be of direct relevance to their immediate needs. intrinsic motivation among linc participants is consistent with andragogy’s assumption 5, which states how adults thrive on intrinsic motivation in the context of learning what is relevant to their lives. goal-setting in pbla, linc participants, together with the teacher, set language-learning goals as part of directing, or at least participating in, the planning of their own learning. goal-setting is in keeping with andragogy’s principle 1, which requires adult learners to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their learning. goal-setting in pbla allows participants to tap into their metacognitive skills and knowledge of goal-creation. kuhn and dean (2004), for example, observed that metacognition enables a student taught a strategy in one context to retrieve and deploy that strategy in a similar but new context. likewise, linc participants retrieve, adapt, and deploy prior goal-making strategies when developing language-learning goals. these opportunities which allow participants to draw from their acquired metacognitive skills in their language-learning classes are comparable to andragogy’s assumption 2, which states how an adults’ ever-growing reservoir of experiences is an invaluable resource for learning. mudzingwa 20 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 typically, linc participants are energized, motivated, and committed to learning english as they strive to achieve the language-learning goals they set for themselves. goalsetting matches andragogy’s assumption 5, which articulates how adult learners thrive on intrinsic motivation. in the literature on second language acquisition , oxford and shearin (1994), for instance, commenting specifically on goal-setting, stated that, “goal setting can have exceptional importance in stimulating l2 [second language] learning motivation…,” (p. 129). lastly, goal setting in pbla is akin to andragogy’s principle 3 which states that relevant content that adults learn has immediate impact on adult learners’ personal lives. in pbla, needs assessment and goal-setting contribute to the relevance of content. assessments in pbla, regular peer-assessments, self-assessments, and teacher-assessments are embedded in the teaching and learning. all pbla assessments have a language task—a communicative “real world” instance of language use to accomplish a specific purpose in a particular context (canadian language benchmarks, 2012). pbla’s task-based approach is akin to andragogy’s assumption 4, which highlight the problem-centeredness of adult learners and their interest in the immediate application of acquired knowledge to solve problems. for linc participants, their immediate problem is to overcome their immediate communication barriers. pbla assessments mirror the linc participants’ ever changing social, community, and work situations. these contexts are comparable to andragogy’s assumption 3, principle 3, and assumption 4, as explained below. linc participants are assessed on their ability to use english in contexts where they would: maintain or change interpersonal relationships; understand or give instructions; obtain services (e.g. banking); inform decisions; persuade; and learn what others have done, inter alia (canadian language benchmarks, 2012). these diverse contexts mirror the ever-changing roles of linc participants, akin to what is stated in andragogy’s assumption 3 on readiness to learn. assumption 3 articulates that as people mature, their readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of their social roles. in the same context, pbla tasks have immediate impact on the participants’ lives since the learned language could be immediately applied to overcome direct communication challenges. the ability of linc participants to apply the learned language to overcome immediate communication challenges is comparable to andragogy’s assumption 4. assumption 4 partly states that as people mature, their time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application. immediate application of knowledge also closely matches andragogy’s principle 3 which articulates how adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact on their jobs or personal lives. peer-assessment peer-assessments involve learners assessing each other’s work and giving feedback based on set criteria. peer-assessments create a sense of mutual respect amongst linc participants, and build a community of learners as well as a safe learning environment. this is consistent with knowles observation that adults should “feel accepted, respected, and supported” (knowles, 1980, p. 47). when giving feedback, linc participants inevitably draw from their metacognitive knowledge mudzingwa 21 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 and skills accumulated over the years when providing feedback in other spheres of their lives. this closely matches andragogy’s assumption 3, which depicts an adult as someone who has amassed a rich reservoir of life long resources of learning experiences. self-assessments akin to andragogy’s principle 1, which states that adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction, self-assessments in pbla actively involve participants in the evaluation of their own learning. linc participants assess their own tasks and assignments as well as determine what and how they could have done better. besides involving learners in the evaluation of their own learning, self-assessments demonstrate respect for linc participants as capable individuals who can judge their own performance, albeit on set criteria. there is explicit acknowledgement that linc participants have experience evaluating their own activities in other aspects of their lives, and that they can utilize their metacognitive knowledge and skills to do self-assessments. this is comparable to andragogy’s assumption 2 which states how adults’ lifelong experiences are a resource for learning. also, self-assessments inspire linc participants to meet the set standards, and this activity becomes a source of intrinsic motivation to learn. self-reflections the pbla model requires participants to do regular self-reflection, which helps learners understand more about how they learn, and how what they learned applies to their everyday lives. as fernsten and fernsten (2005) emphasized, involving students in figuring out how they know and what they know about learning that has taken place can be an invaluable learning tool that helps learners take responsibility for their own learning. the pbla self-reflections are akin to andragogy’s assumption 4 and principle 3, which both share the notion that adult learners are interested in learning content that has immediate application, and that this content should also have immediate relevance and impact on their jobs or personal lives. teacher-student progress conferences in the application of pbla, student-teacher progress conferences tie-in together the different aspects of the pbla and “resets” the learning cycle (drew, 2015). consequently, the application of pbla is comparable to several principles and assumptions of andragogy. during the teacherstudent progress conferences, linc participants are involved in the planning and directing of their own learning when they review their portfolios, assessing if previously set goals were met, and identifying their achievements, including areas for improvement. these activities are consistent with andragogy’s assumption 1. assumption 1 articulates how adult learners are selfdirected. furthermore, the involvement of students in the planning and overall evaluation of their progress during the teacher-student progress conferences is in harmony with andragogy’s principle 1, which states that adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. mudzingwa 22 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 conclusion this paper examined the underlying assumption that pbla is a suitable model of assessment for adult learners. to test the veracity of this assumption, andragogy was used as the barometer: features of the pbla were compared with one or more of the assumptions and/or principles of andragogy. as established in this paper, in its totality, the pbla is consistent with andragogy’s stated principles and assumptions. it is therefore justifiable to conclude that pbla is not only an appropriate method for assessing language proficiency in an eal setting, such as linc programs in british columbia and across canada, but is also a suitable method for assessing adult learners in general. references brookfield, s.d. (1989). facilitating adult learning. in s.b. merriam & p. m. cunningham (eds.), handbook of adult and continuing education (pp.201-210). san francisco: josseybass. brown, j. d., & hudson, t. (1998). the alternatives in language assessment. tesol quarterly, 32(4), 653-675. canadian language benchmarks. (2012). canadian language benchmarks: english as a second language for adults. ottawa, on: centre for canadian language benchmarks. retrieved from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/language-benchmarks.pdf cercone, k. (2008). characteristics of adult learners with implications for online learning design. aace journal, 16(2), 137-159. cervero, r. m., & wilson, a. l. (1999). beyond learner-centered practice: adult education, power, and society. the canadian journal for the study of adult education, 13(2), 27. cummins, j. (1983). conceptual and linguistic foundations of language assessment. issues of language assessment: language assessment and curriculum planning. wheaton, md: national clearinghouse for bilingual education. damiani, v.b. (2006). portfolio assessment in the classroom. national association of school psychologists. retrieved online at https://www.scribd.com/document/221528123/portfolio-assessment. retrieved on january, 10th, 2017. davenport, j., & davenport, j. a. (1985). a chronology and analysis of the andragogy debate. adult education quarterly, 35(3), 152-159. drew, r. (2015). adult immigrant english language learners’ perspectives on the portfoliobased language assessment model used in the linc program. ma dissertation, university of leicester. elias , j. l. (1979). critique: andragogy revisited. adult education, 29 (4), 252-256. fernsten, l., & fernsten, j. (2005). portfolio assessment and reflection: enhancing learning through effective practice. reflective practice, 6(2), 303-309. flood , j., & lapp, d. (1989). reporting reading progress: a comparison portfolio for parents. the reading teacher, 42(7), 508-514. gillespie, c. s., ford, k. l., gillespie, r. d., & leavell, a. g. (1996). portfolio assessment: some questions, some answers, some recommendations. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 39(6), 480-491. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/language-benchmarks.pdf https://www.scribd.com/document/221528123/portfolio-assessment mudzingwa 23 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 griffin, c. (1991). a critical perspective on sociology and adult education. adult education: evolution and achievements in a developing field of study, 259-281. hartree, a. “malcolm knowles’ theory of andragogy: a critique.” international journal of lifelong education, 1984, 3(3), 203–210. hamp-lyons, l., & condon, w. (2000). assessing the portfolio: principles for practice. theory, research. cresskill: hampton press. hamp-lyons, l., & condon, w. (1993). questioning assumptions about portfolio-based assessment. college composition and communication, 44(2), 176-190. holmes, t. (2016). pbla: moving toward sustainability. tesl canada journal, 32, 113-123. houle, c. o. (1972). the design of education. san francisco: jossey-bass. johns, j. l., & leirsburg, p. v. (1992). how professionals view portfolio assessment. literacy research and instruction, 32(1), 1-10. knowles, m. s. (1984). andragogy in action. san francisco: jossey-bass. knowles, m. s. (1980). the modern practice of adult education (revised and updated. new york: cambridge kuhn, d. & dean, d. (2004). a bridge between cognitive psychology and educational practice. theory into practice, 43(4), 268-273. long, h. b. (2004). understanding adult learners. adult learning methods: a guide for effective instruction, 3, 23-37. merriam, s. b. (2001). andragogy and self‐directed learning: pillars of adult learning theory. new directions for adult and continuing education, 2001(89), 3-14. mcgrath, v. (2009). reviewing the evidence on how adult students learn: an examination of knowles' model of andragogy. adult learner: the irish journal of adult and community education, 99, 110. mcmullan, m. (2006). students’ perceptions on the use of portfolios in pre-registration nursing education: a questionnaire survey. international journal of nursing studies, 43(3), 333343. moya, s. s., & o’malley, j. m. (1994). a portfolio assessment model for esl. the journal of educational issues of language minority students,13(1), 13-36. roberts, m. s. (2007). applying the andragogical model of adult learning: a case study of the texas comptroller’s fiscal management division (doctoral dissertation, texas state university). o'malley, j. m., & pierce, l. v. (1992). portfolio assessment: experiences from the field. in annual meeting of the teachers of english to speakers of other languages. vancouver, british columbia, canada. oxford, r., & shearin, j. (1994). language learning motivation: expanding the theoretical framework. modern language journal, 78, 12–28. paulson, f.l., paulson, p.r. & meyer, c.a. (1991). what makes a portfolio a portfolio? educational leadership, 48, 60-63. pettis, j. (2014). portfolio-based language assessment (pbla): guide for teachers and programs. ottawa on: centre for canadian language benchmarks. pratt, d. d. (1988). andragogy as a relational construct. adult education quarterly, 38(3), 16072. pratt, d. d. (1993). andragogy after twenty‐five years. new directions for adult and continuing education, 1993(57), 15-23. mudzingwa 24 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 14-24 ripley, d. (2013). implementing portfolio-based language assessment in linc programs: benefits and challenges. tesl canada journal, 30(1), 69. saint germain, y. (2012) introduction: state of the art and future directions in settlement language training, inscan: international settlement canada, spring, pp. 1-3. sandlin, j. a. (2005). andragogy and its discontents: an analysis of andragogy from three critical perspectives. paace journal of lifelong learning, 14(1), 25-42. singh, d. and blakely, g. (2012) linc and clic: looking back, looking forward, inscan: international settlement canada, spring, pp. 7-11. short, d. j. (1993). assessing integrated language and content instruction. tesol quarterly, 27(4), 627-656. sweygers, a., soetewey, k., meeus, w., struyf, e., & pieters, b. (2009). portfolios for prior learning assessment: caught between diversity and standardization. the journal of continuing higher education, 57(2), 92-103. weigle, s.c. (2002). assessing writing. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. wolf, k. p. (1993). from informal to informed assessment: recognizing the role of the classroom teacher. journal of reading, 36(7), 518-523. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ stigger 84 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays the correlation between ielts scores and international students’ academic success: a literature review elizabeth stigger international & indigenous languages, york regional district school board abstract this review synthesizes the findings of research compiled between the relationship on international student success and the international english language testing system (ielts). increasingly, within higher education, ielts test scores have become not only a benchmark for testing the language proficiency of international students who speak english as an additional language, and subsequently their entry into higher education institutions, but also a presumption of student academic learning success. a growing concern for many higher education institutions is that proficiency in english does not necessarily equate to international students’ preparedness to study at the higher education level with regards to their academic learning success. amidst growing ambivalence related to the use of ielts as a placement tool, this literature review outlines three main themes found in connection to the correlation between ielts and international students’ academic learning success at the undergraduate level. the first two themes focus on the positive and negative correlations between ielts scores and international students’ academic learning success. the third theme is related to a social dimension which focuses on the fact that, for international students, linguistic proficiency is linked to how they adapt to their new learning and living environments. here the relationship between ielts as an indicator of students’ preparedness for the rigours of academic study is being explored. the review ends with a short examination of published documents by ielts. overall, this literature review suggests that a common theme found in the published research is that even with a high ielts score, international students do need academic support when studying at the higher education level. introduction the internationalization of higher education (he) has been growing steadily over the last couple of decades. within the british columbian educational system there are more than 152,000 international students studying at all levels of education (bccie, n.d.), while across canada there are over 572,400 international students (cbie, 2019). at the he level there are over 370,000 international students (cbie, 2018). between 2010 and 2018 the numbers of international students studying in canada increased by more than 150% (cbie, 2019). this increase of international students studying within canada is representative of worldwide trends in the increase of movement of students within the internationalization of he (börjesson, 2017; stigger 2018). a growing concern within the internationalization of he is the language proficiency of students who speak english as an additional language (hence forward referred to as international students). within this concern, growing attention is focusing on the accuracy of international https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 85 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 student placement in first year studies at he institutions with regards to their presumed language proficiency. as the number of international students continues to grow, the validity of placement tests, particularly the international english language testing system (ielts), to predict these students’ academic learning success has increasingly been under discussion in many englishspeaking countries (dooey & oliver, 2002; bayliss & ingram 2006; pilcher & richards, 2017). within these articles, academic learning success is typically correlated with students’ grade point average (gpa). understanding the correlation between language proficiency tests and international students’ academic learning success is important, as it would enable he institutions to better develop systems of academic support for these students. many canadian he institutions require international students to have a minimum score of ielts 6.5 to gain entry to undergraduate programs (ielts, 2019). while larger universities might be attracting international students with higher english and academic learning proficiency, the sheer number of international students in canada means that smaller universities and colleges must be cognizant of the correlation between the minimum ielts scores of 6.5 and international students’ academic learning readiness to study in english. methods this literature review aims to examine the relationship between language proficiency scores and international students’ academic learning success within higher education. as ielts is a popular and widely recognized test of international students’ english proficiency (english testing canada, n.d.; ielts, 2019), this relationship became the focus of this research. with the hopes of allowing easy access to the articles reviewed, google scholar was initially used. the keywords for the search were: ielts + academic success + canada and ielts + academic prepare + canada. this search found a range of articles, of which most were not freely accessible and “canada” was missing from the search results. the search for articles then expanded to the eric database, where access to the full article again remained limited, and these articles did not specifically relate to canada. most articles found were based on research complied in australia or the united kingdom, or on students studying at english as a medium of instruction (emi) institutions. to understand the relationship between ielts and international students’ academic success, qualitative methods informed the literature review. these methods entailed a descriptive-constructivist approach from which the perspectives of various research articles on ielts and academic learning success could be understood (cresswell, 2013). the articles found were first quickly read and notes were compiled in relation to the keywords ietls + academic success/ academic preparedness. this method enabled a comparison of the common themes to emerge between the different articles. from the comparison, three predominate themes were found. the articles were then re-read to ensure the accuracy of the themes and detailed notes were taken. the review presented here is drawn directly from these articles. findings and discussion research on the correlation between placement tests, such as ielts, and international students’ academic learning success is ambivalent. however, in the analysis of the articles, three main themes related to the correlation of student academic learning success and ielts score were https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 86 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 found. traditionally, studies have focused on either the positive or the negative correlations between international students’ language proficiency test scores and their academic learning success. recently, another branch of research contends that international students’ linguistic abilities are not only connected to their success within their academic studies, but also to their success in acculturating within society. within this third branch, academic study is more than just what a student can produce, it involves the study process. accordingly, the social dimension addresses concern for international students’ preparedness with regards to daily life and the rigours of studying within he. the discussion below will expand on these three main themes. positive correlations positive correlations between ielts and international student success vary. dooey and oliver (2002) isolated a positive correction between international students’ reading scores and their gpa in australia. however, this positive correlation did not expand to other skillsets. yen and kuzma (2009) linked a moderate positive correlation to chinese students’ first semester of studying abroad at a university in the united kingdom in all skill sets except for speaking. however, they found that any link beyond the first semester was negligible. they attributed the weaker correlation between ielts score and gpa in students’ subsequent semesters of study to students’ development of their english skills whilst studying during their first semester. in particular, they found that those students with low listening and writing results on ielts typically had lower grades. likewise, daller and phelan (2013), in their research at a university in the united kingdom, supported the notion that international students with higher scores on the listening and writing sections of ielts are more likely to be academically successful within he. additionally, they contended that prior content knowledge of the discipline in which the students are studying is also a determinant in the students’ success. while feast (2002) also found a slight positive correlation between international students’ ielts scores and academic learning success in australia, she is the only author to warn that raising minimum ielts scores for entry to he could negatively influence the number of international student applicants. overall, these researchers found that the success of international students in their academic studies seems to not only be connected to a higher ielts score, but it appears that students with higher ielts scores are more likely to achieve a higher gpa. recently, studies focusing on international student academic learning success while studying at emi institutions have been increasing. in a study of hungarian english majors who took the oxford placement test (opt), which correlates with ielts, doró (2011) has found that students with lower scores are more likely to fail than students with higher scores. however, doró (2011) cautioned that higher scores do not guarantee that students will be successful in their academic studies. similarly, ghenghesh (2015) has found that egyptian students with a higher opt scores are more likely to achieve higher academic learning success. however, ghenghesh (2015) noted that educational background, particularly whether students previously studied using emi at high school, positively influenced their subsequent success in he. schoepp and garinger (2016) have found that students in the united arab emirates with a band score of at least 7.0 on the ielts are much more likely to succeed academically than students with lower scores. in fact, they specifically suggested that the link between ielts and academic learning success for students with a band score of 6.0–6.5 diminishes, and at the 5.5-6.5 range this link is negligible. overall, a higher score on language proficiency tests, such as ielts, is linked to https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 87 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 students’ abilities to cope with the academic rigors of he at emi institutions. however, dooey and oliver (2002), yen and kuzma (2009), and sawir et al. (2012) were careful to suggest that while high ielts scores might correlate with students’ academic achievement, students’ ability to be proactive in their studies, their motivation, as well as their financial stability, study skills, and adaptation to the host culture also influence student success. thus, international students’ english language proficiency is but one factor in a multitude of factors which might influence international student success. negative correlations the negative correlation between ielts scores and student academic learning success seem to be directly linked to these students’ knowledge of academic expectations. some of the studies, mentioned above, report a positive correlation between ielts score and academic learning success, which appears to be linked to students’ prior exposure to an international academic educational background. however, it has to be questioned, if students did not have prior exposure to another academic educational system, would the positive correlation have been found? the validity of ielts with regards to whether or not students’ results can be compared to academic setting is widely reported. there is concern that ielts has essentially become an international business, with many test preparation centres worldwide designed to help prospective students achieve high scores on this test (yu, 2014). essentially, these test preparation centres assist students to develop ielts specific test-taking strategies. if students are being coached for success on ielts, a major concern would focus around the issue of construct validity. construct validity is the degree to which a test is representative of what is being tested (brown, 2000). daller and wang (2017) and pilcher and richards (2017) noted that while the essay writing sections on ielts might have some similarities to university writing with regards to language use, the differences outweigh the similarities. the vocabulary used on ielts is generalized and decontextualized, and thus does not necessarily align with academic learning expectations and standards within he. moore and morton (2005) found that while writing tasks within he typically focus on a combination of summarization, prediction, explanation and recommendation, the ielts writing components typically focus on advice giving or opinion based topics (“hortation”) and evaluation (p. 60). they argued that the reason for this is that advice giving and evaluation require less background knowledge, and thus are easier to test. this reasoning would suggest that the writing section of the ielts test is not examining students’ proficiency for academic writing at the he level. in fact, daller and wang (2017), who researched international student success in the uk, noted that ielts has recently altered the writing sections to imitate writing within he. however, they contend that as the writing tasks on ielts remain focused on generalized and decontextualized language use, the changes are inadequate to be used as a predictor of international students’ academic learning success within he. as students are aware that the focus of the language proficiency tests is on generalized and decontextualized language use, in preparing for these tests, students are developing test taking strategies rather than their cognitive language proficiency. this practice is in essence is not preparing these students for studying within he. this suggests that in the development of language proficiency tests, a deeper issue with regards to the construct validity of the written section of placements is in assessing the placement of international students’ written competencies within an academic environment. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 88 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 in the review of these articles, another concern found is in how students are interpreting their test scores. students often fail to acknowledge that an ielts score of 6.5 is generally the minimum score needed to gain entrance to most canadian he institution (ielts, 2019). dooey (2010), who conducted a two-pronged study on international student success in australia, stressed that students who gain entry to he with a minimum ielts score often fail to recognize that this score is not an indicator of their linguistic ability to succeed academically. rather, this score is merely an indicator that they have the basic linguistic requirements from which they can begin to study within an english academic environment. students must understand that once they are studying within he, in addition to continuing to develop their additional language skills, they will also need to learn discipline related terminology and writing standards (dooey, 2010). accordingly, language ability cannot be defined within a generalized global proficiency. to develop their cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) international students need exposure to language use within an academic setting (cummins, 2008). this understanding of calp suggests that international students’ interpretation of language proficiency scores, on tests such as ielts, and how they are applied in academia are not necessarily the same, and that students will need support in their academic pursuits. while a language proficiency test might indicate that international students have the generalized language knowledge to succeed within he, different disciplines within he require specific language knowledge. bayliss and ingram (2006) in particular, and sawir et al. (2012) to a lesser extent, claimed that the academic discipline that international students hope to enter should determine the minimum ielts band at australian he institutions. bayliss and ingram (2006) suggested that some disciplines already require international students to have a higher base score so that they can actively participate in their studies; yet they also contend that student success is connected to their level of confidence. content and context influence language use. as the ielts examines english proficiency in terms of generalized vocabulary and/or decontextualized language use, both bayliss and ingram (2006) and sawir et al. (2012) stated that the scores students receive are not adequately representative of their ability in specific subjects. this analysis suggests that while language placement tests might indicate the language proficiency of international students, within the realm of he, international students need specific academic learning support. the third theme: the social dimension recent research has explored more unique approaches to addressing the issue of language proficiency and international student academic learning success. sawir et al. (2012) addressed the issue from the vantage of human security, which they define as the “maintenance of a stable capacity for self-determining human agency” (marginson et al. 2010, in sawir et al. 2012, p.3). from this stance, international students’ language proficiency is deemed as a fundamental aspect of human security, as it affects all domains of their daily lives whilst studying abroad. when international students study in a new country, their ability to communicate influences not only their studies but also their daily life. students’ abilities to communicate influences their rate of acculturation (sawir et al. 2012). additionally, students’ linguistic abilities might also challenge their academic life as they will need to make adjustments to their time management and research skills, as well as understand the influence of culturally specific knowledge related to their area of https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 89 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 specialty (phakiti, hirsh, & woodrow, 2013). a common problem for many students is time management. however, for international students, according to yeoh and terry (2013), time management develops into a whole different realm as the amount of time it can take to prepare academic papers in english, the students’ additional language, increases directly according to their language and academic proficiency. while their research suggested students felt that ielts prepares them to function in their daily lives, sawir et al. (2012) found that students did not feel that their test results were adequately reflective of the language they would need to be successful academic learners. thus, in sawir et al’s (2012) terms, human security translates into the ease of comfort that international students have in their english linguistic knowledge, and this in turn impacts the proficiency in which they adapt to different learning environments. in addition to studying in a different language, international students have to develop skills to cope with new academic expectations. similar to other language proficiency tests, such as the test of english as a foreign language (toefl), ielts does not focus on language situations that students will face within he, such as group work, presentations, and short answers (dunworth, 2008). when studying in english speaking countries, students must develop study skills that support a student-centred approach to learning as opposed to a teacher-centred approach, where students are typically dependent on their instructors to provide them with the information they need to learn (yeoh & terry, 2013). furthermore, ielts is criticized as a test where students employ problem-solving strategies rather than language comprehension strategies (rupp, ferne, & choi, 2006). accordingly, while ielts might be an accurate indicator of language proficiency, the rigours of academic studying are not confined only to linguistic abilities. within the challenges of adapting to both new linguistic uses and culturally different academic environments, students’ motivation and self-efficacy to succeed in their studies also become significant factors in contributing to their academic learning success (phakiti, hirsh, & woodrow, 2013). studying in a different language and culture can be difficult, however, phakiti, hirsh, and woodrow (2013) found that students’ motivation and self-efficacy to succeed minimizes the negative influence that the perceived difficulty of studying in another language and culture have on international students. this finding suggests that students who are studying in an academic setting that is different from their cultural background need support beyond linguistic support. thus, ielts must be recognized as being designed as a predictor of language ability, which is just one cog in international students’ academic learning success. the need for academic support language use is contextual. in academics, subject content is intricately linked to thought and meaning; accordingly, language usage is connected to specific content within a subject. from this stance, the english used in any program of study will have unique subject terms and concepts which subsequently imply that international students may require language specific support within their subjects of study (pilcher & richards, 2017; sawir et al., 2012). the argument is that within specific academic disciplines, language use requires more than just the practical ability to communicate. language use also requires the ability to cope with the theoretical knowledge of a subject. students must make use of both their practical and their theoretical knowledge of language to complete subject related tasks and assessments. the focus https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 90 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 of the marking criteria on the ielts test is in part on grammar and spelling accuracy, spontaneity, and flexibility (short, 2012). however, within an academic course of study the focus of assessment might range from the visual, empathetic, or conceptual to the material (pilcher & richards, 2017). as ielts is a measure of language proficiency, the contextualized uses of language within academic disciplines may suggest the reason the correlation between ielts scores and academic learning success is inconsistent. a concern for he institutions should be students’ perception of the support that they are receiving from their institution. pilcher and richards (2017), researching international student success in the united kingdom, suggested that many students who gained access to he based on their ielts scores might feel that they have been misled. when a he institution bases admission on a test that examines students’ english proficiency related to grammatical accuracy within a decontextualized and neutralized usage of english, students often struggle when faced with program specific usages of english and ideologies (pilcher & richards, 2017). this mismatch additionally leads to the impression by instructors and institutions that current minimum ielts scores for he admission are not set high enough. accordingly, the discord between ielts as an indicator of language proficiency and subsequently international students’ readiness to engage in academic studies could lie in minimum ielts scores seemingly being set too low for entry into he. at this point it is important to note that ielts (ielts usa, n.d.) itself states that the scores students receive on the test are a measure of students’ linguistic proficiency only, suggesting that these scores are not a determinate of academic learning success. in their publications, ielts states that students with a score of 6.5 are most likely to succeed. however, ielts also states that students will require additional support as the language proficiency required is dictated by the context of study (ielts usa). as is seen in figure 1, ielts recommends that students with a band score of 6.5 will most likely need additional study support if they are entering linguistically challenging programs. bayliss and ingram (2006) defined linguistically challenging programs as studies in the sciences or medical fields. however, moore and morton (2005) suggested that the type of task, such as a theoretical or researchorientated essay, influences the linguistic challenge no matter the subject. thus, it has to be questioned what ielts’ definition of a linguistically challenging and less linguistically challenging program is. nevertheless, as seen in figure 2, these band scores have recently been revised (ielts, 2019). as of may 2019, students with a band score of 6.5 studying in linguistically less demanding academic courses have been downgraded to “probably acceptable” (ielts, 2019). additionally, ielts (ielts usa; ielts, 2019) explains that he institutions should be cognizant that english language proficiency is only one of the many contributing factors in students’ academic learning success, and accordingly institutions should be aware of other factors which might affect student success. this statement from ielts thus suggests that while students might have the language proficiency to gain entry to he, once admitted students will need support to develop their contextual english knowledge within an academic setting. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 91 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 figure 1. ielts bands and need of support (n.d., n.p.) figure 2. ielts bands and need of support (2019, may, p. 15) conclusion the result of international students’ scores on the ielts test seem to have become equated with student academic learning success. while it was initially suggested that research regarding the correlation between student academic learning success and their ielts score was ambivalent, closer examination reveals that students with higher proficiency bands tend to be more successful in their academic studies. however, in the studies that found a positive correlation to ielts and gpa, it was not unanimous whether or not this correlation was to the reading and writing sections or the listening and writing sections. in the studies that found a negative correlation, the idea of academic knowledge was of importance. these studies suggest that as ielts is a test of language proficiency, not a test of academic skills, any correlation between ielts and academic learning success should be interpreted with caution. recent research on international students’ success is increasingly focusing on the fact that language use is contextual. as different disciplines within he have unique usage of key terms that are not tested in generalized language knowledge tests, ielts is not necessarily an indicator of the possible https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 stigger 92 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 success of students. these studies further suggest that other factors such as the motivation to study, financial stability, and study skills are also determinants in international students’ academic learning success. lastly, as ielts is used to test the language proficiency level of potential students, this can only be understood as an indicator of their possible success. ielts even notes that students with a band score of 6.5 will most likely need academic support from their institution (2019, may). this understanding then indicates that international students’ willingness to be proactive in their studies is also a factor in their academic learning success. thus, while ielts is an indicator of students’ english language proficiencies, it should be acknowledged that this representation of english language proficiency is not equated with the academic skills international students need to be successful. the studies in this review suggest that if to gain entrance to he institutions an international student must have a minimum band score of 6.5 on ielts, then programs to support international students to develop their academic skills along with their language proficiency must be more robustly developed. current trends indicate that the number of international students studying in canada, and provinces such as british columbia, continues to increase. developing robust programs of support for their international student body is one way that canadian he institutions can remain attractive to these students and competitive within the internationalized he sector. references bayliss, a. & ingram, d. e. (2006). ielts as a predictor of academic language performance. in australian international education conference, 10–13 october, perth, western australia, 1–12. retrieved from http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/153717 bcie. (n.d.). why study in bc. retrieved from https://studyinbc.com/why-study-in-bc/ börjesson, m. (2017). the global space of international students in 2010. journal of ethnic and migration studies, 43(8), 1256–1275. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1300228 brown, j. d. (2000). questions and answers about language testing statistics: what is construct validity? shiken: japan association for language teaching testing & evaluation sig newsletter. 4(2), 8–12. retrieved from http://hosted.jalt.org/test/pdf/brown8.pdf cbie. (2019). did you know? retrieved from https://cbie.ca cbie. (2018). cbie research brief: international students in canada. retrieved from https://cbieca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/international-students-in-canada-eng.pdf cresswell, j. w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. cummins, j. (2008). bics and calp: empirical and theoretical status of the distinction. in b. street & n. h. hornberger (eds.), encyclopedia of language and education, 2nd edition, volume 2: literacy. (pp. 71–83). new york: springer science + business media llc. daller, m. h. & phelan, d. (2013). predicting international student study success. applied linguistics review, 4(1), 173–193. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2013-0008 daller, m. & wang, y. (2017). predicting study success of international students. applied linguistics review, 8(4), 355–374. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2016-2013 dooey, p. (2010). students’ perspectives of an eap pathway program. journal of english for academic purposes, 9(3), 184–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.02.013 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/153717 https://studyinbc.com/why-study-in-bc/ https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1300228 http://hosted.jalt.org/test/pdf/brown8.pdf https://cbie.ca/ https://cbieca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/international-students-in-canada-eng.pdf https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2013-0008 https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2016-2013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.02.013 stigger 93 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 dooey, p. & oliver, r. (2002). an investigation into the predictive validity of the ielts test as an indicator of future academic success. prospect, 17(1), 36–54. retrieved from http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect_journal/volume_17_no_1/17_1_3_dooey.p df doró, k. (2011). english language proficiency and the prediction of academic success of firstyear students of english. in m. lehmann, r. lugossy, & j. horváth (eds.), uprt 2010: empirical studies in english applied linguistics (pp. 173–185). pécs: lingua franca csoport. dunworth, k. (2008). a task-based analysis of undergraduate assessment: a tool for the eap practitioner. tesol quarterly, 42(2), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.15457249.2008.tb00126.x english testing canada. (n.d.). etc english testing canada. retrieved from https://myetc.ca/ielts feast, v. (2002). the impact of ielts scores on performance at university. international education journal, 3(4), 70–85. retrieved from https://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v3n4/feast/paper.pdf ghenghesh, p. (2015). the relationship between english language proficiency and academic performance of university students—should academic institutions really be concerned? international journal of applied linguistics & english literature, 4(2), 91–97. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.2p.91 ielts. (2019). required ielts scores at canadian universities. retrieved from https://www.ieltsasia.org/hk/en/study-in-canada/required-score ielts. (2019, may). ielts guide for education institutions, governments, professional bodies and commercial organisations. retrieved from https://www.ielts.org//media/publications/guide-for-institutions/ielts-guide-for-institutions-uk.ashx?la=en ielts usa. (n.d.). ielts test score guidance. retrieved from https://www.ielts.org//media/pdfs/ielts-test-score-guidance.ashx moore, t. & morton, j. (2005). dimensions of difference: a comparison of university writing and ielts writing. journal of english for academic purposes, 4, 43–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2004.02.001 phakiti, a., hirsh, d., & woodrow, l. (2013). it’s not only english: effects of other individual factors on english language learning and academic learning of esl international students in australia. journal of research in international education, 12(3), 239–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475240913513520 pilcher, n. & richards, k. (2017). challenging the power invested in the international english language testing system (ielts): why determining ‘english’ preparedness needs to be undertaken within the subject context. power & education, 9(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743817691995 rupp, a. a., ferne, t., & choi, h. (2006). how assessing reading comprehension with multiplechoice questions shapes the construct: a cognitive processing perspective. language testing, 23(4), 441–471. https://doi.org/10.1191/0265532206lt337oa sawir, e., marginson, s., forbes-mewett, h., nyland, c., & ramia, g. (2012). international student security and english language proficiency. journal of studies in international education, 20(10), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315311435418 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect_journal/volume_17_no_1/17_1_3_dooey.pdf http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect_journal/volume_17_no_1/17_1_3_dooey.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00126.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00126.x https://myetc.ca/ielts https://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v3n4/feast/paper.pdf https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.2p.91 https://www.ieltsasia.org/hk/en/study-in-canada/required-score https://www.ielts.org/-/media/publications/guide-for-institutions/ielts-guide-for-institutions-uk.ashx?la=en https://www.ielts.org/-/media/publications/guide-for-institutions/ielts-guide-for-institutions-uk.ashx?la=en https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/ielts-test-score-guidance.ashx https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/ielts-test-score-guidance.ashx https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2004.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1177/1475240913513520 https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743817691995 https://doi.org/10.1191/0265532206lt337oa https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315311435418 stigger 94 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 84–94 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 schoepp, k. & garinger, d. (2016). ielts and academic success in higher education: a uae perspective. international journal of applied linguistics & english literature, 5(3), 145–151. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.3p.145 short, j. (2012). get ready for ielts: listening. london, uk: collins. stigger, e. (2018). introduction: internationalization in higher education. in. e. stigger, m. wang, d. laurence & a. bordilovaskaya. internationalization within higher education: perspectives from japan (pp. 1–19). singapore: springer. yen, d. & kuzma, j. (2009). higher ielts score, higher academic performance? the validity of ielts in predicting the performance of chinese students. worcester journal of learning and teaching, 3, 1–7. retrieved from https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/811/ yeoh, j. s. w. & terry, d. r. (2013). international research students’ experiences in academic success. universal journal of education research 1(3), 275–280. retrieved from http://www.hrpub.org/download/201310/ujer.2013.010319.pdf yu, q. (2014). various items causing ielts test-taker’s low performance in mainland china: an international joint education program solution. proceedings of the 2014 international conference on global economy, finance and humanities research. retrieved from https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/gefhr-14/11538 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.3p.145 https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/811/ http://www.hrpub.org/download/201310/ujer.2013.010319.pdf https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/gefhr-14/11538 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): i–iii retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/346 editorial scholar-practitioners contributing to the english as an additional language teaching and learning community’s knowledge resources scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan campus) abstract this editorial explores the underlying reason for the journal and articulates a stance that promotes scholarship as a shared endeavour of everyone in the field of english as an additional language teaching and learning. it further offers a definition of a scholar-practitioner that underscores professional growth, content and pedagogical knowledge, articulated language, and connections between teaching and research. the six articles in the current issue are summarized in three groups related to higher education and english for academic purposes, english language proficiency testing and student success, and tesol certificate and graduate student experiences. from the editor the bc teal journal exists to promote scholarship related english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning, with a particular emphasis on british columbia. the journal takes a stance that promotes scholarship as a shared endeavour of everyone in the field, with the roles of teachers, theorists, and researchers understood as interchangeable and shared. teachers engage in research and build theory, theorists test theory through teaching and research, and researchers put findings into practice and develop principles to guide that practice. thus, scholarship and practice become intertwined, with the bc teal journal providing an outlet to share that scholarship and build the community’s knowledge resources. with the intertwining of scholarship and practice, the authors, peer reviewers, editors, and readers of the bc teal journal can be conceptualized as scholar-practitioners. macintyre latta et al. (2017) have identified four aspects that help define what it means to be a scholarpractitioner. first of all, being a scholar-practitioner entails a deep commitment to continuous professional growth, with scholar-practitioners seeing themselves as students of learning throughout their careers. next, scholar-practitioners understand that knowing how to teach is just as important as knowing what to teach. this pedagogical and content knowledge comes from the teaching and learning community, and as scholar-practitioners draw from that community, they also commit to sharing with the community to guide and support other educators. third of all, scholar-practitioners develop a language for articulating how they teach as well as why they teach the way they teach to strengthen education both at home and farther afield. finally, scholar-practitioners read the literature in their field to find connections between teaching and research while growing their abilities to understand this literature with a critical mind and, when applicable, use or adapt it for their own teaching and learning contexts. the current issue of the bc teal journal presents the work of nine scholar-practitioners in six articles. two of the articles in the current issue focus on higher education and english for https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/346 douglas ii bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): i–iii retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/346 academic purposes (eap). the first article in this issue identified the importance of teaching independent study skills in an eap setting. time management, reflective skills, and focus strategies were key elements that benefitted students (landry, 2019). jabeen, wang, and cheng (2019) also looked at eap and higher education. they reviewed the literature related to academic engagement, social integration, and academic socialization for students using eal in post-secondary settings. their review underscored the importance of supporting students using eal as they engage with a possibly unfamiliar academic culture. two more articles in this issue are also concerned with eal in post-secondary settings, but focus more on english language proficiency testing. devos (2019) investigated the english language proficiency of students in their first term of studies at a post-secondary polytechnic institute, and then compared the differences based on language and educational backgrounds, with the goal of creating locally developed testing instruments to support students. also in a post-secondary setting, stigger (2019) carried out a review of the literature related to international student success and performance on the international english language testing system (ielts) examination. she found positive and negative correlations between success and ielts scores as well as a theme related to language ability and social adaptation. finally, the current issue has two articles exploring the experiences of certificate and graduate students in the field of teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol). wu (2019) asked what factors contributed to graduates from a tesol certificate program finding tesolrelated jobs. she found a wide range of employment outcomes that depended on the forms of capital they held in the tesol profession. at the graduate student level, anderson and okuda (2019) wrote about their experiences completing their manuscript-style doctoral dissertations, outlining elements specific to writing this type of dissertation and providing guidance to graduate students and their supervisors. with the completion of the 2019 issue of the bc teal journal, six articles that underwent mutually anonymous peer review, in which the identities of the authors and the reviewers were kept confidential from each other, have now been published. many thanks go out to all of the volunteer reviewers and editors who contributed their time and effort to making this issue a success. as the scholarly journal of the association of british columbia teachers of english as an additional language (bc teal), the journal continues to contribute to the organization’s mission to raise awareness, provide professional development, and share expertise in the field of english as an additional language teaching and learning. references anderson, t., & okuda, t. (2019). writing a manuscript-style dissertation in tesol/applied linguistics. bc teal journal, 4(1), 33–52. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 devos, n. (2019). comparing first-term students’ english language proficiency at a canadian polytechnic institute. bc teal journal, 4(1), 53–83. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/346 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 douglas iii bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): i–iii retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/346 jabeen, r., wang, p., & cheng, l. (2019). academic engagement, social integration, and academic socialization: english as an additional language in higher education. bc teal journal, 4(1), 95–107. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 landry, m. (2019). the efficacy of teaching independent study skills within english for academic purposes programs. bc teal journal, 4(1), 1–12. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/316 macintyre latta, m., cherkowski, s., crichton, s., klassen, w., & ragoonaden, k. (2017). investing in communities of scholar-practitioners. teacher learning and professional development, 2(1), 32–47. retrieved from http://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/31 stigger, e. (2019). the correlation between ielts scores and international students’ academic success: a literature review. bc teal journal, 4(1), 84–94. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 wu, z. v. (2019). factors contributing to tesol employment: a graduate perspective. bc teal journal, 4(1), 13–32. retrieved from https://ojso.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/346 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/316 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/316 http://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/31 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/339 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ finley 37 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays fostering success: belongingness pedagogy for english language learners angela m. finley university of british columbia, okanagan campus abstract research in psychology has found that belongingness is an essential human need and motivation. however, in education, particularly in the field of additional language teaching and learning, the impacts of belongingness on academic success are often overlooked. with universities becoming increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse, knowing how to support students from nonenglish speaking backgrounds is integral for institutions and educators. this article explores the relationship between belongingness and academic success for additional language learners by examining four elements: positive peer relationships; meaningful student-faculty interaction; learner identity and academic success; and relevant experiences that meet academic goals. pedagogical approaches that help increase belongingness for language learners are provided to support english as an additional language professionals in creating more welcoming and productive environments at universities and colleges in british columbia. these approaches may also support other student populations, such as indigenous students, at-risk students, and even students from traditional or mainstream backgrounds. introduction with canadian demographics rapidly changing (hou & lu, 2017) and multilingual and multicultural classrooms becoming more common (british columbia data catalogue, 2017), how to address linguistic diversity at universities and colleges in british columbia is a significant question. the concept of belonging in higher education has been identified as a powerful educational tool (thomas, 2012; wilson, 2016), but for post-secondary institutions in the british columbian context, belongingness for english language learners has not yet been well explored. in this article, the idea of belongingness and how it connects to additional language students is examined through three key areas: what it means to belong, the impacts of belonging on additional language learners, and how a greater sense of belongingness can be supported by english as an additional language (eal) professionals at institutions in british columbia. the need to belong the need to belong can be considered one of the most powerful human drives (baumeister & leary, 1995; maslow, 1970). important aspects of belongingness include feeling a sense of membership, having qualities that match expectations of a group, and being positioned either socially or physically in ways that support an individual’s sense of well-being (oxford, n.d.). in motivation and personality (1970), maslow examined of the topic of belongingness from psychological perspectives. he identified that belonging is an finley 38 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 elemental and highly motivating need for most human beings, as well as a fundamental aspect of a healthy community. maslow (1970) wrote that when the need to belong goes unsatisfied, “a person will hunger for relations with people in general—for a place in the group or family—and will strive with great intensity to achieve this goal” (p. 20). he also identified belongingness as one of five major needs; the others being physiological needs, safety, self-esteem, and self-actualization (see figure 1). figure 1 maslow’s (1970) hierarchy of needs in response to maslow’s theory, psychologists baumeister and leary (1995), investigated the “belongingness hypothesis” (p. 497) by collecting empirical data from hundreds of research articles. they determined that belonging could be considered a key human motivation by concluding that “human beings have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships” (p. 497), which strongly supports maslow’s theory. belongingness and education if belongingness is indeed as integral as researchers have suggested, then the psychological and motivational implications of belonging clearly hold a great deal of relevance for teaching and learning (shapiro, 2012; van houtte & van maele, 2012; wilson, 2016). in 1993, goodenow defined educational belonging as “students’ sense of being accepted, valued, included, and encouraged by others (teacher and peers) in the academic classroom setting and of feeling oneself to be an important part of the life and activity of the class” (p. 25). goodenow’s idea of social connectedness is an integral idea in educational theory (bingham & sidorkin, 2004); however, in practice it is frequently found to be deficient both in classrooms and in institutions as a whole (beck & malley, 2003; kunc, 1992; slaten et al., 2014; thomas, 2012). baumeister and leary (1995) note that when the need to belong goes unaddressed, a significant level of motivation is lost or considerably diminished. http://www.broadreachcentre.ca/maslow.gif finley 39 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 kunc (1992) asserts that students who are accepted by others can get their belongingness needs met in schools through popularity, academics, or athletics. however, for those who do not meet traditional or mainstream definitions of success, satisfying the belongingness need can be more challenging. to clarify his point, he created a model based on maslow’s hierarchy which illustrates the idea that achievement is often seen as a prerequisite for belongingness in schools, rather than the other way around (see figure 2). figure 2. kunc’s (1992) model of the educational system this view of achievement has many repercussions for students in general (beck & malley, 2003), but for students struggling with cultural and/or linguistic differences, feelings of alienation and disengagement can have a devastating effect on social and academic success (zhou & zhang, 2014). as yeh and inose (2003) write, “an individual with a high sense of connectedness can easily form relationships with others and participate in social groups and activities, whereas, people who lack connectedness are inclined to experience low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression” (p. 17). these topics are also mentioned by baumeister and leary (1995), who write that “many of the emotional problems for which people seek professional help (anxiety, depression, grief, loneliness, relationship problems, and the like) result from people’s failure to meet their belongingness needs” (p. 521). the ramifications of not belonging not only increase anxiety/depression, loneliness, and isolation, but can also have derivative consequences, such as addiction, gang membership, and bullying (beck & malley, 2003; kunc, 1992; slaten et al., 2014; zhou & zhang, 2014). as noted in krashen’s (1982) affective filter hypothesis, these stressors can lead to anxiety and other emotional difficulties that prevent students from learning an additional language, thereby making academic and social struggles even more difficult. finley 40 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 belongingness and language learners norton and toohey’s (2001) research has suggested that linguistic capability for language learners emerges through belongingness. they found that language learners with access to a linguistic “community of practice” (p. 311) were able to learn additional languages more quickly and efficiently than others because these communities provide needed social interactions for improving linguistic competency. engstrom and tinto (2008) also found that “students in… learning communities were more academically and socially engaged” (p. 47). coelho (2004) has agreed, writing, “language learners need frequent opportunities to engage in extended, purposeful interaction in the target language” (p. 146). lightbown and spada (2013), too, emphasized conversational partners, both students and instructors, as an integral aspect of the language learning process. the idea of linguistic communities of practice connects well to vygotsky’s (1978) conception of a zone of proximal development, which identifies that working with adults or peers just beyond one’s level of competence can improve academic development, a finding that strongly supports the value of creating highly integrated social interactions for language learners. from an educational standpoint, belongingness also directly impacts individual language learners, who can become easily isolated by linguistic and cultural differences (kim, 2012; martin, jansen, & beckman, 2016; zhou & zhang, 2014). maslow (1970) identified the effects of “being a transient or newcomer rather than a native” (p. 20) on the integral need to belong and indicated the challenging consequences that outsiders experience. kim (2012) pinpointed that feeling a sense of exclusion from the majority, being seen as culturally dissimilar, and having anxiety around oral communication are all key inhibitors of success for university students from non-english speaking backgrounds (nesb). supporting students from nesb with major shifts in demographics and increases in the number of students being admitted from non-english speaking backgrounds (british columbia data catalogue, 2017), canadian schools and universities are grappling with how to integrate and accommodate additional language learners (anderson, 2014; friesen & keeney, 2013; zhou & zhang, 2014). thomas’ (2012) study on belongingness identified four key elements to creating more welcoming and inclusive university environments: “1) supportive peer relations, 2) meaningful interaction between staff and students, 3) developing knowledge, confidence, and identity as successful learners, and 4) experience that is relevant to interests and future goals” (pp. 14–15 ). these findings link to egbo’s (2005) assertion for the need to build communities in schools through “empowering classroom practices” (para. 3). egbo (2009) adds that “praxis oriented initiatives must give students a voice, foster their intellectual growth, affirm student identities, and focus on the needs of the individual” (p. 209). as goodenow (1993) identified, when students feel a sense of belonging, they are more motivated, have a greater personal outlook for achievement, and are able to find more meaning finley 41 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 in their work, thus building academic success. however, to ensure success for all students, it is integral to identify and address the specific needs of distinct populations, such as additional language learners and other marginalized groups within schools (martin, et al., 2016; shapiro, 2012; yeh & inose, 2003; zhou & zhang, 2014). wilson (2016) noted that “rather than identifying just one or two specific interventions to improve engagement and success, it... [is] important to nurture a culture of belonging across the institution” (p. 40). belongingness, as a way to increase learning and improve motivation for students, is increasingly being recognized (slaten et al., 2014; thomas, 2012; wilson, 2016), but what does that mean for educators and institutions? the following section uses thomas’s (2012) four elements to examine institutional and pedagogical practices that can help increase a sense of belongingness for additional language learners, thereby improving academic success for these students. positive student-to-student relationships as thomas (2012) identifies, peer-to-peer social support found within academic institutions increases feelings of belongingness. activities that create both a sense of belonging and a sense of interpersonal stability in relationships are seen to be of benefit to most students (thomas, 2012), but may be particularly beneficial to additional language learners (martin, et al., 2016; norton & toohey, 2001; zhou & zhang, 2014). in classrooms, collaborative opportunities for learning are seen as especially useful for creating a sense of belongingness because “all members... work together to achieve a common purpose” (beck & malley, 2003, para. 20). this collaboration teaches learners how to build functional, working communities in the target language (engstrom and tinto, 2008), which can create supportive learning environments that benefit language learners (martin, et al., 2016). baumeister and leary (1995) also found that belongingness is more strongly supported when social connections and interpersonal relationships are established, concerned, and ongoing. myles and cheng (2003) concurred. they concluded that “intercultural contact, and the social cohesion that can result from such contact, should be formally structured into student life” (p. 259). this kind of contact could be in the form of organized social activities with other students, as well as peer-pairing, both in and out of classrooms (coelho, 2004). providing language learners with formal or one-on-one opportunities to speak with proficient english speakers (lightbown & spada, 2013; myles & cheng, 2003) would also be of benefit. engstrom and tinto (2008) stated that collaborative work helps students, and particularly language learners, “feel less alone, more confident of their ability to succeed..., and more supported in their studies” (p. 48). coelho (2004) has proposed that “extracurricular activities” (p. 161) and “peer tutors” (p. 186) would increase student interaction and motivation in academic matters. both engstrom and tinto (2008) and rochecouste, oliver, and mulligan (2012) also found that more socializing among peers creates positive academic results, thus supporting the idea of offering increased social opportunities for students. these findings are also wellsupported in other current research in the field (martin, et al., 2016; wilson, 2016; zhou & zhang, 2014). finley 42 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 positive student-to-faculty relationships thomas (2012) also identified the importance of positive relationships between staff and students to increase a sense of belongingness. egbo (2009), too, acknowledged the significance of the instructor-to-student relationship and identified the importance of teachers meeting students’ individual needs. she wrote, “teachers must treat each student as an individual human being requiring special attention... as it is in fact good teaching to pay attention to individual differences” (p. 211). relationships between instructors and students from nesb kanpol (1999) suggested that good pedagogy must heed “cultural and social heritage as a method to learn more about the individual’s particular historical, cultural, social, and economic circumstances and differences” (p. 45). he recognized that each person must be seen on individual terms, while also being included as a full member of the classroom community. lee (2009) also highlighted the necessity for educators to “appreciate the diverse language and cultural backgrounds of the students,” stating it is important to “make appropriate provisions for international students’... contributions” (p. 154). these provisions and the building of “warm and supportive relationships” (strauss, 2012, p. 288) between staff and students are desirable elements for enhancing student belongingness. in addition, as egbo (2005) wrote, “positive educational outcomes for students, particularly those from nonmainstream backgrounds, depend on the degree of teachers’ commitment to inclusive practices that embrace and value difference” (para. 2). her proposition is maintained by beck and malley (2003), who stated that “the bond between the teacher and student creates the foundation upon which a sense of belonging can develop” (para. 12). unfortunately, as hennebry, lo, and macaro (2012) found, “academic staff are not all equally sensitive to the needs of [non native speaking] nns students” (p. 225). thus, as myles and cheng (2003) stated, the need to address cultural sensitivity, as well as other issues, such as “stereotyping and discrimination” (p. 260), is crucial. caring relationships in terms of the relationships between instructors and students, noddings (2012) suggested that “time spent on building a relation of care and trust is not time wasted” (p. 774). this concept of building relationships is also noted by hooks (1994). she stated, “caring about whether all students fulfill their responsibility to contribute to learning in the classroom” (p. 40) is essential for teaching diverse students. both kessler (1991) and nieto (2003) identified that building concerned and responsive relationships engages students and can greatly improve academic success, particularly for non-traditional students. nieto wrote, “[t]eachers’ caring promotes an essential sense of belonging for students whose backgrounds differ from the mainstream” (p. 16). finley 43 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 clarifying academic expectations the ability to participate successfully within a target discourse community is also connected to cultural capital (bourdieu & passeron, 1990), in which members of the majority group have insider advantages that allow them to succeed academically. roessingh, kover, and watt (2005) further refined the definition of cultural capital as being that “something more” (p. 17) that contributes to academic success, but is not just language proficiency. egbo (2009) suggested that supporting the attainment of cultural capital can improve feelings of belongingness because students are more easily able to partake in the community. cultural capital can be gained in many ways, but one suggestion for instructors would be to provide more explicit instruction around academic and social expectations in the classroom and in institutions as a whole (huang, 2010). huang’s (2010) identification of the “mismatch between students’ perceived needs and expectations and those of instructors” (pp. 532–533) suggests that having clear academic and social expectations is integral to student success (hennebry, lo, & macaro, 2012; huang, 2010; kim, 2006; storch & tapper, 2009; strauss, 2012). providing tools for students to “develop the literacy behaviours they will need to participate in their target discourse communities” (krase, 2007, p. 68) is key. an example might be a workshop on successfully navigating studentsupervisor relationships in the university environment. learner identity and academic success thomas (2012) suggested that supporting student academic success also means providing experiences that build confidence, support relevant future goals, and increase feelings of belongingness. as the barriers of language can be hard to overcome for english language learners (engstrom & tinto, 2008), building student confidence and creating classrooms where it is safe to take risks is integral to student success (coelho, 2004; lightbown & spada, 2013). improving academic success one method for developing success for students from nesb is based on vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development, wherein an interlocutor helps to bridge linguistic differences through scaffolding, thus helping to lead the student to the next stages of learning. this method also links to krashen’s (1982) comprehensible input hypothesis, in which educators use materials that can be easily understood, yet also challenge students because some information is just beyond the learner’s comprehension. other ways to increase confidence and improve academic success for english language learners (ells) are to “address issues related to foreign language learning anxiety” (kim, 2006, p. 487), “include intercultural elements in... bridging programs” (myles & cheng, 2003, p. 260), clarify important linguistic elements (huang, 2010; strauss, 2012), and offer “reading, writing, and assessment preparation” (huang, 2010; terraschke & wahid, 2011, p. 181). krashen (2002) also suggested that low stress classroom environments are integral for increasing confidence and improving academic success. he noted, “the more our classes are low anxiety, the better off our students will be” (p. 222). finley 44 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 increasing student voice for language learners, recognition and support of student voice is a key element in developing confidence and success (lightbown & spada, 2013). hooks (1994) stated that community building in schools must be encouraged through the “recognition of each individual voice” (p. 40). however, for students from nesb, having the confidence to express one’s personal thoughts is very challenging (hennebry, lo, & macaro, 2012; lee, 2009). kim (2012) identified blogging as one option for increasing student academic expression. kim wrote, “the blog has the potential to improve international students’ communication by resolving the issues of cultural differences, a sense of belonging to a minority, and communication apprehension” (p. 543). douglas (2010) concurred, identifying blogging as an important way to scaffold language learning in the classroom. however, it is also essential to foster student voice by preparing students to be able to engage in classroom discussions. kim (2006) wrote that “teachers need to simulate academic oral participation” (p. 486), while lee (2009) suggested that schools “must specifically address classroom discourse skills” (p. 154). terraschke and wahid (2011) proposed offering courses that specifically focus on oral communication skills to meet these needs. engstrom and tinto (2008) also recommended offering courses for language learners that not only increase students’ comfort with peers, but also help to develop learners’ confidence in writing. relevant experiences and future goals as huang (2010) has identified, practicing student-centred teaching means offering learners materials and experiences that reflect their distinct needs and interests, while also supporting their learning goals. academic supports and content-based instruction are both practices that provide relevant academic experiences to language learners and help support students in meeting their future goals. academic supports by providing academic supports, such as targeted linguistic foundational skills courses that meet the linguistic needs of students, an institution demonstrates its commitment to language learners, while also increasing feelings of belongingness (engstrom & tinto, 2008; thomas, 2012). thomas’ (2012) research highlighted “the importance of engagement in activities with an overt academic purpose, through high quality student-centred learning and teaching strategies” (p. 17). programming that provides information and practice pertaining to frequently assigned academic coursework is also considered very helpful (cooper & bikowski, 2007). in addition, cadman (2002) proposed the use of student-generated curriculum, suggesting that this restructuring of the educational framework is more transformative and better able to meet the needs of learners. content-based instruction sloan and porter (2010) identified that belongingness increases in programs where academic needs and interests are met. as kim (2006) identified, the use of “content based instructions and tasks” (p. 487), where language is taught through discipline-centred material, helps match finley 45 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 37–48 students’ interests and goals. this links to thomas’ (2012) proposition that students be “encouraged and facilitated to engage in appropriate opportunities... [that] include the provision of capacity-building modules in the core academic curriculum” (p. 18). as sloan and porter (2010) suggested, this kind of discipline-centred programming offers engaging linguistic support for those learning in a variety of academic fields. coelho (2004) wrote that students learn well in “language programs that connect clearly with the academic program by focusing on the language and study skills required in specific subject areas” (p. 162). engstrom and tinto (2008) also found that integrating a skills-based language course with an academic course allowed language learners to “not only learn more but to learn better” (p. 49). as other researchers have written, when instructors “focus on the needs of the individual” (egbo, 2009, p. 209) and “familiarize themselves with evolving content classroom formats and teaching methods” (kim, 2006, p. 487), they provide two of the key elements for student success and belongingness (engstrom & tinto, 2008). conclusion with post-secondary institutions in british columbia becoming increasingly diverse (british columbia data catalogue, 2017; hou & lu, 2017), the question of how to support and retain students from nesb is a significant one. institutional and classroom strategies supporting belongingness have been identified as beneficial for increasing student well-being and academic success in university environments (thomas, 2012; wilson, 2016), but may have an even greater impact for improving language acquisition and integration for students from nesb (martin, et al., 2016; zhou & zhang, 2014). furthermore, as identified in the concept of universal design for learning (udl) (rose & meyer, 2002), what is beneficial for one group can also be beneficial for many others. therefore, belongingness strategies put in place to support language learners could also benefit many other students as well, such as indigenous students, at-risk students, and even students from traditional or mainstream backgrounds. acknowledgements many thanks to gillian saunders and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. references anderson, k. 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(2014). a study of the first year international students at a canadian university: challenges and experiences with social integration. canadian and international education, 43(2), 1. retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cieeci/vol43/iss2/7/ the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2009.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2011.611871 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.05.003 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/what_works_final_report.pdf https://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eserv/rmit:161975/wilson.pdf https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cie-eci/vol43/iss2/7/ https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cie-eci/vol43/iss2/7/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ landry 1 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 the efficacy of teaching independent study skills within english for academic purposes programs michael henry landry ryerson university abstract while teaching students how to become independent learners offers great promise for their future academic success, research has yet to offer detailed insight into students’ evaluation of learning such strategies. the study skills for independent learning module was introduced as part of a canadian university english for academic purposes (eap) bridging program. the objective of the module was to help international students who had been conditionally accepted into their undergraduate programs acquire skills they could employ to become more independent learners during their undergraduate studies. the study set out to collect students’ perceptions of the module to better assess the efficacy of teaching independent study skills in an eap context. data were gathered from an analysis of the module’s overview and learning objectives, questionnaires from a group of students enrolled in the eap program (n =7), and feedback from a retrospective focus group (n = 5) that consisted of students who had taken the module the previous year and had just completed the first semester of their undergraduate programs. data were transcribed, coded, and organized into themes for analysis. time management, reflective skills, and strategies for maintaining focus were identified as three transferable skills taught in the module. introduction in canada, the average percentage of international students studying at tertiary institutions across the provinces has increased dramatically. statistics canada (2016) has reported that “the international student population at canadian universities grew 88% between 2004–2005 and 2013–2014, while the comparable growth rate for canadian students was 22%” (p. 3). in british columbia alone, the number of international students studying in the province has nearly doubled in the past five years while the number of domestic students has steadily declined. (british columbia data catalogue, 2017). for universities offering english-medium programs, the implications of this demographic shift are immense. not only are there linguistic considerations, but also possible cultural differences regarding approaches to teaching, learning, and classroom roles which must be addressed by both students and schools to help facilitate acculturation (douglas & rosvold, 2018). one strategy many universities have implemented to bridge these considerations is to offer preparation programs, such as english for academic purposes (eap) courses, to international students using english as an additional language (eal) who have not already met the english language proficiency levels required for direct admission into their academic programs. these programs help these students attain the required english language proficiency, and they teach learning strategies for how to successfully participate in postsecondary studies in a different language and culture (jund, 2010). a common element of these courses is the emphasis they place on teaching learners academic skills; in other words, not just what to learn but how to learn—a concept referred to as “learner training” (hall, 2011, p. 248). however, research to date has provided limited insight into student views on learner training in eap programs. in light of this reality, the higher education community in canada can landry 2 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 benefit from becoming more aware of these perceptions to better inform eap curriculum design and facilitate successful internationalization at postsecondary institutions in canada. the current study took place at a canadian university in atlantic canada. the purpose of this investigation was to evaluate a skills for independent learning module that was part of a larger eap program. the module is content-based, and its main aim is to help perspective undergraduate students acquire the study skills that support academic success at english-medium universities. to carry out this evaluation of the model, the study set out to answer the following research questions: 1. how does the study skills for independent learning module facilitate independent learning? 2. what value do students using eal place on learning these study skills in an eap context while preparing to enter undergraduate programs at a canadian university? learner autonomy and independent learning learner autonomy, or independent learning, is achieved when learning takes place without direction from the teacher. teaching learners to become more independent involves creating greater learning by giving the control over learning to the student (allwright, 1988); however, success depends on how learners “capitalize on opportunities inside and outside the classroom” (crabbe, 1993, p. 444). the assessment of higher education learning outcomes (ahelo) initiative of the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd), has identified key generic skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, analytical reasoning, and written communication as integral to success in postsecondary studies (tamburri, 2013). similarly, learner autonomy is required for successful additional language acquisition (benson, 2011). additional language learners may also need opportunities to produce output and recognize the accuracy of content and language. little (2007) maintained that language acquisition and learner autonomy can be simultaneously achieved by employing pedagogical approaches which promote learners’ exploration, interpretation, and participation as these approaches are more likely to encourage their application of known and unknown ideas and information to new experiences. teachers play a key role in the process of fostering independent learning. teachers must employ a bilateral approach to instruction so that material covered in the classroom is accompanied by tasks which compel the learner to transfer knowledge and skills from the classroom to their lives (crabbie, 1993). it is only through the application of content that selfregulation and independent learning occur (benson, 2011). according to cotteral (2017), in order for teachers to facilitate such self-directed learning, they must provide learning environments or specific “affordances” which allow independence and autonomy to thrive (p.103). cotteral (2017) listed the five essential affordances which must be established in any learning environment for learner autonomy to flourish as “engagement,” “exploration,” “personalization,” “reflection,” and “support” (cotteral, 2017, p.103). according to cotteral (2017), engagement involves activities that the learners find meaningful and connect with. landry 3 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 exploration pertains to building a “genuine sense of learner inquiry” beyond teacher-generated “display” questions designed to elicit a predetermined response (cotteral, 2017, p.104). reflection combines task-specific reflection with planning for future learning. support requires instructors to “anticipate” what learners may be able to achieve on their own and to provide support when tasks may exceed the learner’s current learning resources (cotteral, 2017, p. 104). content-based instruction in content-based instruction (cbi), the target language is taught via subject matter rather than through the explicit teaching of the language (valeo, 2013). materials for a cbi course contain language which will be useful for study in a particular field (brinton et al., 1989). content-based programs may focus on the teaching of subjects such as science, history, and mathematics in a target language (lightbown & spada, 2006). content-based lessons are focussed primarily on the teaching of subject matter while focus on language form is viewed as secondary. therefore, cbi has come to represent an extension of communicative approaches, which put a much larger emphasis on the meaning of language over (grammatical) accuracy. instruction of cbi also includes, sometimes exclusively, authentic material from the targeted discourse community and culture (stryker & leaver, 1997). according to lightbown and spada (2006), by framing language learning in this way, students are still able to progress as long as this input is comprehensible. the linguistic complexity that many authentic texts contain means that teachers need to carefully consider how to introduce concepts and adjust the complexity of the tasks. to enhance comprehension and production, cbi courses need to have curricular redundancies so that students have the opportunity to repeat the material at different times and across subject matter. horizontal and vertical redundancy is easily facilitated in cbi as, when a course is focused on one subject, there is a greater chance for the “recycling” of vocabulary to take place across topics and throughout the duration of the course, which leads to greater familiarity and fluency later on (brinton et al., 1989). in terms of assessment, the level of importance that cbi programs usually place on meaning and communicative competence means that assessments must be as “real-life” as possible (stryker & leaver, 1997, p. 23). this real-life application is motivating for learners; however, the knowledge resources which the students bring to the course and how they might limit or enhance task completion and assessment performance need to be carefully considered (briton et al., 1989). the study the participants described in this study participated in the first level of an eap program at a canadian university. as part of the curriculum, students were required to participate in a contentbased module entitled skills for independent learning. the students studied the module four hours a week for twelve weeks. the study collected feedback from two groups of participants for a total sample size of twelve (n =12) students. the participants in both groups were students using eal who had not previously studied english outside of their home countries. seven of the participants had just completed the module and were still enrolled in eap studies at the university (shown below in table 1). this cohort consisted of students from china (n = 6) and ecuador (n = 1). landry 4 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 table 1 breakdown of participants who completed questionnaire participant gender identity major student 1 male engineering student 2 female neuroscience student 3 male biochemical engineering student 4 male economics student 5 female architecture student 6 female sustainability student 7 male finance the study also included five students who participated in a retrospective focus group, who had completed the module and graduated from their eap program a year earlier, and who had just completed the first academic semester of their undergraduate programs (shown below in table 2). the group consisted of students from china (n = 4), and lebanon (n = 1). table 2 breakdown of reflective focus group participants participant gender identity major student 8 male engineering student 9 male music student 10 male commerce student 11 male mathematics student 12 male accounting methods when evaluating courses and materials, a variety of data sources are required in order to achieve triangulation of data collection (allwright & bailey, 1991). therefore, three main data collection techniques were used in this study to provide an overview of participant perceptions of the skills for independent learning module: an analysis of the module’s aims and objectives, questionnaires completed by current students, and a retrospective focus group. once the data were collected, all of the information was organized based on creswell’s (1998) recommendations of thematic coding and assigned categories that directly addressed the research question. responses that were viewed as surprising or conceptually interesting to the researcher, participants, or audience were recorded and classified under categories using tables to highlight reoccurring themes across the participants. the quotes presented in the findings are representative of the main points that emerged from the analysis of the data. student questionnaire the purpose of the questionnaire (appendix 1) was to provide insight from the seven participants who had recently finished the module. the questionnaire was open-ended to stimulate more detail and elaboration. in order to prevent the participants from feeling that their grades would be landry 5 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 affected in any manner, the questionnaires were completed once the participants had already finished level one of the program. in addition, the participants also signed a release which stated that their contributions would have no bearing on their academic standing. after the questionnaire had been completed, they were collected and then analysed to identify key points from each question. retrospective focus group a retrospective focus group was facilitated with the group of five participants who had previously taken the independent study module. the participants had completed the first half of their first term of full-time undergraduate studies. the purpose of the retrospective focus group was to gain insight regarding the application of strategies from the module and to provide personal views on the efficacy of learning those skills as part of their bridging program. an interview schedule (appendix 2) was designed following an open-ended format in order to avoid leading questions and promote natural discussion. participants were asked to sign a release form giving permission to use their comments for research. after the meeting, the recording was analysed and key points from each question were entered into a focus group summary so that the responses could be compared to the other data sources. the summary was also emailed to each of the participants in order to give them a chance to amend any of their comments. findings course design a careful review of the “module overview” and “learning objectives” (act education solutions limited, 2012, p.1) found that the module was aimed at international high school graduates using eal preparing to attend undergraduate studies at an english-medium university. the module was created to address perceived knowledge and cultural gaps experienced by international students using eal upon entering postsecondary studies. the module targeted students at an ielts band 5, and content and assessments were designed with this level of proficiency in mind. the module consisted of three major assessments: a semester planner, an interview, and a reflective journal. the students were also assessed for in-class participation and homework completion. overall, the assessments in the course were designed to test the skills taught in the module (i.e. self-reflection, independent study, interview skills, and life skills to be successful). table 3 below highlights the skills which are evaluated in each assessment. landry 6 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 table 3 description of assessments assessment value skills being tested reflective journal 50% students are required to write 15 short (150-word) entries in which they reflect on various topics: communication, reflection, and noticing skills. language is secondary, but needs to be intelligible. personal statement and interview 25% a 15-minute interview in which students answer questions relating to the course’s subject matter and university life. the context is a university admissions interview. the students practice interview skills for life and are assessed on those skills, as well as their ability to communicate effectively, respond to questions, and their knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses and where to seek support on campus. semester planner 15% students design a semester planner for their level one deadlines. the planner assesses their ability to plan and manage their own time and work backwards from deadlines. (act education solutions limited, 2012, p. iv) student views on the acquisition of independent study skills questionnaire responses from the participants enrolled in the module revealed that they had learned primarily time management skills and reflective practices. all of the respondents reported that they felt they were better able to organize their time due to the semester planner. four of the participants felt that they had benefited from writing the reflective journal. two of the participants commented that they found it helpful to reflect and learn from mistakes. in particular, one participant wrote that they had “learned to know if i’m learning or not and how to be an active learner” though journaling. the members of the retrospective focus group who had completed the module the year before, and had completed their first semester of undergraduate studies, also commented on the importance of learning time management skills. for example, when asked about how the module connected to their current situations, the participants all agreed that managing deadlines was paramount. members of the retrospective focus group also placed high value on learning reflective skills. during the group discussion, they all stated that they applied journaling to their studies because it helped them combine class content with their ideas. one of the members said that reflective writing was a requirement of his engineering program, so having that previous experience gave him confidence to approach this course requirement. the reflective focus group participants also commented that the strategies for note-taking and synthesizing information were important independent study skills. two participants stated that they incorporated the practice of independently studying before their lessons and then deciding if they needed to attend the lecture or take initiative and ask a professor or tutor for landry 7 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 support. the same participants mentioned that skills such as revision and reading before lectures were both beneficial. the participants specifically mentioned that, in a typical class, a professor might cover as many as forty pages of the textbook. therefore, building these study skills beforehand was useful. two of the participants also thought that note-taking and revision were useful and something they applied to their daily practice. one of those students said, “[f]or me, after the class, i just re-do my notes again in my way and not the professor’s way. that helps me to learn.” another student added, “[y]eah, i do my own notes as well. i do the key notes or a cheat sheet after each chapter, so i can prepare for a test.” the participants from the retrospective focus group also mentioned that the module’s focus on how to identify and address problems associated with university life was useful to their current studies. for example, one participant stated: “in engineering we have lots of help from the teacher assistants if i need help, but for the other [things] like what hurts me, or if i have a bad friend or something like that. how to avoid walking with them, and how to put more priorities [on] studying, yeah i learned that in the [module] as well. high school don’t teach me that.” regarding this same theme, another participant commented that “[w]hen i have something, and i don’t know anything about it, and it’s stressful, i usually go to the gym for running. that’s one way i learned from the course—that i can get the stress away from me.” in addition to these approaches to coping with the above challenges, two participants thought that the module’s focus on researching the university’s support services and taking responsibility for their own learning struggles beforehand also helped their transition into their programs. discussion and conclusion while the sample size was small, the two cohorts of students in this study lend voice to the notion that such courses do help eap students take ownership over their learning. the findings indicate that both groups of participants felt that the study skills for independent learning module helped them to enhance their study skills. moreover, their responses suggest that the participants in the retrospective focus group, in particular, were able to apply what they had learned to real-world situations. more specifically, the abilities of managing time, reflecting on learning, and dealing with social pressures at university, were three key facets of the module which the participants believed directly impacted their studies. these findings suggest that the students exercised, to some extent, bruner’s (1986) “reflective intervention” in that they were able to adopt roles and exercise some control over their learning (p.132). from a design perspective, the subject matter and language appeared to be both suitable in terms of the motivational profiles and proficiency levels of these participants. the feedback from the questionnaires and retrospective focus group reveal that the participants felt the course provided them with the conceptual background and practice they needed to improve their study skills to succeed at university. the fact that the materials target an ielts band 5 is promising since it may encourage instructors teaching eap courses to incorporate activities which focus on landry 8 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 enhancing independent study skills into their approach, even at a pre-intermediate level. this positive evaluation is also important given that eap students may come from a different “culture of learning” than the one they face during their studies abroad (jin & cortazzi, 2006, p. 8). the importance of academic and cultural acculturation is often taken for granted or overlooked entirely by eap course designers (cheng & fox, 2008; dooey, 2010). having clear academic and social expectations as part of eap design can be key to future student success (huang, 2010). responses also focused on the need to cope with life at university. one major challenge facing university students is how to navigate the informal interactions that occur within the realm of their studies. students using eal often have a reluctance to speak due to a lack of confidence, or they have feelings of exclusion due to their linguistic proficiency (dooey, 2010). the findings of this study indicate that teaching students strategies to cope with these perceived deficiencies and where to find help if needed is a key element of successful independent learning. these findings may also lend voice to similar studies (dooey, 2010) which found that students using eal see value in opportunities to engage with their academic community as early as possible. this interaction could be exposure to content and assessments which are similar to that which they will encounter when they enter their target community (thomas, 2012). in addition to note-taking and synthesis activities, the findings of this current investigation indicate that certain programs, such as engineering, try to reinforce reflective practices as a valuable professional skill. perhaps, strides could be made to identify further transferable skills which could be integrated into a larger eap curriculum. this inclusion could occur either as a separate study skills/professional skills module, such as in this study, or as streamed discipline-specific assignments as part of a wider eap or english for specific academic purposes (esap) course. limitations and future studies although the data collection methods provided a variety of views on the module, they could have been made stronger in three ways. given the small sample size, it is difficult to draw conclusions which can be generally applied. while gay et al. (2012) maintain that qualitative research’s main objective is to understand what occurred and identify reasons for why that occurred across the particular population, future studies could look at a wider and more diverse sample to see if conclusions could be more broadly applied. in addition, more data sources such as undergraduate faculty, admissions staff, and student counsellors from the university could have been involved to collect data regarding other means of student support on campus. adding more perspectives would lead to a more refined investigation into beliefs surrounding the connection between language proficiency, acculturation, and academic readiness. additionally, the questionnaire and interview schedules could be redesigned to include a student-specific needs analysis to more explicitly elicit the participants’ own views on what it means to be an independent learner. this needs analysis could also contain questions that ask participants to reflect on their existing knowledge and comment on their abilities to engage within their target communities. one drawback of modules focusing on learner autonomy, such as the one in this study, is a possible perception that students using eal should not rely on their existing knowledge resources, rather, they need to adapt to the host culture’s norms; placing the landry 9 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 students in a deficit framework. douglas and rosvold’s (2018) synthesis of key themes found in two decades of scholarly work pertaining to intercultural communicative competence (icc) identified problematic calls for eal students in eap programs to change their behaviours to accommodate the behaviours of the host culture. the authors recommended that eap course designers and instructors move away from such an ethnocentric approach to acculturation and towards a more ethnorelative one (douglas & rosvold, 2018). such an approach would encourage both students and the academic community to share the responsibility to adapt. issues of acculturation identified in this study primarily appeared within the context of the discourse community and independent study skills. in addition, student testimonials eluded to some levels of acculturation relating to social relationships. finley (2018) highlighted the importance of belongingness to language acquisition and successful integration. future studies could look at further expanding current research on the belongingness of students using eal in a higher educational setting in canada to evaluate how those students perceive themselves within the greater academic community and how curriculum designers can incorporate themes related to belongingness in eap curriculum design. such a study would seem useful given that the value of helping students expand their cultural understanding through eap program curriculum has been recognized as beneficial to academic, work, and social interactions (galante, 2014). in terms of intercultural relations, future investigation could start with bennett’s (1993) developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (dmis) and explore the current level of the eap students and interlocutors and identify ways in which program designers and administrators can address deficiencies on both sides by creating instructional materials which provide strategies for recognizing and addressing cultural misrepresentations and promote intercultural sensitivity. such measures would likely enhance the process of acculturation by providing additional resources students can draw on to independently cope with university life and positively impact internationalization at the institutional level. acknowledgements the author extends his thanks to the peer reviewers and the bc teal journal editor for their valuable feedback and support throughout the publication process. references act education solutions limited (2012). level 1 module 3: gac003 study skills for independent learning (6.1 ed.). sydney: act educational solutions limited. allwright, d., & bailey, k.m. 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(2006). how languages are learned (3rd ed.). oxford, uk: oxford university press. https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/domestic-and-international-student-headcountby-economic-development-region-and-institution/resource/d090dded-e0ef-438c-8bcae6da321973b0 https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/domestic-and-international-student-headcountby-economic-development-region-and-institution/resource/d090dded-e0ef-438c-8bcae6da321973b0 https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/domestic-and-international-student-headcountby-economic-development-region-and-institution/resource/d090dded-e0ef-438c-8bcae6da321973b0 https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.65.2.307 https://sisaljournal.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/4-cotterall.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251x(93)90056-m https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/cjal/article/view/25337 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.02.013 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v32i1.1199 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168810375372 https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310608668751 http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej53/a1.pdf landry 11 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 little, d. 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(2011). the impact of eap study on the academic experiences of international postgraduate students in australia. journal of english for academic purposes, 10(3), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.05.003 thomas, l. (2012). final report. what works? student retention and success: building student engagement and belonging in higher education at a time of change. london, uk: paul hamlyn foundation. retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/what_works_final_report.pdf valeo, a. (2013). language awareness in a content-based language programme. language awareness, 22(2), 126–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2012.666247 appendix 1 questionnaire for enrolled students 1) what is your opinion of the skills for independent learning module? 2) what have you learned from the study skills for independent learning module? 3) what is your opinion of the module text book in terms of content and level (difficulty)? 4) what is your opinion of the reflective journal? 5) what is your opinion of the interview/personal statement and resume assessment? 6) what is your opinion of the semester planner assessment? 7) if you could, what would you change about the course? 8) if you could, what would you keep the same? appendix 2 questions for retrospective focus group 1) grand tour) tell me about your experience in the skills for independent learning module. follow-up: did it meet your expectations? probe: how has it met or how could it have better met your expectations? or, what do you mean by “good”? https://doi.org/10.2167/illt040.0 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2016011-eng.pdf?st=gc6yoj9z https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/trend-to-measure-learning-outcomes-gains-proponents/ https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/trend-to-measure-learning-outcomes-gains-proponents/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.05.003 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/what_works_final_report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2012.666247 landry 12 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 1–12 2) (grand tour) tell me about your current situation follow-up question: how has the module connected to your current situation as an undergraduate student? probe: any examples, anecdotes? 3) how did you feel about the course materials? follow-up/probe: which ones were good or bad, and why do you think they were so? clarification: were they easy or difficult? was the level of language suitable to your level? was the content of the course suitable to your situation? 4) how did you feel about the assessments? follow-up: did they test your knowledge of the content and language? or, what are their strengths or weaknesses? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ burri 25 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 making sense of theory: a doctoral student’s narrative of conceptualizing a theoretical framework michael burri university of wollongong abstract making sense of theory plays an essential role in the life of a doctoral student. this autoethnographic study explores how i made sense of educational theory while conceptualizing the theoretical framework for my phd proposal. a diary that i kept while designing the proposal serves as the data source to examine how my thinking about theory evolved. findings demonstrate that the development of my thinking was a complex and circular process that progressed through nine phases. a particular challenge of conceptualizing a theoretical framework was the tight timeframe in which the proposal needed to be completed in order to start collecting data for my doctoral research. the paper concludes with a discussion about implications for language teacher educators and phd supervisors. introduction and purpose of paper educational theory has always fascinated me. during my graduate studies at trinity western university (twu) (2004–2008) in langley, british columbia, i enjoyed pondering over theory while attempting to connect it to second language (l2) and english as an additional language (eal) pedagogy. once i completed my ma in tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages) and worked in the international student entry program at the british columbia institute of technology, theory was something that teachers discussed in the staff room, sometimes quite passionately. many of us felt strongly about justifying theories that informed our classroom practices. when i moved to australia to commence my doctoral studies at university of wollongong (uow) in february 2013, the focus shifted from justifying theory in terms of pedagogical practices to viewing theory as the foundation of research. in the school of education at uow, phd students are required to design a research proposal that is around 20 double-spaced pages in length and consists of an introduction, research questions, literature review, a theoretical framework, a research timeline, and projected budget. the proposal needs to be presented to a panel of 3–4 faculty members within 12 months of the commencement of phd studies. the presentation is open to the public and doctoral students are encouraged to attend. presenting the proposal is a critical stage in the phd program at uow because a successful presentation enables a student to advance to his or her candidacy and carry out the research project. a substantial part of this research proposal consists of a theoretical framework. having a strong theoretical framework is seen as essential because it identifies theoretical principles and philosophical assumptions that underpin the doctoral research. as the research proposal template for my phd program at uow states, the theoretical framework “provide[s] an indication of the ways in which the research and writing about research have framed the problem-setting, research design, the interpretations and explanations of the information collected.” the expectation is that the framework is about 3–5 pages long. the majority of doctoral students find the design of this burri 26 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 theoretical framework the most challenging part of the proposal. some of them have never considered the possibility of theory underpinning research and so they struggle to identify a relevant theoretical construct that informs their research. my initial admission statement to the phd program at uow proposed a classroom-based pronunciation study. i had read several peer-reviewed papers and books on english pronunciation pedagogy prior to commencing my doctoral studies, but what i somehow neglected was to identify the theoretical principles that were embedded (often implicitly) in these articles. subsequently, i soon realized the formidable challenge that designing a theoretical framework entailed. adding to this challenge was the fact that in the first meeting with my two supervisors, it became apparent that my initially proposed mixed method, quasi-experimental classroom-based study exploring the effectiveness of pronunciation instruction in relation to teacher learning was interesting but not feasible due to the challenge of accessing suitable l2 classrooms at uow. instead of the proposed research, the three of us decided that i should focus on pronunciation teacher preparation, an area that up to that point, besides golombeck and jordan’s (2005) study, had received little empirical attention. and so the aim of my doctoral research changed to an examination of the development of postgraduate student teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, perception, and knowledge (i.e., cognition) about pronunciation. uow offered a pronunciation pedagogy course, but it was scheduled to start at the end of july and offered only once a year. this meant that i had to get my research proposal done within five months—and not the usual 12 months phd students are given—in order to start collecting data. this added considerable time pressure and made the proposal development even more challenging. one of the most difficult aspects was choosing an appropriate theory, formulating, and then justifying its use in the research proposal. thus, the purpose of this article is to explore how my own process of making sense of educational theory developed while designing the theoretical framework of my proposal. the decision to reflect on and write about this process was inspired by canagarajah’s (2012) autoethnography in which he skillfully narrates his lived experiences of becoming a tesol professional. autoethnography is a newly emerging research approach in tesol (mirhosseini, 2016). it diverges from other forms of empirical inquiry in that the researcher plays the dual role of researcher and sole participant in the study (hughes & pennington, 2017). autoethnography, therefore, provides unique and compelling insights into personal accounts of how individuals comprehend themselves and how they perceive, experience, and live through events in particular social contexts. following struthers’ (2014) proposition, i foreground the use of first person singular throughout this paper to examine and narrate my journey of making sense of theory in the first few months of being a phd student. this narrative is, of course, situated within an australian context; however, the paper should also be of relevance to the bc teal community because theory is an essential part in the various graduate and doctoral programs offered in british columbia. in the doctoral program in the faculty of education at simon fraser university (sfu), for example, theory plays a prominent role. at sfu, the foundational courses cover theory historically, but then subsequent courses approach theory through different lenses (personal communication with karen densky, september 12, 2017). in the ma tesol at twu, theory is embedded throughout the program and students must be able to articulate theory and connect it to practice (personal communication with bill acton, september 21, 2017). in the language and literacy education (lled) program at ubc, theory is incorporated into various burri 27 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 courses and seminars and not dealt with in isolation (personal communication with mi-young kim, september 20, 2017). it is, therefore, my hope that this narrative paper is of value to the bc teal membership, particularly to members thinking about graduate studies, l2 teacher educators, current graduate students seeking guidance to better understand the theories they are learning, and faculty members that are currently supervising phd students. the two questions that guide my exploration of theory are as follows:  how did my thinking about educational theory develop while designing the theoretical framework of my proposal?  what challenges did i encounter while designing my theoretical framework? methodology an electronic diary (in ms word format) that i kept while working on my research proposal is the data source for this paper. during the process of designing my theoretical framework, i decided to follow mertens’ (2010) advice and keep a diary to record my thoughts about theory. i hoped that putting down my thoughts on a piece of paper facilitated my understanding of theory that could potentially underpin my doctoral research.1 every time i read a publication (e.g., a journal article, book, or book chapter) that i thought was relevant to my research i composed a diary entry. the diary was also used to record some of the frustrations i experienced during this process of making sense of theory. recording such emotions was a means to cope with stress, and, at the same time, leave some of the negative feelings at the office rather than carrying them home and letting them spill into my family life. writing these diary entries occurred fairly regularly with each entry being about a paragraph in length. the first entry was made on april 8, 2013, and the last one was recorded on may 30, 2013. in the end, the diary contained a total of 27 entries. to answer the two guiding questions above, the entries were analyzed thematically in that i examined them for theory-related areas (e.g., sociocultural theory, second language teacher cognition), insights, tensions, and justifications for including a particular theory in my framework. identified themes were then categorized, amalgamated, and arranged in a table to help me understand the process of how i conceptualized theory while designing the theoretical framework of my proposal (the table is included in appendix a). compartmentalizing themes also allowed me to identify some of the key moments and challenges i experienced while working on the theoretical framework. lastly, with the help of the table, i designed a figure (figure 1) that reflected my own personal process of making sense of theory. this figure is discussed in the following section of this paper. findings the language teacher education literature and research suggest that teacher learning is a complex and non-linear undertaking (e.g., burri, baker, & chen, 2017; burri, chen, & baker, 2017; aslan, 2015; feryok, 2010; kiss, 2012; svalberg, 2015). the analysis of my diary data by and large confirmed this. as figure 1 shows, the process of making sense of theory was circular in 1 using this diary to write this article was not the intention at that time. burri 28 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 nature, with sociocultural theory (sct) forming the point of departure as well as the centrepiece to which i returned three times (see phases 3, 5, and 8 described below) while designing my theoretical framework. the figure also shows that even though i revisited sct three times, i explored various other theoretical constructs over a period of seven and a half weeks (april 8– may 30, 2013). legend: sct = sociocultural theory; sltc = second language teacher cognition; clt = cognitive load theory; at = activity theory figure 1. conceptualization of educational theory. as illustrated in figure 1, the development of my thinking about and identification of appropriate theory progressed through nine phases, with the arrows and numbers representing this progression. the entire process began with a recommendation of my two supervisors to start reading about sct. consequently, my inquiry began by looking into sct (phase 1) in that i read several papers discussing the zone of proximal development (zpd) (e.g., lantolf & aljaafreh, 1995; ohta, 2005; warford, 2011). sct views learning as a social process, emphasizing that the prior experiences and history of an individual directly contribute to the learning process and to the development of the mind. the zpd is a concept that highlights the difference between independent and guided task performance (vygotsky, 1978). for a study exploring teacher learning, i considered the zpd to be relevant because the construct implies that an expert (e.g., a teacher educator) facilitates a novice’s (e.g., a student teacher’s) learning process. after 10 days of reading about sct, i then explored borg’s (2003, 2006) notion of second language teacher cognition (sltc) (phase 2). according to borg, beliefs, knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes are all part of teacher cognition, and so i thought that cognition needed to be taken into account in my research. up to that point i had only skimmed baker’s (2011) dissertation, in which she used borg’s framework to explore l2 instructors’ cognition about pronunciation teaching. for this reason, i was rather unfamiliar with sltc and so i embarked on reading borg’s (2006) book teacher cognition and language education: research and practice to gain a better understanding of teacher cognition. i began to see that drawing on borg’s work would help me examine the unobservable aspects of learning (i.e., participants’ beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge) in my research. four days later, however, i put borg’s book aside and returned burri 29 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 to sct-related issues (phase 3). this time i focused on non-verbal communication, such as gestures and imitation (harris, 2003; mccafferty, 2008). non-verbal communication plays an important role in meaning making and language learning. therefore, my thinking was that a study examining pronunciation teacher preparation would likely need to account for these aspects. what i did not expect was that through these readings i became more aware of the importance of identity in teacher learning. my diary entry on april 29, 2013, read: “i guess i will need to look into aspects of identity.” subsequently, i began to read norton (1997), morita (2004), and kurihara’s (2013) work on l2 learner and teacher identity (phase 4). two days later, i once again returned to sct (phase 5), but this time the focus was on a vygotskian perspective on feedback provision to facilitate learning (nassaji & swain, 2000). feedback is an important part of pronunciation teaching, and so i felt compelled to attain a better understanding about feedback in relation to the theory my supervisors encouraged me to read about (i.e., sct). shortly afterwards, a seminar i attended at uow on cognitive load theory (clt), in which workingand long-term memory were discussed, led me to briefly explore clt (sweller, ayres, & kalyuga, 2011) (phase 6). clt refers to the amount of effort required to store information in the working memory. i thought memory was an essential part of teacher learning, and therefore clt could be a potentially useful construct to underpin my research. after a day of reading, however, i was uncertain about the application of clt to my study. i was unsure how clt would help me examine my participants’ beliefs and knowledge about pronunciation. i also felt that obtaining an-depth understanding of this theory would require substantial reading and time. hence, given that i was already facing considerable time pressure, i chose to abandon the idea of including this theory in my framework and move on. although not selecting clt was to some extent an epistemological decision (i.e., my lack of knowledge about the theory), the lack of time to read extensively about clt ultimately prevented me from further exploring it. the next step in my thinking was that learning to teach pronunciation could be seen as an activity. thus, the following day i began to explore activity theory (at) (phase 7). thorne (2004) suggested that “[t]he goal of activity theory is to define and analyse a given activity system, to diagnose possible problems, and to provide a framework for implementing innovations” (p. 65). given thorne’s proposition, the next five days were spent with reading several key pieces discussing at (e.g., engeström, 1999; grossman, smagorinsky, & valencia, 1999). i was particularly interested in the appropriation (i.e., adoption) of tools in teacher development, because it could perhaps help me analyze my participants’ process of learning to teach pronunciation. put differently, at looked interesting because it could possibly be used as an analytic lens to examine student teachers’ uptake of course content (i.e., the adoption of pronunciation teaching techniques). at the same time i came to realize that at was situated within the broader construct of sct, and so i returned to sct once again (phase 8). i read chaiklin’s (2003) paper in which vygotsky’s original formulation of the zpd was discussed. this was a complex paper to digest, and i felt that my understanding of the zpd was marginal at best. the question of how i could analyze and track the development of my student teachers’ learning to teach pronunciation remained. as a result, i began to look into literature discussing sct positioned within the context of second language teacher education (slte). johnson and golombek’s (2011) book proved to be helpful as it included several slte studies encapsulating an sct perspective. kim’s (2011) and ahn’s (2011) chapters caught my attention burri 30 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 because these two researchers used at (which i explored in phase 7) to examine teacher learning. by now i was quite certain that at was a useful theoretical construct that would help me explore how my participants learned to teach english pronunciation, and so i made the decision for activity theory to form the theoretical framework of my research proposal (phase 9). the next four weeks were spent on finalizing the entire proposal, and on july 23, 2013, i presented it to a committee and a handful of doctoral students and lecturers that were interested in the topic. in the meeting following the presentation, the committee suggested that at was not a particularly suitable construct for my study, because at was mostly applied in the agency of innovation and not in the examination of teacher learning. the committee advised me to consider using grounded theory (gt) (e.g., bryant & charmaz, 2010) instead. gt is a systematic research approach that leads to generating theory. at first i disagreed with their suggestion, especially since ahn’s (2011), kim’s (2011), and grossman et al.’s (1999) research all drew on at to explore the process of l2 instructors learning to teach english. a subsequent meeting with my supervisors provided some much needed clarity in this regard, and we made the collective decision for my theoretical framework to be informed by sct, rather than at or gt. i purchased lantolf and thorne’s (2006) book sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development in an attempt to continue expanding my understanding of sct. i spent the next 10 months with further reading, obtaining ethics approval, and collecting and analyzing data. the analysis of my qualitative data, as well as several discussions with my supervisors, gradually developed in me the belief that obtaining an in-depth understanding of pronunciation teacher preparation can only be achieved by having sltc underpin my research. reading borg’s (2006) book and baker’s (2011) dissertation in more depth also provided clarity and contributed to my decision of selecting sltc. my standpoint now was that student teachers’ thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge (i.e., cognition) were vital components in language teacher preparation, and therefore i decided to draw on borg’s (2006) work of language teacher cognition to inform my research. settling with sltc also enabled me to build my research on baker’s (2011) dissertation exploring l2 instructors’ practices and cognition about pronunciation, and use her coding framework as a point of departure for my data analysis. choosing sltc as the main theory for my research is interesting because i considered using sltc relatively early on in my journey of designing the theoretical framework (see figure 1); yet, i took a significant detour and explored several other constructs before eventually returning to sltc. the data clearly showed that the development of my thinking about theory was a circular process. what figure 1 fails to display are the challenges i experienced while trying to make sense of theory and grappling with all the various theoretical constructs. the analysis of the diary data revealed that tension began to arise as the proposal presentation date (july 23, 2013) approached. for example, having worked on my theoretical framework for a month, my diary entry on may 7, 2013 suggested that i was questioning my understanding of sct, the zpd, and the purpose of these two constructs: “the problem is that i feel that i really don’t understand the zpd and its purpose.” the time pressure of having to submit the proposal in early july was increasingly becoming a concern. i felt quite reluctant to work with all these theories: “the time pressure is enormous. i have two months left to get my proposal ready, but there is so much left to do. i’m burri 31 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 feeling rather overwhelmed” (may 11, 2013). i saw myself as a practitioner rather than a theorist. nevertheless, a few days later i felt “that my understanding [of activity theory] is gradually emerging and improving” (may 14, 2013) in spite of my tiredness. yet, two weeks later (may 27) i noted that at was anything but clear to me. i felt exhausted and expressed little desire to work on any kind of theory. i was in need of a holiday, but that was not an option because i was scheduled to submit my proposal in six weeks. the end of the diary entry on may 27, 2013 read: “i need to persevere and pull through this.” three days later i seemed to feel much more positive. the post on may 30 showed that i favored the idea of using at as an analytical tool because it allowed me to take the history of an individual student teacher into account and analyze my study participants’ reaction to and uptake of course content. nonetheless, the diary data also highlighted that i continued to feel uncertain about the various elements of at and the overall purpose of this theory. discussion and implications trying to make sense of theory while developing a theoretical framework under time pressure may appear to be a rather agonizing experience. why i did not select sltc right away (see phase 1) and stick with it is a legitimate question. having analyzed the diary entries and drawn up figure 1, i feel that exploring these different theories over a period of several weeks was a necessary and formative experience that allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of a variety of theoretical constructs that can inform l2 teacher preparation. as such, the challenging journey of making sense of theory and developing a theoretical framework within a tight timeframe shaped me profoundly. from an educator’s perspective, i believe that i am now able to better empathize with the struggles and potential frustrations of my graduate students as well as the phd students i supervise. the insights gained from this small-scale study allow me to assist my doctoral students in their quest to make sense of theory and to design a theoretical framework underpinning their research. from a doctoral student’s perspective, the findings suggest that phd students need to understand that making sense of theory and conceptualizing a theoretical framework is a lengthy process that requires patience and hard work. it might be a good idea to form a study group in which doctoral students are able to discuss theory, ask questions, and share insights they gained from their readings. i discussed theory with my fellow doctoral students on several occasions, but getting together more regularly would have perhaps minimized some of the struggles and frustrations i experienced. phd supervisors, on the other hand, may want to guide their doctoral students’ exploration of theory within defined boundaries. in light of the circular nature of figure 1, it is easy to imagine how exploring theory can spin out of control and become an overwhelming undertaking that impedes understanding and learning. i was fortunate to have been guided by two knowledgeable supervisors that had the ability to reign me in and occasionally remind me of the focus of my research. these regular meetings were essential in helping me conceptualize my theoretical framework, and, ultimately, in completing my research proposal. the findings generated by this inquiry have also implications for l2 teacher educators working in graduate programs. as illustrated in figure 1 and in the ensuing discussion, l2 teacher educators need to be aware that their students’ attempts to understand and to make sense of educational theory can be a multifaceted and lengthy process. thus, having graduate students burri 32 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 keep some form of a logbook to record their thoughts about theory may enhance student teachers’ uptake of course content, and, at the same time, provide an outlet for students to put down on a piece of paper some of the frustrations they experience while trying to understand theoretical constructs. using a reflective diary in slte programs could also facilitate students’ attempts to connect theory with classroom practice. keeping a diary to facilitate learning is not a new concept in tesol (curtis & bailey, 2009); however, reflecting on theory while documenting their thoughts (and their frustrations) about how to connect a particular theoretical construct to classroom teaching may broaden graduate students’ knowledge-base. conclusion this narrative paper supports the notion that teacher learning is a complex endeavour. it should be noted, however, that the nine phases discussed in this short article were not as clear cut as figure 1 suggests. some of these phases were intertwined, in part due to considerable overlap that existed between the various theories i explored. also, as most phd students do, i read a significant number of other papers that contained aspects of theoretical constructs that are not discussed in this paper. the word count of this brief report does not allow me to discuss these papers in detail. it is also worth mentioning that there were days when i was unable to devote time to critically explore any theoretical constructs due to additional teaching and research assistant commitments. on the one hand, these breaks might have affected my understanding of theory somewhat negatively. on the other hand, they might have helped me process some of the theories in greater depth. the effects these breaks had on my understanding of theory are, of course, purely speculative, but it would be interesting for someone to replicate this study. figure 1 reflects my own, personal process of making sense of theory. the findings discussed in this paper are not necessarily a reflection on the quality of the study, but rather a reflection of the dialogic nature of narrative inquiry. that is, i interacted with the narrative data and came up with my own conclusion. thus, were this small-scale study to be replicated by another doctoral or graduate student studying in a different context (e.g., in the faculty of education at sfu, the ma tesol at twu, or the lled program at ubc), the model would most likely look different. that is because learning is, after all, an individual process (burri, baker, & chen, 2017). acknowledgments i would like to thank winnie pang and the three anonymous reviewers for their useful feedback on an earlier draft of this paper. references burri, m., baker, a., & chen, h. 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(1997). language, identity, and the ownership of english. tesol quarterly, 31(3), 409-429. doi: 10.2307/3587831 ohta, a. s. (2005). interlanguage pragmatics in the zone of proximal development. system, 33(3), 503-517. doi: 10.1016/j.system.2005.06.001 struthers, j. (2014). analytic autoethnography: one story of the method. in j. huisman & m. tight (eds.), theory and method in higher education research ii (pp. 183-202). emerald group publishing limited. svalberg, a. m.-l. (2015). understanding the complex processes in developing student teachers' knowledge about grammar. the modern language journal, 99(3), 529-545. doi:10.1111/modl.12241 sweller, j., ayres, p., & kalyuga, s. (2011). cognitive load theory. new york, ny: springer thorne, s. l. (2004). cultural historical activity theory and the object of innovation. in k. van esch & o. st. john (eds.), new insight into foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 51-70). frankfurt am main: peter lang. warford, m. k. (2011). the zone of proximal teacher development. teaching and teacher education, 27(2), 252-258. vygotsky, l. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. burri 35 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 25-35 appendix a overview of conceptualizing educational theory dates (2013) phases theories/theoretical constructs & references summaries of key points in diary entries april 8-18 1 zone of proximal development (lantolf & aljaafrsh, 1995; ohta, 2005; warford, 2011) the zpd could perhaps be used to examine or characterize the effectiveness of teacher education april 19-20 2 second language teacher cognition (borg, 2003) beliefs and knowledge (i.e., cognition) are unobservable aspects that occur in a practitioner’s mind april 22-24 3 non-verbal communication (e.g., gestures and imitation) (harris, 2003; mccafferty, 2008) this plays an important role in meaning making and language learning april 29 4 identity in l2 learning and teaching (kurihara; 2013; morita, 2004; norton, 1997) identity needs to be considered in teacher learning april 30 5 feedback provision in zpd (nassaji & swain, 2000) form is essential in l2 learning may 2 6 cognitive load theory (clt) (sweller, ayres, & kalyuga, 2011) clt’s central concepts of working memory and long-term memory might be relevant to slte may 3, 2013 7 activity theory(at) (engeström, 1999, 2001); an appropriation of tools in teacher development (grossman et al, 1999) a teaching technique could be classified as a tool, and an activity as a process of learning to teach pronunciation. at could be used to examine participants’ perception and adoption of teaching techniques may 7-13 8 vygotsky’s original formulation of zpd (chaiklin, 2003); sct in second language teacher education (slte) (johnson & golombek, 2011) simplify theoretical framework and roll zpd and gestures into sct. how do i analyze and track the development of teachers’ cognition? may 14-30 9 kim (2011) and ahn’s (2011) application of at to examine teacher learning at appears to be a useful construct to explore contradictions and conflict within participants’ activity system/cognition development (i.e., learning to teach pronunciation) july 23 proposal presentation the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ maatouk & payant 19 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays moving beyond individual peer review tasks: a collaborative written corrective feedback framework zeina maatouk université du québec à montréal caroline payant université du québec à montréal abstract english as an additional language (eal) teachers include peer feedback activities during the writing process to foster autonomy amongst eal writers and support target language development. research has demonstrated the importance of providing peer feedback training to learners in order to improve the efficacy of peer revision (rahimi, 2013). peer feedback review activities, however, are often individual tasks despite the evidence that collaborative writing activities are essential for eal learners (wigglesworth & storch, 2012). this classroom practice article introduces a threefold pedagogical training designed for english for academic purposes (eap) learners which combines individual and collaborative peer review activities. the proposed peer collaborative written corrective feedback framework (c-wcf) scaffolds novice academic writers through the peer review process while emphasizing collaborative learning. introduction within the field of second language writing, there is extant literature on pre-service and inservice teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding written corrective feedback (wcf). traditionally, commenting on students’ work was a task assumed by teachers (ghahari & sedaghat, 2018; hansen & liu, 2005); however, in a number of english as an additional language (eal) contexts, we note the inclusion of peer wcf practices (chang, 2016; yu & lee, 2016). during peer wcf, eal learners read and comment on a peer’s written production. research to date has compared the efficacy of teacher and peer wcf (m. k. lee, 2015; séror, 2011; tsui & ng, 2000; zhang, 1995) and examined the benefits of peer wcf on target language development (diab, 2010, 2011; lundstrom & baker, 2009). engaging learners in peer wcf activities “[empowers] students to play an active role in classroom writing assessment” (i. lee, 2016, p. 262); however, research shows that eal learners struggle with this task, a finding that has prompted educators to develop and implement peer wcf training programs (diab, 2010, 2011; hu, 2005; lam, 2010; m. k. lee, 2015; min, 2005, 2006, 2008; rahimi, 2013; zhao, 2018). peer wcf activities have primarily consisted of individual reading and commenting tasks. from a socio-constructivist framework, cognitive development is socially situated and occurs as a result of interaction between an expert and a novice (lantolf, thorne, & poehner, 2015). with eal students, teachers have traditionally been considered to be the expert; however, there is ample evidence that learners can also provide each other with a scaffold by engaging in https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 20 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 collaborative writing (wigglesworth & storch, 2012). despite the growing support for collaborative writing activities (fernández dobao, 2012; neumann & mcdonough, 2015; slavkov, 2015; wigglesworth & storch, 2012), we observe that peer feedback continues to be operationalized as an individual task where a learner, perhaps following a brief conversation with the author, reads and comments individually. however, research indicates that when learners engage in oral discussions to share written feedback with their peers, they are able to support each other through negotiating and resolving disagreements (tian & li, 2018). to foster greater interaction during the initial stages of the peer review process, we are proposing a collaborative written corrective feedback (c-wcf) framework that (1) provides learners with tools and strategies that scaffold the peer wcf process and (2) emphasizes collaborative reviewing and learning. in this paper, following a brief discussion of the merits of peer wcf, we propose a threefold plan to conduct c-wcf with eal learners in the context of an academic writing class. peer feedback: effects on eal writing implementing peer feedback activities with eal learners has become a regular practice in writing classrooms. peer feedback can take place during any stage of the writing process (e.g., brainstorming, topic generation, outlining); however, it typically unfolds after the first draft has been written, namely, during the revision stage (hansen & liu, 2005). recent research indicates that engaging learners in peer feedback practices offers numerous benefits. in a first instance, we find that the authors who receive feedback improve the quality of their written text with fewer treatable errors left uncorrected (diab, 2010, 2011). it also increases students’ motivation (ghahari & sedaghat, 2018; tsui & ng, 2000) and instills a sense of audience (m. k. lee, 2015; rahimi, 2013; tsui & ng, 2000). engaging in peer feedback practices also appears to impact the reviewer’s own writing practices. berggren (2015) and lundstrom and baker (2009), who examined whether giving feedback alone had an impact on the reviewer’s subsequent production, observed that those who provided feedback, even though they did not receive any in return, showed gains in their written production. research has also examined learners’ perceptions toward teacher and peer wcf. early research suggested that learners overwhelmingly preferred teacher feedback to peer feedback (tsui & ng, 2000; zhang, 1995) and did not trust the quality of peer wcf (tsui & ng, 2000). although there is some evidence that learners are open to working with peer wcf, recent evidence continues to indicate that eal writers find the feedback provided by peers to focus excessively on local errors, find it to be vague (m. k. lee, 2015; rahimi, 2013), and feedback providers continue to doubt the usefulness of their feedback (tian & li, 2018). in order to mitigate these negative perceptions and maximize the benefits of wcf, practitioners have emphasized the necessity of implementing peer feedback training and of creating greater opportunities for collaboration at the various stages of the process. peer feedback training training eal learners to provide feedback has been the subject of a number of empirical studies (allen & mills, 2016; diab, 2010; lam, 2010; m. k. lee, 2015; levine, oded, connor, & https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 21 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 asons, 2002; min, 2005, 2006, 2008; rahimi, 2013; tsui & ng, 2000; yang & meng, 2013). peer feedback training can take many forms, ranging from awareness-raising discussions to teacher-led explicit modelling. in fact, teachers can model the peer feedback process through the use of examples of appropriate (or inappropriate) peer comments (hu, 2005), role-play, and demonstration videos (allen & mills, 2016; levine et al., 2002). other studies have explored the use of guiding questions to ensure more focused and comprehensible comments (hu, 2005; levine et al., 2002; min, 2005, 2006, 2008) and the use of checklists (m. k. lee, 2015; tsui & ng, 2000). training can also take place during student-teacher conferences where teachers discuss the feedback the reviewer provided to a peer in order to improve the quality of the comments (min, 2005, 2006, 2008; rahimi, 2013). other peer wcf training focused on how writers can make use of the feedback. for example, rahimi (2013) provided students with explicit instruction on identifying global errors that hindered comprehension through projecting models. for each identified error, he explained to the learners how modifying the problematic structure could improve the essay and encouraged them to identify such errors in their peers’ writing. lam (2010) focused his explicit instruction on the difference between treatable and nontreatable errors (ferris, 2002; guénette & jean, 2012). the former type is related to linguistic features that are rule-governed (e.g., plural markers) whereas the latter is related to idiosyncratic features (e.g., word choice), and a learner may struggle to correct these without explicit guidance. reviewers were also asked to keep a log of the errors they noticed in the text as well as their type. finally, diab (2010) provided form-focused instruction on identifying selected error types. reviewers were asked to identify errors, determine their nature and log them into a table along with the line number and the correction. in these cases, keeping the error logs helped learners utilize the explicit instruction they received. the impact of training on eal learners’ writing practices is positive: training benefits the quality of students’ written output since authors tend to incorporate a greater number of comments into their revised drafts (min, 2006; rahimi, 2013). in addition, the type of feedback tends to change, moving away from only treating local issues to also treating global issues (i.e., content, organization, and structure) (min, 2005; rahimi, 2013). finally, trained learners tend to engage more with the process of peer feedback and develop a more positive attitude towards this practice (hu, 2005; min, 2005, 2008). training has focused on preparing learners to provide higher quality local and global feedback; however, it is of equal importance to consider how training impacts the quality of the collaborations, namely, pair dynamics. min (2008) examined the impact of training with english language learners in taiwan and reported that learners demonstrated a more collaborative stance after training, frequently engaged in negotiation of ideas with the writers, and produced more empathetic comments. zhao (2018) conducted a study involving eal learners in china aiming to describe patterns of interaction that unfold between peers following a training. drawing on storch’s (2002) taxonomy of dyadic patterns of interaction, zhao reported a majority of collaborative patterns such that both learners contributed information and provided mutual scaffolding to ensure successful task completion. the peer wcf process typically begins with an individual component: the reviewer who will provide feedback receives a copy of a text and individually reviews it. novice eal reviewers, however, have experienced some discomfort with this practice because they do not https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 22 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 consider themselves to be experts. to overcome struggles associated with peer wcf, collaborative feedback activities have been proposed (m. k. lee, 2015; nguyen & filipi, 2018). nguyen and filipi (2018) implemented a multiple-draft/multiple-party feedback process which incorporated a collaborative peer-feedback activity. it consists of four students working in small groups where each student is assigned to comment on a particular aspect of writing, namely, ideas, organization, vocabulary, or grammar. findings show that students appreciate that the process was learner-centred. it increases motivation and benefits their writing skills. in turn, m. k. lee (2015) introduced a collaborative reviewing component: intra-peer wcf. intra-peer wcf consists of two students individually reviewing the same text produced by a third peer. before sharing their feedback with the author, the two reviewers share their comments and negotiate the feedback to be shared with their peer. a single, compiled feedback form is then returned to the author. with this collaborative technique, reviewers were more motivated to provide feedback and writers were more trusting of the feedback, making learners more favourable to participate in a peer review activity (m. k. lee, 2015). while a number of pedagogical papers provide ideas for implementing training (hansen & liu, 2005; ren & hu, 2012; rollinson, 2005), to the best of our knowledge, intra-peer wcf has not been integrated into their training suggestions. the present paper presents a threefold training model that aims at scaffolding learners through a variety of reflective tasks and collaborative c-wcf sessions with eal learners. collaborative-written corrective feedback training model context this peer c-wcf training was designed for english for academic purposes (eap) learners. eap classes are a common pathway for learners who wish to integrate english-medium university programs. for example, in british columbia, eap programs may consist of up to four levels, at the end of which learners are able to “[function] effectively in formal, extended, unpredictable, and challenging situations typical of the teaching and learning environments at canadian colleges, vocational institutes, and universities” (british columbia ministry of advanced education, 2019, p. 17). in programs such as these, eap students may attend around 15 to 20 hours of english language instruction per week aiming at developing their academic reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. within writing eap classes, genre-based and process-based approaches to writing are typically the norm (wette, 2014), and learners are often required to participate in peer wcf activities. to maximize the benefits associated with peer wcf and collaborative writing, we now turn to the proposed peer c-wcf. the model is divided into three phases: before peer feedback provision, during peer review and after peer revision, presented in figure 1. a detailed step-bystep guide is provided for teachers in the appendices. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 23 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 note. i = individual component; c = collaborative component figure 1. stages of the peer c-wcf training model phase 1: before peer c-wcf although it may be possible that some learners are familiar with peer wcf activities, it is imperative to explore the rationale and benefits of this practice. the initial stage of the c-wcf training comprises three short activities: (1) to reflect on the objectives of the written production, (2) to request help with the identified aspects of their texts they remain unsure about and (3) to explore discourse strategies to communicate effectively with their peers. reflecting on written production. before sharing their work, learners are guided through an individual reflection task on their written texts. specifically, during this initial step, learners identify which aspects of their writing they believe they performed well and which caused greater struggle. the latter will become the elements of their texts they would like to receive feedback on. to guide them in this process, they are given a form (appendix 1) with reflection questions about the writing task and writing process. by completing this initial individual reflection, learners are encouraged to take a critical look at their own production. immediately following this individual reflection, students share their responses. this can be completed either in dyads or as a whole group activity. these exchanges can raise students’ awareness about common struggles, lower negative emotions towards writing-related activities, and help them discover strategies used by their peers to overcome similar challenges. given that class time is limited, the individual reflection can be completed at home and teachers can elicit their students’ responses as a short 10-minute warm-up. requesting feedback. based on this initial individual reflection and group discussion, learners are invited to prepare their peer-request form (see appendix 2). it is important for learners to identify these areas before engaging in the c-wcf activities to help elicit focused feedback. the guiding questions on the peer-request form can include, for example: what could my peer help me with? what is the main element i want him/her to look at? to avoid very general responses, we encourage teachers to model responses. once learners have completed their forms, they share them with their reviewer. • reflect (i) • request (i) • explore (c) before c-wcf • read (i) • feedback (i) • compare (c) • conference (c) during • reflect (i) • report (c) post c-wcf https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 24 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 exploring functional language. the final (optional) step prior to engaging in the main peer c-wcf activity focuses on the identification of functional language needed to elicit and to respond to feedback in a way that fosters collaboration and respect. teachers can model target structures by performing a scripted role-play or by modeling with a learner (see sample structure in table 1). table 1 functional language (adapted from i. lee, 2016, p. 265) language needed for the writer language needed for the reviewer i would like to have feedback on… could you please explain this comment …? what are your comments on…? what did you think about…? this is very helpful. can you explain what you wanted to say here? you did well on… did you consider writing… this part can be improved by… i liked/enjoyed this part… as your reader, i felt that… alternatively, teachers can draw on prompts to explore linguistic strategies that will lead to greater and more meaningful negotiation. example prompts, adapted from hansen and liu (2005) include: 1) how can you tell the writer you do not understand the idea? 2) what kind of clarification questions can you ask? 3) which language is more polite to indicate your confusion? taking the time to work on functional language reduces the frequency of direct and sometimes offensive requests (e.g., “this is wrong,” “you need to change this,” “i don’t understand any of this”). in sum, preparing learners by drawing on role-plays or whole group discussions serves to demonstrate optimal ways to conduct peer c-wcf review discussions. this preliminary work can be done in class, especially if learners are new to peer feedback; however, as the semester progresses, learners can complete a majority of these tasks before class. phase 2: during c-wcf having completed phase 1 of the training, learners are divided into groups of three and proceed to phase 2. for this phase, each learner will bring two copies of their text to class or, if working in a computer lab, share their texts prior to the c-wcf activity. this c-wcf stage comprises four steps: (1) to individually read a peer’s text, (2) to individually provide feedback on the text, (3) to compare feedback and pool feedback using the form, (4) to return and discuss feedback with the author. step 3 will most likely be new to learners, but this additional step greatly improves the experience. reading: individual reading task. to begin the c-wcf process, first allocate time for the two reviewers to conduct a first individual reading of the same paper, without marking it. this first reading is intended to focus the reviewers’ attention on the ideas and macrostructure. as such, students must be reminded that they are to put their pens away and focus on reading their respective copies. given that papers may vary in length or that some students are fast https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 25 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 readers, they can also be invited to read the paper twice, to give time for all the readers to complete the reading task. feedback: individual commenting task. after the individual reading, the reviewers read the feedback peer-request form (previously completed by the author, appendix 2) and begin working on an individual wcf task. during this time, the authors whose papers are being commented on, form a group (ideally in another room or at a distance from the reviewers) and work on a free writing task or language-focused task. alternatively, they can begin to read their peers’ work. comparing: collaborative commenting task. the third step is the collaborative component of the c-wcf activity, the new component of the peer review process. to boost the reviewers’ confidence and to increase the quality of the feedback, the two reviewers take some time to discuss their initial feedback. during this oral component, the reviewers share their feedback and identify areas of convergence and of divergence. when the reviewers’ feedback converges, the reviewers should include these recommendations in the final feedback to the author. given that both reviewers identified these elements, the reviewers may experience greater confidence in the quality of their feedback. in moments where their feedback diverges from each other, they will be forced to discuss their feedback and arrive at a joint solution. this negotiation stage is critical in developing their understanding of academic writing. teachers may want to monitor these discussions and offer their input. sharing notes can also lead to identify gaps in the feedback, namely, errors identified by only one of the reviewers. again, these negotiations become critical moments in their own writing development and this additional step will ensure that the authors receive constructive and reliable feedback. once the two reviewers agree on the comments, they fill out the third column of the feedback form. this will be the information to share with the authors. conferencing: sharing final feedback. the reviewers are now ready for the final step: meeting the author to provide their feedback orally. sharing the written feedback orally has numerous benefits for the reviewers and the authors. during the small group conference, the reviewers present their recommendations to the authors. this creates a space for the author to ask for clarifications regarding the received comments but further enables the author to clarify their ideas if they believe the reviewers misunderstood the text. overall, this c-wcf format reduces learner anxiety, increases awareness of academic texts, and promotes collaborative learning. see appendix 3 for a sample instruction to be shared with learners. phase 3: after peer wcf during the final phase of the review activity, students are guided through a post-review reflective activity. each student completes an individual checklist (appendix 4). this checklist promotes reflection from the perspective of both the reviewer and the author. this form also helps the teacher gauge students’ perception of adopting a peer c-wcf framework. a group discussion could follow to conclude the activity. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 26 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 pedagogical considerations this collaborative peer feedback model is comprised of three stages and can easily be adapted. we encourage teachers to execute the complete model at the start of the semester given the importance of peer feedback training that we highlighted at the outset. for subsequent writing tasks, however, teachers may omit certain components, for instance, the functional language component, if learners have demonstrated their ability to communicate effectively with their peers. other steps of phase 1, such as form completion, can be completed at home so as not to take valuable class time. teachers can also choose to alternate between offering teacher feedback only for short writing tasks and combining this peer c-wcf model with teacher feedback for more complex writing tasks that require multiple drafts (nguyen & filipi, 2018). the c-wcf model is intended to scaffold the peer-review process and is designed to include numerous collaborative activities. for this model to be successfully implemented, it is important for learners to arrive with printed copies of the texts. also, during the individual and collaborative commenting tasks, it is important for teachers to have a plan for the authors whose texts are being reviewed. without such a plan, we found that these students quickly go off task and disrupt the flow of the activity. conclusion peer feedback is an essential activity in an eal class and will support novice writers to develop a positive outlook towards collaborative learning. learners must be accompanied throughout the process of revising their peers’ written productions. this three-stage training model aims at guiding the learners through the various phases of providing comments, beginning with planning for the feedback, providing it, and finally, assessing it. it combines written and oral feedback in a safe environment. in the context of an eap class, the proposed model can also help introduce learners to collaborative models of learning that they will encounter in their target university courses. teachers can adapt and optimize this tool in light of their students’ previous experiences with peer feedback and their beliefs towards it. finally, responding to the call of yu and lee (2016) of providing more information on training targeting collaboration, it would be interesting to conduct a classroom-based study to empirically examine students’ perceptions before and after undergoing this collaborative training model. references allen, d., & mills, a. 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(2018). new insights into the process of peer review for efl writing: a processoriented socio-cultural perspective. learning and instruction, 58, 263–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.07.010 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2014.09.009 https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v11n8p1 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168812459151 https://www.englishaustralia.com.au/documents/item/174 https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/cci003 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/cjal/article/view/19870 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v32i2.1209 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9922.00179 https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2018.1535602 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1060-3743(00)00022-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1060-3743(00)00022-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2012.09.005 https://doi.org/10125/44327 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2016.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/1060-3743(95)90010-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/1060-3743(95)90010-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.07.010 maatouk & payant 29 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 appendix 1 before c-wcf: reflect and request provide a blank copy of activity 1: reflect* to each learner. following this individual component, engage your learners in a group discussion activity wherein they share their responses. this stage will help increase their awareness of writing difficulties others face. activity 1. individual reflection form with student answers guiding question sample response 1. what type of text (genre) did i produce? a letter of intent to a university program. 2. who is the target audience for this text? the admissions office at the university 3. which section(s) of the text did i write successfully? the thesis statement in the introduction 4. which section of the text was difficult for me to write? finding the connecting words. deciding on right punctuation. 5. how did i overcome those difficulties? i went back to my class notes and read the models provided by the teacher think about the language, content, and organization and finish these statements: 1. i did well on: the introduction, the greetings. 2. i did not do well on: connecting ideas; using punctuation. 3. i am not sure about: past tense verbs, academic vocabulary. *this handout can easily be adapted. sample responses can be shared with learners but their form should only include the guiding questions. appendix 2 before c-wcf: requesting feedback after this individual reflection, students will select three or four elements that they would like to receive feedback on and note these in the request form. activity 2: request form for peer feedback with sample answers thank you for reading my text. today, i would like you to give me feedback on the following: sample major category sample specific areas reviewer comments grammar irregular verbs organization one idea per paragraph academic vocabulary transition words https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 30 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 appendix 3 during c-wcf phase: instructions for step 3* for this c-wcf activity, you will complete four steps: 1) individual reading, 2) individual feedback, 3) collaborative feedback, and 4) conferencing with the author. each group of three will have two reviewers and one author. each reviewer will have one copy of the written production. as a reviewer, read the text once, without marking the copy. next, read the feedback request form prepared by the author. individually comment on the author’s text and provide feedback on the requested elements only, directly on the text. before returning the feedback to the author, both reviewers will share their feedback. for this, compare your feedback, discuss similarities and differences and prepare a single, collaboratively produced feedback form. the procedure of reading individually, of providing feedback individually, of comparing feedback notes, and of returning feedback to authors will be repeated for each group member. *these instructions can easily be modified. appendix 4 after c-wcf: reflect after the review process, learners will complete the reflective survey. activity 3: reflection checklist on peer feedback process when i was reading my peer’s text: 1. i provided the feedback i was asked for at: less than 60% 61% – 70% 71% – 80% 81% – 90% 91% – 100% explain: 2. giving feedback was: very difficult difficult neutral easy very easy explain: https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 maatouk & payant 31 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 19–31 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 when i was reading my peer’s comments on my text: 3. i got the feedback i asked for at: less than 60% 61% – 70% 71% – 80% 81% – 90% 91% – 100% explain: 4. the feedback i received was: useless not very useful neutral useful very useful explain: what will i do differently next time as a reviewer? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/341 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ simpson & waye 38 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 “you actually learn something”: gathering student feedback through focus group research to enhance needs-based programming allie simpson york university laurie waye northwest community college abstract in the spring of 2015, the centre for academic communication (cac) at the university of victoria began a series of projects aimed at understanding the needs of undergraduate and graduate students with english as additional language (eal), with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of the centre’s programming. the first project, detailed in this article, concentrated on identifying student perceptions and use of the centre’s programming and aimed to elicit suggestions as to how the cac could better meet student needs. to do this, we facilitated two focus group interviews consisting of eal graduate (n=6) and undergraduate (n=4) students. participants responded that the timing of programming should better reflect their schedules, and that programming should be more discipline specific and better designed for graduate students. they also felt that they did not receive enough critical feedback and that there was a lack standardization across tutorials and workshops. however, the participants also felt that the tutors were helpful, the programming provided a good addition to their studies, and the supports increased their confidence. two unexpected findings were that, generally, students accessed one kind of programming offered by the centre, rather than taking advantage of the range of offerings, and that students had misconceptions about the centre’s offerings and how to use them. it is hoped that this study will help inform other student academic support services about focus group research for the purposes of program evaluation and collecting student feedback. introduction since 2007, the university of victoria has provided academic writing skill support to all students at the undergraduate and graduate levels through its writing centre. in 2014, the writing centre grew into the centre for academic communication (cac), with a broader mandate to teach other academic communication strategies in addition to writing, such as reading, presenting, and understanding university expectations and academic integrity. this growth was also designed to better support the burgeoning number of students attending the university who use english as an additional language (eal). both authors were involved in the transition of the writing centre into the centre for academic communication, including the program design and evaluation components. in the 2014–2015 academic year, the cac held over 4200 one-on-one appointments, the largest number held in the history of the centre. furthermore, during this period other programming such as the graduate writing room, drop-in help zones, and grammar and other english for academic purposes workshops assisted over 650 students. in addition to an increase in visits, the cac also experienced a shift in student demographics, with more graduate students simpson & waye 39 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 and more students with eal visiting than in previous years. in order to understand the needs and characteristics of this growing and dynamic population, the cac conducted a qualitative research project to supplement the vast amount of quantitative data that is regularly collected though our centre’s scheduling software and through periodic anonymous surveys. writing centre research in relation to the current study over the past decade, there have been many areas of focus with respect to writing centre (wc) research. one area that has been studied is students’ perceptions and expectations of academic communication support and the implications of these perceptions for wcs. for example, moussu (2013) notes that, in regards to writing, eal students are often caught in opposing educational frameworks: whereas students perceive wc support as a type of “grammar repair shop” (p. 56), wc staff attend to grammatical errors only after addressing higher order concerns (e.g., paragraph structure, content understanding, and argument development). given the conflict between students who may perceive their needs in relation to form over content (with a possible push from professors who have the same focus) and support staff who assist with the reverse, it is increasingly important to have a more complete understanding of students’ expectations and to develop strategies to respond to them while maintaining the educational framework of the centre (moussu, 2013). in addition, research has also focused on the role of assessing students’ academic communication needs for the purpose of program design (huang, 2013). huang (2013) notes that inquiry into student needs is a necessary action in the processes of program development, task design, and materials development. in fact, inquiry is a foundational step toward achieving an empirically substantiated approach that will most effectively support students’ skills development. committed to evidence-based, reflective programming, we engaged in a reflection on the importance of both students’ expectations of wc support and their perceptions of their academic learning needs, in the context of our own dynamic student population. when considering our options for this initial research project, we chose to follow the lead of other writing centres throughout north america (queen’s university, 2004; cushman, marx, brower, holahan & boquet, 2005) and selected a focus group methodology. we felt this data collection technique valued students’ voices because focus group methodology is an “ideal” approach for exploring individuals’ needs, concerns, experiences, and perspectives (kitzinger, 2005, p 57); it also serves as a tool for program evaluation (william & katz, 2010). further, focus group methodology has the ability to utilize collaboration between participants to collect detailed responses to specific questions (cushman et al., 2015) and, for this reason, can obtain a higher level of ecological validity not found in survey research or other research methods (stewart & shamdasani, 1990). for these reasons, the focus groups were thought to be an effective and reliable method for collecting the data required to inform our future program design. focus group methodology following the guidelines outlined in krueger and casey (2009) and in cushman et al. (2005), two one-hour focus groups were designed. in the spring of 2015, ethics approval was received simpson & waye 40 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 and participants were recruited via ethics-approved posters that were placed around the cac. the posters asked interested students to contact a staff member who was unaffiliated with the cac. following recruitment, the focus groups were facilitated by two moderators who were connected to the cac. throughout the focus groups, one moderator asked questions and interacted with participants who were seated at a round table while the other moderator took detailed notes from the corner of the room. notes to record participants’ comments were taken on a laptop throughout the entirety of the focus group interviews. participants ten students expressed interest in the student recruitment posters. participants’ backgrounds varied, with 60% of participants registered as graduate students and 40% as undergraduate students. the majority of participants were female (90%) with eal (90%). one graduate student with english as a first language participated in the focus group. table 1 outlines participant characteristics. table 1 participant characteristics (n = 10) gender female (9) 90% male (1) 10% level of study undergraduate (4) 40% graduate (6) 60% year of study 1 (6) 30% (undergraduate); 30% (graduate) 2 (3) 10% (undergraduate); 20% (graduate) 5 and above (1) 0% (undergraduate); 10% (graduate) division humanities (3) 30% social sciences (6) 60% life sciences (1) 10% language el1 (1) 10% eal (9) 90% questions as per the recommendations outlined by cushman et al. (2005), ten main questions were used to prompt discussion (see appendix 1). questions fell into four main categories: 1. questions regarding students’ perceptions of helpfulness of programming: for example, “considering the programming you have used, what did you find helpful and what did you find unhelpful?” 2. questions regarding students’ current cac usage: for example, “what programming did you not attend, and why?” 3. questions regarding students perceived needs: for example, “to you, what makes a good workshop?” simpson & waye 41 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 4. questions aimed at eliciting suggestions: for example, “what do you think is the best way to get information to students about the programming that the cac offers?” analysis data were analyzed following the classic data analysis strategy outlined in krueger and casey (2009), which consists of a systematic strategy involving the organization and categorization of transcripts and the coding of participants’ statements in terms of relevance, frequency, specificity, and emotion. using this approach, data were first analyzed and independently coded by five members of the cac team. each member followed the same method, consisting of identifying key points, summarizing, and extracting support in the form of quotations from the transcripts. next, the individual analyses were discussed and compared during a face-to-face meeting, which took place about a week after the data collection period. discrepancies in coding were discussed until resolved and a final analysis was reached. the following sections detail the main findings of both focus groups. in order to preserve students’ voices, their comments are reported verbatim. as a result, some of the representative quotes may include variations on standard english usage. further, some quotations include topic insertions for clarity. results perceptions of programming positive perceptions. the first category of questions concentrated on how students perceived and accessed services currently offered by the cac. the services the students could reflect on included:  workshops, including a stream for graduate students titled “master class”  one-on-one appointments, including 25-minute booked appointments, 15-minute dropins, and asynchronous online feedback  the conversation café, a weekly opportunity for students to speak english in a friendly environment, and  an event held twice in 2015, the intensive lab in english for academic purposes (ileap), which featured one to three full days of learning and practice opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. in terms of perception, the participants in both focus groups responded similarly: they mentioned that the cac had been “helpful” to their learning. with respect to helpfulness, students most frequently mentioned workshops such as master class, grammar workshops, and the conversation café. in fact, the word “helpful” was used ten times in the focus group discussions:  ileap: 3 times  one-on-one tutorials: 2 times  workshops: 5 times table 2 lists student comments on the helpfulness of cac programming. simpson & waye 42 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 table 2 representative quotation by type of program ileap one-on-one tutorials workshops “ileap was really helpful” “the conference [ileap] was really beneficial.” student x says that s/he was looking for “tool sets to work with,” and the workshops in ileap gave him/her “really good ideas how to proceed.” s/he thinks ileap was “excellent!” “talking about the problems ‘face to face’ can be very helpful.” “i went to some graduatespecific workshops and actually found them to be helpful.” “the café was helpful. we don’t speak much in our classes or labs. café is a good place for people to communicate.” alongside helpfulness, many students also noted experiencing a positive affective state, such as feeling comfortable: “i came here when i was taking english courses. i didn’t feel nervous at all.” another student stated, “i feel very good. my classmates come too, so it is even better.” in addition, five main subthemes were identified in terms of student perceptions regarding the strengths of the cac’s programming. academic communication skill development. the main mandate of the cac is to help students learn how to improve their academic communication skills. the data collected reflects this mandate: “you actually learn something. teachers from high school only tell you something. here they know where is the problem. they tell you to think about it. and then [they] help you revise your writing.” improvement in grades. while an improvement in student grades is not part of the stated mandate of the centre, students see an increase in assignment scores as proof of their growing mastery of academic communication skills. one participant shared that she came to the cac for help with an assignment for a first-year english course. she said, “we chatted a lot while working on my writing. [the tutor] was friendly. i really liked it. the grades [i got for that course] were not bad.” confidence building. in addition to teaching students how to develop their academic communication skills, programming is designed to help students feel more confident about their ability to learn. as one student said, “my first tutor was susan, and she was super nice. we started by talking about our experiences in canada. we talked about where we came from. she was very friendly. i was afraid at the beginning that my writing was really bad. but she encouraged me to read it out loud, and it helped me build my confidence.” another student said, “no one had told me about [publishing] before, so i never even thought about publishing. that session gave me a lot of confidence.” social. like improving confidence, providing opportunities for students to practice their spoken english is folded in to the cac mandate. said one student, “we don’t speak much in our classes or labs. café is a good place for people to communicate.” simpson & waye 43 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 perceptions of unhelpfulness. in addition to commenting on the cac programming that participants felt was helpful, participants also commented on areas they felt were less helpful. interestingly, unlike when discussing helpfulness, participants discussed aspects of programming they perceived as unhelpful instead of identifying specific programs. these comments centred mainly on four key program aspects: (1) timing, (2) lack of standardization in tutorials, (3) workshop content that is too basic, and (4) a lack of feedback. timing and flexibility. the comments students made demonstrated a diverse understanding of how one-on-one tutorials can and should be use. for example, students said,  “[the tutorials] are a bit short. i often cannot finish an essay during the one tutorial and i have to rebook.”  “i have so many questions, and there is no time”  “i always have an artificial hesitancy to use the one-on-ones, as there are only ten [appointments allowed per semester].” while we had designed tutorials to be focused on one or two areas of support (e.g., developing a thesis statement and identifying a couple of error patterns), students believed the tutorial was for going through their assignments from beginning to end. as well, the cac point of view is that a tutorial is for helping support students strategically, instead of fully, while the participants’ comments demonstrated a different perspective. when offerings were scheduled was also a point of discussion. workshops at the cac have suffered from less than robust attendance despite attempts to schedule them when students are free. however, a participant added another dimension to the concept of timing by pointing out that it is not simply when a workshop is offered in the day, but when in a student’s learning it is offered: “timing can be tricky. if you are not working on assignments, no matter how useful, the workshops are not very helpful. you might learn good things, but you will forget them.” lack of standardization. one of the issues participants discussed in working with different tutors is the lack of standardization from tutor to tutor. while a large staff means that the cac can offer tutors who represent a variety of disciplines and skill sets, students commented on the lack of consistency between tutors. the participants stated that they liked the tutorials but were sometimes “confused about different methods of teaching” because “tutors have different approaches, sometimes to the point that they are conflicting. so it gets confusing.” workshop content is too basic or too general. the attempt to create workshop material that is general and helpful fell short. as one student noted, “some [workshops] are very introductory. [i] don’t know how to use the points.” not enough constructive feedback. like the workshop content, the feedback provided in tutorials and in workshops did not satisfy the participants. one participant felt he could not “make improvement[s] in the café: there is no feedback, no summary, and no advice.” another reflected that “online tutoring was not very useful, as the feedback was too general.” like the purpose of tutorials, the cac’s approach to feedback is different than what the students would like or, at a minimum, has not been clearly communicated. simpson & waye 44 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 overall, participants in both focus groups discussed the cac and its programming favourably, citing that their experiences had been positive and that the cac programming had been beneficial to their learning. with respect to improvements, timing, feedback, and a lack of standardization between tutorials were discussed most frequently in both focus groups. usage of cac programs in terms of student usage of cac programs, students reported accessing services in a variety of ways, with participants citing regular attendance in workshops, one-on-one tutoring, and/or events. although a few participants indicated a range of attendance in different programs, many expressed that they had had rather limited experience with programs and services at the cac and were surprised to learn about the range of programs that were offered. for example, when given a cac program brochure and asked to comment on which programming they had attended, many participants admitted that they had “never heard about” some of the programs. in addition to a lack of awareness, participants also cited timing and “schedule conflict” as a barrier to program access, with one student stating, that “i even missed some of my classes to attend the workshops.” participants agreed that timing was a key obstacle: course work and practicums prevented them from accessing a majority of the weekly cac programs they had wanted to attend. perceived needs in addition to exploring their perceptions of cac programming and program usage, participants were also asked to discuss their perceived needs in the context of academic communication support. three main themes were identified in terms of perceived needs: (1) discipline-specific support, (2) graduate-specific help, and (3) “other” support. discipline-specific support. similar to the findings of huang (2011), our study showed that a number of students identified needing more discipline-specific support. students claimed that they “need someone who knows stuff from their field.” graduate-specific help. in addition, the graduate students who participated in the focus groups expressed a need for increased support, specifically with respect to (1) thesis writing, (2) oral defence and presentation support, and (3) goal setting. thesis writing support. there was an overwhelming consensus among graduate students regarding a need for thesis writing support. participants indicated that they felt confused by the writing process “in general” and “[wished] there could be more help for thesis writing.” participants identified proposal and methodology writing as areas of specific concern and specified that they would appreciate workshops that addressed these issues as well as workshops that presented the “big picture of how to tackle a general issue like thesis writing.” oral defence and presentation support. similarly, there was agreement among many of the graduate student participants regarding a need for “help with oral defence and presentation.” simpson & waye 45 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 although they discussed it less than thesis-writing support, participants indicated that if they were aware of an oral defence workshop, they would “come for that.” goal-setting support. lastly, an interesting discussion arose after one participant expressed a need for goal setting and accountability support. the participant mentioned that she would like to have someone who knows her goals and plans and would remind her of them to keep her accountable. in essence, this participant indicated that she wanted this service to be a replacement for her supervisor, who she felt did not follow up on her work. other support in addition to the perceived needs discussed above, participants also mentioned other areas they believe they need support for or specific topics they would like the cac to cover. these topics are described in table 3. while some of these suggestions are addressed by other campus support units, the cac team can consider targeting its programming to meet these perceived needs. the cac team can also consider how to advertise the other services on campus that provide training and practice in other supports, such as career services and the learning strategist program. table 3 perceived areas of need speaking reading professional skills “academic speaking” “casual speaking” “pronunciation clinic” “vocabulary help”" “technical reading” “interviews” “career and professional related skills” participant suggestions when asked for suggestions as to how the cac can be improved, participants offered a variety of ideas, the majority of which centred on cac–student communication and the timing, delivery, structure, and content of workshops. cac-student communication. tutors’ profiles and workshops. there was a general consensus among participants regarding the appreciation for information available online regarding tutors’ backgrounds and skill sets. participants suggested that this type of information informs their decisions regarding which programs to attend and can help them develop a rapport with tutors. in one of the focus groups, participants suggested that an online link connecting the workshops and the tutors’ profiles would allow students to know “who is doing what.” in terms of one-on-one tutorials, participants agreed that the success of the tutorials depends on the chemistry between tutors and students. they argued that “it’s tricky to get to know the tutors,” and having as much information as possible can help them get to know the cac staff before attending tutorials and workshops. simpson & waye 46 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 advertising. many participants acknowledged their lack of awareness regarding the programming that the cac offers. participants agreed that better advertising would help them gain awareness of the types of programs offered. participants offered many suggestions as to which advertising methods would be the most effective for them. these suggestions included the following, some of which we currently engage in, and others that we had not considered.  electronic communication, such as emails, including departmental emails, the cac website, and social media  visual displays, such as posters around professors’ offices, reminders of upcoming offerings on classroom whiteboards, and flyers regarding specific services  more targeted advertising, such as an explanation of why a workshop topic should matter to them, and of the daily schedule of offerings timing. as mentioned previously, the timing of workshops was a frequently recurring area of discussion in both focus groups. a majority of participants believed that most of the programming happens in the morning and mid-day, when students are in class, despite much of cac programming being scheduled for 4pm–6pm on weekdays. participants suggested that either early morning, later in the afternoons, or on weekends would be a more effective time to host workshops. as well, participants indicated that a tutorial is not long enough, despite their ability to book two 25-minute sessions back to back; this information was not known by the participants. these two timing issues, scheduling of programming and length of tutorials, may be addressed at least in part with better communication. this was, in fact, one of the biggest surprises in our focus group findings: we had thought we were advertising our programming clearly to students, but the data indicate that we were not. in addition, it was not only what programming was available, but also how it should be used, that was not communicated clearly to students. delivery of content. lastly, when asked for suggestions as to how to make workshops more effective, students mentioned three main categories: (1) delivery, (2) structure, and (3) content, outlined in table 4, below. table 4 suggestions for increasing effectiveness of workshops delivery structure content “clear agenda, description of the takeaways” “exercise time” “participants’ involvement in the activity” “examples” “handouts, something that we can take away” again, these results were surprising to us because we had thought that the workshops were well designed, provided opportunities to apply new learning, used examples, and used handouts. however, the data indicate that either these design aspects were not included in all workshops, or that students were not able to recall these components. to apply these findings, then, requires two activities: ensuring that, when workshops are developed, these aspects of what simpson & waye 47 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 students are looking for in workshops are included, and ensuring that all workshops in fact have these characteristics each time they are offered. limitations although focus group interviews have been widely used due to their ability to provide insights into “what people think” (kitzinger, 1995, p. 299), this method has also been subject to a number of criticisms. for example, krueger and casey (2009) note that focus group data can be subject to dominant individuals within the focus groups and that there is a tendency for participants to make up answers where limited experience is perceived. while the first criticism may have been slightly applicable to our data collection, the second was definitely applicable: it was clear that instead of collecting information on what students thought about our programming, we collected information on what students thought they knew about our programming. good examples of this are students stating that tutorials are limited to 25 minutes, rather than 50 minutes, and that programming is held only during daytime hours. in addition, it is important to acknowledge that the findings of this study represent the opinions of a limited sample and may not extend to those of the entire student population. a wider range of participants would have been helpful, too, to determine if similar findings would be repeated, if further issues would arise, and if the recommendations would be the same. further, when identifying or reflecting on practical suggestions based on these data, it is critical to remain cognizant of what the cac can practically do in terms of resource and staff availability and in terms of the scope and mandate of the centre. moreover, the authors note that the findings of this study may be of limited interest to a broader community, but they hope this study will help inform other student academic support services about how to engage in focus group research for the purposes of program evaluation and collecting student feedback. practical suggestions three themes arose from our data analysis: time, advertising, and specialization. in the simplest form, students were not fully aware of when services were offered and how to use them to their best advantage (an advertising issue), students felt that services should be scheduled in accordance with when they are not in class (a timing issue), and students felt the offerings should be less general and more suited to both the needs of their student population (e.g., graduate students) and their areas of study (a specialization issue). time: understanding student perceptions of time and timing in line with huang’s (2011) findings, participants’ comments indicated that timing was one of the largest issues in terms of both one-on-one tutoring sessions and workshops. based on participants’ comments, the cac could better advertise students’ ability to book two appointments back to back to create a 50-minute one-on-one tutorial, which would address student perceptions that tutorials are not long enough. further, a clearer communication of the centre’s educational philosophy could also address perceptions of programming length. by simpson & waye 48 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 better communicating the cac’s emphasis on strategy development (i.e., the identification of a few reoccurring organizational issues and the instruction regarding strategies to identify and improve them), and not on “full” support (i.e., reviewing an entire paper for organizational issues and correcting every issue), we might be able to adjust students’ perceptions regarding time. in terms of workshop timing, the cac could also consider hosting programming in the early mornings or on weekends to decrease instances of scheduling conflicts and other barriers to access. however, given that the late afternoon programming offered by the cac has not had great uptake, it may be more of an issue of advertising. further inquiry into the issue of timing is clearly required. advertising: helping students know about all the programming options also echoing the findings of huang (2011), the cac may consider creating more means to raise students’ awareness of programming offered by the cac. despite the fact that many of the participants’ advertising suggestions are strategies the cac is already employing, it is now obvious that programming information is not reaching students, even those who regularly use some of the cac services. for instance, many students have one-on-one tutorials as their first point of entry to the cac. for this reason, training tutors to consistently overview other cac programs with students may be an effective way to increase students’ awareness of programming. as well, the cac should consider alternate methods of advertising to help students understand the range of programming available, its schedule, and how it is best used. for example, while a 25-minute tutorial on a presentation a student is preparing may be sufficient from the tutor’s point of view, the expectations of how much help a tutor can and should give could be better communicated to students both through advertising and through an explicit conversation at the beginning of each tutorial. different means of advertising can be considered as well. social media and the cac’s website are likely two underutilized methods of advertising. in particular, the website and the schedule could have a closer link by connecting specific tutors to the workshops they are providing, allowing students to feel connected to the tutor in advance and to select workshops based on positive interactions they have had with tutors in the past. in addition, our use of print advertising has been light, due to environmental concerns, but perhaps a return to a range of flyers and posters would be beneficial for our students. emails could be sent to students more regularly, and we could explore how to connect with professors more strategically to have them send out advertising about cac services to their students. specializing: considering discipline-specific programming considering the limited resources available, many administrators would agree that hosting programs that are applicable to a majority of students instead of programs focused on specific disciplines is a more effective use of a centre’s resources. as well, our centre, like others, is aware of the fine line between the support it provides graduate students and the support supervisors provide, or should provide. like most institutions, the university of victoria has a broad base of student support with lines indicating where the help of one department ends and another starts. however, based on the findings of this study, there is a clear desire for discipline simpson & waye 49 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 specific support, and going forward it may be worth reflecting on the feasibility of designing and implementing academic communication support programs for certain disciplines. as well, based on our findings, the centre will offer a pilot program offering workshops on demand in departments to provide more specialized, contextualized student academic support, and a second pilot program to support graduate-level presentation skill development; future research on these pilots will be required. other recommendations found in the data include:  standardization of services: through tutor training, hands-on management, and regular program evaluation, the tutorials and workshops could achieve a greater standardization.  consideration of feedback: while providing feedback is part of the design of our programs, we may want to consider providing more feedback, more explicitly.  consideration of tutorial limits: a number of years ago, there was no limit to the number of one-on-one tutorials a student could have. however, with a significant increase in students at the university, and eal students in particular, a limit of 10 sessions per semester was instituted. while very few students use their maximum 10 sessions per semester, it may be that the restriction places a psychological barrier on students, causing them to attend fewer sessions than they would benefit from. conclusion despite the drawbacks, the use of focus groups to supplement our quantitative data collected through usage statistics and anonymous surveys provided important insights into our eal students’ perspectives, perceived academic communication support needs, and use of our centre’s programs. these perspectives and other findings allow the cac to take a more evidence-based approach to making programmatic and administrative decisions. in addition, the results of this study can serve as parameters when implementing program changes and can also help affirm and empirically substantiate the cac’s programming. in turn, this practice of evidence-based programming can perhaps help to secure future resources (procter, 2011). and, when we look to the horizon and see the growth in government interest in learning outcomes, it seems that program evaluation, including both qualitative and quantitative feedback, is poised to play a more central role in the development and maintenance of eal support programming at the university level. references cushman, t., marx, l., brower, c., holahan, k., & boquet, e. (2005). using focus groups to assess writing center effectiveness. the writing lab newsletter 29(7), 1-5. huang. l-s. (2011). are we having the effect we want? implementing outcomes assessment in an academic english language-support unit using a multi-component approach. wap journal, 35(1), 11-45. huang, l. (2013). academic english is no one’s mother tongue: graduate and undergraduate students’ academic english language-learning needs from students’ and instructors’ perspectives. journal of perspectives in applied academic practice, 1(2). doi:10.14297/jpaap.v1i2.67 https://wlnjournal.org/archives/v29/29.7.pdf simpson & waye 50 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 38-50 kitzinger, j. (1995). qualitative research. introducing focus groups. british medical journal (clinical research ed.), 311(7000), 299-302. kitzinger, j. (2005). focus group research: using group dynamics to explore perceptions, experiences and understandings. in i. holloway (ed.), qualitative research in health care (56-6). maidenhead, berks, england; new york: open university press. krueger, r. a., & casey, m. a. (2009). focus groups: a practical guide for applied search (4th ed.). los angeles: sage. moussu, l. (2013). let's talk! esl students' needs and writing centre philosophy. tesl canada journal, 30 (2), 55. procter, m. (2011). talking the talk and walking the walk: establishing the role of writing centres. in d. starke-meyerring, a. paré, n. artemeva, m. horne, & l. yousoubova (eds.), writing in knowledge societies (pp. 415-440). fort collins, co: wac clearinghouse. stewart, d., & shamdasani, p. (1990). focus groups: theory and practice. newbury park, ca: sage. queen's library learning commons project undergraduate student focus groups. (2004). retrieved from http://library.queensu.ca/learningcommons/files/focusgroup_und.pdf williams, a., & katz, l. (2001). the use of focus group methodology in education: some theoretical and practical considerations, 5(3). iejll: international electronic journal for leadership in learning, 5. retrieved from http://iejll.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ijll/article/view/496 appendix 1: questions 1. considering the programming you have used, what did you find helpful? 2. what programming was less helpful? we’d really like to know. 3. what programming did you not attend, and why? 4. what about the timing of the programming? 5. what programming do you wish the cac offered? 6. let’s focus on the workshops now. which topics were useful? (students are handed the brochure) 7. still thinking about the workshops, which topics would you like to see? 8. to you, what makes a good workshop? think about handouts, interaction with other students, when they’re offered, and so on. 9. have you used any of the drop-in zones? what did you like or not like about them? 10. what do you think is the best way to get information to students about the programming that the cac offers? 11. what else would you like us to know about the cac and its programs? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://library.queensu.ca/learningcommons/files/focusgroup_und.pdf http://iejll.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ijll/article/view/496 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ roessingh 22 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays unmasking the early language and literacy needs of ells: what k–3 practitioners need to know and do hetty roessingh university of calgary abstract the key underlying developmental concepts and skills requisite for early literacy learning appear to be easily achieved among most young english language learners (ells). these strengths, however, may merely mask the need for enhanced vocabulary development, the key variable in successful transitioning from early to academic literacy development in grades 3–4 and in the longitudinal academic outcomes to grade 12 that is over-looked by many elementary practitioners. using illustrative samples of vocabulary profiles generated from children’s early written literacy development, this article highlights the need for elementary practitioners to continue to place a strong instructional focus on developing academic vocabulary, starting in the early grades and sustaining this focus through elementary school. at the same time, young learners need to continue to work on printing and spelling: the keys to unlocking vocabulary knowledge. ideas for high impact teaching strategies are included. introduction large urban school boards in british columbia report a rapidly shifting demographic landscape comprised of students who do not speak english as their first language (skelton, 2014). the vancouver school board (2017), for example, records 60% of its enrolment as english language learners (ells). these increases reflect canada’s immigration patterns and policies in recruiting and selecting its human resource needs for the future. british columbia currently records mandarin, cantonese, and chinese (not otherwise specified) as among the top languages spoken at home (statistics canada, 2017). many of these young students are the canadian born children of immigrants who arrive in kindergarten with little developed english language proficiency. these demographic data have profound implications for early language and literacy teaching and learning among young ells. lesaux and siegel (2003) report that early literacy achievement is within ready reach of most young ells by the end of grade 2. roessingh and elgie’s study (2009) in alberta corroborates these findings, noting that phonemic awareness, phonics understandings, and word recognition—all associated with early decoding skills that underpin the ability to make meaning from text—are areas of distinct strength for ells. early written literacy, which depends heavily on control over the fine motor skills requisite for gripping and pushing a pencil, likewise represent areas of strength for young ells. further, young ells can acquire basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) (cummins, 1981) through immersion in the classroom, interaction with their native english speaking (ns) peers through play, and from various tv programs geared to young children. these strengths, however, may mask the vocabulary learning needs of young ells in the early schooling years. a robust vocabulary knowledge is the decisive factor roessingh 23 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 in successful transitioning from early to academic literacy in the grade 3–4 years (biemiller, 2003; chall & jacobs, 2003; senechal, ouellette, & rodney, 2006), and in longitudinal academic success through the educational trajectory to grade 12 (pavlov, 2015; roessingh & douglas, 2012). the goal of this article is to highlight the strengths and areas of instructional need in young ells’ language and literacy learning that will position them to make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn; and from learning to write/print to writing to learn associated with academic literacy. illustrative samples of ells’ writing are provided to shed light on this pivotal point in children’s literacy development, and further, to provide ideas for the high impact teaching strategies that will address the language learning needs of these young students that are currently too easily overlooked. failure of our educational systems to look beyond the surface features of literacy and the apparent focused, determined work habits and skill development of young learners of asian-canadian background perpetuates the myth of the model minority (costigan, hua, & su, 2010; kobsa, 2014; yoo, 2010), only exacerbating, over time, their core instructional needs related to academic literacy learning. early literacy and the strengths of ells early literacy involves the ability to decode print associated with reading, and to represent thoughts and ideas via written mode associated with printing and spelling. both processes draw on analogous underlying concepts and skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, and word recognition. written literacy makes additional demands on young learners: they must develop sufficient neuro-motor control required for printing, and they must master the basic patterns and conventions for spelling. there is consensus in the research literature that children can demonstrate control over printing and produce a text on a familiar topic of approximately 115 words, with spelling accuracy of 85% correct by the end of grade 2 (medwell, strand, & wray, 2006; olinghouse & leaird, 2009; olinghouse & wilson, 2013; roessingh, 2013; roessingh & elgie, 2015). topics that lend themselves to marshalling the multiple and maximal demands of early written literacy involve expository discourse (roessingh, 2012) and include describing objects in space (e.g. a playground, a zoo, the ideal school). written production is enhanced when young writers are afforded the time and opportunity to draw, sketch and colour prior to writing and given sufficient time: 45–60 minutes. this process approach to the task lessens the cognitive load and provides a concrete touchstone for the task of putting pencil to paper. early literacy can be achieved with a limited vocabulary of the 220 high frequency words identified in the dolch (1948) list that represent 75% coverage of children’s text used to teach early literacy (reading) skills. these 220 words must be encountered hundreds of times for youngsters to notice, understand, segment, and manipulate the sounds to form words, and then to make the systematic connection between phonemes in spoken words and the letters used to represent them in print. with the addition of perhaps another 750 high interest words needed to express their ideas and thoughts in written form (e.g. pterodactyl), the vast majority of children can achieve the expected early literacy benchmarks by the end of grade 2 with a literate lexical repertoire of perhaps 1,000 word families. roessingh and elgie (2015) recognize this pivotal threshold in the vocabulary profiles of grade 2 children’s writing samples. access to low frequency, sophisticated vocabulary can be noted as early as grade 2, however, and practitioners roessingh 24 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 need to be alert to the signs of young learners who need instructional support in developing their vocabulary knowledge. children raised in a bilingual context are thought to have heightened sensitivity to phonemic features of language because of their exposure to different sounds. within a relatively short period of time, they can acquire native-like pronunciation and fluency in english with a basic vocabulary (krashen, long, & scarcella,1979). the ability to discriminate sounds and to segment words, phonemic skills, are key to decoding print. the ability to map sounds to their alphabetic representations, phonics, follows readily. canadian studies (chiappe & siegel, 1999; roessingh & elgie, 2009) indicate ells have closed this early literacy gap by the end of grade 2, often out-performing their ns peers on these predictive measures of early literacy learning (lesaux & siegel, 2003). children of chinese cultural background may also have an advantage in the development of fine motor skills that are key to early literacy learning (tsang & hung, 2006). a strong pincer grip and the power and precision to push a pencil are foundational to producing legible print. using chopsticks as eating utensils is common among these youngsters, beginning at an early age—as early as age 3 or 4. control and mastery in the use of chopsticks is an important feature of social life and a sign of respect and good manners. the use of chopsticks develops physical literacy or proprioception (dinehart & manfra, 2013): the awareness of the body in space, and the use of tools as an extension to the hands to perform everyday tasks. in addition, many young ells attend weekend heritage language programs. in the case of chinese canadian youngsters, this might include the expectation of basic written literacy learning, which places enormous demands on working memory and orthographic control in producing the chinese characters with exacting precision in stroke direction and sequence (guan, ye, wagner, & meng, 2013). disciplined practice to perfection and patience are also part of chinese cultural traditions in child rearing. this, too, will transfer to english written literacy development. a perusal of the winners in an annual performing arts festival (performing arts b.c., 2017) suggests that young chinese canadian artists in piano overwhelmingly win this category, beginning at the youngest ages. surnames of wang, li, yang, zhang, yu, xia, liu, and xi, for example, are revealing. musical performance automatizes the constructs of structure, pattern, rhythm, relationships and sequence in young fingers and hands—all of which underlie foundational numeracy and literacy learning. the christmas card produced by my young friend, ivy1, at age 6, demonstrates skills and understandings relevant to early literacy mentioned above. shape, size, positions of objects in space, and the “between the lines” details all reflect exquisite control over the fine motor skills and the mental construction of internalized stable models requisite for printing and spelling (i.e. space, shape, size, slant). 1 ivy’s handmade christmas card is used with her (and her mother’s) permission. she is excited to “be published.” roessingh 25 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 figure 1. ivy’s christmas card at age 6 it becomes clear that young immigrant and canadian born children of immigrants of chinese background arrive at school with many skills, predispositions, and understandings relevant to numeracy and literacy learning and are already well prepared for this aspect of their schooling experiences. in the section that follows, language learning among youngsters is reviewed. language development and assessment vocabulary development is the key feature of language development over time that can readily be measured and taught. there is consensus in the research community that vocabulary knowledge is the key predictor of reading comprehension and academic achievement over time. the significance of vocabulary knowledge in the early years, however, has been under-estimated perhaps because it is not central to early literacy learning, as the above section makes clear. only more recently has the scholarly community turned its attention to early language learning, specifically vocabulary learning (august, carlo, dressler & snow, 2005; biemiller, 2003; geva & verhoeven, 2000; uccelli & paez, 2007). . murphy’s (1957) seminal study of young children’s vocabulary knowledge generated from a corpus of over 1 million words of tape recorded speech distilled a list of 5,000 words in the oral repertoire of children aged 5–7. this finding has remained stable over the years, though others have conflated these words into approximately 2,500 word families (i.e. run, runs, running constitutes one word family). various studies have corroborated this figure (biemiller & slonim, 2001; moe, hopkins, & rush, 1982), though there is sizable difference in the vocabulary knowledge of high socio-economic status youngsters and those who are raised in disadvantaged circumstances (hart & risley, 2003; hoff, 2013). data suggest vocabulary knowledge increases by approximately 1,000 word families a year among average, typically developing children in a strikingly stable sequence over time. it is estimated that a critical mass of 8,000–9,000 word families is needed to make the transition in grade 4 from learning to read, to reading to learn roessingh 26 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 (chall & jacobs, 2003); 15,000 word families (50,000 words) in grade 9 to transition to academic literacy learning that requires more abstract uses of vocabulary such as metaphor, figurative uses of words, technical vocabulary, and specialized uses of common vocabulary (graves, 2007); and 18,000 word families in grade 12 to engage with the demands of advanced academic studies in post-secondary settings (hazenberg & hulstijn, 1996). research has also afforded insights into the contexts and conditions that support the development of first and second language learning, and simultaneous bilingual development. exposure, salience (“noticing”), explicit instruction, modified input (e.g. repetitions, recasts, simplified vocabulary use, redundancy), opportunities for practice through elaborative and collaborative talk, corrective feedback, and academic challenge, for example, have all been identified as key features of rich language learning environments. storybook reading, meal time talk, and structured and open ended play provide important contexts for these types of language learning opportunities for children. these features are aligned with a socio-cultural theory of learning (vygotsky, 1978): the critical need for scaffolds, challenge, i.e. comprehensible input or i+1 (krashen, 1989), and the support of an adult or more competent peer in orchestrating learning settings that permits negotiation of meaning, and the manipulation, transformation, and practice of language across modalities: hear it, say it, read it, write it → own it. elementary school practitioners are increasingly required to address the english language learning needs of the linguistically diverse classroom at the same time they must address curricular mandates. research tells us that many youngsters of language minority backgrounds fall well behind their ns peers in their english academic language development (hoff, 2013; roessingh & elgie, 2009), and in the longitudinal data to grade 12, may not fully close the gap (ontario ministry of education, 2013; pavlov, 2015). it is crucial, therefore, to glean early insights into children’s vocabulary knowledge and use those insights in order to intervene at an early stage for those who demonstrate this need. various studies reported by bowne, yoshikawa, and snow (2017) suggest that teachers do not implement techniques and strategies, such as leading academic discussions and conversations, or have an explicit focus on vocabulary teaching that can enhance the academic vocabulary knowledge of young students in their classes. while early vocabulary assessment tools are available to work with pre-literate youngsters, for example the expressive one word picture vocabulary test (academic therapy publications, 2000), these instruments are often time consuming, inconvenient, and costly for classroom practitioners to administer in a one-on-one setting. the end of grade 2, noted above, is an early point where vocabulary knowledge can be assessed through the use of vocabulary profiling tools, available in the public domain at no cost: www.lextutor.ca/vp/kids. understanding vocabulary profiling: a look at children’s writing samples in essence, vocabulary profiling allows for the comparison of a sample of writing to a corpus of vocabulary that would typically be present in the lexical repertoire of a learner of approximately the same age. the vocabulary profiling tool generates data on various indices of vocabulary variability: the total number of words in the sample (tnw), the number of different words in the sample (ndw), and the vocabulary coverage for frequency of vocabulary organized in ten levels of 250 word families: from high frequency to low. let’s consider various features of http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/kids roessingh 27 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 early literacy development as well as vocabulary profiles taken from the writing samples of grade 2 learners, one a ns learner and the other a second language learner (born in canada). these samples are taken from a pool of approximately 250 writing samples on an expository prompt designed to elicit a full range of vocabulary. the findings have been published elsewhere (roessingh & elgie, 2015). on the surface, there are many similarities between the two samples: both achieved a rating of “excellent” from their grade 2 teacher, both demonstrate good control over “language by hand” (i.e. printing), and both show spelling accuracy at over of 99%. there is a bi-directional relationship between spelling and printing in early literacy: that is, good spellers tend to be good printers, and good printers tend to be good spellers (roessingh & elgie, 2015). figures 2 and 3 illustrate this information. figure 2. language by hand. ns. spring, grade 2. 2 spelling errors. controlled printing. figure 3. language by hand. ell. spring, grade 2. 3 spelling errors. controlled printing. roessingh 28 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 note the consistency and control in shape, size, space, and slant in the printing of both students. further, both students had a lot to say about their ideas for constructing the ideal zoo for their city: 253 and 295 words respectively for the ns and ell students. controlled for the number of words in the sample (i.e. 253 words), let’s consider the indices of vocabulary variability that can provide insights into the lexical repertoire of each student. figures 4 and 5 display the lexical profiles for the two samples. figure 4. vocabulary profile of ns student figure 5. vocabulary profile of ell student roessingh 29 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 the number of different words in the samples is comparable (118 vs. 113). the cumulative percent coverage of vocabulary at level 4, representing the first 1,000 words of oral vocabulary of young children, is 85.37% (ns) vs. 88.93% (ell). this is the first indicator of difference worth noting. even this 3.56% discrepancy signals an over dependence on high frequency words on the part of the ell student, suggesting that access to low frequency, sophisticated vocabulary may be limited. this warrants further investigation. level 6 represents the low frequency threshold for the ns student: the level at which there are two successive levels containing either one or no word families represented in the vocabulary profile. this student has realized 88.53% coverage at this point. at level 6 the ell student has already depleted 94.47% of the total cumulative vocabulary in the sample, even though the low frequency threshold stretches to level 7. most telling in the profiles is the access to the off-list words: words that are not present in the reference corpus for children. the ns sample reflects 19 word families vs only 6 in the ell sample. table 1 below summarizes these data. table 1 some comparisons between ns and ell writing at grade 2 (spring). vocabulary features ns ell tnw 253 253 ndw 118 113 level 4 coverage 85.37% 88.93% low frequency threshold 6 7 coverage at level 6 88.53% 94.47% % off-list words 9.5% 4% # olw families 19 6 examples of olw actually, area, barrier, breeds, cans, clicking, climates, entertainment, habitat, improvement, komodo, litter, problems, proper, species, temperature, threaten, types, veterinarian member, obstacle, pterodactyl, scale, seesaw, suggest it is access to the off-list words, particularly those words that are considered high utility generalizable academic words (roessingh, 2016) that is most striking. many young ns writers already have control over a sizable and rapidly accelerating pool of these words, which they learned largely at home through interactions with their parents, especially mothers. ells must be taught these words in a variety of contexts and ways in order to add them to their lexical knowledge. canadian studies (duke, 2000; scott, jamieson-noel, & asselin, 2003) suggest this instructional need is not being addressed in elementary classrooms. the next section suggests high impact strategies for vocabulary learning that will be useful to a grade 2 audience. making a difference in grade 2 students’ early literacy and language learning this section provides details on four high impact strategies for promoting early literacy and language learning among young learners in grades k–4. first and foremost, graham (2010) reminds us that continued instruction in the lower level developmental skills of printing and roessingh 30 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 spelling are needed. while the two illustrative samples used for the purposes of this article scored at the standard of excellence for writing quality outcome, the key to this result was the quality of the language by hand (i.e. printing) and accuracy in spelling, that in turn, unlocks vocabulary at the student’s disposal. most students need continued instruction and opportunities for practice throughout the school day. the development of a fluent “hand” is a gradual, protracted process that takes the duration of the elementary years and into the junior high years to perfect to the level of sufficient fluency to get into “flow” of writing (csíkszentmihályi, 2008; graham, 2010). once automatized to this level, linguistic and cognitive processes may be further unleashed and mobilized by the writer. by the end of grade 2, the vast majority of typically developing young students can be expected to produce legible to controlled printing, keeping in mind that in a single class setting there is the likelihood of an age difference of as much as 16 months. further, children’s development across neuro-motor, cognitive, and linguistic domains may be asynchronous, that is, uneven patterns of development are common. figure 6 below provides a framework that classroom practitioners may find useful in making holistic evaluations of young children’s language by hand. shape size spacing slant 1. laboured: very difficult to decipher/read 2. legible: readable without effort 3. controlled: uniform and consistent 4. fluent: gives an impression of “push behind the pencil” speed + accuracy + endurance figure 6. a holistic framework for assessing children’s language by hand—adapted by the author from alston (1985) grade 2 or 3 is a good time to help students learn to connect letter combinations that naturally work together such as “th,” “fi,” “ts,” and “tn.” this will promote fluency using a clean, uncluttered italic style described by graham (2010) as mixed mostly manuscript. teachers should work together as grade level teams across the k–3 years to choose a printing program that is developmentally progressive and engaging for young learners. it is important to offer instruction consistently for short periods of time, perhaps 20 minutes, daily. commercially available printing programs such as handwriting without tears (olsen, 2003) or the writing road to reading (spalding, 2003) have been implemented in the canadian context with positive outcomes (roberts, derkach-ferguson, siever, & rose, 2014; roessingh & bence, 2017); however, resources available in the public domain such as printing sheets, may be equally beneficial. secondly, colouring, sketching, and drawing are some of the most important activities in the writing process. whether initiated by the students themselves, or sourced online or from commercially prepared materials, colouring and drawing prime a host of thought and neuroprocessing mechanisms. ekuni, vaz, and bueno (2011) observe that visual input creates the strongest recall value of all the senses including words, especially when physical details are to be remembered: the picture superiority effect. paired with colouring, memory traces are developed in the neuro-circuitry for key words involved in the execution of the colouring task such as roessingh 31 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 camouflage. such deep processing can offer a concrete touchstone and a scaffold for the writing task to follow, and together enhances the quality of the writing. figure 7 displays a colouring sheet that holds rich potential to elicit and teach vocabulary. depending on the age/grade placement of students, consider the following words as targets for instruction (marzano & marzano, 1988): grade 3: protect, enemy, disappear, danger, faraway, distant, fear, enormous, silent grade 4: newborn, still, scent, alert, doze, watchful, cautious, area, territory, position, wilderness, habit, shelter, prowl, roots grade 5: orphan, survive, fawn, risk, neglect, abandon, vision, foothills, threat, injure grade 6: instinct, fragile, dependent, starve, overlook, absent, environment, habitat, locate, victim, undergrowth, vegetation, carcass, shrub not listed: camouflage, prey, predator, vulnerable figure 7. colouring sheet for young learners2 2 every effort has been made to trace the original copyright of the colouring sheet, which was taken from a children’s colouring book, decades old. however, the original source has been lost. roessingh 32 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 third, a cluster approach is recommended (marzano & marzano, 1988). teaching words in semantic fields, or thematically, promotes making connections and remembering, hence the potential for incidental acquisition of new vocabulary. in the example above, words such as protect, danger, enemy, threat, victim, survive might represent a cluster; fawn, orphan, abandon, dependent might represent another; environment, habitat, vegetation, undergrowth, shrub, another. note that words within the same cluster can be drawn from more or less difficult levels in keeping with the comprehensible input +1 needed for challenging students (krashen, 1989). finally, biemiller (2001) advocates for a direct, explicit approach to vocabulary teaching. providing synonyms, antonyms, definitions, explanations, and examples connected to visual information and displaying these new words by way of word webs and word walls, as well as using individualized flash cards for word play and developing word recognition skills in the early years, all promote vocabulary learning. recycling, revisiting, and regular opportunities for reviewing and using new vocabulary by way of crossword puzzles and games further deepens the lexical knowledge of young learners. they must associate meaning, accurate use of these words in context, and control over spontaneous retrieval when needed in order to “own” the words. conclusion young ells have unique early language and literacy learning needs. teachers must look beyond the surface features of the “presentation effect” visible in early written efforts that may mask a vocabulary learning need. teachers must also be mindful of the stereotypic image of the young asian canadian learner associated with the myth of the model minority. many of these young learners are not able to bootstrap their way independently by dint of hard work and determined study habits: many will benefit from the types of supports and interventions presented here. it is important to recognize that these young learners do not fit a particular mold: within this demographic, a wide diversity exists. pavlov (2015) observes that ells are represented at all levels of achievement by the end of grade 12, as reflected in standardized achievement tests. however, while there are those who excel academically over time and reach the standard of excellence, by and large ells demonstrate an ongoing need for support in developing requisite levels of academic literacy to fulfil the demands of post-secondary schooling—a goal that the vast majority of them aspire to in their future (costigan, hua, & su, 2010). early identification and early intervention can reset the slope of the educational trajectory if elementary practitioners have the insights, tools, and techniques at their avail. this article has presented the theoretical underpinnings and relevant research, rubrics, and benchmark information, data, lexical profiling tools and teaching strategies that together can make a difference in the literacy outcomes of young ells as they transition from early to academic literacy. roessingh 33 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 22–36 acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the generous and supportive feedback provided by the reviewers who took the time to read the draft of the manuscript. this was most useful in making the revisions, and in tracking down additional references to strengthen the paper. many thanks. references academic therapy publications 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mcdonough concordia university heike neumann concordia university nicolas hubert-smith concordia university abstract previous corpus research on english for academic purposes (eap) writing has analyzed how often additional language (l2) writers use words from the academic word list (awl) (coxhead, 2000), but few studies to date have explored how accurately those words are used. therefore, the current study investigated how accurately and appropriately eap writers (n = 409) use awl words in their argumentative essays. the 230,694-word corpus was analyzed to identify awl word families that occurred with at least 20 tokens. all tokens were then coded as being accurately used, or as containing a morphosyntactic or collocational error (or both). the findings showed that the eap students’ overall accuracy rate was high (67%) and that collocational errors occurred more frequently than grammatical errors. pedagogical implications for eap programs are discussed. introduction international student enrolment at canadian universities for long-term studies (more than six months) has more than doubled since 2008, posting an annual growth rate of 10.9% between 2008 and 2016 (statistics canada, 2017). in british columbia, for example, approximate enrolment rates for international students in both undergraduate and graduate degree programs range from 25% (university of british columbia and simon fraser university) to 21% (university of victoria) and 16% (thompson rivers university). in addition to the university sector, international k-12 student enrolment has increased by 50% in the past five years, with approximately 20,000 students attending public and private schools in british columbia (zeidler, 2017). reflecting the importance of academic literacy for these students in secondary and postsecondary settings, english for academic purposes (eap) programs provide instruction that focuses on the english language needs and practices associated with academic settings (hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002). their overarching goal is to help students develop the communicative behaviours needed in academic settings, such as interacting with peers and instructors, comprehending lectures, reading academic texts, and producing text-responsible writing that accurately reflects source text information (leki & carson, 1997). although eap programs have been traditionally associated with university settings, they are relevant for students at all levels of formal schooling (hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002). university-level eap programs follow a variety of models, including intensive programs that students complete prior to beginning their degree courses (e.g., ubc english language institute’s eap program), bridging programs that mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 78 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 combine intensive language study along with one or two disciplinary courses (e.g., ubc okanagan's english language foundation program), and simultaneous enrolment in eap and sheltered undergraduate degree programs (e.g., ubc's vantage college). in the current study, eap students took credit-bearing eap courses at the same time as disciplinary courses related to their undergraduate degree programs at a large public university in the province of québec. background regardless of their educational level or program type, eap students face a major challenge in learning the academic vocabulary that will allow them to both comprehend and produce academic texts throughout their study programs. to facilitate the principled study of academic vocabulary, coxhead (2000) developed the academic word list (awl) to identify key academic words across disciplines, thereby making them more salient to students and providing instructors with a focus for vocabulary study. since the awl’s first publication, it has featured prominently in english learner’s dictionaries and eap teaching materials (coxhead, 2011). both proponents of the awl (e.g. coxhead, 2000; nation, 2013) and eap material developers drawing on the list (e.g. douglas, 2018; schmitt & schmitt, 2005) have argued that by drawing on the awl, instructors can help their students develop their academic vocabulary effectively and efficiently. the long list of eap materials and dictionaries cited by coxhead (2011) clearly points to the popularity and wide spread use of the awl. however, the awl is not without its critics. one criticism of the awl concerns the way that it was originally compiled. coxhead (2000) relied on the general service list (gsl) (west, 1953) when preparing the awl and excluded words frequently occurring in the academic corpus if they appeared on the gsl. this resulted in high-frequency gsl academic words, such as exchange, interest, or rate, not being included on the awl (gardner & davies, 2013). furthermore, since the gsl is based on a corpus from the first half of the 1900s, its word frequencies may not reflect current usage (hancioğlu, neufeld, & eldridge, 2008). second, despite coxhead’s (2000) claim that the awl is relevant for all academic disciplines, the list has been criticized for not being as general as one might assume. although hyland and tse (2007, 2009) agreed with the pedagogical principles underlying the creation of the awl, they also argued that the awl creates the illusion of a uniform academic vocabulary that is used in a similar fashion across the disciplines when this is actually not the case. their claim is also supported by research projects that devised academic word lists for specific disciplines ranging from agriculture (martínez, beck, & panza, 2009) and applied linguistics (khani & tazik, 2013) to environmental studies (liu & han, 2015), medicine (lei & liu, 2016, wang, liang, & ge, 2008), and nursing (yang, 2015). these discipline-specific lists all diverge from the awl and differ from each other in terms of the most frequently used words, or at least in the order in which words appear on these different lists, which raises questions about the relevance of the awl across disciplines. despite these criticisms, the awl is still a useful tool for eap instructors who teach students from a variety of academic disciplines in general eap courses rather than disciplinespecific english for specific purposes (esp) courses. it offers instructors a more practical approach to focused vocabulary study than the specialized lists advocated by hyland and tse (2007, 2009). the discipline-specific academic vocabulary lists assume that instructors teach mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 79 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 homogenous classes with students belonging to only one academic discipline. however, this is not the case in all eap contexts as instructors may have students not only from different majors within a faculty but also from different faculties (e.g., natural sciences, social sciences, business, and fine arts). the rational for these general eap classes is to provide students with foundational academic writing skills that can later be refined in discipline specific esp or content courses (hyland, 2006). the awl is a useful tool in a general eap course since instructors can meet their students’ needs by focusing on common underlying academic vocabulary rather than trying to anticipate the discipline-specific vocabulary that their students may encounter in their academic content courses (eldridge, 2008). academic vocabulary use has been investigated using corpus-based tools to investigate a range of issues in eap writing, such as comparing english first language (l1) and additional language (l2) students’ language use (chen & baker, 2010; hinkel, 2002; paquot, 2010), describing the lexio-grammatical features of eap students’ writing over time (crosthwaite, 2016) or by l1 background and genre (staples & reppen, 2016), identifying the occurrence of multi-word or formulaic constructions (liu, 2012; simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010), and exploring the lexical threshold for entry-level undergraduate writing (douglas, 2013). however, these corpus-based studies did not evaluate the accuracy or appropriateness of the words identified through the analysis, instead assuming that the writers used the words correctly and appropriately. when appropriateness has been examined through a learner corpus, the goal was to understand the reasons for incorrect lexical choices in a context where all learners shared the same l1 (hasselgren, 1994) rather than assess the writers’ overall accuracy. similarly, when collocations or lexical bundles have been examined, the purpose was to describe rather than assess the appropriateness of learners’ use of collocations (paquot, 2010). to our knowledge, corpus research has not examined whether awl words are used accurately or appropriately. however, some corpus studies have examined l2 academic writers’ lexical accuracy by focusing on multi-word units. for example, in their comparative study of english l1 and l2 academic writing, liu and shaw (2001) classified different usages of the verb make, including their judgement of collocational errors in which the verb was incorrectly placed in a larger phrasal unit (e.g., *make him to angry). although the l2 writers’ error rate was relatively low (6.1-7.9%), their errors involved the use of make with a variety of word combinations, including verb + noun, verb + object and compliment, and verb + object and infinitive. taking a similar approach, nesselhauf (2003) examined the accuracy of the verb + noun combinations (e.g., *give a solution to) produced by l2 english writers. based on native speaker corrections of the verb + noun combinations, the most frequent error types were the use of the wrong verb (e.g., *carry out races), wrong noun (e.g., *close lacks), and usage errors where the combination does not exist or was used incorrectly (e.g., *hold children within bounds). also targeting collocational accuracy, crossley and colleagues (crossley, salsbury, & mcnamara, 2014) analyzed a small corpus of l2 written texts from different proficiency levels using computation tools and analytic ratings. they operationalized collocation accuracy in terms of whether multi-word units were acceptable and expected, and reported that collocation accuracy was predictive of analytic judgements of lexical proficiency. although these studies did not focus specifically on awl words, they provide insight into difficulty that even advanced l2 writers face with collocational accuracy. mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 80 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 in addition to collocational accuracy, l2 writers may also experience difficulty with morpho-syntactic accuracy when using academic vocabulary. research on lexical errors has examined learner’s knowledge of derivational affixes and their relation to the stem word. studies have shown that learners are able to produce all the derivational forms for only a limited range of words (schmitt, 1999) with their derivational knowledge skewed towards nouns and verbs as opposed to adjective and adverbs (schmitt & zimmerman, 2002). furthermore, the inability to produce a derivational form may indicate that acquisition of a word and of its derivations may be two separate yet connected systems (ward & chuenjundaeng, 2009). while knowledge of a base word may facilitate recognition of its derivational members, it remains to be seen if this knowledge transfers to accurate written production. in summary, previous corpus-based studies of academic vocabulary have typically compared the frequency of awl words in texts from (a) different academic disciplines, (b) l1 and l2 writers, or (c) different genres. in these studies, the level of accuracy and appropriateness of the writers’ word choices was generally not examined. although the percentage of awl words occurring in a corpus is interesting, the question arises as to how meaningful that number is without any information about how accurately and appropriately the words are used. whereas the collocational and morpho-syntactic accuracy of l2 writers’ vocabulary has been examined, those studies have not focused specifically on awl words despite their prevalence in eap instructional materials. therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore how accurately eap writers use awl words in terms of both collocational and morphosyntactic accuracy. the research question was as follows: how accurately do eap writers use awl words when writing argumentative essays? method instructional setting and participants the argumentative essays were written by english l2 students (n = 409) at an english-medium university in québec. the students were taking the second of two eap reading and writing courses offered in a department of education. whereas the first eap course focuses on paragraph-level writing, the second course targets source-based essay writing. at this university, english l2 students are admitted to their degree programs without any further eap requirements if they have a toefl ibt score of 90 or an ielts score of 7. however, if their toefl ibt score ranges from 75 to 89 or equivalent, they are required to take an in-house, integrated writing placement test. based on their performance, they are exempted from further eap instruction or placed into one of the two eap courses. while taking eap courses, the students are simultaneously completing disciplinary courses for their undergraduate degree programs, which contrasts with the pre-admission eap program described by keefe and shi (2017) in which students only had conditional admission to a university program, and had to first complete the eap requirements before taking specific courses in the arts, sciences, or applied sciences. in addition, the students’ credits from the eap courses at the research site count toward their degree requirements, and their eap course grades are included in their overall grade point average. the english l2 students who wrote the argumentative essays were adults with a mean age of 22.7 years (sd = 4.1). they spoke a total of 30 different first languages, with mandarin mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 81 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 (47%), french (18%), and arabic (12%) the most frequently reported. they were studying degree programs in business (53%), arts and sciences (27%), engineering (16%), and fine arts (4%). in terms of proficiency, students reported mean standardized proficiency scores of 6.2 for ielts (sd = .3) and 80.8 for toefl ibt (sd = 9.1). the students in the eap course were recruited over four semesters, which was taught by a variety of instructors using the same curriculum, textbook, and exams. the students were required to complete two writing midterm exams (summaries and cause/effect essays), as well as the argumentative essays analyzed here, which were written as their final exams. the participants agreed to give the researchers access to their essays after the eap course ended. the students’ eap course materials consisted of a course pack with reading texts and vocabulary activities from the following two sources: learning english for academic purposes (williams, 2012) and focus on vocabulary: mastering the academic word list (schmitt & schmitt, 2005). it contained five units tailored to the three instructional goals of the class: to improve the students’ theme-based academic reading skills, to build their knowledge of academic vocabulary and sentence structure, and to help develop their academic writing skills. each theme-based unit contained academic texts that presented different perspectives or angles on the theme. awl words were presented in context in the reading passages and developed further through vocabulary exercises (e.g., fill-in-the-blank, matching, creating definitions, and writing short sentences) from selected chapters in the schmitt and schmitt textbook (2005). some awl words also appeared in subsequent chapters, either in the same form, a form within the same word family, or as part of a collocation. procedure the students wrote the argumentative essays as a three-hour final exam following the assessment procedures designed and implemented by the eap program. as part of these procedures, approximately two weeks prior to the final exam the students received a list of six readings in the eap course pack that were relevant to the exam topic. they were allowed to prepare for the exam by taking notes about the six readings and by bringing their notes to the exam (one page of notes per reading). at the examination, students received two writing prompts related to those readings and selected which one they preferred to write about. across the dataset, the essays were written in response to prompts that addressed ways of alleviating poverty and hunger (n = 249) or reducing economic inequality (n = 160). students had three hours to write the essays by hand, during which time they could consult a paper-based monolingual english dictionary and their notes. analysis the students’ handwritten argumentative essays were typed, verified, de-identified, and saved as microsoft word files. minor spelling errors were corrected so that the words could be recognized by the software program. the electronic files were submitted to cobb’s (2016) classic vocabulary profiler, version 4 (https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng), but any awl tokens that occurred in direct quotations were excluded from the analysis. to ensure that the accuracy coding was based on sufficient tokens, awl word families with fewer than 20 tokens in the student essays were excluded. all phrases containing the 60 awl word family items that met https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 82 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 the inclusion criteria (4369 tokens) were classified as being accurately used or containing an error based on the third author's native-speaker judgements. following several rounds of pilot coding of essays not included in the dataset, discussions, and revisions to the coding criteria by all three researchers working collaboratively, errors were further coded by the third author into three types: collocation, morphosyntax, or both morphosyntax and collocation errors (see table 1 for examples). collocational errors included incorrect lexical chunks or collocations, missing or incorrect function words and prepositions, and contextually inappropriate use (i.e. a word with related, but not completely overlapping meaning would have been more appropriate). morphosyntactic errors included incorrect use of inflectional and derivational morphology on the awl tokens, such as missing or oversupplied plurals, tense/aspect features, and word form errors. phrases with awl tokens that had both error types were coded as morphosyntactic and collocational errors. a subset of the essays (10%) was coded by the second author for interrater reliability. interrater reliability was .88 as assessed using a two-way mixed average-measures interclass correlation coefficient. table 1 accuracy coding for phrases with awl tokens in the student essays sentence error type we cannot deny it’s still the most effective way to reduce poverty. none although increasing funding cannot stimulate economic growth rapidly, it slowly alter the social conditions of capitalism. morphosyntactic direct investment can help starved region overcome difficult of geography to against hunger. morphosyntactic obviously increasing funding can alter the social structure and benefit virtually equal across all income groups. collocation however, the top priority of alleviating poverty is to increase public services. collocation people can’t avoid the contribute of microcredit, but it still can’t solve the basic social problem morphosyntactic & collocation microcredit cannot ensured for reach every poor people, and really improve their lifes. morphosyntactic & collocation note. awl tokens have been capitalized. results the students’ argumentative essays (n = 409) had a mean length of 567 words (sd = 112) and yielded a corpus with a total size of 230,694 words. there were 202 awl word families with 5390 tokens in the students’ argumentative essays. the number of awl word families per essay ranged from 7 to 62, with a mean of 25.5 families (sd = 8.6). the percentage of awl use ranged from 2.1 to 14.9 per essay, with a mean of 7.6% (sd = 2.3). because the students’ eap course materials targeted awl words, we also checked to see how many of the awl word families in the essays were also in the course pack. there were 236 awl word families in the eap course pack, of which 86% (202/236) appeared in the students’ essays. the students produced more than 100 tokens for only 11 word families, with invest and benefit most frequent (444 and 403, respectively). mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 83 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 the research question asked whether students used awl words accurately when writing their argumentative essays. as described previously, the accuracy analysis focused on all tokens of the 60 awl word families that occurred at least 20 times in the students’ essays, which accounted for 82% of all the awl tokens (4434/5390). in other words, less than one thousand tokens were excluded from the accuracy analysis because a word family failed to meet the inclusion criteria. as shown in table 2, the students’ accuracy rate was high, with 67% of the awl tokens used correctly without any type of error. collocation errors were more frequent than morphosyntactic errors (18% versus 11%, respectively) and errors involving both collocational and morphosyntactic issues were rare (4%). table 2 awl accuracy and error rates sum percentage accurate 2990 67 collocation error 799 18 morphosyntactic error 487 11 both error types 158 4 the students produced five awl word families without any errors: nevertheless, select, priority, subsidy, and outcome. at the opposite end of the continuum, families with the lowest accuracy percentages were diminish (17%), factor (43%), and aid (43%). for diminish, 46/55 (84%) of the errors were collocational, specifically contexts where a synonym (e.g., reduce, lower, decrease) would have been more appropriate. for example, although its core meaning is correct in the sentence to diminish poverty, governments try to solve it using microfinance, a synonym would have been more appropriate, such as to reduce poverty. collocational errors were also frequent for factor (64/79 or 81%), such as sentences like also, sustainable redistribution is the major factor to make the poor be lazy, where a tensed clause would have been more appropriate than the infinitive. however, for aid, morphosyntactic errors were more frequent (72/126 or 57%). the most frequent morphosyntactic error was the oversuppliance of the plural –s morpheme, as in the sentence: no matter how much aids the government gets it cannot make full use of them. although tokens with both collocational and morphosyntactic errors were rare, they occurred most frequently with invest and benefit. for example, the following sentence has a collocation error (missing in) as well as a morphosyntactic error (invest) by invest factories or manufactures in third world countries, those companies help reduce poverty. discussion to summarize the findings, these eap writers’ use of awl words was mostly accurate, with 67% of their tokens used correctly. in terms of error types, students made more collocational errors than morphosyntactic errors. in other words, students were able to insert the awl words into the grammatical structure of the sentence using correct derivational forms. however, they appeared to struggle with the subtler aspects of word knowledge, such as supplying the correct preposition or function word and choosing the most appropriate word when several words can have similar but not entirely overlapping meanings. even frequently used word families followed mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 84 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 this pattern, with six of the 11 words with at least 100 tokens (factor, aid, issue, invest, stable, benefit) having relatively low accuracy rates, ranging from 43% to 59%. with the exception of aid, tokens with collocational errors were the most frequent, accounting for more than half up to three-quarters of all errors. for example, incorrect preposition use (for instead of of) created a collocational error with benefit in the following sentence: even though the benefits for investment to poor are obsessed, i still doubt for the poor’s culture values. similarly, this student struggled to incorporate the word invest into her sentence: we must admit that the poor cannot manage money and are less willing to invest them in long-term projects. in sum, the findings extend those of previous studies that reported the persistence of collocational errors in l2 writing (liu & shaw, 2001; nesselhauf, 2003) by demonstrating that awl word families also pose collocational challenges for l2 writers. although accuracy rates were generally high (67%), one-third of all the awl tokens in the students’ essays had morphosyntactic or collocational errors (or both). the prevalence of these errors raises questions about the typical research approach of reporting awl word frequency without considering whether students use those words accurately and appropriately. comparative studies of l1 and l2 writers may overestimate l2 writers’ ability to use awl words by not considering accuracy. similarly, comparative genre studies (i.e., comparing summary and argumentative texts) may not capture challenges with academic writing by failing to consider whether students are equally accurate across genres. by comparing the frequency of different error types across genres or over time, researchers can provide instructors with more fine-grained information about the developmental progression of eap writers’ vocabulary use. having more information about when to emphasize specific aspects of word knowledge can help instructors design more effective instructional materials. this study has several pedagogical implications for teaching vocabulary in eap courses. first, the study sheds light on which vocabulary words eap teachers might focus on with their students. when making choices about which awl words to include on target vocabulary lists, instructors may want to highlight words that are relevant for the students’ writing topics. these eap students frequently used awl word families that were closely linked to their writing topics (such as benefit, aid, invest, distribute), but their accuracy rates were relatively low. it is possible that students recognized the importance of the key words, which led them to use them often in their essays, but they could not successfully incorporate them into their texts in ways that avoided errors, especially collocational errors. when working with awl words in eap courses, instructors could highlight awl words that have direct semantic links to writing topics, but focus on collocational accuracy rather than core word meaning or derivational forms. second, the data reveal that beyond mastering the meaning and form of new target vocabulary words, the students in this study also faced a challenge in mastering usage of these words. many of the eap course pack’s vocabulary activities stem from schmitt and schmitt’s (2005) book. the activities in each chapter are categorized into three groups and include the following diverse range of exercise types: word meaning  matching target words with provided definitions  choosing the correct meaning of a target word in context mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 85 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89  choosing the correct target word to fill a gap in isolated sentences or texts  identifying incorrect synonyms  explaining the meaning of target vocabulary words in own words word families  choosing the correct form of a target word  identifying and correcting errors in word forms collocations  choosing the correct collocations of three choices for the target word to fill a gap  writing sentences with one of three collocations for the target word  matching target words with right collocations based on the findings from this study, the exercises on word meaning and word families appear to be very successful in teaching students about these aspects of vocabulary knowledge as shown by the fact that the awl words were never used completely inaccurately. however, one area that students clearly need more help with is the usage of the target words in the context of a sentence where students have to pay attention to function words and a broader range of collocation information. they also face challenges with determining meaning and usage boundaries between target words and other words with a similar or related meaning. as previously discussed, the most frequently used word, invest, was often inserted into sentences where more appropriate alternatives could have been used. likewise, the use of issue was strongly tied to its collocation with the word poverty. in both cases, students opted to overuse familiar words and collocations over less frequent alternatives. to support students in addressing these difficulties in usage, teachers and eap material developers should perhaps consider including example sentences written by students with these types of errors so that students can practice identifying these subtle mistakes in vocabulary usage. it might also be worthwhile to contrast these problematic example sentences with examples from the corpus of contemporary american english or the british national corpus to allow students to appreciate the differences in use between advanced l2 students and more proficient users of english. future research would have to investigate whether such exercises would help students improve their level of mastery in using target awl words in the context of their own texts. furthermore, because prior studies have shown that university l2 writers consult dictionaries and concordance tools for different purposes, such as using a dictionary to check the form of a word but using concordance tools to search for usage examples (lai & chen, 2015), additional research should also compare the effectiveness of corpus-based and traditional approaches for teaching collocations (e.g., daskalovska, 2015; li, 2017). it is important to note, however, that the current study has a number of limitations that may limit its generalizability. first, the study only provides information about the students’ use of the 202 awl target words from the eap textbook that they decided to use; there is no information in the data about the remaining 34 target words that the students did not use in their essays. for example, it is possible that they failed to use these words because they were not relevant to the assigned source texts and essay topic. alternatively, it is also possible that the students avoided them due to a lack of knowledge about their meaning, form, or usage. if the mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 86 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 latter possibility is true, then the students’ ability to use the textbook’s target awl words may not be as strong as the findings reported here suggest. second, the students had a certain level of support when they were writing their essays. not only did they have access to monolingual english dictionaries while writing the essays, but they were also allowed to draw upon the notes they had taken about the readings. if students prepared diligently before the exam, they may have had the support of key vocabulary in their notes, which may or may not have included some of the target awl words focused on in this study. conclusion in conclusion, the study has found that eap students use awl words with a relatively high accuracy rate (67%), largely avoiding morphosyntactic and collocational errors. however, the prevalence of collocational errors highlighted avenues for improving the pedagogical effectiveness of eap instructional materials for promoting awl learning. our future research aims to clarify whether including more usage-focused vocabulary activities, recycling target words across textbook chapters, and emphasizing collocational knowledge of topic-specific awl words will help eap students become more proficient at using awl words. by carrying comparative experimental studies that assess developmental outcomes, our goal is to identify which types of instructional interventions are most effective at helping eap students use awl words accurately and appropriately in their own texts. acknowledgments this research was supported by funding from the canada research chairs program, grant number 950-221304. we would like to thank the research assistants for their help with data collection and preparation: zachary alderton, randy 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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-welcomes-record-number-of-international-k-12-students-1.4271279 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-welcomes-record-number-of-international-k-12-students-1.4271279 mcdonough, neumann, & hubert-smith 89 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 77–89 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ roessingh 67 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 academic language in k-12: what is it, how is it learned, and how can we measure it? hetty roessingh university of calgary abstract using beck, mckeown and kucan’s (2002) three-tiered model as a general framework for vocabulary, this article sheds light on the construct of academic vocabulary and how it might be measured. using illustrative writing samples of student work of different genres and drawing on corpus based studies, i highlight the distinction between general, high utility academic vocabulary visible in expository mode (tier 2), and narrative vocabulary (tier 1) on the one hand; and general, high utility academic vocabulary and literary vocabulary associated with english language arts literature-based curriculum (tier 3). tier 2 words have consistently correlated with academic achievement across disciplinary boundaries, especially at postsecondary levels. suggestions are made for policy reform, curriculum, and assessment approaches that will afford more equitable access to post-secondary programs of study for the growing numbers of english language learners across canada, including in provinces such as alberta and british columbia. introduction the research community is increasingly cognizant of the key role of vocabulary in academic literacy development among students in the k–12 school system (beck, mckeown & kucan, 2002; cummins & mann, 2007; ranney, 2012; schleppegrell, 2012). there is growing consensus among scholars related to the construct of academic vocabulary and pedagogical considerations (dicerbo, anstrom, baker & rivera, 2014). approaches to assessment are less well developed especially in relation to english language learners (ells). this article aims to contribute to the discussion on both the meaning and assessment of academic vocabulary. this is a timely contribution, given canada’s shifting demographic landscape to include increasing numbers of canadian-born children of immigrants whose first language is not english. they represent between 25–50% of the general school-going population in large, urban school jurisdictions in vancouver (skelton, 2014), toronto and calgary. english language learners (ells) are not distributed equally throughout school jurisdictions, and many are not identified for funding purposes (british columbia teachers’ federation, 2012). based on british columbia (bc) ministry of education data, out of approximately 550 schools in the metro vancouver area, skelton (2014) reports 65 schools—primarily in richmond, surrey, and vancouver—where more than half of the students are ells. gillis (2016), citing data from the early development instrument (edi, 2015), observes that many children from high ses backgrounds, specifically west vancouver, are deemed “vulnerable” in terms of their readiness to participate in more formal learning settings in kindergarten on at least two of the five domains assessed by the edi, including communication and general knowledge. language proficiency is thought to be the biggest factor (gillis, 2016, p. 21). many of these families live in gated properties that do not afford ready access to playgrounds, community centres, and opportunities to participate and socialize with the broader community. economic advantage may simply roessingh 68 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 exacerbate the linguistic divide starting early in the educational trajectory and accelerating over time. increasing numbers of ells, estimated as high as 45% in the admissions data at one canadian university (roessingh & douglas, 2012), underscore the urgency to address concerns related to their preparedness for engaging with the demands of post-secondary studies. there is a need for pragmatic approaches for teaching, tracking, and testing the growth of academic vocabulary use over time, and further to consider policy implications related to thresholds required for educational success at all levels in the k–12 system and beyond. what is academic vocabulary? in broad strokes, academic vocabulary pertains to the language of school and the demands for engaging in the reading and writing tasks associated with curriculum. with each advancing year of participation in the educational system these demands accelerate—both in their quantity and complexity. figure 1 below summarizes the salient differences between communicative and academic modes of language use. communicative language academic language  highly contextualized: “here and now” and “lived experience”  conversational, narrative  acquired from immersion and interaction  high frequency (tier 1): 3,000 words  concrete: names and the references are transparent (glass, water, cup, coffee)  anglo-saxon word origins  repetitive: same words re-used ±3 times  context reduced: “there and then”, ideas that can only be accessed through language itself  information, expository mode  learned from direct and explicit instruction  mid-frequency and general academic language, often procedural: construct, provide, obtain, design, include; and low frequency, discipline/topic specific words: komodo, dinosaur, fossil.  abstract: metaphor, idiom, imagery; technical and specialized uses of words  greek and latin roots  more lexical variability: words re-used ±2 times figure 1. differences between communicative and academic language cummins coined the terms basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) to describe the interdependency of linguistic – cognitive development over time. many k–12 practitioners will be familiar with cummins’ model (1981). in brief, cummins posits a continuum of language learning along two axis: from cognitively undemanding to cognitively demanding along the vertical axis and from context embedded to context reduced along the horizontal axis. bics level language comprises the two quadrants cognitively undemanding/context embedded language and cognitively undemanding/context reduced language that may be described as the “here and now” and “lived roessingh 69 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 experience” vocabulary needed to navigate and negotiate our daily interactions and basic literacy needs. as language becomes more cognitively demanding and context reduced, learners must avail themselves of language itself to make meaning. often, these meanings are framed by way of metaphor, adding another level of complexity to this language. roessingh (2006) elaborates on cummins’ model with further illustrative information that will be helpful to a practitioner audience. beck, mckeown and kucan (2002) advance a three tiered model for understanding communicative versus academic language. it differs from cummins’ bics-calp model in making the distinction between general academic vocabulary and discipline specific academic vocabulary. the model is illustrated in figure 2, below. figure 2. three tiered model of vocabulary (beck, mckeown, & kucan, 2002) tier 1 words correspond to cummins’ conceptualization of bics comprising perhaps 2,000–3,000 high frequency word families needed for daily interaction, though beck, mckeown and kucan (2002) suggest a threshold of 8,000 word families. these word families form the important foundation needed to build further meaning in the tier 2 “next words to know.” the tier 2 words are the high utility or general academic words that travel across curricular boundaries. these words often have greek or latin roots, and relate to procedures such as investigate, experiment, analyze, and prepare, as noted in the model above. coxhead’s (2000) seminal work on academic vocabulary identified some 570 high frequency head words or word roessingh 70 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 families from analyzing a large corpus of university textbooks and academic writing. however, many of these words are not particularly difficult, and appear in the corpus of academic words young students in grade 3 use in their writing in response to an expository prompt (roessingh, douglas & wojtalewicz, 2016). there is rapid growth in this vocabulary in the grade 4 year (wojtalewicz, 2016). figure 3 below illustrates this growth, taken from the writing of the same group of young learners over one year in the studies cited above. beck, mckeown and kucan further suggest an additional 7,000 tier 2 word families, a figure that together with the tier 1 words noted earlier, would indicate a grade 9 reading age of approximately 15,000 word families or 50,000 words. figure 3. growth of academic words from grade 3 to grade 4 tier 3 words are discipline or content area specific words such as mitosis and habitat. in a subject area such as a high school english literature course, words such as despair, inherent, and oppress emerge (pinchbeck, 2016). in general, teachers spend little of their instructional time focused on vocabulary teaching and learning, especially of words associated with informational texts where expository modes of writing afford access to the academic words young learners are ready to learn at an early age (biemiller, 2003a; duke, 2000). words that are associated with literary texts are often rare, sophisticated words used figuratively and metaphorically. they are particularly challenging for many ells since their meanings are not transparent: they must be understood at the interpretive level. tier 3 words are needed for precision and nuanced meaning, and learning these words continues throughout the educational trajectory. as the tiered model roessingh 71 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 suggests, tens of thousands of these words, estimated at 85,000 words or 18,000 word families, are needed to access advanced textbook information. among children, it is important to note that there is a developmental aspect to the arrival of academic words in their lexical repertoire. the age of 7–9 marks, in piagetian terms, the point at which children become structured thinkers, and are able to name and describe objects, articulate similarities and differences, categorize and classify, and understand the properties of objects according to their key features such as size, shape, speed, and colour (isaacs, 1974). monkey bars, slides and swings can now be described as playground equipment, for example. increasing use of words with greek and latin roots in particular are now used to talk about procedures such as construct vs. build, design vs. draw, and create vs. make (roessingh & elgie, 2015). increasingly, students are expected to understand specialized uses of common words such as energy or work; and to learn content-curriculum specific vocabulary such as habitat or species. a second developmental milestone is realized around age 15, as students increasingly are able to avail themselves of metaphor and imagery to access abstract ideas. as noted earlier, such uses of vocabulary may be particularly difficult for ells since they are often culturally constrained: a dance or a journey to refer to the aging process versus the idea of ripening fruit in asian culture as a metaphor for the passage of time and aging. idioms and proverbs such as “beauty is only skin deep,” or “never judge a book by its cover” are often equally difficult for linguistic and culturally diverse learners to “unpack.” pavlov (2015) found that while ells are represented across the full range of scores on grade 12 provincially mandated tests of reading comprehension involving literary texts, on average they score less well than their native english speaking (ns) classmates largely related to the use of this type of vocabulary and lexical bundles—strings of words that must be interpreted as a whole, such as idioms. the ability to engage with text at an aesthetic, contemplative level (rosenblatt, 1985) involves the ability to evoke images and associations especially through the use of metaphor, a task that will be very difficult for a growing demographic of ells present in our k–12 schools. how is academic vocabulary learned? as noted earlier, bics type language associated with conversational discourse can be acquired through exposure and opportunities to interact with ns or more competent users of english, in contexts that require negotiating meaning and problem solving, for example. the vocabulary involved is high frequency, cognitively undemanding, and context embedded, thus providing support for getting at the meaning of these words. academic vocabulary, on the other hand, must usually be taught. because these words are often termed rare or sophisticated, it is difficult to learn them from mere exposure through reading alone. authentic materials do not provide sufficient context support to infer meaning. further, because they are rare, they are not encountered often enough to be noticed or learned incrementally, gradually, through exposure (stahl, 2003). vast amounts of comprehensible input would be required for this to occur. hence the need for instructional attention to these words. roessingh 72 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 young learners who already know these words will often have learned them from their parents through engaged, elaborative and collaborative talk and the co-construction of meaning. torr and scott (2006) observe the storybook reading behaviours of high socio-economic status (ses) mothers include introducing as many as 34 words beyond the words “on the page” through elaborated, extended talk. from my work with young students, i have been apprised of many different opportunities and life experiences made available to them that afford access to sophisticated input (roessingh & elgie, 2009). family trips to the zoo, the science centre, travel (to paris), hiking with a parent who points out interesting indigenous flowers and grasses, shadowing father at his place of work in the research lab, and even the innocuous task of buying a new toaster presents an opportunity to learn a new word. hence, words such as aquarium, telescope, microscope, cheetah, monuments, appliance, and thistle are in the receptive, oral repertoire of these youngsters, and, later when these words are elicited either from a picture prompt or encountered in print, they can readily produce or comprehend them (biemiller, 2003b). sometimes a single exposure was sufficient for the word to register with the youngster: an insatiable interest and curiosity about language and the names of things, a strong memory capacity, and the ability to retain connections and context information were reported to me by these young learners. over time, many researchers report a widening gap in the vocabulary knowledge between advantaged learners and those who are linguistically vulnerable for reasons of ses, or language minority status, although, as noted earlier, advantaged ses may not in itself ensure access to rich english language learning opportunities. targeting instruction would benefit from a strategic approach to knowing which words, how many, and when. corpus based studies and the creation of developmental academic word lists would be helpful in providing teachers more precise information on where to begin teaching the words children need to know. a scatter shot approach to addressing the 18,000 word families an academically oriented 18 year old high school graduate seeking university admission is estimated to need in order to access university course materials is an overwhelming task for any school teacher. targeting the big bang for the buck words involves not only frequency, but other considerations such as its position in a thematic field that would naturally connect to other words readily learned through incidental exposure as well as its collocations. figure 4 on the next page illustrates this idea. measuring academic vocabulary in kindergarten to grade 12 various standardized tests such as the gates macginite reading tests (macginitie & macginitie, 1992) and the expressive one word picture vocabulary test (academic therapy publications, 2000) are routinely used for diagnostic and research purposes. generally, academic vocabulary is only measured indirectly through large end assessment programs across canada administered by provincial ministries of education to monitor outcomes in early literacy development in grade 3 or 4, and at the other end of the educational spectrum, grade 12 outcomes on an english language arts examination. the bc ministry of education assesses literacy learning through the foundation skills assessment (fsa) program in grades 4 and 7 (bc education, 2016). at grade 4, the writing tasks involve an impromptu personal response and a longer narrative spontaneous story telling. vocabulary is not directly assessed by way of the marking rubric; however, young writers are increasingly expected to demonstrate a “varied and precise” use of language. yet even at standard 4 (exceeds expectations) on the story telling roessingh 73 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 task of my incredible journey, the standard setting sample paper, comprising 354 words, demonstrates overwhelming use of high frequency tier 1 vocabulary. two words, security and finally, are drawn from the academic word list (coxhead, 2000) and are considered tier 2 words. figure 4. words in a thematic field. the university of british columbia (ubc), like others across canada, requires all prospective students to demonstrate english-language competency prior to admission. various options are available to fulfill this requirement; however, for most bc high school graduates seeking admission to ubc, a final grade in grade 11 or grade 12 english, including the provincial examination is taken as a proxy for english-language competency. a score of 70% or better is required on the provincial examination portion of grade 12 english or the equivalent (ubc, n.d.). however, for ells, including the canadian born children of immigrants, there may be challenges to reaching this threshold (roessingh & douglas, 2011). recall that literary language is constrained by culture, and many ells find themselves “on the outside”—frustrated in their attempts to make meaning of words used metaphorically or figuratively. in addition, students applying to ubc’s vancouver campus who do not achieve a grade of 75% in grade 12 english or an approved equivalent standard are required to demonstrate the first year english course entry requirement (ubc department of english, n.d.). students who do not meet this requirement are most likely to fulfill the english language competency requirement by way of the language proficiency index (lpi) (lpi, 2016), a measure of academic writing that includes an expository essay of 300 – 400 words. when asking students to write to a prompt, it is important to elicit and sample the full range of students’ lexical resources (olinghouse & wilson, 2013; roessingh, 2012). corson roessingh 74 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 (1997), referred to this threshold as the lexical bar. this is generally achieved through expository modes of writing. neither narrative nor literary responses fulfill the requirements: the former overwhelmingly elicits tier 1 words; the latter elicits the types of literary language that is bounded by the english language arts curriculum. the figures below illuminate these points. in the first example (figure 5), a grade 3 student writes a narrative entitled birds galore. the student is tasked with developing a story in response to a picture prompt showing a young boy in a bird costume intently gazing into a nest of birds’ eggs, one of them newly hatched. there is no sign of the mother. the same student writes an expository text, this time explaining her ideas on how to use the empty space behind the school yard. both texts are digitized, corrected for spelling and submitted to vocabulary profiling tools available in the public domain at www.lextutor.ca/vp/kids (cobb, 2016a). vocabulary profiles are generated for each sample of approximately equal length (250 words) to glean insights into various indices of lexical variability that reflect on the productive demands of each genre of writing. figure 5. narrative vs expository prose http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/kids roessingh 75 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 table 1 summarizes some of the salient differences between narrative and expository prose written by the same young student (both samples assessed as “excellent” writing) who scored on the 95th percentile on a vocabulary measure. the data include the total number of words or tokens (tnw), the number of different words (ndw), the type-token ratio (a ratio of the ndw to tnw), the percent coverage at the 1,000 word frequency threshold (i.e. level 4, with each of the 10 levels accounting for 250 word families), and the number of off-list words, reflecting the vocabulary “reach” beyond the 2,500 word families represented in the reference corpus of children’s oral language at age 5–7. table 1 differences between narrative and expository prose features: birds galore empty space tnw 251 249 ndw 138 136 t – t ratio .55 .55 1000 word % 88.84 79.11 offlist % 4.78 7.63 examples of o-l and awl encounter, opposite, fury, rage, permission aid, amount, equipment, include, locate, maximum, public, supervisor in brief, the data in table 1 reflect far greater use of the high frequency words at the 1,000 word threshold in narrative prose (88.84%) versus expository (79.11%). access to low frequency and academic words as a percentage of the total words generated in the expository text is greater than in the narrative (7.63% vs 4.78%). a comparison of words in the narrative versus expository writing using the text lex compare feature on the www.lextutor.ca website (cobb, 2016b) reveals the use of 86 word families unique to expository writing, 53 of them (40%) beyond the 1,000 word threshold that is accessible to most young writers at grade 3. this represents a sizable gap and qualitative difference in vocabulary use between narrative and expository prose, making a compelling case for the use of expository prompts to identify young writers who may be linguistically vulnerable and who might benefit from targeted vocabulary instruction (roessingh, 2012). in grade 12, a different pattern emerges when comparing literary and expository genre. the opening paragraph for each piece of text is provided in figure 6 on the next page to give the reader a feel for the types of vocabulary each prompt elicits. the top of the figure contains an example of literary language and the bottom of the figure contains an example of expository language. http://www.lextutor.ca/ roessingh 76 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 figure 6. literary vs. expository table 2 below provides some points of comparison that reflect on the question of academic vocabulary. these data were taken from vocabulary profiles generated on the vp classic tool available on www.lextutor.ca (cobb, 2016a). data beyond the 2,000 word frequency threshold and the academic word list (awl) are reported. coxhead (2000) developed the awl from a corpus a university level reading materials. the awl consists of 570 head words (word families) beyond the 2,000 word threshold in english. they are organized into 10 sub-lists by frequency, and offer a good resource for practitioners to consider in their instructional planning. many of these words are accessible to young students in elementary school. the word web in figure 4, for example, aligns with content in science curriculum that is often addressed around grade 4. the first text, a critical response to the prompt, “the struggle to restore honor and certainty in william shakespeare’s hamlet” and the second—the “empty space” prompt (the same as that given to the grade 3 student above) are both assessed at the standard of excellence. table 2 comparisons between literary and expository prose features literary expository tnw 790 791 ndw 354 272 t-t ratio .45 .34 2000 word % 85.57% 85.84% awl % 5.57% 9.86 off-list 8.86% 4.30 in the play hamlet by william shakespeare, the eponymous hero struggles to restore honor and certainty to the corrupt kingdom of denmark. for the purposes of this essay, honor will be defined as honesty and integrity, and certainty will be defined as justified, true belief. hamlet struggles to restore honor and certainty in three ways: through thought, which only leads him to further doubt, through manipulation, which hamlet finds difficult due to his inherent honesty, and through force, which hamlet turns to out of despair. these three strategies slowly transform hamlet from a fair and gentle prince to a source of corruption that equals his uncle, the ‘treacherous, lecherous, damned villain.’ the space provided by the large undeveloped area in the schoolyard provides a variety of excellent opportunities for the creation of numerous projects that are practical and enjoyable for both students and parents. this fact in itself is the basis of the reason for keeping the area free of installed equipment or permanent fixturesit should remain undeveloped in order to preserve the flexibility of its functionality. not only would maintaining the field as an empty space keep it useful for a variety of purposes, it can also be utilized for sports, in order to encourage physical activity, and it will certainly be the most inexpensive option available. http://www.lextutor.ca/ roessingh 77 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 controlled for length, both texts reflect similar coverage of 85% at the 2000 word threshold. the pattern for the awl and the off-list words are in stark contrast. a text lex compare of the two texts revealed these differences. table 3 lexical differences between literary and expository texts (total = 472 word families) literary unique shared word families expository unique # of families 244 60 168 k1 52.05% 95% 52.38% k2 12.7% 1.67% 16.67% awl 11.89% 3.3 % 19.05% off-list 23.36% 0 11.9% total: 100.0 % 99.97% 100.0% these two texts have little in common: they share just 60 word families (approximately 12.7% of the 472 word families in total). perhaps the single most striking feature of literary text is the heavy use of off-list words. again, these are overwhelmingly discipline specific, tier 3 words : antic, avenge, betray, contempt, deceit, desperate, disposition, eponymous, feign, lecherous, reconcile, remorse to give a few examples. the two texts share just two awl words: furthermore and maintain. the remaining awl words are drawn from the low frequency lists and include ambiguity, inherent, and integrity. the expository text, on the other hand, contains a far greater percentage of awl (19.05%) and they appear on the high frequency sub-lists of the awl. they are good candidates for instruction since they have high general academic utility: available, function, issue, community, participate, contribute, option, project, and promote for example. similarly, the offlist words are accessible and also would seem to have high utility: engage, install, and oblige for example. in a small scale study investigating academic language proficiency and achievement at university among students required to sit the effective writing test (ewt), douglas (2010) reported that an expository piece of writing is a stronger predictor of academic achievement than the literary writing associated with the ela diploma examination in alberta. thus, the challenge facing increasing numbers of ells is clear: in order to fulfill the academic demands of high school curriculum and meet admission requirements to university, they must learn hundreds of awl words in a variety of contexts, and even more daunting, thousands upon thousands of offlist words associated with literary texts that are abstract and complex in their meaning. as a young ell myself, sitting the alberta english 30-1 diploma examination nearly 50 years ago and scoring 57%--on average about the same as the outcomes reported by roessingh and douglas (2012), i know and understand the challenge. roessingh 78 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 the way ahead this article makes a pitch for addressing the needs of ells while maintaining the high school requirements of the ela curriculum across canada. through literature study, we come to know ourselves and each other, our history, and our dreams for the future that is constantly reshaped as our demographic landscape evolves and we reinvent the canadian identity based on values of inclusion and diversity. this project takes time and hard work. pedagogical approaches must make this language and content more accessible through a variety of means. a major challenge will be to identify and select literary texts that are relevant and resonate with the increasing diverse learner profile of the inclusive classroom. comprehension is not beyond the reach of most ells with a little mediation and explicit instruction. delpitt (1988) makes an impassioned plea to educators to make the language of school more available to linguistically vulnerable and culturally diverse young learners. to deepen engagement with these texts to the transactionalaesthetic level suggested by rosenblatt (1986) requires much more and is potentially not within reach of many first generation ells: they remain cultural spectators (as i do) and find it very difficult to live life through literature, and to bring personal life experiences to the study of literature through language. it is akin to experiencing the literature curriculum through a frosted glass window, only partially accessible—the grasp is elusive, the meaning obscured and for the most part, the words remain as they were, “on the page.” look instead for inspiration in a sunset and grace through everyday small miracles that do not require language to touch the soul, reminding us what it means to be human. english for academic purposes curricula have been found to make a difference in the academic outcomes at university (crossman, 2014; crossman & pinchbeck, 2012). such programs can easily be implemented in high school to complement the ela program, ideally in grade 11 or early grade 12. as well, we must begin with young learners as early as their arrival in kindergarten, and sustain involvement with academic vocabulary over the duration of the k– 12 years. why not teach latin for kids (van tassel-baska, 1987)? future research can involve developing growth models for the arrival of academic words into the lexicon of young learners over time from analyzing expository writing samples from time series data, generating the “words to know,” or a developmental awl for young learners. this would provide an excellent start point for instructional planning and in turn, enhancing achievement outcomes among linguistically vulnerable young learners, including the canadian born children of immigrants who may not have access to academic vocabulary either at home, or, it would seem, at school. finally, policy initiatives could include universities awarding advance credit for an ieap course (crossman, 2014) taken in high school that could be accompanied by a diploma exam along the lines of bc’s lpi test. it is timely to rethink the demands of a literature based course as the gate keeper to admission to post-secondary institutions including universities, colleges, and technical programs. from multiple perspectives including assessment, curriculum and instruction, policy, and research initiatives, there is much work to do to address the needs of our rapidly changing demographic profile of our k–12 population and in turn, post-secondary and workplace roessingh 79 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 67-81 potential. canada’s quality of life depends on the ability to be competitive in a complex, connected global economy that demands increasing levels of academic literacy. references academic therapy publications (2000). expressive one word picture vocabulary test. novato, ca: author. august, d., carlo, m., dressler, c., & snow, c. 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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ wisla, krauza, & hu 1 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 service-learning: boldly going where eal students haven’t gone before heather wisla thompson rivers university / athabasca university wendy krauza thompson rivers university jim hu thompson rivers university abstract service-learning is an experiential pedagogy which integrates curriculum and volunteer service through ongoing reflection. research suggests that service-learning offers notable benefits for post-secondary english-as-an-additional-language (eal) students. however, most of the researchers have studied eal students within the united states; far fewer have examined eal students in the canadian context. this paper reports on a study of the impact of service-learning on eal students at a canadian university in british columbia. a first-year service-learning elective has been offered at the university since fall 2009. this course is taught by faculty from the esl department who have a master’s degree or equivalent in a related field. this study investigated the impact of the elective on eal students’ english proficiency. data were collected from students through surveys, interviews, and journals. additionally, the grade point averages (gpa’s) of eal students in first-year university english composition were examined, comparing those eal students who took the service-learning elective (group a) with those who did not (group b). grade analysis showed whereas group b had a gpa of 2.15 on a 4.33 scale for first-year english composition, the subset of group a who took first-year english composition in the semester immediately following service-learning achieved a gpa of 2.55. the results supported service-learning as an effective pedagogy for eal students. background the service-learning course that is the focus of this study is offered as a first-year credit-bearing elective at a university in a mid-sized city in british columbia, canada. thirteen thousand students were registered at the university in 2013, including 1,570 international students from over 85 countries. from fall 2009, when the service-learning course was first offered, to fall 2013, 238 students registered for the course. of these registrants, a high number were from saudi arabia, with significant numbers also from china, japan, russia, and nigeria; most of these students had also taken at least one english-as-an-additional-language (eal) course at the university. in order to register for the service-learning, the eal students must have been placed at level four or higher in the eal courses. level four entry requires english proficiency at 5.5 with no band below 5.0 on ielts or 71+ on ibt toefl. the course itself is carefully designed to integrate three essential criteria for service-learning: curriculum objectives, service for local needs, and structured reflections. in addition to class time, this elective requires students to serve at local not-for-profit organizations and gives them opportunities to: wisla, krauza, & hu 2 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 accomplish course objectives by serving to meet local needs; engage in real-life, meaningful, practical experiences in community settings; engage in ongoing structured critical reflection; develop a sense of community and belonging; facilitate their own learning; develop work skills and acquire organizational discourse; build friendships between domestic and international students; and connect and share cultures. the course runs every fall, winter, and summer semester. students meet in class three hours each week for the entire semester; they also spend a minimum of 24 hours serving at one of 35 local not-for-profit organizations such as health care providers, seniors’ centres, and social service agencies. students submit their top four organization choices to the course instructor, who then matches the service needs of the organizations with the students’ preferences and learning goals. each semester, anywhere from eight to 13 organizations accept the servicelearning students. course assignments include reflective journals, a final paper or portfolio, and a final presentation. informal feedback from students, university staff, and placement supervisors suggested that the service-learning course has benefitted eal students in a number of ways; however, research is limited regarding the impact of service-learning on eal students in the canadian context. our research investigated to what extent service-learning helps eal students improve their english proficiency, learn about canadian culture and society, and become integrated into canadian society. this paper focuses on the impact of service-learning on the english proficiency of eal students. literature review service-learning is a pedagogy built on an experiential learning approach to education, namely, the idea that people learn through doing (dewey, 1916, 1938; duncan & kopperud, 2008; eyler & giles, 1999; perren, 2013). dewey, a pioneer of experiential education, recognized the significance of the interaction between education and life experience, and service-learning exemplifies his theories. according to duncan and kopperud (2008), service-learning is “a teaching and learning method that upholds a commitment to appreciating the assets of and serving the needs of a community partner while enhancing student learning and academic rigor through the practice of intentional reflective thinking and responsible civic action” (p. 4). the service, usually provided for not-for-profit organizations, can vary depending on the needs of an organization, be individual or group-based, and involve direct or indirect contact with the recipients of the service. furthermore, service-learning is supported by the philosophy underpinning the communicative approach to second-language learning. according to canale and swain (1980), communicative competence includes not only grammatical and sociolinguistic competence, but also strategic competence consisting of strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication. such “coping” strategies are thought most likely to be acquired through real-life experiences and in order for communicative competence to lead to communicative confidence, wisla, krauza, & hu 3 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 the learner must be exposed to realistic communication situations. when learners speak and write in real-life situations and realize the extent of their second language skills, they are pushed to use the target language more precisely and accurately in an attempt to produce comprehensible output (swain, 1985). as andrew (2011b) asserted, having the opportunity to apply communicative strategies in real community contexts promotes learning of literacy practices. eal learners who serve in english-speaking settings are exposed to authentic language in reallife communication situations. investigating the impact of volunteering on adult eal immigrants in edmonton, alberta, canada, dudley (2007) concluded that volunteering in an english setting had the potential to enhance eal learners’ oral communication skills, and help them to integrate into the society of their host country. service-learning has been the subject of a substantial amount of research over the past two decades (cress, donahue, & ehrlich, 2011). for example, while not necessarily including eal students, two extensive research projects were conducted by eyler and giles (1999). between 1993 and 1998, they interviewed or surveyed nearly 4,000 post-secondary students throughout the united states about their experiences with service-learning. they found that postsecondary students who participated in service-learning during their studies expressed more appreciation of other cultures, developed an increased sense of personal efficacy, and felt more connected to the community. another large study which examined 22,000 post-secondary students in the united states revealed that service-learning had significant positive effects on academic performance as measured by grade point average, writing skills, and critical thinking skills (astin et al., 2006). these studies, it must be noted, focused on english-speaking american students studying within the united states. in recent years, service-learning has attracted interest from educators and researchers engaged in the practice of teaching spanish as a second language (grabois, 2007; hellebrandt, arries, & varona, 2004; pak, 2007). the pedagogy’s success in spanish education has helped prompt interest in applying service-learning to eal instruction, and the past few years have witnessed some growth in the quantity and quality of research in this field (wurr, 2013). in 2013, the tesol journal published a special issue entitled “engaged teaching and learning: servicelearning, civic literacy, and tesol.” in one of the featured articles, askildson, cahill kelly, and snyder mick (2013) reported the results of their study of 36 international students from 12 developing countries in an eight-week immersion program that integrated service-learning (two days a week) and english language development (three days a week) in the united states. they found that the students gained 72 points on average between their preand posttests of the paper-based toefl (test of english as a foreign language). this outcome tripled the predicted gain based on a model described by wilson (1987) and hastings (2003) in which a typical intensive language program yields an average of one point gain for 10 hours of classroom instruction. this study (askildson et al., 2013) found exceptional outcomes largely due to the “co-curricular service-learning and community engagement components” (p. 424). thus far, research suggests that service-learning offers notable benefits to post-secondary eal students (askildson et al., 2013; minor, 2002; steinke, 2009; whittig & hale, 2007; wurr, 2002). however, most of the research has focused on eal students studying within the united states; far less has examined eal students in the canadian context (beck & simpson, 1993; wisla, krauza, & hu 4 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 dudley, 2007; hummel, 2013). therefore, this study based in british columbia, canada attempts to answer the following questions: 1) how do eal students perceive the impact of service-learning on the development of their english proficiency? 2) is there a relationship between service-learning and eal students’ performance in first-year university english composition? methodology this study used a mixed methods approach that combined quantitative and qualitative research methods (creswell & plano clark, 2011). the quantitative method was used to analyze the survey results regarding the impact of service-learning on the development of the students’ english language proficiency (see appendix a). archival data of students’ grades was also analyzed quantitatively. the qualitative method was used with student interviews (see appendix b) and journals; grounded theory (palys & atchison, 2008; strauss & corbin, 2008) was employed to find themes related to language proficiency in interview transcripts and student journals. coding was implemented using colors to categorize students’ reflections on the course impact on the development of their language skills. each categorized reflection was compared with others for similarities and differences. the design within the mixed methods approach was explanatory, and the purpose of combining the methods was to gain as comprehensive a picture as possible of the impact the service-learning course had on the eal students. data collection techniques data collection began after approval from the human ethics review board of the researcher’s university. vovici (currently known as verint), a secure web-based survey tool and data storage program, was selected for the online survey, while a paper copy of the same questions was provided to those students contacted in class at the end of a semester. interview questions were constructed in consultation with the service-learning course developer. one-on-one interviews with students lasting 30-60 minutes were conducted on campus by a researcher who was not the students’ instructor. the majority of the interviews took place during the final two weeks of the course. subsequently, all interviewees were emailed a copy of the related interview transcript for subject checks. in addition, upon request, the university’s registrar’s office provided archival data on the grades of eal students in first-year university english composition. finally, journals were collected at the end of the semester from students who gave their informed consent. the survey comments, interview transcripts, and journals were read and re-read to detect themes and sub-themes related to student perceptions of the impact of service-learning on their language proficiency. participants for this study, eal students are defined as those who have taken at least one eal course at the university. the 108 eal students who took the service-learning course between fall 2009 and winter 2012 were invited via email to participate in the survey. the email invitation explained wisla, krauza, & hu 5 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 the purpose of the study and assured confidentiality. thirty-three students completed the survey, for a 31% completion rate. paper versions of the survey were also administered in-person to the summer 2012, fall 2012, and winter 2013 service-learning classes. fourteen students from the summer 2012 class were asked to complete the survey at home. however, only four of these 14 students returned their surveys, for a completion rate of 29%. in the fall 2012 and winter 2013 classes, the instructors permitted students to complete the surveys in class. care was taken to have the surveys administered by researchers, not the class instructors, and confidentiality of participation was assured. students were informed in writing that pseudonyms would be used in all research reports. the in-class surveys elicited a 100% completion rate of those present. in all, 60 survey responses were received, representing 40% of the target group. twentyeight percent of the survey respondents were 25 years of age or older when enrolled in the service-learning course. forty-three percent were female, and 57% male. fifty-two percent were saudi arabian, 20% chinese, 15% japanese, and 13% from other countries. eleven students surveyed agreed to be interviewed: one female and four males from saudi arabia, two females and one male from china, one female and one male from japan, and one male from ukraine. sixteen students, eight from winter 2013 and eight from fall 2013, consented to their journals being used in the research. seven of these journals were submitted by students from china, six from saudi arabia, two from japan, and one from ukraine. it is important to note that those students who participated in the research may not be representative of the entire eal population in the service-learning course. results and discussion this section describes the results of analysis of data collected from the surveys, interviews, student journals, and student academic records. the goal is to address the research questions described earlier. students’ feedback on their english proficiency what were students’ perceptions of the impact of service-learning on their development of english proficiency? a theme that emerged from interviewing the students, studying their reflective journals, and survey comments is that the students felt the service-learning course helped them to improve their english proficiency, in particular their listening and speaking skills. the service experiences afforded them a valuable opportunity to practice listening and speaking in english. students who worked with seniors credited the elderly service recipients with helping them to improve their english listening skills. for example, hakim (saudi arabia) said that the seniors he worked with would “forget you in five minutes and have to ask for your name again.” for this reason, they told him the same stories every day. this repetition helped him to understand their stories more deeply. grace (china), who served at a seniors’ centre, wrote in her journal, “sometimes, the seniors would forget something they just talking before, so i need to listen for them and think what they need to do.” six of the 11 interviewees specifically mentioned improved english listening skills as a benefit of the course. these six all happened to be at a lower level of english proficiency. wisla, krauza, & hu 6 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 students also credited in-class interaction with peers and instructors in the servicelearning course for helping them develop english listening and speaking skills. for example, terry (china) wrote in her journal, “discussion with classmates [is] one of the best ways to get new knowledge directly. if you have any confusion about the knowledge your classmates can teach you with their own understanding. that’s easier than the teacher’s professional explanation.” one of the themes that became apparent from analyzing the surveys and interviews is that students aged 25 years or older upon enrolment in the service-learning course expressed the opinion that class discussions were helpful in improving their english listening skills. in his interview, sadiq (saudi arabia), a more mature student with a wife and young daughter, explained that one of the reasons he had enrolled in the service-learning course was to discuss his service experiences: “in this course, i could talk about volunteering and people listened to me and about what i have done.” learning new vocabulary was another benefit mentioned by a few students. for instance, students who served at a health care organization mentioned learning new words like wheelchairs, bandage, and heart attack. shiori (japan), who served at an elementary school, wrote in her journal: in music class, there are a lot of terms for music which i had no idea; however, i learn them naturally because i have to help students when they have questions. in addition, when students are asked spelling or definitions of words in reading class, i automatically listen to a teacher very carefully how she explains to students. i learn how to teach by listening to teachers. both of them give me great opportunities to learn english vocabulary. in nearly every interview and journal, students mentioned how the service and class activities had pushed them to speak. as momoko (japan) explained in her interview, “to be honest, i don’t like to talk a lot—not even in japanese! but volunteering, i have to talk. i have to communicate in class too—to survive.” ashar (saudi arabia), who served at a relief centre, wrote in his journal, “most of the people there correct our mistakes in english language, and help us to improve and develop this language.” in the interviews and journals, opinions were varied regarding how the service-learning course impacted their english writing skills. hakim (saudi arabia), for example, said, “the course helped my writing improve—and it was personal writing, and that was different from writing done in other courses, and it was good.” jaspar (saudi arabia) wrote in his journal, “talking about the course i learned a lot. i did my first research. i learned the deference (sic) between qualitative and quantitative research. i learned how to write apa.” sadiq (saudi arabia), a third-year student who had completed first-year university english composition two years earlier, said the review of apa helped him “get back” his writing skills. on the other hand, clarence (china) said he still had more questions about english grammar. ren (japan) complained that the instructor was too easy on their grammar: “[the instructor] assigned the journal 3-4 times with specific topics. she gave me a high mark every time! for international students, we have grammatical mistakes, but she should point out more mistakes—be tougher.” as figure 1 shows, only 38% of the respondents agreed that the service positively impacted their writing skills. however, 81% of the survey respondents agreed to varying extents that the wisla, krauza, & hu 7 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 reflective journals helped them improve their english writing skills, including 37% who strongly agreed. eighty-one percent also agreed to varying extents that the final paper or portfolio helped them improve their english writing skills, including 47% who strongly agreed. figure 1. survey responses to how service-learning helped eal students’ writing proficiency analysis of archival data the second research question asked whether there is a relationship between service-learning and eal students’ performance in first-year university english composition. upon request, the university’s registrar’s office provided the final grades that eal students received in their first attempt at first-year english composition. the “comparison group” consisted of 878 students who enrolled between january 2010 and april 2013 in at least one eal course at the university and then attempted first-year english composition without ever having taken the service-learning course. of the 878 students, 13% withdrew, 6% failed, and 4% received dnc's (did not complete). their average grade in first-year english composition, factoring in the “fails” but not the “dnc’s”, was 2.15 on a scale of 4.33, equivalent to the letter grade “c.” there turned out to be four distinct subsets of eal students who had taken both the service-learning course and first-year english composition (see figure 2). students varied in the sequencing of the service-learning course and first-year english composition and in the length of time between completing the service-learning course and enrolling in first-year english composition. figure 2 summarizes the differences in grades between the comparison group and various subsets. 38% 27% 35% 81% 10% 9% 81% 9% 10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% agreed neutral disagreed p e re n ta g e student responses service journal final paper wisla, krauza, & hu 8 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 figure 2. average grades on a 4.33 scale in students' first attempts at english composition the results suggest that taking the service-learning course immediately before first-year english composition has a positive impact on eal students’ english writing skills. the failure rate for students who completed the service-learning course right before taking first-year english composition was dramatically lower (0%) than for the comparison group (6%) (see above). conclusion this study shows that the service-learning course helped the eal students improve their english proficiency. as figure 3 shows, most of the surveyed students agreed that various components of the service-learning course helped them to improve their english. figure 3. percentage of students who perceived their english proficiency improvement because of the service-learning course engl: 2.15 engl: 2.08 engl: 1.79 engl: 1.94 engl: 2.55 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 no serv engl attempted before serv engl & serv taken in same term serv spaced 1+ terms before engl serv immediately before engl 43% 90% 88% 38% 80% 83% 81% 81% 85% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% reading listening speaking writing p e rc e n ta g e survey responses service class discussions journals final paper presentation wisla, krauza, & hu 9 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 this study supports the use of service-learning to improve eal students’ writing skills. as other research has shown (andrew, 2011a; perren, 2013), students encounter words that they would never normally find inside a university classroom. this boosts their vocabulary, giving them a richer repertoire of words to use in future speech and writing. the reflective nature of journaling required by the course is a type of personal writing, less commonly practiced in a traditional academic environment. this helps students broaden their writing skills in different genres. the final paper, for which students are taught apa citation style and research strategies, helps students in other university courses. archival data, comparing the grades in first-year university english composition of service-learning eal students with those of eal students who never took the service-learning course, suggests that taking service-learning in the semester immediately before first-year english composition can help eal students perform better in firstyear english composition (see figure 2 above). although the results must be interpreted with caution, failure rates in first-year english composition, which are on average 6% for eal students at the university, were 0% for this sub-set of service-learning students. the study supports the use of service-learning to help eal students improve their english listening skills. some interviewees credited the slower rates of speech used by both the course instructor and some elderly service recipients as helpful. finally, this study supports the use of service-learning to improve the english speaking skills of eal students. most of the survey respondents agreed that the service-learning course enhanced their english speaking skills. as well, most of the students acknowledged class discussions and presentations as having helped develop their english speaking skills. older students were especially appreciative of the service-learning opportunities to improve their english, perhaps because these students were more likely to live with other speakers of their native language. from the interviews, it seemed that the students who lived in homestays tended to have so much exposure to english that they were less appreciative of the benefits of the service-learning course. as the university’s homestay coordinator verbally confirmed, the eal students who participate in homestays are generally younger than 25 years old. considering the benefits of the communicative approach to language acquisition and the positive effects of service-learning on academic performance and feelings of community connectedness, service-learning would appear to be a logical fit for international students studying in english-speaking countries. the students connect with a community of native english speakers outside of the classroom and, through these connections, boost their confidence in using english, expand their vocabulary, and improve their oral proficiency. the writing tasks at their service organizations and assignments in the course such as reflective journals, final papers, and presentations appear to improve their performance in first-year english composition. as eal students benefit personally, psychologically, and socially from their service-learning involvement, their language acquisition benefits as well. limitations and future research it is important to note the limitations of this study. first, this study was conducted at a mid-sized comprehensive post-secondary institution in british columbia. it may not be possible to generalize the findings to different sized communities or different locales. it is important to note wisla, krauza, & hu 10 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 that this study was conducted on an elective course open to all students. also, those students who enjoyed the course more may have been more likely to respond to the survey, participate in interviews, and share their journals. furthermore, in their journals, interviews and survey responses, the students might have been trying to please the instructors or researchers, and therefore gave what they believed would be desired answers. in addition, all the data collection methods were in english, and the students might not have fully understood all the survey questions. in regards to the archival data, there may have been lurking variables such as life circumstances and other educational factors that influenced students’ performance in first-year university english composition. finally, the sample sizes were limited, especially when split into sub-groups. since the pool of subjects for this study is small, it is recommended that data continue to be gathered and analyzed. it is important to hear from the eal students themselves (whittig & hale, 2007), and reflective journals allow researchers to learn directly from students. these journals can be examined in at least two ways. in this study, they were treated as a resource, but they can also be used as a research topic to analyze the development of english writing skills. therefore, all reflective journals, to which students give consent, should be archived for future research. future studies can gauge the benefits of service-learning by setting up comparison groups using random assignment of students to a service-learning section of a required course. there is also a need for longitudinal research to find the impact of service-learning on eal students. as this research focused on eal students with higher levels of language proficiency, future research could include students with lower levels of language proficiency. research could be expanded to look not only at the impact of service-learning on english proficiency over time, but also at students’ retention at university, career paths, and socio-cultural development. finally, future research must also include the perspectives of organization supervisors and community partners. references andrew, m. (2011a). “like a newborn baby”: using journals to record changing identities beyond the classroom. tesl canada journal, 29(1), 57–76. andrew, m. (2011b). ‘the real world’: lived literacy practices and cultural learning from community placement. australian journal of language and literacy, 34(2), 219–235. askildson, l. r., cahill kelly, a., & snyder mick, c. (2013). developing multiples literacies in academic english through service-learning and community engagement. tesol journal, 4(3),402-438. astin, a.w., vogelgesang, l. j., misa, k., anderson, j., denson, n., jayakumar, u., saenz, v., & yamamura, e. (2006). understanding the effects of service-learning. los angeles, ca: higher education research institute. beck, d.j. & simpson, c. (1993). community service and experiential language learning. tesl canada journal, 11(1), 112-121. canale, m., & swain, m. (1980). theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. applied linguistics, 1(1), 1-47. cress, c.m., donahue, d.m., & ehrlich, t. (2011). democratic dilemmas of teaching servicelearning: curricular strategies for success. sterling, va: stylus publishing. wisla, krauza, & hu 11 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 creswell, j.w., & plano clark, v.l. (2011). designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage dewey, j. (1916). democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. new york, ny: macmillan dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. new york, ny: kappa delta pi. dudley, l. (2007). integrating volunteering into the adult immigrant second language experience. canadian modern language review, 63, 539-561. duncan, d., & kopperud, j. (2008). service-learning companion. boston, ma: houghton mifflin. eyler, j., & giles, d. e., jr. (1999). where’s the learning in service-learning? san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons, inc. grabois, h. (2007) service-learning throughout the spanish curriculum: an inclusive and expansive theory-driven model. in a. j. wurr & j. hellebrandt (eds.), learning the language of global citizenship: service-learning in applied linguistics (pp. 164-189). bolton, ma: anker publishing company. hastings, a. (2003). the focal skills advantage. retrieved on august 2, 2013 from http://www.focalskills.info/articles/fsadvantage.html hellebrandt, j., arries, j., & varona, l. t. (eds.). (2004). juntos: community partnerships in spanish and portuguese. boston, ma: thomson/heinle. hummel, k. m. (2013). target-language community involvement: second-language linguistic self-confidence and other perceived benefits. the canadian modern language review, 69(1), 65-90. minor, j. m. (2002). incorporating service learning into esol programs. tesol journal, 11(4), 10-14. pak, c. (2007). the service-learning classroom and motivational strategies for learning spanish: discoveries from two interdisciplinary community-centered seminars. in a. j. wurr & j. hellebrandt (eds.), learning the language of global citizenship: service-learning in applied linguistics (pp. 32–57). bolton, ma: anker publishing company. palys, t. & atchison, c. (2008). research decisions: quantitative and qualitative perspectives (4th ed.). scarborough, on: thomson nelson. perren, j. (2013). strategic steps to successful service-learning in tesol: from critical to practical. tesol journal, 4(3), 487-513. steinke, m. h. (2009). learning english by helping others: implementing service learning into the esol classroom. journal of civic commitment, 12. retrieved on june 5, 2013 from http://www.mesacc.edu/other/engagement/journal/issue12/steinke.pdf swain, m. (1985). communicative competence: some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. in s. gass & c. madden (eds.), input in second language acquisition (pp. 235-253). rowley, ma: newbury house. strauss, a. l., & corbin, j. m. (2008). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. los angeles, ca: sage publications inc. whittig, e., & hale, a. (2007). confidence to contribute: service-learning in esl. in a. j. wurr & j. hellebrandt (eds.), learning the language of global citizenship: service-learning in applied linguistics (pp. 378-404). bolton, ma: anker publishing company. wilson, k. m. (1987). patterns of test taking and score change for examinees who repeat the test of english as a foreign language (est-rr-87-3). princeton, nj: educational testing service. http://www.focalskills.info/articles/fsadvantage.html http://www.mesacc.edu/other/engagement/journal/issue12/steinke.pdf wisla, krauza, & hu 12 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 wurr, a. j. (2002). text-based measures of service-learning writing quality. reflections: a journal of writing, service learning and community literacy 2(2), 40-55. wurr, a. j. (2013). editorial. tesol journal, 4(3), 397-401. appendix a survey questions for serv 1000 students 1. what is your country of origin? 2. what is your mother tongue (first language you learned)? 3. what is your gender? female male 4. what is or was your program of study at the university? bachelor of business administration / bachelor of tourism management / bachelor of science / other (please specify) 5. during serv 1000, with which organization did you do your volunteer placement? 6. approximately how many english-speaking canadians did you meet through your serv 1000 volunteer placement? staff members? volunteers? clients (people who received service from the organization)? 7. besides earning university credits, what, if anything, do you believe you got out of taking serv 1000 (check all that apply)? a) made new english-speaking canadian friends b) gained canadian experience c) helped others d) improved the community e) enlarged network of contacts f) gained a better understanding of canada and canadians g) learned new skills i) had fun h) became a better citizen of the world j) other 8. since the end of serv 1000, have you kept in touch with any english-speaking people you met through your volunteer placement? no yes 9. if you answered yes to #8, how have you mainly kept in touch? check all that apply: texting / phone calls / in-person visits / facebook / tweeting / e-mail 10. please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements [scale of 1 to 7]: the following serv 1000 course assignments and in-class activities helped me to improve my english language skills the volunteer placement helped me to improve my english writing skills. the volunteer placement helped me to improve my english speaking skills. the volunteer placement helped me to improve my english listening skills. the volunteer placement helped me to improve my english reading skills. 11. please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements [scale of 1 to 7]: “the following serv 1000 course assignments and in-class activities helped me to improve my english language skills: the serv 1000 journals helped me to improve my english writing skills. the serv 1000 class discussions helped me to improve my english speaking skills. the serv 1000 class discussions helped me to improve my english listening skills. the serv 1000 presentation helped me to improve my english speaking skills. the serv 1000 final paper or portfolio helped me to improve my english writing skills. 12. comments: thank you for your participation. wisla, krauza, & hu 13 bc teal journal volume 2 number 1 (2017): 1-13 appendix b interview guide for former serv 1000 students 1. tell me about your background – where did you grow up, how long have you been in canada, and what have you been studying at university? 2. what prompted you to enroll in serv 1000? 3. where did you do your volunteer placement? 4. describe the typical duties you did at your placement? 5. were you provided any orientation and training? if so, how many hours? 6. since completing serv 1000, have you continued to volunteer for this same organization? if so, how many hours per month and have your duties changed? 7. in the 12-month period before registering in serv 1000, about how many hours per month were you able to volunteer? if any hours, where did you volunteer, and what duties did you typically perform? 8. while taking serv 1000, did you begin or continue volunteering at another agency (not your placement)? if so, about how many hours per month were you able to volunteer? where did you volunteer, and what duties did you typically perform? 9. since completing serv 1000, have you begun or continued volunteering at another organization (not your placement)? if so, about how many hours per month were you able to volunteer? where did you volunteer, and what duties did you typically perform? 10. did serv 1000 affect your understanding of canada and canadian culture? if so, how? 11. did serv 1000 help your english proficiency skills? if so, how? 12. did your contributions to your volunteer placement help make a difference to the organization? if so, how? 13. did your volunteer placement give you any kind of award or certificate? 14. do you keep in touch with any of the people you met at your volunteer placement? if so, how many people do you stay in touch with and primarily through what format (in-person, e-mail, telephone, facebook, twitter)? 15. besides university credits, what else, if anything, do you feel you got out of serv 1000? 16. are there any other comments, suggestions, or questions you would like us to consider for serv 1000 overall? please explain. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ chang 49 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 academic dishonesty in a post-secondary multilingual institution daniel chang simon fraser university abstract while plagiarism is a continuing educational writing issue in many post-secondary institutions, instances of contract cheating are also rising. plagiarism is usually conceptualized as a type of writing misconduct or violation of existing institutional academic standards, but very little attention has been paid to contract cheating—when students seek paid tutors to write their course assignments. the present paper focuses on one multilingual undergraduate student’s contract cheating experience, demonstrating her views on academic dishonesty and help seeking, and how she witnessed her multilingual peers engaging in contract cheating activities. findings reveal that the participant’s learning might be driven by her attempts to maintain her academic status. her participation in several paid tutorial services might be due to her bringing her own cultural values to post-secondary learning and trying to maximize her gpa as well as fulfil the learning needs of the courses she was taking. important implications related to the present research encourage educators to revisit multilingual students’ learning needs related to academic misconduct and academic integrity in post-secondary education. introduction plagiarism is considered a form of academic dishonesty when one student, or a group of students, intentionally engages in appropriating text from source materials without proper acknowledgment of the sources, or copies other students’ written products and wrongly attributes the ownership of the written work. although plagiarism is an ongoing issue for academic institutions; nowadays, it has come to post-secondary instructors’ attention that some students try to buy academic papers online, hire disciplinary experts to write their final examinations, or hire disciplinary experts to take online courses on their behalf to fulfil their degree requirements. contract cheating, thus, is a recently rising form of academic dishonesty where students intend to complete their coursework by contractually employing a third party (e.g. a tutor from a tutoring agency) to finish their work for course credit (walker & townley, 2012). in the post-secondary institution where i have been working, i have seen many advertisements written in languages other than english on a student bulletin board that is for advertising academic services, such as services for custom writing, completing online courses, small-class tutorials for exams, or hassle-free editing and proofreading services. to explore these services, i joined one of the online service messaging groups and have come to realize that many multilingual post-secondary students have engaged in these activities. the tutorial companies even advertise good results, thus trying to hook more students to use their services. not surprisingly, since many multilingual students need a certain level of grade point average (gpa) to retain their academic status, they are tempted to use these custom writing or editing services in order to be academically successful. specifically, these services can provide contracted support to these students in the students’ strongest language (e.g., mandarin chinese). chang 50 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 the present research paper reports on parts of selected findings collected from a largescale, university-funded project that explores learning resources for multilingual students and examines factors that contribute to multilingual students’ successful learning. during data collection, a female undergraduate student named shelly (a pseudonym)1 was invited to participate in the project interview. the author of this research paper (hereafter “i”) was one of the graduate research assistants for the project exploring the learning needs of multilingual undergraduate students. i was assigned to interview shelly on three different days with specific research focuses relating to exploring the resources for disciplinary language learning. during the interview, she raised several issues pertaining to academic misconduct of multilingual writers; thus, her interview was selected for more in-depth interpretation. the present study interprets parts of the excerpts gathered from shelly’s case study and her narrative description of her experiences with plagiarism and contract cheating, showcasing how she handled her everyday academic learning and how she conceptualized the existing academic misbehaviours among her multilingual peers. although there are only a few selected findings from shelly’s interview excerpts included, i believe that these excerpts, along with their interpretations, will be particularly valuable for gaining a preliminary understanding of how a multilingual student like her is tempted to engage in contract cheating and plagiarism activities during the course of her post-secondary disciplinary learning. thus, the primary research questions in the study are (1) how does a multilingual student using english as an additional language (eal), like shelly, view academic dishonesty in post-secondary education? and (2) how does her academic learning experience affect her decision to engage in contract cheating? literature review issues of academic dishonesty in post-secondary institutions plagiarism has long been an existing academic dishonesty issue in many post-secondary institutions. it has typically been conceptualized as a type of academic writing misconduct or violation of existing institutional academic standards. the focus of plagiarism research tackles the following issues: (1) the reasons for plagiarism (bamford & sergioiu, 2005; devlin & gray, 2007), (2) the type of students who are likely to plagiarize (pecorari, 2003; scanlon & neumann, 2002), (3) the context where plagiarism occurs (jocoy & dibiase, 2006; selwyn, 2008), (4) the implications related to how post-secondary institutions to handle plagiarism (brown & howell, 2001), and (5) post-secondary multilingual learners’ beliefs about textual appropriation and citation (polio & shi, 2012). although it is important to research the above-mentioned plagiarism issues of students and institutional policy, not much empirical evidence has been provided to inform institutions about why students engage in contract cheating (a type of academic dishonesty). in particular, it has not been clear why some multilingual university students using eal risk engaging in activities such as contract cheating or custom writing services to gain a credential, course credits, or better grades (lancaster & clarke, 2008; rigby et al., 2015; walker & townley, 2012). 1 i use pseudonyms or mask the names of all courses and individuals mentioned in this research paper. chang 51 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 reasons for academic dishonesty with regard to academic dishonesty, a large portion of research has been conducted on plagiarism instead of contract cheating. the reasons for plagiarism might vary individually, but, for multilingual students, research has often attributed multilingual students’ plagiarism to cultural differences (hayes & introna, 2005), or to the fact that they have encountered difficulties in learning or writing academic essays (devlin & gray, 2007; howard, serviss, & rodrigue, 2010). in devlin and gray’s (2007) research, they found that the contributing factors of plagiarism include poor academic skills, external pressure, and learning needs. gullifer and tyson’s (2010) thematic analysis of student interviews has shown that procrastination or students’ fear of poor academic performance might be the potential causes of plagiarism or academic dishonesty. these findings suggest that multilingual students might feel hopeless or helpless when they encounter difficulties in their post-secondary studies (maier & seligman, 1976); they, therefore, seek inappropriate external academic assistance to solve their challenges. there has been, however, little specific empirical evidence that explores the reasons for contract cheating among multilingual students. only one study reports that students who “have english as an additional language are more likely to ‘buy’” a customized academic essay (rigby et al., 2015, p.35), which suggests that students’ linguistic or cultural background might play a role in shaping their decision of hiring a tutor or not. similar to plagiarism, with contract cheating, one can reasonably infer that learned helplessness, poor academic skills, or procrastination might be major reasons multilingual students would risk being caught hiring someone to complete their course assignments. needs for reconceptualization of intentional academic dishonesty while the reasons for plagiarism vary individually, some plagiarism research has found that when multilingual students unintentionally plagiarize in post-secondary schools, such acts might mark one of the milestones for their developing academic literacy. pecorari (2003) and pecorari and petric’s (2014) research, in particular, urges institutions to re-conceptualize multilingual students’ acts of plagiarism, as these might indicate to the instructors that these students are beginning to be aware of academic discourse. although pecorari’s (2003) reconceptualization framework accounts for unintentional plagiarism by multilingual students, there is also a need to reconceptualize intentional plagiarism and academic misconduct, such as contract cheating, by multilingual students who try to find custom writing services or editing/proofreading services outside of the academic community. such actions—outsourcing inappropriate extracurricular support—might signal some of these multilingual students’ struggles, challenges, and learned helplessness in their post-secondary learning, beyond their language needs. at the same time, contract cheating might signal that multilingual students bring some of their home cultural values into their academic post-secondary practice in other countries. more importantly, institutions that offer admission to international students might also take their learning needs into account by trying to establish or improve institutional facilities that best support these students’ disciplinary learning. chang 52 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 institutional policies: implications from research considering institutional approaches to handling plagiarism and academic integrity issues, research has suggested strategies that might help to minimize the likelihood of students engaging in inappropriate textual misconduct online (olt, 2002). for multilingual students, some research even takes a contrastive analysis approach to compare how writing in a first language and additional language differ in terms of appropriating academic texts (keck, 2006). brown and howell (2001), on the other hand, have found that having students carefully read the institutional policy statement might be an effective way to prevent students from engaging in academic dishonesty. in summary, it appears that most plagiarism research has been concerned about (1) prevention of academic dishonesty or (2) exploration of student plagiarizing activities, attempting to offer recommendations for higher education institutions to regulate students’ academic misconduct in academia without considering these students’ real needs beyond what these institutions see as inappropriate actions. the study the interview excerpts from shelly’s contract cheating experience shelly is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in economics at a post-secondary institution in british columbia. she was born in guangzhou, in the province of guangdong, china. she came to canada at the age of 18 upon finishing high school in china. she was first admitted to an international college near the university where she is currently studying. upon completion of the first two years at the college, she successfully transferred to the university with a major in economics. she speaks mandarin and english, with only listening proficiency in cantonese. i was wondering why she could not speak cantonese since it is counterintuitive to say one was raised in a cantonese environment but is unable to speak the language. she mentioned that her family environment and her schooling in china were all in mandarin chinese, with only a few friends speaking cantonese on the daily basis. her long-term academic goal is to pursue a graduate degree in economics in another english-speaking country, such as australia. shelly was one of the interested research participants recruited for the university-funded project described earlier. by the time of interview, shelly was a full-time fourth-year student and the semester was her second-to-last semester. she told me that she would try to apply for graduate school in australia, so she had been studying since the beginning of her fourth year for the international english language testing system (ielts) test to provide proof of english language proficiency for graduate school admission. at the beginning of the interview, when i asked shelly to offer reasons for taking a course in natural resource management, she implied that this course was a popular gpa boosting course. however, when she took the course, she realized that it required a highly proficient command of english, so it took her a lot of time to study for this course. shelly also reported that her friends mainly included students from mainland china, and only a few canadian-born chinese students who were capable of understanding shelly’s native language but usually replied to her in english. it was also interesting to note that the way shelly selected what courses to take was mainly dependent on chang 53 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 whom she took the course with. that is, she preferred to take courses with her friends because they could help each other out, or to have someone to rely on during learning. i scheduled three interview sessions with shelly to discuss her learning experiences in the university, her writing issues, and her overall impression of teaching and learning in the university. the interviews were semi-structured and informal in nature; the purpose was to elicit realistic, trustworthy data from the research participant in order to deeply explore her issues of learning at a multilingual university (dicicco‐ bloom & crabtree, 2006). though generalizability has been an important concern in case-study methods (gomm, hammersley & foster, 2000), the sole focus is to explore how a multilingual student views academic dishonesty in her academic life and dig deeply into her perceptions of why many of her multilingual peers engage in such academic misconduct. the interviews were conducted in the student’s native language, mandarin chinese, and then were transcribed and translated by me. in the present study, grounded theory (cohen & manion, 1994; martin & turner, 1986) was used to gather and analyze the case study data. the data analysis was conducted in nvivo— software for coding and analyzing qualitative data. i first reviewed the translated version of the transcripts and assigned codes relating to “tutor’s help,” “gpa booster,” “plagiarism,” or “academic dishonesty.” then, the conversations relating to the above-mentioned codes were extracted and interpreted thematically: (1) gpa booster and finding a tutor to “help” with assignments and (2) hiring a tutor to write a sample programming code and all students do the same thing. the two interview excerpts are included in appendix 1 at the end of this article. to protect the research participant’s identity and the courses she actually enrolled in, all the course names below, along with her name, have been changed. findings from the two interview excerpts presented in appendix 1, shelly’s confession of hiring tutors points out the disciplinary struggles that multilingual students might encounter in their postsecondary disciplinary learning at an english-medium university in canada. interestingly, it is apparent that what guides the participant’s selection of courses was also the notion of gpa booster, along with having friends in the same course. that is, if a course is easy and has the potential to result in a higher grade, then the participant tends to choose that course regardless of her interests and personal abilities. according to shelly’s definitions of gpa booster courses, she revealed that there are two types of so-called gpa booster elective courses (e.g. programming 100). one is that the course itself is very easy and requires very little academic effort. furthermore, shelly mentioned that “another aspect [of gpa booster] is like this course is not easy, but if you hire a tutor, the tutor will help you ace the course.” this response shows that although shelly did feel that she was “not that techy,” she still chose the course because she thought that it had the potential of raising her gpa if she paid a tutor to “write a sample assignment based on the assignment instructions.” on the contrary, with regard to the mandatory courses that were part of her disciplinary degree requirements (e.g. accounting 200 and accounting 250), it seems that she also chose to hire a tutor because she encountered learned helplessness when the accounting concepts were not chang 54 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 really clear to her and she felt that there was nothing she could do about that: “so at first, for this course, you really need to practice the [accounting] problems. and furthermore, there are some concepts that will confuse me, but what can i do? just read the textbook?” so, she ended up hiring a tutor who “did the questions” for her and passed the course. it seems that when shelly chose to hire a tutor, she was fully aware of what the tutor could do for her. most importantly, she was capable of analyzing the benefits and the costs of hiring a tutor if she chose to enrol in a course that she was not really interested in: because you need to spend time, but for us, the reason why we took this course is to get our gpa higher, it is easy and saves some time, and we can get a high mark just by hiring a tutor. if we hired a tutor and we could not get the result we want, then we wouldn’t have spent time on it. unless you really like [the course], then it’s a totally different story. this shows that the ultimate goal of disciplinary learning might be distorted when all the focus is on “[getting]… gpa higher.” gpa-guided learning might potentially be the reason why the participant would rather hire a tutor than put effort into learning and studying the disciplinary content. this quotation also suggests that the participant’s learning might be guided by her own cultural value that getting a high grade is the norm of learning. when shelly mentioned that she found a tutor, i asked whether she knew if this was a common practice among multilingual students in post-secondary education or not. she confessed that the majority of the classmates she knew engaged in contract cheating to pass or ace the course: “my best knowledge is around 70% of chinese students hired a tutor for the course.” from this, it can be seen that the participant considered hiring a tutor to pass courses to be a common academic practice, suggesting that such practices students bring from abroad might be related to cultural and educational practices in their home countries where they always hire a tutoring agency for passing examinations. interestingly, almost every post-secondary course has a teaching assistant (ta) who is capable of handling students’ academic issues, but the quality of assistance that a ta can provide may also shape shelly’s decisions regarding contract cheating. “when you asked ta a question, then ta will say that he or she is not really sure, maybe you should go to the professor…. then i was like, okay, i have nothing to do....” this shows that the quality of assistance that a ta can provide might be very limited, which in turn means that the participant’s learning needs are not fulfilled. in sum, from the interview excerpts presented in appendix 1, although shelly confessed to several instances of academic (mis)conduct as a multilingual student, these excerpts reveal the extent to which shelly engaged in activities related to academic dishonesty, such as contract cheating. on the surface, the decision to engage in contract cheating might seem to be a conscious personal choice, but it seems that shelly does bring some of her home cultural values into post-secondary learning, such as paying a tutor to help with disciplinary content, write a sample code, or complete the questions, or seeking extracurricular assistance to raise her gpa. these reasons beyond contract cheating could potentially be very important for educational practitioners to keep in mind when they make administrative institutional policies or designate ta funding for supporting multilingual students. chang 55 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 discussion and implications for institutional academic integrity policy following pecorari (2003) and pecorari and petric’s (2014) research that re-positioned multilingual eal students’ unintentional plagiarism, the present paper also intends to reconceptualize the students’ disciplinary learning needs in the context of contract cheating. from shelly’s interview excerpts, it can be seen that her learning might be heavily driven by the possibility of whether the course will help her obtain a higher gpa. that is, her learning might not be guided by her interest or personal ability but by the chance of getting higher grades on exams and finishing the degree requirements. these findings are consistent with hayes and introna’s (2005) cultural argument of plagiarism that “some overseas students are said to plagiarize, both intentionally and unintentionally, due to their lack of experience in essay writing, as many eastern countries still rely exclusively on examinations” (p. 215). similarly, rigby et al.’s (2015) analysis also showed that students’ cultural background might be a predictor of contract cheating. in china, upon entering primary schools, students are already engaging in academic competition. their parents find tutorial schools in attempts to help them ace all their school examinations, ranging from school midterms to college entrance examinations. aiming for a higher grade has been a norm deeply rooted in certain multilingual students’ academic pursuits, so when shelly went abroad for her post-secondary education, she might have brought such values to her disciplinary learning practice. especially in shelly’s case, she wanted to take courses that would help her obtain a higher gpa, so she would rather pay for the tutor to guide her, so that she could pass the course and maintain the desired gpa. furthermore, the notion of selecting gpa booster courses has two major aspects, as reported by shelly. one is that the course itself is very easy, whereas the other is that paying a tutor will make the course easy. although shelly did not clearly specify what makes a course easy, the interview excerpts do show that (1) paid tutorial services or contract cheating will help to mediate the difficulty of the course and (2) she might have experienced poor ta disciplinary support. when shelly mentioned that the ta kept referring her to the professor, she had started to wonder about “the qualifications of ta” and whether she “can just be a ta [herself], and … [she] can refer anyone to the professor” whenever students have disciplinary questions. consistent with what gullifer and tyson (2010) suggest in their analysis, when students suffer academically, they might start to think of remedial ways to possibly retain their academic status within the community. this analysis explains the reasons poor academic performance might push a multilingual student like shelly to seek paid tutorial services (e.g. contract cheating) as a coping strategy and risk being caught (yan, 2017). secondly, shelly noted that other students with eal backgrounds who shared the same status as her also engaged in paid tutorial services, but the extent to which such tutorial services lead to unethical conduct (e.g. contract cheating) is still unclear. it is not wrong to find a tutor to coach disciplinary content, but it seems that the practice of students engaging in contract cheating needs some attention from post-secondary institutions. as a result, institutions might need to establish a set of new standards to address unethical academic practices while taking into consideration the learning needs of multilingual students. for instance, post-secondary institutions might need to set boundaries for students who seek tutorial services outside the university, allowing some room for external tutors to work with the students by obtaining a chang 56 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 signed document from the professor. all types of academic misconduct, including intentional plagiarism and contract cheating, might require further attention from post-secondary educational researchers in order to explore the reasons some multilingual students like shelly, or students from other cultures, seek illegitimate academic support outside of the university community. so far, very few attempts have been made to revisit multilingual students’ intentional academic misconduct, so revisiting this issue might provide useful information for policy makers in post-secondary institutions to establish additional supportive facilities to address these student needs. overall, while multilingual students bring their cultural values into post-secondary learning and their learning is guided by aiming for a higher gpa, lack of disciplinary support from teaching assistants, according to shelly’s interview, may constitute the major reason an eal student like her sought paid tutorial services to help her understand course content. the fact that shelly reported that the ta always referred her to the professor and the professor referred her to the ta back and forth indicates that her learning needs have not been addressed fully. the support services in higher education (e.g. teaching assistants) appear to have neglected her learning needs; thus, she had to seek external paid tutorial services to fulfil her expectations. this finding further suggests that she might have experienced learned helplessness, which means she felt helpless and hopeless when she was not academically successful (maier & seligman, 1976; raufelder & regner, 2017). if there is demand, then there will be supply. some unethical academic tutorial services for contract cheating (e.g. selling exams, buying papers, and custom writing) have been established because there is an increasing learning need from post-secondary multilingual students. advertisements for these services have been designed to address these needs, so many struggling multilingual students, such as the case study student introduced in the present paper, might turn to these services to maximize the academic merits, regardless of whether it is ethical (finding a tutor) or unethical (having the tutor write a sample code for a computer course). the present research attempts to uncover some hidden learning needs from a multilingual student’s case through the lens of her experience, intending to explore the reasons underlying her actions and decision-making process. shelly, the research participant in the present case study, has provided useful and important insights for post-secondary institutions and academic dishonesty researchers. perhaps, while there are pre-defined rules regulating and handling academic dishonesty and academic misconduct in post-secondary institutions, it is, however, much more important to re-conceptualize multilingual students’ learning and linguistic needs in the context of their linguistic and cultural backgrounds to understand and explore the factors that lead to their learned helplessness or their need to aim for a higher gpa. thus, further examination of post-secondary students’ academic misconduct might be necessary with respect to how a student like shelly, along with tas and professors, perceives academic misconduct and how the academic needs of multilingual students can be fully addressed by institutions of higher education. acknowledgements this research was supported by dr. saskia stille’s sfu president’s research start up grant. parts of the findings were taken from the project exploring resources for learning in a chang 57 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 multilingual university context. i thank all research participants for their contributions to the data collection and all the research assistants (pedro, connie, laura, mohsen, mandy, and chad) involved in the data collection process. all names/courses/institution names have been changed to ensure confidentiality. i also thank the editor of the journal, the two anonymous reviewers, and the copy editor for offering constructive feedback. references bamford, j., & sergiou, k. 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(2017). test anxiety and learned helplessness is moderated by student perceptions of teacher motivational support. educational psychology, 38(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2017.1304532 rigby, d., burton, m., balcombe, k., bateman, i., & mulatu, a. (2015). contract cheating & the market in essays. journal of economic behavior & organization, 111, 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.019 scanlon, p. m., & neumann, d. r. (2002). internet plagiarism among college students. journal of college student development, 43(3), 374–385. selwyn, n. (2008). ‘not necessarily a bad thing…’: a study of online plagiarism amongst undergraduate students. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 33(5), 465–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701563104 yan k. 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(2012). contract cheating: a new challenge for academic honesty? journal of academic ethics, 10(1), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-0129150-y appendix 1 1. gpa booster and finding a tutor to “help” with assignments during the first interview, shelly and i were talking about some common gpa booster courses in the university. i invited her to give some examples of gpa booster courses in the university that she took in the past semesters. in the conversation below, a represents the researcher (me), whereas b represents shelly – the case study student. the bolded lines represented the key findings pertaining to the present research paper. a：可以讓我知道一下 gpa booster 是什麼概念嗎？[oh…could you help me conceptualize what a gpa booster is?] b：大概就是...有兩種概念，一個是它真的這個課很簡單。[it has two aspects, the first is it’s super easy.] a：嗯嗯。[okay] b：一個是...這個課不簡單，但是你會去找 tutor、tutor 會讓這個課變得很簡單。 [another aspect is like this course is not easy, but if you hire a tutor, the tutor will help you ace the course!] a：喔...就是...好，讓我理解一下就是，第一個就是...這門課真的很簡單。[oh okay, so let me clarify my understanding… so the first is that the course is very easy for students]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2003.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2012.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2017.1304532 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.019 https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701563104 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-012-9150-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-012-9150-y chang 59 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 b：對。[yes] a：另外一個就是這門課不簡單，可是它拿分比較輕鬆。[another thing is the course is not easy, but the way it is graded is easy.] b：差不多，對。就比如說有一個課就是那個 pro100。[yea, like that, for example pro100.] a：pro100？[pro100?] b：對，pro100 那個聽說過吧，那個其實...那門課其實就是如果你是真的懂電腦的話， 那個課真的不難。但是一般選這種課的人都是像要衝什麼 wqb 的那種，什麼 b-science 那個課的，就是會去選那個課，然後那個課因為...你完全不懂電腦你就很難去學這個課程 python 什麼電腦語言特別難，但是如果你去找 tutor 的話，就是找那種補習機構，他們 就會幫你理的很清晰，然後告訴你這個地方會考你什麼這樣。然後作業什麼也是幫你做 這樣。[yes, pro 100, have you ever heard of it? that course, if you really know computers, then that course is really a breeze. but for students who choose this kind of course, they all hope to use that course to count towards their graduation requirement, for example the science requirement. that course …. if you don’t know computers, it’s hard for you to ace that course, such as you learn python computer programming language in that course … but one thing is if you pay for a tutor to help, that is you go and find a tutor in a tutoring centre, then the tutor will help you, and let you know what will be tested. for assignments, the tutor kind of “helps” you do the assignments in the technical aspects.] a：補習機構，有這種玩意兒我都不知道(笑)。[is there a tutoring centre? i have never known!] b：就不是它貼很多什麼 tutor 之類的。[so like the bulletin outside of the library, there are a lot of ads, and saying tutors…] a：妳有找過嗎？[so did you find one?] b：我曾經找過。[yes, i did.] a：那要付錢嗎？[did you pay the tutor?] b：當然要啊。[of course!] a：沒有，我說...當然要，我是說...就是付錢大概怎麼樣的付法？是一次...付一下，還是說 10 堂課，280 什麼的。[i meant, how did they charge you? you paid him per time, or it’s like 280 dollars for 10 lessons?] b：它有分，有一些是...你可以去一次給一次錢這樣子，然後有的就是長期的那種，就是 你一次給齊，然後你每次去上。[they have several options for you. you can pay as you go, or a long-term contract. it’s like you pay all at once, and you should attend each class.] a：ok，那妳覺得那邊那個 tutor 怎麼樣？那個補習機構。[so… for the tutor in that tutoring centre, how did you feel?] b：我覺得看吧，其實不是說每個機構怎麼樣，是看你遇到那個老師怎麼樣，就是遇到的 那個教你的那個人怎麼樣。[it depends. actually, it’s not the tutoring centre. it depends on how good the tutor is…] a：那教妳那個人怎麼樣？[so how about your tutor?] b：之前就是教我 pro100 那個，還蠻好的。[the tutor who coached my pro100? he is nice.] a：蠻好的。[nice.] chang 60 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 b：對對，他就是你有問題問他，他基本上就會儘可能很快回答你啊什麼的。[yes, so basically, if you have questions and throw the questions to him, he will answer for you.] a：ok。[okay] b：對。[yes] a：那是...面對面還是？[was it face to face or?] b：面對面。[yes, face to face.] a：喔，面對面。[oh face to face] b：因為那種東西你補課這種東西，你還是面對面比較好，我覺得。[because for tutoring, i think it’s better to be in face to face format.] a：ok。因為那一門就是做網頁的課嘛，對不對？[okay, to my best knowledge, that course is all about making websites, am i correct?] b：對。[yes] a：做網頁的課，那...所以妳覺得...為什麼做網頁的課妳要找 tutor(笑)？[so… if that’s all about making websites, why do you think you needed a tutor?] b：我不會。[because i am not that techy.] 2. hiring a tutor to write a sample programming code and all students do the same thing this occurred in the middle of the second interview, where i asked shelly to recall her last conversation. i was very curious about her decision of finding an external tutor and how the tutor could help her academically. the bolded lines were the key findings relevant to the analysis. a：好。沒關係。好，那上次妳說妳在拿那個 pro100 的時候，妳有去找老師。[okay, last time you told me that you found a tutor for pro100.] b：找 tutor 嗎？就是那個補習。[yes, do you mean i found a tutor? it’s a tutoring centre.] a：對，那...那...妳可以更具體的說一下，他幫妳做了些什麼...[yes, so… could you be more specific about how the tutor helped you with respect to the assignment?]. b：這個會不會影響到 (猶豫)...[will this affect my…? (hesitant)] a：不會。[no] b：是嗎？[really?] a：對。[no, it won’t affect your status.] b：就是比如說...首先他可能就是大家講一下這個星期老師教了什麼單元這樣。[so… for example, he taught us what units the professor has covered this week…] a：喔，他知道老師教什麼喔？[oh? he knew what the professor has taught?] b：我們會把那個 slides 發給他，因為他要教我們，他肯定要知道我們講義啊。[yes, we are sending him the slides, so that he knew what happened during class. ] a：ok。[okay] b：然後你有不懂，你可以問他，然後就是會有作業嘛，他就大概老師的要求寫一份樣本 出來。[and if you have questions, you can ask him. and you know… we have assignments, he will write a sample assignment based on the assignment instructions.] a：喔，ok。[oh, okay] b：對。[yes] chang 61 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 … a：所以那樣本就是那個 python、那個...[so when you speak about sample, do you mean you he gave you a sample specifically for python coding?] b：就是一個很 basic 的一個 codes，然後因為你要再按照他給你具體的要求，你每個人 寫的都不一樣嘛，你要再去這個地方，自己怎麼寫啊，想一想、改一改就這樣子。[yea, the codes are very basic. you need to follow the assignment instructions very specifically because presumably everybody will write different codes. so when you get the sample, you also need to modify the sample slightly...] a：ok，妳...只有妳還是...妳有其他同學也差不多這樣子？[okay, so… since you hired a tutor, have you been aware of anyone who did the same thing? ] b：據我所知，百分之七十的中國人吧，中國人，都...就是上這個課都有去找 tutor。[my best knowledge is around 70% of chinese students hired a tutor for the course] a：都有找 tutor? [they all hired a tutor?] b：對，因為這個課如果真的不找 tutor，除非是你真的對 computer science，你很專， 不然我覺得還挺難的。[yes, for this class, if you didn’t hire a tutor, unless you are super good at computer science, otherwise, it would be very hard!] a：還真的蠻難的。[yes, i know. it’s hard…] b：因為你真的要花時間，但是我們...拿這種課的目的就是，為了容易嘛，省時間嘛，又 可以拿高分，那、那肯定就不願意去花那麼多時間在這個上，除非你真的是喜歡，那就 這樣子。[because you need to spend time, but for us, the reason why we took this course is to get our gpa higher, it is easy and saves some time, and we can get a high mark just by hiring a tutor. if we hired a tutor and we could not get the result we want, then we wouldn’t have spent time on it. unless you really like it, then it’s a totally different story] a：ok，那...那除了這個以外，那...妳有沒有...發現說有幾些...有一些課特別難，那妳必 須要找外面的人協助？就只有這一門課嗎？[okay, in addition to this course, have you discovered any classes, which are super hard, and you need to find assistance from outside?] b：等一下好像...也有過。[wait… yes.] a：嗯嗯。[okay] b：是什麼課呢？[do i need to tell you what classes?] a：妳不用告訴我什麼課，大概哪一個領域的課。[you don’t need to specify, just tell me the discipline…] b：也是 econ 的課，喔對，之前有一個就是 accounting 的課。[econ, and yes, there was one accounting course that i hired a tutor for...] a：accounting，ok。 b：那個真的是我...。[that’s... really... wt...] a：(笑)accounting 200 嗎？[(laugh) accounting 200?] b：200、250 我都上了。[200 and 250 i took them all] a：ok。[okay] b：就是...對這兩個課...200 我是一開始就找 tutor，250 我想跟 200 應該沒什麼區別，我 就沒有找，但是我後來發現我還是應該找人。[yes, for accounting 200, at the beginning, i hired a tutor, but for 250, i think it made no difference between these two courses, so i didn’t hire a tutor, but later i regretted it, i should have hired a tutor for 250.] a：(笑)所以妳沒找？[so you didn’t end up hiring one for 250?] chang 62 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 49–62 b：我沒找，然後我就很後悔。[no, and i was super regretful] a：那、那...200 那 tutor 幫妳什麼？[then what did the 200 tutor do for you?] b：他就幫我們做題。[he did the questions for us.] a：喔。[oh] b：就是因為他那個...我覺得可能第一個真的是你要做很多次去練習它吧，然後再來就是 有的它什麼概念，就是真的不懂啊，那我怎麼辦，就是...我自己看書。[so at first, for this course, you really need to practice the problems. and furthermore, there are some concepts that will confuse me, but what can i do? just read the textbook?] a：gaap 概念。[i remember that course is mainly addressing gaap in accounting…] b：喔，我已經忘了，反正...對，他就是幫我們做題，這個地方怎麼樣，你要注意哪些點 就是...幫你去...了解。[oh, i forgot them all, after all. he helped us solve the problems and some places where we need to be aware of…] a：釐清一些概念。[so basically just clarify some concepts?] b：對，理清楚。[yes... to clarify the concepts] a：喔，那、那所以這很好玩，就是妳寧願花錢去找別的老師來，也不去問 ta。[so i found it interesting. you’d rather spend time hiring a tutor than just asking your ta…] b：嗯哼，就是有一個什麼問題，可能就是...語言方面的問題。[yea, the reason might be… language. ] a：語言方面的問題。[language?] b：因為有的時候...確實你問那個 ta，就...有...ta 會出現那種什麼情況就是...非常有趣 的，你問他他說，呃...這個我也不太清楚，你不如去問 professor 吧。我就...那、那...好吧 那沒辦法。[sometimes, it is very interesting. when you asked ta a question, then ta will say that he or she is not really sure, maybe you should go to the professor…. then i was like, okay, i have nothing to do...] a：那你在這幹嘛...[then what’s the point of having a ta?] b：對，我就覺得很奇怪，我就在想是不是...什麼人都能當 ta，那我也去當個 ta 吧，反 正我就說你去問老師，我不知道就好。[yea, i was wondering the qualifications of ta… i can just be a ta, and i can refer anyone to the professor…] the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ jabeen, wang, & cheng 95 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays academic engagement, social integration, and academic socialization: english as an additional language in higher education rubaiyat jabeen queen’s university peiyu wang queen’s university liying cheng queen’s university abstract with a fast-growing population of immigrant and international students entering englishmedium higher education in canada, it is critical to understand the nature of academic experiences for these students and what contributes to their academic acculturation and postsecondary success. as such, a literature review was carried out to identify emerging themes related to students using english as an additional language in post-secondary settings. this article is based on a literature review of 87 empirical studies, conducted between 2008 and 2018, related to the academic acculturation journey of international students using english as an additional language in english medium higher education setting. three major themes—academic engagement, academic socialization, and social integration in relation to english language ability—emerged from the literature among a multitude of influential factors. the findings of this literature review point to the importance of supporting students using english as an additional language as they navigate a new academic culture. introduction previous research on the academic acculturation and post-secondary success of international students using english as an additional language1 within the context of higher education in english-medium universities has identified a multitude of influential factors ranging from motivation, self-efficacy, psychological and emotional adaptation, to financial obligations—to mention a few. among these influential factors, academic engagement, social integration, and academic socialization are consistently the three major factors examined by recent empirical studies (wang & jabeen, 2019). with growing numbers of international students coming to canada to study, it is important that institutions be prepared to support their academic success. in 2017 alone, international student enrolments were up 11% from the previous year (statistics canada, 2018). around 500,000 international students were studying in canada in 2017. british columbia is one of the top destinations for international students, with about 24% of these students choosing british columbia for their studies (canadian bureau for international education, 2018). the themes of academic engagement, social integration, and academic 1 throughout this article, “international students” refers to students who are not permanent residents of the country where they are studying and who use english as an additional language. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 96 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 socialization point to important considerations for canadian, and british columbian, postsecondary institutions who enrol international students in their programs. this article provides a theoretical lens through which we examine emergent themes from a review of 87 empirical studies published between 2008 and 2018. prior to discussing the factors that make up these three themes in depth, it is important to mention that the common thread embedded in these factors shows that the english language is a critical bridge that connects the three major factors. the possession of sufficiently strong english language ability is increasingly seen as critical for international students in keeping up with the academic demands and challenges associated with higher education (roessingh & douglas, 2012). the lack of the english language ability, consequently, negatively impacts the entire academic experience of international students (smith & demjanenko, 2011). the three main themes and their associated sub-themes (figure 1) represent the interrelationship between the role of language (that is, the english language) and international students’ academic experiences in higher education. broadly, academic acculturation and post-secondary success are demonstrated through academic engagement and social integration with an overlapping theme of academic socialization. these three themes are discussed first from right to left followed by the overlapping theme of academic socialization in the middle as illustrated in figure 1. to emphasize, these themes are discussed within the larger context of the critical role the english language played in the academic acculturation and post-secondary success of international students. it is also important to acknowledge the diverse heterogeneous nature of international students as reviewed in the article. the international students in the research studies reviewed here are broadly from widely varied socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds (e.g., geographically from regions such as africa, east asia, south asia and the middle east, europe, and south america) and speak english as an additional language. to gain admission into english-medium universities, these students are typically required to demonstrate their english language proficiency through english language proficiency test scores or by graduating from foundational english for academic purposes (eap) language programs. figure 1. the interrelationship between the role of the english language and academic engagement, academic socialization, and social integration english language as the bridge to academic acculturation and postsecondary success academic engagement • academic literacy skills • seeking academic help • language proficiency and academic challenges • strategy use • adapting to a new academic environment academic socialization social integration • culture shock, e.g., positive integration, social engagement • social networks, e.g., belonginess, social contacts with native students • social support • academic english proficiency and coping strategies • collaboration skills • expert skills, e.g., critical thinking, identities of epistemic stance, intertextual connections , collaborative meaning-making https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 97 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 academic engagement this theme and the five sub-themes that emerged from the literature review focus on the factors impacting the academic engagement of international students in english-medium universities. the sub-themes of academic engagement include academic literacy skills, seeking academic help, language proficiency and academic challenges, strategy use, and adapting to a new academic environment as important for the academic engagement of the international students. academic literacy skills developing academic literacy (reading and writing) skills is critical for international students’ academic success. english writing ability is a key predictor of international students’ academic performance (cheng, myles, & curtis, 2004; li, chen & duanmu, 2010). campbell & li (2008) researched the challenges faced by international students from asia in an english-medium university in new zealand and found that writing assignments, such as literature reviews, critical reviews and essays, business and field reports, research proposals, and case study analyses, were regarded as the most difficult by the participants due to their insufficient knowledge of academic writing skills. in an ethnographic study, correa (2010) demonstrated how a student faced difficulties using her own voice in essay writing due to the lack of her knowledge of english vocabulary. as academic writing is related to academic reading, campbell & li (2008) pointed out how international students in their study found the assigned readings quite difficult because of the required critical thinking skills. gebhard (2011) examined the adjustment of international students from countries in africa and east asia, and poland at a university in the united states. in this study, the international students emphasized the challenges with academic reading by stating that they were expected to do too many readings with content that they struggled to follow and comprehend. however, gebhard (2011) also found that developing reading strategies like understanding the main ideas and how authors supported those ideas was more helpful than trying to understand every word of a reading text. seeking academic help in addition to having academic literacy skills, this review found that seeking and obtaining academic help positively impacts the academic engagement and adjustment of international students in english-medium universities. bastien, seifen-adkins & johnson (2018) examined factors impacting the academic adjustment of international students in the united states and revealed a significant correlation with students’ tendency and willingness to seek academic help, such as the use of the writing centre, career services, tutors, professors’ office hours, and conversation groups with american buddies. gebhard (2011) found that study groups, where international students could seek help from domestic students, positively impacted their academic success. however, international students do not always seek the academic help they need. in most cases, international students’ reluctance to reach out for academic help can be attributed to the language barrier. for example, on investigating english as an additional language students’ perceptions of academic acculturation and the role of eap instruction at three canadian universities, cheng & fox (2008) showed that the majority of students in their study experienced significant levels of anxiety and shyness when seeking help from instructors and english speaking classmates due to their self-perceived limitations in language proficiency. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 98 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 campbell and li (2008) found that in addition to communicating with instructors, the language barrier also hindered their socialization with domestic students. this implies the need for future research to investigate how academic help can be made more approachable for international students. language proficiency and academic challenges similar to not being able to develop academic literacy skills and seek academic help, insufficient language proficiency also prevents international students from following lectures, grasping instructions, understanding assessment criteria and procedures, completing assignments, and taking tests (campbell & li, 2008). after examining the academic achievement of canadian undergraduate students from english as an additional language learning backgrounds, roessingh & douglas (2012) suggested that developing levels of english language proficiency may have affected the participants’ academic success in the long run. hepworth, littlepage, & hancock (2018), in their exploration of factors influencing international students’ academic success, indicated a significant relationship between higher academic preparedness of international students (such as higher high school gpa, higher standardized test scores, and fewer remedial courses at university) and higher academic performance. strategy use when the lack of sufficient language proficiency can be a barrier to acquiring academic literacy and reaching out for help for successful academic engagement, it becomes helpful to practice non-language skills, such as strategy use. international students with successful academic engagement and acculturation processes are usually more involved in strategy use, such as planning, time-management strategies, reading ahead to prepare for lectures, completing assignments with time for proof reading, reading selectively, taking notes, and small group discussions (cheng & fox, 2008). investigating the impact of 36 english language programs in 26 english-medium canadian universities, fox, cheng, & zumbo (2014) further reinforced the positive outcome of strategy use by revealing that it has a mediating effect on the academic and social engagement of international students. gebhard (2011) also discussed the positive effect of using strategies to manage problems that international students face in academic life. an observation and imitation strategy that involves the use of positive behaviours can facilitate academic adjustment. in gebhard (2011), students reported using this strategy to familiarize themselves with how americans greet each other, enter a classroom late, listen to lectures, take a turn in group discussion, and give classroom presentations. adapting to a new academic environment to begin the process of academic engagement, it is first important for international students to adapt to their new academic environment. unfamiliar ways of classroom interaction, academic norms, and inadequate learning support can obstruct their academic success (campbell & li, 2008). however, this adaptation is challenging as international students may live across two or more academic cultures and constantly compare them to their personal perspectives. according to campbell and li (2008), the international students in their study expected instructors to “push” them even though they understood the importance of independent learning. they enjoyed https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 99 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 communicative teaching approaches yet felt reluctant to participate and contribute to class discussions. they expected some amount of competition even though they enjoyed the pressurefree learning environment. gebhard (2011) revealed more challenges related to adapting to a new academic environment. for example, this study found that often it becomes a challenge for international students to follow professors’ ideas when they tell stories about their family lives in the middle of a lecture. many international students were not accustomed to professors diverging to personal stories during lectures. to resolves such issues, yan and sendall (2016) emphasized the success of first year experience (fye) courses to help international students become aware of college resources, adjust better to american classrooms, and understand american culture. social integration the academic performance of international students in higher education has been well documented for the past decade. in addition to academic engagement, a range of factors has been revealed that contributes or impedes international students’ academic progress, including social, psychological, cognitive, and demographic factors (mckenzie & schweitzer, 2001). this section focuses on the social factors, illustrated by three sub-themes that impact academic success for international students: cultural shock, social networks, and social support. culture shock when international students enter a new linguistic and cultural environment, they typically face multiple life issues and stresses, which include personal concerns such as job opportunities, visa problems, and dating issues, as well as sociocultural concerns such as homesickness, difficulties in adapting to a new culture, and instances of prejudice and discrimination (russell, rosenthal & thomson, 2010; yan & berliner, 2012). berry (1999) regarded this process as acculturation— “changes that take place in individuals or groups in response to environmental demands” (p. 13). when describing the psychological impacts on individuals, “culture shock” has been commonly used to illustrate the “process of initial adjustment to an unfamiliar environment” (pedersen, 1995). according to tinto’s theory of student departure (1975; 1993), students not only have to persist in their studies, in order to graduate, but also must participate in the student culture, both within and outside of the immediate learning environment. culture shock has an impact on various outcomes during such an acculturation process, and it has been remarked that loneliness and homesickness negatively impact international academic progress (banjong, 2015). zhou and zhang (2014) surveyed 350 first-year international students attending a canadian university and reported that international students commonly face challenges when integrating into a new environment, and such difficulties can be attributed to language barriers, culture shock, and distinctive academic cultural capital. social integration has also been considered a salient predictor of international academic success. positive social integration such as sharing accommodation with others, participating in study associations, joining student communities and clubs, and having enough friends from the host and home countries may foster international students’ social integration and facilitate https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 100 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 smoother academic progress (li, chen, & duanmu, 2010; wilcox, winn & marylynn, 2005; young et al., 2013; zhang & zhou, 2014). li, chen, & duanmu (2010) surveyed 178 international students at universities in the united kingdom to investigate the determinants of their academic success and revealed that social interaction with other students from their home countries was the largest predictor of the participants’ academic achievement. this result is consistent with young et al (2013), who claimed that international students’ academic achievement was significantly correlated with the level of empathy (noticing when someone is in trouble), open-mindedness (being interested in other cultures), social initiative (making contacts easily), and contact with international students from other nationalities. however, contradictory conclusions have been drawn in other research (mannan, 2007; rienties et al., 2011; zepke & leach, 2005), which claimed that social integration is negatively correlated with international academic achievement. international students who have busy extra-curricular social schedules are more likely to obtain relatively low scores. neri and ville (2008) surveyed 173 international students at an australia university to investigate how and to what extent they renewed their social capital and whether such investment promoted academic success. this study highlighted that many international students experienced culture shock upon arriving in the host country. most of them actively expanded their social circle through engaging in university clubs, the university community, and undertaking paid employment. however, such social renewal did not necessarily promote academic development, and at worst, produced courter effects. this result, as the researchers explained, was due to their social circle being centred on people from their country of origin and other international students. social networks belongingness is another factor that has been identify as directly impacting international students’ academic achievement (finley, 2018; glass & westmont, 2014; meeuwisse et al., 2010; severiens & wolff, 2008). international students who feel at home and who engage with their fellow students and teachers while participating in activities in and out of school are more likely to graduate (glass & westmont, 2014; severiens & wolff, 2008). research has validated this view by emphasizing the importance of social networks when investigating the acculturation of international students. hendrickson, rosen, and aune (2001) reported that having a sufficient number of local students as friends reduced international students’ feeling of loneliness and homesickness and increased their sense of belonging. cheng and fox (2008) interviewed three groups of eap students to compare the perceived factors impacting academic acculturation and found that eap students generally were able to make friends regardless of ethnicity, language, and culture and more likely to interact with culturally diverse classmates. however, establishing friendships with local students has commonly challenged international students (jiao, 2006; zhang & zhou, 2010; zhou, knoke & sakamoto, 2005, zhou & zhang, 2014). even though many international students believe that interacting with canadian peers beyond the classroom would “enhance knowledge of one another, increase comfort in communication, and indirectly improve their classroom performance” (zhou, knoke & sakamoto, 2005, p. 297), international students still have difficulty interacting with their canadian classmates, and their interaction is superficial. in this study, it seemed that international students only socialized and sought help from individuals who shared the same cultural background, which did not contribute to these students learning and gaining social experience with their host society (jiao, 2006; zhang & zhou, 2010). interestingly, montgomery, and macdowell (2009) found that international https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 101 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 students can have a successful learning experience through working together and helping each other even if they do not have close social and cultural contact with local students. social support social support could be a non-cognitive predictor of the academic performance of international students (rienties et al., 2011; wilcox et al., 2005), and students who receive positive support from friends, family, teachers, and peers have been shown to have better cross-cultural adaptation (baba & hosoda, 2014). in contrast, students who drop out of higher education often report that they received inadequate support from social networks (christie, munro, & fisher,2004; meeuwisse et al. 2010). kelly (2010) indicated communication with friends and family though online platforms such as email, facebook, and skype helped to reduce international students’ homesickness, but it may also have delayed the process of acculturation. chavajay (2013) categorized social support into instructional and emotional support. emotional support includes empathy, love, and care, whereas instructional support represents the kind of support a friend might provide in the form of a study session. international students in this study tended to gain social-emotional satisfaction when interacting with international students from other nationalities rather than domestic students, perhaps due to them sharing a common empathy for outsiders. academic socialization combining the academic and social factors, academic discourse socialization has been crucial for international students, and this concept can be defined as the process by which newcomers “gain communicative competence, membership, and legitimacy” (duff, 2007, p. 301) when participating in oral and written academic discourse in a community (duff, 2010). academic presentations and discussions provide unique opportunities for international students to be gradually apprenticed into academic discourse through communicating and negotiating with instructors and peers while preparing for, observing, performing, and reviewing academic tasks (ho, 2011; kobayashi, 2016; mortia, 2000; robinson et al., 2001; vickers. 2007). seloni (2012) investigated how first-year doctoral students using english as an additional language in the united states become legitimate members of the academic discourse. the results indicated that academic socialization occurs in three main spaces, such as initial contact frames (when participants first came into contact with academic knowledge), institutional academic spaces (the first core courses and the university’s writing centre), and an academic culture of collaboration (students’ out-of-class oral interactions with peer groups), which provide students using english as an additional language with the confidence to undertake challenging academic practices and be reflective participants in their discipline communities. for example, by enabling students to take the initiative to evaluate, appropriate, analyze, and question disciplinary expectations, the space of the academic culture of collaboration helped students enhance their engagement in the academic discourse of their doctoral program. academic english proficiency and coping strategies academic english language proficiency could be a predictor of international students’ adjustment, and it has been correlated with the level of confidence students have in regard to https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 102 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 completing their programs successfully (zhang & goodson, 2011). insufficient english language proficiency impacts many aspects of international students’ lives, including making friends with students from english speaking backgrounds, understanding course materials, and seeking group work partners (zhang & zhou, 2010). in english-medium universities, the academic success of student using english as an additional language is largely assessed by their performance on multiple written and oral activities. it has been commonly recognized that class discussions and presentations cause more stress and anxiety among students using english as an additional language, and these students often have challenges speaking without sufficient preparation (kim, 2006; zappa-hollman, 2007). zappa-hollman (2007) explored the experiences of six exchange students at a canada university and identified three major factors that influenced these students’ academic socialization: linguistic factors (pronunciation, vocabulary, and fluency), socio-cultural factors (unfamiliarity with academic presentation norms) and psychological factors (fear and shyness of public speaking). in addition, appropriate coping and preparation strategies like avoiding topics or content that are of little or no interest to the presenter and the rest of the class, creating speech outlines, choosing familiar topics, searching for multiple sources, or speaking at a slower speed can help students to overcome their psychological struggles. collaboration skills collaboration skills are an integral part of international students’ success in academic presentations. kobayashi (2003) explored the collaborations among students from english and non-english speaking backgrounds when they negotiated and reached agreement about their presentation performance. his study indicated that more collaboration took place among peers outside of class before an actual presentation, and academic presentations can serve as an opportunity for both language learning/practice and academic socialization. yang (2010) also highlighted the role of collaboration skills while examining the process and features of in-class oral presentations carried out by undergraduate students using english as an additional language and recommended incorporating the training and development of such skills in an english as an additional language curriculum. expert skills demonstrating critical thinking, negotiating identities of epistemic stance (speaker’s authority), making intertextual connections, and engaging in collaborative meaning-making can be regarded as expert skills in the oral socialization to a higher education context. morita (2000) explored students’ academic socialization related to academic presentations in a teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol) program at a canadian university and found that students had to negotiate the identities of epistemic stance and adopt many ways to show the audience they are an “expert” or “novice” during the process of creating and delivering academic presentations. such expert identities, as ho (2011) noted, can be constructed through critical thinking (critically reflecting on the subject mater) and making intertextual connections (referring to textbook concepts to illustrate ideas). later, guo, and lin (2016) added, in addition to thinking critically and analytically, undergraduates using english as an additional language who were involved in collaborative meaning-making and were able to link self-experiences and society to the discipline concepts and theories would be more likely to stand out in group discussions. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 jabeen, wang, & cheng 103 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 95–107 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/337 connecting the dots this literature review, based on 87 empirical studies conducted between 2008 and 2018, portrays the academic acculturation journey of international students using english as an additional language pursuing their academic studies in english-medium higher education. the review demonstrated a multitude of factors, interactively influencing these students’ academic acculturation and post-secondary success in higher education. three key factors—academic engagement, academic socialization, and social integration—are discussed in depth to show the interrelationships among the factors in relation to the role of english language ability. it is evident from these empirical studies that sufficient english language ability or proficiency is critical to academic acculturation and post-secondary success for these students, and english as an additional language ability plays an essential role in every aspect of their academic engagement and socialization—a core process and skill in higher education. by identifying how english as an additional language ability is essential to the process of academic engagement and socialization, this review sheds light on the need for further research examining the language needs of international students and the ways in which these needs can be addressed. furthermore, the findings of this review have some pedagogical implications that need to be considered. english-medium post-secondary institutions, such as in canada and british columbia, need to provide specific and targeted support for not only english as an additional language knowledge but also the use of the language norms for academic writing, socialization, and academic socialization in english. instructors and professors who have international students in their classes need to address both their linguistic and social needs while interacting with their classes with an increasing diverse group of students. it is important to note that those international students who experience on-going language barriers in this study have already met the language admission requirements for their academic institutions. what seems unfamiliar for them is the new academic culture and relevant language norms and use in the situated context of their academic studies. this unfamiliarity leads to communication difficulties and breakdowns, which restrict their involvement in academic engagement and socialization. the improvement of students’ academic language ability can be achieved through engaging them more in teamwork and collaboration. with increased engagement, international students’ identities of epistemic stance can transit from “novice” to “expert” and build more confidence in terms of classroom interaction. it is through this academic acculturation that canadian post-secondary institutions can foster global citizenship and inclusion for all students. acknowledgements the authors would like to extend their thanks to the peer reviewers for their insightful feedback and express gratitude to the editor of the bc teal journal, dr. scott roy douglas, for his valuable support throughout the publication process. this research was supported by the 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teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 from stigma to strength: a case of esl program transformation in a greater vancouver high school guofang li university of british columbia abstract the rapid increase of asian immigrant students in canadian classrooms demands more systematic and increased language support to ensure all english language learners (ells) achieve success in school. however, research has found mixed results on the usefulness of current english as a second language (esl) support programs and a growing dissatisfaction among students and parents about esl, suggesting further investigation is needed to improve the provision of esl in the schools. this paper details how one school and one esl teacher responded to the needs of newly arrived asian (i.e., chinese) ell students by documenting the school’s and teacher’s journey in revamping the pull-out esl program into a culturally responsive english for academic purposes (eap) program with a focus on immersion, community engagement, and a pedagogy of cultural reciprocity. the case has important implications for redesigning current esl programs in the context of changing immigration. the context: new immigration patterns and old challenges in language learning vancouver, the most “asian city” outside asia, has the second largest number of chinese immigrants in canada after toronto. in fact, the number of chinese immigrants to vancouver grew by 63.9% from 2001 to 2011. in 2011, 30.7% of the chinese immigrants in canada resided in british columbia; 95% of them lived in the greater vancouver area (the canadian magazine of immigration, 2016). in addition to a higher educational background, more new immigrants, particularly mainland chinese, also came with greater financial resources than previous waves of chinese immigrants, with a growing number of entrepreneur, business, and investor-class immigrants. it must be noted that a number of these new well-off families are one-parent “astronaut families,” with one parent working outside canada and one parent (often the mother, known as a peidu mom "陪读妈妈" or a mother who accompanies her child for studying abroad) residing in canada to take care of their school-age children. consequently, students from chinese backgrounds continue to arrive at younger ages and in more significant numbers, presenting daily challenges to classroom teachers, many of whom have had limited teacher education or professional development in teaching english language learners (ells) (webster & valeo, 2011). these students, often classified as ells or english as a second language (esl) learners, are now the majority (over 50%) at more than 65 of 550 elementary and secondary schools across metro vancouver (skelton, 2014). the rapid increase of ells, coupled with reduced government funding for ells in bc schools, has resulted in a crisis in ell education (wild, helmer, tanaka, & dean, 2009). historically, asian students in north america have been treated as homogenous and are stereotyped as a “model minority” who have little difficulty achieving academically at high levels (li & wang, 2008; ma & li, 2016). their success is often attributed to the strict parenting enforced by their parents (often mothers) known as “tiger moms” who prefer an authoritarian li 64 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 style of parenting and push for their children’s academic excellence through intensive out of school educational enrichment programs and other extracurricular activities (li & wang, 2008). however, a body of studies on ells’ achievement trajectories and social and academic integration in canadian schools has revealed a persistent achievement gap between ells and their non-ell counterparts, especially in reading and vocabulary measures (garnett, 2010; gunderson, 2007; pavlov, 2015; roessingh, 2008); and this gap continues to affect ells even when they enter higher education (crossman, 2014; roessingh & douglas, 2011). among chinese students, contrary to the “model minority” image, over 60% of chinese immigrant students are found to have failed to acquire competency in either english or their native language, thus failing to find cultural affirmation within the classroom, dropping out, or avoiding academic subject courses with critical language demands (gunderson, 2007; toohey & derwing, 2008). the issue: esl as a stigma in light of the achievement gaps identified above, researchers and educators have argued for more systematic and increased language support to ensure all ells achieve success in school. esl support programs, known as esl pull-out programs, typically take ells out from regular classroom instruction to receive individual or small group esl instruction. however, reports are mixed about the content and quality of esl pull-out programs in canadian schools. while ells’ academic english has been found to be their major challenge in studying the mandated academic subjects, and passing the large-scale high-stakes tests (provincial exams, literacy and numeracy assessments) for the graduation requirements, the majority of esl pull-out programs focus on basic interpersonal and conversational skills (bics) that are irrelevant to subject area courses (cummins, 1981). as a result, as one student in han and cheng’s (2011) study indicated, “esl [classes] just focus on english …[but] you [still] can’t understand other courses” (p. 90). many esl teachers also reported feeling overwhelmed by the linguistic diversity in the classroom and did not know how to address different proficiency levels (cooke, 2017). these curricular and teacher factors have contributed to ell students’ and their parents’ dissatisfaction with the esl programs. in his study of immigrant students’ achievement in british columbian schools, gunderson (2007) found that immigrant students in secondary schools were in esl classes on average for 3.60 years. he also found that the ell students’ (as well as parents’) perceptions of the usefulness of esl support were split, with a large number of them having negative attitudes toward esl pull-out programs, considering them as “roadblocks” to their gaining admission to university (gunderson, 2007, p. 268). other studies also reported widespread dissatisfaction with and resistance to pull-out esl programs among chinese parents, believing that the curricula are not effective in helping ells gain the cultural, linguistic, and academic competence needed to integrate into the school community (deschambault, 2015; guo & maitra, 2017; hittel, 2007), thus perpetuating ells’ marginality in schools and hindering their english acquisition (kanno & applebaum, 1995). consequently, many parents of ells expressed concerns about the negative connotations or stigma associated with the ell/esl label (e.g., not being smart or being a second class citizen) and wanted their children to exit esl programs (sometimes called by parents as “low-level ghettos”) as soon as possible even though they were unable to progress through regular english language classes without language support (gunderson, 2007). many parents, especially the chinese parents of high socioeconomic status li 65 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 (ses), relied heavily on academic enrichment programs as a way to get out of the esl ghettos, creating tremendous stress and anxiety both among the children and the parents (gunderson & d’silva, 2016; li, 2006). it is evident that there exists “significant incongruence between ells’ unique linguistic, sociocultural needs and the apparent lack of systemic, coordinated esl-service responses among canadian schools” (ngo, 2007, p. 4). current research evidence suggests that there needs to be a culturally reciprocal perspective that includes both an understanding of esl provisions in the school and parental expectations and perceptions to serve ells better. to date, studies on esl programs and reports of innovative program redesign have been scarce. only three publications can be located. wyatt-beynon, ilieva, toohey, and laroque (2001) described a high school english co-op program that coupled esl instruction with work experiences for ells who are primarily dependent on their first languages. roessingh (2004, 2008) described the creation of an adjunct course that was linked to a high school english literature course in an urban high school in alberta. these two programs, however, were constructed within the budgetary and policy constraints of urban schools and without including parental perspectives. since school ses and parental perspective matter, it is essential to see how both school and parents can influence each other in shaping esl provisions in different ses contexts. this paper aims to address this gap by documenting a teacher’s (john, a pseudonym) journey in negotiating multiple stakeholders including school administration and a group of newly-arrived, high ses chinese parents to revamp a stigmatized pull-out esl program into a curriculum-based english for academic purposes (eap) program with a focus on academic language, community engagement, and cultural reciprocity. the work described here was based on the author’s consulting work with the teacher and the school during 2016-2018 that entailed formal and informal conversations and discussions with the teacher and staff about the esl program, workshops with parents of ells, and classroom observations. john had an med in english language arts (ela) and had been working for nearly 20 years as an ela teacher in the greater vancouver area. at the time of the program revision, he was studying for his teaching english as a second language (tesl) diploma at a local university. the journey: redesigning the esl program the old esl pull-out program and its stigma schools in the greater vancouver area have seen an increase in the number of asian, particularly chinese, students. the abundance of private schools and highly ranked public schools in the area add to the appeal to new chinese immigrants who place a high value on education. as a result, the number of ell students whose first language is not english is on the rise in many local schools including the pacific west school (pseudonym) featured in this paper. like many other schools in the area, in pacific west school, there has been a growing pool of asian (i.e., mandarin-speaking) students attending the school, and their academic achievements tended to follow a similar pattern: they excelled in the areas of math and science, could pass social studies and history courses where assessments were based more on content than on the quality of the writing, but had low scores in ela classes where assessments were based on high proficiency in both oral and written academic english. li 66 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 recognizing that these students had high academic potential but were experiencing academic language challenges, pacific west school began to work to meet the needs of this student demographic in recent years. the school initially followed the same principle as other schools by starting a pilot esl pull-out program designed to support the language needs of those students who excelled in math and science but were below grade level in their academic english. each day, ells were pulled out of mainstream content area classes (ela, social studies, science, and french) for four periods to receive sheltered instruction in small classes with an ell specialist teacher. the only mainstream classes these students attended with their english speaking peers were physical education, electives, and math. students remained together as an esl cohort and their homeroom was located in the basement of their building, which further separated them from the larger school population. while this was a step in the right direction, the organization of the program as a pull-out esl program created some challenges, and the academic and cultural gaps that started to appear required the school to reassess how it was meeting the needs of this select group of students. because such a significant portion of their classroom time was spent separated from the mainstream english speaking population, as a cohort, these students were not using english beyond their esl class. since they did not integrate well with english speaking students, they were reluctant to participate in other school activities. consequently, the students regularly reverted to their mother tongue—something the school soon realized was defeating its intention for language learning through english immersion. interestingly, their isolation gave them a sense of power supported by their language and culture: they spoke their mother tongue in all of their classes despite teachers asking them to speak english, they sat together in mainstream classes, and worked together during group work activities (speaking their mother tongue rather than english to negotiate assignments). while such empowerment is what all teachers want students to feel, especially as it relates to their mother tongue and culture, this situation was not helpful in developing their academic language in english or “cognitive academic language proficiency” (calp) (cummins, 1981), something essential to their success during and beyond high school. additionally, their parents were found also to be isolated from other parents, with them only interacting with other chinese parents. aware that their children were isolated in the school, it was not surprising that parents of these students did not want their children to stay in the program. like the other asian parents reviewed in the other studies in the earlier section of this paper, they wanted their children to get out of the esl program as soon as possible. for their children to catch up with mainstream students and make progress in their core academic subjects, these parents chose to enroll their children in intensive after-school enrichment programs: known in the community as “after-school-school.” while they intended to support their child’s academic progress, these enrichment programs often added extra stress to the students because they did not focus on the core curriculum and, instead, forced students to follow an alternate curriculum that asked them to read literature and learn content far above their ability and grade level. these programs were also incredibly expensive, and, more problematically, they falsely guaranteed student success in canadian high schools and beyond. these programs also levied a heavy workload on their students, causing children to divert their focus away from their classroom studies to complete the readings and homework for their “after-school-school” programs. pacific west teachers were able to quickly identify that these extra classes were causing the chinese students to come to school tired and unable to focus on their school studies. the homework from li 67 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 those programs then led to unnecessary stress and anxiety not only for the students and their parents, but also their teachers. due to the disconnection of these tutoring classes from the core curriculum in school, students were busy but were not making satisfactory progress. on the contrary, because they were in so many these “after-school-school” enrichment classes, they were unable to focus on their school work. similar to the chinese parents in li’s (2006) study, these parents were increasingly dissatisfied with the program in the school. in the end, many students left the school with only a few staying on until graduation. it was clear to john and the school staff that these students, along with their parents, were not integrating into the school community. realizing that the program was not working as they had hoped, john and the school administrators took time to re-envision whether or not the traditional model of esl pull-out worked. at the time, the previous ell specialist teacher left and john began the tesl diploma program at a local university and was learning about culturally responsive teaching practices and content-based language teaching models. he saw the immediate relevance of his professional learning to the issues the school’s esl pull-out program confronted, and he shared with the school administrators and staff his ideas about how to better support these students whose first language was not english within mainstream classes. john held a series of formal and informal conversations with the principal and colleagues, and he was eventually charged by the school to redesign the program. one of the first steps john took was to follow culturally responsive teaching principles by taking time to understand the parents’ and students’ needs and to inform them about the distinct academic differences between a pull-out esl and an eap program. listening to parents: reshaping the program one crucial aspect of culturally responsive teaching is to make both the students and their parents feel like they are part of the school community. au (2007) argued that effective instruction that builds on the values and experiences students bring from home is a possible way to narrow the literacy achievement gaps. valuing students’ home experiences means that teachers must make instruction consistent with a worldview that resonates with the cultural values of many non-mainstream groups, such as that of the chinese parents in the school, while maintaining high academic expectations and standards for learning. li (2006) suggested that successful programs and classrooms for diverse learners must be built upon understanding parents’ culturally different values and beliefs in education and educating parents about school programs and how they work. with this principle of cultural reciprocity in mind, john began the redesign of the pull-out esl program to ensure that it would meet the specific needs of the asian students attending the school. the first step was to listen to the concerns of the parents by reaching out to the parent community. in 2013, recognizing that the school needed to better connect with the asian parent community, the principal decided to hire a bilingual english/mandarin cultural liaison officer who could support administration and teachers when they needed to communicate with mandarin speaking parents. since few members of the staff understand mandarin, the liaison officer has become an invaluable asset to the school and has helped to improve the sense of community for the non-english speaking parents. since 2014, with the help of the liaison officer, john hosted a series of meetings with the parents of ells. during these meetings, john took the time to li 68 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 address parent concerns about academic progress and address the school’s concerns about enrichment classes that could potentially have a contrary mandate to the school. he also collected parent questions or concerns and used this learning to guide follow-up meetings. also, john invited the school guidance counsellors to these meetings. the goal was to help the parents feel comfortable accessing resources available to them and their children at the school rather than looking outside the school for support. with each year, these gatherings have become more and more focused. in 2016, john invited me to offer two workshops in chinese to the parents of ells in 2017, with the first one focusing on understanding the parents’ challenges in helping their children and the second one on understanding their children’s socioemotional, academic, and linguistic needs as new students in canada. contrary to previous parent-teacher conferences, attendances of these gatherings were high, and parents were highly interactive. feedback forms from parents were overwhelmingly positive about the topics discussed and all of them expressed the desire to have more such gatherings to help them better support themselves, their understanding of the school program, and their interaction with their children. according to the parent liaison person, these teatime conversations led to a stronger sense of community among the parents of ells and the school, and supported parents as they navigated communication with teachers and administration. the birth of the eap program the asian parents’ concerns and suggestions for academic english learning had led john to explore several scholars such as gibbons’ (2009, 2015) and zwiers’ (2014) work on building academic language in mainstream classes. zwiers (2014) noted that “[a]s students leave the primary grades, their academic success depends more and more on their abilities to use academic language—the language used to describe abstract concepts, complex ideas, and critical thinking” (p. ix). similarly, gibbons (2015) argued that teachers can support students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in their content classes by adapting their lessons to include materials and resources that help the specific linguistic skills needed for success in a given level, oral and written. for ell students, these linguistic skills include the development of students’ high frequency and multiple-meaning words that appear in different subject areas (often called tier 2 vocabulary) and low frequency, context-specific vocabulary that occur in specific subjects in school (tier 3 vocabulary) (beck, mckeown, & kucan, 2002), as well as genre knowledge and disciplinary language skills needed for success in mainstream english, social studies, and science classes (gibbons, 2015). in addition to the need for support in content-based language acquisition, one crucial aspect of cultural responsiveness is to build capacity, confidence, and efficacy in students as agents of their learning, with the capacity, confidence, and efficacy embedded in the students’ cultural backgrounds and local communities (au, 2007; gay, 2010). building on these culturally responsive teaching principles, john redesigned the traditional pull-out esl program to support the chinese students in achieving mastery in academic english. building on the research finding that it takes between five and seven years for students to reach native speaker fluency when learning in a full immersion setting (cummins, 2000; hakuta, butler, & witt, 2000; thomas, & collier, 2002), the program, renamed as the english for academic purposes (eap) program, was redesigned as a five-year program. it was then offered to a cohort of asian students entering grade 8 each year through until their graduation at the end of grade 12. starting with this group li 69 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 of learners at grade 8 and continuing on for next five years is critical as research has shown that students arriving between ages of 12–14 are most at risk (in comparison with those who arrive younger or older) in achieving academic success as they “appear to be stuck between languages, with neither [first language] l1 nor [second language] l2 providing what is necessary for them to achieve academically before time runs out” in either the first language or second language (roessingh, 2008, p. 102). different from the traditional pull-out program, students attend mainstream classes, except for the sheltered ela class that john also taught. this was achieved through careful consideration of “time, timing, and timetabling” (roessingh & field, 2000) to directly place these academically competent learners in core academic courses, coupled with sheltered ela support. these considerations and support are considered critical elements of ensuring successful high school graduation for ells (roessingh & field, 2000). as john was both an ela and eap specialist, he could ensure that the core ela curriculum was taught to the cohort, in addition to developing strong foundational skills that support their academic language development. in grade 8, this cohort was also pulled out of french class to support the development of their calp. they were then placed back into french or spanish in grade 9. aside from these two specific classes, the grade 8 eap students were fully immersed in all of their other classes: social studies, math, science, and all electives. they were also dispersed into different homeroom classes, with no two cohort students in the same homeroom class. this design had resulted in a definite shift towards their ability to use english more in social settings as well as opening up the eap students to more diverse friendships throughout the school. students also receive extra support in grade 9 as the transition to high school from grade 9 to 10 is found to be a critical period for many ells who, without enhanced support, may be “lost in translation” with a substantial decline in marks due to low literacy levels, limited academic vocabulary, and anxiety about meeting expectations (miles, 2014). in grade 9, this group attended one tutorial block with john who supported their calp across the disciplines. in all other cases, the students are fully immersed in the larger school population. in addition to the high support for academic language learning, another important application of culturally relevant teaching was to address students’ sense of isolation and stigma as esl students. with the help of the principal, john moved the program from the lower level of the building to a classroom on the upper floor of the building where students could see the school activities and interact with other students easily. to support their transition into high school, students in the grade 8 cohort were paired with senior students who acted as mentors and lunch buddies. adding to the support for content-based language acquisition, the program also aimed to make connections between students’ in-school curriculum and their cultural backgrounds and local communities through curriculum-specific excursions such as visits to local historical sites such as chinatown, the museum of anthropology, the museum of vancouver, and the vancouver art gallery. these excursions were used to complement their in-class projects and academic language development to provide the students with opportunities to apply academic english in real-life situations in culturally relevant contexts outside of the classroom. an example of the in-school and out-of-school connection was studying a text in connection with the chinese students’ own cultural heritage and their local communities. one such example was li 70 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 studying texts like, the jade peony (choy, 1995), then taking the students on a historical tour of chinatown led by an urban historian of the city. visits like this helped students make connections between the book they were reading and the real world they were seeing around them. additionally, students were asked to choose their books in their first language related to a theme studied in class. they then had to analyse the theme, characters, and literary devices, and translate thematic quotes. this would then be presented to the class and would be followed by some engaging cultural and academic discussions. this kind of student-centred activities valued students’ first language and cultures, their opinions on the reading, as well as their ability to take more responsibilities in their reading; thus, these activities helped build students’ confidence as learners and increase their self-efficacy as readers and writers. in sum, john and the school administrators re-envisioned the program around current research trends focusing on high immersion, high support, content-based language acquisition practices to support the newly arrived asian students who tend to possess a high level of oral fluency in english, but their academic english fluency is often far below grade level. in addition to facilitating ells’ social and academic integration and focusing academic language and content support, john actively engaged in dialoguing with the parents during the process. these programmatic changes and social efforts helped shift the optics of the language support provided to this unique group of asian students and increased parent confidence that their child would find success within a north american educational setting. reshaping parents: the change in parents’ and students’ attitudes since the transformation, the school has been seeing a marked improvement in the academic achievements of the ell students, with the eap cohorts needing less and less academic support after grade 10. according to john, students in the current program expressed the idea that they felt confident with their academic skill-set, with several students pursuing advanced placement (ap) studies in both literature and humanities courses, courses that previous ell students usually tried to avoid. this alone showed a marked increase in ell students’ confidence using academic english. john also noted that ell students in the eap cohorts, unlike those in the previous pull-out programs, valued the support they received from the eap program and became “cultural navigators” (habacon, 2009) for their parents. students expressed the idea with john that they shared what they did in the program with their parents and convinced their parents that they needed the support provided by the program. one grade 10 student in the spring of 2017 asked her mother to fire all of her tutors because she realized that she could do better and study better when she only focused on her school work and sought one-to-one support from john and her other teachers. john noted that, for this particular student, finding help from her class teachers had been a huge stepping stone and was a clear indicator that her confidence in herself and the school program was improving. improvements like these were having a positive ripple effect on their parents, who were learning from their children that the support offered in the school was not only sufficient, but exceeded that provided by outside-of-school enrichment programs. in the feedback forms on the two parent workshops i offered, all the parents expressed in the feedback forms that they appreciated the opportunities to have discussions with other parents on their children’s issues. in particular, the parents of the new cohort of grade 8 students shared li 71 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 that they really benefited from small group discussions and exchanges with parents of students in higher grades. additionally, parents reported that they learned to have less anxiety over their children’s academic studies and to practice letting their children become more independent and make their own decisions about their own learning, such as whether to engage in extracurricular tutoring. according to the parent liaison who regularly checked in with the parents, the newcoming immigrant parents felt welcomed into the school community and saw the program as “very inclusive.” she noted a striking difference among the new-coming and current parents as compared to those a few years ago in that the current parents did not feel their children were isolated linguistically, culturally, or socially in the school. consequently, they were more willing to be integrated into the school community. more asian mothers were volunteering at school functions than in the past despite language barriers. these differences showed a newfound trust in the school among the asian parents. conclusion this paper describes a language teacher’s journey of transforming a traditional esl program to provide high-quality eap education for the newly arrived asian immigrant students in the school. it is apparent that the issue of academic language proficiency, critical to the new immigrant students’ achievement of high academic standing and future admission to colleges and universities, has presented both a tension and an opportunity for both the school and the parents to reflect on their own practices and effect changes in their own domains that best serve the interests of their children’s academic, socio-emotional, and linguistic needs. this cultural reciprocity could not be achieved, however, without the esl teacher being “a change agent” and a “cultural mediator” (li, 2013) who applied research-based best practices to make the school program and curriculum responsive to the parents’ concerns. the agency and advocacy john exhibited through his work as a “go-between” between the school and the parents suggests the critical role teachers can play in tackling some of the reported cultural chasm, school-home language disconnections, and power imbalance between mainstream schools and minority parents (li, 2008; li, 2018; roessingh, 2006). in this case, john’s agency was mobilized by his beliefs in cultural reciprocity and positive attitudes toward immigrant parents’ “funds of knowledge” (moll, amanti, neff, & gonzalez, 1992), his motivation to engage in professional learning, and his proactive stance to connect his professional learning with real world challenges within the context he taught. these mobilizing factors suggest that teachers’ capacity to take actions is central to school-based curriculum development. many teachers may already possess many of these agentic qualities and need to make a conscious effort to activate their “professional capital” (fullan, rincón-gallardo, & hargreaves, 2015) by constantly engaging in reflective practices to improve conditions that surround the classroom. fullan & hargreaves (1991, 2016) suggest that teachers can do so by engaging with others in collaborative or interactive professionalism that starts with teachers locating, listening to, and articulating their inner voice, developing a risktaking mentality, redefining their role to extend beyond the classroom, seeking variety and avoiding balkanization, committing to working with colleagues, monitoring the connection li 72 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 between their development and their students’ development, and practising reflection in action, on action, and about action. in addition to teachers’ individual responsibility and inquiry, teacher education professional development and learning must also pay deliberate attention to addressing teachers’ development of agency and make developing such collaborative professionalism “the centerpiece” of its training strategy (fullan & hargreaves, 2016, p. 22). the school administrative support was also a critical ingredient for the example of success presented in this paper. the administrator’s noticing the issue, creating a bilingual liaison/assistant position to better reach the parent community, involving john in decision making about program change, and supporting john’s initiatives on parent engagement activities provided “agentic spaces” (priestley, biesta, & robinson, 2015, p. 2) that allowed him to exercise his agency and expertise in ell education to reshape the program to meet the needs of the students and the worldview of the parents. both the teacher and the school’s attitudes toward minority parents and their concerns for the traditional esl pull-out program were drastically different from those documented in similar situations in several low-ses inner city schools where schools resisted any changes to its ineffective programs (see duffy, 2003; hittel, 2007; li, 2008b for examples). the case presented here demonstrates that in addition to teacher agentic capacity, agentic spaces provided by the school are also critical to evoke change, suggesting the need for schools to develop effective structures or ecologies of teaching to encourage and enable teacher autonomy and agency in program transformation (priestley, biesta, & robinson, 2015). further, the ses factor must be noted for those who intend to do similar work. this mutual reshaping between parents and schools took place in a highly privileged school district where parents’ (and the school’s) economic power provides a much-needed safety net for such program revision to occur. as previous studies (i.e., gunderson, 2007; li, 2002, 2006, 2008; toohey and derwing, 2008) indicate, ells without such financial support (often in the form of out of school tutoring) tend to lag behind their high ses peers. therefore, to level the playing field for these learners, schools for these students have more imperative to reshape their programs and relationships with parents. however, to what extent such changed relations can occur in these schools affected by long-standing inequalities of social, economic, and political power must be further explored. nevertheless, the example in this paper shows the possibility and hope, regardless of a school’s ses status, lie in the continued professional development of teachers in best practices for educating diverse students and the schools’ positive attitudes and dispositions toward minority parents and their cultural and linguistic capital. finally, it must be noted that school reform and program transformation, such as the case described in this paper, is always unfinished work. to further refine this program, for example, john, as well as the school staff, could collect relevant data on the graduation rates and other markers of success for students who were in the eap program, for example, their reading scores or other indicators of increasing english language proficiency such as teacher benchmarking and assessments. to show their progress over time, it would also be important to follow these students as they graduate high school and begin to enter post-secondary studies. these data would then be important for continued, systematic program redesign at both the k-12 school and in higher education. li 73 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 as well, one area of future work can focus on how to include/strengthen the teaching of students’ first language, alongside the effort to enhance their second language, english or french, in k-12 schools after immigration. a body of prior research (i.e., cummins, 1981; pavlov, 2015; roessingh, 2008), as well as that indicated in this case study, has shown the correlation between ells’ first language and culture on their reading performance in english. however, this linguistic potential is either discontinued or left to the choices and support of parents of ells at home or in weekend language schools, which is often ineffective (li & wen, 2015). therefore, while schools look for ways to better support ells, making the improving of students’ first language proficiency an integral part of program design might be a more effective way to accelerate their academic integration. references au, k. 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(2008). hidden losses: how demographics can encourage incorrect assumptions about esl high school students’ success. alberta journal of educational research, 54, 178-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2015.1086623 https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/1729 https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v24i2.136 https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/2660 https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.60.5.611 https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.62.4.563 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v26i1.392 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-011-0202-8 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v18i1.897 http://canadaimmigrants.com/chinese-immigrants-to-canada/ http://repositories.cdlib.org/crede/finalrpts/1_1_final li 76 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 63–76 skelton, c. (2014, july 8). esl students in the majority at more than 60 schools in metro vancouver. vancouver sun. retrieved on september 20, 2016, from www.vancouversun.com/health/students+majority+more...schools.../story.html watt, d., & roessingh, h. (2001). the dynamics of esl drop-out: plus ça change…. canadian modern language review, 58(2), 203-222. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.58.2.203 webster, n. l., & valeo, a. (2011). teacher preparedness for a changing demographic of language learners. tesl canada journal, 28(2), 105-128. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v28i2.1075 wild, j., helmer, s., tanaka p., & dean, s. (2009). a “crisis in esl education” in bc schools. retrieved september 20, 2016, from http://boards.amssa.org/ancie/members/viewpost/post_id:71 wyatt-beynon, j., ilieva, r., toohey, k., & laroque, l. (2001). a secondary school career education program for esl students. curriculum inquiry, 31, 399-420. https://doi.org/10.1111/0362-6784.00205 zwiers, j. (2014). building academic language (2nd edition). san francisco: jossey-bass. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://www.vancouversun.com/health/students+majority+more...schools.../story.html https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.58.2.203 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v28i2.1075 http://boards.amssa.org/ancie/members/viewpost/post_id:71 https://doi.org/10.1111/0362-6784.00205 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ balyasnikova 75 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 an insider view: understanding volunteers’ experiences within a peer-to-peer language learning program in vancouver’s downtown eastside natalia balyasnikova york university abstract many community-based english language learning programs rely on volunteers to lead classes. while some of these volunteers have some teacher training, the majority are not professional educators. the question of how non-professionals understand what constitutes facilitation of language learning in an adult education context remains underexplored. this paper presents the findings of a small-scale study conducted within a community-based language learning program with four volunteer facilitators. volunteer facilitators were interviewed on a range of topics related to their role in the program, peer-to-peer interaction, and the impacts of volunteering in their lives. an analysis of facilitator interviews, with reference to program’s guiding educational principles, reveals the following positive factors related to the program: the informal nature of the community, the flexible design of the program, peer-to-peer interaction, and support from program staff. however, the findings also highlight that facilitators’ perspectives and practices varied significantly due to their different lived experiences, motives for volunteering, and linguistic background. this study highlights promising practices, which could serve to design sustainable community-based english language learning programs for adults. introduction focusing on one program offered at the ubc learning exchange—the english conversation— this research had a goal to understand the experiences of former learners who feel empowered to begin leading classes within language learning programs. by drawing on interviews with five volunteers in the english conversation—an english language program offered within the ubc learning exchange to the residents of vancouver’s downtown eastside—this study presents a different and rare perspective on the nature of community-based literacy programs. i argue that if community-based english language programs are conceptualized as communities of practice, they might benefit from the peer-to-peer teaching practices and the involvement of both monolingual and multilingual volunteers. literature review adult immigrants learn the english language for a variety of reasons. some do so for practical reasons, such as to communicate at work (norton, 2013), while others learn so they can access opportunities within the community (duff, wong, & early, 2000). many do so to enhance their family literacy practices (chao & mantero, 2014) or for personal reasons. reflecting on the purpose of english language learning in canada, morgan (2002) wrote that “in many ways language learning is simultaneously a process of individual and collective identity negotiation” (p. 157). if that is indeed an important factor to consider in language learning, then practices of language education should embrace it through variability and flexibility in curriculum and lesson delivery. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 76 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 many researchers suggest that community-based programs are aimed at social change and are emancipatory in nature. for example, studies which focus on learners’ perceptions of community-based programs suggest that learners perceive reduced feelings of marginalization (kim & merriam, 2010), an increased sense of self-esteem (bridwell, 2013), empowerment to affect change (rivera, 2003), and community transformation (coady, 2013) among the main outcomes of participation in community-based literacy programs. research finds that literacy programs founded on holistic principles (crowther, maclachan, & tett, 2010) and those that encourage a sense of belonging among students (o’donnel & tobbell, 2007) contribute to individual persistence in educational programs. free, to a certain extent, from government-mandated benchmarks, community-based programs become a fertile ground for the development of such practices. this freedom allows many centres to provide language practice in tandem with other forms of literacy. for example, community-based english language programs have served as a vehicle for developing health literacy in immigrant communities (soto mas, ji, fuentes, & tinajero, 2015), receiving basic education classes (rivera, 1999), raising awareness of mental health issues among language learners (rusch, frazier, & atkins, 2015), and processing trauma (finn, 2010). community-based language learning programs are heterogeneous in their student body and are often open to learners with varying levels of english language proficiency. adult learners benefit from pedagogical practices that encourage active negotiations of understanding and co-construction of meaning in mixed groups (bremer, 1996) and scaffold their learning with support from peers. as learners move between home and language learning class, they take on different linguistic identities (skilton-sylvester, 2002) and strategically utilize them in various ways (hardman, 1999). by allowing learners to draw upon their experiences, linguistic background, shared cultural traditions, and expectations from the program, community-based language learning programs may additionaly contribute to an atmosphere of shared respect between native and non-native english speakers and create closer ties between the language learning classroom and surrounding community. while there are not many studies that look at learners-turned-facilitators, there is a substantial body of research in the fields of sociology and psychology that looks at individual motivation to volunteer. early research suggests that a high percentage of volunteer work is episodic in nature and does not correlate to an initial intention to volunteer (dunn, chambers, & hyde, 2015). in addition, the motivation to volunteer depends on multiple reasons: it can be driven by the search for “a rewarding experience” (cnaan & goldberg-glen, 1991, p. 281) or can be seen as a reflection of self-perceived relationships with others (clary et al., 1998; willems et al., 2012). it is worth mentioning, however, that these studies privilege volunteers with economic and educational advantages, and that is why it is important to look at the community members and/or former participants of learning programs, and their rationalisation for volunteering in community-learning programs. a study conducted with women enrolled in community-based programs found that those programs which foster community and, in the words of one participant, “feel like a little family” (prins, toso, & schafft, 2009, p. 335), may improve the learning experience and provide support for learners. similar arguments come from a study by crowther, maclachlan, and tett (2010) https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 77 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 which found that accessible, informal programs built on flexible curriculum and structured around peer group work enabled “vulnerable adults to forge the identities to which they aspire” (p.663), thus empowering them beyond the literacy program and affecting their communities. other forms of literacy also flourished in community-based organizations. coady (2013) worked with 40 adults involved in a community-based health literacy program, specifically focusing on peer-to-peer interaction between program patrons. she found that the informal nature of the program enabled learners to connect with each other, which in turn prompted them to “envision change” (p.327) and take a more active role in their communities. coady concluded that interaction with peers is “powerful and transformative for adults” (p.330) and argued for collective transformative learning that fostered community-building. buckland’s (2010) study with socially disadvantaged canadians showed that it was institutional barriers that constrained adults developing financial literacy, and a study by tisdell et al. (2013) found that communitybased literacy programs allowed teachers to develop a deeper understanding of the sociocultural context of learners’ lives, in which race, ethnicity, gender, and class play an important role for ways of knowing. connection with peers through informal work was highlighted in a study conducted in a senior-focused literacy program (kim & merriam, 2010), specifically a computer literacy class in south korea. research found that seniors, especially due to their age, rely on peers to overcome feelings of marginalization and being on the periphery. by working together, seniors reported an increase in positive self-judgement and a growth in self-esteem. a similar study conducted with seniors in australia found that informal hands-on learning with peers resulted in “particularly therapeutic” (golding, 2011, p.117) outcomes for older men who were excluded from formal continuing education programs. looking at informal spaces for learning, such as community gardens, shan & walter (2015) showed how these contact zones foster everyday multiculturalism that contrasts with official rhetoric. shan and walter found that despite limited english language proficiency, chinese women were able to actively engage with their canadian peers in this unique learning space. calling a community garden a “community of conviviality” (p. 8) shan and walter argued that participation in informal learning expanded immigrant women’s life space and allowed them to communicate beyond their english language proficiency. research context to contextualize this study, i begin with a short description of the vancouver neighbourhood in which the research was conducted. i follow with a brief overview of the community-engagement program, where the data were generated. located on the unceded traditional territories of the musqueam, squamish, and tsleilwaututh first nations, the downtown eastside (dtes) is one of vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods. in addition to its first nations community, the area is home to several cultural immigrant communities of asian, african, european, and south american heritage. the dtes is comprised of several geographical spaces including chinatown, gastown, the oppenheimer district, strathcona, thornton park, victory square, and the industrial area. it is home to about 18,477 people. in terms of linguistic diversity, the majority of dtes residents speak english as their main language; however, mandarin and cantonese speakers comprise 28% of the total https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 78 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 dtes population. not surprisingly given the population demographics, chinatown has the largest number of chinese-speaking residents. vancouver’s chinatown was settled in the late nineteenth century and quickly grew to become one of the largest self-sustaining ethnic enclaves in north america. at the time of the research, this community was changing rapidly due to government-funded and private residential and commercial revitalization initiatives. the ubc learning exchange is a community engagement initiative that was started to facilitate a relationship between the university of british columbia (ubc) and the dtes community. the work at the centre has always been grounded in the principles of asset-based community development—an approach to community work that builds on the community’s strengths, promising practices, gifts, and talents of its members. rooted in this approach, the ubc learning exchange strives to support diverse communities in the dtes. the english conversation program is one of many offerings available at the ubc learning exchange. this program, which began in 2004, is open to canadian citizens, new immigrants, and refugees. it delivers more than 30 classes a week to nearly 400 learners per year. more than 50% of the learners are chinese-speaking seniors many of whom live in the dtes. a number of learners commute from other parts of vancouver and have diverse cultural heritages (balyasnikova, gillard, korcheva, 2018). the program is run by volunteer facilitators, many of whom are not professionally trained language instructors. in addition, the program expends immense effort to support learners who attend the classes and the volunteers who facilitate them. for example, some learners are encouraged to take up leadership positions and facilitate lower level classes and the facilitators are offered multiple development opportunities and socializing activities. the program is divided into three levels of english language proficiency. english as an additional language (eal) conversation groups meet once a week for ten weeks in 75-minute sessions to discuss a range of topics that are chosen by the senior coordinator. these topics include cultural holidays, canadian traditions and customs, popular culture, famous people, etc. during each session, learners use prepared worksheets with short text and follow-up questions that guide their conversation. the role of the facilitator in the class is to encourage learners to speak as much as they can. this is why facilitators are free to choose topics that they think could be interesting to learners in their group. as mentioned, classes at the english conversation are facilitated by volunteers, many of whom are not professionally trained language instructors; a large number of facilitators are language learners themselves. many of these facilitators are women, who are either retired or currently not employed. some of the facilitators are former learners of the program who have advanced to the higher levels of proficiency and now facilitate lower-level classes. given that most facilitators do not have substantial pedagogical training, there is a requirement for them to participate in ten workshops led by the senior coordinator. these workshops give volunteers a basic understanding of pedagogy and the philosophy behind the english conversation. they also provide volunteers with a chance to discuss the goals of the eal program and give them an opportunity to learn about classroom management techniques.after the completion of training workshops, facilitators are assigned a group of learners (usually 10 people) and start leading https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 79 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 classes. in addition to facilitating, some volunteers are encouraged to participate in other activities that take place in the ubc learning exchanges. learners in the english conversation are mostly senior residents of vancouver. they are allowed to take one class per session. however, they are free to spend time at the centre socializing with other learners and facilitators. some learners use this opportunity to help their peers learn other skills; others spend time reading magazines and newspapers available on the premises. some learners volunteer to lead classes, e.g., guitar or crafts classes. in these cases, eal facilitators who attend these classes switch roles with eal learners, and assume the role of student. i argue that the main characteristic of the english conversation is the multilayered and fluid nature of facilitator/learner roles; the facilitators and the learners are engaged in a collaborative learning practice that constructs and sustains this unique community. data generation the goal of the study was to explore volunteers’ experiences within the english language program. in addition, it was equally as important to understand how their experiences inform program curricula and aid in setting of new goals for the program—in other words, to establish the reciprocal relationship between the program design and the flexible nature of the learner/facilitator role. the research questions guiding the study were: 1. what are the participants’ perceptions of their role within the english conversation? 2. what are the participants’ relationships with the learners, fellow facilitators, and staff of the centre? given that this study was conducted within a community-based organization, i grounded it in the understanding that the co-created nature of knowledge privileges the community members’ participation at all stages of the research process and drew on principles of community-based research1, particularly appreciative inquiry. appreciative inquiry, which is gaining prominence in educational research (shuayb, sharp, judkins, & hetherington, 2009), was used as the starting point of my study to counter the deficit-based and academic research typically brought to research undertaken in communitybased settings. the principles of appreciative inquiry place research first and foremost as a collaborative endeavour (cooperrider & avital, 2004). originating in social constructivist approaches to organizational studies and activist interventions (cooperrider, barrett, & srivastva, 1995) this methodology seeks to ensure that research increases the organizational capacity of the community in ways that are both meaningful and positive. the participants of this study were current volunteer facilitators at the english conversation. in order to be included in the sample, they had to have attended at least one learning activity offered by ubc learning exchange. in other words, they must have been 1 among the many principles of community-based research, reciprocity plays an important role. for this reason, studies in community-based settings are conducted not only for the sake of obtaining knowledge, but to support the partner organizations or people. in this study, in addition to answering research questions, i also communicated findings to the staff of the ubc learning exchange in order to build upon identified promising practices. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 80 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 learners who decided to take on the role of a facilitator. i was helped by the eal program coordinators in the recruitment of eal volunteer facilitators. we met prior to sending out the recruitment letters and discussed which eal facilitators would be willing to participate in the study. following our meeting, the coordinators approached potential participants and introduced me as a researcher working for the english conversation. i met with each participant individually and explained the purpose of the research project. in the end, five facilitators agreed to take part in the study. two facilitators spoke english as their first language and did not speak any other languages. they were residents of vancouver’s downtown east side and prior to taking up a facilitator role participated in other literacy activities offered by the ubc learning exchange. in this study, i refer to these participants as monolingual facilitators. three participants who spoke eal were all former learners at english conversation. to my knowledge, in addition to english, one of these participants spoke mandarin, another spoke mandarin and cantonese, and the third one spoke farsi. i refer to these participants as multilingual facilitators. to generate the data for the study, i drew on the principles of narrative interviewing (wengraf, 2001) during time spent with the volunteers. this approach to data collection allowed the participants to reflect on their experiences in their preferred style of interaction. following wengraf (2001), i based my interviews on the following principles of narrative interviewing: 1. conceptual openness. the interview started with a single question (e.g., “tell me about your experience at english conversation”), which aimed to elicit a narrative from the participant as they chose to tell it. once they had finished answering the first question, i followed up with a second question, in which i asked for clarification of some of the topics that came up in the first account. 2. communication and active listening. i designed conversational protocols to act as flexible guides and topic starters in order to encourage the narratives. rather than asking for opinions or using questions that asked why, the protocols helped me probe for information that pertained to memorable events in the participant’s life 3. free development of the narrative. when deciding on the way to conduct interviews with the research participants, i was faced with the dilemma of whether to control their narratives for the benefit of my research or to let the narratives unfold as the participants saw fit. rather than following a question and answer protocol, i decided to frame my interviews as narrative occasions to encourage the participant to tell their story. this allowed the narrator to move back and forth within the narration, which at times created confusion and misunderstanding, changed what had previously been said, even produced contradictions. at the same time, this method allows the narrator to speak in their own unique way. all interviews were transcribed verbatim for the following analysis. i offered to give transcripts to the participants for member checking purposes. however, only one participant expressed his interest in reviewing his interview and subsequently made 20 changes in the transcript. it is important to note that none of these changes affected the general account of the events in his interview. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 81 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 data analysis and findings the nature of this research necessitated a qualitative approach to data analysis. i analyzed the interviews following qualitative manual coding techniques (saldaña, 2013). there are three main groups of findings, which are aligned with the research questions. the first group answers the question regarding participants’ perceptions of their role within the english conversation. the second group gives the volunteers’ view of the program, its goals, and the structure and role that the staff plays in supporting their teaching efforts. the third group highlights the changes in participants’ lives as connected to their volunteering as facilitators of language learning. volunteers’ perceptions of their roles and position within the community participants’ views of their roles within the community seemed to be informed by their language status. in the interviews, the two monolingual facilitators distanced themselves from a teacher role, stressing the informal nature of their involvement with the program. for example, e.f.2, one of facilitators, who was starting his third semester teaching a higher level conversational class, described his work the following way: e.f.: well my role is a facilitator, not a teacher, not an instructor, not a professor. um, a facilitator in my experience is basically kind of like my own words is “chairing a meeting,” so just being sure that we stay in time with each topic so we can complete the lesson, which is referring to the material that we cover within the hour or an hour and a half. however, e.f. mentioned that he learned such understanding of his status in the program during the facilitator training workshops, where the program coordinator emphasised the nonhierarchical nature of the facilitator-learner relationship and encouraged the volunteers to engage in self-reflection about how they would sustain it in their classes. in his own words: e.f.: my experience is really to follow the guidelines that set out to be a facilitator, not a teacher, and when someone calls me teacher, which happened a couple of times this morning, i say “no, my name is not teacher, i am a (…).” so that’s my experience of what my role is, as i define is to go by guidelines that are set out in our training. so pretty much, to be accessible, to be approachable um to be inquisitive… another monolingual facilitator, a.b., shared a similar interpretation of his role, as one of a facilitator who helps and guides conversations in the class. a.b.: you are supposed to be a facilitator and the word facilitate means to make easier. so yeah, you are kinda a facilitator. you are supposed to get people involved and talking. it’s conversational english. a.b. was one of the oldest volunteers at the english conversation, and he was one of the first facilitators who underwent the facilitator training offered by the program. he described it as a positive and helpful experience; however, due in part to a longer volunteering experience, a.b. 2 this and all further initials are pseudonyms, chosen to protect the identity of the research participants. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 82 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 actively criticized the emphasis of the “non-teacher” approach to facilitation introduced at these workshops. reflecting on the time spent in the workshops, a.b. described them as prescriptive and non-engaging: a.b.: we did learning styles, and we did reading, and vocabulary, we did things about conflict resolution, learned difference between a teacher and a facilitator… we spent about three hours on that! that was the most boring. i said to the teacher, if i ever hear about the teacher and the facilitator, i will never come back! i thought it was a bit too excessive. despite his negative reaction to the offered training, a.b. still accepted facilitator as the most appropriate label to describe his engagement with language learners mainly due to the fact that he did not view the english conversation as a “real english” language learning program. he equated the process of teaching to explicit grammar instruction that is delivered by professionals with degrees in english or in teaching, which he did not possess. at the same time, while a.b. admittedly had no passion for the subject of english language teaching methodology, he still saw the value of his work. for him it centred on serving as a source of knowledge for the students who attended the language class. he described the interaction in the class the following way: a.b.: maybe they ask about some vocabulary, you know. what do you call it: a teacher, an instructor, it doesn’t really matter. but you have these workshops about teacherfacilitator, oh god! never want it again! /…/ i have quite a bit of courses, but i don’t have a teaching degree, so i stick with this. /…/ yeah english was my worst subject, so i am coming from a—i still—but this is not really english. it’s not like studying shakespeare. /…/ for people who want to—90% of people don’t want grammar either, but there is always somebody, maybe have a bit of grammar for six weeks or something. just teacher, grammar, you know. it might help students and facilitators. as monolingual facilitators, who have taken other classes at the ubc learning exchange, both a.b and e.f. saw their volunteering as a valuable experience for them and for the learners. they distanced themselves from the teacher role, stressing that their role was to guide the classes and act as resources for learning the language. however, they seemed to lack understanding what constitutes language learning or what challenges that learners might face and their motivation to learn english. multilingual facilitators offered perspectives different from those of monolingual ones. most commonly they referred to their work as “teaching.” for example, one of the facilitators for the lower level classes, k.l., put it the following way: k.l: i know that it is difficult for the older people to, senior people, to learn another language. it is very hard to pick up. so i have to teach them slowly and try to explain them in chinese, to offer these explanations. being a senior himself, k.l. seemed to have certain empathy towards the learners and adapted his facilitation style to their needs. other multilingual facilitators drew on their own experiences as language learners in the program to model the way they interact with the learners https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 83 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 in their classes. are more proactive in encouraging learners to speak english outside the classroom, by giving them “homework.” for example, in two separate interviews, facilitators r.a. and c.d. shared similar approaches: r.a.: i try to help my learners learn useful sentences, real life experiences, like going to a doctor or ordering at the restaurant. even though, i can be not confident, i try to be helpful. i try to push them to speak english, to get involved… not to be afraid. they shouldn’t be shy. c.d.: i tell them to practice and all that, they won’t do it. for various reasons, not that they are right or wrong. so you gotta understand it… so repeat and repeat and repeat. like, how do you expect them to use the word dialogue… i can make them read it. but if now, they are not going to say it, never. and you got to put on them a little bit of pressure, you know. in addition, these facilitators point out the value of english for learners’ successful integration into canadian society. in the words of k.l.: k.l.: i think you try to show the people you’re teaching to become to adapt to canadian way of life, something like that. other multilingual volunteers shared similar sentiments, which were supplemented by an altruistic attitude towards their work and empathy towards the learners: k.l.: i wish they could learn some english, when they go out shopping, they could talk. they could use these common words. that could help them a little bit. i can at least help them with something. some facilitators expressed that the value of their work lies in enjoying the exchange of knowledge with learners, as in case of e.f. and a.b., who enjoyed learning in their classes from about other traditions, ways of being and knowing: e.f.: my experience is um i have been probably receiving more benefit, probably than probably students. i am volunteering i am like a student. so i have developed quite a bit. for multilingual volunteers, this sense of accomplishment and helping others was supplemented by their own increased confidence in speaking english. r.a. specifically talked about her experience as a language learner supporting other learners. r.a.: [i feel greater] confidence, in general. happiness, i am happier in the learning exchange. learners treat me well. i feel that i am useful. i feel good. monolingual volunteers also acknowledged that volunteering at the english conversation affected the way they think about the language. e.f. mentioned that he started speaking slower in his interactions with language learners, and a.b. spoke about an increase in his meta-language awareness in terms of grammar and language structure. experience in https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 84 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 working with senior language learners encouraged both of these volunteers to be more patient and understanding. in sum, shared experiences shaped the way three multilingual facilitators interacted with the learners. there seemed to be a certain feeling of empathy as all three facilitators shared that they tried being helpful and patient with the learners. they also shared that they tried holding them to high standards, yet not embarrassing them for the misuse of a word or phrase. volunteers’ views of the program, its structure, and the role of the staff the analysis of the five interviews suggested that overall all the volunteers had a positive view of the english conversation as a whole. all the facilitators described the program as both structured in course material and accommodating in regard to their time and preferred days they could commit to volunteering. to illustrate, this is how k.l. compared english conversation to another program where he used to volunteer: k.l.: this is more organized. i used to pick whatever i can get. it was only for one hour. and here… they prepare the lessons, so i don’t have the headache. i think this is better. and also there are so many intelligent people here, i can ask for help. this benefits me and helps me. there is more support. the fact that the english conversation had pre-planned curricula was addressed by all three multilingual participants, while the monolingual ones spoke positively about the flexibility of the schedules and different options to volunteer within the program: e.f.: i will try to be short and sweet. i don’t… the learning exchange has been really accommodating with my schedule, what really works for me right now. all facilitators addressed the support that they received from other volunteers a as well as from the program staff. moreover, three participants mentioned that that it was the individual encouragement of the english conversation staff that helped them to take on a more active role in the community. when i asked them about what made them consider becoming facilitators, they answered: k.l.: to participate? i guess in my case, because i was encouraged by that korean lady and [staff member]. e.f.: um, yeah, i suppose i guess [program coordinator] helped me by giving me all the information, because i thought it was grammar and well i don’t know, i said i am not a teacher, she said well that’s it’s conversation [rather than formal grammar teaching]. c.d.: …later i got involved. there was also a workshop with [the staff], they are very nice. because a lot of people, i like the people here. at the same time, the interviews suggest that there was lack of interaction among facilitators themselves beyond the pre-volunteering training. according to the participants, there https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 85 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 were several reason for this. some facilitators related the lack of interaction among facilitators with their busy lifestyles and time constraints. for example, a.b. facilitated classes early in the morning and had to leave to work right after the class was over. r.a. lived far from the ubc learning exchange and had to take care of her young child. she was unable to participate in any activities beyond the classes that she facilitated. however, the facilitators highlighted that despite the lack in everyday facilitator interaction, they sensed a community spirit within the walls of the program. they mentioned feeling accepted and welcomed, as in the case of e.f.: e.f.: community spirit, yeah yeah, there is a community spirit. yeah, i was totally accepted by pretty much everyone, a very welcoming and acceptable, for me that is a community spirit. on the other hand, two facilitators described the community as one in which “everyone does their own thing.” it seems that after the end of mandatory facilitator training none of the participants were able to find opportunities to interact with their peers, despite the fact that some of them spend considerable time at the ubc learning exchange, participating in other educational programs. as a.b. jokingly put it: a.b.: and there are no meetings, there are no forms, no facilitator conferences, we should have a big facilitator conference in las vegas. that’s an idea: a big international facilitator conference. here is your plane ticket! there are a lot of facilitators here, but they don’t have a conference. analysis of volunteer interviews shows that volunteers’ main motivation stems from their perceived need to give back. it can be giving back to the society at large, as in case of c.d.: c.d.: i am so far away, you know, so i want to be useful to the society and i am grateful for what i have from the canadian government. ok? i appreciate it, so i want to contribute in a small way. in the case of e.f., volunteering is a way to repay the university for his funded education in lieu of making a donation: e.f.: i benefited big time from the free university, this course, and i would have loved to donate some money, i would have loved to do that, /…/ so i thought, ok here is an opportunity to give back… maybe some of my time. overall, the experiences of facilitators at the ubc learning exchange are seen as enjoyable and do benefit individuals who feel the need to support the learners and to learn with and from them. both monolingual and multilingual volunteers seek to help others; volunteers who were themselves language learners seek to “give back” to the community, monolingual facilitators rethink the ways they thought about language due to their facilitating experience. however, despite the community feel and individual benefits of the program, participants still view their volunteering as an individual activity within the ubc learning exchange. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 86 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 conclusion and implications the three main findings of this study were as follows. first, my analysis suggests that while monolingual volunteers were very approachable and equality-oriented, multilingual volunteers had more understanding of what it takes to learn a language (e.g., pushing learners to do homework). second, all participants expressed positive feelings towards the english conversation and the support they received from the staff. at the same time participants did not take up identities of professional educators or language experts, thus maintaining the peer-topeer nature of their engagement with the learners, and although they were engaged in the collaborative and supportive processes of a community of practice, they did not explicitly describe themselves as sharing a craft or profession. finally, while the program staff strives to create a community of practice among the facilitators, there is still more to be done though encouraging regular professional interaction and cooperation towards achieving shared goals. a community of practice is an informal organization, comprised of people, who “deepen their knowledge and expertise in [one] area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (wenger, mcdermott, snyder, 2002, p.4). characterized by mutual engagement, joint enterprise and a shared repertoire, a community of practice shapes the identities of its participants though their participation in shared activities. wenger and snyder (2000) wrote that while communities of practice are not located in one specific context and are “as diverse as the situations that give rise to them” (p. 141), they have specific characteristics that distinguish them from formal groups or informal networks. the purpose of a community of practice is to develop individual potential by encouraging knowledge exchange among members who “select themselves” (p. 142). most importantly, a community of practice is maintained by the commitment of the individuals and their interest in sustaining their group. indeed, there were some indicators that the creation of a community of practice could be possible. the facilitators were engaged in a joint enterprise of facilitating english language conversational groups, and, due to a pre-established curriculum, shared a repertoire, both pedagogical and conceptual. they participated in shared activities, such as facilitator training workshops, and some felt the necessity to continue doing so. as facilitators moved from the novice status to a more experienced one, they tended to challenge established norms (as it was in the case of a.b.), while still relying on those who are located in the centre of the community— the staff and work-and-learn students—for support in some cases. more importantly, multilingual facilitators maintained their roles as learners, albeit more experienced ones, in their interaction with novice learners. i would argue that the program could encourage further facilitator collaboration. at the time of my study, the volunteers dictated their schedules and while there were offerings of professional development, team teaching opportunities, and social events, i could not find any collaboration which took place between the facilitators. further, this study revealed that for former and current patrons of literacy programs, a change towards a facilitator role can result in a more open and compassionate demeanor towards their community and language learners who constitute it. some participants in this study experienced qualitative changes in the way they speak english; others felt effects of volunteering in their everyday interactions outside the ubc learning exchange. the growth of self-esteem, self-confidence and the inspiration to help that participants of this study reported as outcomes of their volunteer work are consistent with the work of bridwell (2013) and rivera (2003). at the https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 87 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 same time, this study adds to existing research due to its focus on learners-turned-volunteers, not exclusively learners. my analysis suggests that the facilitators within the program had a sense that they are part of a community, which is perhaps the greatest strength of english conversation. the broad purpose of this study was to understand how volunteers at the english conversation see their role in the program, given its purported community nature and flexible design. further, this study addressed the largely underexplored learning contexts that serve adults from marginalized backgrounds. the findings suggest that while facilitators at the english conversation had diverse motives for volunteering, as former patrons of free literacy programs, they shared the experience of learning: trying to learn a new language at a mature age (in case of multilingual facilitators) and trying to gain access to education (in case of monolingual facilitators). moreover, the feeling of being needed and being in demand sustained their involvement with the program. in addition, the variation in participants’ responses highlights the differences in how monolingual and multilingual facilitators experience language learning and teaching, especially in programs that aim to support vulnerable populations of language learners. the monolingual facilitators’ insistence that learners were their equals and the multilingual facilitators’ concern that learners may need to be pushed to use english outside of the conversation group highlight how different lived experiences of language learning and use in canadian context might impact teaching style in the classroom. the findings of this study may be useful for program administrators and evaluators who seek to get a better understanding of how volunteering influences facilitators who work at similar programs. these findings attest to the power of community in language learning contexts where the facilitators grow and develop alongside the learners. declaration of conflicting interests the author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research project was funded by the provost's office of the university of british columbia. acknowledgements i would like to thank spring gillard, kathleen leahy, and dr. angela towle of the ubc learning exchange for their support during the research and writing process. i would also like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for taking time to read the earlier version of this article and giving their feedback. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 balyasnikova 88 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 75–90 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 references balyasnikova, n., gillard, s., & korcheva, g. 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(2013). community-based financial literacy education in a cultural context: a study of teacher beliefs and pedagogical practice. adult education quarterly, 63(4), 338–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713613477186 wenger, e. c., & snyder, w. m. (2000). communities of practice: the organizational frontier. harvard business review, 78(1), 139–146. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier wenger, e., mcdermott, r. & snyder, w. m. (2002). cultivating communities of practice. boston, ma: harvard business school press. wengraf, t. (2001). qualitative research interviewing: biographic narrative and semistructured methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. willems, j., huybrechts, g., jegers, m., vantilborgh, t., bidee, j., & pepermans, r. (2012). volunteer decisions (not) to leave: reasons to quit versus functional motives to stay. human relations, 65(7), 883–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712442554 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/314 https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713613477186 https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712442554 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ payant & hardy 1 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 the dynamic rhetorical structures of tesol conference abstracts caroline payant university of idaho jack a. hardy emory university abstract in english language teaching (elt), conferences have developed into valuable venues for both researchers and practitioners to learn and share their knowledge bases. attending and presenting at academic conferences has become an important form of scholarship and professional development for researchers, in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers. in the field of elt, the tesol international convention and language expo is a highly prestigious event but, for those wanting to present, highly competitive. the conference abstract is the basis of being granted permission to present at such conferences and, as such, is a critical gate-keeping genre. the goal of the present empirical study is to examine rhetorical features of successful conference abstracts (n=16) with the hope that the results will help teachers write their own conference proposals. using genre analysis (swales, 1990), the rhetorical structures of conference abstracts for tesol 2014 were collected and annotated for rhetorical moves and steps following halleck and connor (2006). this detailed analysis uncovered rhetorical patterns common to all conference abstracts. despite this, variations within proposals were identified in terms of number of moves and specific sequencing. guidance and tips for novice writers are presented, and connections are made to local tesol affiliates, such as bc teal. introduction academic conferences offer important opportunities for current and future language professionals to learn from experts in the field and to share novel research. as such, the conference abstract (ca), which is used to grant permission to present at such conferences, is a critical gate-keeping genre. despite recent efforts to unpack the stylistic and rhetorical features of successful cas (see, e.g., egbert & plonsky, 2015; swales & feak, 2009), for many novice writers this genre remains enigmatic. consequently, presenting original research at reputable academic conferences may remain inaccessible. with the goal of helping novice researchers and teachers write their own conference proposals, this study explores the genre of successful cas previously accepted for the tesol international convention and language expo. the findings may benefit not only novice and experienced teachers interested in joining the discourse community, but also graduate students of tesol who seek to learn about cas. literature review conferences: professional development opportunities in the field of english language teaching (elt), conferences have developed into valuable venues for both researchers and practitioners. attending and presenting at academic conferences payant & hardy 2 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 has become an important form of scholarship and professional development that can lead to employment, promotion, and tenure (halleck & connor, 2006). within the tesol organization, there are more than 100 independent affiliates worldwide (tesol, 2016a), and many host their own conferences for language educators. in british columbia, for instance, the association of british columbia teachers of english as an additional language (bc teal) hosts an annual conference, as well as smaller regional conferences, that provide spaces for educators to converse and research various dimensions of the profession. these venues also offer valuable experiences for local and regional communities in tesol to address issues in teaching and policy. in addition to these affiliate conferences, tesol hosts an annual conference for its worldwide membership, the tesol international convention and language expo (henceforth the tesol convention), which attracts more than 6,500 language professionals each year (tesol, 2016b). this convention offers teachers, researchers, and administrators opportunities to interact and make important connections with each other and to expand the pedagogical and theoretical knowledge bases of the field. training and professional development opportunities are critical for english language pre-service teachers, in particular graduate students of tesol. this relevance is reflected in tesol’s standards for certificate programs and professional development of teacher-learners. these standards, which cover three areas of professional development (i.e., organization and program management, curriculum and instruction, and candidate standards), highlight the need for tesol candidates to provide evidence of professional learning and growth through engaged participation at conferences (tesol, 2016c). professional development is not reserved for teacher-learners, however. instead, in-service instructors must also make a concerted effort to stay up-to-date with developments in language theories and pedagogical practices and be open to revisiting their own practices. one way to keep abreast of such changes is to regularly read published research articles. unfortunately, matters of time and interest may prevent practitioners from actively searching for written research. conference attendance, on the other hand, offers comparable benefits and may provide even more direct connection to an attendee’s regular teaching practices. simply attending a conference, however, may continue to place in-service teachers in a more peripheral role in the professionalization of the field. teachers, we believe, should be supported in presenting their own research-based practices derived from classroom experiences, thus adding to the overall knowledge of the field and legitimizing their work. in addition to these honest and virtuous reasons, there are also practical reasons for justifying active participation. within academia, costs associated with conferences are often covered only when a proposal is accepted (halleck & connor, 2006; kaplan, cantor, hagstrom, kamhi-stein, shiotani, & zimmerman, 1994). moreover, giving a paper at an internationally recognized conference increases the educator’s professional status, and he or she becomes a fuller legitimate participant in that given community as a result (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; kaplan, et al., 1994). having described the importance of presenting in academic conferences, we must also recognize that those who would benefit most may be unfamiliar with how to enter into this discourse community. in fact, the reality is that relatively few are granted the opportunity to present at the tesol convention. in 2013, for instance, the acceptance rate was only 26% (l. dyson, personal communication, october 3, 2012). given this standard for acceptance, payant & hardy 3 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 conducting an impressive and new study might not be enough. in fact, the most important gatekeeping step of the presentation process is the writing of a ca. the cas are not public documents; rather, they are detailed summaries of the proposed research made available only to conference reviewers. thus, knowledge of this genre can be seen as an important form of cultural capital (bourdieu, 1986) and/or power (faber, 1996). cultural capital includes types of knowledge, education, and skills that increase an individual’s status in his or her social environments (bourdieu, 1986). these forms of capital, which are acquired through a process of acculturation, are often limited to a small group of academics. as teacher educators and supporters of practitioner-led research, we strongly believe that the dissemination of ideas should not be conducted primarily by research faculty. rather, all pre-service and in-service teachers should be able to participate in the discourse community and, as a requirement, become competent writers of this occluded genre. for this to happen, accessing proposals and studying their rhetorical moves is of primary importance. our review of the literature and our own experiences suggest that in-service teachers or those aspiring to enter this realm of academia may not receive sufficient guidance on how to write cas. for these reasons, this study examined ca proposals for the tesol convention, uncovering the core rhetorical features and offering novice applicants explicit explanations of this genre. it is our hope to help increase these applicants’ likelihood of being accepted. before describing our data collection and analysis, findings, and suggestions for future writers, we provide a review of research that has been conducted on cas in the fields of applied linguistics and tesol. genre analysis and conference proposals in the field of writing for professional academic purposes, a surge of research has emerged, evidenced by the number of book-long publications on writing for academic and specific purposes (candlin, crompton, & hatim, 2015; hyland, 2013; swales, 2004; swales & feak, 2009, 2012), as well as the publication of reputable journals (e.g., english for specific purposes and the journal of english for academic purposes). today, the use of genre-based approaches to inform writing courses is a common practice and is associated with several benefits. hyland (2013), for example, maintains that genre-based instruction provides explicit and systematic guidance and serves to raise an awareness of various academic genres. one genre, the research article, has been widely studied. swales (1990), who closely examined research article introductions, began a large area of research on this section, or subgenre. to that end, swales proposed the create a research space (cars) model for writing research introduction articles. he found that introductions tended to follow three rather stable rhetorical moves: (1) establishing a territory, (2) establishing a niche, and (3) occupying the niche. this motivated significant amounts of research across disciplines and languages (e.g., hirano, 2009; loi, 2010; ozturk, 2007; samraj, 2002; sheldon, 2012). although many variations on the cars model have been used (adding moves or steps towards those moves), the central theme has remained the same: when initially presenting academic work (e.g., an abstract or an introduction), writers often describe what has been done before, what has not yet been done, and how the subsequent research will fill that gap. payant & hardy 4 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 genre-based research has continued to branch out, moving towards the systematic study of other genres, especially occluded genres such as the ca. an occluded genre is one that is typically confidential and often not accessible to public viewing (swales, 1996, 2004). analyses of occluded genres are of particular use because novice members of a discourse community lack both receptive and productive experience with occluded genres and “understanding the genres of written communication in one’s field is… essential to professional success” (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995, p. 1). if such a novice wanted to write a ca, for example, she/he may want to access examples of successful proposals from which to model. however, samples of conference proposals are often not readily available since the tesol conference programs and many other conferences only publish short 50-word descriptions to guide attendees in their selection of sessions to attend. in other words, cas are difficult documents for newer members of this discourse community to access. perhaps because of the lack of available models, or maybe because there is a desire to keep the genre occluded, novice writers do not often receive explicit instruction on how to write conference proposals. to date there have been a few publications that have explored the genre of cas for conferences from the field of applied linguistics: american association for applied linguistics (aaal) (kaplan, et al., 1994); conference on college composition and communication (cccc) (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; faber, 1996); tesol (halleck & connor, 2006); the british association for applied linguistics; sociolinguistics symposium (cutting, 2012); and second language research forum (slrf) (egbert & plonsky, 2015). kaplan, et al. (1994) examined the genre of conference proposals submitted to aaal. in total, 294 abstracts were analyzed for discourse moves. specifically, their analysis considered the cas’ thematic structure, clause structure, pragmatic moves, propositional organization, and lexical cohesion. they found that only half of the proposals included the sequence of introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. interestingly, the methodology section was omitted more frequently than the other sections. drawing on moves for research introductions (swales, 1990) to analyze cas, they identified four key moves in successful proposals: (1) establish the field (79%), (2) summarize previous studies (39%), (3) prepare for present study by showing a gap (24%), and (4) introduce the present study (97%). the methodology was present in 64% of these cas and the results in 76%. this seminal study motivated subsequent investigations of the cas of other large conferences. berkenkotter and huckin (1995) considered abstracts submitted to the conference on college composition and communication (cccc). following their pilot study (1988) they collected a corpus of 441 proposals submitted over a three-year span, namely 1989, 1990, and 1992. they found that excellent proposals typically considered current topics, included a clearly defined problem, illustrated insider knowledge, and “projected insider ethos” (p. 102). in addition, they identified a predictable sequence: problem→ method→ findings→ conclusions. they found that the problem could comprise as much as one third to two thirds of the cas. interestingly, the authors reported that numerous abstracts “barely even mentioned method and findings/conclusions” (p. 107). this contrasts with those submitted to aaal in terms of reporting results. drawing on the same corpus, faber (1996) further compared the features of high-rated and low-rated conference abstracts. faber identified five components: (1) problem statement, (2) methods section, (3) clearly articulated product, (4) presentation objectives, and payant & hardy 5 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 (5) a citation section. findings indicated two features for the high-rated conference proposals: problem statement and objective statement. again, it appears as though methodology, overall, was not as salient as the other rhetorical moves. of interest, citation trends were comparable across the higherand lower-rated abstracts in 1992 and tended to be included in approximately half of the proposals. cutting (2012) examined proposals submitted to the british association for applied linguistics conference and to the sociolinguistic symposium. while mostly concerned with the status of the research (in terms of completeness) at the time of the submission, what has been referred to as promissory research (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995, p. 107), they also identified important patterns in rhetorical moves. they found that this set of cas consisted primarily of two core sections: introduction and methodology. conversely, it appeared as though results and discussions were, once more, considered less critical for successful proposals. while a move that describes a study’s results has not been found to be common in previous studies of cas, recent work suggests otherwise. egbert and plonsky (2015) studied the linguistic and stylistic features of 287 accepted and rejected conference abstracts submitted to the 2009 slrf conference. they found that all abstracts contained an introduction, and that those with a methodology and results section scored significantly higher than those without. discussions, however, appeared to be omitted most often, confirming patterns observed by cutting (2012). finally, egbert and plonsky’s analysis of linguistic variables led to the identification of six variables that were considered significant predictors of success, namely (1) number of words, (2) citations, (3) results section, (4) nouns, (5) lack of errors, and (6) firstperson pronouns. tesol is the largest professional development opportunity for elt worldwide. to the best of our knowledge, halleck and connor (2006) are the only researchers to have examined the structure of proposals submitted in 1996 to the tesol international convention. this largescale study considered a total of 1,911 proposals which were sorted by interest section and type of paper (e.g., paper, demonstration, workshop, or colloquium). they found several key moves, including territory, reporting previous research, gap, goal, means 1, means 2, outcomes, benefits, importance, and competence claim. given their focus on cas submitted to the tesol convention, the present study adopted their coding scheme, which is clearly operationalized in table 1. despite being published only recently (in 2006), the corpus is approximately 20 years old. thus, adopting their framework to take a close look at tesol cas is worthwhile. together, these studies suggest that conference proposals are genres marked by systematic features; however, these features are susceptible to variations in response to the audiences’ expectations and needs, as evidenced by the findings from conference proposals submitted to various venues. tesol, being the largest organization for elt, boasts an excellent reputation. tesol also organizes the largest professional development event for english language educators, the tesol convention. tesol does provide suggestions about their expectations for proposals and how those proposals will be evaluated (published annually along with the call for proposals). for example, the call for proposals specifies the word limits (n=300), a list of talking points a session description should cover, and the rubric that will be used to rate the proposals. the practice of making evaluation criteria public has also been adopted by many local affiliates, including bc teal. unfortunately, these suggestions are used payant & hardy 6 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 universally for all types of presentations at the conference: colloquia, discussion groups, roundtable discussions, poster sessions, practice-oriented presentations, research-oriented presentations, teaching tips, and workshops. thus, a language teacher who has experience with pedagogically focused presentations may find it difficult to enter into the realm of researchoriented presentations. given the desire and, in some contexts, the pressure for teachers to contribute to the dissemination of ideas for promotion and funding, it is important for future and current teachers to present empirical research at conferences like the tesol convention. table 1 operationalization of categories for conference proposal analysis category operationalization territory establishes physical and/or situational context of the activity reporting previous research (rpr) makes references to previous work, situating the current activity gap in relation to theoretical or empirical territory, shows a lack of knowledge in the field; serves to motivate the study goal states the aim and/or objective of the activity means 1 specifies the methodology, procedures, plans of action, and tasks of the project means 2 specifies the presentation’s method and procedure—what is to be accomplished in a specified amount of time outcomes presents findings or achievements resulting from the study benefits explains and connects outcomes (intended/projected) to real world applications importance claim states the urgent need for the proposed activity competence claim states the proposer’s credibility although halleck and connor (2006) attempted to demystify the process of preparing an abstract for tesol’s flagship event, their corpus included information from 1996. genres are dynamic rhetorical structures, and it is important to examine them in various socio-temporal contexts. in addition, the majority of studies have identified rhetorical moves but have not considered how these moves are organized within a given proposal. with increased attention to genre and rhetorical moves, the present study examines whether similar patterns are common today in tesol convention proposals and further examines the sequencing of such moves for research-oriented proposals, namely their internal structure and organization. this was accomplished by considering a corpus of cas (n=16) that were accepted and presented at the 2014 tesol convention in portland, or. with these studies in mind, we formulated three research questions and their respective hypotheses: rq 1: to what extent do research-based cas at the tesol international convention abide by general requirements stipulated by tesol specifications? payant & hardy 7 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 hypothesis: given the space limits imposed by the submission site, authors will be very close to the 300-word proposal limit and the 10-word title limit. rq 2: what rhetorical moves are present in those proposals? hypothesis: given the broad and general session description specifications and the conference proposal as an occluded genre, variation of the rhetorical moves is going to be salient. however, keeping in mind that the proposals are research-oriented, authors will have to discuss their research focus in relation to a perceived gap and explain their research design and findings. rq 3: how are those rhetorical moves organized within given proposals? hypothesis: building on previous knowledge of similar genres and established models (i.e., cars, imrd), the conference proposal should follow a relatively stable pattern. methodology the goal of this small-scale, exploratory study was to identify the structural features, rhetorical moves, and internal organization of research-based ca proposals submitted to the tesol international convention and language expo. to obtain a corpus, we turned to the 2014 program book after the event. in total, 206 research-oriented proposals were included in the 2014 program book. via email, we contacted the authors of those presentations who had published their email addresses and asked the main authors if they were willing to share their proposals for textual analysis. from that pool, we received 16 research-oriented proposals, representing 7.8% of all research-based proposals. despite the relatively small sample size, the positive responses would enable a close examination of the structural features and rhetorical moves of researchoriented proposals, and more importantly, their internal organization from authors spanning unique teaching and learning contexts. the major focus of our study relies on move analysis, an often-used method in the analysis of conference abstracts (e.g., berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; halleck & connor, 2006; swales & feak, 2009). for this study, we chose to start with the coding scheme proposed by halleck and connor (2006) because it also investigated proposals to the tesol international convention. using that scheme, each sentence in the session descriptions was assigned one of the ten moves (see table 1). after deliberating on the ten categories, each rater independently coded the 16 proposals. following, rater 1 and rater 2 met and an inter-coder reliability of 93% was obtained. the discrepancies were discussed and led to an agreement rate of 100%. the next section presents the findings of the analysis. findings the overarching goal of the present study was to examine cas from a specific research forum to help demystify an occluded genre for members in the profession. our analysis examined the rhetorical structures of research-based conference proposals submitted to tesol 2014. research question 1 focused on identifying the total number of words for each proposal as a way to determine whether successful proposals abided to the general requirements provided in the call. in this sample, the average number of words was 286.6 (sd = 16.9), only 13.4 words below the stipulated 300-word limit. this implies that writers take advantage of the space to provide payant & hardy 8 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 accurate details of the study. with respect to the titles, the average number of words was 9.3 (sd = 1.03) (max: 10 words). to answer the second research question, we examined the existence and number of particular rhetorical moves of the proposals using the coding scheme from halleck and connor (2006) (see table 1 for categories). for this, we were concerned with moves rather than sentences; therefore, it was possible for proposals to combine multiple moves within a single sentence. our findings showed that the average number of moves per proposal was 10.2. the majority of the rhetorical moves fell under three types: in decreasing order of frequency, means 1 was the most frequent (n= 28; 17.2%), followed by establishing territory (n=26; 16.0%), and finally outcomes (n=24=14.7%) (see figure 1). in addition, a high percentage of the cas included the following moves: gaps (n=19; 11.7%) and goals (n=19; 11.7%). figure 1. distribution of rhetorical moves as illustrated in figure 1, it also appears to be common for authors to include the benefits to attendees (n=15; 9.2%), reporting on previous research (rpr) (n=14; 8.6%), and means 2 (i.e., discussing details of the presentation format) (n=13; 8.2%). the category benefits to attendees had not been identified in halleck and connor (2006). we operationalized this move as statements that explicitly explained how the research findings would benefit those who attended the session (see examples a and b for sample language). example a. suggestions for how to interpret students’ journal entries as source of knowledge will be discussed, as well as recommendations for working within pre-service teachers’ zpds. example b. we will offer strategies we have used to improve literacy skills and promote a culture of reading among learners and allow time for others to share their own barriers and breakthroughs. the two least important identified moves included benefits to the field (n=3; 1.7%) or importance claim (n=2; 1.2%). finally, in this data set, competence claim was never identified. thus, with the exception of these last three categories, it becomes clear that a majority of cas 28 26 24 19 19 15 14 13 3 2 17.2 16.0 14.7 11.7 11.7 9.2 8.6 8.0 1.8 1.2 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 raw number percentage payant & hardy 9 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 include a range of categories evidenced by the similar distributions across several categories (i.e., range between 17.2% and 8%). in drafting a ca proposal, it is not uncommon for authors to exclude a given move. thus, in addition to the global picture of the moves, we examined which of the moves were included in each proposal. this type of analysis provides some indication of the most valued rhetorical moves for cas. to calculate these percentages, we divided the total number of writers who used a given category at least once by the total number of proposals, namely 16. as illustrated by figure 2, no single move was used by all 16 participants. nevertheless, two moves were present in the majority of the proposals: gap was used by 87.5% of the writers (n=14), and means 1 was used by 81.3% of the writers (n=13). this is evidence that it is beneficial to show the value of your work in terms of advances in our field and to clearly describe the research procedures that were followed. the third most important move was establishing territory, which was used by 75% of the writers (n=12). interestingly, the analysis also revealed that outcomes was not a move common to all writers. only nine participants (56%) included a discussion of the outcomes, which could be a result of submitting proposals before having completed the research. finally, benefits to the field and the importance claim were discussed by only two writers (12.5%). figure 2. percentage of moves used by each individual writer finally, to further uncover the prominence of these moves in the proposals, we compared the raw number of moves (figure 1) and compared these to the individual writers’ practices (figure 2). recall that means 1, territory, and outcomes were the most frequent in terms of raw numbers, as illustrated in figure 1. in this data set, 28 moves were coded as means 1 and, interestingly, 13 of the 16 writers included this move whereby they explained the process that guided their research. thus, there appears to be some implicit agreement for authors to include this information and dedicate a rather large portion of the abstract to describing the approach and methods that informed the research. the high frequency of establishing territory also appeared to be consistent with the individual writer’s practices: 26 moves distributed across 12 writers. some diverging patterns were observed. we found that the inclusion of outcomes is irregular in this data set such that only nine writers, or 56.3%, talked about the study’s results. this low percentage for outcomes stands in stark contrast with the raw count of this rhetorical move, namely n=24. it appears as though fewer writers give specific information about the 81.25 75 56.25 87.5 68.75 68.75 62.5 50 12.5 12.5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 percentage payant & hardy 10 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 findings, which could be a result of submitting promissory abstracts (swales & feak, 2009). in other words, when authors have yet to complete the research, they avoid this and focus instead on benefits to the attendees. however, when the research is complete, clear results are shared. another inconsistency lies in the gap: while the rhetorical move gap was utilized by 14 writers, the total raw number of this move was a mere 19. in other words, successful writers understand the value of addressing the empirical gap in their proposal and appear to be able to address this concisely. in terms of the least common moves, we found that benefits to the field and importance claim were not used often and were limited to two writers. as mentioned previously, the competence claim was not identified in this data set. this analysis confirms that there are more and less important features for individuals to consider when crafting their cas. the third research question examined the internal organization of the cas’ rhetorical moves. the analysis focused on the beginning three and concluding three moves of each ca proposal. this microanalysis was viable given the smaller sample size. importantly, all tokens, rather than move type, were taken into account (i.e., if proposal #1 followed a 1-1-2-3-4-4 sequence, the first three moves were thus 1-1-2). one prominent pattern was identified for the opening statement: move #1. only three possible move #1s surfaced: (1) establishing territory, (2) reporting previous research, and (3) gap. the most frequently used initial move was territory (n=11), which was followed by reporting previous research (n=4). only one participant started the proposal with gap (see figure 3). with move #2, similar moves were also included; however, greater variation was identified. for example, in addition to establishing territory (n=5), reporting previous research (n=2), and gap (n=7), some proposals included the goal (n=2). of the five cas with establishing territory as their move #2, four of these had already used this move for move #1 and followed this, in move #3, with gap (n=3), establishing territory (n=1), or reporting previous research (n=2). in sum, from the analysis of move #1 and move #2, the most important rhetorical moves are establishing territory, reporting previous research, gap, and goal. as for move #3, only three writers included means 2 and one included means 1. quickly, we start to notice variation in how the introduction of this genre can be organized. figure 3. internal organization of openings of conference proposals. in the vertical axis, the numbers indicate the following: 1=territory; 2=rpr; 3=gap; 4=goal; 5=means 1; 6=means 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 move #1 move #2 move #3 p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11 p12 p13 p14 p15 p16 payant & hardy 11 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 in addition to examining the initial sequence, the analysis considered how the writers concluded their proposals. for this, the final three moves were taken into account (see figure 4). overall, the antepenultimate was dominated by outcomes (n=7) and, to a lesser extent, means 1 (n=4). while variation was identified, more predictability arose with the two final moves. the penultimate moves included outcomes (n=8) and benefits to the attendees (n=8), whereas the final move was identified as benefits to the attendees (n=9) and followed by means 2 (n=3) or outcomes (n=3). figure 4. internal organization of final components of cas. in the vertical axis, the numbers indicate the following: 1= territory; 2=rpr; 3=gap; 4=goal; 5= means 1; 6=means 2; 7=outcomes; 8= benefits; 9=importance claim in sum, when drafting a ca proposal, the opening and ending appear to follow rather predictable moves. once the author has established the territory and/or discussed the gap, they conclude with a consideration of what their studies have to offer in terms of the outcomes and how attending the session, despite its having a focus on research, will benefit the audience members and their pedagogy. discussion in academia, there are numerous genres that writers need to master to become legitimate participants in their respective fields. however, many genres are occluded and thus, for novice writers, remain enigmatic. in the field of second language (l2) writing, awareness of this is growing and, increasingly, publications are emerging that serve to guide and mentor novice writers (candlin, crompton, & hatim, 2015; hyland, 2013; swales, 2004; swales & feak, 2009, 2012). in elt, we see the practice of sharing one’s experiences as a valuable part of professional development. we also believe that many research-based conference presentations are given by graduate faculty, often long-removed from the language classroom. knowledge about teaching needs to include the voices of practitioners who focus on language teaching on a daily basis. the goal of the present study was to examine the genre of cas to ensure that a greater number of novice or experienced teachers contribute to the knowledge base and to encourage pre-service teachers to think about what linguistic tools they need to enter the realm of conferences. overall, we found evidence that successful cas include, rather frequently, the following moves: means 1, establishing territory, and outcomes. further, cas tend to open with specific moves, namely, 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 move #x move #y move #z p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11 p12 p13 p14 p15 p16 payant & hardy 12 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 establishing territory, reporting previous research, and gap, and conclude with a discussion of the outcomes and benefits to the attendees. in the proceeding section, we review these findings in light of previous research and offer clear recommendations for writing a research-based ca proposal for tesol. with our first question, we sought to uncover the structural features that make up the ca. for this, we examined the average number of words. with the word limit of 300 for tesol cas, we found that successful proposals closely align to the recommended length, a finding that mirrors previous studies (egbert & plonsky, 2015; halleck & connor, 2006). this suggests that novice writers should utilize the recommended lengths in order to clearly explain their research and the contents of the actual presentation. as suggested by swales and feak (2009), this genre is promotional and serves to “sell your work” (p. 43). with the lengthier (yet organized and error-free) proposals, reviewers are better positioned to understand the research and its potential contribution. halleck and conner (2006), the only study referring to the tesol convention, identified that successful proposals were longer than rejected proposals, with mean numbers of 230.8 words and 202.5 words, respectively1. egbert and plonsky (2015) also identified a positive relationship between the length of the method and results section. these findings echo findings from l2 writing research. specifically, in numerous l2 writing studies, one feature often associated with higher scores is in fact length of compositions (jarvis, grant, bikowski, & ferris, 2003; grant & ginther, 2000). thus, in drafting research-based cas for tesol, it is recommended to utilize the allotted space. the second goal was to examine whether the dominant moves proposed by halleck and connor (2006) would continue to make up the conference proposal abstract for the tesol convention, written nearly 20 years ago. in this sample of accepted cas, we identified three frequent moves: means 1, territory, and outcomes. these moves accounted for approximately 50% of the proposals’ contents. however, when looking at the individual writers and their choices of rhetorical moves, we found that the more frequent moves to comprise conference proposals were gap followed by means 1 and establishing territory. the outcomes were discussed by approximately half of the participants. these findings provide partial support for halleck and connor (2006), who found that means 1 was very salient in their data set (89%). the next most common moves identified in their research were goal (78%) and means 2 (66%). importantly, gap was only included in 55% of the proposals (compared to 88% in the present data set). this discrepancy in gap could be symptomatic of changes in and growth of elt as a field. by identifying a gap, authors are informing the reviewers that they can communicate their ethos and “project more of an insider persona” of this well-established field through their knowledge of this genre (berkenkotter, & huckin, 1995, p. 111). these findings have clear implications for novice writers. first, there is a need and expectation for writers to be presenting means 1 within the allotted space. when writing a research proposal for tesol, it appears to be of utmost importance to clearly discuss the research design that guided the study, as this reflects the writer’s ability to clearly convey the novelty of their work and their knowledge of key research techniques. therefore, after reading the proposal, the evaluator should quickly be able to answer the question “how did you examine your topic?” when interpreting the tesol rubrics, when it reads that a proposal will refer 1 at the time of their study, guidelines indicated a one-page limit. payant & hardy 13 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 “specifically to the appropriate theory, practice, and/or research on which the presentation is based in a detailed, thorough, and comprehensible manner” (tesol, 2015), writers must be very explicit and dedicate a significant amount of space to this information. it follows that means 1 should present the setting, the data collection process, and instruments used to conduct the study. the second important move identified in this study is the establishment of territory. establishing territory allows writers to demonstrate their knowledge of the theoretical domains and shows their legitimacy as writers and scholars to the ca reviewers. through the inclusion of this move, reviewers may gain trust in the writer’s credentials. compared to halleck and connor (2006) and their 1996 corpus, it appears as though this feature has grown in importance over time. a possible explanation is that the field of elt has expanded considerably and, to be taken seriously by the discourse community, writers need to show how their study fits into the larger context. thus, as a writer, one should be able to answer the question “how does this study fit within the larger empirical context?” therefore, if the situation or territory of the activity is well presented, it is much easier to determine whether this research is novel and of relevance to the audience, a dimension that can be evaluated in terms of criteria number 1 in the tesol rubric: currency, importance, and appropriateness of a topic to the field. with respect to the move outcomes, the findings of this research are interesting. on the one hand, the raw frequency of this move was very high; however, only half of the participants actually included this move in their proposal. one possible explanation is that proposals for tesol are often written before the studies are completely finished, and some writers may not be in a position to discuss the findings. rather, in the ones that did not include a discussion of the outcomes, the writers tended to include a discussion of the benefits for the attendees. this finding appears to support the idea that many conference proposals are written before the study is actually completed, as identified in cutting (2012) and berkenkotter and huckin (1995). therefore, it may not be as important to discuss the findings; rather, writers may increase the strength of their proposal by focusing on projected outcomes in terms of attendee benefits. finally, the gap was not frequent in raw numbers. however, we do see that the gap was discussed by nearly all the participants. this finding shows the importance of highlighting what the study is contributing. one of the categories on the tesol rubrics is titled “currency, importance, and appropriateness of topic to the field.” when a gap in the field is identified, it becomes easier to convince the audience that the topic is “cutting-edge, immediately relevant, groundbreaking, or significant to the field” (tesol, 2016). thus, while it may not be necessary to spend much time on this dimension, it appears as though it is valued. the third contribution of this study lies in the analysis of the internal patterns of cas. despite uncovering some variance, there are rather stable initial and final moves. earlier studies suggested that cas would follow a pattern of introduction→ method→ results→ discussion/conclusion. this micro-analysis highlighted the internal components of these introductions (i.e., territory, report previous research, gap) and uncovered what concluding moves are critical for a practitioner-oriented audience, namely outcomes and benefits for the attendees. it is this last category that we feel may help authors “sell” their work, since teachers will see the connections between theory and practice. payant & hardy 14 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 before turning to explicit tips for new proposal writers, the limitations of the study should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results. the current paper reports a small-scale research project, and our intention was not to make any generalization of these results to other conferences. building on the current study, future research is warranted to examine a larger number of abstracts and could be expanded to include interviews with the authors in order to understand their processes while drafting cas. guidance for proposal writers the current study provides some valuable insights and serves to guide novice writers in the process of writing a research-oriented ca. identifying a gap and research topic before engaging in the process of writing your ca proposal, it is important that you identify a topic that is relevant and current to practitioners in varied contexts. to start imagining what is worthy of future research, we suggest that you peruse the conference program from the last two to three years and search for topics that are starting to emerge and/or topics that continue to draw attention. to identify topics particularly important to your geographical area, also consider the local affiliates’ program book from a previous year (e.g., bc teal). once you have identified a research topic and decided to do the research, immediately start thinking about presenting at tesol. with the research underway, look at the theme for tesol and let this theme guide you in drafting an original title that will catch the readers’ attention and interest. realistic goals in your proposal, you want to identify the gap that your research fills and discuss the means. when introducing the means 1, be realistic and clear. one useful way to conceptualize this is to follow the categories included in the methodology section of an empirical study (i.e., participants, settings, instruments, procedure, coding). in addition, be sure that you can cover what you set out to do within the time allocation (typically 45-minute sessions). also, show relevance of your research to other contexts. for instance, although you might be teaching english in british columbia, explain how your research could benefit an english teacher working in japan. you can do this by stating what the audience will get from attending your talk (i.e., benefits to the attendees). the language your proposal should be 300 words and should include a variety of moves. also, many writers fail to write clearly and concisely. the proposal readers are reading many proposals and if they have to guess what you are going to do, they will lose interest. use clear constructions to present each of the moves. payant & hardy 15 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 the internal organization the small corpus uncovered variation in the organization of the various cas. however, some critical moves appear to be expected in a relatively stable order. drawing on the present study’s findings, cas should include the following moves early on: establishing territory, reporting previous research, gap, and, optionally, goal. this is illustrated in the sample proposal 1. sample proposal 1.: initial rhetorical moves despite the fact that international undergraduate students have been the most studied population in the field of second language writing […] (territory), our knowledge of […] is still limited (gap). in addition, surprisingly little is known about […] (gap). the writers may consider ending their ca with a consideration of the outcomes (or anticipated outcomes), and importantly, the benefits for the practitioners and researchers who will be in attendance (see samples 2 and 3). sample proposal 2.: concluding rhetorical moves the presentation will highlight findings that cast light on differences regarding […] (means 2). implications regarding the types of support that might be beneficial for these student populations will be discussed, and relevant applications for […] (benefits to the attendees). sample proposal 3.: concluding rhetorical moves results reveal saudi l1 reading practices and beliefs about […] (outcomes). in addition to sharing our findings, we will (a) offer strategies we have used to improve literacy skills and promote a culture of reading among saudi learners of english […] (benefits to the attendees). conclusion learning to write in a new genre is always a daunting task. in some cases, the benefits for uncovering the mystery of writing successful cas are of great importance: for many, participating in professional development opportunities, such as presenting at conferences, translate into greater professional experiences and positioning (promotions and tenure). while knowledge of genres can be seen as a form of cultural capital, we believe that all aspiring scholars should have access to knowledge of genres. by demystifying the process of writing a successful ca, the field of elt may experience an explosion of classroom-based research led by classroom teachers. payant & hardy 16 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 references berkenkotter, c. & huckin, t. n. (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/powere. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bourdieu, p. (1986). the forms of capital. in j. g. richardson (ed.), handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 46-58). connecticut: greenwood publishing group. candlin, c. n. crompton, p. & hatim, b. (2015). academic writing step by step: a researchbased approach. equinox. cutting, j. (2012). vague language in conference abstracts. journal of english for academic purposes, 11, 283-293. doi: 10.1016/j.jeap.2012.05.004 egbert, j. & plonsky, l. (2015). success in the abstract: exploring linguistic and stylistic predictors of conference abstract ratings. corpora, 10 (3), 291-313. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/cor.2015.0079 faber, b. (1996). rhetoric in competition: the formation of organizational discourse in conference on college composition and communication abstracts. written communication, 13(3), 355-384. doi:10.1177/074108839601300300 grant, l., & ginther, a. (2000). using computer-tagged linguistic features to describe l2 writing differences. journal of second language writing, 9, 123–145. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1060-3743(00)00019-9 halleck, g. b., & connor, u. (2006). rhetorical moves in tesol conference proposals. journal of english for academic purposes, 5, 70-86. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2005.08.001 hirano, e. (2009). research article introductions in english for specific purposes: a comparison between brazilian portuguese and english. english for specific purposes, 28(4), 240250. doi: 10.1016/j.esp.2009.02.001 hyland, k. (2013). teaching and researching writing. london: routledge. jarvis, s., grant, l., bikowski, d., & ferris, d. (2003). exploring multiple profiles of highly rated learner compositions. journal of second language writing,12(4), 377-403. doi: 10.1016/j.jslw.2003.09.001 kaplan, r. b., cantor, s., hagstrom, c., kamhi-stein, l. d., shiotani, y., & zimmerman, c. b. (1994). on abstract writing. text, 14(3), 401-426. doi: 10.1515/text.1.1994.14.3.401 loi, c. k. (2010). research article introductions in chinese and english: a comparative genrebased study. journal of english for academic purposes, 9(4), 267-279. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2010.09.004 ozturk, i. (2007). the textual organization of research article introductions in applied linguistics: variability within a single discipline. english for specific purposes, 26(1), 25-38. doi: 10.1177/0033688215609230 samraj, b. (2002). introductions in research articles: variations across disciplines. english for specific purposes, 21(1), 1-17. doi:10.1016/s0889-4906(00)00023-5 sheldon, e. (2011). rhetorical differences in ra introductions written by english l1 and l2 and castilian spanish l1 writers. journal of english for academic purposes, 10(4), 238-251. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2011.08.004 swales, j. m. (1996). occluded genres in the academy: the case of the submission letter. in e. vantola & a. mauranen (eds.), academic writing: intercultural and textual issues (pp. 45–58). amsterdam: john benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012.05.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/cor.2015.0079 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1060-3743(00)00019-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2009.02.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2003.09.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1994.14.3.401 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.09.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0889-4906(00)00023-5 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.08.004 payant & hardy 17 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 1-17 swales, j. m. (2004). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. swales, j. m., & feak, c. b. (2009). abstracts and the writing of abstracts. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. swales, j.m., & feak, c.b. (2012). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills (3 ed.). ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. tesol international association. (2015). call for retrieved november 22, 2015, from http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/education-br-sessions/tesol-2016-call-forparticipation tesol international association. (2016a). affiliates–regional organizations. retrieved march 16, 2016, from https://www.tesol.org/connect/affiliates-regionalorganizations/worldwide-affiliate-directory tesol international association. (2016c). international convention. retrieved march 16, 2016, from http://www.tesol.org/attend-and-learn/international-convention tesol international association. (2016c). standards. retrieved march 16, 2016, from http://www.tesol.org/advance-the-field/standards the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://www.tesol.org/connect/affiliates-regional-organizations/worldwide-affiliate-directory https://www.tesol.org/connect/affiliates-regional-organizations/worldwide-affiliate-directory http://www.tesol.org/attend-and-learn/international-convention http://www.tesol.org/advance-the-field/standards http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ drew & mudzingwa 1 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 the portfolio-based language assessment model: perceptions of adult immigrant english language learners ryan drew calisto mudzingwa abstract this research investigated students’ perceptions of the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla) model used in the government-funded language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program. a mixed methods approach was used in order to obtain results with a broader perspective of the students’ perceptions of pbla. data were collected from 70 participants, using self-administered questionnaires with room for extensive comments. the participants were adult immigrants attending linc classes at a non-profit organization in metro vancouver, british columbia, canada. participants responded to questions on the usefulness of different features of pbla and the pbla model as a whole. overall, the participants had positive perceptions of pbla and indicated that it was helpful in their english language learning journey. it is hoped that this study will generate discussion amongst learners, educators, government officials, and scholars regarding the value of pbla in the linc program and how to improve its implementation. introduction over the decades, new and innovative assessment approaches have been used in different learning and teaching milieus—from elementary schools to tertiary institutions—and in the teaching of english as an additional language (eal) to adult immigrants in not-for-profit organizations. numerous studies have examined participants’ perceptions of these assessment and evaluation methods, particularly in tertiary institutions (boud, & falchikov, 2007; dochy, segers, & sluijsmans, 1999; entwistle & entwistle, 1991). entwistle and entwistle’s (1991) seminal work established that students’ perceptions of the learning environment—which includes assessments and evaluation—influence how they learn. despite these observations on the value and importance of students’ perceptions of the learning milieu, it has been observed that research on learners’ perceptions of pbla is non-existent. this gap was the impetus for this study. research questions and significance of the study the central goal of this research was to document and analyze learners’ perceptions of the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla) model, with the broad aim of gaining insights into the potential causes of such perceptions, their impact on students’ learning, and the implications. this research was guided by the following questions: (1) which aspects of the pbla model do participants perceive as beneficial to their learning of english? (2) what are the participants’ perceptions of the pbla model as a whole? drew & mudzingwa 2 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 this paper’s target is to make significant contributions to the broader field of portfoliobased assessment in general, and the pbla model in particular, through a deeper understanding of learners’ perceptions of the pbla model. inevitably, this research is significant to immigration, refugees and citizenship canada—the government funder of the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program—since to the best of our knowledge, this research is the first systematic study of students’ perceptions of the pbla model that gives a voice to adult immigrant english language learners in canada. we argue that students’ perceptions of pbla, and the associated reasons for those perceptions are insightful, enhancing administrators and funders’ ability to identify areas that need improvement for the model to be more effective. background this section discusses the linc program, the types of participants enrolled in the program, and the individual components of the pbla model. language instruction for newcomers to canada the federal government department, immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (ircc), invests significant funding in english and french language classes for adult immigrants and refugees (saint germain, 2012). english language classes are called linc, and have been offered since 1992. these classes are available throughout canada, with the majority found in the densely populated urban centres. in rural regions, there is the option of distance learning. singh and blakely (2012) aptly articulate the objectives of the linc program: the overall objective of both programs [linc and clic (french)] has been to assist newcomers in developing the communication skills they need to better function in and contribute to all aspects of canadian society —social, cultural, civic, and economic (p.7). the linc program offers classes from beginner up to advanced levels across canada. additionally, linc also offers esl literacy classes for learners that are non-literate or semiliterate in their first language with little or no formal education experience. it is indisputable that one of the greatest challenges for such an extensive language program is maintaining quality and consistency. pettis (2014), for instance, observed that the 2008 and 2009 internal research reports for then citizenship and immigration canada (cic), now ircc, found that assessment practices in linc programs were neither well planned nor consistent. in addition, the variety of formats employed in the linc program—online, face-to-face, full-time, part-time, and multi-level— have resulted in various permeations of the curriculum along with regional modifications, further exacerbating the challenges of quality and consistency. to standardize assessment, ircc instituted the pbla model as the sole assessment method in all linc programs across canada in 2013, after successfully piloting the pbla model in 2011. adult immigrant english the total number of immigrants welcomed into canada in the period from july 2015 to july 2016 was a total of 320,9322 (statistics canada 2016). figure 1 summarizes the top source drew & mudzingwa 3 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 countries for permanent residents in 2016. those immigrants who already have strong english or french language skills, or who originate from countries that use either of the two official languages in canada, in most cases, would not need language training. figure 1. top source countries of permanent residents to canada (statistics canada, 2016) british columbia (bc) welcomed 42,832 new immigrants in 2016 (gov’t of bc, 2016). this accounted for 14.5% of the total immigration to canada. for bc, the top source countries were china, the philippines, india, the united kingdom, south korea, taiwan, the united states, and iran (gov’t of bc, 2016). about 27.5% of those coming to bc did not possess the minimum language requirement for citizenship in either english or french. portfolio-based language assessment (pbla) o’malley and valdez pierce (1996) define “portfolio assessment [as] a systematic collection of student work analyzed to show progress over time with regard to instructional objectives” (p.5). zubizarreta (2009) defines the assessment portfolio as: a flexible, evidence-based tool that engages students in a process of continuous reflection and collaborative analysis of learning . . . the portfolio captures the scope, richness, and relevance of students’ learning. . . [it] focuses on purposefully and collaboratively selected reflections and evidence for both improvement and assessment of students’ learning (p.16). regarding the pbla model, pettis, (2014), says that pbla is: … a comprehensive, systematic, authentic, and collaborative approach to language assessment that engages teachers and students … together, teachers and students collaborate to set language-learning goals, compile numerous examples of language proficiency and learning in a variety of contexts over time, analyze the data, and reflect on progress (p.7). pbla borrowed from various portfolio types, particularly from the european language portfolio model and the collaborative language portfolio assessment (clpa). pbla has these features: 1. baseline information 2. assessments which are sub-divided into teacher assessments, self-assessment and peer assessment drew & mudzingwa 4 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 3. self-reflection 4. student-teacher conference first, baseline information includes the participant’s canadian language benchmark (clb) scores, needs assessment results, autobiography, and a goal statement (pettis, 2014). once eal learners enter a linc class, they complete an autobiography; writing about themselves— when they came to canada, what they did in their country of origin, and what they are doing in canada, among other things. they also complete a needs assessment, which details their reasons for learning english and their broad goal for participating in the course. the second component, which is the cornerstone of pbla, embodies the assessments, viz., teacher assessments, peer assessments, and self-assessments or skill using tasks. teacher assessments are administered and graded by the teacher. with peer assessments, learners grade each other’s assessments, while for self-assessments, learners evaluate their own work. skill using activities are supported tasks that are used in a formative way for learners to improve performance. in all cases, the evaluation is based on criteria set by the teacher that align to the clb. self-reflection is another feature of pbla. participants reflect on what they learned in class, the types of activities they engaged in, and they determine the activities they found most beneficial. the student-teacher conference is the final component of the pbla assessment cycle. at the end of the course, the teacher and each learner independently review the collection of artefacts in the learner’s portfolio. the teacher completes a progress report, and during conferencing comes to an agreement with the participants that the progress report accurately reflects the learner’s english learning progress or lack thereof (o’malley & valdez pierce, 1996; pettis, 2014). figure 2 below summarizes the main aspects of the pbla. figure 2. the pbla model set language learning goals teacher assessment peer and selfassessment selfreflection studentteacher conferences drew & mudzingwa 5 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 research methods this research project employed a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. the mixed-methods approach provided a comprehensive analysis of the learners’ perceptions of pbla, which either the qualitative or quantitative approach alone could not have achieved. data collection a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. the questionnaire collected qualitative data as well since participants were asked to write comments, and some wrote extensive comments. the questionnaire included a section on classification information such as personal questions relating to country of origin and the participants’ level of education. the core of the questionnaire comprised specific questions about pbla. each question had four parts: 1. previous experience with a particular aspect of pbla; 2. a yes/no question on whether that part of pbla was helpful; 3. a rating of the question, how helpful is it?(the aspect of the pbla); 4. a reason for the rating. the four parts were, however, listed as four separate questions for ease of reference. the questions were provided in succession and were logically sequenced. for example: questions 1, 2, 3, and 4 focused on goal setting. similarly, questions 9, 10, 11, and 12 focused on peer assessment. please see the included questionnaire in appendix a for the specific wording of the questions. in the data analysis, each aspect or feature of pbla was presented as a subheading and the responses to the core questions pertaining to pbla were presented under that subheading. as an illustration, questions 1, 2, 3, and 4, which focused on goal setting, were all analyzed and presented under the sub-heading goal setting. likewise, questions 9, 10, 11, and 12, which focussed on peer-assessment, were analyzed and discussed under the sub-heading peer-assessment. the questionnaire is included as appendix a, for ease of reference. participation in the study this section discusses ethical considerations and the participants in the study. ethical considerations all the participants were adult linc students who were informed that they were not obligated to participate in the research. they were also informed that they could choose to opt out at any point. those who participated did this voluntarily. furthermore, the organization where the students attended linc approved the research to be conducted with its clients. drew & mudzingwa 6 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 the participants the participants were adult immigrants attending linc classes at a non-profit organization in metro vancouver, british columbia, canada. we chose this organization because it has one of the largest linc programs in the region, dating back to 1988. its teachers were trained on the implementation of pbla. linc 5 students were chosen because they were considered ideal; they could read and understand the survey questions and needed minimal help. the total number of participants was 70 (81% women and 19% men). the higher ratio of women is microcosmic of the linc program; women participate more in these classes than men. dempsey, xue, and kustec (2009) for instance observed that in the linc program “…females account for the majority of completions during 2005-2008, … roughly 70 percent of the total. the gender composition also indicates that the performance of females is relatively better as compared to males” (p.16). the respondents came from diverse countries and the breakdown was as follows: china, 57%; korea, 9%; iraq, 6%; taiwan, 4%. a graphic representation of the participants’ countries of origin is provided in figure 3. figure 3. the participants countries of origin (n=70) participants had varied educational backgrounds and 70% of the respondents had at least some post-secondary education whilst 8.6% had completed a master’s degree. a summary of the educational backgrounds of the participants is provided in figure 4. figure 4. educational background of participants (n=70) china korea taiwan afghanistan hong kong iraq india vietnam bangladesh bulgaria greece iran japan poland sri lanka thailand other 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 no school high school bachelor's degree doctorate degree participants drew & mudzingwa 7 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 the learner length of enrolment in the linc program varied: 40% of the participants had been attending linc classes for seven months or more and 35.7% for four to six months. 75.7% had been attending linc classes for more than four months. the relatively lengthy participation in the linc program provided participants with sufficient time to experience all aspects of the pbla model. a full breakdown of participants’ length of enrolment is provided in figure 5. figure 5. length of learner enrolment (n=70) results this section provides the results followed by the section on analysis and discussion. setting language learning goals in response to the question on whether the participants had previous experience with goal setting, 38.6% of the respondents answered in the negative, 7.1% did not provide any responses, and 54.3% answered in the affirmative. in response to the question on the usefulness of setting language-learning goals, 77.1% indicated that it was “helpful” or “very helpful.” only 1.4% indicated that goal-setting was not helpful, and 5.7% of respondents did not answer the question. the results are summarized in table 1. the bold part represents the highest number of responses, and this bolding is done for all the other tables below. table 1 helpfulness of setting goals rating responses very helpful 30% helpful 47.1% a little helpful 15.7% not helpful 1.4% no response 5.7% 5 12 25 14 14 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0-1 mths 2-3 mths 4-6 mths 7-12 mths over 1 yr participants drew & mudzingwa 8 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 a sample of the participants’ perceptions on goal-setting is provided below verbatim to avoid appropriating the participants’ voices.  “it’s my incentive. i can make a plan for my language learning.”  “this goal can remind me english first.”  “it’s a clear direction for me to learning english.”  “that’s record my every improved steps. i don’t know ‘how to english learning’ pbla help me and show my rating, now i know my skill level.” teacher assessment regarding the question whether participants had any prior experience with teacher assessments, 65.7% responded in the affirmative, 25.7% indicated that they had no previous experience with teacher assessment, and 8.6% did not answer the question. on the usefulness of the teacher assessments, 82.9% responded that teacher assessments were helpful or very helpful for their language learning. only 1.4% indicated that it was not helpful, and 5.7% did not respond to the question. the responses are summarized in table 2. table 2 helpfulness of teacher assessment rating responses very helpful 40% helpful 42.9% a little helpful 10% not helpful 1.4% no response 5.7% the following captures the participants’ perceptions:  “this help me to see something i don’t see.”  “because she knows what i make mistek.”  “sometimes, i know some problems, but i can’t achie the claim.”  “is very important opinion the profesinal to improve my level in english.” peer assessment on the question of peer assessments, 48.6% of the participants indicated that they had previous experience with assessing their peers in class, 41.4% indicated that they lacked previous experience, and 10% of the participants did not respond to this question. out of the 70 participants, 55.7% indicated that they found peer assessments “helpful” or “very helpful.” table 3 provides a summary of the responses. drew & mudzingwa 9 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 table 3 helpfulness of peer assessment rating responses very helpful 18.6% helpful 37.1% a little helpful 22.9% not helpful 11.4% no response 10% the participants’ comments below provide insights into their perceptions of peer assessments.  “sometimes this is not real assessment.”  “sometimes classmates didn’t give me advise.”  “this help me a little, because i am not sure that my classmades assesst me correct, and i not sure that i assesst their work correct.”  “i think it helps my know what my level in my classmates’ eyes is.” self-assessment half of the respondents (50%) indicated that they had previous experience with self-assessment, and 38.6% indicated that they did not have previous experience with self-assessments. on the question of how helpful self-assessments were to their english language learning, 58.7% responded that it was “helpful” or “very helpful” and 24.3% indicated that self-assessment was only “a little helpful.” the tally of the responses is presented in table 4. table 4 helpfulness of self-assessment rating responses very helpful 21.4% helpful 37.1% a little helpful 24.3% not helpful 4.3% no response 12.9% the participants’ comments provided below demonstrate some of the participants’ low regard for self-assessments.  “a person can’t know own mistake in learning english.”  “i think i assess myself is not objective.”  “i know which is my weakness, but i cann’t improve quickly.”  “it help me to think more before doing the next step. it helps me understand myself better.” drew & mudzingwa 10 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 self-reflection on the question of self-reflection, 60% of the respondents had previous experience with selfreflection and 27.1% did not, with 12.9% not responding to the question. in response to the question on the helpfulness of self-reflection in their language learning, 70% responded that it was “very helpful” or “helpful” with only 2.8% saying it was not. a summary of the responses is presented in table 5. table 5 helpfulness of self-reflection rating responses very helpful 18.6% helpful 51.4% a little helpful 20% not helpful 2.8% no response 7.1% consistent with the relatively high percentage (70%) of the participants who said they found selfreflection helpful, most of the comments were very positive, and a sample is provided below:  “i can see things that i don’t know.”  “studying consolidation is very useful to me.”  “reflecting is very important because i know what is my level and what i need work about one topic.”  “can help teacher lear about the student’s learning”  “i can review my learning.”  “it can help you to remember some words and sentences that you have learnt.”  “i can review information which i learned currently.” student-teacher conferences out of the 70 participants, 65.7% of the respondents indicated that they had previous experience with student-teacher conferences and 24.3% had not, while 10% did not answer the question. regarding the helpfulness of student-teacher conferences in english language learning, 84.3%, indicated that they found this aspect of the assessment model as “helpful” or “very helpful” and only 1.4% indicated that it was “not helpful.” the tallied results are presented in table 6. table 6 helpfulness of conferences rating responses very helpful 45.7% helpful 38.6% a little helpful 4.3% not helpful 1.4% no response 10% drew & mudzingwa 11 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 a sample of the comments below are in line with the high numbers of participants who considered the student-teacher conferences “helpful” and “very helpful.”  “after talking with the teacher, i know my weakness,that i can work hard on this and do it better.”  “can help me to know more about my self.”  “it’s a deep impressure for me.”  “my teacher’s encourage is helpfuly my mental.”  “teacher can give me many useful advices which is special for me.”  “i’m very lazy and teacher stimulate my studing.” the results for setting language learning goals, teacher assessment, peer assessment, peer assessment, self-assessment, self-reflection and student-teacher conferences are summarized and presented in figure 6. figure 6. ranking of the least and most helpful components of the pbla helpfulness of the pbla model as a whole in response to the question if they found the pbla model as a whole helpful in their language learning, 88.6% of respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” and only 5.7% felt that it was not helpful. another 5.7% were undecided in their opinion as to whether the assessment model helped their language learning. the results are summarized in table 8. table 8 helpfulness of the pbla assessment model rating responses strongly agree 27.1% agree 61.4% undecided 5.7% disagree 2.8% strongly disagree 2.8% some of the comments that the participants provided were insightful:  “the pbla assessment can show my english learning progress, and it’s very comprehensive.”  “i think my english has a big progress.” 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% conferences teacher assessment goal-setting self-reflection self-assessment peer-assessment percentage of responses drew & mudzingwa 12 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21  “pbla assessment model is new situation for our english language learning. i think can help us to study.”  “pbla assessment can help my english level to have big progress.”  “is very important because pbla help to decide what area i need work hart.”  “i can adjust by myself during time i study, which i didn’t get well i try more about this.” discussion this section provides an analysis and discussion of the results, including the emerging themes and patterns from the participants’ comments. setting language learning goals more than two thirds of the participants (77.1%) valued goal-setting in the classroom and considered it to be helpful to their english language learning. goal-setting is a vital component of the pbla assessment model as it encourages participants to close the gap between their current and desired performance (black & wiliam, 2006). based on the participants’ comments, they perceived goal setting as helpful in three ways: first, it kept them focussed. second, it was an incentive to do better. third, it helped participants keep track of what they would have achieved. finally, it gave participants an opportunity to develop transferable skills which could be used in other aspects of their lives. assessments: teacher-assessments, self-assessments, and peer-assessments of the three assessments, teacher assessments were considered the most helpful, with selfassessments and peer-assessments receiving almost the same percentage in terms of how learners viewed their helpfulness in their learning of english. out of the 70 participants, 82.9% said the teacher assessments were “helpful” and “very helpful,” with 58.5% saying the same for selfassessments and 55.7 % saying the same for peer assessments. consistent with the numbers, participants felt teacher-assessments were most helpful. the literature is replete with evidence of how learners value teacher assessments more than any other form of assessments (black and wiliam, 2006; hu, 2010; nunan, 1988; 1989). a detailed analysis and discussion of each type of assessment is provided below, beginning with teacher assessments. teacher assessments. teacher assessments garnered the most significant amount of positive perceptions, with 82.9% of the participants indicating that teacher assessments were “helpful” or “very helpful” for their language learning. the pattern that emerged from the participants’ comments indicated a strong belief in teachers’ input as being much more valuable for language learning than either self-assessments or peer assessments. cultural factors were at play; the majority of participants were from china 57% (see figure 2). studies have affirmed that in china, the teacher is regarded as the expert and the fountain of knowledge (biggs, 1996; stevenson & lee 1995; stigler & stevenson, 1991;watkins & bigg, 1996; wang & lin, 2009; xiao & dyson, 1999). the teaching and assessment processes are typically dominated by the teacher, so ultimately chinese learners prefer and anticipate teacher-assessments over any other type. drew & mudzingwa 13 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 consistent with the above observation, participants’ written comments reinforced the view that they considered the teacher as the only one who could help them in their language learning because the teacher is a professional and is a reservoir of knowledge. this comment from a participant expresses these sentiments and is representative of a common theme: “is very important opinion the profesinal to improve my level in english.” self-assessments. self-assessments came second, after the teacher assessments with 58.5% of the participants saying they found self-assessments “very helpful” and “helpful.” the low numbers could be attributed to the fact that a significant number of participants indicated that they did not have previous experience with self-assessments: 38.6%. self-assessments were something new to these participants; consequently, they needed explicit teaching on the value of self-assessments and how to conduct the assessments. closely related is the fact that perhaps teachers were not adequately preparing participants for self-assessments by explaining the value of self-assessments nor teaching learners how to do self-assessment. in the literature, scholars have found the need to explicitly teach learners how to conduct self-assessments. black and wiliam (1998), for instance, in describing school children, observed that “the main problem is that pupils can assess themselves only when they have a sufficiently clear picture of the targets that their learning is meant to attain” (p.143). although black and wiliam’s study focused on children, the same could be said for adult learners who participated in this study (see also, brindley, 2001). it is safe to conclude that there is need for teachers to explain self-assessments clearly for learners to be able to do it and to appreciate its value. another contributing factor to the relatively low numbers who considered selfassessments helpful may have been cultural. it was difficult for some participants to overcome their preconceived notion that the teacher is the only expert. as a result, they could not consider themselves to be able to effectively analyze their own work. finally, the attitude of teachers towards learners assessing their own work is important as well. for instance, some teachers do not regard learners as capable of assessing their own work. heritage (2007) observed that “if students are going to be successfully involved in monitoring and assessing their own and their peers’ learning, then they need to be regarded by their teachers as partners in learning” (p.145). teachers need to engage in introspective activities to analyze their own preconceived notions they bring to the notion of self-assessments and how these could influence their learners. peer assessment. out of the three assessments, peer assessment was considered the least helpful with only 55.7% saying it was “helpful” or “very helpful.” we need to mention that the difference between self-assessment (58.5%) and peer assessments (55.7%) was only 2.8%. the same reasons that were applied to why learners did not find peer-assessments as helpful seemed to also be at play here. first, the number of participants who lacked previous experience with peer-assessments was significant, 41.4%. second, akin to self-assessments, most participants came from backgrounds where learning was teacher-centred. most participants were from china, where peer evaluation is not as valued as teacher assessment. hu (2010) states that “…chinese…students tend to be suspicious of activities like peer evaluation, as they believe it is the teacher’s job to evaluate and that peers are not qualified to correct others’ work” (p.100). the implication is that linc teachers need to provide more guidance and support to learners on how drew & mudzingwa 14 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 to engage in peer assessment, explicitly teaching about peer assessment and creating more opportunities for learners to see their peers as learning resources. in the same vein, black and wiliam (2006), for example, note that the topic of peer assessment is frequently overlooked by teachers and may leave teachers unsure as to how to prepare participants to engage in this assessment process. one of the themes that emerged from the participants’ comments about peer-assessments was that it was perceived as “not real assessments.” this perception underscored a devaluation of this aspect as participants didn’t feel that their peers, (nor themselves) were competent or qualified enough to provide feedback. in addition to the factors raised above, how the teacher presented the peer-assessments could be another factor as well as. the lack of adequate preparation of participants on the assessment criteria could affect their attitude towards the assessments. furthermore, teachers may not have adequately trained the learners on how to give feedback, including what to focus on when giving feedback. this may mean that teachers need more adequate training on how to teach learners to conduct self-assessments. the negative comments notwithstanding, there were positive comments about peerassessments. some participants indicated that they considered peer-assessments to be helpful in their language learning since it gave them a chance to know how their classmates viewed their performance; this was a source of motivation to meet the standards set by the teacher. self-reflection self-reflection was perceived as helpful, with 70% of the participants saying it was helpful or very helpful. although the written comments were positive, they betrayed a lack of understanding of the main purpose of self-reflection, that is, the goal of raising awareness of how to learn. while the participants found the process helpful, their comments demonstrated that they did not understand what selfreflection is intended to be in the pbla model. for instance, the comments showed that the participants viewed self-reflection as revision, and this skewed the numbers. here are sample comments from the participants: “it can help you to remember some words and sentences that you have learnt.” “i can review information which i learned currently.” similar to peer-assessment and self-assessment, a lack of understanding of self-reflection requires more explicit teaching on the concept of self-reflection so learners can engage in the proper activity for the purpose it is intended. steadman (1998), for instance, noted that “helping students learn how to learn requires extra effort on the part of faculty” (p.32). echoing the same, o’malley and valdez pierce (1996) suggested that “ell students may initially need more probing questions to get them to reflect upon their work and to express their evaluation of it” (p.43). in view of these observations, teachers should spend extra time during the self-reflection activities to challenge the participants to move away from more superficial notions of reflection. helpfulness of the pbla model as a whole overall, participants perceived the pbla model as very helpful in their language learning. a combined total of 88.5% participants indicated that they found the model to be “very helpful” or drew & mudzingwa 15 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 “helpful.” based on the participants’ comments, repeated here for ease of reference, some participants held the perspective that the pbla model could provide progress for their language learning. consider the following comments, for example: “pbla assessment can help my english level to have big progress” and “i can adjust by myself during time i study, which i didn’t get well i try more about this”. participants also indicated that the pbla model could help guide their own learning activities as it enabled them to highlight areas they needed to work on by providing a comprehensive approach to assessing progress. this is captured in this comment which is representative of such perceptions: “is very important because pbla help to decide what area i need work hart.” the embedded and systematic different types of assessments facilitated improving language performance and allowed participants the opportunity to engage in the assessment process that aids in self-understanding. a few participants (11.5%), however, responded negatively stating that pbla activities wasted their class time. this means that teachers have to find a way to explain and demonstrate to learners that pbla is part of their learning and they should not see it as separate from what they see or call “actual learning.” along the same lines, steadman (1998) identified that teachers were anxious that their learners would have this perception of pbla. student-teacher conferences in terms of numbers and comments, the student-teacher conference was by far the most valued aspect of pbla. as mentioned above, the student-teacher conference garnered the strongest support (84.3%). the respondents indicated strongly that they viewed this component as most helpful to their language learning. as such, this vital component should certainly continue to be embodied in the assessment model. student-teacher conferences are participant-centred, and involve a one-on-one meeting with the teacher, and this one-on-one meeting was a huge factor for the learners in perceiving the experience as helpful in their language learning. the teacher and the learner review artefacts in the portfolio, highlighting progress and discussing the strengths and weaknesses exhibited by the learner. the student-teacher conference provides information on what participants should work on to improve their english. recommendations teacher “buy-in” to the pbla model is crucial, and the teachers’ own attitudes towards the model influences participants’ perceptions and experiences with portfolio-based assessment. teacher buy-in stems from a more fulsome understanding of this assessment model as being integrated into the learning cycle. this calls for more training and refresher courses for teachers to enhance their teaching methods. linc teachers should be encouraged to incorporate much more explicit teaching of how to “do” peer-assessments, self-assessments, and self-reflections. based on our findings, peerassessments, selfassessments, and self-reflections were relatively unfamiliar to quite a drew & mudzingwa 16 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 significant number of participants. teachers therefore, need to be patient, persistent, and consistent with the introduction and implementation of these practices to ensure that participants feel supported and capable of engaging in these activities. limitations and areas for further research it is important to mention the limitations of this study. the results may not be generalized beyond the research participants for several reasons: first, research was conducted in one organization, and the demographics of the participants were dominated by one particular group. the background of these participants may influence their perceptions of pbla, and therefore skew the findings so that the findings may not be representative of ideas of others outside that group. learners from a different country, for instance, may have different perceptions. second, the participants were from one linc level, viz., linc 5. learners from different levels, for example, linc 1, may have different perceptions. finally, the teacher’s buy-in from different organizations may be different due to different incentives and the way pbla is implemented. there is need for more research in pbla with a larger group of language participants, covering more linc levels, spanning across organizations, and even across several provinces. there should be a deliberate attempt to sample participants from diverse backgrounds. such data would provide a more comprehensive picture of participants’ perceptions of the model and its effectiveness. the same methodology used in this research or a different one could be adopted. typical with any type of portfolio assessment, there is the issue of consistency: intrateacher consistency; inter-teacher consistency; and inter-organization consistency. closely related to the issue of consistency is a single comment by one participant who stated that “not all assessments are good assessments.” this calls for research into the consistency and the quality of assessments. studies similar to the exploratory study by mudzingwa (2015) could be carried out. using empirical evidence, mudzingwa (2015) demonstrated how the pbla model has the potential to bring a standardized assessment regime. the exploratory study compared actual assessments of linc teachers for both consistency (inter-teacher consistency) and whether they met the pbla standards, with the goal of providing empirical evidence regarding the standardization of actual pbla assessments, or a lack thereof. the sample was small and findings could not be generalized, hence the need for more research. conclusion this research addressed an area of the pbla model that has received no attention in the literature, namely, the learners’ perceptions on the usefulness of the pbla model in their english language-learning journey. participants had mixed views about the usefulness of various individual components of the pbla model. the student-teacher conference component was considered the most useful, perhaps because it is the most learner-centred as it gives participants a chance to meet with the teacher one-on-one. teacher-assessments were second, and this ranking could be because of the demographic of the participants; in general, learners from china, who were the majority in the study, view the teacher as the source of knowledge. also, it is indisputable that teacher assessments were the most commonly used assessment methods in most teaching and learning settings, and these were common to all the participants. in contrast, self drew & mudzingwa 17 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 assessments and peer assessments were new to a relatively significant number of participants. this makes it imperative for teachers to explicitly teach how to conduct self-assessments and self-reflections and create opportunities for learners to see the value of these aspects. overall, the participants indicated that pbla was helpful in their language learning. in conclusion, it is hoped that this study will be an impetus for more studies of this nature since they inform us of the learners’ perceptions of pbla, and equally important, are a window into how teachers are implementing pbla in different parts of the country. references biggs, j. (1996). western misperceptions of the confucian-heritage learning culture. in watkins, d. and biggs. j. (eds), the chinese learner: cultural, psychological and contextual influences. hong kong: cerc and acer, pp. 45–67. black, p. & wiliam, d. (2010). inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment. phi delta kappan, 92(1), 81-90. doi:10.1177/003172171009200119. boud, d. & falchikov, n. (eds.). (2007). rethinking assessment in higher education: learning for the longer term. london, uk: routledge. brindley, g. (2001) assessment, in carter, r. and nunan, d. (eds) the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages. cambridge: cambridge university press, pp.137-143. dempsey, c., xue, l., & kustec, s. (2009). language instruction for newcomers to canada: client profile and performance indicators. unpublished document. citizenship and immigration canada. dochy, f., segers, m., & sluijsmans, d. (1999). the use of self-, peer and co-assessment in higher education: a review. studies in higher education, 24(3), 331-350. doi:10.1080/03075079912331379935. entwistle, n. j. (1991). approaches to learning and perceptions of the learning environment. higher education, 22(3), 201-204. doi: 10.1007/bf00132287 entwistle, a. & entwistle, n. j. (1991). contrasting forms of understanding for degree examinations: the student experience and its implications. higher education, 22(3), 205227. doi:10.1007/bf00132288. fulcher, g. & davidson, f. (2007). language testing and assessment. london, england & new york, ny: routledge. heritage, m. (2007). formative assessment: what do teachers need to know and do? the phi delta kappan, 89(2), 140-145. doi:10.1177/003172170708900210. hu, g. (2002). potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: the case of communicative language teaching in china. language, culture and curriculum, 15(2), 93-105. doi:10.1080/07908310208666636. mudzingwa, c. (2015). portfolio-based language assessment (pbla): any evidence of standardization (of assessments)?. paper presented at the bc teal conference, may 22-25, the university of british columbia, vancouver. nunan, d. (1988). the learner-centred curriculum: a study in second language teaching. new york; cambridge [england];: cambridge university press nunan, d. (1989). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. drew & mudzingwa 18 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 o'malley, j. m. & pierce, l. v. (1996). authentic assessment for english language learners: practical approaches for teachers. new york: addison-wesley publishing company. pettis, j. (2014). portfolio-based language assessment (pbla): guide for teachers and programs. ottawa: centre for canadian language benchmarks. ramsden, p. (1997). the context of learning in academic departments. the experience of learning, 2, 198-216. rea-dickins, p. (2006). currents and eddies in the discourse of assessment: a learning-focused interpretation. international journal of applied linguistics, 16(2), 163-188. doi:10.1111/j.1473-4192.2006.00112.x. steadman, m. (1998). using classroom assessment to change both teaching and learning. new directions for teaching and learning, 1998(75), 23-35. doi:10.1002/tl.7503. stevenson, h. w. & lee, s. (1995) the east asian version of whole-class teaching. educational policy, 9(2), 152–168. stigler, j. w. & stevenson, h. w. (1991) how asian teachers polish each lesson to perfection. american educator: the professional journal of the american federation of teachers, 15(1), 12–20, 43–47. varela, e. (1997). authentic assessment for english language learners: practical approaches for teachers. tesol quarterly, 31(1), 188-189. doi: 10.2307/3587987. wang, j. & lin, e. (2009) a meta-analysis of comparative studies on chinese and us students’ mathematics performance: implications for mathematics education reform and research. educational research review, 4(3), 177–195. watkins, d. & bigg, j. b. (eds) (1996) teaching chinese learner: psychological and pedagogical perspective. hong kong/melbourne: comparative education research center, university of hong kong and australia council of educational research. xiao, z., & dyson, j. r. (1999). chinese students' perceptions of good accounting teaching. accounting education, 8(4), 341-361. zubizarreta, j. (2009). the learning portfolio: reflective practice for improving student learning. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. appendix a: the questionnaire please tick () the best answer that describes your situation. 1. in your previous language classes, did you write learning goals for your language learning?  yes  no 2. does writing learning goals in pbla help you in language learning?  yes  no 3. how helpful is it? 4 (very helpful) – 3 (helpful) – 2 (a little helpful) – 1 (not helpful) 4. provide a reason for your rating: 5. in your previous language classes, did the teacher assess and provide feedback on your language learning?  yes  no drew & mudzingwa 19 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 6. does teacher assessment and feedback in pbla help you in language learning?  yes  no 7. how helpful is it? 4 (very helpful) – 3 (helpful) – 2 (a little helpful) – 1 (not helpful) 8. provide a reason for your rating: 9. in your previous language classes, did students in the class assess each other’s language learning?  yes  no 10. does student (peer) assessment in pbla help you in language learning?  yes  no 11. how helpful is it? 4 (very helpful) – 3 (helpful) – 2 (a little helpful) – 1 (not helpful) 12. provide a reason for your rating: 13. in your previous language classes, did you assess your own language learning?  yes  no 14. does assessing your own language learning in pbla help you in language learning?  yes  no 15. how helpful is it? 4 (very helpful) – 3 (helpful) – 2 (a little helpful) – 1 (not helpful) 16. provide a reason for your rating: 17. in your previous language classes, were you asked to think about and reflect on your language learning?  yes  no 18. does thinking about and reflecting on your learning in pbla help you in language learning?  yes  no 19. how helpful is it? 4 (very helpful) – 3 (helpful) – 2 (a little helpful) – 1 (not helpful) 20. provide a reason for your rating: 21. in your previous language classes, did the teacher meet with you to discuss your language learning?  yes  no 22. does meeting and discussing with the teacher in pbla help you in language learning?  yes  no 23. how helpful is it? 4 (very helpful) – 3 (helpful) – 2 (a little helpful) – 1 (not helpful) 24. provide a reason for your rating: drew & mudzingwa 20 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 25. overall, how would you rate the pbla assessment model? (tick one)  excellent  above average  average  below average  extremely poor please provide a reason for your answer: 26. the pbla assessment model has helped improve your english language learning. (tick one)  strongly agree  agree  undecided  disagree  strongly disagree please provide a reason for your answer: classification information the following questions will be used to group the information only. all information will be kept confidential. please tick () the best answer. a. location/office:  redacted  redacted  redacted  redacted  redacted b. class level:  5  6  7  8 c. age:  17-24  25-34  35-44  45-54  55-64  65+ d. how long have you been studying in linc?  0-1 month  2-3 months  4-6 months  7 months-1 year  over 1 year e. country of origin:  china  iran  korea  nepal  russia  other: ________________________ f. level of education:  some high school  high school completion  some post-secondary  completed post-secondary certificate/diploma  completed bachelor’s degree  completed master’s degree  completed doctoral degree drew & mudzingwa 21 bc teal journal volume 3 number 1 (2018): 1–21 g. gender:  male  female  other the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ wu 13 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 factors contributing to tesol employment: a graduate perspective ziwei vera wu thompson rivers university abstract the profession of teaching english to speakers of other language (tesol) has experienced significant changes in the past decades, and career development in the contemporary era is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. this study aimed at finding the patterns and attractors that contribute to successful careers in tesol from the perspectives of graduates. data were collected through a comprehensive survey of international and canadian tesol certificate graduates at a mid-size university in british columbia and through interviews with several of the graduates. the results were analysed through the lens of the forms of capital (bourdieu, 1986) and chaos (bright & pryor, 2005) theories. the results indicated a significant diversity of tesol employment and the varied effectiveness of factors in career development amongst participants. graduates experienced challenges in terms of their tesol skills and their job search skills, with both being impacted by the forms of capital they held in the tesol profession. while tesol students and early career tesol professionals need to be more prepared for the complexity and unpredictability of tesol careers by continuously improving their forms of capital, tesol teacher educators, tesol program administrators, and tesol professional organizations should take the diverse needs of students with different backgrounds into consideration and provide long-term career support to build a robust tesol community. introduction how can recent graduates of a teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol) program find a job after they graduate? the job search after graduation has become a significant challenge for many graduates due to rapid changes in the labour market in general. some recent research has been concerned with the challenges of an enduring career in tesol (feaz & valeo, 2012; priddis et al., 2013); teacher attrition in the tesol profession (valeo & feaz, 2013), and seeking best practices of tesol education for teacher preparation (farrel, 2012; sandovallucero et al., 2011). farrel (2012) suggested that improvements in employment stability and support in the tesol industry could be slow with limited guarantees, and it requires graduates to be adaptive and confront their career challenges in the meantime. the tesol profession has experienced enormous changes in the past ten years, and the existing research is insufficient to provide a clear idea about how to better support tesol professionals to have an enduring career in the profession. thus, research is essential for tesol programs to identify areas of possible mismatch between the current demand in the workplace and the preparation offered in these tesol programs. research is also needed to inform current tesol students and novice tesol professionals, so that they will be more prepared to adapt to this competitive and sometimes unstable profession (faez & valeo, 2012). employment in tesol varies in different educational settings. to understand the tesol labour market and the employment level of graduates, as well as respond to my curiosity https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 14 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 about patterns of career success in tesol, this study explored the following research question: what factors contribute to tesol graduates finding tesol-related positions? literature review readiness of graduates tesol professionals, and novice teachers in particular, have expressed various concerns in their teaching practice due to a possible lack of readiness in diverse work settings. for example, although tesol programs mostly focus on teaching adult learners, some tesol professionals teach youth and children as both english as an additional language (eal) teachers and general school teachers. according to baecher (2012), those who were working in elementary schools were in need of collaborative learning models which were mainstream in the general school system but not prevalent in tesol education programs, while eal teachers working in high schools did not feel ready to meet the literacy needs of students with low english proficiency and personal issues such as poverty or undocumented immigration status. as reported by the teachers, it was a common practice to place english language learners (ells) in special education classes, but teachers in special education classrooms clearly stated their incapability in meeting the needs of ells (baecher, 2012). teachers also reported frustrations due to unpreparedness for jobs related to testing, assessment, and student placement (baecher, 2012). for teachers who specifically taught eal, major challenges were working in isolation, not having stable employment, and even not finding opportunities to start their careers in tesol (valeo & faez, 2013). other challenges also included the selection and evaluation of materials, and the lack of in-depth knowledge related to tesol (kiely & askham, 2012), which may contribute to a longer learning curve at work and during the transition to employment. another major reason for the low level of readiness is that most graduates seemed to lack an understanding of the tesol labour market and employment situations before they graduated from their tesol education programs (farrell, 2012; priddis et al., 2013; valeo & faez, 2013). they were not prepared for the challenges of the diversity of experiences and potential instability in tesol employment situations. theoretical frameworks chaos theory of careers. bright and pryor (2005) have theorized that modern careers are not linear paths anymore due to the rapid change of labour markets; instead, a career is more complex with multiple transitions influenced by both subjective and objective factors, as well as the interactions of these factors. for bright and pryor, attractors are the influential factors that impact career trajectories. traditional theories of career trajectories follow a linear cause-effect model that describes ideal situations, but bright and pryor have stated that career development in the modern era is impacted by unpredictable attractors and trends which result in the emergence of patterns during phase shifts in careers, with no “ideal” situations. given the complexity and changing dynamics of contemporary career development, bright and pryor’s chaos theory of careers provides a conceptual framework to understand and incorporate the nonlinearity and excursiveness of career development instead of focusing on the traditional cause and effects. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 15 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 it can be put forward that the career paths of tesol graduates do not have predictable linear results from certain causes. instead, they are trajectories influenced by the complex interactions of individual features, such as bright and pryor’s (2005) attractors. as unpredictable events do influence career paths, the emphasis should be on understanding “the process and the patterns in careers rather than on defining or predicting stable variables as outcomes” (bright & pryor, 2005, p. 296). thus, this theory provides a conceptual lens to view the data in the current study more comprehensively than focusing on or expecting the “average” or “ideal” experience. however, it is necessary to be aware that, instead of looking into all aspects of graduates’ lives as chaos theory would recommend, this study only focuses on the particular period of time from the graduation from the tesol certificate program to the data collection, due to the limits of time and resources. bourdieu and human capital. bourdieu (1986) categorized the different forms of capital that a person can hold into economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital. while economic capital includes the ownership of a property and social capital focuses on the effectiveness of interpersonal connections, cultural capital emphasizes the value of what a person owns from the perspectives of personal, societal, and institutional culture. for bourdieu, the three guises of capital function differently for each person, and require different costs to transform from one to another. cultural capital consists of three states including the objectified state (such as owning a bowl with particular cultural symbols on it or owning a car that shows the social class it represents), institutionalized state (such as earning a master’s degree), and the embodied state (such as establishing an identity as a tesol professional, or recognizing the importance of writing). it is also noteworthy that there are potential connections between the different forms of capital (bourdieu, 1986), and these connections correspond to aspects of chaos theory. for example, based on bourdieu’s (1986) understanding of capital, a cultural object can only be a kind of economic capital if the object does not have any links with the embodied culture of a person. similarly, an institutionalized state of cultural capital is very likely to connect with an embodied state of cultural capital if the institutional recognition is based on the growth of a person in terms of professional experience and knowledge. the institutionalized state of cultural capital can also link to social capital when it directly improves the value of social connections, and to economic capital when it directly contributes to an income or an increase of income. while the connections of transformation are not necessarily direct from one to another, each transfer of capital happens with particular reasons and patterns. figure 1 illustrates bourdieu’s possible connections between the forms of capital and the states of cultural capital. figure 1. potential connections between different forms of capital (bourdieu, 1986). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 16 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 understanding the complex connections between these concepts is meaningful to the analysis of data related to career paths. the interconnections or potential connections reflect the complexity of career development. the theory related to cultural capital helps unpack the complexity by providing insights into the possible links between the key concepts with a framework that clarifies and categorizes the information. by using the frameworks of human capital and chaos theory to unpack the experiences of tesol graduates in their tesol careers, the experiences can be broken down into various layers that contribute differently to their career paths. while two vastly different experiences might bring about similar effects due to a key aspect they share, similar experiences might impact careers variously depending on the role the experiences play in the contexts. the credential of the tesol certificate graduates received is an institutionalized level of cultural capital; however, it is interesting to see the different impacts the same credential can have on the experiences of different individuals holding various types and levels of capital. methods the data collection for this study included two parts: a survey and interviews, as outlined in figure 2. the survey provided descriptive data including both quantitative statistics and qualitative information. quantitative analysis included calculating averages for the survey responses and presenting the results graphically. the range of the responses was also taken into account. where applicable, a paired t-test was carried out to compare two sets of responses, and a pearson correlation was calculated to investigate the relationship between different sets of responses. the interviews provided more qualitative details to support insights into particular cases, with salient representative quotes identified in the data to illustrate key findings. in general, elements of case study methods were applied to collect and analyse the data (creswell, 2013; yin, 2009). figure 2. research design. a convergence model of triangulation design and concurrent mixed analysis (creswell & clark, 2017) was applied to this research. the survey and interviews were conducted separately, and the data from both sources were analysed independently. afterwards, data from both sources were analysed and integrated in the discussion. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 17 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 tesol program context the research was conducted with graduates of a tesol program at a medium size university in british columbia. this program is a 15-credit post-baccalaureate program with five courses that include both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. the program has been running for more than ten years. students need a completed university degree in any discipline to be eligible for applying to the program. non-native english-speaking applicants also need to prove their english competency by achieving a score in a toefl or ielts exam, equivalent to clb level 7/8. graduates of the program are prepared to teach both in canada and internationally, working with learners of different ages. participants the participants for this study consisted of 40 graduates who have completed the tesol program. twenty-one participants completed the entire survey, and 19 participants completed the survey partially with valid responses that informed the results for some sections. the ages of survey participants ranged from 22 to 65, with 13 males, 26 females, and one person selfidentified as lgbtq+. there were three interview participants, including one male (mr. dream), aged 31, and two females, aged 24 (scarlett) and 51 (robynn), respectively. the names are pseudonyms. the participants graduated with their tesol certificates between 2005 and 2017, including both domestic graduates and international graduates. graduates might be working or have worked in their home countries, in canada, or other countries. survey the survey explored participants’ background information, employment history, involvement in the tesol profession, career goals, career-enhancing academic and non-academic factors, and program factors that may contribute to employment. all of the likert scales were consistent, with five representing extremely positive and one representing totally negative. as the survey was conducted electronically through fluid survey, the tesol alumni located in different parts of the world were able to participate through the link sent out by email and their responses were received online through the electronic database. interviews the three interview participants also represent the three main categories of tesol students: a) canadian students who have just graduated with their bachelor degrees; b) international students who are doing or have done their degree programs; and c) mature students who are looking to transition their career into tesol; however, their experiences were not intended to represent that of all the graduates in the identified groups. results graduates reported their ideal jobs and their status in terms of professional involvement and rated the effectiveness of different factors for facilitating their tesol careers according to their individual career experiences. the findings demonstrated a wide diversity of experiences in https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 18 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 tesol careers and an inconsistency between career goals and career experiences. the factors included in the survey were reflected in and fairly comprehensive according to the literature and experience of tesol faculty, as participants responded to the likert scales without suggesting any additional factors in the comment space or open response and most of the factors received a relatively wide range of rates. professional involvement among the six types of professional activities (see figure 3), 59% of the participants had teaching experience during or before the tesol certificate program, and 77.3% of the participants had attended professional conferences. yet only 41% of the participants were members of a tesol professional organization, and less than 23% of the graduates had been active in giving academic presentations, carrying out research, and writing publications. figure 3. professional involvement. among those who had teaching experience prior to or during the tesol program, they rated 3.46 out of 5 in terms of how helpful the previous teaching experience was to obtaining employment, with a range from 2, not very helpful, to 5, which means extremely helpful. according to the comments under this question, although any teaching experience may aid graduates with the teaching activities in their jobs, it may not aid them in finding employment. in other words, having previous teaching experience was cultural capital for the job of teaching, but it lacked value as capital during the job search process. regarding ideal tesol jobs, while some young canadian graduates in the study looked to teach overseas, international graduates may have been seeking employment in canada and some mature graduates were aiming at a career transition into tesol at the same time as working around other professional or life commitments, with specific expectations of whether to look for work overseas or locally. interestingly, an inconsistency was found between the ideal tesol jobs of graduates and their professional involvement. for example, many graduates reported their interest in being a university instructor, yet they were not highly involved in professional activities. some were interested in teaching in the k-12 system, yet they had not https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 19 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 obtained a teacher certification for that educational setting. some reported having an inadequate resume or english proficiency as reasons for not being employed. the vast majority of participants reported their lack of qualifications for their ideal jobs. meanwhile, participants reported that, overall, they were not highly involved in the tesol profession other than for fulfilling their employment duties and attending conferences, which were more passive activities in terms of career development. on the other hand, activities such as making an academic presentation or carrying out research could be seen as more active forms of professional involvement; however, only a small proportion of the participants were involved in these activities. academic activities figure 4 presents the average perceptions of graduates regarding how helpful the listed academic activities were to their careers in tesol. owning academic credentials, including a tesol certificate, undergraduate degree, and graduate degree, ranked at the top among all the activities. figure 4. impacts of academic activities. the next group of valuable academic factors were academic involvement, including research (such as for a master thesis), publications, and presentations at conferences. while most participants lacked an active involvement in professional development according to the last section, they recognized the effectiveness of active professional involvement. the least effective factors were gpa and membership in a professional organization. participants acknowledged the importance of professional involvement, yet membership in professional organizations was not considered to be valuable to their career development. the reputation of the university appeared to be more influential than gpa and some active professional involvement in terms of perceived impact on career progression. despite reporting the averages, it is also noteworthy that participants demonstrated a wide range of variety in their responses. all the factors, except for gpa and university reputation, had a range of responses from 2 to 5, while the three factors formerly mentioned had a range from 1 to 5 in the same item. in other words, a factor might have been valuable in the career of one graduate while having little impact in the career of another. as the factors were 4.05 3.86 3.81 3.63 3.63 3.55 3.50 3.41 3.14 3.09 2.81 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 tesl certificate graduate degree undergraduate degree master thesis conference university reputation presentation publication professional organization membership tesl gpa undergraduate gpa https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 20 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 rated by participants according to their own tesol career experiences, the range of rates demonstrated the complexity and the various uniqueness of individuals and their career experiences. teaching experience and skills according to the responses, teaching experience and skills, on average, had a higher effect on the career success of tesol graduates than academic activities and other factors (see figure 5). among all types of teaching experiences, tesol-related teaching experience was significantly more effective than non-tesol teaching experience in facilitating career development. in addition, only basic computer skills were reported to be significant in a tesol career. figure 5. impacts of teaching experience and skills. compared with whether a participant had teaching experience, transferable skills, including understanding non-english cultures and english cultures, and the ability to assess english ability of students, designing appropriate activities for a class, teaching multilevel or multilingual classes, and developing student-oriented instructional materials, were essential to careers in tesol. other important skills also included managing conflicts in the classroom, adapting to different class sizes, and teaching students of different ages (such as children and youth). although teaching students with special needs, knowledge of existing language-teaching software and online resources, advanced computer skills, and experience as research assistants in tesol were not reported to be essential, these items still had average rates above 3.50 out of 5. the rates of essential skills in tesol teaching had the least variety among all the factors. 4.55 4.50 4.45 4.45 4.45 4.41 4.41 4.41 4.36 4.23 4.18 4.09 4.05 3.91 3.81 3.59 3.55 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 design activities tesol experience basic computer skills teaching multi-level class understanding of non-english cultures understanding of english cultures teaching multilingual class assessing english ability developing materials managing conflicts in class teaching multi-age class non-tesol teaching experience teaching different class sizes teaching students with speacial needs knowledge of education technology advanced computer skills tesol research assistant experience https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 21 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 other factors factors other than the categories abovementioned were also included in the survey. english skills were indicated to be a key factor for both canadian and international participants. openness to different opportunities, persistence in the job search, and having a network of staff through the tesol program seemed to be valuable in the careers of the participants. in addition, the other factors as shown in figure 6 were also still influential on career development, with an average rating over 3.60. figure 6. impacts of other factors. the three main themes appearing in the interviews in terms of factors impacting career transitions were personal factors, the job search process, and adaptations in the workplace. mature students were affected more by personal factors and less by job search skills than new graduates who experienced fewer limitations in the types of jobs they could choose but limited experience to rely on to obtain those jobs. all three types of students made important adaptations to their workplace after graduation from the program. personal factors. career transition involved many personal decisions in terms of life goals and career goals that were impacted by personality, previous experience and background, and preferences for work and travel destinations. mature students had more specific goals that motivated the decision to take a tesol program. in the case of robynn, who had experience in teaching adults and curriculum development, she had a source for job information before taking the tesol certificate, and she had a plan for teaching. she did not express any struggle with her job search and described a relatively smooth transition into a teaching job specifically as she expected. as mature graduates were experienced in the transitional process with their transferable skills acquired from their 4.70 4.32 4.09 4.00 3.86 3.86 3.86 3.77 3.68 3.64 3.64 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 english skills openness to opportunities persistence network through tesl faculty network through tesl program financial stability recidency of canada network through tesl students extroverted personality non-english language skills willingness to relocate https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 22 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 previous careers, they were more prepared even before entering the tesol program, so their post-graduation plans were more likely to work out with less unexpected incidents. while the survey results indicated an uncertain attitude towards the importance of personal factors, the interview results show that personal factors were actually influential factors, especially during career transitions. scarlett described the struggles trying to find her personal preferences of employment in terms of job duties, geographic locations, and cultures, and stated “i don’t know what i want to do exactly.” she also expressed her unwillingness to work in entrylevel jobs with a minimum wage, such as retail or serving, and her limited financial situation. she said, “[i] wasn’t in a position where i can wait you know a month or two to find a job, i needed to be doing something right now.” robynn chose the tesol program also partly because she “was moving to [the city where the program was located]” and “noticed that there were a lot of employment opportunities to teach english as a second language.” mr. dream had partly decided his personal preferences for employment when he came to study in canada: “as an international myself, as a person who is driven to get a degree in canada, my main goal in the end was to get my immigration document, my permanent residency in the country,” and he considered the tesol program because of his mother’s suggestion. moreover, some international graduates from non-native english speaking (nnes) backgrounds also reported in the survey that their english skills had limited their career opportunities in tesol. although, these personal factors seemed to be a small part of a tesol career; they were an influential part of the complexity of career decisions and unpredictability of career trajectories in tesol. job search. searching for work in tesol was generally reported in both the survey and interviews as a significant challenge for new graduates with not enough previous experience to rely on. sources of information played an essential role in the job search process. mature students took much less time in searching for a job due to their ability and experience in the job search than younger canadian graduates and international graduates. robynn had very reliable sources of information about career and job postings in tesol where she planned to stay and teach, which led to her decision to take the tesol program to meet the hiring requirements. her level of preparedness in adapting to a career in tesol also facilitated her job search after graduation. she received her first job offer right after she graduated. “it happened so fast that i didn’t really have a chance to think about it,” said robynn. meanwhile, scarlett found it challenging to find reliable sources of job information and properly interpret the job postings. mr. dream directly stated, “i have to be honest with you that my transition to the esl workplace has not been an easy one” because he was unfamiliar with the job market culture in canada. graduates also expressed such needs overwhelmingly in the survey responses to recommendation to the tesol program, which will be discussed in the next section. adaptations to the workplace. the adaptations were usually reflected in job skills such as curriculum design or teaching methods. robynn “had to put in some pretty long hours to develop some material” to meet the needs of her students because “the curriculum provided...has a lot of gaps”. she also sought advice from the tesol instructors to adapt to teaching multilevel classes. scarlett, on the other hand, had to adapt to a different teaching method than what she was used to: https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 23 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 i think one of the biggest transitions is…my school uses the direct method...and...there’s nothing wrong…ok. of course in our program we definitely learned more communicative than anything else...and when i came here, i had to learn to teach in a direct method. …we come from a program that was a very communicative base and i’m in a direct method school. i definitely have some issues sometimes. apart from the teaching method, she also had to adjust to a teaching schedule that changed weekly, and her teaching was usually not during regular work hours because her students could be working full-time. impacts of the tesol certificate program participants provided positive feedback about the effectiveness of the tesol certificate program. all the courses were rated over 4.10, among which the tesol practicum ranked at the top of the list, followed by tesol curriculum and instruction. participants rated tesol pedagogical grammar and tesol techniques at a similar level in terms of effectiveness in their career, which was slightly higher than the tesol intercultural communication studies course. these results are outlined in figure 7. figure 7. impacts of courses in tesol program. participants also rated how helpful the tesol program was as to the factors related to career development in tesol (see figure 8). the program was efficient in supporting students with career networking and building a supportive community for graduates, yet there was a gap identified in improving the skills of graduates, especially the skills of teaching students at different ages and teaching different class sizes. in addition, the participants did not identify that the tesol program significantly improved their english skills as it might not have been considered as a part of the aim of the program. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 24 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 figure 8. impacts of tesol program on career factors vs. effectiveness of factors to career development. applying the same likert scale, the responses also reflected a gap between participants’ sense of preparedness for tesol careers and their satisfaction levels with their tesol careers (see figure 9). with the same range of rates (1-5), overall, a higher level of preparedness was reported compared to the level of career satisfaction. this difference demonstrated that while graduates felt the tesol certificate program prepared them for their post-graduation careers, they only had a medium level of satisfaction in their subsequent tesol careers. figure 9. preparedness vs. satisfaction levels. two tests were run to analyse whether there was a significant difference between satisfaction levels and preparedness, and whether these two factors were related. a paired t-test showed that the rates of preparedness were higher than that of career satisfaction (t(19) = 3.56, p ≤ .002). moreover, a pearson correlation analysis found that the levels of preparedness and that of career satisfaction were fairly related (r = .67, p = .001). overall, according to the attribution and correlation analysis, the two items changed relatedly with a gap in between. there was no significant difference for these two items based on gender (p ≥ .861). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 25 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 according to the qualitative responses, graduates mainly had challenges during the job seeking process in spite of the fact that they had the certification needed for tesol-related jobs. as a result, although there was no course suggested to be added into the program, a majority of participants suggested improving support in teaching students with special needs, at different ages, or with different sexual orientations, in doing administrative jobs, and in career development (such as career mentoring). for graduates from nnes backgrounds, the intensiveness of the program was also reported to be challenging as they needed more exposure and practice in teaching in a different teaching culture with various approaches as well as in improving their english skills. in spite of the various levels of preparedness and satisfaction, more specific information behind these numbers was captured in the open responses and interviews. all three interviewees described very positive experiences overall in the tesol program. they benefited mainly from the instructors in the tesol program, the multiple methods of teaching with a focus on students, the practicum in which they gained hands-on teaching experience, and the learning community built into the cohort nature of the program. participants, especially mature graduates who were seeking a career transition, reported that they developed a sense of purpose in teaching and felt comfortable and confident through studying in the program. a main reconsideration of the learning experience in the tesol certificate program was the intensity of the program. depending on their previous experience, acquisition of tesol related skills prior to the program, and preferred learning styles, graduates experienced different learning curves during their studies in the tesol program. instructors. instructors were reported to have a significant impact on the learning of graduates by modelling teaching with different methods and being student-centred in an eal classroom, supporting and caring for tesol students during their learning and practice, and motivating tesol students with their great passion in the learning and teaching of tesol and eal. instructors were the main support for the graduates both during and after the program. young canadian graduates like scarlett were very appreciative about the fact that the instructors of the program were supportive, caring, and passionate about teaching: the teacher had such passion for the program and...they really did care about, like you know, what we were doing after teaching and all the stuff. i just felt they were very interested in us as people, and for me that was really good like umm i felt close to them. they would (find the...share of things) they have done, or things that are possible through the program. they were very invested in us finding a job after university...and what not. mr. dream, as an international graduate, also supported the idea that the program was informative and up-to-date because of the instructors: they teach you a lot of the methodology and the process of what is it like to be an esl teacher in the field. so they were really up to date with everything. … the teacher of the class will actually tell you what you need to improve, what you need to…what was good that you taught and everything. so they were very careful in each and every step of the way. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 26 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 the support of instructors happened not only during the program but also after students had graduated, even for mature graduates like robynn: well, i’ve gone back to my previous instructors for a few times for advice…i’m not afraid to ask for help. and i have, and they responded like “of course come on in” and had great conversations. provided me with resources or advice. for sure. and i felt that that was open, when i graduated. …there’s no hesitation about getting in touch with them. instructors overall were presented as role models and as a significantly influential factor in the tesol program in all cases. the connection with instructors facilitated the practices of graduates directly by providing support, resources, and guidance during and after the program. pedagogical focus. although not all of the three cases specifically identified preferences for pedagogy in eal classrooms, the program had a strong focus on student-oriented, communicative methods while providing exposure to other teaching methods in class. robynn, teaching in an organization with a similar style preference, found it very helpful to have the communicative approach discussed in detail and demonstrated in almost all of the tesol classes. it was also consistent with her previous experience as a curriculum developer: “what is similar [to my previous background] is … there’re a lot of emphasis was put in my adult education training on understanding the students and being very student-focus, and that’s very similar.” scarlett appreciated the exposure to different methods; yet, as a young graduate who experienced mostly canadian education, she encountered a major transition in teaching with the direct method in her workplace overseas. she needed support from her employer to address the challenges of applying a new method that wasn’t common in her training. practicum. another very influential part of the tesol program was the practicum, which was consistent with the survey data shown in figure 7. in spite of whether they took the practicum in a separate semester or not, graduates reported significant learning and improvements in the practicum. mr. dream stated that the practicum was significant for an international student teacher like him: …you don’t get just to learn about it on paper but you also get to do it in front of an actual class. …the teacher of the class will actually tell you what you need to improve, …what was good that you taught… students felt supported in the practicum class in which they applied the learning from other courses and developed their teaching skills that were directly transferable to the workplace. the practicum was a significant source of exposure to teaching english. mr. dream did his practicum in two different settings and experienced the challenge of keeping students focused and interested, which was similar to what he may still experience in a subsequent teaching job. in https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 27 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 addition, robynn, as a mature professional in adult education, also highly appreciated the practicum: …there’s so many observations that was built into the practicum, it doesn’t feel like all of a sudden you’re standing in front of a classroom and you’re overwhelmed by “well i haven’t really finished the course work yet and i don’t know really know what i’m doing” mature students were also provided a safe space to integrate their previous experience into a tesol setting before going into the workplace. nevertheless, a component missing in the data was the professional connections. participants did not mention this benefit of the practicum in either the survey responses or the interviews. supportive community. an efficient supportive community that facilitated learning and practice in tesol was built through a cohort base during the time when students were in the tesol program. this community consisted of students, instructors, sponsor teachers of student teachers in their practicum, and sometimes even tesol alumni who were involved in tesol classes as guests or on campus as staff members. it is a continuous community supporting graduates both practically and emotionally when they encountered challenges or stress in the workplace or life in general. as robynn stated: i’ve gone back to my previous instructors for a few times for advice … and i felt that that was open when i graduated. i never felt...like there’s no hesitation about getting in touch with them. scarlett also enjoyed the learning community as she appreciated its impact on her learning experience in the tesol program: i really enjoyed it …we were a lot closer than i had been in any other class because of course we spent all our classes together …i guess kinda of sense of community. the community played an important role in the career of tesol graduates especially during the transition from being a student teacher to working as a tesol professional in the field. discussions & recommendations reconsideration of readiness at the macro level, career development in the modern era is chaotic. meanwhile, at the micro level, the capital a graduate holds can be a chaotic system in itself as the interaction of factors in professional and personal life can be complex and unpredictable, and this complexity makes defining readiness even more difficult. having reconsidered the meaning of career success, i also believe that the concept of readiness is worth reconsideration. traditionally, readiness is about how ready a graduate is to perform the job they are trained for. however, according to the results of this study, in tesol, not only is there no one specific job (teaching) that graduates are entering into, but the graduates also have to cope with diverse employment conditions in a https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 28 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 changing labour market and the need to increase their own capital to facilitate their careers. in the contemporary era with chaotic career development, the readiness of tesol graduates includes not only the skills for teaching the english language, but also career development skills, maturity, and characters that adapt to uncertainty in order to successfully and actively facilitate their career progression. in other words, graduates need to be ready for the possible variety of tesol jobs where they might be employed in and out of the tesol profession, and also for the uncertainty in their career development. career development in tesol the needs of students in tesol programs can be very different. while the intent is not to generalize, the three types of graduates profiled in the interviews were consistent with the survey data in this study. the survey responses and the three interviews showed different focuses and challenges in terms of learning in tesol and career transitions. in an attempt to demonstrate the emerging patterns from the diverse career paths of participants, figure 10 proposes a possible framework for considering the intersectionality of the three demographic groups. figure 10. challenges experienced by tesol graduates. in the current study, young canadian graduates had more interest in seeking employment overseas, and international graduates and mature graduates were more likely to favour jobs in canada. mature graduates focused more on pedagogy during their studies and work, but younger graduates, both international and canadian, had more concerns about the job search and career development. these different goals led to diverse learning needs in a tesol classroom. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 29 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 along with diverse needs found in this study, graduates also held different types and levels of capital. mature graduates demonstrated the capital related to the job search and career development skills, oftentimes with previous related work experience which facilitated their career progression. novice graduates in the study usually lacked these skills and experience but were more open to different opportunities, especially to overseas teaching positions, and they could adapt to less stable circumstances because of fewer other commitments and responsibilities, such as family and children. international graduates, especially nnes, may have had better knowledge and experience about eal learners, but their nnes status might have had an impact on their employment (moussu & llurda, 2008). based on the findings in this study, tesol programs should recognize the diversity of student needs and take them into consideration during program design and promotion. considering the different levels and kinds of capital and needs of graduates in the current study, the skills to cope and navigate the chaos seemed to be required cultural capital for tesol career development. according to the data from the survey and the interviews, participants identified career development skills in addition to job search skills, such as finding reliable information sources, resume and cover letter writing, professional networking, and interview skills. personality characteristics (such as perseverance) and career planning skills such as time management, goal setting, taking action, and active involvement in the profession were also important. it appears that tesol graduates need to develop these skills and thus increase their capital along with their tesol studies in order to be ready for tesol employment as well as the chaotic nature of the tesol profession. recommendations tesol education is more than delivering the courses of a tesol program; it also includes preparing graduates for future careers in tesol and supporting them in their career development. for tesol program students, a proactive attitude in the tesol profession will benefit both the individuals and the profession. graduates should have the perseverance and courage to increase their human capital through every opportunity they encounter. graduates need not only tesol skills but also job searching and general employment skills to obtain tesol employment. additionally, each active involvement in professional development can add a stepping stone for career development and increase the capital that facilitates career success. from the administrative perspective, in order to support the diverse learning needs in tesol programs effectively, having small class sizes is a way to ensure the quality of learning and teaching (glass & smith, 1979). furthermore, tesol programs need to be reviewed and updated constantly in response to changes in the tesol profession and labour market, and ensure that graduates have enough exposure to different teaching settings and experience before graduation. tesol programs should also consider the possibility of post-graduation support for graduates who experience career challenges and a regular process for students and graduates to provide meaningful feedback. instructors have a significant impact on the career development of graduates. during the teaching of tesol courses, instructors should consider the diversity of learning needs of their https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 30 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 students and try to accommodate differences in learning needs through curriculum design and lesson planning and delivery. it is also possible to incorporate and model the accommodation of student needs as part of the content of the tesol program, such as introducing more diverse teaching methods, as graduates may encounter similar levels of diversity in their future tesol careers. lastly, maintaining connections with students after graduation was identified in the current study as an effective way for tesol instructors to offer career advice and support graduates to continuously improve their tesol skills. with a high level of diversity in tesol employment, tesol employers should review hiring protocols. while it is still a common practice to have “native english speaker” as a job requirement, despite the local tesol professional organization’s opposition to discrimination on the basis of linguistic background (bc teal, 2014), this does not reflect the diversity in tesl graduates. in addition, employers should take on the responsibility of supporting tesol professionals to adapt into different work settings by providing a budget for additional training, professional development, and benefits in addition to an adequate salary. this is applicable regarding not only novice professionals but also mature professionals because a new workplace may include some aspects that one has never experienced before. tesol professional organizations, such as bc teal and tesol international, have been key providers of professional development opportunities, with organizations such as these building tesol communities to promote stronger professionalism. these types of organizations are raising awareness for the public about tesol issues by establishing professional standards and generating and facilitating conversations. professional organizations should work to address the challenges of tesol employment and expand the professional community, such as by providing membership discounts for new professionals, mentorship opportunities in career development and research, and more opportunities of involvement for in-training professionals. limitations & research recommendations this study has a number of limitations. first, the impacts of various changes might not be reflected in the research. specifically, the information collected may not include changes in the labour market or changes in the societal environment of the tesol profession, such as the increasing popularity of global study and work abroad opportunities, the more open discussion of diversity and inclusion, and an improved awareness of tesol qualifications. the environment and demands in work tesol graduates face may have changed as the world is increasingly globalized. changes in the tesol program, which may influence what the graduates have gained from the program, are also not considered in the current research. the number of the sample is smaller than expected as a result of the length of the survey and limited access to the survey. the data were collected in a four-week period before the survey was closed. due to the small sample size, most of the correlative analyses were not applicable. the research design might have been limited by my previous mindset of looking for what graduates should specifically do to improve their careers. however, each participant in this study narrated a unique career story. for research on the career paths of tesol graduates, qualitative methods, such as narrative inquiry or case studies, seem to be a more comprehensive method for https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 wu 31 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 capturing details that can support the analysis of career development, and using narrative inquiry or case study methods is a possible road for future studies. for further research, the complexity and dynamics of changes should be taken into consideration from the beginning and integrated into the research design. an example would be to use case study or narrative inquiry methodology to explore the career paths of graduates through the lenses of chaos theory and capital with an understanding of the new meaning of readiness. further quantitative research with larger sample sizes and a balance among genders, nationalities, native languages, and specific demographic groups would also make it possible for more correlative analysis to be conducted. it may also be interesting to delve into whether the motivation for taking a tesol program is an impactful factor of an enduring tesol career, and how the transferable skills acquired in a tesol program impact graduates’ careers and employment. acknowledgements this research would not have been possible without the support of dr. karen densky, dr. patrick walton, dr. kyra garson, dr. sandra kouritzin, alexandra church, susan forseille, and kathy gaynor. references bc teal. (2014). bc teal position statement against discrimination on the grounds of nationality, ethnicity, or linguistic heritage. retrieved from https://www.bcteal.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/11/agm-teal-statementagainstdiscrimination-passed.pdf bc teal. (2018). bc teal facts and benefits [webpage]. retrieved from https://www.bcteal.org/membership/#bc_teal_facts_and_benefits bourdieu, p. (1986). the forms of capital. in handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. in j. richardson (ed.). new york, ny: macmillan. breshears, s. (2017, winter). understanding the employment conditions of eal instructors of adults in british columbia. teal news, 19–21. retrieved from https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/teal-news-winter-2017.pdf bright, j.e., & pryor, r.g. (2005). the chaos theory of careers: a user's guide. the career development quarterly, 53(4), 291–305. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.21610045.2005.tb00660.x creswell, j.w. (2013). research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). los angeles, ca: sage publications. creswell, j.w., & clark, v.l.p. (2017). designing and conducting mixed methods research. los angeles, ca: sage publications. faez, f., & valeo, a. (2012). tesol teacher education: novice teachers' perceptions of their preparedness and efficacy in the classroom. tesol quarterly, 46(3), 450–471. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.37 farrell, t.s. (2012). novice-service language teacher development: bridging the gap between preservice and in-service education and development. tesol quarterly, 46(3), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.36 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/agm-teal-statementagainstdiscrimination-passed.pdf https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/agm-teal-statementagainstdiscrimination-passed.pdf https://www.bcteal.org/membership/#bc_teal_facts_and_benefits https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/teal-news-winter-2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2005.tb00660.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2005.tb00660.x https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.37 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.36 wu 32 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 13–32 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 glass, g.v., & smith, m.l. (1979). meta-analysis of research on class size and achievement. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 1(1), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737001001002 kiely, r., & askham, j. (2012). furnished imagination: the impact of preservice teacher training on early career work in tesol. tesol quarterly, 46(3), 496–518. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.39 moussu, l., & llurda, e. (2008). non-native english-speaking english language teachers: history and research. language teaching, 41(03), 315–348. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444808005028 priddis, e., tanner, m.e., henrichsen, l.e., warner, b. anderson, n.j. & dewey, d.p. (2013). career path trends of alumni from a u.s. tesol graduate program. the electronic journal for english as a second language, 17(3). retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1017859.pdf sandoval-lucero, e., shanklin, n.l., sobel, d.m., townsend, s.s., davis, a., & kalisher, s. (2011). voices of beginning teachers: do paths to preparation make a difference? education, 132(2), 336–351. valeo, a., & faez, f. (2013). career development and professional attrition of novice esl teachers of adults. tesl canada journal, 31(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v31i1.1164 yin, r. k. (2009). case study research and applications: design and methods (4th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-non commercial-no derivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/336 https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737001001002 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.39 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444808005028 http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1017859.pdf https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v31i1.1164 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ gilman & norton 1 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 storybooks canada, english language learners, and the school curriculum michelle gilman university of british columbia bonny norton university of british columbia abstract given the large number of students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds in canadian schools, our study investigates to what extent an open access multilingual digital platform, storybooks canada (https://www.storybookscanada.ca/), might serve the interests of elementary school english language learners. our study drew on insights from 13 experienced language tutors across greater vancouver, each volunteering for a local organization in an after-school program for multilingual learners. we sought to determine how the diverse stories on the storybooks canada platform could be used in classrooms and homes in british columbia and canada. we investigated a range of questions, including the following: is storybooks canada a helpful resource to improve student reading? can storybooks canada be used to build home/school partnerships? how can the stories be used within the british columbia curriculum? we then did a follow-up study of british columbia’s english language arts curriculum in order to align the stories with curricular mandates. our findings suggest that, given the universal themes of the stories, and the 18 languages available in text and audio, storybooks canada is a valuable tool for the maintenance of the first language, while supporting english language learning. further, links between the stories and the british columbia curriculum may be helpful for teachers within and beyond british columbia. we conclude with the hope that storybooks canada, and other derivative sites on the global storybooks portal (https://globalstorybooks.net), might support english language learners in canada and the international community. introduction according to the 2016 canadian census (statistics canada, 2016), more than 7 million canadians speak a language other than english or french as a mother tongue. further, canadians who speak an immigrant mother tongue rose in number by almost a million between 2011 and 2016, and now represent 22.3% of canada’s population. our study investigates how an open access multilingual digital platform, storybooks canada (https://www.storybookscanada.ca/), might serve the interests of children who wish to learn english and also maintain their mother tongue. as explained more comprehensively in stranger-johannessen, doherty, and norton (2018), storybooks canada is a free digital innovation, collaboratively developed at the university of british columbia to help promote the multilingual literacy of children and youth in canada and the global community. by repurposing a selection of open-licensed stories from the african storybook initiative, the storybooks canada platform has 40 illustrated stories, in text and audio, in 18 of the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of canada, including mandarin, cantonese, punjabi, arabic, and somali, as well as english and french. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 https://www.storybookscanada.ca/ https://globalstorybooks.net/ https://www.storybookscanada.ca/ gilman & norton 2 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 indigenous storybooks (http://www.indigenousstorybooks.ca/), a sister site of storybooks canada, led by haida scholar sara davidson, is being developed to respectfully incorporate indigenous stories and content that may be useful in canadian classrooms and beyond. other derivatives of storybooks canada are now freely available on the global storybooks portal (https://globalstorybooks.net/), which includes over 40 countries across five continents (norton, stranger-johannessen, & doherty, 2020). while there are other digital stories online, storybooks canada and other global storybooks sites are unique in that users can toggle between two languages of the same story in order to promote language learning. stories can be read on diverse mobile devices, such as cellphones and laptops, and can also be downloaded and printed in multiple formats. to investigate the relevance of storybooks canada for young english language learners, we conducted a small case study with 13 experienced language tutors working with elementary school-age multilingual learners in bc schools. our research questions were as follows: 1) is storybooks canada a helpful resource to improve student reading? 2) how can the stories be used to promote early reading? 3) which stories are best for one-on-one vs. group teaching? 4) can storybooks canada be used to build home/school partnerships? 5) how can the stories be used within the new bc curriculum? we then did a follow-up study of the bc curriculum in order to identify links between the 40 stories and the english language arts curriculum. we begin this article by describing our conceptual framework, and then address our main study and its findings. we then turn to our follow-up study of the bc curriculum and the links we established between the stories on the platform and the bc language arts curriculum. we conclude with the hope that the storybooks canada digital platform and other freely available sites on the global storybooks portal may prove to be a useful resource for english language learners in canada and the international community. conceptual framework globalization and digitization have reshaped the communication landscape, deeply altering language and literacy education (lotherington & jenson, 2011). with reference to early childhood education more specifically, the social context for early childhood literacy development has shifted from an exclusively print-based medium toward a more robust semiotic field that includes a variety of digital media (razfar & yang, 2010). research has found that digital innovations can be used to support and develop minority languages and multilingual literacy in new ways, specifically by providing a commonly accessible platform through which free multilingual resources for use in classrooms and at home are made available (darvin & norton, 2014; hare et al., 2017). in addition to traditional print-based books, children across all socioeconomic groups engage with electronic picture storybooks available on the internet (kim & anderson, 2008). it is therefore important for educators to make meaningful connections between the digital world and school-based curricula in order to make education more relevant to young english language learners. as stated by boyd (2003), “multicultural literature in the overall english language arts curriculum… is long overdue and positive change to the study of literature offers teachers and students a more realistic reflection of society, history, education, and schools” (p. 461). in terms of literature, themes centred on race, ethnicity, culture, and languages are commonly considered https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 http://www.indigenousstorybooks.ca/ https://globalstorybooks.net/ gilman & norton 3 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 important characteristics of diversity (boyd, causey, & galda, 2015). thus, literature is an excellent way to increase cultural awareness, develop comprehension skills, and provide writing opportunities. it also presents teaching opportunities for creating lessons on figurative language, symbolism, and idiomatic expressions (pittsley, 2013). such explorations help students to understand meaning and enhance the development of language, as well as encourage an interest in reading while valuing diversity amongst students. drawing on the theory of literacy as a social practice (street, 1995), we recognize that migrant learners have rich resources of linguistic and cultural capital that language teachers can use to construct classroom environments where bilingual and multicultural identities are valued (darvin & norton, 2014). as educators work with increasing numbers of children and families from different cultural groups, including but not limited to immigrant and refugee children, it is essential they recognize and value the diverse ways that literacy can be supported in both homes and schools. scholars within the tradition of new literacy studies have specifically drawn attention to the innovative and productive potential of literacy practices in digital environments that children use both in and out of school settings (gee, 2003; hull & schultz, 2001; lankshear & knobel, 2003; nixon, 2003; sefton-green, 2007). the emergence of hybrid digital forms, such as wikis, blogs, databases, digital stories, and online news, calls for new understandings of genre and textual features (mills, 2010). new technical proficiencies with computers and other communication devices must be constantly learned and accessed for the rapid production, processing, and transmission of digital texts. lemke (1998) argued that meanings in multimedia are not just words plus images, and that word meanings are modified in the context of imagemeanings, opening up a wider range of meaning potential. as dooley (2008) pointed out, a multiliteracies approach guides diversity “into” rather than “out of” literacy education. an example of this is the creation of dual language books and materials—multimodal resources utilizing multiple languages and modes which are oriented to supporting children’s second language learning environments (cummins, 2012; lotherington & jenson, 2011; naqvi, mckeough, thorne, & pfitscher, 2013). as lotherington and jenson (2011, p. 228) noted, “if teachers are to meaningfully engage l2 learners in communication as it exists in the social world, these brave new dimensions of literacy must be woven into classroom learning.” in the last 30 years, unprecedented levels of global mobility have meant that culturally homogenous classrooms are rare. given the cultural diversity present in many of the world’s classrooms, many teachers, regardless of their current geographical location, are expected to develop curricula for local, immigrant, and refugee students while striving for high expectations of culturally and linguistically diverse students; respecting and understanding their cultural values, practices, and histories; and drawing upon and building on students’ “funds of knowledge” providing links between home and school (gonzales, moll, & amanti, 2005; marshall & toohey, 2010; moll, amanti, neff, & gonzalez, 1992). teachers must try to bridge students’ home and school lives, while still meeting the expectations of the district curricular requirements. even in the early grades, newcomer and bilingual students should be encouraged to activate their prior knowledge and build upon that knowledge by accessing their first language https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 4 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 (l1) resources. building on this l1 knowledge will make second language (l2) content and texts more comprehensible and promote two-way transfer across languages (cummins, 2014). this can be achieved through the use of multilingual books made available to students and teachers at school. cummins (2000) states, “conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in the other language comprehensible” (p. 52). such research is supported by canadian immersion scholars such as lyster, collins, and ballinger (2009). in addition, moll and gonzales (1994) and brisbois (1995) determined that students could learn to read in their native language and english at the same time if teachers use strategies that are mutually reinforcing and provide adequate vocabulary instruction in both languages. teachers are encouraged to engage with and build on students’ experiences with diversity and connect these with the plurality of perspectives available, which could include knowledge of the global south (leeman & ledoux, 2005). said (1993) argued that without integrating different cultural norms and values into classrooms, we perpetuate the dangers of a colonial legacy in which people have been encouraged to believe that they are only, mainly, or exclusively white or black, western or asian. said’s analysis leads us to reflect on the role of education in promoting learner identity (norton, 2019). at a time when social, cultural, and linguistic diversity have become characteristics of education systems around the world, it is timely to consider how education and educators are responding to these developments in an increasingly digital world. research design our study, which took place from november 2017 to june 2018, was conducted in collaboration with a vancouver-based non-government organization (ngo) called learning buddies network (lbn). lbn is an existing face-to-face tutor-based educational program that provides free weekly after-school reading tutoring for elementary school students who have been identified as being “at-risk” by their public-school resource or classroom teachers. the term “at-risk” refers to readers who are at risk of failing school because of reading deficiencies (bailey, 2004). the lbn programs run in nine schools across the lower mainland of bc with a high percentage of english language learners in each school. the vancouver school board (vsb) serves a large urban and multicultural school district with a significant english language learner student population. according to the vsb website (2018), 25 percent of kindergarten to grade 12 students are designated as english language learners, 60 percent speak a language other than english at home, and 126 languages have been identified in vancouver’s schools. lbn is dedicated to helping elementary school students develop foundational literacy skills, targeting children who otherwise would not receive the extra help they need in order to develop basic reading and math skills. the goals of the program are to enhance self-esteem through improvement in academic skills and to ignite a passion for learning in a safe and caring environment. the reading buddies program is designed for elementary school students who struggle with reading and are referred to as “buddies” who are individually paired up with local high school or university student tutors. paired tutors/buddies meet regularly in a classroom setting at the buddy’s school or a nearby community center. a designated site coordinator is https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 5 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 present at all sessions to assist in mentoring the tutors and buddies. each site coordinator supervises ten tutor/buddy pairings and has a minimum of three years’ tutoring experience. participants insights about storybooks canada were drawn from 13 tutors who volunteer at lbn and agreed to be part of the study. they range in age from 17 to 26 years old and have between three and seven years of tutoring experience with diverse young learners. nine of the participants speak two languages and four of them speak three languages, including mandarin (4), cantonese (2) and punjabi (1). they all rate their digital competence as being excellent and feel comfortable using technology. the tutors have the opportunity to regularly interact with parents when they pick up their children from the program. they have learnt much about the interests and concerns of parents, as well as language and literacy practices in the homes of their students. the reading curriculum at lbn utilizes print-based materials only and there is no technology currently being used during the tutoring sessions. the tutors rely on flashcards, a–z books, phonics drills, levelled readers, notebooks, pencils, crayons and markers for story writing and illustrating. all of the materials are currently available in english only. data collection data were collected with the use of an extensive questionnaire. in november, 2017, participants were introduced to storybooks canada and given a workshop on its key features. participants were then asked to review each of the 40 stories, noting which stories they thought would be most appealing and appropriate for classroom and home use, which stories would work best in group settings or one-on-one instruction, and how the stories could be incorporated into the bc curriculum. most questionnaires were completed between january and march, 2018. the data were analyzed iteratively and recursively using open coding developed from the data by looking at repetitions and other patterns. verbatim comments from the data are used for illustrative purposes. findings given the universal themes in the stories, as well as the colourful illustrations, the participants all noted that the stories would have appeal for students in canadian schools. they collectively listed 17 (of 40) stories as their favourites: cooking, decisions, a tiny seed, feelings, holidays with grandma, grandma’s bananas, counting animals, the day i left home for the city, why hippos have no hair, chicken and millipede, hair, khalai talks to plants, the honeyguide’s revenge, simbegwire, fire, anansi and wisdom, and magozwe. with reference to our five research questions, the participants noted as follows. do you think storybooks canada would be a helpful resource to improve student reading? when asked if they saw digital stories, specifically storybooks canada, as a helpful resource to improve reading goals, 12 of the 13 participants responded that they see it as a helpful tool because it provides instruction in mother tongue languages, allowing students the “chance to feel represented” through the diversity within the stories. as one participant noted, https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 6 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 storybooks canada provides a new kind of character or way of storytelling (the folk tales) that some students might not have seen. it broadens the diversity that our students are exposed to or gives them a chance to feel represented when they usually aren’t. another participant noted that “if a student is struggling with reading, they can quickly change the language.” the participants noted that digital stories are more engaging than print stories because of their multimodal, interactive design features. the participants also noted the colourful illustrations, as well as five levels of reading difficulty, making storybooks canada accessible to all students: “i believe it would be a helpful resource as it sections the stories by level, making them easier to locate, as well, it has a variety of colour options which i find the kids enjoy more than black and white.” the participants agreed that storybooks canada is “exactly what kids need” because “they are dying to get their hands on technology,” so it is a “great way to give them more interactive learning opportunities.” several of the participants mentioned the stories would be helpful for families who do not speak english, and that the linguistic and cultural diversity would be a resource to all, providing families with material to read in their home languages, as well as english. “i think storybooks canada would be a helpful resource as it provides an opportunity for kids to read different stories in their own native language at home with parents.” they found the “accessibility and userfriendly interface” important to be able to use at home. one participant commented on the repetition of language found within the stories to “reinforce new vocabulary.” with the content currently provided on their website, storybooks canada also “offers views into african culture which can draw many parallels across the reader’s own culture as well.” how can the stories found on storybooks canada be used to promote early reading? the participants noted a few main ways the stories could be best used to promote early reading. given the print-only curriculum currently at lbn, they noted that the use of digital stories could encourage reading in a “more fun way” than traditional print-based books. “when the students are restless, they can use an electronic device to open the storybooks website and access a more diverse variety of books.” the participants also noted that the opportunity to change languages was a valuable tool to promote l1 maintenance. a common theme amongst the participants was the value of the program as a tool for homework: “i think the stories would be a great resource for the program for homework, especially for children whose parents do not have time or are unable to help them read due to different languages (the majority).” two of the participants commented that the stories “can promote reading, but not necessarily teach it.” a few noted that storybooks canada can be used as a resource to supplement their current reading practices while others noted that “the ‘listening to stories’ option is particularly interesting, as kids can first use this tool to listen to stories being told, e.g. story-telling, before being encouraged to start reading themselves.” in addition, one participant said the stories “can promote early reading since they are a tool that parents can use, even if they lack the reading skills, to help [students] start reading at an early age.” one participant added that “the students can use these stories to practice skills they have been developing.” https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 7 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 which stories do you think are best for one-to-one vs. group teaching? we asked for insights as to which stories would be better used for one-to-one teaching and which would be better suited for group instruction. there was no strong agreement amongst the participants as to which stories would be more suited for one-to-one versus group instruction. five responses stated that all of the stories would be equally effective in both teaching contexts. the participants were split between using lowerversus higher-level stories in groups as opposed to one-to-one use. some wanted the more difficult and longer stories as opportunities to work one-to-one, while others felt the longer, more complex stories were better suited for group instruction “as they might be a little daunting for [students] to read on their own.” some participants felt that “stories that have important lessons such as feelings or holidays with grandmother were better suited for one-to-one instruction to really explain the lessons, and that “engaging stories about what they regularly encounter” were better suited for group contexts. others noted that the “very complicated plot lines could lead to discussion within a group” in stories such as simbegwire and magozwe. one participant noted that the african context in and of itself could be used to encourage group discussion by posing the question: “what are some ways in which life in africa is different compared to life in western society?” several participants saw merit in using the level two and above stories for one-to-one instruction because “they provide opportunities for the tutor to find the main struggles a child faces in reading” and “involve a larger section of text per page and might require help for the children to read through.” one participant specifically referenced using the stories on the website to align with curricular goals such as short /a/. they noted that the longer, more complex stories will be of “benefit for vocabulary development which is more beneficial to teach one-to-one.” how can using storybooks canada be used to build home/school partnerships? when participants were asked if they thought storybooks canada would be a useful tool for promoting home/school reading partnerships, their response options were to check the “yes” or “no” box. six of the participants took the time to write the word “definitely” next to the box for emphasis. as one participant noted, “i think the best part of this website is that it encourages the relationships between the child and parent.” one noted that “[parents] can be encouraged to read the stories in their own language, which may help them understand the stories before they try to read the stories with the children in english.” they acknowledged that “many times, parents have a mother tongue that is not english, and in these cases, the translations would be very useful.” the lack of completion of homework and home reading has been an ongoing concern. the tutors believe that by sending home multilingual stories, parents will feel “empowered” and likely embrace the opportunity to read with their children and “actually improve their reading skills!” their hope is that by having the students read more frequently at home, they will see greater gains from week to week in both reading fluency and vocabulary development “with less excuses not to read.” specifically, one participant noted that “the stories that teach moral values are beneficial for parent/child so that the parent can also incorporate what values they want to teach their child through the story.” one went on to say: https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 8 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 we encourage parents and families to read with their kids at home not just in english but in their preferred language. by fostering a reading environment at home, hopefully this will stimulate kids’ interest in reading and help them to develop better and more effective reading skills, which is what we aim to do at learning buddies. one participant recommended a “listen, read, share” model that has the parents “listening with their child, reading with their child, then sharing similar stories from their own culture.” how can the stories be used within the new bc curriculum? one of the participants holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and elementary education and is very familiar with the bc curriculum. she sees a strong relationship between storybooks canada and the new bc curriculum in that the stories from storybooks canada “could fulfill the content of teaching structure of a story, language features and structures, unique stories to share, connecting to our community, oral traditions, folk tales etc.” the ideas she is referring to are known as the “big ideas” that include generalizations, principles, and key concepts important in an area of learning. they reflect the “understand” component of the know-do-understand model of learning by helping to chunk information and connect it to a student’s prior knowledge (wiggins, 2010). we discuss the bc curriculum in our follow-up study described next, exemplifying the ways in which storybooks canada can be linked to this particular school curriculum. storybooks canada and the bc curriculum given participants’ positive evaluation of the potential of storybooks canada for english language learning, and the suggestions of the participant who was familiar with the bc curriculum, we undertook a follow-up study of the bc english language arts curriculum (found within the bc curriculum) and possible links between the mandated curriculum and stories on the storybooks canada platform. an examination of these connections may be helpful not only to teachers of english language learners in bc, but also to teachers in other parts of canada and the global community (gilman, 2018). the appendix to this article contains a list of stories and themes as they relate to the new bc curriculum. this information is also freely available on the “teacher” link of storybooks canada’s home page (https://storybookscanada.ca/teachers/). through thematic planning, teachers can organize and integrate language, concepts, and crosscurricular areas that engage students in connected experiences that support learning (roessingh, 2014). according to bc’s new english language arts curriculum (2017), literacy is defined as the ability to understand, critically analyze, and create a variety of forms of communication, including oral, written, visual, digital, and multimedia, to accomplish one’s goals. literacy helps students apply reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills across a variety of subject areas. with respect to storytelling, in particular, “story” is defined as “narrative texts, whether real or imagined, that teach us about human nature, motivation, and experience, and often reflect a personal journey or strengthen a sense of identity. they may also be considered the embodiment of collective wisdom. stories can be oral, written, or visual, and used to instruct, inspire, and entertain listeners and readers” (n.p.). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 https://storybookscanada.ca/teachers/ gilman & norton 9 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 schools in bc are populated by young people of varied backgrounds, interests, and abilities, and the k–12 school system focuses on meeting the needs of all students. when selecting specific topics and resources to support the implementation of the curriculum, teachers are encouraged to make sure these choices support inclusion, equity, and accessibility for all students. “in particular, teachers should ensure that classroom instruction, assessment and resources reflect sensitivity to diversity and incorporate positive role portrayals, relevant issues and themes such as inclusion, respect and acceptance” (bc’s new curriculum, 2017, p. 8). the school system strives to create and maintain conditions that foster success for all students. these conditions include school cultures that value diversity and respond to the complex social and academic needs of individual students, and promote understanding of others and respect for all. teachers and principals are challenged to provide curricula that meet the diverse needs of their students. in addition, “the language education policy is designed to be an integral part of the kindergarten to grade 12 education plan, and to recognize the official languages of canada and the growing number of other languages spoken by british columbians” (ministry of education, 2016, p. 18). bc’s new english language arts curriculum (2017) is designed to help students to become thoughtful, ethical, and responsible citizens of a diverse society. informed by the first peoples principles of learning (2014), diversity within the school system is based on the principle “that if our differences are acknowledged and utilized in a positive way, it is of benefit to the quality of our learning and working environments” (bc’s new curriculum, para 1). to this end, students are introduced to a repertoire of communication skills, including the ability to interact, on a local and global level, with information from a variety of sources in multiple modes. within this repertoire is the ability to critically evaluate digital media, a crucial skill for contemporary students. as students become effective and literate users of language, they are able to use these and other skills in achieving their personal, educational, social, and career goals. educators are encouraged to find meaningful ways to align the language arts goals with a set of core competencies as well as big ideas for a diverse set of learners in their classrooms. in order to guide instruction, bc’s new curriculum (2017) identifies three core competencies that all students need to develop for success in life beyond school: 1) communication, 2) thinking, and 3) personal and social competence. these core competencies are directly related to students becoming educated citizens, and are embedded throughout the curriculum in order for students to develop intellectual, personal, and social skills. the communication competency encompasses the set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media. this provides bridges between students’ learning, their personal and social identities and relationships, and the world in which they interact (bc’s new curriculum, 2017). the thinking competency encompasses the knowledge, skills, and processes we associate with intellectual development. the personal and social competency is the set of abilities that relate to students’ identities in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society. in order to provide equitable programming, students must be able to maintain their own cultural and linguistic heritages and experiences while at the same time having opportunities to explore and gain an understanding of other cultures (reyes & vallone, 2008). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 10 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 integrating storybooks canada into the bc curriculum requires teachers to not only consider the core competencies, but to also address the new curricular model that has been implemented, known as “know, do, understand” (bc’s new curriculum, 2017). within this model, all areas of learning are founded on a concept-based, competency-driven approach to learning. three elements, the content (know), curricular competencies (do), and big ideas (understand) all work together to support deeper learning and to provide the framework upon which to plan effective instruction. in addition, technology is valued as contributing to the creation of the kind of society we strive for: one that embraces and values teachings, cultures, and stories from around the world. know (content) the content learning standards—the “know” of the know-do-understand model of learning— detail the essential topics and knowledge at each grade level. regarding the “know” for the language arts curriculum (k–3), students are expected to know story elements, text features, literary elements, reading strategies, and features of oral language. storybooks canada is a very helpful resource in this regard. consider the following sample lesson based on chicken and millipede. sample lesson: exploring language in a storybook. chicken and millipede is good for working with vocabulary and language sounds. 1. look at page 10 of chicken and millipede below. 2. what words on this page will be new for the children you work with? you could write these words on cards and explain them. a fun way for children to understand them might be to act them out. for example, children love acting out “burp,” “sneeze,” and “cough!” 3. as you read the sentences on this page, become aware of the rhythm. what patterns of language are repeated on this page? how would you draw the attention of children to these patterns? https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 11 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 4. choose a storybook in a language other than english. with the help of a student who speaks that language, what language patterns can you find in stories in this language? do (curricular competency learning standards) the curricular competencies are the skills, strategies, and processes that students develop over time. they reflect the “do” in the know-do-understand model of learning. while curricular competencies are more subject specific, they are connected to the core competencies. with respect to reading strategies found within the k–3 curriculum, storybooks canada can help teachers incorporate the following curricular competencies: use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning; recognize how different texts reflect different purposes; make connections between ideas from a variety of sources and prior knowledge to build understanding; engage actively as listeners, viewers, and readers, as appropriate, to develop understanding of self, identity, and community; explain the role that story plays in personal, family, and community identity; use personal experience and knowledge to connect to text and make meaning. sample lesson. make connections between ideas from a variety of sources and prior knowledge to build understanding through asking questions: for example, on page 10 of chicken and millipede (pictured above), you could ask,  “why did the chicken burp?”  “is it rude to burp?”  “why did the millipede taste so bad?”  “how do you think the mommy millipede felt in this picture?” understand (big ideas) the big ideas relate to generalizations and principles and the key concepts important in an area of learning. they reflect the “understand” component of the know-do-understand model of learning. the big ideas represent what students will understand at the completion of the curriculum for their grade. they are intended to endure beyond a single grade and contribute to future understanding. as outlined by bc’s new curriculum, the following information states the big ideas by grade level, and how storybooks canada addresses each of the big ideas embedded within the language arts curriculum for students in grades one through three. big ideas. examples of how storybooks canada maps onto the big ideas in grades 1–3. language and story can be a source of creativity and joy. all of the stories found on the platform celebrate creativity. many of the 40 stories celebrate families and feelings and provide readers with a sense of joy. for example, from the story feelings: “i feel so happy when my granny tells us stories in the morning” and from the story holidays with grandmother: “they looked forward to the holidays. not just because school was closed, but because they went to visit their grandmother,” and “odongo and apiyo were excited because it was time to visit their grandmother again.” https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 12 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 stories and other texts help us learn about ourselves and our families. many of the stories found on the platform teach lessons that help us learn about ourselves and our families. for example, the story grandma’s bananas deals with stealing bananas and the day i left home for the city is about growing up, leaving home, and moving away. stories and other texts can be shared through pictures and words. all of the stories on the platform are available in both text and audio and can be printed in pdf form with pictures only, text only, or pictures and text. the colourful illustrations are inviting and tell as much of the story as does the text. everyone has a unique story to share. for example, one story, sakima’s song, is about a boy who loses his sight and has a beautiful singing voice that he uses to console an older man. through listening and speaking, we connect with others and share our world. the stories on the platform have many universal themes that connect readers to other parts of the world. for example, khalai talks to plants highlights the commonalities between students and nature, and andiswa soccer star unifies readers through gender equality as well as the beloved sport of soccer. playing with language helps us discover how language works. storybooks canada was designed for readers to toggle between multiple languages. by doing so, users can compare grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. curiosity and wonder lead us to new discoveries about ourselves and the world around us. each story on the site provides opportunities for curiosity and wonder. see gilman (2018) for a list of 20 activities that help students use the stories to help construct meaning about themselves and the world. as a general example, print the stories in pdf version and have the students color them in. just as no two students are the same, no two sets of books look the same. the stories provide starting points that lead to new discoveries about ourselves and others, which lead to curiosity about the world around us. stories can be understood from different perspectives. what vusi’s sister said provides an excellent example of perspective and how important it is to have perspective. vusi was worried he had no wedding gift for his sister until she said, “vusi my brother, i don’t really care about gifts. i don’t even care about the cake! we are all here together, i am happy.” through different perspectives, we learn about and better understand other people. magozwe teaches that someone else’s perspective is often helpful in life. conclusion section 3(e) of canada’s immigration and refugee protection act (legislative services branch, 2019) states that one of its objectives is “to promote the successful integration of permanent residents into canada while recognizing that integration involves mutual obligations for new immigrants and canadian society” (n.p.). greater numbers of students from refugee backgrounds are arriving in canada, frequently with interrupted schooling, which has increased the need for language and literacy instruction to address significant gaps in education. some of these learners https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 13 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 may come from very difficult situations that impact learning. other students, although born in canada, need additional support to be successful within the school curriculum. respecting and valuing a student’s first language is important in order for english language learners to succeed in school (ministry of education, 2016). with so many students from diverse backgrounds and cultures, as well as the many languages spoken in canadian classrooms today, sourcing multilingual and multicultural materials can be challenging for teachers. our study with the learning buddies network and 13 experienced tutors has found that storybooks canada can serve as a very useful resource for both teachers and parents. powerful tools on this platform can help beginning readers and language learners make connections between speech and text, and between their home languages and english. teachers can use storybooks canada as a resource to be shared with parents, building home/school connections, and affording the opportunity for linguistically diverse families to read stories together. it is a resource that values and celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity, promoting both mother tongue maintenance and english language learning. as the leading canadian scholar, george dei (1996), has argued, curriculum in canadian schools is diversified when programming is culturespecific without marginalizing other cultures. in our follow up study, we found that storybooks canada aligns well with the new pedagogical and instructional frameworks incorporated in bc’s new curriculum. in particular, storybooks canada provides teachers with a tool to facilitate the know-do-understand model of bc’s new english language arts curriculum. we have suggested that such connections may well apply to other curricula, and interest in global storybooks continues to grow in other parts of canada and beyond (norton & doherty, in press). future studies will be very helpful in this regard. it is our hope that the storybooks canada site, along with others on the global storybooks portal, may serve the interests of english language learners not only in canada, but across 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(2018). the african storybook and storybooks canada: digital stories for linguistically diverse children. language and literacy, 20(3), 121 133. https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29413 street, b. (1995). social literacies. london, uk: longman. vancouver school board. (2018). retrieved from http://www.vsb.bc.ca/programs/supportingell-students wiggins, g. (2010). what is a big idea? retrieved from http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=99 appendix aligning stories to the bc curriculum by theme level 1 stories name of story theme curricular competencies/content i like to read families language arts/social studies counting animals animals math (counting to 10)/geography feelings feelings physical and health education fire fire social studies (fire safety curriculum), continuity and change / science the hungry crocodile animals/food science look at the animals animals science school clothes needs and wants social studies hair diverse cultures, backgrounds and perspectives within local and other communities. social studies two parts of the body physical and health education weather book weather science (weather changes) lazy little brother family; diverse cultures social studies cooking food and nutrition physical and health education what are you doing? sensory motor skills/ body awareness physical and health education where is my cat? prepositions language arts my body verbs language arts https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29413 http://www.vsb.bc.ca/programs/supporting-ell-students http://www.vsb.bc.ca/programs/supporting-ell-students http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=99 gilman & norton 17 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 level 2 stories name of story theme curricular competencies/content why hippos have no hair revenge/choices health education children of wax rules/consequences/ family language arts/science tingi and the cows war/conflict/challenge social studies/geography tom the banana seller gender equality/diverse cultures/communities social studies/geography decision cooperation/challenge/probl em solving/cultural diversity social studies punishment consequences/sharing health education khalai talks to plants environment/nature science andiswa soccer star gender equality health education a very tall man problem solving language arts zama is great independence/growing up/cultural diversity/family health education goat, dog and cow friendship/justice social studies level 3 stories name of story theme curricular competencies/content donkey child celebrating differences socials/health education anasi and wisdom sharing/invention science/social studies/health education a tiny seed: the story of wangari maathai making a difference/celebrating cultural diversity/social impact science/social studies hen and eagle responsibility/procrastination social studies the day i left home for the city community: rural vs urban, village vs city/growing up/cultural diversity social studies chicken and millipede winning and losing/friendship science/health education nozibele and the three hairs safety health education sakima’s song disability health education https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 gilman & norton 18 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 1–18 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 level 4/5 stories name of story theme curricular competencies/content what vusi’s sister said family/material/cultural diversity language arts: sequencing/ socials/health education the honeyguide’s revenge folktale/greed science grandma’s bananas family/secrets/stealing health and education/social studies/science holidays with grandmother family/grandparents/culture/ diversity social studies/geography simbegwire overcoming adversity/death/family health education magozwe struggle/adversity/identity/ hope social studies/health education the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/340 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ anderson & okuda 33 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 writing a manuscript-style dissertation in tesol/applied linguistics tim anderson university of victoria tomoyo okuda university of british columbia1 abstract this paper draws on autoethnographical insights and genre analysis in offering an introductory guide for writing a manuscript-style master’s level thesis or doctoral dissertation in tesol and applied linguistics fields. we report on our own recent experiences writing, defending, and preparing for publication from our own manuscript-style dissertations during and following our doctoral study, both conducted at the same major canadian research university. while other work in tesol and applied linguistics areas have addressed the manuscript-style format amidst more general discussions of thesis and dissertation writing (e.g., paltridge, 2002; paltridge & starfield; 2007), this article concentrates specifically on the unique characteristics of this dissertation structure and the genre-features, processes, and considerations around planning, composing, presenting, and publishing in this format. the intended audience of this paper is primarily graduate students and supervisors in tesol and applied linguistics, although other stakeholders involved in graduate-level writing across various disciplines can also benefit from our discussion. our central goal in writing this article is therefore to provide an introductory discussion regarding the nuances inherent in this format of dissertation compared to other traditional monograph forms. introduction the dissertation, as an essential component of the doctorate, is a topic that inspires great interest from students seeking guidance about how to plan and design their research, analyze their data, and, importantly, how to organize and write the dissertation text itself. the study described in this paper contributes to this endeavour by drawing on genre analysis and autoethnographical insights in offering an introductory guide for writing a manuscript-style dissertation2 in tesol and applied linguistics (t/al) disciplines. a substantial body of literature exists addressing masters’ level thesis and doctoral dissertation writing, from general guidebooks targeting both students and supervisors to more focused studies analyzing the specific and sometimes unique genre characteristic of individual sections. for brevity, we focus primarily on titles particular to tesol and applied linguistics fields or those that address the specific dissertation format (macrostructure) concentrated on in this article. a manuscript-style dissertation consists of stand-alone manuscripts that have either been published (sometimes as a requirement), are in various stages of submission, or are written and organized in the form of a publishable paper. this style, in all its formats, has been referred to 1 current institution: analytical measures, inc. 2 although we focus on the phd education-based dissertation in this paper, insights can be applied to masters’ level and other disciplinary contexts as well. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 34 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 variously, including manuscript-style, article-style, manuscript-model, manuscript-option, phd by publication, thesis/dissertation by publication, phd by portfolio, the scandinavian model, the “sandwich” model, and the article-compilation format. although sharing basic similarities in that the thesis or dissertation is comprised of (mostly) stand-alone manuscripts embedded within a central document, some models have slightly different structures, conventions, and requirements that are dictated by the institutional policies where the dissertations were composed or other social influences that shape genre expectations across disciplines and research settings (see also mason & merga, 2018a). for example, doctoral programs may require some (or all) of the articles to be published prior to being eligible to graduate, while other s do not. co-authorship of dissertation manuscript-chapters may also be allowed in some universities, and indeed might be standard depending on the authorship/research practices in the discipline (i.e., lab-based environments with multiple collaborators on projects). as a result, some manuscript-style dissertations will be comprised of multi-authored and previously published (or accepted/in-press) manuscripts while others will be manuscript-style chapters that have the potential to be published following the doctoral defence. these nuances will be more greatly discussed below, as will some of the limiting or challenging aspects of published versus publishable manuscript chapters. the intended audience of this paper is primarily graduate students and supervisors in tesol and applied linguistics, although other stakeholders involved in graduate-level writing across various disciplines can also benefit from our discussion. our central goal in writing this article is therefore to both reflect on our experiences and, in so doing, provide an introductory discussion regarding the nuances inherent in this format of dissertation compared to other traditional monograph forms. this article might also be seen as a product of the shifting nature of the doctorate and the academic job market, and is premised around the intended function of graduate school as a vessel of academic socialization and means (at least partially) to prepare students for careers after graduate school. writing manuscript-style dissertations not only socializes students into an important academic genre (primarily the journal article) and all its composite features, but it helps position students as emerging (legitimate, published) scholars writing for international audiences. the forthcoming discussion begins with a review of relevant literature followed by some key issues encountered by the two authors during our own dissertation writing processes, with particular focus on how we navigated the unique genre expectations of this macrostructure. manuscript-style dissertations an abundance of handbooks, book chapters, university and faculty guides, and journal articles exist that address thesis and dissertation writing across various disciplines, countries, and perspectives (c.f. paltridge, 2002; paltridge & starfield, 2007). the journal of english for academic purposes and english for specific purposes have published widely in this area, with research addressing the specific genre features of individual dissertation/thesis sections, including the generic structures of abstracts (el-dakhs, 2018), rhetorical “moves” in purpose statements (lim, loi, hashim, & liu, 2015), the rhetorical structures in introductions, conclusions, and discussions (bunton, 2005; hopkins, & dudley-evans, 1988; kawase, 2018), how authors comment on results (basturkmen, 2009), communicative resources in research questions (lim, 2014), and authorial stance and genre structure in acknowledgment sections (chan, 2015; hyland, 2004). all point to the propensity and even expectation of certain genre https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 35 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 features across individual sections of theses and dissertations, and how these features can differ from other forms of academic writing (including published journal articles). two book-length monographs (bitchener, 2009; paltridge & starfield, 20073) have addressed these issues more extensively for students and their supervisors in t/al, and both approach the writing process from conception to completion with attention to the requisite genre features in and across individual sections of the thesis/dissertation, as well as offering advice to help with the supervision of graduate students’ writing. bitchener (2009) focuses on the firsttime writer of an applied linguistics master’s-level thesis, but the author’s attention to general structure and other genre features are directly applicable to phd dissertations as well. although highly informative, this work focuses exclusively on a traditional imrd4 thesis, with most of the individual chapters addressing the sections typically seen in this thesis model. paltridge and starfield (2007) present a comprehensive guidebook for the thesis and dissertation supervision of additional-language graduate students. here the authors include specific mention of dissertations comprised of “a compilation of research articles” (p. 72). this section of the book is partly informed by a previous article, paltridge (2002), which analyzed 30 masters’ theses and phd dissertations written by english-as-an-additional-language students in various disciplines at an australian university. drawing on prior work (dong, 1998; dudley-evans 1999; thompson, 1999), paltridge categorized four general thesis and dissertation macrostructures from that analysis, summarized in table 1 below: table 1 thesis and dissertation structures (paltridge, 2002) macrostructure description traditional: simple reports on a single study; imrd structure traditional: complex reports on more than one study; modified imrd structure, typically with separate introductory, literature review, and methods chapters followed by chapters reporting on the individual studies topic-based reports on a series of “subtopics” under the broad research topic of the thesis, organized as separate interior chapters, bookended with an introduction and conclusion. compilation of research articles a thesis comprised of published or publishable research articles, typically preceded by an introductory chapter and completed with a concluding chapter. although now somewhat removed in terms of when this article was published (and therefore might not be representative of more current practices in t/al thesis structures), paltridge found only one thesis in this study that fit into the “compilation of research articles” category: a phd dissertation in the dental sciences. other research has recorded this thesis structure to be more widely prevalent in the sciences. the proclivity towards this type of thesis structure in these disciplines is exemplified in dong (1998) who reported that 38% of the 169 3 a second edition (paltridge & starfield, 2019) was forthcoming at the time of this article’s final submission. 4 introduction-methods-results-discussion https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 36 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 american science graduate students investigated were writing manuscript-style theses. as dong notes: the article-compilation format gives graduate students on-the-job training, preparing them for what they will be expected to do in their fields after they receive the ph.d. degree. in addition, the article format reduces the time for publication if dissertation chapters can be submitted directly for journal publication, without requiring extensive pruning and reformatting; therefore, it meets the need for timely knowledge dissemination and it starts to accumulate credits for the student’s professional career. (p. 371) although attention to the manuscript-style format is sparse in t/al fields, there has been more focus in other disciplines and research settings. gustavii (2012), addressing a “hard sciences” audience, refers to this macrostructure as a “compilation” thesis, and differentiates between two distinct types: (1) the scandinavian model, where reprinted journal articles are included as appendices following a general summary of the thesis, and; (2) the sandwich format, where reprinted articles are embedded between a separate introduction and conclusion chapter. gustavii provides a brief yet informative beginner’s guide for science-based phd students interested in this format, yet provides little attention to specific genre-level details as well as other strategic and transitional issues that might arise during the planning, writing, and publishing stages. gustavii’s discussion also presumes the individual articles within the dissertation will be typically co-authored manuscripts, with the doctoral students serving as lead authors. the discussion is also grounded in disciplinary traditions that are familiar with (and increasingly expect) manuscript-style dissertations, and some of the tensions and unfamiliarity that might arise in other fields (like t/al) are not present in this guide. as noted above, a common version of the manuscript-style macrostructure is referred to as the “phd by publication”—also called “thesis/dissertation by publication”—and typically refers to dissertations consisting of a number of published or publishable papers with an introduction and conclusion chapter binding these papers together. this genre has become widespread in europe, the uk, south africa, australia, canada, and the united states, in fields notably in the sciences, but can also be seen to a lesser degree in the humanities and social sciences (dowling et al., 2012; jackson, 2013; lee, 2010; park, 2007; pretorius, 2017). although this macrostructure, regardless of its label, remains roughly the same, policies such as the number of papers, publication status of the manuscript, and co-authorship can vary considerably across institutions. mason and merga (2018b) analyzed the prevalence of this dissertation model in humanities and social sciences disciplines in select australian universities and reported on the average number of manuscript-chapters per dissertation (4.5 across the 636 dissertations analyzed), the publication status of these chapters (the majority being published/accepted), the types of manuscripts (mostly journal articles), and authorship/contribution practices (typically co-authored). jackson (2013) notes that some australian universities offer “phd by prior publication” programs in which students can include publications prior to candidature. peacock (2017) further details this distinction by noting the “prospective or retrospective” phd by publication; the former (more popular in european contexts) referring to a compilation of publications accrued during the doctorate and the latter which is comprised of prior publications. despite the global emergence of this dissertation model, however, very little has been written about this macrostructure in north american, and in particular canadian, contexts despite its https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 37 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 growing popularity in education-based disciplines (anderson, alexander, & saunders, in press) and recent calls to allow better diversity in dissertation writing in canadian universities (porter et al., 2018). research has also reported on the benefits and challenges of phd by publication from doctoral students’ writing and supervisors’ mentoring perspectives (dowling et al., 2012; lee, 2010; niven & grant, 2012; park, 2007; protorius, 2017). some challenges can include the lengthy peer-review process (which may impact degree completion) and the unfamiliarity of mentoring students in this non-traditional dissertation format. nonetheless, if supervisors are experienced at mentoring a phd by publication dissertation, the benefits may supersede these challenges. doctoral students have reported that they were able to build their scholarly identities as novice researchers writing this dissertation style since their doctoral work was legitimized through the rigorous peer-reviewing process and eventually became “high-circulation published scholarship” (dowling et al., 2012, p. 293) compared to traditional dissertations that can remain partially or entirely unpublished. some also report the phd by publication model is a way of easing the anxieties of a highly competitive job market in which expectations of publications prior to entering the market has become increasingly intense (dowling et al., 2012; robins & kalnowski, 2008). the authors of this paper also recognize the potential limitations or even critiques of this dissertation macrostructure, some that are research informed and others more anecdotal, the latter which seem fitting to explore within the context of this duoethnography. both of us either directly or indirectly heard critiques about our decisions to write this type of dissertation, mostly from other graduate students in our department—that it was “easier” than the traditional (imrd) format disproportionately used both in our fields more generally and, specifically, in our own department. niven and grant (2012) acknowledge that the phd by publication model faces criticism as a potential “easy way out” due to a lack of consensus about what precisely this dissertation model should consist of and, particularly, how many chapters it should contain. we also add that practices and protocols involving co-authorship of these manuscripts is of interest, particularly in stem5 (or stem-informed education fields), and how much doctoral writers are expected to contribute to their own dissertations in terms of research design, analysis, and authorship. dowling, gorman-murray, power, and luzia (2012) under a more critical lens ask if “the phd by publication produces academics as neoliberal subjects” (p. 303) due to the publication-seeking aims of authors within the “publish or perish” demands of modern academe. paré (2017) notes as well that “manuscript dissertations anticipate a particular trajectory for students: one that leads towards an academic career in an institution of higher education” (p. 411). as such, this dissertation macrostructure might be less appropriate for some doctoral students depending on their future trajectories in non-academic contexts. we are not sure if our manuscript-style dissertations were easier or more difficult to write compared to a traditional imrd style, or if people believe we were accomplices in the neoliberal encroachment on higher education. we wanted to take a chance and write a model of dissertation that was (and remains) non-standard in our disciplines and, most certainly, rare and even partly maligned in our former department. we saw the value in learning how to write article-style manuscripts from our supervisors and mentors, all leading international scholars with extensive 5 science, technology, engineering, math https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 38 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 publication records, and our decisions to use this macrostructure was partly informed by this desire. tim used this model strategically, to better position himself for the upcoming academic job market, but also because it was a conceptual, theoretical, and rhetorical challenge that he was intrigued by and wanted to unravel. tomoyo, who was open to both academic and non-academic job markets, had another rationale to pursue this model. she saw many phd graduates struggle to turn their 300-page dissertation into publishable articles and their work not getting published in the end. she saw this model as an effective way to circulate her research and make an impact to scholars and practitioners in the field of applied linguistics/tesol. we therefore counter the claim that we were neoliberal actors or apologists, or at least offer an alternative perspective. the suggestion that certain types of dissertations (including manuscript-styles) can produce academics as neoliberal subjects neglects the agency of doctoral students who choose this dissertation format out of their individual decisions to express their research however they choose, to seek better dissemination possibilities, and to grow as scholarly writers within their academic communities. methodology aligned with burri (2017), our paper draws on autoethnographical insights to frame our doctoral student experiences, in this case the dissertation process from conceptualization of the dissertation macrostructure to publication of the manuscript chapters. autoethnography is a research methodology that focuses on the experiences and interpretations of author-researchers and draws on both autobiography and ethnography (denzin, 2012; paltridge, 2014). the authors in particular looked to the emergent approach of duoethnography: the process of collaboratively co-constructing dialogue on a shared topic, where two researchers’ individual experiences and interpretations are presented both distinctly and as juxtaposed narratives within a newly emerged “third space” (norris, 2008; norris, sawyer, & lund, 2012; sawyer & norris, 2013). drawing on duoethnography allowed us time and space for our own experiences to unfold while providing the richness of collaboration to inform both of our reflections and analyses of our respective dissertation writing experiences. embedded deeply within these dissertation experiences were concerns about navigating the features and macrostructure of a manuscript-style dissertation—a dissertation type that is prolific in many stem fields, but which is much less common for qualitatively-focused singleauthor dissertations in canada (which both of ours were). the second theoretical foundation guiding this paper is informed by a genre-based approach in analyzing linguistic features, rhetorical moves, and structural components that we found to be vital in the writing of our dissertations. genre can be broadly defined as “a staged goal-oriented social process” (martin, 2009, p. 10) and has come to inhabit integral roles in esp (english for specific purposes), sfl (systemic functional linguistics), and new rhetoric studies; each placing different emphasis on the primacy of context versus text, but all foregrounding the importance of genre as a socially and culturally embedded practice that shapes language expectations and use (hyland, 2002). as hyland (2002) notes, “genres are abstract, socially recognized ways of using language (p. 114). due to the infrequency of this macrostructure within our t/al fields, we lacked initial knowledge about the expectations of this dissertation structure. the remaining discussion details some of these experiences and how we in turn navigated our dissertation writing processes. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 39 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 the context and authors the authors both attended the same tesol doctoral program at a canadian research university in the province of british colombia (canada), with tim graduating in 2016 and tomoyo in 2017. the core structure of our doctoral programs included 1–2 years of course work, comprehensive examinations (comprised of three major papers related to their research), and a dissertation proposal with a public defence, after which we advanced to “doctoral candidacy” and abd (all-but-dissertation) status. we then collected data based on empirical studies and wrote our dissertations followed by a public oral examination involving three committee members, two university examiners, an external examiner, and a dissertation chair. after passing our oral defences, completing the required revisions, and submitting the final versions of our dissertations to the university, our status as students came to an end. we also shared the same three committee members, with different lead supervisors; the relevancy of which is discussed later in this paper. this contextual information is important to situate our distinct but also overlapping experiences and the structure of our programs within the forthcoming discussion. tim’s dissertation structure. tim’s dissertation (anderson, 2016) was comprised of six chapters: four interior “articles” connected by separate introduction and conclusion chapters, and was just over 67,000 words. the first interior chapter, following the introduction, was a conceptual discussion of supporting literature and analyses of statistical data relevant to his research setting: the internationalization of canadian higher education. this article was published in 2015, before tim’s oral examination of his dissertation in 2016. the other three interior chapters were organized thematically, revolving around the central findings from his analysis. three research questions and one major guiding theoretical framework (language socialization) foregrounded the entire dissertation, while individual chapters used different complementary theories germane to the analysis and findings. the central theory was discussed in detail in the introductory chapter of the dissertation and to a smaller degree in each respective interior chapter. each complementary theory was then addressed in the applicable interior manuscripts. as a result, the different chapters highlighted the experiences of different subsets of the seven research participants depending on what unique, relevant, or otherwise prominent issues were being analyzed (see figure 1); all informed by the different configurations of theories. the three remaining chapters were submitted for review to t/al academic journals following the final submission of the dissertation in march 2016. at the time of this present article’s completion, all four manuscripts from tim’s dissertation are either published or in-press (anderson, 2015; anderson, 2017; anderson, 2019; anderson, in-press) in the following journals: applied linguistics, the journal of language, identity, and education, linguistics and education, and the canadian journal of higher education. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 40 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 figure 1. tim’s dissertation structure by themes. tomoyo’s dissertation structure. tomoyo’s dissertation (okuda, 2017) was comprised of the same six-chapter structure as tim (one introduction chapter, four manuscript chapters, and one concluding chapter), and was approximately 86,000 words. since tomoyo’s dissertation research was a case study with data collected from four distinct groups of participants (administrators, student group 1, student group 2, and student group 3), each of the four interior chapters stood alone as independent research studies focusing on the salient research themes derived from the data analysis (see figure 2). each chapter had both distinct theoretical frameworks and one overarching framework that synthesized and informed the findings of the independent research studies in the conclusion chapter. in consultation with her dissertation committee, she organized her research questions (for the entire dissertation) in a way that one question (rq1) addressed the findings from the administrator group, and one question (rq2) addressed the findings from the three student groups. the latter question (for the student groups) was further divided into three sub-questions (rq2-1, rq2-2, rq2-3) for each respective chapter focusing on the specific research themes of each student group. hence, there were four questions ultimately addressed in the four interior chapters. at the time of this present manuscript’s completion, all four of these manuscripts have been published or accepted for publication (okuda, 2018a; okuda, 2018b; okuda, 2019a, okuda, in press) in the journal of second language writing, current issues in language planning, and global perspectives on educational language policies (book chapter), and higher education research & development. ch.3 theme 1 ch.4 theme 2 ch.5 theme 3 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 41 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 figure 2. tomoyo’s dissertation structure by participant groups. writing a manuscript-style dissertation in tesol/applied linguistics the following sections now outline some of the central considerations around planning for, composing, defending, and publishing from a manuscript-style dissertation. this is informed by our experiences both during and following our programs, and aided with the benefit of reflection and introspection now that we have both completed our phds and have successfully published our respective manuscript chapters, including in several leading high-impact academic journals in our disciplines. we begin the following sections by first noting the importance of the introductory and concluding chapters within this macrostructure and potential deviations from more traditional monograph dissertation styles. following this, we focus on the interior manuscript-chapters and address concerns related to organization, coherence, and repetition; issues that are important in traditional dissertation models as well but which become particularly relevant when seeking cohesion across separate “stand-alone” manuscripts (or studies) within the dissertation. we then discuss the structuring of our oral examinations at the end our doctoral programs and how we endeavored to create a unified “event” within the confines of a 20–30 minute presentation while addressing four unique “manuscripts” embedded within our respective dissertations, each involving different groups of participants, theories, literature, and outcomes. finally, we discuss the transitioning of these dissertation chapters to published articles or book chapters, the importance of committee and examiner structures, and additional considerations to be cognizant of during the manuscript-style dissertation process. the introductory and concluding chapters as noted, we both had separate introductory and concluding chapters that served as bookends for our dissertations. these chapters played vital roles in establishing the general context for the research and creating coherence across the interior chapters. for tim, the introductory chapter (approximately 9,500 words) established the overarching context and rationale for his study, presented the three guiding research questions and key definitions and concepts, and contained detailed sections discussing the central theoretical framework, methods and methodologies, analytical approach, sampling techniques, researcher positionality, literature review, and ch.1 administrators ch.2 student group 1 ch.3 student group 2 ch.4 student group 3 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 42 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 participant profiles. the chapter then concluded with a description of the forthcoming chapters. the concluding chapter was a concise 9-page summary and reconnecting of the major findings, research contributions, challenges and limitations, and recommendations. screenshots from the table of contents for these two chapters follow (figures 3 and 4). figure 3. tim’s introduction chapter. figure 4. tim’s conclusion chapter. similar to tim, tomoyo’s introduction chapter (just over 9,000 words) presented the rationales, overall conceptual framework of the study, research questions, methodology (research site, methods, participant profiles), analytical methods, researcher positionality, and the organization of the dissertation. the 4,500 word concluding chapter included a summary of the key findings in relation to the research questions, a discussion of theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the study, and ended with future directions for research. the key findings gained from the four interior chapters were discussed employing the overarching conceptual framework, which was key in producing a coherent dissertation. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 43 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 figure 5. tomoyo’s introduction chapter. figure 6. tomoyo’s conclusion chapter. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 44 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 the interior manuscripts: organization, coherence, repetition a considerable amount has been written about general writing strategies and constituent genre features of individual dissertation chapters and journal articles in t/al. in this section, we focus instead on some unique considerations for organizing the individual interior chapters, creating coherence within and across these chapters, and limiting potential repetition that can occur by having multiple stand-alone manuscript-chapters contained within a single dissertation. we draw on personal examples from our respective dissertations to underscore the discussion. a major consideration of this dissertation genre involves the organization of the individual manuscript-chapters themselves. one approach is to plan and tailor these chapters for specific journals from the beginning of the writing process. to accomplish this, students will want to investigate the target journals thoroughly and determine, first, if the content aligns with the vision and direction of the journal and, second, organize the article appropriately and draw on relevant literature. some journals, for example, will want a separate section that explicitly lists the research question(s), while others allow these to be borne out in less explicit ways, or at least embedded in different sections. how to structure and title the sections and subsections of these manuscript-chapters also requires consideration. certain journals might have more rigid expectations of a traditionally empirical (imrd) structure. other journals, by contrast, will allow or even expect alternative and more “creative” headings and organization. both of us organized our interior manuscript-chapters reporting on the empirical findings following an imrd pattern (or slightly modified version). we felt that organizing chapters in this way helped create a coherent predictability across the distinct manuscript-chapters. for tim, the first manuscript chapter of his dissertation was tailored specifically for the journal he published in. this in turn shaped several aspects of the chapter, including word length and aspects of the supporting literature that he drew upon. alternatively, instead of having pre-determined journals in mind before writing the chapters, students can adopt a “write first” and then, depending on the outcomes, find a suitable journal later. the benefits of this approach include a more flexible, and possibly more organic, analysis and writing process unconstrained by pre-determined and journal-specific criteria. the challenges of this approach might include difficulty finding a journal that fits the tone and outcomes of an article and having to make considerable edits following completion of the dissertation to meet word length, formatting, and other requirements specific to individual journals. tim followed this approach for three of his four interior manuscript chapters and found that it allowed the analysis and findings to be unconstrained by the either conscious or subconscious influence of trying to fit into the confines of a specific journal. the transitions of these chapters to publications, however, required some maneuvering, re-tailoring, and in the case of one article, rather substantial word-count edits (approximately 4,000 words), to fit into the expectations and requirements of the targeted journals. tomoyo did not tailor her manuscript chapters to specific journals when she was writing her dissertation, but later did so to meet journal requirements. this included editing the word count, re-labeling sections, and following formatting expectations. creating coherence and interconnectedness across the stand-alone manuscript chapters is also worth attention. bunton’s (1999) investigation into the metatextual moves in phd https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 45 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 dissertations demonstrates the ways and importance of student-authors signposting their discussions through the use of lower and higher level metatextual references; i.e., text(s) used within the dissertation to refer to other smaller or larger internal and external texts. how these are used specifically in manuscript-style dissertations remains unaddressed in the literature, but several issues based on our experiences are of note. similar to more traditional dissertations, referring to content discussed in other chapters of the dissertation, or making mention of the general findings of chapters themselves, were presented as variations of: “as noted in chapter x.” these metatextual references not only helped orient the reader, but created a general sense of coherence and cohesion across our long dissertations with several stand-alone manuscript chapters. in our dissertations, metatextual practices were also frequently (and importantly) employed to limit repetition of our research contexts, the participants, the methods and methodologies, the central theoretical framework(s), and our positonality and reflexivity; all of which were written about in detail in the introductory chapters. instead of presenting very similar types of information in each respective interior chapter (as is typically expected in most standalone journal articles), we used frequent metatextual resources to connect to our prior discussions (in previous manuscript-chapters or the introductory chapter; see figures 7 and 8 for examples from our dissertations). the following example, from tim’s dissertation, directs the reader to “see also chapters 1 and 2” for more thorough and nuanced discussions of graduate student internationalization trends in canada, where this issue was addressed in substantial detail (figure 7). while this glossing over of detail is insufficient for a stand-alone article, in order to limit repetition in his dissertation, these types of metatextual references were employed frequently. similarly, tomoyo’s example (figure 8), “see chapters 1 for more information,” indicates that the topic has already been discussed in detail in chapter 1 and readers could refer back to this chapter to gain more information. this issue is especially relevant for student-authors who, after completion of their dissertations, endeavour to transition the chapters to stand-alone journal articles, a topic explored in more detail below. figure 7. metatext example (tim). metatext 1 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 46 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 figure 8. metatext example (tomoyo). structuring the oral examination: making separate manuscripts a cohesive “event” how to structure the oral examination from a manuscript-style dissertation can likewise be a challenge. both authors found it difficult to synthesize and seamlessly connect multiple different stand-alone “manuscripts” into a coherent and logical 20–30 minute presentation, especially when the separate chapters drew upon different bodies of literature, methodologies, theoretical and conceptual frames, and participants. for tim, he addressed this by focusing on the one overarching theory that guided his research (language socialization) and used this to ground his oral defence presentation. within this guiding frame, he then highlighted what he felt were the central and most unique findings across all the manuscript chapters, and connected the presentation together during the implications and conclusion portion of his talk. tim recalls that his oral defence went well and his committee reacted positively. he felt that he managed to create a unified talk out of the four “separate” papers and present the most salient findings from his dissertation project. organizing the oral defence presentation also posed challenges for tomoyo, who had to present four independent studies within the 30-minute maximum time frame. despite these challenges, her committee also reacted positively to her talk. tomoyo particularly felt that frequently reviewing the research questions was important in signaling which research study she was talking about. she also found having a central conceptual framework was crucial in synthesizing her findings and making her dissertation study (and oral defence) coherent. publishing following completion of the dissertation and oral defence, if applicable, the manuscript chapters can now be prepared for submission to journals. students will need to investigate on their own the specific requirements for individual journals, including word count limits, formatting requirements, preferred spelling, and so forth. ensuring the structure of the article fits the requirements or preferences of the journal and drawing on appropriate literature should also be considered. in many cases, the long process of writing the dissertation and having it vetted by supervisors, committee members, and university and external examiners can result in chapters that have exceeded the word limits for many journals and have, additionally, drawn on a more metatext 2 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 47 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 diverse set of literature to accommodate the committee and examiners’ requests. the focus should now shift towards accommodating and aligning the chapter towards the intended journal and its audience, and as a result certain changes will inevitably occur. the use of metatextual resources will also need attention during the transition of dissertation chapters to stand-alone articles. since the readers of the individual articles do not have previous dissertation chapters to immediately draw upon, changes to the metatext that signpost other inter-dissertation texts will have to be addressed. most obviously, references to previous chapters (i.e., “as noted in chapter 1…”) will need to be modified to refer back to the dissertation itself or, if applicable, to other published or in-press articles stemming from the dissertation. in many cases, additional levels of detail (which, in our cases, were written about in the introduction chapters) will also need to be added to the respective manuscript-chapters in preparation for submission to journals, including the addition of considerably more detail about participant profiles, the research context, researcher positionality, sampling, methods and methodologies, and the theoretical and conceptual frames. when tim, for example, submitted the three empirical chapters of his dissertation for review in academic journals, he added in additional detail about the overarching guiding theory that grounded his entire dissertation (language socialization) and more information regarding the specific context of his research (the internationalization of canadian higher education). additions were also made to enhance the discussion of each participant profile and the methods and methodologies; again, information that was addressed in detail in the introductory chapter of his dissertation, but which was limited (to prevent repetition) in the interior manuscript chapters. tomoyo also needed to add more details about participants, the research site, methods, and data analysis, which were all mentioned in chapter 1 and abbreviated in each manuscript chapter. she also made sure to include relevant articles published in her targeted journals to build on (and align herself with) the scholarly discussions within her discourse communities. committee and examiner structure another important consideration of using (or not using) this dissertation structure revolves around the students’ committee members and the university and external examiners. since this dissertation format appears to be more rarely used in tesol and applied linguistics settings in canadian contexts, there could be resistance or misunderstanding of this dissertation macrostructure from those who have mostly experienced more traditional dissertation formats. while it is of utmost importance for students and their committee members to be in agreement when using this type of dissertation, finding university and external examiners who are accepting is also of prime importance, since the consequences of sending a dissertation out for examination and having an examiner disagree with the basic format could have negative consequences. a supervisor, in particular, who is supportive and understanding will also be invaluable in guiding selection of other committee members and examiners who have experience with, understan d, or at the very least, are accepting of this type of dissertation structure. as mentioned previously, we shared the same three-person doctoral committee team with different lead supervisors. after consultation with our supervisors and committee members, we felt encouraged to use a manuscript-style format, which in turn allowed us to proceed optimistically knowing we were supported. similar conversations continued during the discussions around internal and external https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 48 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 examiners, with both of us being fortunate to have world-leading scholars serve as our internal and external examiners who were familiar with this dissertation macrostructure. additional considerations in addition to the previously discussed benefits and challenges of this dissertation format, there are other potential issues to consider. first and foremost, students must consult university guidelines regarding the permitted dissertation structures, especially the rules regarding coauthorship (of individual chapters, if applicable) and using previously published manuscripts (as opposed to including publishable manuscripts) in the final version of the dissertation. in the case of using previously published (or accepted/in-press) articles, this might well impact the type or amount of feedback given by the examining committee during the feedback process and oral defence. if, for example, an external examiner makes it a condition that a (previously published) chapter in the dissertation needs substantial edits before passing the dissertation as a whole, this might cause considerable tensions or challenges, including the possible existence of two similar manuscripts written by the same author—one as a published article and one as a dissertation chapter—with major or even contradictory differences. because of this potentiality, we waited until after our oral defences to submit the core chapters reporting on empirical findings for review at journals. more positively related to the issue of feedback, we also felt that receiving detailed guidance and insights on drafts of our chapters from several well-established scholars considerably enhanced the quality of our manuscript chapters and socialized us into certain academic discourse practices (and identities) that benefitted our growth as writers, emerging scholars, and ultimately published authors. as a result, we ended up collaborating on a cowritten journal article (okuda & anderson, 2018) shortly after tim had graduated (and when tomoyo was writing her dissertation) that was published in one of the leading journals in our field, tesol quarterly. the skills we acquired from our dissertation experiences were directly applied in the planning, structuring, and writing of this paper. conclusion we hope this paper makes a useful contribution in highlighting the diversity in dissertation options available for phd students and can subsequently serve as an introductory framework for students and other stakeholders interested in writing a manuscript-style dissertation. we have endeavoured to address some key characteristics of this dissertation macrostructure that were encountered during our preparation, writing, and defending stages, as well as the ensuing transitions to publish these manuscripts as journal articles and book chapters. in today’s academic job market, leaving the doctorate with multiple published or publishable articles can be strategically crucial, and we believe that a manuscript-style dissertation can serve as one important pillar in that process. acknowledgments the authors would like to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers of this paper whose insights resulted in a stronger and more balanced discussion. we’d also like to express our gratitude to the editor of the bc teal journal, dr. scott roy douglas, for his dedication to open-access and the bc teal community at large. finally, our enduring appreciation extends to https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 anderson & okuda 49 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 our doctoral supervisory teams, dr. patricia duff, dr. ryuko kubota, and dr. ling shi, for supporting, mentoring, and encouraging us to take a chance with our dissertation writing. references anderson, t. 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(2015). purpose statements in experimental doctoral dissertations submitted to us universities: an i nquiry into doctoral students' communicative resources in language education. journal of english for academic purposes, 20, 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.06.002 martin, j. r. (2009). genre and language learning: a social semiotic perspective. linguistics and education, 20(1), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2009.01.003 mason, s., & merga, m. (2018a). integrating publications in the social science doctoral thesis by publication. higher education research & development, 37(7), 1454–1471. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1498461 mason, s., & merga, m. (2018b). a current view of the thesis by publication in the humanities and social sciences. international journal of doctoral studies, 13, 139–155. https://doi.org/10.28945/3983 niven, p., & grant, c. 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(2018). report of the task force on the dissertation: purpose, content, structure, assessment. canadian association for graduate studies. retrieved from https://cags.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2018/09/cags-dissertation-task-force-report-1.pdf https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315430058 https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2018.1543161 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2019.01.002 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.406 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0889-4906(00)00025-9 https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.27.05pal https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203960813 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315170022 https://doi.org/10.1080/02103702.2017.1341102 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/redefining_the_doctorate.pdf https://doi.org/10.28945/3781 https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1208639 https://cags.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/cags-dissertation-task-force-report-1.pdf https://cags.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/cags-dissertation-task-force-report-1.pdf anderson & okuda 52 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 33–52 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 robins, l., & kanowski, p. (2008). phd by publication: a student’s perspective. journal of research practice, 4(2), 1–20. retrieved from http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/136/154 sawyer, r. d., & norris, j. (2013). duoethnography. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199757404.001.0001 thompson, p. (1999). exploring the contexts of writing: interviews with phd supervisors. in p. thompson (ed.), issues in eap writing research and instruction (pp. 37–54). reading: university of reading. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/334 http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/136/154 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199757404.001.0001 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ranson 51 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 growth: the relationship between metanoia and additional language learning in eap samantha ranson university of british columbia (okanagan campus) abstract taken from ancient greek philosophy, metanoia refers to a fundamental shift in habits of the mind. until now, the connection between metanoia and additional language learning has not been fully examined, particularly in higher education contexts. this study explored the progression of metanoia in the additional language learning of international students enrolled in an english for academic purposes (eap) program. the research question for this study related to how eap students experienced metanoia, and what the relationship was with their additional language learning. employing a socio-cognitive theoretical framework, qualitative research methods were used to combine an online questionnaire (n = 9) and follow-up interviews (n = 5) to collect data. meaningful responses in the data were coded, and the codes were gathered together into emergent themes. a major theme emerging from the data in connection to metanoia and additional language learning was that of growth, particularly in terms of confidence, language learning, younger life, academic skills, organization, tolerance, community, and awareness. this study provides insight into the lives of english language learners in academic settings, and offers suggestions related to fostering an eap environment that supports english language learning. introduction there is currently an influx of international students learning english as an additional language (eal) in canada, with the government of canada (2013) publishing a report that stated in 2012 it “was the first time in canadian history that canada has welcomed over 100,000 international students, an increase of 60% since 2004” (n.p.). in addition, the canadian government has recently made initiatives to “double the number of international students choosing canada by the year 2022 without displacing canadian students” (government of canada, 2014, n.p.). as a result, there are growing numbers of students from non-english speaking backgrounds seeking entry to higher education in canada. as international students learn english, there are specific moments of achievement which occur within additional language learning, and these moments of sudden transformation can be referred to as moments of metanoia. moments of metanoia are imperative as they assist in the cultural, social, emotional, and academic transition into canadian life for international students acquiring eal. the relationship between eal learning and metanoia has not been extensively examined, particularly in higher education settings. the current study explores the role of metanoia in the additional language learning experiences of english for academic purposes (eap) students. it is proposed within this study that metanoia occurs within eap learning experiences and environments, and that learning environments that facilitate and encourage cultural and academic growth (both inside and outside of the eap classroom) help to create the most ideal situations for metanoia to occur. it appears that eal students consciously and subconsciously transform through learning and growth, it is possible to experience metanoia as an epiphany or a higher ranson 52 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 moment of thinking. the data also point to metanoia being impacted by the eap environment and having a relationship with additional language learning. background a socio-cognitive framework for additional language learning a socio-cognitive theoretical framework was employed to explore how participants experience metanoia and the nature of the relationship between metanoia and additional language learning for academic purposes. for the purposes of this study, a socio-cognitive framework holds that humans learn via a combination of both social and cognitive factors. for atkinson (2011), a socio-cognitive approach to additional language acquisition integrates the mind, the body, and the wider world. additional languages are learned through social action and are embedded in the surrounding environment in which learners find themselves. the social side of this perspective understands language learning to take place through interaction between people who desire to communicate with each other. it involves collaborating with others to create meaning. the social side of this framework is based on the way individuals interact with each other, with languages being learned in a social context (e.g. vygotsky, 1978). use of the target language can take place in what vygotsky (1978) has called the zone of proximal development (zpd). vygotsky (1978) defined the zpd as the metaphorical space between what an individual can do independently and what an individual can learn in collaboration with others. from this perspective, it is through interaction and collaboration that additional language learning takes place. the second part of this framework can be referred to as cognitive, meaning additional language acquisition also involves an innate human process related to additional language learning. related to a cognitive perspective, krashen’s (1982a) maintained that “we acquire [an additional language]…by focusing on meaning” (p. 97). krashen theorized that the majority of learning takes place from comprehensible input such as listening, reading, or communicating with other individuals in the target additional language (krashen, 1982a). for krashen (1982a), “if the input is understood [i.e. comprehensible], and if there is enough of it and if it is somewhat varied, it will contain all the grammatical structures necessary, and expose the language acquirer to everything he [or she] needs” (p. 98). along with comprehensible input, krashen (1982b) coined the term the affective filter to describe how students need to proceed in a calm emotional state to acquire an additional language. the affective filter can act as metaphorical block to the model of comprehensible input. by feeling “affected” learners can experience negative emotions such as anxiety, stress, boredom, or other negative attitudes that would inhibit their ability to acquire the target language, possibly resulting in poor additional language learning outcomes. in addition to learners acquiring an additional language through comprehensible input in low anxiety environments, the interaction hypothesis (long, 1996) can be described as a way language learners interact with interlocutors to grow their additional language abilities. the interaction hypothesis maintains that learning takes place through a combination of instinctual or innate abilities and moments in which the learner engages in conversation. willing interlocutors who participate in conversing with additional language learners may use modified input to improve the interaction experience by adapting or modifying their language level (vocabulary, speed, and pronunciation for example) to meet the needs of the additional language learner. ranson 53 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 thus, additional language acquisition is facilitated when learners interact with willing interlocutors to negotiate meaning (long, 1996). what is eap? the current study focused on eal learners in an eap program on a smaller campus of a research-intensive university in western canada. to protect the identity of the participants, for the purposes of this study, the campus will be referred to as pacific interior university (piu). in programs such as the eap program in this study, students have come from other countries to canada to gain a university education, acclimate to a new culture, and learn an additional language. eap programs typically focus on the social, academic, and linguistic demands of postsecondary studies in english and prepare students for the specific needs they will have in order to be successful at university (hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002). the eap program from which participants were recruited for the current study was designed for international students from non-english speaking backgrounds who were academically admissible for studies at piu, but who did not have the english language proficiency evidence otherwise required. eap programs generally focus on the social, cultural, and academic aspects of studying and living in an english speaking country. the program site for the current study combined english language courses as well as involved students in the wider piu community. it focused on academic study involving collaborative, experiential, and cross-cultural learning. what is metanoia? in a literary context, metanoia is a greek term defined as “after thought, change of mind” (cuddon, 2013, p. 432). within the context of educational leadership in organizations, it was further defined by senge (1990) as a process of shifting one’s learning and thought process to reach deeper moments of realization. therefore, when metanoia was defined for the purposes of this study, it was conceptualized as a mind shift, a moment of realization or an epiphany of an additional language learner. in other words, metanoia was defined as an “aha” moment, a moment in which a learner becomes aware of the evolution of new knowledge in an educational environment. one more way to think about metanoia is as a progression in the learning process. an individual could experience metanoia once, or multiple times throughout his or her life; in addition, metanoia occurs in a variety of different situations, scenarios, and learning environments, like an eap class or any organizational structure. for the purposes of this study, the focus was on the emergent new experiences of additional language learning. metanoia could be considered anything from a life-changing event to a small success that caused a participant to feel achievement and empowerment. moments of metanoia may cause an individual to gain a stronger awareness and understanding of themselves, their limitations, and their abilities. for english (2016), metanoia engenders a new vision or a new perspective for individuals that maximizes their abilities. essentially when metanoia has occurred, an individual becomes more enlightened, having seen the world through a different lens, and having learned from his or her experience; this in turn allows an individual to become more aware. metanoia fosters “a new or different perspective on things” (english, 2016, p. 79), and it can help to resolve problems or tensions that could not be solved without the shift that occurs with metanoia (english, 2016). also within an educational leadership context, senge (1990) further explained the relationship between metanoia and learning when stating, “to grasp the meaning of ‘metanoia’ is to grasp the ranson 54 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 deeper meaning of ‘learning,’ for learning also involves a fundamental shift or movement of mind” (p. 13). to paraphrase, senge equated learning to be the cause of redefinition of the human identity, to see reality through different lenses. in turn, individuals would become aware and see things that they never thought were possible; they would recreate their identities and gain more awareness of reality and the world. this was another layer added to the definition of metanoia in the context of additional language learning. despite these definitions of metanoia, scholars to date have not made a specific connection between additional language learning and metanoia. in considering a language learning context, such as eap, metanoia can be conceived as a learning process that occurs quickly and suddenly. this notion is a powerful concept as it is transformative and has the potential to change not only one’s learning abilities and processes but assist in growth while acting as a catalyst for additional language learning. it may be that metanoia involves conscious realization of changes occurring subconsciously. it is possible that when an individual becomes aware of the learning process, it can be a process of discovery and exploration that facilitates additional language learning. research questions the primary research questions explored in this study are twofold: how do the eap students in the current study experience metanoia? what is the relationship between the participants’ experiences of metanoia and their experiences related to additional language acquisition? the study the aim of this qualitative study was to explore the relationship between metanoia and additional language learning in eap settings. the researcher was influenced by the qualitative research tradition, allowing individuals to describe their lives via story and experience (gay & mills, 2016). collins and o’brien (2011) have defined qualitative research as “a form of social inquiry that takes reality as socially constructed rather than given and where the data are primarily textual rather than numerical” (p. 383). as a result, the participants in this study could interpret questions to have different meanings based on their relationship with english language learning and their personal backgrounds. participants all of the participants in this study had attended the eap program at piu. there were nine participants who took part in the online portion of the study and five who participated in the interview section, table 1 provides demographic information related to the five participants who took part in the interviews. all of the names provided are pseudonyms. the participants were between the ages of 18-23 years of age and were either immigrants or international students from non-english speaking backgrounds. the participants had not achieved piu’s english language proficiency requirements; however, they did have the academic requirements for their specific programs of study and general admission to piu. to further meet the english language proficiency requirements, the participants choose to complete the eap program at piu. ranson 55 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 table 1 interview participant information pseudonym age gender l1 nationality english studies time in canada ann 20 female chinese china > 5 years 4 years betty 23 female mandarin china > 5 years 3 years meg 18 female spanish peru > 5 years < 1 year pat 19 female spanish mexico 5 years 1 year tim 21 male mandarin china > 5 years 3 years procedures after obtaining a certificate of approval from the appropriate institutional research ethics board, data collection took place via an online questionnaire created with fluid surveys (fluid surveys, 2015), and semi-structured interviews. the online questionnaire gathered demographic information as well as participant reflections related to metanoia, experiences as additional language learners, and possible moments of identity change (see appendix 1). as part of the online questionnaire, participants were further invited to provide their e-mail addresses if they would like to be contacted further for volunteer participation in the follow-up interview portion of the study. the follow-up to the questionnaire was a voluntary open-ended semi-structured interview session. the questions were created specifically in mind to elicit in further detail the opinions, thoughts, emotions, initial reactions, and experiences that create moments of metanoia and how language learning occurs (see appendix 2). the data were triangulated via comparing the online questionnaire and semi-structured interview results, and the combining of the two to find resulting patterns. due to this being a qualitative study that honoured participant perspectives in relation to the topic under investigation, it is important to note that the researcher gathered and interpreted data in as unbiased a manner as possible. gaining the opinions, observations, and emotions from the point of view of the participants themselves was extremely important to this study. the usage of non-standard english was not changed as this may create a bias, and interpretations of the material could be altered; therefore, exact wording was used from the participants’ interviews. relying on a qualitative approach to analyzing the data, the results next reported were found through the coding and categorizing of meaningful data units in the participants’ responses. participant responses were examined for units of meaning, made up of phrases or sentences that could informatively stand on their own. each unit of meaning was assigned a descriptive code. coding was carried out by the researcher, with the researcher’s graduate supervisor double checking the codes to promote validity and reliability in the analysis. similarly coded units of meaning were gathered together into categories. as the categories converged through the coding process, salient themes emerged from the data (gay, mills, & airasian, 2012). ranson 56 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 results growth the most predominant and prevalent theme related to metanoia and its relationship with additional language learning throughout the results was growth. the major subthemes noticed throughout the overall category of growth were confidence, language learning, younger life, and academic skills. in addition there were some minor subthemes arising in the data, which included organization, tolerance, community, and awareness. within this study the overarching theme of growth represents the development or lack thereof mentioned by the students (whether consciously or subconsciously) about both their personal and academic lives. the majority of the results deal with their university life or their period of life as young adults; however, some of this information is developed around their goals in the future or their experiences in subthemes such as “younger life”. the diagram in figure 1 represents the theme of growth with its accompanying major and minor subthemes. figure 1. theme 1: growth major subthemes and minor subthemes. confidence. confidence, as it relates to metanoia and additional language learning was the most prevalent subtheme in the growth category. this subtheme dealt with growth in confidence or lack of confidence with identity; school work; mental, emotional, and physical abilities. the results relate to the importance of confidence to the participants in both an academic learning environment and in a personal environment. growth in confidence was most prevalent in ann’s answers. ann mentioned the jump between eap and first year university english. first year university english lowered her confidence as the instructors had higher expectations, and she was now immersed in a complete university class environment (whereas eap functions in a much smaller community setting made growth major subthemes confidence language learning younger life academic skills minor subthemes organization tolerance community awareness ranson 57 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 up of only eap students and the instructors). she mentioned, “when i was in eap … the instructor gave me a lot of confident…she encouraged me like to be a better person just learning english.” however she gained confidence in her abilities in first year english classes when she stayed focused, organized, and was able to present and obtain a high mark within her course. these achievements boosted her confidence and provided consistency in what she should expect of both herself and future university courses. ann used to think that she “never really thought of [herself] as a good student”, constantly comparing herself to her peers and local canadian english speakers and their level of proficiency. she said, “[i was] really shy and i was quiet…i wasn’t the person like be the leader”. she mentioned how a high school concert and conference not only raised her confidence but helped her gain awareness of her potential. she realized she could be a leader. her abilities were higher than she realized, and this realization caused a shift in her personality leaning to a gain in confidence and a stronger sense of identity. she mentioned how she had a high language proficiency level (giving her confidence) as she could use english without translating from her native language and could comprehend and take part in advanced language activities (for example reading shakespeare). as an example of her overall feelings, she said, “i was always really quiet, like always shy. so i think now i became a little bit a little bit more like outgoing, like i can just open my mind a little bit just in order to improve my english.” the subtheme of changing levels of confidence also came up in pat’s data. to her, studying and academics were an extremely large part of her confidence. it was clear in the results that being intelligent or “smart” was related to her confidence. as she began developing skills, such as studying strategies and more time management skills, she felt she was gaining confidence in her english abilities, including speaking skills. it seemed in the results that she had become much more confident of who she was. for example, she said, “i felt…proud.” she mentioned how studying and being prepared for tests is one of the best ways to gain confidence and achieve goals, equating grades to success and confidence. transitioning into a different culture was difficult for her; however, now with her newfound confidence, pat was able to communicate without hesitation and would engage in conversations in places such as restaurants, “i feel more confident and ya i don’t feel that panic.” she even laughed as she spoke this last quote, showing her confidence in her identity and abilities. in tim’s results there were also instances related to confidence and growth. eap and the community made a large impact on his confidence. tim felt his “personality … is a big change from where i where i started till now…that’s like a personality shift from a little bit shy to like a really outgoing and be confident and talk to people with like no fear.” he said this shift took place due to his experiences in eap. he mentioned how he experienced a gain in confidence, simultaneously at multiple times: i feel like it’s like…suddenly everything make makes sense now…it’s more like a small thing that makes sense to me now, and then another thing is that makes sense to me now, and then like…at the end of the day like a lot of things all make sense to me and then like…it just makes sense. a lot of this occurred due to his motivations, wanting to learn and asking instructors or using appropriate resources to gain a better understanding of the language. tim also mentioned ranson 58 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 how hard work pays off; an individual gains confidence and joyfulness by getting compliments and realizing the progress they have made in their language learning abilities throughout the year. lastly, a powerful moment of metanoia as it relates to english language learning was revealed when tim was unable to fully describe his emotions when he experienced a moment in the community saying he didn’t: even know like how to talk to…the cashier or how…to say things but i just observe and stuff. and then i realized one day when i just like go to the restaurant i just…like i’m in china so it’s like nothing really surprising or nothing really odd happened and then so it just like it just ya…like the the feeling so i don’t know. confidence and growth were also an important theme in relation to metanoia and additional language learning for meg. meg emphasized the importance of growth and communication in gaining confidence. when successfully communicating with a staff member at the university she felt “like i improved my english ya”. meg mentioned how she felt “in my exams i always like did really good like almost one hundred percent so i think it was like ya like a sign i was good student…like the level of my peers was lower”. she adds to this by mentioning “writing like i usually do good in writing”. in meg’s opinion, not only are academics important but also competitiveness or getting higher grades than an individual’s peers showcasing an indication of abilities. the theme of confidence as it relates to growth also recurred in betty’s results, showing the relationship between metanoia and additional language learning. she put an emphasis on the relationship between academics and a personal interest. for example she felt confident when receiving the challenge of editing other students’ work as it was not only a great learning opportunity but it showed her motivation, her confidence in her abilities, and her interests in editing and writing. additionally, when living in canada and learning english, she felt she had gained so much confidence that she wanted to immigrate saying “learning english here actually change my some of my personalities…it makes me more open, more talkative to people, and more brave to speak publicly.… ya when i when a person is not good at english he or she will be very shy to speak out.” because of her confidence using english, she said, “i was quite proud of myself entering such a english university because this university is higher rank”. lastly, the results show she had confidence in her intelligence and abilities stating “when i was in china i was always the top students, highest mark … and when i came here ya i still get a very high mark in eap course, but i’m not satisfied how it’s a give us the experience because i think it was too simple…ya too easy for me.” it seemed that betty’s confidence in her abilities were related to her high marks. language learning. there were a number of instances in the data related to how additional language learning seemed to be connected to metanoia by the participants. this subtheme addressed issues of gains or lack thereof in additional language learning. the growth in language acquisition promoted development in both the academic abilities and emotional and lifestyle progression of the participants. it appeared in the results that growth in additional language learning allowed participants to transition into an independent lifestyle in a new culture more efficiently and effectively. ranson 59 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 at times, pat appeared to notice changes in her english language proficiency. she seemed to realize that she had naturally gained a stronger comprehension of the english language and, related to that increase in proficiency, had developed a stronger ability to time manage. as a result of this, she could comprehend the language at a higher level and mentioned feeling both more efficient and intelligent. pat gave an example and expressed how she felt. in this instance she referred to “her,” a friend who had spent three years in canada and three in the united states who pat asked for advice: but then i was doing like a homework for the eap course and then i ask her about a sentence. the meaning of the sentence because i couldn’t understand it, and then she said i don’t understand these word. but then i ask her for another word that i didn’t understand and then i actually realized that i knew something that she doesn’t, so that’s when i that’s how i felt successful [laughs] because i’m actually learning so ya…. so i feel like i am learning fastly, so ya maybe in two years i will be able to speak like a native speaker. not only did she mention that her goal is to a fluent user of english, but she was also able to recognize what she wanted to aspire to, how she wanted to measure her growth, and how she had changed due to such instances as expressed above. additionally, she later mentioned that attending eap courses assisted in the development of her language acquisition abilities. she also discussed how her process for learning english allowed her to grow in a social environment and communicate more effectively in the local culture. in addition to pat, meg also referred to additional language learning in a way that illustrated the concept of metanoia. she felt that eap had “improved my english skills for sure and then i also could like appreciate other like cultures in my classes.” here she seemed to indicate that language acquisition created a newfound appreciation in her life of other individuals and cultures; therefore, assisting in both her academic and social life. in the data, she also mentioned moments where she suddenly realized she had a better comprehension of the english language, explaining it as “i don’t know i was just speaking at that time.” additionally, there were specific time periods when cultural activities assisted her in comprehending language; for example, when out with her sister in vancouver there was a “moment like like i realized oh i’m in canada [laughs], like everyone speaks english and this is different ya…. i was just like a new change in my life that i should be ready for.” meg was laughing during this part of the interview, as she reflected on how language acquisition had been a type of growth in her life. along these lines, tim and betty also mentioned ideas connected to the theme of additional language learning. it is important to recount tim’s experiences as he explained how others noticed his growth in language acquisition. tim expressed how his growth in english language proficiency occurred with an example in which he attended the fall orientation program for new students at piu. a year later, friends noticed his english language progress, and tim said that it amazed them. others noticed a dramatic change, but tim felt “the moment…was contributed by slowly learning…i don’t really see it as a like…sudden changes.” this is an example of how metanoia can occur slowly or in small installments within the learning process. tim went on to explain how other individual’s opinions of his learning acted as a measure of additional language learning and achievement for him. ranson 60 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 younger life. also related to the theme of growth and how it connects to metanoia and additional language learning, the theme of younger life is defined as a way to grow based on reflections related to previous experiences in life. three participants (ann, betty, and tim) discussed their younger lives, and how they had grown since this previous time period. it appeared in the data that the participants were strongly impacted in their growth by their own personal stories and history. additionally, it was apparent that the participants used their younger lives as a method of comparison to their contemporary lives. ann in particular referred to her younger life, revealing moments of metanoia and additional language learning. ann had attended a canadian high school as an international student and described how it impacted her social environment. she described how the lack of multiculturalism in the particular canadian high school she attended caused her to gain a stronger understanding and appreciation for different cultures when attending eap and university stating, “because in my high school there wasn’t like that many international students so i met lots of friend here that were from like different countries.” further, she mentioned how she felt more at ease staying within her comfort zone in high school, “i kind of prefer like to talking to people having i think my spoken english was okay. but i didn’t really focus on written english which is definitely like more important than speaking english.” she mentioned how she mainly focused on one type of additional language learning (speaking) in high school and now at the university level, she was open to growth and learning new aspects of language (such as writing and challenging her english abilities). later in her interview, ann discussed how her experiences in high school, such as attending a special event in vancouver, allowed her to change as an individual. ann also reflected on her childhood and life in china, allowing her to measure her growth: ya i would say i started learning english like when i was really little like probably grade one or even before so but still since our country’s not like the official language is not english…so even though we can’t like started in english when i was really little but still it’s quite different from china to canada. so i think when i was in my home country i didn’t really know how to learn english properly. it was okay for me to speak to write but it’s different not enough for me to write a nice essay, be a like nice university student. reflecting back on her younger life, ann was exploring what she saw as differences between chinese and canadian cultures and the learning processes within these different countries. the subtheme of younger life as it relates to metanoia and additional language learning also arose in betty’s results. she described how her perspective changed based on experiencing what she saw as a cultural shift between canadian culture and chinese culture. she described a concept she thought of during her eap studies that she dubbed the “international citizen concept.” this concept involves caring about the world in a global context; whereas, she felt that she used to focus, as she said, on “[making a] contribution to my own country”. she also thought about her previous experiences learning english before coming to canada. in canada, learning english with the assistance of fluent speakers of english helped in her growth: “english by english is still the way it change my learning style because in the past i learn english by chinese logistics and translation.” further, thinking about her younger life and her present life, she identified as an outsider as she said she is “not whitewashed because i was born and then grew ranson 61 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 up in china and at that time english was not very popular there”. as betty reflected on her younger life, there appeared to be a tie between viewpoints and mind shifts, being an outsider, and learning processes. academic skills. another example of a subtheme related to growth occurred when both pat and meg expressed ideas related to the subtheme of academic skills in connection to metanoia and additional language learning. these participants both put an emphasis on academic skills, which was related to the importance of academics and success in academic growth. pat described the feeling as “i change even from the first week until now that was from the beginning and now i think i am improving a lot of academic skills just like writing i feel like i write better.” pat explained she felt she had changed, grown, and accomplished something throughout the year. she further explained that her comprehension had improved and gave an example: when i was in my in my theatre course they ask me to do some improvisation [laughs] so i can because i start thinking in english more faster. so sometimes i just…come up with a situation and i think about it quickly so i don’t have to think i don’t have to think that much on the words or whatever i just do it quickly, how can i say i improvise it… i am more like it’s like if a part of me was more aware of the language, but i ya, like i don’t know what i am doing but i do it and then i realize that i did it it appeared that pat felt a sense of accomplishment by growing in an academic sense but also could communicate in her class more naturally as a result. along these lines, meg also described how improving her academic skills helped her in different aspects of language learning such as writing and listening. organization. organization here is expressed as growth in learning to develop a routine related to metanoia and additional language learning. tim expressed an experience in which organization was important to his additional language learning and growth. talking about an incident in a restaurant, tim mentioned, “just like i just read the menu and then like i talk like feel like there’s no problem nothings strange like just like just like a routine.” for tim, this experience was an important moment as he came to a realization that everyday life in a canadian and english-speaking culture had become routine for him. tolerance. with the emergence of this theme, tolerance appeared to be the ability to accept others and their opinions even if they were different from a personal view. this concept of tolerance appeared to be something the participants learned within their new educational setting. pat and meg each experienced moments that related to the subtheme of tolerance. both pat and meg expressed how their tolerance of other people increased due to the multicultural setting of eap and canada. by experiencing a more multicultural environment within canada, they were both exposed to different cultures and viewpoints, and as a result they felt they had experienced new learning moments that supported their developing english language proficiency. community. the subtheme of community in relation to metanoia and additional language learning was most connected to meg and betty. to betty, community meant becoming ranson 62 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 a global citizen, developing her identity as a member of the global community, and gaining a better understanding of this concept via her eap class. to meg, the community setting within eap assisted her in improving her “english skills for sure and then i also could like appreciate other like cultures in my classes.” awareness. awareness appeared to develop as participants gained a greater understanding of their surroundings; assisting in growth in moments of metanoia and additional language learning. this subtheme particularly arose in both meg and ann’s answers. meg developed a stronger awareness of her surroundings due to her use of the english language. for ann, she developed an awareness of her downfalls, for example, realizing that her weakness in academics was group work. discussion personal and academic development and growth based on metanoia reviewing the data, it appeared that the overall goal of participants was to become good english language learners who would not be held back from success by their language skills while attending an english medium university in canada. confidence was a major subtheme within the overall theme of growth. for example, time mentioned how hard work and consistency boosted his confidence and motivation to communicate and learn. as his confidence increased, tim appeared to be having moments of metanoia. as a result, he felt more aware of who he was and his surroundings personally. he felt he had a stronger comprehension of academics, and he felt he was able to communicate more effectively with instructors and other individuals within the english language. all of this awareness was related to a growth in confidence. by gaining awareness and confidence, the participants often grew in positive ways. metanoia tended to act as a catalyst for confidence, which lead to a concomitant sense of self-awareness. awareness in turn promoted academic and personal growth. participants were experiencing these moments of metanoia both inside and out of the classroom; hence, they also seemed to be growing in a cultural, social, emotional, and academic sense. the accomplishment of communication within another language acted as an enlightening moment, appearing to encourage participants to commit to gaining further awareness and growth. when growth occurs, participants often became effective additional language learners. this sets the proverbial stage for further moments of metanoia to occur and further development in the academic and social lives of the participants. the development of moments of metanoia throughout the data, there appeared to be moments of metanoia related to additional language learning. in particular, it is interesting to note that although moments of metanoia took place both inside and outside of the eap classroom, it seemed as though most of the moments of metanoia took place outside of the classroom. in particular, metanoia appeared to occur when the participants were being active additional language learners. participants whose language skills ranson 63 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 grew were finding sources of comprehensible input (krashen, 1982b) and meaningful interaction (long, 1996). by becoming active additional language learners, the participants put themselves in the position to practice and make use of their english skills. at times, the participants were placing themselves in a vulnerable state, but mitigated their anxiety and allowed themselves to engage with other users of the target language. this engagement seemed to support additional language learning. an example of this was when one participant was ordering something at a restaurant. at this point, the participant realized not only had she achieved metanoia, but felt comfortable as if she was speaking within her first language and within her home town. the findings seemed to suggest that communicating with willing interlocutors and observing others in the target language afford additional language learners gains in awareness and confidence, moments of metanoia, and growth in their english language proficiency. these results seem to indicate that eap programs can foster metanoia through encouraging interaction with other users of the target language, particularly in settings outside of the classroom. despite these findings, it is important to take into account that students learn differently and additional language learning is not a consistent learning process. at times, all language learners improve and then decline or worsen at other points, typically while learning something new. essentially, no one learns language at a consistent and stable rate. there are jumps and dives to the learning pattern (larsen-freeman, 1997), therefore, each participant experienced a varying number of experiences of metanoia, which occurred at different rates in differing environments. conclusion the results for this study seem to show that metanoia is important in relation to the growth of participants within the eap classroom. it may be that metanoia was important for the participants as they attempted to reach higher and newfound levels of understanding in their target language. the participants not only became stronger learners, but they also built stronger communities and relationships as a result of experiencing moments of metanoia. the participants also seemed to gain confidence and their identity changed and grew as they went through these moments of epiphany. overall, metanoia appeared to be an ingredient in the additional language learning process for the participants. this research addressed an area of education that is little explored: additional language learning in eap contexts and the relationship with metanoia. to achieve higher levels of thinking and thought processes such as metanoia, the participants seemed to indicate that being taught as whole learners, during which their instructors and institutions pay attention to their cultural, social, emotional, and academic needs, will support their overall growth. as eal teaching and learning continues to increase in canadian post-secondary institutions, studies such as this one will become more important so as to gain insight into the minds of english language learners. the results from this study may provide insight into how to improve or change the evergrowing eap environment. it is recognized, however, that this study had a number of limitations. although a number of interesting insights related to the experiences of the participants could be gleaned from this study, it is important to remember that this is a qualitative study, and as such, does not make any ranson 64 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 generalizable claims that go beyond the particular research site and the particular research participants. furthermore, the researcher comes to this project with eap teaching experience, and had to actively work to bracket her bias and lessen the influence of her own personal experiences as she was gathering and interpreting the data. future studies may seek to gain a larger number of participants from a wider range of research sites. for example, more participants completing the online questionnaires may lead to deeper insights. future studies could also consider the inclusion of frequency counts related to the coding of the data. in addition, the study could be widened beyond the online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. focus groups could be held, along with classroom observations, interviews with instructors and other individuals involved with eap students, and data gathering in the form of students’ academic work could be included to gain a greater understanding of the participants’ experiences. acknowledgements this paper reports findings from my ma thesis (ranson, 2016). many thanks go to the participants, my graduate supervisory committee, and the anonymous reviewers. references atkinson, d. (2011). a sociocognitive approach to second language acquisition. in d. atkinson, (ed.), alternative approaches to second language acquisition. new york, ny: routledge. collins, j. w. & o’brien, n. p. (2011). greenwood dictionary of education: second edition. greenwood. cuddon, j. (2013). dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. birchwood, m., dines, m., fiske, s., habib, m. & velickovic, v. (eds.). oxford, uk: wiley-blackwell. english, f.w. (2016). towards a metanoia of global educational leadership. in r. papa and f.w. english (eds.), educational leaders without boarders (pp. 63-81). switzerland: springer international publishing. retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3319-12358-5_3/fulltext.html fluidsurveys. (2015). fluidsurveys. retrieved from www.fluidsurveys.com gay, l.r. & mills, g. e. (2016). education research: competencies for analysis and applications. (11th ed.). boston, ma: pearson education, inc. gay, l.r., mills, g.e., airasian, p. (2012). educational research: competencies for analysis and applications. (10th ed.). boston, ma: pearson education, inc. government of canada. (2014). harper government launches comprehensive international education strategy. foreign affairs, trade and development canada. retrieved from http://www.international.gc.ca/media/comm/newscommuniques/2014/01/15a.aspx?lang=eng government of canada. (2013). canada welcomes record number of international students in 2012. citizenship and immigration canada. retrieved from http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=722709#archived\ hyland, k. & hamp-lyons, l. (2002). eap: issues and directions. journal of english for academic purposes 1(1), 1-12. krashen, s.d. (1982a). acquiring a second language. world englishes, 1(3), 97-101. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-12358-5_3/fulltext.html http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-12358-5_3/fulltext.html http://www.fluidsurveys.com/ http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=722709#archived/ ranson 65 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 krashen, s.d. (1982b). principles and practice in second language acquisition. new york, ny: pergamon press. retrieved from http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf larsen-freeman, d. (1997). chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. applied linguistics 18.2, 141–165. long, m. (1996). the role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. in w. ritchie and t. bhatia (eds.) handbook of second language acquisition. new york, ny: academic press, 413-468. ranson, s. (2016). experiences of metanoia: the relationship between second language acquisition and metanoia. (master’s thesis, university of british columbia, kelowna, british columbia, canada). retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/circle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0306926 senge, p. (1990). give me a lever long enough…and single-handed i can move the world. in grogan, m. (ed.), the jossey-bass reader on educational leadership (3-16). united states of america: jossey-bass. vygotsky, l.s. (1978). mind in society. cambridge, ma: mit press. appendix 1 section 1: demographic questions 1. how many years have you been studying english? 2. how old are you? 3. what is your gender? 4. what your country of origin? (for example, switzerland) 5. what is your first language? if it is a language with more than one dialect, please state your dialect. (for example, mandarin) 6. how long have you been living in canada? section 2: short answer questions 1. how has eap helped you in improving your academic english skills? 2. how has eap changed how you study english? please describe. 3. describe a time that you felt you were really successful at using english on campus. 4. since arriving in canada, describe your most memorable moment, either positive or negative, when you were using english. 5. do you feel like you have ever made any sudden progress learning english during your eap courses? please explain. 6. since arriving in canada, has there ever been a time when english suddenly made sense to you. if yes, please describe. 7. since arriving in canada, has there ever been a time when you surprised yourself with your english abilities. if yes, please describe. 8. do you have anything else you would like to share? please use the space below for any additional comments. appendix 2 semi-structured interview questions 1. how has eap changed who you are as a person? http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf https://open.library.ubc.ca/circle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0306926 ranson 66 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 51-66 2. how has eap helped you in improving your academic english skills? 3. how has eap changed how you study english? 4. describe a time that you felt you were really successful at using english on campus. 5. since arriving in canada, describe your most memorable moment, either positive or negative, when you were using english. 6. do you feel like you have ever made any sudden progress learning english during your eap courses? please explain. 7. since arriving in canada, describe a time when english suddenly made sense to you. 8. since arriving in canada, describe a time when you surprised yourself with your english abilities. 9. is there anything else you would like to share? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ hu & gonzales 91 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 english-as-an-additional-language employees’ perspectives on writing in the workplace jim hu thompson rivers university lachlan gonzales thompson rivers university abstract this article presents study results on workplace writing from english-as-an-additional-language (eal) employees’ perspectives, and shares findings about how educational institutions in british columbia can better prepare eal students to write in the workplace. in post-secondary academic writing, content rather than writing accuracy is often emphasized, yet most employers consider writing accuracy important as it reflects a company’s image (hu & hoare, 2017), and how eal employees perceive their writing preparedness, workplace writing accuracy, and language challenges remains unexplored. thus, we inquired: 1) how do eal employees graduated from english-speaking universities and working in english-medium environments perceive workplace writing accuracy? 2) to what extent are they prepared for workplace writing? 3) what writing challenges do they encounter? 4) what do they think universities can do to better prepare eal students for workplace writing? the study employed qualitative interviews with nine eal employees who graduated from british columbia universities and were working at englishmedium companies in canada. data analysis suggests that the participants highly valued writing accuracy; however, their education did not prepare them adequately. in addition, the participants suggested that universities offer more communication, business, and professional writing courses; enhance support services; invite employers and eal employees as guest speakers; and incorporate real-life scenarios in the curriculum. introduction when you are working, they [employers] expect you to know everything. they don’t want to teach you how to write an email. for a student, you should know all the basic stuff before you leave for a job. they expect it. (participant i) after english–as-an additional-language (eal) students finish university, one of their first tasks is to seek employment in the workforce using their newfound skills. this employment can be in any number of industry areas such as finance, information technology (it), trades, nursing, business management, and general retail. however, their ability to obtain employment and career advancement in english-medium institutions can be related to their ability to write in english. many employers find writing critical for the prospective employee, stating sentiments such as “in most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in or it could be your ticket out” (esl writer, 2015). bovee, thill, and scribner (2020) have highlighted communication as the most important business skill and “far and away the most commonly mentioned skill set” (p. 31) when employers look to hire employees. the more people advance in careers, the more important communication skills are than technical background (lannon, gurak, klepp, & kelly, 2021). furthermore, the ability of graduates to write correctly and clearly can have a direct impact on https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 92 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 employers’ perceptions of employees, especially eal speakers, who are often believed to have communication deficiencies (marshall, 2009). among other employer concerns, grammatical and mechanical errors can not only cause misunderstanding, but make the writer appear unprofessional (ewald, 2017), and by extension, make the represented firm appear unprofessional (hu & hoare, 2017). despite the importance of english communication in the workplace and the significance of second language (l2) employees for the british columbia labour force (british columbia, 2019), few studies have investigated the communication skills of eal speakers in the workplace, especially written communication. technical communication technical writing is very important for business communication as it is used to fulfil many job responsibilities such as internal communications including memos, emails, and reports, and external communications directed to clients and customers. ewald (2017) stated “technical writing is a simple, stripped-down tool designed to get the job done, and that’s to convey information to people who need it. it’s not meant to be fancy. it’s meant to be clear and effective” (p. 3). the clearer the writing is, the better it is perceived, and many eal students are expected to have the same ability to communicate in writing as native-english speakers (hu & hoare, 2017). furthermore, businesses often do not offer training in their specific vernacular or methods of communication, expecting their employees to already have the skills needed. ewald (2017) described four major attributes of technical writing. technical writing is clear, complete, concise, and accessible. being clear means the writing must be easily understood. being complete means providing all the information needed to understand the situation. concision means being as brief as possible. finally, technical writing must be accessible, namely, organized and formatted to enable the reader to find specific information quickly. this clear, concise, and stripped-down writing is often at odds with what eal students are used to, which is descriptive or research essays that allow for added details or complicated and narrative language created for peers. as lannon et al. (2021) have pointed out, “when novice technical writers first encounter the task of producing scientific, technical, or business documents, they often rely on the strategies they’ve used to create essays or personal documents” (n.p.). these strategies are often incorrect and are not capable of creating the specialised language and format that technical documentation requires. thus, while eal students are taught academic essentials in their courses such as grammar and vocabulary, they often have trouble making the switch to the constraints of technical writing. canadian language benchmark policies towards eal in the workplace by describing canadian language benchmarks (clb), we endeavour to provide a context where basic and more advanced business communication can occur. the clb provides a benchmark for teachers, eal students, and workplaces that describes different levels of listening, speaking, writing, and reading competency in english. these benchmarks provide a set of descriptions to determine a language user’s ability to communicate and understand in a general setting. it ranges from clb 1, which indicates initial basic language ability, to clb 12, which marks language https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 93 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 ability as fluent advanced. we look specifically at written communication with regards to workplace standards and relate them to clb levels. business and professional written communication starts at clb level 3 wherein the writer is able to “write simple, short business or service messages” (gauthier, 2019, p. 3). at clb 11, the writer can “write business or service correspondence for a broad range of purposes and for external use; formal business reports, requests for proposals and formal proposals; and effective, stylistically complex text” (gauthier, 2019, p. 7). a writer at clb 12 can “write highly specialized, complex formal correspondence and documents; and, effective and stylistically polished texts to inform, convince and persuade others” (gauthier, 2019, p. 7). the descriptions of these last two levels match exactly what employers see in ideal employees as the former expect efficiency, professionalism, and competence and want the written image of the company to be perfect (beason, 2001; bovee et al., 2020; ewald, 2017; hu & hoare, 2017; lannon et al., 2021). yet, most eal graduates will find it hard to meet these standards upon completing undergraduate, or even master’s, studies. literature review among the small number of studies on workplace communication of eal speakers, derwing and munro (2009) used experiments to find out how native-english speakers in a petrochemical company in alberta, canada perceived the oral communication of eal immigrant colleagues whose first language (l1) was slavic or mandarin. the participants listened to paired samples and offered opinions on their preferences. the study found that comprehensibility is more important than accentedness for successful communication. for example, one can “speak with a strong accent yet be highly intelligible and comprehensible” (p. 197). the study also noted that many eal professionals have not developed satisfactory oral language skills upon completing english instruction in canada and that there should be more emphasis on oral communication skills such as fluency and pronunciation in eal and language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) programs. acknowledging there are few studies on workplace communication between native english and eal speakers, derwing and munro (2009) called for more research on such issues as they are significant not only for applied linguistics but also for the canadian labour force and economy. the study of employer perspectives on eal employees’ writing this paper builds upon a previous study by hu and hoare (2017) which explored employer perspectives on eal employees’ writing. research has revealed that many university eal students do not consider writing accuracy important and therefore, are not motivated to improve writing because, in academic disciplines, professors often emphasize content over language accuracy (e.g., gimenez, 2009; hirvela, 2011; hoare & hu, 2015; hu, 2000, 2010; hyland, 2013; ortega, 2011). to help raise the consciousness of language accuracy and clarity among university faculty and eal students, ferris (2011) called for research to explore the views of prospective employers on inaccurate and unclear writing of eal employees. in response to the call, hu and hoare (2017) examined the perspectives of employers in western canada on workplace writing of their eal employees. in particular, the study inquired: 1) what are the expectations of employers regarding accuracy and clarity in the writing of eal employees? https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 94 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 2) what language problems do eal employees have in work-related writing? 3) how might writing problems affect career opportunities and successes of eal employees? data were collected through individual qualitative interviews with ten participants recruited from one small city and one metropolitan area. the participants were typically company managers or other executives, representing tourism, banking, high-tech, medical service, education counselling, and other fields that tended to have a high percentage of eal employees. the data were analyzed in two approaches, one to seek answers to the research questions and the other, a thematic approach, to identify themes or recurrent patterns of response (crocker et al, 2014; strauss & corbin, 1990, 1998). the major findings of the study include the following: 1 the employers mostly maintain the same writing standards for eal employees as for native english speakers. 2 resumes containing inaccurate or unclear writing often are discarded during screening. 3 eal employees are expected to write accurate and standard english in communication with the external world since errors and unclear writing may reflect negatively on the image of the company as well as the writer, not only linguistically but also professionally. so, while employers expect one standard of writing, academia provides another. beason (2001) used image theory to illuminate the “disparity between employer expectations and research on faculty feedback and practices in l2 disciplinary writing” (p. 10). 4 for eal employees whose technical or specific skills are valued over language proficiency, minor language errors are often tolerated in internal communication (e.g., emails) as long as the language is comprehensible and results in no undesirable consequence. 5 language problems contributing to workplace writing inaccuracy are related to grammar, vocabulary, word order, clarity, idiomatic expressions, and professional writing style among other concerns. 6 eal employees are generally expected to complete writing tasks with minimal assistance from colleagues. 7 eal employees who write inaccurate or unclear english may have difficulty finding certain employment, be dismissed, be offered a learning plan, have limited advancement opportunities, and be assigned roles dealing with internal colleagues only or requiring limited language skills. thus, to properly prepare university eal students for working in englishmedium environments, instructors need to provide feedback and treatment for eal students’ writing problems. for example, composition courses should include editing skills. 8 a disconnect exists between the academic and professional worlds in most fields concerning eal writing accuracy and clarity. since hu and hoare (2017) focused on the perspectives of employers on eal employee writing, they call for further research on the perspectives of eal employees who were former eal students regarding their “writing preparedness for and writing challenges at the workplace” (p. 14). research questions despite research conducted in previous studies (e.g., beason, 2001; hairston, 1981; hu & hoare, 2017), few have explored how eal university graduates perceive the importance of writing accurately and clearly in the workplace or examined their perceptions of the institutions that https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 95 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 trained them to write in english. the current study represents an extension of a previous study of employers’ perspectives on eal employee writing in the workplace (hu & hoare, 2017) and reports on eal employees’ perceptions on writing in the workplace. this research is critical because it may impact eal students and university faculty. currently, as mentioned earlier, many of these students have no interest in improving writing accuracy (ferris, 2002, 2011; hu, 2010), tend to lack confidence in writing competence, and rely too much on institutional and tutor support; furthermore, academic faculty often choose to ignore language accuracy while focusing on content (hoare & hu, 2015; hu, 2010; hyland, 2013). the goal of this study is to provide a different perspective on workplace writing and to raise university faculty’s and eal students’ awareness of the importance of writing proficiency. the study was guided by the following questions: 1. how do eal employees graduated from english-speaking post-secondary institutions perceive english writing accuracy for the workplace? 2. to what extent are they prepared for writing in english in the workplace? 3. what writing tasks and challenges do they encounter in the workplace? 4. how do they think universities can better prepare eal students for writing in the workplace? defining key terms as in hu and hoare (2017), work-related writing in this study refers to writing for work-related purposes, consisting of a phrase or sentence but typically comprised of multiple sentences in one or more paragraphs. examples are letters, emails, memos, service orders, manuals, and workrelated reports. workplace correspondence is a type of work-related writing and includes emails, letters, text messages, newsletters, and memos. language problems are those that affect one or more dimensions of language in communication. the major dimensions (see fig. 1 next page) are grammatical accuracy, meaning clarity, and contextual appropriateness of a language unit such as a phrase, sentence, paragraph, or article (see celce-murcia & larsen-freeman, 1999). the shared intersection in fig. 1 refers to the same language unit which may exhibit different meanings in different domains. for example, in the sentence “it’s ok.” the grammar is correct, while the meaning may or may not be clear depending on the meaning of “it.” however, the sentence is acceptable in informal writing but generally not appropriate in formal writing. the language problems include, but are not limited to, those in the following categories: grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, upper and lower cases, and professional writing style. language accuracy typically indicates language free of grammatical and mechanical errors. language proficiency refers to the degree a person has mastered the receptive (i.e., listening and reading) and productive (i.e., speaking and writing) skills of a language. language accuracy constitutes part of language proficiency, especially in productive skills. professional writing style means using profession-specific terminology and writing clearly and concisely without using contracted forms (e.g., they’ll), colloquial expressions, or choppy sentences (i.e., two or more sentences in a row with less than 10 words in each) (see hu, 2011). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 96 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 figure 1. dimensions of language problems study methodology semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews like the previous study on employer perspectives on the writing problems of eal employees (hu & hoare, 2017), this study employed semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews to uncover the perspectives of eal employees on their writing preparedness and challenges for the workplace (creswell, 1998; crocker et al., 2014; gonzales, 2018; hu, 2009; newton, 2010; savin-baden & major, 2013). as the writing preparedness and challenges were personal for each research participant, they were highly sensitive and confidential. savin-baden and major (2013) observed that “interviews are particularly appropriate when the information to be shared is sensitive or confidential” (p. 358). furthermore, writing in the workplace is complex because it involves not only grammatical and mechanical accuracy but more importantly, semantic clarity and pragmatic appropriateness (hu & hoare, 2017). the complexity is compounded by the variety of jobs and writing responsibilities of the research participants in different positions (see participant profiles below). in-depth qualitative interviews were a suitable approach as they can generate rich data and in-depth insights into complex issues (hu, 2009; hu & hoare, 2017; newton, 2010). finally, we adopted semi-structured interviews, namely, interviews with a prepared guide because the guide can enable efficient use of the interview time and allow a degree of comparability across the participants (see the appendix for the interview guide) (gonzales, 2018). however, the open-ended nature of the interviews also means that researchers have the option to pursue interesting and meaningful issues that emerge during the interview (gonzales, 2018). as savin-baden and major (2013) suggested, this was especially important as we had only one interview opportunity with each participant since they were very busy and some were working in other cities of canada (see hu & hoare, 2017). participants a total of nine participants were recruited from a diverse set of industries ranging from banking to retail, and their work experience ranged from half a year to eight years. the diversity ensured that a wide range of responses were received. eight of them originally came from asian countries and one was from argentina. their ages ranged from 25 to 35, with one outlier being 51. all but one had graduated from an institution in british columbia with either a master’s or grammatical accuracy pragmatic appropriateness semantic clarity https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 97 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 bachelor’s degree; the outlier had graduated from an institution in british columbia with a care aid certificate. all but one had taken courses in an eal program; the outlier had instead taken four undergraduate english courses (see table 1 for participant profiles). table 1 participant profiles participants business and position gender length of employment age country/ region of origin eal courses completed degrees earned a bank, advisor male 2 years 27 south korea levels 2-5 bbahr b retail, cellphone manager male 2.5 years 29 china levels 3-5 bba c import-export, credit coordinator female 11 months 35 argentina levels 4-5 mba d retail store, assistant manager female 1.5 years 28 china levels 3-5 m.ed. e bank, financial services manager male 3 years 30 china levels 3-5 m.ed. bba f nursing, senior care aide female 2.5 years 51 china levels 3-5 care aide cert. g retail, manager/owner male 7 years 30 china levels 4-5 bba h animal care attendant female 8 years 33 taiwan levels 4-5 mba i it, web developer male 0.5 years 25 pakistan 4 undergraduate english courses bs note. level 1 is the lowest and level 5 is the highest of the eal courses at the institution in question. data collection and analysis the participants were initially sent an invitation to participate in the study. once they accepted the invitation, they were emailed an interview guide to prepare them for the study. from august 2015 to february 2016, seven of the participants were interviewed individually by the authors face-to-face in the former’s offices or a classroom at the latter’s institution. two who were working in another city were interviewed individually by phone. each interview lasted about 45 minutes and was audio-recorded with their permission. the interview questions were designed to elicit responses on the participants’ writing ability, error awareness, eal training opportunities and resources in the workplace, and suggestions for educational institutions in british columbia. it is worth noting that while the last interview question asked for suggestions for the study itself, almost all the participants answered by using the opportunity to provide further suggestions about how universities could better prepare eal students’ writing skills for the https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 98 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 workplace. they did so after having answered a previous question specifically designed for this purpose. during the interview, the second author transcribed simultaneously on a laptop computer with the help of the interview guide and, afterwards, checked the transcription against the audiorecording. while interviewing, the first author also made notes on a hard copy of the interview guide and checked the transcription with the notes. since the transcripts were double-checked, they were supposed to be accurate and reliable. as the participants were busy and no honorarium was available, we did not attempt member checking. we conducted the data analysis using a thematic approach, also known as the grounded theory approach (strauss & corbin, 1990, 1998). in this approach, we read the interview transcripts repeatedly, performed constant comparison of ideas (crocker et al., 2014), and identified themes or recurrent patterns of response (gonzales, 2018; hu, 2000). the themes identified included workplace writing tasks, writing challenges, workplace writing resources, institutional english writing, and suggestions for academia. these themes are presented in detail in the following section. research findings this section presents the themes identified through thematic analysis of the interview data. workplace writing tasks the study participants were required to complete a variety of writing tasks depending on their specific jobs. for example, a participant in the banking industry was required to write internal and external emails, provide account summaries, and complete credit and loan applications on behalf of clients and companies. the participants working in the retail industry mentioned writing meeting minutes; drafting sales summaries; writing reports to supervisors, and creating purchase, production, and sales orders. those participants working in health care, specifically nursing and animal care, described writing detailed patient descriptions, daily notes, and emails to colleagues and customers. all the participants used emails in their regular communications with customers, clients, and the public, and internally with colleagues and supervisors. writing challenges the needs and challenges faced by eal employees are diverse, but in the context of this study, factors such as work environment, demographics, employment experience, and time out of educational institutions were seen as a direct influence (marshall, 2009). common challenges included difficulty with spelling when writing on paper, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, grammar, clear expressions, and professional writing style. these challenges arose from a lack of education on these specific subjects at their previous educational institutions and a lack of training in the workplace. the participants found that job-specific vocabulary was required to write in a professional manner, and this vocabulary had not been taught at their educational institutions. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 99 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 grammar difficulties included those involving forms and structures such as verb tenses and prepositions. furthermore, the quality expectations for writing emails to supervisors and external recipients were rated at the same level as that for native-english speaking employees. as participant d commented, “they have the same expectations for me. it’s the same as canadians. the expectations in writing are equally high.” this finding echoes the previous study on employer perspectives on eal employee writing (hu & hoare, 2017). several participants noted that at the start of their job, they did not know how to write professional emails. for example, one participant stated that emails in the professional workplace were far different from the writing he had previously encountered: “when i start to work, writing emails and the paper writing were totally different” (participant g). similarly, in response to our question regarding writing challenges, participant e, a bank manager, expressed frustrations about emails, specifically how to communicate clearly with adequate details. along with challenges in vocabulary and grammar, the participants faced issues with clear and concise writing and professional writing style (ewald, 2017). nearly all the participants indicated that the ability to write in a clear, concise, and professional manner was critical and that employers assumed that employees already knew how to do so. participant i elucidated: when you are working, they expect you to know everything. they don’t want to teach you how to write or do an email. for a student, you should have to know all the basic stuff before you leave for a job. they expect it. while, for non-critical internal communications, minor writing errors were sometimes tolerated, when asked about the necessity of accurate and clear writing, the participants emphasized that such writing was critical to their jobs; it was expected in all written communications both internally and externally. failure to do so could have consequences; these could range from mere embarrassment in front of employers and clients to life-threatening in health care situations. one participant stated: “that’s very important for dealing with contractors and supervisors. you need to make them understand. if the other person doesn’t understand, they might take it another way and that could be disastrous” (participant i). another participant reiterated: because whatever the resident says, if we are not clear [in writing], the nurse doesn’t know and then the doctor doesn’t know. they [nurses and doctors] can get confused or misinformed. and then they [residents] might not be able to get the care they need; maybe not able to catch the best time for the best medical help. it could be very dangerous for the patients. high consequences. (participant f) workplace writing resources when queried about their access to professional development opportunities, specifically writing resources, all the participants reported that their workplaces did not offer any language or writing development. while the workplaces offered workshops such as job skill development and management training, they appeared to expect non-native english speakers to operate at the same level as their canadian english-speaking employees in terms of language proficiency (see https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 100 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 above). to deal with the writing challenges and lack of workplace writing resources, the participants utilized various strategies such as asking colleagues, using internet resources, googling, and proofreading multiple times. as participant h observed, “i ask friends and colleagues to proofread…. i use google to search for templates. internet is the first go-to source.” hu and hoare (2017) reported that some employers paid for programs to improve their employees’ language skills, but most employers described collegial aid for the eal employees as a strategy instead. if a company has a significant number of eal employees who need language development, brooks (2009) recommended that workplaces provide english language coaches, bilingual writing materials, classes, and seminars for the employees to learn workplace vocabulary and writing in the workplace. these add-ons to workplace language learning could alleviate the issues reported by the participants related to the lack of language resources and give eal employees an avenue to learn the language that they need to succeed. institutional english writing when asked about how their educational institutions prepared them for the workplace, there appeared to be a consensus among the participants. they indicated that while they were taught the basics of the english language, it was routinely insufficient. they did not receive enough practice in terms of workplace writing; however, weekly journals and vocabulary for some course topics were beneficial. they suggested that workplace writing skills were de-emphasised at the educational institution in favour of english for academic purposes, including a reliance on textbooks that had little or nothing to do with the workplace. one participant indicated that he learned more in a workplace setting than in a classroom. “i didn’t learn much from [the institution]. it’s more the working environment that helped me” (participant b). one reason was that as a store manager, he was constantly exposed to english and work-specific vocabulary and grammar whereas in the university setting, the eal emphasis is usually on english for academic purposes. suggestions for academia to improve eal student writing when asked about what teachers and educational institutions in british columbia could do to better prepare eal students to write in the workplace, the participants had several valuable suggestions. one was for the university to offer more business, technical, and professional writing courses that would benefit eal graduates in the workplace. as participant h explained, “for four years we write lots of papers. when you got to the workplace, it’s totally different when writing memos or emails. i have to write reference or recruitment letters, but i was never taught how.” thus, she suggested “more english courses for different academic areas and more preparation for workplace writing, e.g., proposals, recruitment letters.” she also thought that a “professional workplace-writing course should be in the bachelor’s or the diploma program. [eal] is still too broad for the professional writing. it [eal] should focus on the grammar and the basics.” similarly, the student participants in hu (2000) also made requests for disciplinespecific english. furthermore, the participants in this study expressed a need for the institution to prepare them for the real working world by incorporating real-life examples and inviting employers and recent eal graduates as guest speakers. as participant i advised, “for some programs you could https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 101 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 invite the employers [as guest speakers] …what are you looking for in a student [i.e., employee candidate], talk about skill expectations including writing skills. they [university programs] can base their curriculum on what employers want.” while educational institutions should provide more than just skill training (rickman, 2016), this advice is worth considering (see brooks, 2009). the participants also wanted a dedicated lesson or workshop where they could learn how to write professional emails. all the participants had to write internal and external emails daily; however, writing emails in a professional style for business proved to be a challenge. therefore, participant e stated: “i wish i learned how to write emails [in school].” lastly, while commending university support systems such as writing centres, co-op opportunities (paid work experience), and service-learning (student volunteering in community organisations, see wisla, krauza, & hu, 2017), the participants acknowledged that such services could be improved. the writing centre could be more accessible for students with increased hours and staff. participant c commented: “i always went there [to the writing centre] and i wish they had more hours.” since academic faculty typically focus on content in student writing (hu, 2000, 2010; hyland, 2013), the writing centre is often the sole source of help for eal students to improve their language. the issue has become more noteworthy as international student populations continue to grow on most university campuses in british columbia. according to the bc council for international education, bc added a 31% increase in international students between 2015 and 2017, and in 2017 b.c.’s post-secondary institutions and k-12 schools were home to 152,390 international students (rosl yn kuni n & associates, inc., 2017) . this increase represents a substantial jump from previous years and could have resulted in a strain on existing systems of support such as the writing centres in bc post-secondary institutions. discussion summary of answers to the research questions this section discusses the themes from the data analysis and participant interviews with regard to the research questions. 1. how do eal employees graduated from english-speaking post-secondary institutions perceive english writing accuracy for the workplace? the study findings indicate that writing correct and clear english is very important, and it is a critical requirement for external communications. this finding is supported by business, technical, and professional writing textbooks (bovee et al., 2020; ewald, 2017; lannon et al., 2021). failure to write accurately and clearly can have differing levels of consequences such as financial losses, legal issues, client complaints and mistrust, damage to company image, and lost business or customers. ewald (2017) explained that “poor communication at any stage of a project is very costly… [an email] can cause hurt feelings, ill will, and inaction. that inaction means that your good ideas or requests…or dire warnings may be ignored” (p. 3). an example ewald (2017) cited is the 2006 deepwater horizon incident, where ignored warnings directly resulted in catastrophic damage and loss of life. as mentioned earlier, according to image theory (beason, 2001, hu & hoare, 2017), inaccurate or unclear writing for the public can have a negative impact on the image of both the writer and the company. unfortunately, as hu and hoare (2017) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 102 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 noted, few studies have examined the negative consequences of poor writing in the workplace since beason (2001) or communication in the workplace between native-english-speakers and non-native-english speakers (derwing & munro, 2009). although the participants did not mention dismissal owing to writing incompetence, hu and hoare (2017) indicated some employers did let employees go after the latter’s repeated failures to improve language. finally, employers and colleagues expect the same level of writing standards for eal employees as they do for native-english speakers. nevertheless, in general, the employee participants in this study appeared to have higher expectations of themselves regarding language clarity and accuracy than what the employer participants in the previous study (hu & hoare, 2017) expected of their eal employees. however, in non-critical situations, less than perfect writing could be tolerated for internal communications, as was also found in the previous study (hu & hoare, 2017). 2. to what extent are the employees prepared for writing in english in the workplace? the interviews indicated that only learning basic writing skills at an academic institution was far from adequate for the workplace because the participants had to learn specialized work-related vocabulary and professional writing styles that were not taught at the institution. therefore, the eal employees generally did not feel well prepared for workplace writing. this incongruity between the writing skills that are taught in academia and those required in the workplace is a common issue among eal graduates as language programs and universities mostly focus on academic language skills. they are different from business, technical, and professional writing styles that are field-specific and concerned with getting the point across clearly and efficiently (bovee et al., 2020; ewald, 2017; lannon et al., 2021). for example, lannon et al. (2021) distinguished literary writing and technical writing this way: “unlike poetry and fiction, which appeal mainly to our imagination, technical documents appeal to our understanding. technical writing rarely seeks to entertain, create suspense, or invite differing interpretations” (n.p.). the emphasis on creativity and interpretation clearly makes literary writing feel different than what eal graduates would see in the workplace. technical writing requires “clearly defined structures and concise, readable prose. those emphases result from meeting the reader's needs and priorities, not the writer's needs and goals” (lannon et al., 2021, n.p.). while eap is very useful for writing essays, creating arguments and discussions, and fostering a learning atmosphere within an academic structure, many students are taught to do this by universities that might assume they are going into an academic field. this can hurt the student’s ability to understand and write in technical or business genres, which as stated above require vastly different methods and are written for different purposes. the participants echoed this mismatch and expressed a desire for universities to have taught them workplace writing styles. one way to address the issue is to have the business sector provide a curriculum or ideas to help shape the curriculum (brooks, 2009). this would give eal students a better jumping-off point to learn specialised terms and writing styles in a general sense and be better prepared for learning highly specialised field-specific genres later on. 3. what writing tasks and challenges do the employees encounter in the workplace? the major writing tasks for the participants included emails, work notes, reports, letters, memos, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 103 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 purchase and sale orders, and credit or loan applications. challenges to writing in english came in many forms, but several commonalities the participants shared were professional writing style, grammar, unfamiliar technical terminology, unclear idiomatic expressions, and business and legal language. it is worth emphasizing that both this and the previous study (hu & hoare, 2017) found professional writing style to be a major challenge for eal employees. 4. how do the employees think universities can better prepare eal students for writing in the workplace? the participants suggested more business english, professional writing, and communication courses. some of these english courses can be tailored to the needs of specific programs, such as business writing for business students, technical writing for science and technology students, and professional writing for healthcare and service-related students. if these courses are already offered, eal students need to be made more aware of their importance for future careers. they also suggested enhanced support facilities such as a writing centre capable of accommodating more students. furthermore, they suggested inviting employers and eal graduates as guest speakers to learn about workplace expectations and experiences in british columbia. finally, they suggested increased co-op opportunities as well as using real-life examples and scenarios in class to prepare for life in the workplace in british columbia. brooks (2009) made several similar recommendations for businesses to help eal employees by placing emphasis on in-house training and utilizing work vocabulary and context. training by third parties might decontextualize the context which is the most important part of the learning process. brooks (2009) also made recommendations for educational institutions. for example, professors can teach or create classes that promote business-centric language and vocabulary as well as provide real-life and workplace scenarios, and eal speakers with workplace experience can be consulted to help direct the course content. finally, teaching english for the workplace such as emails, memos, and reports as well as the expectations of workplace communication, may help eal students feel more prepared and help alleviate the pressure placed on businesses to re-train eal graduates. conclusions the study suggests that the eal participants had high expectations of themselves regarding language clarity and accuracy in the workplace, possibly higher than what some of the employers had of their eal employees in the previous study (hu & hoare, 2017). however, the participants generally did not feel well prepared for the writing tasks in the workplace. thus, educational institutions need to strive to improve english education for eal students so that eal graduates can write accurately and clearly for the workplace. moreover, targeted courses such as communications and business english could potentially alleviate some of the writing challenges that eal graduates face at work. in addition, businesses and employers have a duty to provide professional development opportunities and resources concerning language for eal employees. for instance, instead of third-party training, in-house training classes and seminars should be offered that utilize work vocabulary and writing (brooks, 2009). however, businesses usually expect to hire employees who are competent in their ability to write effectively; thus, the burden is placed upon the educational institution to provide effective education that prepares eal students for the workplace. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 104 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 recommendations for educational institutions if a university does not offer such courses as communications, business writing, technical writing, and professional writing, then it should consider them. if it does offer the courses, then eal students should be made aware of them. to that end, increased advertising and communication should be directed towards enrolling eal students in these courses. this could be in the form of a simple class presentation to eal students or provided as an option along with eal courses. in addition, the university curriculum should include real-life examples and reflect what employers expect employees to be able to perform in terms of writing duties and standards. in this sense, the university can invite employers and eal graduates with workplace experience as guest speakers to give lectures and workshops to both instructors and students. writing centres for eal students. as academic faculty tend to focus on disciplinary content rather than language (hoare & hu, 2015; hu, 2000; hu & hoare, 2017; hyland, 2013) and may not have the time or language expertise to help eal students (hu, 2000; hu, 2010), university writing centres should provide additional instruction for students by providing general vocabulary and specific terminology. writing centres should also teach essay skills, both editing and revision, and supplementary education or general business practices such as workplace emails, memos, reports, manuals, and presentations. indeed, as the second author of this article has witnessed, the use of the writing centre by eal students at one bc institution has increased dramatically over the past few years, and many of the students went for help with business english. eal students primarily use writing centres to learn technical writing, essay formats, editing and revision skills, and practical language skills, not all of which can be taught in academic classes. writing centres have the advantage of flexibility in adapting to the needs of individual eal students. however, this can only occur if writing centres are provided the appropriate resources to accommodate the increasing demands by students. while the participants lauded writing centres for their services, they did report that there were shortfalls such as not being able to book an appointment or short hours which did not accommodate student schedules. an increase in staffing, hours of operation, and online asynchronous sessions could alleviate appointment problems. writing centres could also add specific supplementary presentations and workshops on business and technical writing as well as workshops on writing emails, memos, and workplace correspondence. finally, instructors could incorporate the use of a writing centre into a syllabus as an assignment to aid in students’ education. further research the small sample size has limited potential to create a comprehensive overview of eal employee perceptions on writing requirements of the workplace in british columbia. thus, future research could include surveys and interviews with additional participants representing a greater variety of professions. finally, future research may involve universities considering the possibility of implementing suggestions from this study. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 hu & gonzales 105 bc teal journal 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(2017). service-learning: boldly going where eal students have not gone before. bc teal journal, 2(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v2i1.243 appendix interview guide for eal employees eal employees’ perspectives on writing accuracy, preparedness, and challenges for the workplace certificate of approval #100943 background information name: gender: [ ] male [ ] female. year of birth: company/institution: job title in company/institution (e.g., nurse): length of employment in the company/institution: country of origin: eal courses completed at university: degrees, diplomas, and certificates earned in anti-chronological order in canada: sample questions views on language errors in work-related writing explanation: work-related writing in this study can consist of one sentence but normally multiple sentences in one or multiple paragraphs. typical examples are work-related reports, business correspondence, memos, minutes, and business/work emails. language errors can be in any of the following categories: a. grammar b. vocabulary c. spelling d. punctuation https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 https://bccie.bc.ca/wp-%20content/uploads/2019/07/kunin-report-2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v2i1.243 hu & gonzales 108 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 91–108 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 e. upper/lower cases (capital and small letters) f. professional writing style (clear, concise, and appropriate language) g. clear expressions h. other 1. what kinds of writing do you need to do for work at your company/institution? 2. do you think writing correctly and clearly is important for success in your company/institution? please answer and explain. 3. do your supervisors, colleagues, and clients have the same kind of expectations regarding your writing ability and accuracy as for native-english speakers? 4. have you ever had any challenges or problems in writing correctly and clearly in the workplace? please explain. possible challenges/problems can be in a. grammar b. vocabulary c. spelling d. punctuation e. upper/lower cases (capital and small letters) f. professional writing style (clear, concise, and appropriate language) g. clear expressions h. other 5. do you want to deal with the writing problems? if so, do you have any ideas or plans for dealing with them? 6. does your company/institution provide professional development opportunities and/or resources? if so, explain. 7. to what extent do you think your english-speaking post-secondary educational institution(s) (i.e., eal department, academic courses, and other facilities such as a writing centre) prepared you for writing in english in the workplace? 8. what do you wish you had learned or learned to do at the institution mentioned in #7 in order to prepare for writing in the workplace? 9. what do you think eal teachers, academic faculty, and the university should do respectively to best prepare eal students for success in english writing in the workplace? 10. do you have any comments or suggestions for the study? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ freimuth 32 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 are academic english words learned incidentally? a canadian case study hilda freimuth thompson rivers university abstract this study at a canadian university grew out of the need to know whether students acquired academic vocabulary incidentally through text exposure (extensive reading) in class. the ability to explicitly teach all the words on the academic word list is an unreasonable expectation for a one-semester course. this study, therefore, investigated whether thirteen english as an additional language (eal) students in a capstone foundation course (academic reading and writing) acquired vocabulary simply through exposure to a variety of different academic texts (such as policy papers, essays, journal articles, and book chapters) in class. students assessed their own vocabulary knowledge and development through paribakht and weschke’s (1993) vocabulary knowledge scale (vks) at the beginning of the study (week 3) and again at the end of the semester (week 13). results indicated a vocabulary gain for almost all students, even with word exposure frequencies as low as one to four. further research on incidental academic vocabulary acquisition is needed using other instrumentation to confirm the findings. introduction the important role lexical knowledge plays in an additional language learner’s linguistic development cannot be underscored enough. in fact, a number of linguists believe vocabulary development is the key to language learning. lewis (1993), schmitt (2010), nation (2006), and folse (2004)—to name but a few prominent experts—all believe that vocabulary knowledge is central to language acquisition. wilkins (1972) goes one step further and makes the claim that “…while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (pp. 111-112). with so much emphasis in the literature on the importance of vocabulary learning, the question to ask, then, is—how is this best done? there are two overarching approaches to teaching vocabulary: explicit teaching of vocabulary items (which is a conscious effort) or incidental acquisition through exposure to words in authentic contexts (an unconscious effort). the latter type of acquisition is not a mindful act but rather a result of natural contact with language (ellis, 1994). incidental vocabulary learning tends to take place when learners are able to understand the context of a word in its authentic setting. in the case of academic vocabulary, however, words are often multi-syllabic and abstract in meaning—possibly making incidental acquisition of academic words more difficult than non-academic ones. when non-native english-speaking students come to universities in english speaking countries, they often lack the academic language needed to succeed (aldawsari, 2017; galloway & jenkins, 2005). this is true for international students at institutions in british columbia as well (keefe, 2016). yet, they are placed by their institutions into high-level academic reading and writing foundation courses to prepare them for entry into university. in some cases, no lists of academic words appear in the syllabi of these courses, leaving instructors to determine which https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 33 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 words, if any, to teach explicitly. with 570 word families on the academic word list (coxhead, 2000), it makes it nearly impossible for a teacher to explicitly teach all the words in one semester. this near impossibility means a good number of academic words have to be acquired incidentally by the students. but is this even possible? the aim of this case study is to determine if english as an additional language (eal) students in a foundation class at a canadian university acquire academic vocabulary incidentally through exposure to a variety of academic texts in class. literature review the incidental learning of vocabulary is widely believed to be linked to extensive reading (huckin & coady, 1999; pigada & smith, 2006). before a thorough review of incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading can take place, it is first important to understand what is meant by the act of reading. since an extensive review of all the existing reading theories is beyond the scope of this paper, only a brief review and definition will be given here. this review is important in that it contextualizes the learning of incidental vocabulary. according to johns (2010), the first occurrence of the act of reading and its original purpose remains unknown. however, reading is believed to have originated with the sumerians thousands of years ago at which time the act of reading referred to many different things: counting, memorizing, reciting, reading aloud, and calculating (fischer, 2003). but, the definition of reading has changed with the passage of time. what was first understood to be a simple task of interpreting visual information is now understood to be much more complex in nature. at some point in time, the act of reading morphed into more of a process than end result, meaning it became more of an interaction between the reader and text (alderson, 2000). this interaction moved beyond that of the literal decoding act to include inferencing and critical evaluation. rumelhart’s (1977) interactive model of reading is an example of this. in this model, the literal level of reading is viewed as an automatic operation, like tying your shoe or riding a bicycle. beyond this, however, lie many other complex processes. in other models (see klein, peterson, & simington, 1991), readers are seen as “strategists” where they engage in a number of different tasks. these include looking at text type, establishing the purpose of the text, and making predictions before, during, and after text interaction. this paper looks at incidental vocabulary acquisition through this lens of reading. the meaning of incidental vocabulary learning also needs to be examined. although some linguists make a clear distinction between learning and acquisition (krashen, 1982), this study will use the two terms interchangeably to mean a change in knowledge, capability, expertise, or behaviour. this definition is fashioned from those originally proposed by gagne (1977) and knowles et al. (2015). incidental vocabulary learning in this study refers to the unintentional acquisition of new singular words as a result of reading. it is not the result of direct instruction but simply a by-product of exposure to written discourse. research shows that much of the vocabulary acquisition that takes place in second language learning is a result of this exposure (huckin & coady, 1999). although incidental vocabulary learning has already been proven to occur, there are several conditions that need to be in place before it does. firstly, according to huckin and coady https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 34 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 (1999), the reader must have knowledge of between 3000–5000 word families for general english language learning. in the case of academic level learning—as is the focus of this study— students may require knowledge of up to 10,000 word families. secondly, incidental vocabulary acquisition is known to occur more frequently if students have interest in the texts they are reading (grabe & stoller, 1997; parry, 1993, 1997). thirdly, it is believed that multiple exposure to a word in context is needed for incidental vocabulary learning to take place. according to nation (1990), this can be anywhere between five to sixteen exposures. however, brown (1993) noted the context in which a word appears and its importance within this context plays a much more important role than the number of exposures to a word. zahar et al. (2001) contended advanced learners of english should spend much of their time reading contextually rich work to broaden their vocabulary. ideally, students should understand around 98% of a text for incidental vocabulary learning to take place, regardless of frequency of exposure. in a study conducted by pellicer-sanchez and schmitt (2010), however, advanced learners were able to recognize, spell, and recall a good number of words incidentally only after at least ten exposures in an authentic text. stahl (2003) believed the learning of vocabulary through contextual exposure does not occur all at once, but rather incrementally through a number of exposures as well. as readers engage with new words, they slowly begin to understand the meaning of the words. in fact, no real consensus can be found in the literature in terms of the ideal number of exposures to new words. according to uchihara et al. (2019), the wide variation in the studies can be attributed to a number of factors, including learner variables, different methodologies, and treatment variables in the different studies. to further support the notion that incidental vocabulary learning takes place through the act of reading, krashen (1989) drew on the findings of 144 studies. only two of these, however, focus on second language acquisition. ferris’s study (as cited in krashen, 1989) had eal students at the university of southern california read animal farm. ferris found that those who read the book made greater gains in vocabulary than those who had not. pitts, white, and krashen (as cited in krashen, 1989) had similar results to ferris with the use of clockwork orange in a university eal class. in this study, the incidental vocabulary gain was close to 7%. more recently, ponniah (2011) conducted a study on adult eal students at the national institute of technology in india. students were divided into two groups: one group read a short story for comprehension only and one group made use of a dictionary while reading. post-test results indicated that the students who learned the words incidentally were able to use the newlyacquired words in sentences whereas those who had used a dictionary were generally unable to do so. an earlier study conducted by kweon and kim (2008) in korea on eal students studying at the pohang university of science and technology showed similar results. in this study, students read three chapter-books without dictionaries or explicit vocabulary instruction. the post-test indicated that a significant number of words were learned incidentally and retained. in fact, the pure word gain rate came in at 40%. most of the studies found in the review focused on the reading of literature. studies on academic vocabulary learning were few and far between. one study (shin, 2006), however, used selected readings from textbooks instead. this study revealed that only 3.6 out of 40 new words were acquired incidentally. this number seems low in comparison to the other findings. parry (1991) also used textbooks for her study on a group of four students and found similar results. in https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 35 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 her study, reasonable vocabulary gains were made with the use of an anthropology textbook. lastly, vidal (2011) tested eal students at a university in madrid, spain in incidental vocabulary acquisition in both listening and reading. in terms of the reading, students were given academic lectures on tourism in written form. this part of the study involved 80 students. the listening part of the study involved 112 students and used three authentic video-taped lectures on tourism. the control group who partook in neither treatment consisted of 38 students. results indicated that incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention was greater in reading than in listening. beyond these studies, not much exists in the literature in terms of english for academic purposes (eap) students and incidental vocabulary acquisition, particularly in context of canadian universities. this case study, therefore, aims to fill this gap in the literature. methodology although a number of ways could have been used to test for incidental vocabulary acquisition, this particular case study used a self-survey scale test. the reason for this choice is that the students rate their own knowledge of a given word rather than the instructor—which is a more student-focused view of analysis. for this reason, this method of investigation was used. the survey scale test used, outlined in detail later in this section, has also been used successfully in previous studies, thereby adding to this study’s reliability. in fact, the reliability of the scale has been shown to be 0.89 despite some of its short-comings (schmitt, 2010). firstly, the scale is not meant to measure a student’s overall lexical knowledge just that of singular words. nor is it meant to describe how a word is learned. where the higher levels require a student to produce (verify) knowledge of the word, the lower levels do not. as a result, the researcher needs to trust the student’s self-assessment at the lower levels as no verification is possible. participants the participants in this case study came from one academic reading and writing capstone class at a foundation program at a university in the lower mainland of british columbia, canada. in total, 13 students took part in the study. they were a mix of international students and recently landed immigrants aged 19 to 29—two hailed from india, two from the middle east, and the rest from china. their estimated levels of english proficiency fell between 5.5 and 6 ielts in writing, according to the researcher. instrumentation there were two parts to the study, both of which used a tried and tested instrument of measurement created by paribakht and wesche (1993): the vocabulary knowledge scale (vks). the vks measures the degree of word knowledge a student has through a self-perceived reporting format and the use of production questions. it speaks to the notion that vocabulary is developed through various stages, moving from initial word recognition to eventual mastery of use (waring, 2002). the original 1993 vks consisted of the following five categories: i. i don’t remember having seen this word before. ii. i have seen this word before but i don’t know what it means. iii. i have seen this word before and i think it means ___. (synonym or translation) https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 36 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 iv. i know this word. it means ___. (synonym or translation) v. i can use this word in a sentence: ___. level i categorizes what the learner does not know. levels ii–iv measure word recognition and level v measures production. the original vks was adapted to the following for the purpose of this study: i. i have never seen this word before. ii. i have seen this word before but don’t know what it means. iii. i have seen this word before and i think it means ___. iv. i know this word. here is a sentence with it: ___. the vks initially set out to measure the knowledge of 15 words found in academic texts. these words were chosen by the researcher/instructor from a variety of texts to be read in class. the words were chosen for their level of difficulty and common usage in academic writing as determined by the researcher/instructor. academic text types included such things as policy papers, book chapters, essays, and journal articles ranging anywhere between 750–7000 words. a variety of academic texts was chosen to expose students to different formats and prepare them for university courses. there was to be no explicit teaching of these words in the course; students engaged with the material on their own, in groups, or with the instructor in class where approximately 50% of class time was spent working with texts and 50% was spent on writing their own texts. after the pre-test, two words had to be removed from the test due to lack of data (words 8 and 15). the final words analyzed on the vks were (note the number following indicates frequency of exposure): 1. factor (4) 2. perspective (3) 3. emerge (4) 4. phenomenon (3) 5. substantial (2) 6. notable (2) 7. theory (4) 9. sustainable (3) 10. cite (2) 11. illustrate (2) 12. collective (1) 13. significant (4) 14. correlation (1) the reason for the limited word choice is two-fold: to counteract test fatigue in students and to limit the class time spent on the test as production questions in level 4 require a significant amount of response time. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 37 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 procedures students were given the pre-test in week 3 of class and the post-test in week 13. they were not allowed to use a dictionary or thesaurus or speak to one another during the test. both times, the tests were given at the start of class by the researcher/instructor. students were exposed to the words to varying degrees through the texts given in class from weeks 4 to 12. only the texts for the study were used in class between weeks 4 and 12; there was no textbook. analysis the vks tests were scored using a 1–5 point system, depending on what level the student chose and how he or she performed on the higher levels. the bold explanations under each level was used to assess the students’ responses. 1 point i. i have never seen this word before. the word is not familiar at all to student. 2 points ii. i have seen this word before but don’t know what it means. the word is familiar but its meaning is not known to student. 3 points iii. i have seen this word before and i think it means ___. a correct synonym or definition is given here by student. 4 points iv. i know this word. here is a sentence with it. the word is used with semantic appropriateness in a sentence. 5 points iv. i know this word. here is a sentence with it. the word is used with both semantic appropriateness and grammatical accuracy in a sentence. for example, if a student wrote a sentence using the word in question both semantically and grammatically correct, the score of 5 would be given. if, however, only the meaning was correct in the sentence, then a score of 4 would be given. if the sentence had neither correct, a score of 2 would be given. an example of this can be seen in the following sentence for the word “sustainable,” where the student is familiar with the word but does not know its true meaning (as is evidenced by the nonsensical meaning): “the sustainable energy required effort.” a sentence such as this, would be graded as a 2 as it makes very little sense. the grading begins at level 5 because the student has written a sentence. but since the word is not used appropriately semantically, it cannot be given a 5 or 4. therefore, there is no choice but to assign 2 points. a score of 3 is given if a student chooses this level and gives a correct synonym or definition. if the answer is incorrect, then a score of 2 is given. a score of 2 is automatically given if the student chooses level 2. a score of 1 is automatically given if the student chooses level 1. once the analysis was done and points were assigned, the results in the pre-test and the post-test were compared to see if there was a difference. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 38 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 findings the pre-test results (see table 1) show the number of points given per word per student. as discussed earlier, the points represent the level of vocabulary knowledge of a given word. each student also has an average vocabulary point range. for example, student a has an average of 2.9/5 on vocabulary knowledge. this means, overall, the student has seen the words before but needs to guess at their meanings. in contrast, student f has an average score of 1.8. this shows his/her vocabulary knowledge is very limited, having seen the words before but not knowing any of their meanings. table 1 pre-test results the post-test results are calculated, analyzed, and displayed in exactly the same manner (see table 2). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 39 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 table 2 post-test results upon comparison, individual student scores showed some significant increases. student f, for example, scored 18 more points on the post-test than on the pre-test. student d scored 15 more and student a 13 more. in fact, all students except for one (who had made no gains at all) showed an increase in points to some degree, ranging from 1 to 18 (see table 3 next page). since these findings show a clear increase in individual vocabulary level gains for almost all students, it can be concluded that academic vocabulary is indeed learned incidentally through the reading of academic texts—at least in the context of this study. moreover, these gains occurred despite the different frequencies of exposure to the word, which ranged from 1 to 4, a relatively low exposure rate. for example, the word “correlation” (word 14) only appeared once in the readings, yet six students reported an increase in understanding, with two students jumping three levels. the word “substantial” (word 5) also saw a jump in levels of understanding, with four students reporting an increase of three points. this word, however, appeared only two times in the readings. a word that appeared four times (significant) saw only one such jump with most remaining students reporting no gains. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 40 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 table 3 individual student vocabulary gain discussion the aim of this study was to determine if academic vocabulary could be learned incidentally through reading various academic texts. although students had varying scores, all but one increased their vocabulary knowledge level. these findings support other studies that claim incidental vocabulary learning can and does take place through extensive reading—even when using academic texts. the one anomaly in this study was a student who had very little interest in the course and only did the minimal work. perhaps the lack of interest in the texts/topics/course affected the student’s ability to acquire words incidentally. this would support the findings of parry (1993; 1997) and grabe and stoller (1997) which state interest plays an important role in incidental vocabulary acquisition. one noteworthy finding, however, is that some students recorded a negative vocabulary gain score for some words. this indicates that whatever knowledge they originally had of the word was re-examined through the reading of the texts. one word in particular was affected by this: sustainable. one student recorded a drop of three levels of understanding while another recorded a drop of four. according to green (1989) and https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 freimuth 41 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 nagy (1997) this could be explained by the notion that learning a new word is multidimensional, not linear on a continuum. perhaps as words are encountered in new and different contexts, they are re-examined, questioned, and re-defined. the word “sustainable,” according to the merriam-webster online dictionary (2019) has a long and varied history. it first appeared in 1775 and originally meant maintained over a long period of time without pause. now the word has a myriad of meanings and is often featured in environmental discourse. synonyms for this word now include defendable and justifiable in addition to maintainable. the new exposure to the word “sustainable” (there were three instances) could have prompted students to question the meaning of the word and therefore dropped down in levels of understanding, rather than moving up. more research is needed into the processes involved in vocabulary learning to understand the anomaly better. conclusion although this study was limited in terms of the number of students and vocabulary items to be learned, it does suggest that academic vocabulary can be learned incidentally through the act of reading, even with little repeated exposure. this finding is important for instructors to know as it alleviates the pressure to teach the academic word list to students in their academic english classes. making students aware of this finding also alleviates pressure on them to learn the word list on their own. some students, depending on their educational background, were trained to memorize lists of words every day in their home countries. rote memorization, for example, is a popular way of teaching vocabulary in china. according to yang and dai (2011, p. 62) “for most chinese students, learning english means memorizing a certain number of words a day and reciting as much of the book as possible.” perhaps these findings will allay the fears of both instructors and students that vocabulary must be taught or self-memorized. references aldawsari, h. 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(1977) the conditions of learning. new york, ny: holt, rinehart, and winston. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/132419344.pdf https://doi.org/10.2307/3587951 freimuth 42 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 32–43 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 galloway, f. & jenkins, j. (2005). the adjustment problems faces by international students in the united states: a comparison of international students and administrative perceptions at two private, religiously affiliated universities. naspa, 42(2), 175–187. https://doi.org/10.2202/0027-6014.1471 grabe, w., & stoller, f. (1997). reading and vocabulary development in a second language: a case study. in j. coady & t. huckin (eds.), second language vocabulary acquisition: a rationale for pedagogy (pp. 98–121). new york, ny: cambridge university press. green, g. 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(2001). acquiring vocabulary through reading: effects of frequency and contextual richness. canadian modern language review, 57(4), 541–572. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.57.4.541 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/344 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej887875 https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/april2006/pigada/pigada.html http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/april_2011/ponniah.pdf http://db.koreascholar.com/article.aspx?code=282570 https://www.mcelmeel.com/curriculum/childrenslit/stahl_vocabulary.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12343 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00593.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00593.x https://jalt-publications.org/old_tlt/articles/2002/07/waring?y=2002&mon=07&page=waring https://jalt-publications.org/old_tlt/articles/2002/07/waring?y=2002&mon=07&page=waring https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v4n4p61 https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.57.4.541 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ binfet et al. 18 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 reducing the affective filter: using canine assisted therapy to support international university students’ english language development john-tyler binfet university of british columbia’s okanagan campus megan l. trotman university of british columbia’s okanagan campus heinrich d. henstock university of british columbia’s okanagan campus haley j. silas university of british columbia’s okanagan campus abstract this exploratory mixed-methods study examined the influence of an on-campus canine therapy program on linguistically diverse international students’ perceptions of their english language development and stress. participants were recruited from english language support classes at a mid-size western canadian university and were randomly selected from a larger pool of participants indicating interest in the study. seven participants attended five canine therapy sessions in which they interacted with certified therapy dogs working as part of a campus initiative to reduce stress and homesickness on campus. both formative and summative data collection was done with students completing weekly stress assessments, responding to summative questions asked in an interview, and elaborating on their views in a focus group discussion. the following key themes emerged with students describing: 1) decreased overall stress; 2) improvements in their sense of belonging in the campus community with dogs as social catalysts; and 3) increased opportunities to practice oral language skills through interactions with dog handlers and fellow students in the lab. implications are discussed within the context of reducing the affective filter for language learners and increasing accessibility to programs for international students. introduction though often touted as an exciting time when the first steps toward the transition from adolescence to adulthood are taken, being a university student can be a stressful experience (bland, melton, well, & bigham, 2012; hales, 2009; scopelliti & tiberio, 2010). there is mounting evidence that adjusting to a communal campus life, combined with an increasingly challenging academic workload, presents formidable challenges for many students (bitsika, sharpley, & rubenstein, 2010; heck et al., 2014; holinka, 2015). a number of factors have been identified as contributing to this stressful experience, including: difficulty with time management, juggling the demands of post-secondary courses, a poor quality diet, and a lack of sleep (britz & pappas, 2010). these factors, in turn, can contribute to students experiencing compromised mental health and well-being (durand-bush, mcneill, harding, & dobransky, 2015). binfet et al. 19 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 within a canadian context, stress among undergraduate post-secondary students is pervasive with reports of as many as 30% of students experiencing high levels of stress and 20% reporting they felt overwhelmed in the last 12 months (acha, 2013; adlaf, demers, & gliksman, 2005; durand-bush, mcneill, harding, & dobransky, 2015). stress has been identified by students themselves to be a key factor inhibiting academic performance (hindman, glass, arnkoff, & maron, 2014). the goals of this exploratory, mixed-methods study were twofold: 1) to explore the role that animal therapy might have on facilitating well-being and english language development of international students seeking to ameliorate their english language skills; and 2) to report preliminary outcomes reflecting participants’ perceptions of changes in their stress levels, engagement in therapy sessions, and opportunities for language practice. this study strove to answer the following research question: how does participation in an animal-therapy intervention impact english-language learners’ perceptions of factors impacting their affective filter and language development? background challenges facing international english language learners the university context and the corresponding expectations of being a university student can be especially stressful for international students learning english as an additional language (eal), who are prone to experiencing both language struggles and acculturative stress (chavajay & skowronek, 2008; constantine, okazaki, & utsey, 2004). mui and kang (2006) define acculturation as a complex process that involves adapting to the beliefs and cultures of a new host country. this adaptation can be both socially and psychologically stressful. students who struggle to adjust to their new surroundings can experience an increase in anxiety contributing to barriers to language learning (chavajay & skowronek, 2008). mui and kang (2006) go as far as linking acculturation stress with significant levels of depression. eal students are at-risk for underperforming academically when compared to undergraduate students from english speaking backgrounds (fox, 2005; roessingh & douglas, 2012). several studies reveal that international students with lower english proficiency are especially at risk for dropping out and have higher dropout rates than domestic students (anisef, sweet, phythian, brown, & walters, 2010; derwing, decorby, ichikawa, & jamieson, 1999; watt & roessingh, 1994; 2001). reducing the affective filter it has been argued that emotional factors, or what krashen (1982) coined, the affective filter, can positively or negatively influence the language learning process. as language is acquired through comprehensible input, the affective filter is especially important as negative emotional variables can impede and prevent new input from reaching the learner’s language acquisition device, thus impeding additional language learning. factors comprising the affective filter include the extent to which a learner experiences anxiety, self-consciousness, stress, and alienation, and that these factors influence the learner’s motivation and confidence. a low anxiety and low stress binfet et al. 20 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 environment is optimal for language learning with a low affective filter considered a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for successful additional language acquisition (schinke-llano & vicars, 1993). the work of lin (2008) showcases the importance of reducing the affective filter through a nurturing instructional style characterized by high levels of instructor praise and encouragement. richards and rodgers (2014) posit that a low affective filter can facilitate how efficiently an eal learner absorbs, practices, and produces the target language. these authors further posit that when the learner has a low affective filter he or she seeks and receives more input from instructors, is more likely to interact with other learners with confidence, and is more receptive to the information and input he or she receives. additional work by sheen (2008) supports this contention that anxiety can impede an eal’s receptivity to feedback and his or her linguistic output. the importance of socialization one solution to reducing the affective filter of eal learners might lie in increasing their social network or their perception of social support within their new learning environment. regardless of whether the student is local or international, a proficient speaker of english or an eal learner, the post-secondary setting is a complex social environment requiring navigation. there are formal social demands found within students’ required coursework (i.e., group work that frequently includes the group grading of assignments) and informal demands that centre on common and cooperative housing arrangements, communal dining, and opportunities to engage in organized university-sponsored social activities. added to this are the establishment of new friends and friendship circles. though academic support for struggling students has long been in place (with the advent of “writing centres” or “academic support services” offices), universities have been less clear about the pathways through which students might receive social and emotional support. although there are typically a plethora of clubs and associations on campus seeking members, the joining of such groups requires social confidence, negotiation skills, and contributions—formidable challenges for students feeling anxious or stressed and a sense of compromised social support. the degree to which university students integrate themselves socially, to become members of their immediate campus community, appears to most strongly influence the extent to which they persist with post-secondary education (finnie & qui, 2008). in their analysis of coping strategies used by university students to manage stress, feeling supported by family, friends, and teachers ranked highest as a protective factor shielding students from the negative effects of stress (taylor, 2007). social support acts as a buffer, reducing psychological distress, and helps promote psychological adjustment (taylor, 2007). when students are followed longitudinally, dropping out is most influenced by the extent to which students are academically and socially integrated into campus life (wetzel, o’toole, & peterson, 1999). supporting students through animal therapy one strategy to support the transition to university is to increase students’ social support and friendship network (friedlander, reid, shupak, & crippie, 2007). increasing social support has far reaching implications for students and has been linked to decreased stress and depression and increased academic performance and self-esteem. to support the well-being of students and to binfet et al. 21 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 help integrate them into their new campus life, universities routinely offer both formal (e.g., peer-mentoring, dormitory advisor-led activities) and informal (e.g., intramural sports, theme days) programs. canine animal-assisted therapy programs are increasingly offered on north american university campuses and present an informal means of supporting student well-being, often with a focus on decreasing stress (dell et al., 2015). the broader field of animal-assisted therapy (aat) is known to increase well-being in participants through fostering social interaction and communication, creating a sense of community, and decreasing stress and homesickness (adamle, riley & carlson, 2009; binfet & passmore, 2016; fine, 2006; hunt, hart, & gomulkiewicz, 1992; mcnicholas and collis 2000; tedeschi, fitchett, & molidor, 2006; shiloh, sorek, and terkel, 2003). aat is a therapeutic approach that introduces trained companion-animals to identified individuals in a variety of settings with the aim of fostering healthy social, emotional, and physical health (frerickson-macnamara & butler, 2010). falling under the larger area of study know as human-animal interactions (hai), aat is often considered an adjunct or complimentary approach to enhance existing protocols used to improve client or patient health (rosetti & king, 2011; yorke, nugent, strand, bolen, new, & davis, 2013). aat has been used with a variety of animals (from cats to horses to dolphins) within diverse settings (from schools to hospitals to prisons) to meet the needs of diverse individuals (from elementary students to hospital patients to prisoners). the benefits of aat are numerous and empirical work in education, psychology, social work, and health care, provide convincing support for its use (maujean, pepping, & kendall, 2015, nimer & lundhal, 2007). a number of positive outcomes are noted in response to aatbased interventions across physical, cognitive, psychosocial, and linguistic aspects of human development (barker et al., 2003; cole & gawlinski, 2000; marr et al., 2000; odendaal, 2000). though no published research could be identified examining the effects of aat on english language learners, research has been undertaken to examine how aat impacts the communication and social skills of specialized populations, predominantly, children with autism spectrum disorder (for a review see chitic, rusu, & szamoskozi, 2012). within a clinical setting, aat is one approach through which the defences of clients may be softened, rapport with clients may be established and built, and openness to receiving help may be initiated (fine, 2010; kruger et al., 2004). in younger clients, animals are known to contribute to a number of favourable effects including the redirecting of attention, the calming of agitated behaviour, and the decreasing of emotional distress (boat, 2006; hart, 2000; katcher & wilkins, 1998; strand, 2004). aat holds relevance for eal learners and moreover has been found to offer numerous benefits facilitating language development. friesen (2009) argued that interactions with canines helped participants to both generate more questions and to share their own experiences during conversations. prothmann and colleagues (2006) posited that interactions with canines improved individual emotional balance and social extroversion. guthrie (2004) noted that learners have a tendency to disengage from learning tasks due to a lack of confidence and, moreover, that handson and practical experiences can counter this disengagement. though situated in an elementary school and not uniquely for english language learners, kirnan and colleagues (2015) found binfet et al. 22 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 exposure to therapy dogs contributed to young students reporting both academic and dispositional gains. this included improvements in both reading and writing skills and in students’ affective outlook on language learning (e.g., increases in positive attitude and enthusiasm arose from exposure to therapy dogs). taken together, the above findings suggest that exposure to therapy dogs holds potential to positively impact the affective factors related to language development for eal learners. the aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of international students from eal backgrounds who participated in a canine therapy program offered on campus. previous researchers have identified that dogs serve as social catalysts and that interactions between students and dogs can increase social connections, decrease stress levels, and increase overall student well-being (fine 2006; mcnicholas & collis, 2000; wells, 2009). it was hypothesized that participation in a canine assisted therapy program would reduce the affective filter for eal learners, thus decreasing their stress, increasing their social connections, providing opportunities for language skill development, and enriching their overall language learning experience. method recruitment both university human and animal research ethics approval and informed consent by student participants were obtained prior to the study. participants were international students from eal backgrounds enrolled in mandatory language enrichment classes (a university requisite for students with english language entrance scores that do not meet english language proficiency requirements) at a mid-size, western canadian university. an overview of the study was made by the lead author to each of the three english for academic purposes classes offered on campus and students were asked to indicate their interest in the study through a sign-up sheet. across the three classes, 58 students were present and 26 (45%) indicated interest in participating in the study. from this pool of interested students, seven students were randomly selected for inclusion in the study. this sample size is in alignment with recommended sample sizes needed to identify principal themes from interview-generated data when the intent of the study is not to identify between-group differences or to determine correlations among variables but rather to capture participants’ viewpoints and experience (guest, bunce, & johnson, 2006). participants participants were undergraduate students1 from eal backgrounds (n = 7, 43 % female, mage = 21.43, sd = 6.48, range = 18 36 years). three participants (42.9%) identified as chinese, with the remaining participants identifying as korean, west asian, southeast asian, and japanese. participants’ countries of origin included china, kazakhstan, taiwan, iran, and japan. 1 of the 8,212 students attending the university campus that was the research site for this study during the 2014/15 academic year, 11.7% were international (the university of british columbia, 2015). binfet et al. 23 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 canine therapy sessions participants attended five canine aat sessions offered on campus as part of a stress reduction program scheduled throughout the academic year to support the larger student body. titled “b.a.r.k.” (building academic retention through k9s), this program consisted of weekly dropin sessions, 90-minutes in duration, in which trained therapy dogs and their community volunteer handlers were brought together to support student well-being (see www.barkubc.ca for an overview). located in a modified classroom on campus, each intervention consisted of stations comprised of a volunteer community dog handler, a trained therapy dog, and other students (typically 3-4 at each station) from the larger campus community. participants were invited to visit one or more of the stations during their visit and to determine themselves the duration of each of their visits. volunteer handlers followed a standard protocol that saw them welcome students and use open-ended probes (e.g., asking students how they are, their names, and how the semester is going for them). during visits to individual stations, volunteer handlers encourage students to maintain hands-on contact with the dogs and to ask questions about the dogs. a total of 14 volunteer dog handlers (85.7% female, mage = 34.07, sd = 12.59; volunteer animal therapy experience myears = 2.46, sd = 1.77) and their 17 dogs2 (64.7% female, mage = 5.35, sd = 3.20; therapy experience myears = 2.32, sd = 1.5; 59% purebred (versus mixed breed dogs)) participated in the study. measures profile of english language ability. in the following section, we describe the scales used to understand participants’ mastery of, comprehension of, and confidence speaking english. self-assessments of language ability. participants’ english language abilities were assessed (using a 5-point likert-type scale with 1 = “a” excellent achievement to 5 = “f” or failing) by asking participants to self-assess their grade in their english language class. to further corroborate findings, participants were also asked to more globally rate their english language abilities on a 3-point likert-type scale (1= beginner, 2= intermediate, and 3 = advanced). instructor assessments of language ability. using the same scales as above, the corresponding english language instructor for each participant was asked to assign a letter grade (1 = “a” excellent achievement to 5 = “f” or failing) and to identify the participant’s global english language ability using a 3-point likert-type scale (1= beginner, 2= intermediate, and 3 = advanced). self-assessment of language comprehension. during their individual interview, participants were asked to rate their english language comprehension both during sessions (i.e., when participating in the sessions) and during their day-to-day activities (i.e., when not in a session). using a five-point, likert-type scale (1 = none of them to 5 = all of them), participants 2 three dog handlers worked with two dogs at a time thus accounting for the discrepancy between the number of handlers and dogs reported in sessions. http://www.barkubc.ca/ binfet et al. 24 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 responded to: 1) “how much of the conversations that took place in b.a.r.k. did you understand?”; and 2) “how much of the conversations that take place outside of b.a.r.k. do you understand?” self-assessment of speaking confidence. using a 3-point likert-type scale (e.g., 1 = low, 2 = medium, and 3 = high confidence), participants rated their confidence speaking english. instructor assessment of speaking confidence. using the same scale as described above, instructors rated students’ confidence speaking english. stress scale. participants self-assessed their stress level upon arrival to (pre-) and upon their departure (post-) from each session using a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 = not at all stressed to 5 = very stressed (see appendix). engagement. participants’ engagement during each session was determined by having participants self-assess the extent to which they participated in conversations with, and interacted with, others. in addition, two trained research assistants observed participants during each session and assessed their level of engagement. self-assessment. a one-item measure using a 7-point likert-type scale (1 = fully disengaged to 7 = fully engaged) was used to have participants self-assess their level of engagement at the end of each session. observer assessment. to corroborate findings, two student researchers also observed each participant’s engagement throughout each session and, using the same scale that participants used to self-assess engagement, rated each participant’s engagement (as evidenced by interactions with dogs and handlers and fellow students) on a 7-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 = fully disengaged to 7 = fully engaged. implementation fidelity in addition to participants’ self-assessments and observers’ assessments of engagement within each session, implementation fidelity (the extent to which the intervention was delivered as intended) was monitored by tracking the attendance of each participant across the five therapy sessions and recording the duration (in minutes) of each participant’s visit to each of the five sessions. interview following the final session, participants were individually interviewed to explore their perceptions of participating in the study and their perceptions of language development. participants’ responses to each question were documented verbatim and participants' responses were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis (hsieh & shannon, 2005). conventional qualitative content analysis is used to make sense of participant-generated data and is in contrast to direct content analysis that uses predetermined themes from prior research to code responses (hsieh & shannon, 2005). content analysis for this study involved a three-step binfet et al. 25 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 process: first, independent raters (a faculty member and an experienced research assistant) identified the global or general themes found within each participant’s responses to each question, resulting in 23 themes; second, without censoring themes, the themes were then collated across questions and across participants to allow commonalities to be identified and the prevalent themes to emerge, resulting in a total of 13 themes; and third, using a “winnowing” process (wolcott, 1990), the themes were collapsed into categories to reduce redundancy. this resulted in three winnowed themes: 1) sense of community; 2) opportunities to practice english; and 3) stress. focus group questions for the focus group were developed from the themes identified in participants’ interview responses. that is, the prevalent themes identified in participants’ responses were used to develop questions that would invite participants to expand upon and delve more deeply into describing topics they raised as important in their individual interviews. all participants attended the focus group discussion and participants’ responses to each question were recorded verbatim. adhering to guidelines for leading a focus group identified by hennink (2013), the focus group was: facilitated by a trained moderator, conducted within a safe and comfortable environment to foster sharing by participants; specific topics for discussion were determined a priori and presented to participants; and member-checking was done by repeating responses back to participants to ensure viewpoints had been accurately captured. results profile of language ability self-assessments. recall that participants self-assessed their english language abilities by both assigning a letter grade reflecting their skills and also by determining a more general skill category (e.g., beginning, intermediate, and advanced). participants’ self-assessments of their english language ability revealed that they had moderate views of their english language skills (see table 1). instructor assessments. it is perhaps not surprising given students’ grades are determined by their instructors, that the letter grades assigned by instructors to reflect participants’ english language abilities were in accord with those assigned by participants themselves. language confidence participants were asked to rate the confidence (using a 3-point likert-type scale with 1 = low, 2 = medium, and 3 = high confidence) with which they currently spoke english. these selfassessments revealed one participant at a high level of speaking confidence, five participants at a medium level, and one participant at a low level. their instructors reported three participants as being high in confidence and the remaining four participants as having medium speaking confidence (see table 1). binfet et al. 26 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 table 1 self and instructor ratings of language ability, confidence, and comprehension grade confidence level language ability comprehension in session comprehension outside session participant instructor participant instructor participant instructor 1 c b medium high intermediate advanced 5 4 2 b b medium high intermediate intermediate 5 4 3 b c low medium intermediate intermediate 4 4 4 a a high high intermediate advanced 5 5 5 a a medium medium intermediate advanced 5 3 6 b b medium medium intermediate intermediate 5 4 7 b b medium medium intermediate intermediate language comprehension participants were asked to use a 5 point likert-type scale ranging from 1 = none of them to 5 = all of them to answer the prompt: “how much of the conversations that took place in b.a.r.k. did you understand?” on average, the participants answered 5 = all of them (m = 4.83, sd = 0.41). this was compared to the question: ‘how much of the conversations that took place outside of b.a.r.k. did you understand?’ to which students, on average, answered 4 = almost all of them (m = 4.00, sd = 0.63). self-evaluations of stress (see appendix) recognizing that the sample size is small, the following changes in pre-to-post self-assessments of stress are reported to merely demonstrate the direction of change across participants. a paired t-test indicated that, from pre-to-post-test across the five sessions, participants' selfassessed stress levels were significantly lower at the end of the study (m = 1.91, sd = 0.72) than at the beginning (m = 3.21, sd = 0.89), t(32) = 8.154, p < .001, d = 1.60. participants’ perceptions of stress dropped an average of 1.30 points (sd = 0.92, 95% ci [0.98, 1.63]) following participation in the five therapy sessions. participants spent an average of 25 minutes in each session (sd = 11.39, range = 5 to 67 minutes). length of time spent in a session had a small, but significant, influence on the amount of stress reduction that participants reported, f(1, 31) = 2.27, p < 001, r2 = .068, standardized β = -0.26. binfet et al. 27 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 self-evaluation of engagement participant attendance across the study was 94%. over the five sessions, participants selfevaluated their engagement as very engaged (m = 5.55, sd = 1.00). these findings were in contrast to the level of engagement identified by independent observers who identified the participants’ engagement as somewhat engaged (m = 4.58, sd = 1.66). prevalent themes from individual interviews content analysis of participants’ responses during their individual interviews in which they described their experience of participating in a canine therapy program on campus revealed a number of salient themes across participants (see table 2). thirteen themes emerged from the interviews and guided the development of questions used in the focus group. table 2 prevalent themes found across participant interviews theme description 1. role of dog handler dog handlers were described as friendly, engaging, and encouraging. 2. dogs as social catalysts therapy dogs served to bring unfamiliar students together and provided a topic for discussion. 3. lack of participation in other programs participants reported not being involved in other campus programs. 4. comforting environment participants reported the environment was soothing, comforting, and relaxing. 5. characteristics of dogs the dogs’ personalities were engaging and made interactions easy. 6. variety of speakers given the number of people in the lab, there was a variety of people to speak to (e.g., adults, fellow students, staff). 7. depth of conversations because of the frequency of visits, there were opportunities to build on previous discussions beyond “how are you?” 8. opportunities to practice interactions provided opportunities to not just listen to proficient speakers but to practice english with proficient language users. 9. knowledge of canadian society interactions allowed participants insights into how canadians treat, interact with, and value their pets. 10. community the therapy sessions felt like a community. they brought together likeminded people with common interests. 11. continuity participants reported seeing the same people from one session to the next and that this continuity made them feel a part of the community and eased interactions. 12. comprehension participation in the therapy sessions provided opportunities to listen to different speakers and to learn how language is used within a specific context. 13. challenged language skills participants reported that they were exposed to new vocabulary and that this challenged their language skill development. focus group findings questions asked in the focus group invited and encouraged participants to explore and share their thoughts, viewpoints, and experiences around three key themes: 1) sense of community; 2) opportunities to practice english; and 3) stress. focus group questions were thematically linked to these themes and participants’ responses were recorded verbatim. binfet et al. 28 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 climate of therapy sessions during individual interviews, the theme of a welcoming environment or climate within sessions was raised. to explore this more deeply, participants were asked: many of you mentioned how important the handlers were. what are words that describe the bark handlers? participants’ responses revealed that handlers did the following to create a welcoming environment (note: quotations are presented verbatim and the use of non-standard english, as used by participants, has not been corrected in order to preserve the voices of the participants): “asked a lot of questions, helped me to openly share.” (participant # 1) “they were curious.” (participant # 2) “calm, kind, gentle. they were nice to us. easy to come here. they start conversations – i didn’t have to be prepared.” (participant # 4) “friendly, “like family”, it feels like home.” (participant # 7) to further understand the behaviour of the volunteer handlers’ within sessions that helped to create a welcoming environment, the participants were asked to describe what the handlers did to make them feel comfortable. participants responded that the handlers were engaging: “they initiated the conversations—i felt welcomed.” (participant # 2) “they smiled.” (participant # 3) “they were understanding—because of my level of english they explained in different ways if i didn’t understand – it was easy to communicate with them.” (participant # 6) when probed further about what the handlers did to encourage speaking and participation, participants responded: “they made you want to ask questions about the dogs.” (participant # 3) “they also tried to remember our faces! where you from, what’s your major? they remembered information about me! we could have conversations more deeply.” (participant # 5) “friendly approach, encouraging, they just started talking, carrying a conversation along.” (participant # 7) given the prominent role that the therapy dogs played in sessions, participants were asked to describe the dogs. “it was a brand new experience for me—especially the close contact. binfet et al. 29 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 the dogs sensed this—they were sociable, friendly and interactive.” (participant # 1) “friendly, gentle, soft, cuddly, gorgeous.” (participant # 2) “they were too calm and my image of a dog was that they were very active, jumping. since i came here, i thought every dog is so calm and wants to be pet.” (participant # 6) last, participants were asked to share their views on what made the sessions feel like a community. “communities are characterized by culture so i’d say the bark community has a culture of taking care of pets to reduce stress. it looks like a bark family.” (participant # 3) “this community was very friendly and warm and i stared at the cute dogs and the problems were just gone. it helped me a lot.” (participant # 5) “when i heard the word community in general. i think closed. so when some stranger comes in, i feel like an outsider but here in bark, i felt welcomed. thank you for coming! i felt so happy because i felt so welcomed, like being at my house. it feels like when i visited my grandparents.” (participant # 7) opportunities for language development the second theme emerging from participants’ interview responses reflecting their experience in the canine therapy sessions revolved around the opportunities for language development that the sessions afforded. to explore this concept more deeply, participants in the focus group were asked: some of you raised the idea that being in the bark program allowed you to speak to adults and to talk about different topics. tell us about this. participants’ responses revealed that the sessions provided ample opportunities to enrich their english language skills and to speak about topics not normally discussed. “i usually don’t talk to adults—i have no opportunity except for professors. it’s really good to talk without thinking of girls and money – teenage stuff. we talked about other stuff—they were curious about me. they shared their experience how they felt during travelling.” (participant # 2) “we also talked about rescuing dogs. they talked about rescuing dogs.” (participant # 3) “we talked about their families and who was in their family. we talked about blah, blah, blah and normally we don’t get to talk about blah, blah, blah.” (participant # 5) to explore more deeply the opportunities participants had to practice their english, participants were asked: many of you commented on how busy you were and that you did not participate in other extra-curricular clubs. when you think of your average day on campus, do you get many opportunities to practice your english? binfet et al. 30 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 “i guess i normally do, i talk to profs, i even get on their nerves. i impose conversations on them.” (participant # 2) “roommates help practice english.” (participant # 4) “i’m a smoker and the smoking gazebo is a good place to practice english. smoking isn’t good for health but it’s good for language!” (participant # 6) “we have projects in class that need discussions.” (participant # 7) to further understand the nature of the conversations that participants had in sessions, they were asked: many of you indicated that participating in bark provided an opportunity to practice your english. did your conversations in bark challenge your language skill level or challenge your vocabulary? “some handlers remembered me and as the program went on, we talked more deeply. i talked about my culture and we talked about travel stories. what i learned from their observations was the same as i understood—about my own country.” (participant # 3) “it was beyond greeting. it was beyond “hi, how are you?” we talked about iran climate conditions, they were curious about my government. i explained by best how the views of the government and religion. the handlers wanted to know the details of where i lived.” (participant # 7) stress participants’ responses during their individual interviews revealed that the theme of stress and stress reduction was at the forefront of their thinking and to explore this further, participants were asked: many of you indicated that interacting with the bark dogs decreased your stress. how did that work? “personally, i love dog and people doing what they love, decreases their stress. i felt happy.” (participant # 2) “they like i don’t know how to describe but they made me feel like with my family. they remembered me. i have three dogs and they reminded me that i have dogs. i noticed that canadians consider their pets as family members. it made me think that my dogs are family members. this helped me reduce my stress.” (participant # 3) “their body temperature. how the body is fluffy, i can hear the heartbeat. it was really rare to feel the heartbeat and temperature in real life. to have contact—that released my stress. we think about surrounding information, walking in a crowd to not touch, and how to talk to them, i’m unconsciously and consciously thinking how to interact and i was free from that— free from the stress so that helped us to relieve our stress.” (participant # 5) binfet et al. 31 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 to explore the participants’ perceptions of how stress impacts their ability to speak english, participants were asked: what do you understand about how stress affects your ability to speak english? “i usually feel more stressed out when i talk to official speakers, official officers. i get babbling, pacing, my own style changed. if i feel calmed down, i have more focus and find my words.” (participant # 1) “my language skills have developed since i came here. at the beginning of the semester i could not say what i wanted to say. at the end of the day i was so exhausted. i feel like my brain stopped working. in general, socializing in the smoking gabezo was stressful at the beginning. gradually, my english improved. the stress went down.” (participant # 6) discussion it has been forecasted that the number of international students worldwide will increase from 2.1 million to 5.8 million between the years of 2003–2020 (bohm et al., 2004). canada, along with the united kingdom, the united states, australia, and new zealand, is considered one of the key english speaking destinations sought after by eal students (bohm et al., 2004). universities have an obligation to support both the academic growth and the social and emotional well-being of all their students, especially students such as eal learners who are known to face challenges, oftentimes with little social support, in their adjustment to campus life and expectations and in their adaptation to the culture of a new country. recall that the aim of the current study was to explore the experiences of a small group of international eal learners as they participated in an on-campus community program that saw therapy dogs brought to campus to support the social and emotional well-being of the broader student body. the findings of this study inform our understanding of how eal learners in the post-secondary context might be supported in their pursuit of english language skills development and socialization or integration into the larger campus community. the salient findings of this study revealed that students perceived the canine therapy program in which they participated to be inviting and welcoming and that it provided opportunities both for stress reduction and to practice their english in an informal setting. across participants, participation in the canine therapy program was favourably viewed—that is, eal learners reported enjoying coming to sessions and enjoying their interactions with community volunteer dog handlers, the dogs themselves, and fellow students. though participants’ were enthusiastic about participating in our program, they reported only participating in this program—despite ample additional programs being available across campus. this is in accord with findings by hwang, bennett, & beauchemin (2014) who found that campus programs and counselling services tend to be underutilized by international students. certainly, for this subsample of international eal students, accessing structured programs that would provide opportunities to interact with more proficient english language speakers and to become integrated in campus life, was not the norm. one might speculate that it was perhaps the dogs themselves, a non-threatening, non-english speaking agent, that facilitated this participation. recall that a total of 58 students were presented information about the study in their english binfet et al. 32 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 language development class and that almost half of these students (i.e., 45%) asked to be put on the list to be randomly chosen for inclusion in the study. as university and additional-language administrators seek ways to integrate eal learners into their campus communities and to encourage students to avail themselves of the programs in place designed to support their wellbeing, might providing regular and routine access to therapy dogs facilitate this integration? participation in such programs has implications for student satisfaction, engagement in campus life, and ultimately student retention. certainly, these benefits as identified by participants, provide support for the affective filter hypothesis of language acquisition (krashen, 1982). participants reported feeling a reduction in stress and moreover recognized that stress negatively impacted their ability to learn a new language. participants also noted that the welcoming and relaxing atmosphere helped integrate them into conversations and that the conversations they had, provided opportunities for them to both speak with a variety of more proficient english language speakers and to discuss topics outside the purview of their typical conversations. these findings are in accord with findings in the aat literature attesting to the role of canines as social “lubricants” or catalysts, connecting people to one another (mcnicholas & collis, 2000). findings from this exploratory study hold real-world teaching implications as educators seek novel ways to support students in their english language development. though the approach undertaken here was to offer a program above and beyond regularly scheduled instruction, a hybrid approach whereby a therapy dog is introduced into a language class might facilitate social interactions and language development. further, one insight gleaned from participants’ responses revealed that they were largely reticent to participate in outside opportunities holding potential to enhance language learning (i.e., structured programs offered on campus). english development classes could be a good location to demystify both the programs that students might join and pathways to joining these groups as a means of enriching and reinforcing language learning outside of the immediate instructional context. last, a common theme throughout many participants’ responses revealed the importance of a warm and nurturing learning climate that helped encourage participation in the intervention. the importance of this climate is not to be understated and instructors seeking to create learning environments for students where students feel comfortable to take risks, to socialize and interact with one another to enhance their language skills, and to build rapport with their instructors, would be wise to devote ample time to creating such learning climates. as with all empirical work, this study was not without limitations. a larger sample size, the use of pre-and-post measures of language ability, and an increase in the number of sessions offered to students would allow more definitive claims to be made of the benefits of canine therapy on the development of language. though attempts were made to triangulate findings (e.g., through the use of self-reports, instructor reports, and research assistant observations), more focused efforts could have been made to more narrowly assess outcome variables, including language confidence, breadth of social network (including the number of domestic proficient english language speakers known pre-to-post), and language competencies. this would also include the use of a control group (or a business as usual non-treatment group) to allow more confident claims to be made in regards to the benefits on language development arising from exposure to therapy dogs. certainly a further limitation of the study, in light of our binfet et al. 33 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 goal to investigate how aat impacts language learners’ affective filter, was not asking students more directly for their preand post-intervention self-assessments of their affective filters. despite these limitations, the findings arising from this exploratory study provide insights into the potential that canine therapy has to support both the well-being of international eal learners and to provide 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(2013). equine-assisted therapy and its impact on cortisol levels of children and horses: a pilot study and metaanalysis. early child development and care, 183, 874-894. https://www.ubc.ca/_assets/pdf/ubc_overview_facts_2014-15_web.pdf binfet et al. 37 bc teal journal volume 1 number 1 (2016): 18-37 appendix: stress scale the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ gerald 44 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays worth the risk: towards decentring whiteness in english language teaching jpb gerald hunter college – cuny abstract the field of english language teaching (elt) has long centred whiteness without acknowledging as much. practitioners accept the field’s racial disparities under the guise of the search for profit, yet hegemonic whiteness controls our institutions, our curricula, and our pedagogy unless we, as members of this field, consciously seek to counteract its influence. white elt professionals are incentivized to maintain the racial status quo and many exhibit fierce resistance when efforts are made to discuss white supremacy in english teaching. in this article, i demonstrate how elt frames whiteness as both a prize and a goal, explain the deleterious impact whiteness has on racialized students and teachers, argue for the necessity of decentring whiteness, and provide suggestions for ways we can push our field towards a future where whiteness no longer reigns supreme. introduction for better or worse, a surgical transformation into the possession of white skin does not exist, despite the persistence of lightening creams and other forms of cosmetic physical alteration. yet whiteness is more than the possession of light-coloured skin. no, whiteness, like all racial categories, is a construct of power (kendi, 2019), power often gained through ill-gotten means, and those classified as white are the gatekeepers of membership to a club that maintains its identity through the hoarding of property (harris, 1993). consequently, though certain european groups have managed to transition from racialized to less so over the course of several generations due to the expanding population of those with even less power in north america (roediger, 2006), an individual cannot transform themselves from non-white to white. the promise we elt professionals make to the racialized is that individuals can save themselves from the oppression otherwise visited upon them—an ideal that, itself, helps reify racial hierarchies by confining all racism to individual actors (diangelo, 2010)—and one of the ways a person is told that they can be saved from the precarity and pain endemic to powerlessness is to attain facility in the english language, ideally without an “accent” or manner of speech that marks them as notably deficient to the white listener (flores & rosa, 2017). in other words, what we elt professionals are truly promising to students, even without understanding that we are doing so, is the chance to get closer to whiteness. whiteness, however, is an ideology that depends upon exclusion, so this promise is doomed to be broken, and no racialized speaker of english can truly become white, nor will they be seen as white, even if credentialed as language teachers (ramjattan, 2019). unless and until the field of english language teaching (elt), also referred to as teaching english as an additional language (teal), teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol), or teaching english as a second language (tesl), undergoes profound changes, the best that students can hope for is to pantomime a reasonable facsimile of whiteness without full equity. in this essay, i plan to demonstrate how elt frames whiteness as https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 45 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 both a prize and a goal, argue for the necessity of decentring whiteness, and provide suggestions for ways we can push our field towards a future where whiteness is no longer supreme. author positionality i am a black1 doctoral student and adult educator with a decade of experience in elt. i started my career by receiving a position i had not earned, teaching english to south korean high school students by virtue of my status as a “native” speaker of the language (but really the possession of a passport and citizenship from the united states), undergoing a similarly challenging, liminal experience to those documented by charles (2019). like many, i was attracted to the promise of the relaxing “exotic” experience promoted on the internet, and i decamped to east asia with a grand total of five days’ experience creating lesson plans. nevertheless, i was actually one of the more committed teachers in my cohort, as the job was, for most i encountered, either a stepping stone to other careers or a nonstop party divorced from professional accountability. i do not place all of the blame for this atmosphere on the teachers who, like me, accepted the baubles placed in front of them, and i will return to the mechanics of international recruitment in a later section, but i include this part of my past to ground this argument in the reality that i am not immune to benefiting from the centring of whiteness in elt, even though i am not white. indeed, i received the offer despite my racialized status because of my “elite” university pedigree, evidence of the illusion that one can achieve an educational escape from racialization. in the years since my return to new york, i have often felt out of place in our field, and i have spent much of my time confronting a curious mix of silence, ignorance, and defensiveness on the topic of race in elt, despite the fact that many of these students will inevitably experience racism due to their presence in the united states or canada. in my current doctoral program, i have thus focused my empirical research and theoretical analysis on race, and have come to understand that, although there are a handful of elt professionals and researchers concerned with race, there is significantly less work done unpacking whiteness and how it has always served as the central driving force behind elt. consequently, it has become my goal to write and speak explicitly about whiteness in elt, as i believe this critical lens is frequently absent from discussions where it would be beneficial. i should note that i am working and studying in the united states, and that this journal, of course, is a canadian publication. i chose to write for a primarily canadian audience for two interrelated reasons, namely the fact that, as gulliver and thurrell (2016) found, canada has a reputation for being more committed to multiculturalism than my own country while simultaneously remaining in deep denial of its own historical and present-day racism. that is, i believe canadian elt professionals need to hear this argument, but i also expect they may be more receptive to it, and i hope that they prove me right. 1 the capitalisation of “black” and decapitalization of “white” is a deliberate political choice. “white” is capitalised in some of the quoted literature and has thus not been altered there. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 46 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 part 1: the centring of whiteness ulterior motives we live in a world controlled by “free-market” ideologues chiefly concerned with profit and the accumulation of capital by any means necessary (harvey, 2007). this statement is true of most forms of commerce, not just language education, but to pretend that our field is immune to the economic forces under which we all live is unwise. indeed, among other examples, the subfields of “accent reduction” and “business english” would not have much salience without a strong economic impetus. regarding the former, sewell (2016) wrote, “the commercial products of accent commodification play on the ambition and insecurity of the upwardly-mobile…. the noticeability of accent, and the insecurities it provides, make it a particularly marketable commodity” (p. 29). some who support unfettered capitalism would like us to believe it is not based upon racial categorization—i.e., that the only colour it would admit to caring about is green—but this system depends upon the exploitation of those with less power, and the creation of race as we know it today is a construct of power differentials built to justify continued imperialism. kendi (2019) referred to racism and capitalism as “conjoined twins,” writing that upon their mutual codification in the 16th century, “these newborns looked up with tender eyes to their ancient siblings of sexism, imperialism, ethnocentrism, and homophobia” (p. 156). one cannot successfully argue against the white supremacy in elt without arguing against the profit motive in the field, and this necessarily requires arguing against our adherence to capitalism. consequently, when phillipson (2008) wrote of the linguistic imperialism endemic to our field, we should be careful to remember that this reifies white supremacy and vice versa, a loop we have long struggled to escape as we have attempted to separately dismantle these hopelessly intertwined systems of oppression and domination. he explained, english contributes to the imperial production of subjectivities, through communicative networks, creating a synergy that integrates structural and ideological elements in the new world ‘order.’ the key networks are identifiable, and their language policies can be empirically verified. this ‘order’ is upheld through english at the global level, and through other languages in hierarchical structures. this symbolic violence is invariably contested but is widely, uncritically internalized. (p. 36) we attempt to justify our pernicious practices in the name of profit, claiming a form of neutral amorality, encapsulated in phillipson’s (2008) above-mentioned “order,” whereas white supremacy, a system of flagrant immorality, covertly works hand in hand with our rapacious pursuit of revenue and finds itself silently justified. to uncritically support capitalistic goals in our field is to help white supremacy remain in control, yet the idea that elt promotes these destructive values is discomfiting for many, and understandably so. it is worth examining that discomfort in more detail. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 47 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 resistance since most american and canadian elt professionals are white, much of this resistance can be categorized as what diangelo (2011) has termed white fragility, in which the slightest amount of “racial stress” feels unbearable, leading to a range of “defensive moves” (p. 54), e.g., anger and dismissiveness. it is important to note that these “defensive moves” do not necessarily follow direct accusations of racism but rather any explicit discussion of whiteness or race. consequently, vital analysis of the racial disparities in elt is avoided due to white fragility, and the concerns of the racialized are thereby invalidated. an observer unfamiliar with these concepts may view this evasive behaviour as neutral or harmless, but diangelo and matias (2013) referred to this inability to hear the voices of the racialized as a form of neurosis, writing, “white neurosis is not benign, while it may appear so to well-intentioned whites” (p. 12). indeed, that false perception of harmlessness is one of the main reasons why it remains challenging for the field to counteract its white supremacy—an ideology few would consider benign—and thus to reconcile its power over our profession with our belief in the virtue of our work is an exceptionally large pill to swallow. much of the argument being presented in this article concerns the disparity between the perceived neutrality, or even altruism, of elt professionals, and the actual impact of the system they both inhabit and control. earlier this year, i theorized about this internal conflict with the concept of the altruistic shield (2020), which i defined as “a psychological mechanism used by educators that allows us to outright deny or otherwise defend ourselves from anticipated or inthe-moment accusations of racism because of what we consider to be the altruistic nature of our work” (p. 22). in its worst manifestations, white elt professionals can fall victim to the white saviour complex (straubhaar, 2015), seeking to “save” their inherently deficient racialized students. many elt professionals, though occasionally made aware of our field’s white supremacy, cling to the perceived social good of our work to avoid considering the way our field centres and values whiteness above all else, even to the point that we are willing to begrudgingly accept forms of discrimination (e.g., linguistic imperialism, native speakerism, et al.,) so long as race itself is not the focus of the discussion. i wish that articles and books highlighting the centrality of racism among our field’s issues did not need to be written, but the confluence of our understandable desire to believe in the goodness of our work and our inability to honestly grapple with race have allowed whiteness to remain centred in our field, and so the work will have to continue. to be clear, this is not just a problem because of its inherent immorality, though that is problem enough. no, the silent framing of whiteness as a goal both inescapable and unattainable is a problem because it is genuinely harmful to our racialized colleagues and students. part 2: the impact of centred whiteness the impact on racialized teachers one of the central contentions of this article is the idea that, due to the resistance outlined in the previous section, any manner of alternative justification for racial disparities within the field will be sought rather than directly considering white supremacy. one of the ways this “anything but racism” mindset maintains power is through the claim some educational institutions make that https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 48 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 customers—be they students or their parents—prefer a certain type of teacher, and so if that certain type of teacher happens to be white, so be it. as canadian scholar ramjattan (2015) explained, “in elt, race and language are also components in the aesthetic labour of teachers: to look good is to be white, while to sound right entails speaking an inner circle variety of english” (p. 694). accordingly, if international recruitment websites promise native speakers a fun and exotic experience and do not ask for professional qualifications, even using stock photos of young white people for promotional purposes (ruecker & ives, 2015), then the resultant population of expatriate english teachers—who are, for similarly discriminatory reasons, never considered immigrants or migrants (yeung, 2016)—will match what the market demands. the implication is that the market is neutral and unfeeling, and free from our very human bigotry. yet, as sung (2011) explained, the racism is evident just beneath the surface. as he wrote of an experience at his workplace, “i recall a complaint made by a parent to the clerk in 2009 that her child was being taught by a teacher of indian descent. the teacher, who was born and raised in the uk, was a native speaker of english, yet was perceived to be someone who speaks ‘with an accent’ because of her appearance” (p. 27). similarly, faez (2012) found that racialized teachers at a canadian school were hardly even classified as native speakers, even if they were born in the country. the möbius strip of whiteness feeds upon itself, with clients believing that teachers who look (and sound) a certain way will be better teachers, schools hiring based upon what they consider a neutral economic condition, and racialized teachers suffering accordingly. the examples cited above range from east asia to canada, contexts with very different laws pertaining to explicit racial discrimination, yet the practices remain similar even in the latter country, where de jure segregation is illegal. our field is thus inhospitable to those who do not fit the idealized image, and this racial hierarchy is maintained by what we categorize as purely economic reasoning. even if one does not buy the argument that capitalism is inherently racist, the pursuit thereof has led to gross disadvantages for racialized elt professionals. and if that disadvantage feels unavoidable for some reading this article, let us consider the following example of how this state of affairs ultimately harms our predominantly racialized students. the impact on racialized students a system in which racialized teachers are marginalized and unsupported is a system in which white teachers and administrators are centred and prioritized, and this can have deleterious results. schalge and soga (2008) sought to understand the absenteeism at a community language school, a phenomenon that is hardly uncommon, and they found that, although the teachers and administrators ascribed the low rate of retention to logistical issues (one teacher described the absent students as, “[people who] can’t come because they are breast-feeding, or something” (p. 156)), the students themselves expressed dissatisfaction with the slow speed of the classes, unclear expectations, and disorganization: “because we’re still on page 86, 87, we jumped to page 196” (p. 157). the study does not centre on race, though the students are all from racialized groups, and in the version of elt that has long been dominant, these students are destined to be consistently underestimated and thus mistreated. it may seem subtle, but this dismissal of racialized voices is nothing short of what bourdieu (2005) has termed symbolic violence. the linguistic marginalisation of students of https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 49 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 colour serves only to reify our extant status quo, and, like the administrators in schalge and soga’s (2008) study, when addressed, we deflect and distract, raising our altruistic shield to avoid addressing the racial disparities in our field. as matias (2013) explained, “since the teaching force, curricula, policies, and teacher education pipeline are white-dominant, the context for repressed forms of violence is maintained. if disrupted, white performative recurrences of anger, avoidance, guilt, dismissal, and repression stifle race knowledge” (p. 188). any educator, elt or otherwise, not actively disrupting the status quo of whiteness is contributing to the perpetuation of symbolic violence, and claims of neutrality, supported by a focus on economic concerns or not, are insufficient excuses for a failure to engage with white supremacy. with all this said, however, and with these many criticisms levied against the field and its practitioners, my argument would be incomplete without an attempt to point us towards a future where whiteness is no longer positioned as an unattainable goal for both students and teachers. part 3: the work of decentring whiteness the following is a series of suggestions for decentring whiteness in elt. first, i offer some broader structural changes and policy recommendations that will take considerable time and effort to implement but are perhaps more impactful because of their possible reach, and then propose individual changes that every elt professional can and should make. structural changes journals. among the several hundred journals in elt, very few are consistently and explicitly concerned with race. i am not referring to journals about language and culture—a frequent obfuscation for frank racial discussion (lee, 2015)—but language and race. many of the articles cited above appear in journals of different disciplines, but there should be a designated place where scholarship focused on this intersection can be found, whether it is through the creation of new journals or special full issues of extant publications. there should be a scholarly nucleus around which this conversation orbits and from which both new conceptualizations and empirical research can be sourced. part of what holds this discussion on the margins is that it is spread so thinly that its potential power is thereby reduced. conferences. the organizers of conferences are occasionally amenable to changing their programs and planning (as we have all seen in 2020). potential presenters, including readers of this article, should not agree to sit on all-white panels unless the whiteness is a topic of analysis. indeed, conference-goers should refuse to attend these panels, or attend them and challenge their construction. if the vast majority of the keynote speakers are also white, elt professionals, including the people reading this article, should contact those with the power to make changes to this plan and not give their (or their school’s) money to centred and unquestioned whiteness, especially in conferences explicitly focused on language education. in fact, we are likely to come across advertisements for conferences with themes related to “culture” or even “social justice” without a direct mention of race. as critical consumers of scholarship, we must push the organizers to change the public face of this industry or little evolution will occur. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 50 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 program curricula. as picower (2009) has noted, white teachers enter the profession with an extremely low level of racial literacy, and some might thus recommend that elt education programs concentrate their curricula more explicitly on frameworks such as critical race theory, which descended from legal studies to inform the work of scholars such as bell (1995) and ladson-billings (1998), and teaches that racism is both constant and pervasive, among other central tenets. yet, valuable though crt and similar lenses are, i would argue that without an explicit incentive to draw attention towards the field’s unspoken whiteness, the darkness of elt will continue to evade the sunlight. thus, i contend that whiteness and critical whiteness studies (cws) need to be a part of the curriculum for programs that educate the majority-white elt professional corps in north america, in addition to the inclusion of crt and related frameworks. in my doctoral research, i am conducting interviews with white elt professionals who have developed a critical scholarly lens through which they understand, use, and work against their whiteness, to document both how they developed their critical literacy and how programs might instill this ideological shift in future educators, but this work should not be necessary, and every white elt professional must be conversant with and critical of the whiteness in our field if we have any hope of dismantling white supremacy. individual study racial identity. there is a growing body of research on white racial identity, though, unfortunately, much less on its connection to elt. as an individual with the choice to consume varied scholarship to inform one’s development, though, there is no reason to limit oneself to this narrow intersection. articles like ullucci’s (2012), in which the author analyzes the racial autobiographies of incoming white educators, can provide suggestions for white elt professionals as to how to consider their own racial identities, and/or how to help develop these skills among white colleagues and students. crowley (2016) conceptualized different versions of white racial knowledge, a useful model for consumers to use for self-reflection and self-analysis. a targeted dive into white teacher racial identity research, and particularly the work of helms (1990), is necessary for the decentring of whiteness; understanding the full scope of the problem through one’s own identity will increase salience and help us address these issues effectively. race and language scholarship. although the intersection of race and language education is an under-explored topic, the literature thereof is not non-existent. some of the most celebrated articles have already been cited above, including the work of flores and rosa (2015 & 2017) in defining and developing the concept of raciolinguistic ideologies, turning the focus away from the supposed deficiencies of racialized people and towards the white listener. some of the best scholarship on race and language has originated from british columbia itself, as kubota has spent decades advancing the cause of race in elt and applied linguistics (kubota, 2002; kubota & lin, 2006; kubota, 2019), including the observation that knowledge itself, especially within language-related fields, contains racial hierarchies. more needs to be developed and published, but what exists should be sought and consumed. interdisciplinary literature. since the race and language literature is not as vast as that of other aspects of the field, and since, as mentioned, there is not a prominent nucleus for its ongoing propagation, people in the elt field should seek out interdisciplinary literature for its application to their pedagogy, some of which has been cited above. whether it is work that https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 51 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 analyzes the power structures in language even if not explicitly centred on race (canagarajah, 1999; kumaravadivelu, 2003; phillipson, 2008;), or influential scholarship on race, oppression, and education that can be applied to language if given a slight push (freire, 1970 & 2000; kendi, 2019; ladson-billings, 1998; paris, 2012), if an elt professional consciously seeks to find a sturdier base for their critical literacy, the kindling for the internal fire exists. and, above all, any scholar hoping to write publically on language studies needs to be certain their citations include a considerable amount of contributions from scholars of colour, or else the work of white authors will remain supreme. conclusion this work will not be easy or short, and it will most likely not be smooth. for reasons discussed above, outright resistance may occur, with anger and fear used as discursive buffers. elt professionals who are not eager to learn how to decentre whiteness are unlikely to take the steps needed to make these changes, and accordingly, the work will have to come from those of us who are committed to this praxis. we must be prepared for and accepting of a long, slow, iterative battle, and it may often not feel worth the effort. and, it must be asked: is it? are the potential pitfalls of challenging whiteness worth the risk of doing so? i would say, for the sake of our colleagues of colour, our racialized students, and our own morality, we cannot afford the risk of not doing so. we must bring whiteness into the light and drag it out from behind the scenes where it has long pulled the strings, with a firm grasp upon our field of elt. we cannot centre the destruction and violence endemic to whiteness and show love to racialized students at the same time. it is our purpose as professionals to push our practice forward. we must fulfill our promise to the people we have long claimed to serve but never truly shown the care and affection they have always deserved. i hope that my plea will find its way to sympathetic eyes and ears in the nation to my north, and i choose to be optimistic about our field and the people within it. acknowledgements with any publication during my doctoral studies, i owe thanks to the professors who have shaped my scholarship, including dr. laura baecher, dr. catherine kramarczuk voulgarides, and dr. anthony picciano, as well as to our program’s director, dr. marshall george, and our dean, dr. michael middleton, who suggested i find like minds through the wilds of twitter, and opened up a surprisingly fruitful world of epistemological development. accordingly, i have found my ideas sharpened by my communications with some of the scholars cited in this article, namely dr. vijay ramjattan, dr. nelson flores, and dr. jonathan rosa. but ultimately, i thank my family for the support, my wife for the advice and the patience, and my infant son, for transforming my writing from an intellectual and academic pursuit to an imminent moral imperative, because i want him to be loved by the many white teachers he will surely have. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 gerald 52 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 references bell, d. 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(2011). race and native speakers in elt: parents’ perspectives in hong kong. english today, 27(3), 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078411000344 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 https://doi.org/10.2307/3588219 https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2014.892503 https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2013.844603 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1065640.pdf https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12441244 https://doi.org/10.1080/15427580701696886 https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320902995475 https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-03-2015-0018 https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2018.1538043 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.195 https://nelrc.org/persist/pdfs/schalge_0708.pdf https://doi/10.1080/03057925.2013.876306 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078411000344 gerald 54 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 44–54 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 ullucci, k. (2012). knowing we are white: narrative as critical praxis. teaching education, 23(1), 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2011.622747 yeung, s. (2016). from cultural distance to skills deficits: “expatriates,” “migrants” and swiss integration policy. multilingua, 35(6), 723–746. https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/multi-20150074 zamudio, m., & rios, f. (2006). from traditional to liberal racism: living racism in the everyday. sociological perspectives, 49(4), 483–501. https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2006.49.4.483 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/345 https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2011.622747 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/multi-2015-0074 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/multi-2015-0074 https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2006.49.4.483 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ derichsweiler 1 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 gender-oriented topics in teaching english as an additional language sina derichsweiler university of cologne abstract given the great influence gender identity issues have in educational settings, it is critical to understand how students, especially in the k–12 context, are affected and how this contributes to their academic success. this article deals with the potential that lies in teaching topics of gender identity in the additional language classroom. drawing on recent research in the german context related to language and culture and gender-oriented topics in english as an additional language (eal) provides an international perspective. exemplified through the german school context, the need to incorporate more gender-oriented topics into teaching is emphasized. the aim is to provide an understanding of topics related to gender and sexual orientation independent of the subject matter and to highlight some opportune teaching moments. in doing so, the role of the school as an agent of socialization and education in connection to topics of gender identity is explained, followed by an introduction to the field of gender studies in order to point out the main aspects to consider when planning a lesson for eal. to make the theoretical field more accessible, three teaching examples for primary school and early secondary school research settings are presented. introduction canadian school policies have gained worldwide recognition for their inclusive and forwardthinking approaches. one excellent example is the british columbia (bc) sexual orientation and gender identity (sogi) educator network. formally launched as a pilot project in 2016/2017, it is now, four years later, an inherent part of bc’s education system (sogi 123, 2020). its aim is to connect bc educators interested in sogi-inclusive education, and it is successfully doing so: “all 60 b.c. school districts and several independent schools have joined the b.c. sogi educator network to further help educators make schools safe and inclusive for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities” (ministry of education, 2019). sogi 123 was designed to help all educators interested in sogi-inclusive education. in alignment with bc’s new curriculum, sogi 123 provides grade-appropriate teaching material to help everyone understand today’s diverse society (sogi 123, 2020). in 2019, however, the bc ministry of education stated that 64% of queer and transgender students in canada still feel unsafe at school, which underlines once more the need for furthering sogi-inclusive education. this fact alone justifies the importance of extending teaching material that helps foster sogi-inclusive education. this paper will argue that the field of teaching english as an additional language (teal) is particularly suitable for helping students address topics of gender identity. it therefore addresses a still-prevalent research gap of gender-oriented publications and teaching methods in teal and introduces work from germany on the subject matter. this gives educators from bc interested in sogi-inclusive education in a teal context the opportunity to broaden their perspective as they acquire insights into teal in germany. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 2 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 in the following, two subjects will be addressed: firstly, topics of gender identity in teal and secondly, the omnipresence of gender identity at school. these topics will draw on the german school system as an exemplary case to emphasize the need to include more genderoriented topics into schools and furthermore to encourage awareness of important aspects to consider when planning a school lesson with a focus on gender identity. three teaching examples are introduced to substantiate the theoretical positions explained in the first section of this paper. its structure and argument follow a survey of the implications of gender studies for foreign language teaching (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016), complementing it by adding perspectives from primary school and early secondary school research settings. topics of gender in teal two recent publications, by thorsen merse (2017) and lotta könig (2018), are cases in point of cutting-edge publications about sogi-inclusive education. in his phd dissertation, other others, different differences: queer perspectives on teaching english as a foreign language, published in 2017, merse discussed and differentiated current discourses in the fields of education and teal with the aim of developing the theoretical foundation for queer approaches in english language teaching. könig’s phd dissertation, gender-reflexion mit literatur im englischunterricht (reflection on gender through literature in the english classroom), which was published in 2018, develops the concept of gender-reflection for students and explains its necessity. könig suggested ways of implementing gender in teal and provided various teaching examples as well as empirical validations of her theoretical ideas. in their different ways, both scholars pointed to the benefits and the need of gender topics for teal and identifed three important subject areas—language learning, inter and transcultural learning, and discourse competence—that benefit from gender-oriented topics. with regard to the specificities of language learning, it is argued that students’ additional languages hold the potential for them to approach the topic of gender without the directness of their own linguistic environment. this potential provides students with a distanced perspective on classroom communication that allows involvement from a “safe distance.” in light of research suggesting that different contexts, domains of life, and languages allow for different impressions, attitudes, and behaviours, learning other languages does not lead to a change of personality as such, but to improving the expression of another part of one’s personality that can be shown in other languages (prentis, 2017, grosjean, 2012). hence, students might be able to take part in classroom discussions with a lower risk of triggering fears or resistance when dealing with the topic (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016; merse, 2017). secondly, inter and transcultural learning are constitutional parts of acquiring an additional language. new perspectives and cultures are accessed, which might lead to a reflection of unquestioned certainties in students’ lives. könig, lewin, and surkamp (2016) explain that the ability to change perspective, which is an important learning goal in this framework, can also be applied to the cultural category of gender. since the concepts and attitudes inherent to our own culture are very powerful in shaping our perception of the world, the ability to depart from one’s own perspective is very important: only then are students able to see the norms and reflect on them as such (p. 22). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 3 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 thirdly, the topic of gender enables the development of discourse competence. on the one hand, gender is produced discursively (commonly called doing gender) not only through clothes and behaviour, but also by using language. in talking about this phenomenon (doing gender), students elaborate on gender by way of a meta-discourse. consequently, students also gain language awareness and can reflect on the power of language (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016; merse, 2017). one example that emphasizes the interdependency of language and gender discourse in the additional language classroom was observed by cynthia nelson (2009): in one of the first english as a second language (esl) lessons that i observed…, the class was going through a grammar exercise on adverb clauses. one student gave his answer: “when i love someone, i tell him.” amid muted laughter, the teacher said “try it again.” with far less certainty the student ventured “when i love someone, i tell he?” eventually, he provided an answer that satisfied the teacher: “when i love someone, i tell her.” (p. ix) in this situation, the teacher’s assumption that the student has not understood the grammatical exercise betrays the teacher’s heteronormative world view and a lack of critical language awareness. gender identity issues at school the omnipresence of gender becomes apparent when trying to identify contexts in which gender does not play a significant role at all (elsner & lohe, 2016). concepts of femininity and masculinity and of romantic/sexual relationships are strongly connected to all kinds of cultural expectations, patterns of interpretation, and social interactions (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016). likewise, the variety of life concepts is steadily increasing. liberal societies constantly integrate new ideas pertaining to lifestyles, familial relations, and identity. at the same time, traditional concepts of femininity and masculinity are still predominant today and strongly impact students’ lives (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016). since the engagement with gender identity evolves largely during the years at school, the educational field has the responsibility to support students in their development and decision making (elsner & lohe, 2016). commonly, it is argued that the school has a double function in the capacity of acting: school is being both an agent of socialization and an agent of education (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016). the next section discusses these two agencies in connection to gender identity. firstly, the role of the school as an agent of socialization is introduced, followed, secondly, by the depiction of the school as an agent of education to initiate the next section of this paper about “queering” the english language classroom. the school as an agent of socialization schooling can be defined as organized instructional activity in which the teacher has the explicit task of socializing children. children today spend the majority of their active hours at school or in a school context. the school is the first large-scale institution of which children become members and which reflects the expectations and norms of society. it goes without saying that school therefore plays a major part in constructing and upholding dominant gender differences https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 4 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 and gender relations. the school is a place where gender is performed in interactions between students, between students and teachers, and between teachers. in most situations, gender is not sufficiently addressed and problematized at school. this missing element reinforces gender inequalities that can and tend to impact the career interests and life plans of students (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016). the concept of heteronormativity helps illustrate the crucial socialising function of schools. this concept understands heterosexuality as a central power structure that dominates social and cultural areas in western societies. analyses of heteronormativity seek to challenge the common understanding that heterosexuality is to be seen as natural, definite, and fixed. sexual identities besides heterosexuality are therefore often seen as a deviation from the norm (katz, 2009; richardson, 1998). that heteronormativity is not or is only rarely called into question at school can be seen in the field of career orientation at school. the school, as an agent of socialization, is responsible for educating and introducing students to the job market’s variety, especially because the gender gap in the job market is extensive. the fact that certain jobs are ascribed to be rather male or female is also mirrored in the education of career orientation at school (bartsch & wedl, 2015, thiessen & tremel, 2015). this is why barbara thiessen and inken tremel (2015) demanded that career orientation always be taught in connection to gender and point to various studies highlighting the strong connection between gender and job choices made by young adults (besen-cassino, 2018; thiessen & tremel, 2015). moreover, the school is a place in which doing gender takes place. the concept of doing gender belongs to a constructivist perspective in gender studies. it establishes the assumption that gender is not an essential feature of a person, but constantly produced in social interactions (degele, 2008). doing gender happens through, for example, clothes, gestures, behaviour, or communication. lewin, surkamp, and könig (2016) emphasized that these ways of doing gender at school are by no means arbitrary. the students are “connected to their gender categorization and are expected to conform to it at any time or she/he risks discrimination” (p. 25). hence, students not only learn how to perform their gender identity in social interactions with their families, but also extensively in interdependency with their classmates at school. as pointed out before, one consequence of doing gender in nonconformity with standards of heteronormativity is the risk of discrimination. documented evidence indicates that queer youth regularly experience discrimination and harassment at school because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. in 2018, a study published by the german youth institute (dji), one of the biggest social science research institutes in europe, found that eight out of ten queer students stated that they have experienced harassment because of their gender identity. also, queer youth are almost four times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth in germany (dji, 2018). the school as an agent of education as an agent of education, the school has precisely the task to support students in the development of their individual personality. könig, lewin, and surkamp (2016) argued that “it is part of the educational mandate of schools in germany to support students in developing fundamental ethical principles, which include respect, justice, tolerance toward others, and gender equality” (p. 21). therefore, education about gender and the inclusion of teaching https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 5 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 material and methods that help students gain a self-confident attitude towards their own gender identity and sexual orientation are particularly important. in terms of critical thinking, educational practices should question and criticize heteronormative power structures in our society. furthermore, school education is still dominated by a hidden curriculum, which is shaped by heteronormative assumptions. the concept of a hidden curriculum emphasizes that education is never objective, but is structured through the transmission of unexpressed norms, values, and beliefs. all teaching content entails notions which are learned but not openly intended, such as heteronormativity (onnen, 2015). that such unexpressed values influence the design of teaching materials, for instance, is one of the many aspects that “learning gender” takes into account. in 2011, melanie bittner published a survey about the depiction of gender in contemporary school books in germany. her study revealed that school books transport onedimensional ideas about gender. her findings showed that the binary thinking about gender and heteronormativity is emphasized by depicting characters in traditional roles, ascribing stereotypical characteristics to them, and portraying their outer appearance as explicitly male or female. utterances made by characters such as “no, you don’t. you never do jobs around the house. boys have an easy life” (bittner, 2011, p. 42) or “girls cannot play football” (bittner, 2011, p. 41) are commonly found in english language school books. life concepts, gender identities, or sexual orientations that do not conform to the demands of heteronormativity are not offered. in a similar context, lukasz pakula, joanna pawelczyk, and jane sunderland (2015) explained that “if equal numbers are represented, but women and men, girls and boys are represented in stereotypical, limited or degrading ways, this may similarly affect self-image, as may a relentless, unchallenged heteronormativity for those (many) students who are not heterosexual” (p. 13). since school books are supposed to help pupils construct new knowledge and behaviours and consequently influence social reality, these results are particularly alarming (elsner & lohe, 2016). in the process of designing methods and material to teach gender-oriented topics, jutta hartmann, one of the leading researchers in the field of heteronormative critiques in education, highlighted the importance of positive visions for students. often students are confronted with negative stereotypes as a method of questioning gendered attributions. however, in pointing out stereotypes in the first place, the problem arises that these stereotypes might be strengthened all the same. in applying positive examples of gender identities or sexual orientations to everyday teaching, alternatives are visualized for the students (hartmann, messerschmidt, & thon, 2017). three perspectives of gender studies it is also essential for teachers to have fundamental knowledge about gender studies in order to teach gender. following könig, lewin, and surkamp’s (2016) approach, this article addresses three main approaches of gender studies by sharing three teaching examples—one for each approach. the teaching examples were designed by students of the university of cologne, who eagerly discussed the theoretical approaches and developed examples for teal in one of their teaching seminars. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 6 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 in her introduction to gender/queer studies, nina degele (2018) differentiated and explained three dominant schools of thought in feminist studies: the socio-critical, the constructivist, and the deconstructivist perspectives (p. 14). in the process of planning a school lesson that includes aspects of gender, it is important to be aware of the central questions each perspective focuses on. only then are teachers able to formulate learning goals that take full advantage of insights from gender and queer studies and adequately translate them into teaching practice. without a reflective and profound approach, well-meaning attempts to include topics of gender in school lessons can have unpredictable effects and even strengthen stereotypes (könig, 2018). the socio-critical perspective is mainly concerned with problematic aspects of gender hierarchies based on the division of humans into men and women. gender is seen as a social category, and the main focus is on the disclosure of structural inequalities based on forms of binary thinking in heteronormative societies. the binary distinction of human beings into male and female leads to hierarchies in which white males are the most privileged ones. the job market is one example for persisting gender inequalities that need to be a subject of discussion with students at school. the first teaching example is based on the school book camden town 4, published by diesterweg (hanus, 2015). it was designed for students in grade 8 enrolled in a middle school. the tasks in the school book are concerned with various jobs that are suitable for 14-year-old teenagers. the introduction to the section on jobs informs students about legal aspects for working as a teenager and then introduces six different jobs: a sign waver, a gas station attendant, a babysitter, a farmhand, a newspaper carrier, and a pet sitter. the text itself does not assign jobs to a certain gender. in the description for the job at the gas station, it says for example: “however, he or she cannot work as a cashier” (hanus, 2015, p. 64). the pictures illustrating the book’s page nevertheless portray traditional ideas about which gender works in what domain. a boy is depicted for the job at a gas station and a girl for the job as a pet sitter. hereby, the book reinforces heteronormative assumptions about career opportunities for girls and boys. the given socio-critical teaching example builds its lesson on this circumstance. to get the students started, the text is read out loud. the next task involves a writing exercise. each student is assigned a job and is supposed to imagine a successful and fun day in this job. the teacher makes sure that the boys get jobs that are rather considered to be female and the other way around. therefore, students can have positive associations with different jobs independently of gender-related preferences. consequently, the introduction of new perspectives and the broadening of students’ horizons are important. as pointed out above, hartmann, messerschmidt, and thon (2017) recommended the establishment of positive examples without focusing on stereotypes beforehand and called this way of proceeding a “post heteronormative” strategy. the lesson ends with the students’ presentation of their day at work, which could lead to a discussion about the connection between gender and the job market. however, the outcome is not predictable in advance. the students might, for example, already be so open minded that they do not see problems in boys having jobs as babysitters or girls having jobs at gas stations. it is up to the teachers to decide whether or not it is necessary to further discuss this topic. the constructivist perspective analyzes how gender is produced in social interaction. it focusses on restrictions that are imposed by heteronormative assumptions about the “right” https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 7 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 behaviour for men and women. the concept of doing gender is one main idea of the constructivist approach in gender studies. in a school setting, students are supposed to understand how gender differences are made by society and that gender is not an essential feature of a person, but something that is constantly constructed. könig, lewin, and surkamp (2016) pointed out that in class, practices of “doing gender” are particularly accessible for students in areas in which notions of masculinity and femininity are strategically applied—for example in advertising. normative gender expectations, however, can also be reflected in terms of activities or hobbies that are considered appropriate for “doing” masculinity, but not femininity—or vice versa.” (p. 25) the next teaching example takes up the idea to use students’ hobbies as a target point for discussion. thereby, the daily life of students is introduced to the classroom and hence, a relationship to their world is given. only when students experience some sort of personal relevance of an issue or shortcoming do they get actively involved in the process of solving it. the lesson was designed for students in grade 5. the teacher posts a chart with the headline what kind of things do you like doing? a number of students are supposed to share their ideas, probably such as reading, singing, playing football, and so on. the teacher simultaneously writes down the students’ ideas on the blackboard. each student then gets a sticky note with their name on it and is supposed to put their sticky note next to their favourite activity. when all sticky notes are posted, students can utter their favourite activity and ask who also likes to do this activity. the teacher then asks the class if they ever feel excluded from an activity because it is supposed to be for boys or girls instead of all students. if there are such activities on the board, students can work in small groups and think of ways they can help all kids at school feel included in the activities they like. the overall aim is to make students aware that there are no activities that are more suitable for girls or boys. their hobbies should just be based on what they like and what they are good at, and not on their gender identity. the lesson could be followed by watching and discussing a movie such as billy elliot (daldry, 2000), in which a boy becomes a professional ballet dancer. the last teaching example is based on the deconstructive perspective, which aims to question the supposedly natural characteristics of gender. the deconstructive perspective aims to detect exclusions based on gender norms, challenge ideas of heteronormativity, and question structures of power in society. scholars such as judith butler (1990) have emphasized the performativity of gender and its establishment through the repetition and enactment of gendered behaviour by being cited again and again. for butler, the distinction of sex and gender is not valid because sex could also be understood as discursive. in this sense, sex and gender are culturally constructed concepts and the result of the predominant discourse of each time period. the focal point in this teaching example is based on the concept of undoing gender. the teaching example is designed for a grade 8 or grade 9 class. it is based on the novel the art of being normal (2016), written by lisa williamson, in which the main character wants to be gender fluid. the students get a fictional diary entry without knowing the main character’s name or gender identity. the text implies both a female and a male person, depending on the way it is read. the teacher reveals that the main character wants to be categorized neither as female nor as https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 8 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 male. the character can rather be described as gender fluid. a gender-fluid person’s identity does not conform to the heterosexual world order because their gender does not follow from a specific biological sex, and sexual desire does not derive from either sex or gender identity. the character in the diary entry provides critical opportunities to expose the limits and regulatory aims of the heterosexual world order. importantly, the character in the text is not portrayed as deficient because the character does not conform to those norms of cultural intelligibility. the text emphasizes that gender can be thought of as radically different from sex. the students then work in groups to find out what gender fluidity means. in the following discussion they are supposed to understand that when identifiable differences between women and men are blurred, the heterosexual world order is weakened. hence, students question the self-evidence of heteronormativity and binary gender. conclusion the examples presented only serve as a first attempt to emphasize the broad range for conceptualizing and discussing an implementation of topics concerned with gender into teal and to add to extant research on gender-sensitive perspectives in educational settings. educators from bc were given an international perspective, and teachers dealing with younger students might especially benefit from these insights as it was shown that it is possible to cover topics of gender independent of the students’ age. often teaching examples in teal focus on older students because they are more reflective and advanced in their language proficiency and, hence, it is easier to discuss rather complicated topics with them. furthermore, all the teaching examples in this paper tried to implement positive examples for students to identify with. these examples avoid strengthening dominant stereotypes by first addressing them in order to deconstruct them afterwards. the positive examples function as agents in opening up “new possibilities for gender that contest the rigid codes of hierarchical binarism” (butler, 1990, p. 24). the teaching examples also show how the classroom is connected to experiences of everyday life. the teaching is shaped by and responds to problems that might arise anywhere in students’ lives. the combination of positive visions and the chance for students to explore their own role in society and in various discourse communities opens up the possibility to develop a deeper understanding of what those interconnections mean for them. as argued above, the school holds the responsibility to teach gender, and, in this process, should also deconstruct heteronormativity. the school, however, is a complex system combining a broad range of different expectations, ideas, tasks, and hierarchies. reactions by oppositional organizations have proven that questions of gender identity and sexual orientation are often accompanied by emotions. these sensitive topics require negotiations of gender on the individual level, but also on a sociopolitical level (könig, lewin, & surkamp, 2016, p. 21). acknowledgements i wish to thank my supervisors, roman bartosch and karen ragoonaden, for their support during the research and writing process. i would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and the editor scott douglas for his publication guidance. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 derichsweiler 9 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 references bartsch, a., & wedl, j. 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(2019). more students supported by sogi-inclusive education. retrieved from https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2017-2021/2019educ0040000975.htm nelson, c.d. (2009). sexual identities in english language education: classroom conversation. new york, ny: routledge. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839428221-002 https://www.dji.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bulletin/d_bull_d/bull120_d/dji_2_18_web.pdf https://www.dji.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bulletin/d_bull_d/bull120_d/dji_2_18_web.pdf https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-bilingual/201212/change-language-change-personality-part-ii https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-bilingual/201212/change-language-change-personality-part-ii https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1333810 https://doi.org/10.5282/edoc.20597 https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2017-2021/2019educ0040-000975.htm https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2017-2021/2019educ0040-000975.htm derichsweiler 10 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 1–10 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 onnen, c. (2015). studying gender to teach gender. zur vermittlung von gender-kompetenz. in teaching gender? zum reflektierten umgang mit geschlecht im schulunterricht und in der lehramtsausbildung, 83-101. bielefeld, de: transcript verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839428221-002 pakula, l., pawelczyk, j., & sunderland, j. (2015). gender and sexuality in english language education: focus on poland. london, uk: british council. prentis, n. (2017). feel more fun in french? your personality can change depending on the language you speak. quartz. retrieved from https://qz.com/925630/feel-more-fun-infrench-your-personality-can-change-depending-on-the-language-you-speak/ richardson, d. (1998). theorising heterosexuality: telling it straight. buckingham, uk: open university press sogi 123. british columbia. (2020). what’s happening in british columbia? retrieved from https://bc.sogieducation.org/sogi1 thiessen, b. & tremel, i. (2015). “aber im normalen unterricht ist das für mich als normaler lehrer eingentlich in meinen fächern sehr schwierig” herstellung von gendernormalität im berufsorientierenden unterricht. in teaching gender? zum reflektierten umgang mit geschlecht im schulunterricht und in der lehramtsausbildung, 67–83. bielefeld: transcript verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839428221-002 williamson, l. (2016). the art of being normal. new york, ny: farrar straus giroux. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839428221-002 https://qz.com/925630/feel-more-fun-in-french-your-personality-can-change-depending-on-the-language-you-speak/ https://qz.com/925630/feel-more-fun-in-french-your-personality-can-change-depending-on-the-language-you-speak/ https://bc.sogieducation.org/sogi1 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839428221-002 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.392 editorial local milestones in scholarly publishing: five years of the bc teal journal scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan campus) abstract this editorial marks the fifth anniversary of the bc teal journal. remaining committed to free and open access scholarly publishing that draws connections to english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning in british columbia, the journal has met a number of important milestones over the past five years. these milestones include bringing together the large number of people involved in producing each issue of the journal, reaching a wide audience of readers, being listed in a range of scholarly databases and indexes, assigning digital object identifiers (dois) to each article and issue, and joining the respected ranks of other important open access journals in the field of eal teaching and learning. the editorial also outlines the key themes in the current issue related to k–12 contexts, english for academic purposes (eap), language instruction to newcomers, workplace english, research methods, and critical whiteness studies. finally, the editorial concludes with a recognition of the challenging times eal teaching and learning faces and an expression of gratitude to everyone in the bc teal journal community. from the editor the completion of this issue marks the fifth anniversary of the bc teal journal. five years ago, the journal started with a commitment to the free and open access exchange of knowledge, with a focus on publishing peer-reviewed scholarly articles that draw explicit connections to british columbia and english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning in this province. while welcoming submissions from researchers familiar with the demands and idiosyncrasies of academic publishing, the journal also set out with a determination to provide an outlet for meaningful work that might not necessarily be published elsewhere through positive support and developmental feedback that strengthens and encourages scholarship and eventual publication— all without submission, processing, or publication fees for authors. this endeavour requires countless hours contributed by journal board members, reviewers, editors, and librarians. just the list of bc teal journal peer reviewers alone contains 45 names, many of whom have given their time and expertise to more than one article submission. the result has been 30 articles, four book reviews, and five editorials written by 48 different authors, all of which have been viewed over 33,000 times and downloaded over 19,000 times in the past five years—a wonderful contribution to bc teal’s mission to support “english language education by raising awareness, providing professional development, and sharing expertise” (bc teal, 2021). the journal has also continued to grow in its impact and recognition as a respected scholarly publication. an early milestone the journal achieved was being indexed in the directory of open access journals (doaj), which lists high quality peer reviewed journals and provides the bc teal journal with increased visibility and contributes to its reputation for high academic standards (doaj, 2020). in addition to the doaj, the bc teal journal is also listed https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.392 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/about/editorialteam https://doaj.org/toc/2369-4211 douglas ii bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.392 in ulrich’s periodicals directory, which provides libraries with a database of academic journals and increases discoverability through libraries around the world (ulrichsweb, 2021). rounding out some of the major databases and indexes where readers can find the bc teal journal, the journal is now listed in the education resources information center (eric) database, which is an important database and repository for educational research on a wide range of topics (eric, n.d.). finally, 2020 was the year that the bc teal journal started assigning digital object identifiers (dois) to its issues and articles. dois provide a stable link to the journal’s articles on the internet, and they are a generally recommended good practice in scholarly publishing. thus, in terms of discoverability, the bc teal journal has joined the ranks of other important open access journals in the field of eal teaching and learning, such as the asian journal of english language studies, the canadian journal of applied linguistics, catesol journal, mextesol journal, minnetesol journal, nys tesol journal, ortesol journal, the tesl canada journal, and tesl-ej, just to name a few. the fifth anniversary of the bc teal journal also brings readers the longest issue to date, with a total of 124 pages, not including this editorial. six key themes arise out of this latest issue: k–12 contexts, english for academic purposes (eap), english language instruction to newcomers, workplace english, research methods, and critical whiteness studies. for k–12 educators, gillman & norton (2020) presented their work on an open access multilingual digital platform that has stories for elementary school learners in english, french, and a wide variety of languages spoken by newcomers to canada. also related to teaching in k–12 classrooms, hernberg (2020) provided an analysis on the literature related to additional language learning and metacognition to support english language learners in elementary, middle, and high schools. moving away from k–12 classrooms and into college and university settings, articles on collaborative written feedback (maatouk & payant, 2020) and incidental vocabulary learning (freimuth, 2020) will particularly interest readers working and researching in eap programs. language teaching and learning for newcomers to canada is also an important theme in this issue, with mudzingwa (2020) writing about standardization in federally funded eal programs for newcomers to canada and balyasnikova (2020) writing about volunteer experiences in an eal learning program in vancouver. workplace english is another important topic covered in this issue. hu and gonzales (2020) found that writing accuracy is valued in the workplace, but users of eal aren’t necessarily prepared by their university programs for these real-life writing demands. next, for novice researchers interested in getting an overview of a variety of research methods in applied linguistics, landry (2020) has written a thorough book review of paltridge & phakiti (2015). finally, of importance to everyone working in the field of eal teaching and learning, gerald (2020) examined how english language teaching centres whiteness, how this centring negatively impacts teaching and learning, and how the field can move towards decentring whiteness and counteracting its harmful effects. in closing, this editorial wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the challenges and stressors that have faced eal teaching and learning in british columbia over the past year. due to the covid-19 pandemic, classrooms have gone virtual, workloads for some have increased, jobs for others have been sadly lost, and the field has been wrought by changes that could not have been imagined just over a year ago. through all of this, members from all sectors of the bc teal community have pulled together to produce this issue of the journal. what you read in these pages is the work of many people taking place over many months during a time when https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.392 http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/title/1610584375146/825869 https://eric.ed.gov/?q=bc+teal+journal https://ajels.ust.edu.ph/ https://ajels.ust.edu.ph/ https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/cjal http://www.catesoljournal.org/ https://www.mextesol.net/journal/ http://minnetesoljournal.org/ http://journal.nystesol.org/ https://ortesol.wildapricot.org/publications https://teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl https://teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/ douglas iii bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.392 uncertainty and the unknown loomed large. it would have been easy to put aside the extra task of copy editing, peer reviewing, or writing an article. however, that didn’t happen. instead, the journal is able to present its longest issue ever to both bc teal’s members and to people interested in eal teaching and learning wherever they may be. many thanks and much appreciation goes out to everyone in the journal’s community of volunteers, writers, and readers. references balyasnikova, n. (2020). an insider view: understanding volunteers’ experiences within a peerto-peer language learning program in vancouver’s downtown eastside. bc teal journal, 5(1), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.314 bc teal. (2021). about bc teal. retrieved from https://www.bcteal.org/about/ directory of open access journals. (2020). find open access journals and articles. retrieved from https://doaj.org/ eric. (n.d.). eric institute of education sciences. retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/ freimuth, h. (2020). are academic english words learned incidentally? a canadian case study. bc teal journal, 5(1), 32–43. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.344 gerald, j. (2020). worth the risk: towards decentring whiteness in english language teaching. bc teal journal, 5(1), 44–54. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.345 gilman, m., & norton, b. (2020). storybooks canada, english language learners, and the school curriculum. bc teal journal, 5(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.340 hernberg, s. (2020). metacognition and language learning: creating effective k–12 learners. bc teal journal, 5(1), 109–122. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hu, j., & gonzales, l. (2020). english-as-an-additional-language employees’ perspectives on writing in the workplace. bc teal journal, 5(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 landry, m. h. (2020). review of paltridge, b. & phakiti, a. (2015). research methods in applied linguistics: a practical guide, 2nd ed. london, uk: bloomsbury. bc teal journal, 5(1), 123–124. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371 maatouk, z., & payant, c. (2020). moving beyond individual peer review tasks: a collaborative written corrective feedback framework. bc teal journal, 5(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.341 mudzingwa, c. (2020). the quest for standardization: the canadian federal government and the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program. bc teal journal, 5(1), 55–74. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.347 paltridge, b., & phakiti, a. (2015). research methods in applied linguistics: a practical guide, 2nd ed. london, uk: bloomsbury academic. ulrichsweb. (2021). ulrichsweb global serials directory. retrieved from http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/ the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.392 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.314 https://www.bcteal.org/about/ https://doaj.org/ https://eric.ed.gov/ https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.344 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.345 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.340 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.341 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.347 http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.465 editorial multidisciplinary breadth: the many facets of english as an additional language teaching and learning scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan school of education) abstract this editorial celebrates the longest issue of the bc teal journal published to date, with nine articles covering 141 pages and reflecting the multiple settings and contexts of the journal’s readership. it also conceptualizes the field of english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning as the bringing together of applied linguistics and education to highlight the nexus of scholarship and practice and the positive impact this connection can make on transforming eal teaching and learning. with this understanding, the editorial describes three major themes in the current issue related to identity, additional language writing, and post-secondary eal supports. these themes, along with the journal’s growing readership and meaningful volunteer opportunities, are offered as evidence of the journal’s dedication to supporting bc teal’s mission and strengthening the field of eal teaching and learning. from the editor the association of british columbia teachers of english as an additional language (bc teal) is a big tent, with members coming from k-12 education, post-secondary institutions, private language schools, language instruction for newcomers, settlement services, and adult basic education—to name a few. the 2021 issue of the bc teal journal is the longest issue published to date, with nine peer-reviewed articles covering 141 pages of scholarship related to english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning. looking through the range of topics in this year’s issue reveals the dynamic breadth of eal teaching and learning and highlights the importance of regional organizations, such as bc teal, in maintaining scholarly journals that foster and provide an outlet for quality peer-reviewed work that might not otherwise find its way into publication. what’s more, this issue illustrates the multifaceted nature of eal teaching and learning as reflected in bc teal’s membership, with articles borrowing from an array of fields and research approaches while focusing on a variety of contexts and situations. despite the range of disciplines and settings represented in the journal, commonalities arise through these differences to point to defining traits related to the field of eal teaching and learning. one commonality is a kinship with brumfit’s (1995) broad conceptualization of applied linguistics as scholarly inquiry that takes into account the wide range of linguistic and other factors connected to practical language-related issues and draws on a variety of interdisciplinary understandings and research traditions to investigate those issues as they unfold in the real world. another commonality is an embracing of the scholar-practitioner identity, with scholarpractitioners seeing themselves as ongoing students of learning, exploring what and how to teach, supporting and being supported by their communities, articulating and strengthening their educational practice, and engaging with the intellectual life of teaching, research, and theory https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.465 douglas ii bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.465 (macintyre latta et al., 2017). thus, the disciplines of applied linguistics and education come together in the field of eal teaching and learning, and the papers in this issue of the bc teal journal live in the nexus of scholarship and practice, blurring the lines between the two to promote the free movement of knowledge and insight with the goal of positively impacting and transforming teaching and learning. the articles in the 2021 issue of the bc teal journal generally fall into three broad themes related to identity, additional language writing, and post-secondary eal supports. the first theme touches on gender, sexual orientation, race, and labour. for example, derichsweiler (2021) identified how gender issues and understandings of sexual orientation impact academic success and pointed to key considerations for planning eal lessons in k-12 settings. whiteness and english language teaching (elt) were also explored in another paper, with particular attention to disrupting power dynamics and colonial legacies in elt (mortenson, 2021). in a third paper, teacher identity was discussed in connection to employing critical pedagogy in english for academic purposes (eap) classrooms, and how the conceptualization of eap on the margins of higher education and the precarity of eap instructor employment negatively impacts the potential for using critical pedagogy with eap students (walsh marr, 2021). another theme in the current issue focuses the spotlight on additional language writing in post-secondary contexts. first of all, how instructors can help eap students overcome the cultural challenges of writing in their additional language was examined by bhowmik and chaudhuri (2021), revealing some key supports that can be implemented in the eap classroom. next, uludag, crawford, and mcdonough (2021) created a corpus of 1027 texts written by eap students and used this corpus to identify how reporting verbs are used in argumentative and cause-and-effect essays. finally, mao (2021) reoriented understandings of eal writers in postsecondary contexts away from a focus on eal writers’ perceived deficits and towards a focus on eal writers’ agency and resourcefulness when writing in their additional language. the third theme emerging from this issue relates to how to support eal learners in postsecondary contexts. surtees and yamamoto (2021) theoretically contextualized and described the creation and implementation of an online orientation module for international students new to canadian post-secondary studies, with particular attention paid to creating inclusive, accessible, and multimodal learning experiences. another paper in this issue focused on a student support centre for eap students at a canadian university and the motivations of the mostly graduate student volunteers in this centre (dobson, freimuth, & rodriques, 2021). also related to eap settings was a third paper connected to supporting eal learners and how to implement universal design for learning as a teaching framework that provides multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression (khatri, 2021). all in all, the bc teal journal remains dedicated to supporting bc teal’s mission to raise awareness, provide professional development, and share expertise in support of eal teaching excellence (bc teal, 2021). the journal’s contribution to bc teal’s mission is evident in the meaningful volunteer opportunities it offers as advisory board members, peer reviewers, and editors. it is also evident in the growing readership of its articles (over 44,000 abstract views and 27,000 downloads to date), and its unwavering commitment to the free and open access to knowledge without charges for submitting, publishing, or reading the journal’s https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.465 douglas iii bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.465 articles. as another issue of the bc teal journal closes and the editorial team looks forward to a new year of encouraging and sharing the work of scholar-practitioners who explore issues related to applied linguistics and language education, this issue is an example of what regional teaching organizations can achieve when their members come together to support the strengthening of teaching, research, and theory to grow the field eal teaching and learning. references bc teal. (2021). mission and vision. about bc teal. https://www.bcteal.org/about/ bhowmik, s., & chaudhuri, a. (2021). “i need my instructor to like sit with me”: addressing culture in l2 writing instruction. bc teal journal, 6(1), 11–28. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 brumfit, c. j. (1995). teacher professionalism and research. in g. cook & b. seidlhofer (eds.), principle and practice in applied linguistics (pp. 27–41). oxford university press. derichsweiler, s. (2021). gender-oriented topics in teaching english as an additional language. bc teal journal, 6(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 dobson, j., freimuth, h., & rodriques, i. (2021). student volunteer motivations in a student support centre for english for academic purposes students. bc teal journal, 6(1), 59– 77. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 khatri, r. (2021). universal design for learning: its application to english for academic purposes classrooms in canada. bc teal journal, 6(1), 94–105. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 macintyre latta, m., cherkowski, s., crichton, s., klassen, w., & ragoonaden, k. (2017). investing in communities of scholar-practitioners. teacher learning and professional development, 2(1), 32–47. retrieved from http://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/31 mao, j. (2021). thriving through uncertainties: the agency and resourcefulness of first-year chinese english as an additional language writers in a canadian university. bc teal journal, 6(1), 78–93. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mortenson, l. (2021). white tesol instructors’ engagement with social justice content in an eap program: teacher neutrality as a tool of white supremacy. bc teal journal, 6(1), 106–131. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 surtees, v., & yamamoto, m. (2021). creating an interactive online orientation to academic practices for international students. bc teal journal, 6(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 uludag, p., crawford, w. j., & mcdonough, k. (2021). english for academic purposes writers’ use of reporting verbs in argumentative and cause-and-effect essay exams. bc teal journal, 6(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 walsh marr, j. (2021). the promise and precarity of critical pedagogy in english for academic purposes. bc teal journal, 6(1), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.465 https://www.bcteal.org/about/ https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.373 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 http://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/31 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ douglas i bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.513 editorial carving out an epistemological space: eal teaching and learning as a field of inquiry scott roy douglas university of british columbia (okanagan school of education) abstract the bc teal journal continues to strengthen the field of english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning as a space for authors, reviewers, editors, and readers to come together in ways that underscore the knowledge creation, theory building, and educational innovation taking place in eal teaching and learning in british columbia and the wider world. taking the time to define epistemology as it relates to eal teaching and learning, this editorial outlines how the articles in the current issue of the journal support that space. there are five articles in this issue spanning post-secondary and adult contexts. with topics related to testing, teaching methods, lesson planning, comparative education, and literacy education, the value of the journal as a venue for the dissemination of new knowledge is much in evidence. from the editor with the completion of the 2022 issue of the bc teal journal, this publication continues to strengthen english as an additional language (eal) teaching and learning as a distinct and robust field of scholarly inquiry and educational research. the strength of eal teaching and learning as an academic field is evident from the thriving community of authors, reviewers, editors, and readers that have come together within these pages to grow and sustain a body of literature that underscores the knowledge creation, theory building, and educational innovation that is part and parcel of eal teaching and learning in british columbia and the wider world. thus, the journal supports the endeavour of scholar-practitioners working in this field (douglas, 2019) to carve out an epistemological space in the wider quest for human knowledge in which questions related to eal teaching and learning can be asked and answers to those questions can be pursued and shared freely with the world. epistemology refers to “the nature of knowledge and the process by which knowledge is acquired and validated” (gall, gall, & borg, 2015, p. 574). it is the study of what knowledge is, how people know what they know, what different kinds of knowledge there are, and what methods facilitate the creation of new knowledge (thomas, 2009). in the field of eal teaching and learning, the theories that arise related to how people know something, whether that knowledge is reliable, how new knowledge should be created or found, what knowledge is worth knowing, and how that knowledge is best taught connect to, amongst other things, the subject matter in the classroom, the language skills students employ, the additional language learning process students undergo, the nature of language, the craft of teaching in general, and the professional knowledge of eal teachers (crookes, 2009). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.513 douglas ii bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.513 supporting the epistemological space related to eal teaching and learning described above, the five articles in the current issue of the bc teal journal span both post-secondary and adult education contexts. in the post-secondary context, the journal articles in this issue increase what is known about testing, teaching methods, and comparative education. in terms of testing, steiger (2022) identified the benefits in-house english placement tests have over other large scale standardized tests when it comes to student success in level-appropriate english for academic purposes (eap) courses. next, shoecraft, martin, and perris (2022) found that students in the eap classroom can use comparative discourse analysis to develop their academic literacy skills. finally, corcoran, williams, and johnston (2022) examined eal teaching and learning in post-secondary settings from a broad perspective, surveying eap programs and practitioners to uncover a wide range of eap program provision and practitioner concerns across canada. in the adult education context, understandings of curriculum and materials development along with teaching methods are expanded with student success at the forefront. huang’s (2022) classroom practice article outlined an approach for teaching english for employment purposes for students with refugee experiences. included in this article is a ready-to-use lesson plan based on the article’s key ideas. rounding off the 2022 issue, penner, abbott, and lee (2022) described how eal literacy instruction informed by self-regulated learning supports can lead to successful school-based learning, such as in the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) classroom. reflecting back on the past year, the value of the bc teal journal is much in evidence. with an ever growing readership (over 60,400 abstract views since the journal started publication), a dedicated group of peer reviewers, and a devoted editorial team, the journal looks to continue welcoming readers, authors, and volunteers who care about research and scholarship related to eal teaching and learning in british columbia. references corcoran, j. n., williams, j., & johnston, k. p. (2022). english for academic purposes in canada: results from an exploratory national survey. bc teal journal, 7(1), 55–84. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 crookes, g. (2009). values, philosophies, and beliefs in tesol: making a statement. cambridge university press. douglas, s. r. (2019). scholar-practitioners contributing to the english as an additional language teaching and learning community’s knowledge resources. bc teal journal, 4(1), i–iii . https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v4i1.346 gall, m. d., gall, j. p., & borg, w. (2015). applying educational research: how to read, do, and use research to solve problems of practice (7th ed.). pearson. huang, l.-s. (2022). the stories of my life: a task-based, oral narrative lesson for employment purposes for learners with refugee backgrounds. bc teal journal, 7(1), 42–54. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 penner, t. l., abbott, m. l., & lee, k. k. (2022). scaffolding self-regulated learning for english as an additional language literacy learners. bc teal journal, 7(1), 85–97. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.513 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v4i1.346 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 douglas iii bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): i–iii https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.513 shoecraft, k., martin, j. l., & perris, g. (2022). eap learners as discourse analysts: empowering emergent multilingual students. bc teal journal, 7(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 steiger, j. (2022). placing students for success: a comparison of ielts, local, and other placement methods for english for academic purposes courses. bc teal journal, 7(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 thomas, g. (2009). how to do your research project. sage publications. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.513 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mudzingwa 55 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays the quest for standardization: the canadian federal government and the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program calisto mudzingwa abstract since the inception of the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program in 1992, the canadian federal government, through the ministry responsible for immigration, has diligently sought to bring consistency to the program through a variety of government initiatives. these include operational bulletins, curriculum guidelines, standardized placement assessments, in-class assessment procedures and protocols, standards for describing and measuring the language proficiency of adult immigrants speaking english as an additional language (eal), and a variety of other guidelines (e.g., waitlist management). this paper introduces a novel linc standardization model as a tool for describing and analyzing how the synergies of these government initiatives converge to bring consistency to the entire linc program. the model comprises four stages: a pre-entry stage, entry stage, language training stage, and exit stage. these stages represent phases an adult linc learner goes through on their linc english language learning journey. the model highlights the centrality of the canadian language benchmarks (clbs) by showing how they are the mainstay of most, if not all, of the other government initiatives. both positive and negative implications for the government’s quest for standardization are discussed. introduction there is widespread agreement among those who study settlement and integration that being able to speak the official language of the host country is critical for successful integration (ager & strang, 2008; jezak & piccardo, 2017; johns, 2011; segal & mayadas, 2005; xhelili, 2014). cognizant of this fact, in 1992, the federal ministry responsible for language training launched the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program for adult learners of english as an additional language (eal) and the cours de langue pour les immigrants au canada (clic) for learners of french as a second language (fsl)1. the overarching goal was to assist newcomers to canada to communicate in either english or french to meet their settlement needs for meaningful integration. the linc program is a massive language training program spanning all englishspeaking parts of canada. it is indisputable that, for a program of this magnitude, standardization and consistency are a challenge. the federal ministry responsible for the linc program has pledged to tackle this recalcitrant problem. speaking at the teachers of english as a second language (tesl) ontario conference in 2015, cliff fast, an integration manager with the ministry of immigration, refugees and citizenship canada, underscored the government’s commitment to standardizing the linc program: “an important priority for cic [citizenship 1 henceforth the focus will be exclusively on the linc program. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 56 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 and immigration canada] is improving standardization and nationwide consistency in the interest of delivering equitable, comparable programming nationally.” in this context, this paper describes and analyzes the federal ministry’s concerted effort to bring standardization, consistency, and regularity to the linc program. to this end, this paper introduces a novel linc standardization model that is used in this paper to examine seven major federal government initiatives pertinent to the linc program. the initiatives are a combination of curriculum guidelines, theoretical frameworks, assessment protocols and procedures, official government policies, and operational bulletins. in this paper, the term “standardization” is used interchangeably with “consistency” to mean the process of equipping things of the same type with the same basic features. significance of this paper this paper analyzes seven government initiatives introduced to date. to the best of my knowledge, available literature, including conference presentations, have focussed on one, or at most three government initiatives. admittedly, there are merits in concentrating on a single initiative or a few initiatives. however, this inevitably obscures the federal government’s robust efforts to bring standardization to all aspects of the linc program, and consequently, precludes sufficient recognition. furthermore, literature focussing on a single government initiative is often silent on standardization. examples of studies which focussed on a single initiative, namely, the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla), include the works of deystova, (2018; 2020); drew and mudzingwa (2017); fox (2014); fox and fraser (2012); holmes (2016); mohammadian haghighi (2016); mudzingwa, (2018); pettis (2014); and ripley (2013), amongst others. peirce and stewart (1997), as well as rossiter and pawlikowska-smith (1999), examined the canadian language benchmark assessment (clba). in independent studies, cray (1997) and pinet (2006) focussed on the linc curriculum guidelines. in the literature, there are a few examples that cover more than one government initiative. first, cliff fast’s presentation at the 43rd annual tesl ontario conference (2015) diverged significantly from most of the literature. focussing on ontario, fast discussed how three major federal government initiatives, namely, the national language placement and progression guidelines, the linc curriculum guidelines, and the pbla, brought consistency to the linc program. similarly, some chapters in a book edited by jezak (2018) discuss more than one government initiative. the main focus of the book is the clbs, considered paramount in the standardization of the government-funded eal adult immigrant program. the overarching goal of the book is to demonstrate how “the great efforts involved in the development of the canadian language benchmarks (clb) and the niveaux de competemce linguistique canadiens (nclc) gave birth to the highly efficient system of official language training that we know today” (jezak, 2017, p. 1). finally, a chapter by haque and valeo (2017) illustrated how the clbs bring standardization to in-class and placement assessments. on the other hand, a chapter by senior (2017) outlined the evolution and the expanding focus of the clbs. it explained how the clbs are used for placement assessment, high stakes assessment (i.e., pbla), and curriculum development. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 57 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 this paper goes beyond fast’s conference presentation and jezak’s book in several respects: first, the paper examines all the major government initiatives announced to date—seven in total. this work allows for a holistic and comprehensive examination of the synergies between the initiatives. second, the linc standardization model is introduced and used as an organizational and explanatory tool. the model illustrates the discrete but interrelated features of the linc program. it is hoped that this paper will help readers appreciate the complexity of the linc program in ways that may have so far escaped us. the birth of the linc program the linc program came into existence in 1992. in 1991, the federal government’s ministry of employment and immigration constituted an advisory board to assess the language training needs of adult immigrants. one of the top recommendations was the need for standardized language training. in response, the government created the linc program. its mandate was to provide basic language instruction to adult newcomers in both official languages, in order to facilitate and expedite the social, cultural, and economic integration of immigrants into canadian society (bettencourt et al., 2003; cleghorn, 2000; fleming, 2007; jezak, 2017; lim, siemiatycki & doucet, 2005; papillon, 2002; thomson & derwing, 2004). the program has since evolved and expanded. language training is provided in a variety of ways, such as full time, part-time, home study, distance learning, and blended learning. the progress of each student is rated and monitored based on clb level descriptors, and students are awarded a linc certificate upon successful completion of the training. before the linc program, there was no standardized curriculum, standardized in-class assessments, or standardized placement assessments tests in the teaching of adult immigrants learning eal. individual teachers catered to the needs of their learners. it would be fair to say that this was an era of unregulated adult eal teaching and learning, characterized by inconsistency and ad-hoc practice. the birth of the linc program in 1992 marked a watershed in the history of government-funded adult eal teaching in canada. it was the beginning of a move towards more formalized, standardized teaching, and assessment practices in adult eal programs across canada (barrett & bennett, 2012). over the years, the government continued to gradually but steadily introduce different initiatives to bring consistency to the entire linc program. linc standardization model to account for the government initiatives in a logical, systematic, and elegant fashion, this paper devised the novel linc standardization model. the discussion of the linc standardization model is in two sub-sections. first, i present an introduction to the model and the government initiatives, followed by a diagrammatic presentation of the model and how it works. components of the linc standardization model the proposed model comprises four stages: pre-entry stage, entry stage, language training stage, and exit stage. the stages are not arbitrary; they represent phases adult linc learners go https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 58 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 through on their english language learning journey. the model explains how standardization occurs at each stage. table 1 below presents the four stages and what occurs at each stage. table 1 the four stages of the linc standardization model linc stage what is involved pre-entry stage  eal learner goes to assessment centre to take a placement test  government initiatives focus on placements tests and waitlist management. these initiatives give guidance to assessment centres entry stage  eal learner is placed in a linc class by a language training organization (lto)  eal learner is placed on a waitlist by an lto if no vacancies are available  the government initiatives focus on waitlist management and give guidance to lto. language training stage  eal learner studies english  eal learner progresses from one clb level to the next  government initiatives focus on in-class assessments, progressing learners, and curriculum. the guidelines give guidance to ltos exit stage  eal learner leaves the linc program  government initiatives focus on the issuance of linc certificates and give guidance to ltos. below is a list of the government initiatives discussed in this paper. these fall under different stages. 1. the canadian language benchmarks (clbs) 2. the linc curriculum guidelines 3. the portfolio-based language assessment (pbla) model 4. placement assessment tests 5. national language placement and progressions guidelines 6. waitlist management and language referral guidelines 7. linc and clic certificate issuance policy the next section presents the linc standardization model, the government initiatives, and the stages. the linc standardization model the four stages and the government initiatives combine to form the proposed linc standardization model, which is used for the first time in this paper. the linc standardization model is presented in figure 1 on the next page. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 59 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 figure 1. linc standardization model save for the clbs, all the other government initiatives fall under a stage or stages. the clbs are the foundation of all the other initiatives. to capture this, they are placed at the centre of the model with thinner arrows pointing away from the clbs to the other initiatives. on the other hand, thicker arrows show the interaction between stages. the initiatives are placed under different stages and bring consistency to that stage. some initiatives fall under two stages, meaning that such initiatives bring consistency to more than a single stage. for example, the waitlist management and language referral guidelines belong to both the pre-entry stage and the entry stage. the same policy document gives guidance to different institutions, focussing on different aspects of a student’s english language learning journey. the linc standardization model allows for a systematic and elegant analysis of current and future government initiatives. for instance, in the future, if the government proposes a new initiative, it will be easy to identify the stage it falls under and how it interacts with other initiatives. furthermore, using this model, policymakers may introduce an initiative that deliberately targets a specific stage: for example, the exit stage. the model is adaptable to suit any discussion about the linc program, making it an essential and efficient tool in the purposeful representation of the program. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 60 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 the canadian language benchmarks and the four stages the clbs are discussed first because they are the pillar of all the other government initiatives. in turn, the stages and government initiatives are explored together because stages comprise initiatives. the canadian language benchmarks the clbs are the official national standard for describing, measuring, and recognizing the english-language proficiency of immigrants and prospective immigrants (hajer & kaskens, 2012; haque & valeo, 2017; pettis, 2014; senior, 2017). the clbs provide descriptions of communicative competencies and performance tasks through which the learner demonstrates the application of linguistic competence and proficiency. the clbs cover the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. the clb framework consists of twelve language benchmarks divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. the federal government first introduced the clbs in 1996, in response to a need for “reliable tools … to measure the language skills possessed by clients against standard language proficiency criteria” (rogers, 1993, p. 1) (see also, bergin, da silva, peirce, & stewart, 1996; haque & valeo, 2017). the clbs were revised twice, with published documents in 2000 and then in 2012. haque and valeo (2017) aptly summarized the evolution of the clbs by saying, “since the development of the first clb in 1996, each successive edition has identified and attempted to respond to gaps and challenges that emerged through practice” (p. 69). in short, the federal government supported the inception of the canadian language benchmarks in 1996 and the subsequent revisions of the document. the canadian language benchmarks are ubiquitous in the linc program and have had the most far-reaching effects on consistency, regularity, and standardization of the linc program. in the literature, there is unanimity that the clbs are the foundation of all the other federal government initiatives on learning, teaching, curriculum development, and assessments (hajer & kaskens, 2012; jezak & piccardo, 2018; pettis, 2014; senior, 2017). senior (2017) observed that “since 1996, they [canadian language benchmarks] have become the backbone of canada’s publicly-funded adult second-language training programs” (p. 72). in short, the clbs are the vanguard of standardization of the linc program. the four stages and the government initiatives this section discusses the four stages of the linc standardization model and the government initiatives in depth, beginning with the pre-entry stage, followed by the entry stage, language training stage, and finally the exit stage. each stage is unique and focusses on a set of different activities occurring on an individual’s english language learning journey. the pre-entry stage newcomers are assessed using the clb framework to determine their level of language proficiency for placement in the linc program. the relevant initiatives are the clbs; https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 61 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 assessment placement tests; national language placement and progressions guidelines; and waitlist management and language referrals guidelines. placement assessment tests measure an individual’s proficiency in english for appropriate placement in the linc program. the canadian language benchmarks assessment (clba), canadian language benchmarks literacy assessment, and canadian language benchmarks literacy placement tool (clb-lpt) are the most-used placement assessment tests. the canadian language benchmarks assessment and the canadian language benchmarks literacy assessment were published in 1997 in response to a lack of common standardized placement assessments. the federal government contracted the peel board of education in mississauga, ontario, in 1995 to develop clb-referenced placement assessment instruments. pierce and stewart (1997) described the development as representing “one step in a lengthy process of federal and local initiatives to establish a common framework for the description and evaluation of the language proficiency of adult newcomers to canada” (p. 17). all the placement assessment tests use clbs to measure the adult eal learners’ language abilities. hajer et al. (2012) emphasized the benefits of standardized placement assessment tests: “[all] assessments based on the clb[s] facilitate the portability of esl [english as a second language] learners’ credentials, as well as their movement between classes or programs, across provinces and territories, or between post-secondary institutions” (p. 8). the linc evaluation report (2004), for instance, stated how there are divergent opinions on which assessment tool is more effective. different provinces and different assessment centres within the same province may choose to use either the clb-lpt or the cbla. nonetheless, the implementation of placement assessments tests brought greater consistency compared to the period before. the linc evaluation report (2010) concluded that the current placement tests are effective and students are placed in the appropriate program level. teachers who participated in the survey for the linc evaluation report, for example, concurred and mentioned that very few linc students are moved to a different level in their first week or two in a class. to the teachers, this was an indication of the accuracy of the placement tests. (cic, 2010). placement and progression guidelines. the linc placement grid of 2007 and the national language placement and progression guidelines of 2013 fall under the category of placement and progression guidelines. they give instructions on the placement of learners (citizenship and immigration canada, 2013b). national placement grid. in 2007, the federal government introduced the national placement grid to standardize placement of linc students into classes based on their placement results. the national placement grid made use of clb scores achieved by a learner at the assessment centre and was used to indicate the level in which a learner should be placed. the national language placement and progression guidelines later replaced the national placement grid. the national language placement and progression guidelines. in 2013, citizenship and immigration canada and the ontario ministry of citizenship, integration, and international trade (mcit) jointly funded an initiative to revise the national placement grid of 2007. the https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 62 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 national language placement and progression guidelines give directives to ltos and linc assessment and referral centres. the document would “ensure a common understanding and interpretation of assessment results based on the canadian language benchmarks (clb), and … establish national guidelines for placement and progression in language classes” (citizenship and immigration canada, 2013a, p. 2). the guidelines provided other factors that assessors may need to take into consideration when deciding the placement of a learner. waitlist management and language referral guidelines. in february of 2006, citizenship and immigration canada issued the waitlist management and language referral guidelines document. at the pre-entry stage, the relevant section of the waitlist management and language referral guidelines is the one giving direction to linc assessment and referral centres and the directive to follow the guidelines: “settlement program funding recipients delivering language assessment … are expected [emphasis added] to apply the department’s waitlist management and language referral guidelines when … referring clients to language training classes” (ircc, 2016, p. 2). the guidelines explain that an assessment centre should issue clients a referral form, which includes clb scores achieved and the recommended clb level (class) for placement. the clients take this form to a language training organization for enrolment into a linc class. a summary of the pre-entry stage. the discussion of the pre-entry stage included the canadian language benchmarks, the placement assessment tests, the national language placement and progression guidelines, and the waitlist management and referrals guidelines. the four initiatives collectively interact to bring consistency and standardization to this stage. the discussion of the pre-entry stage is summarized in table 2 below. table 2 a summary of the pre-entry stage linc standardization model stage government initiatives pre-entry stage assessment placement tests & the canadian language benchmarks  english proficiency assessed using cbls  placement tests results reported as clb scores national language placement and progressions guidelines & the canadian language benchmarks  placement tests use clbs for placement in linc program  clb levels for placement are based on clb scores achieved by the learner waitlist management and language referrals & the canadian language benchmarks  a learner is given a referral form with clb scores and recommended clb level (class) https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 63 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 the entry stage at the entry stage, the canadian language benchmarks and the waitlist management and language referral guidelines are still relevant. the waitlist management and language referral guidelines. the waitlist management and language referral guidelines carry specific instructions for ltos regarding the registration of language learners—new students, returning students, or students transferring from other ltos. the guidelines explain how to place a learner on a waitlist in cases where seats are not available. additionally, the guidelines explain who has priority from the waitlist when a seat becomes available. further instructions are included on what to do when learners change their initial course selection; how learners can register in a course or on a course waitlist; and how to organize waitlists using either clbs or course name in the government database icare. a summary of the entry stage. waitlist management and language referral guidelines and the canadian language benchmarks are the two initiatives that directly bring consistency to the entry stage. the discussion of this section is summarized in table 3. table 3 a summary of the entry stage linc standardization model stage government initiatives entry stage waitlist management and language referrals & the canadian language benchmarks  referral card that learners take to lto have results based on clb scores guided by the national language placement and progression guidelines  referral cards have recommended clb level for placement  waitlists can be organized based on clbs  waitlist management and language referrals explains how to place learner on waitlist language training stage a variety of government-funded organizations provide language training. the progress of each client is rated and monitored based on clb descriptors. the relevant initiatives at the language training stage are the linc curriculum guidelines, the portfolio-based language assessment, the canadian language benchmarks, and the national placement and progressions guidelines. the linc curriculum guidelines. when linc was established in 1992, there was no curriculum for teachers, administrators, and ltos to use. it was an ad hoc and inconsistent practice whereby each teacher taught what they considered suitable and appropriate to meet the needs of their learners. to address this situation, in 1993, cic funded the development of linc 1–3 curriculum guidelines. the guidelines mirrored the linc levels at the time. in 1999, linc 4 and 5 curriculum guidelines referenced to clbs were developed to match the expanded linc https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 64 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 program. five years later, in 2002, linc curriculum guidelines 1–3 were merged with linc 4 and 5 curriculum guidelines. later, in 2006, linc curriculum guidelines 5–7 were developed to match the expanded linc program. the curriculum guidelines have twelve settlement themes referenced to the clbs. the design and implementation of the linc curriculum guidelines, however, did not completely solve the consistency problems. since the linc 5–7 curriculum guidelines document is not prescriptive, instructors are free to adapt and use the materials to meet the needs and goals of their learners (hajer, kaskens & stasiak, 2006, p. i). thus, content taught at the same level varies across teachers, organizations, and provinces. furthermore, the linc curriculum guidelines are “ontario-centric”—some of the content does not apply to other provinces. considering this challenge, cic’s linc evaluation report of 2010 said, “the lack of consistency across canada in the way in which linc is taught makes it much harder to create content and exit tests” (p. 62). some people who participated in the survey for the linc evaluation report, suggested that a more standardized curriculum with little room for variation would be more appropriate. on the other hand, the non-prescriptive nature of the linc curriculum guidelines is also a benefit. it allows for regional flexibility, which helps meet the varied needs of learners and the community context in which the immigrants are learning. the portfolio-based language assessment. of all the government initiatives introduced to date, pbla has likely generated the most rhetoric, polarized debates, and intransigent positions. in the literature, three schools of thought have emerged as a result. the first school of thought is pro-pbla and demonstrates its benefits, while the second school of thought is mostly critical—raising academic, philosophical, and pragmatic questions about pbla. the third school of thought is anti-pbla: they agitating for its total banishment. the centre for canadian language benchmarks (n.d.) describes the pbla as a teaching and assessment model designed to enhance nationwide consistency and standards of quality in eal training for adult newcomers to canada. the clbs are the mainstay of pbla. they are used to design teaching and learning materials, develop assessments tools, and report learners’ progress (pettis, 2014). pbla is embedded in the curricula and is an integral part of the teaching, learning, and assessment cycle. the pbla was born out of the need for standardized in-class assessment practices and protocols. several studies have underlined the inconsistency and ad hoc nature of in-class assessments in the linc program at the time (cic, 2004, 2010; makosky, 2008; nagy & stewart 2009; singh & blakey, 2012). when introducing pbla as the sole authorized assessment method for the linc program, cic clearly stated that “pbla is being introduced to address the need for a standardized in-class language assessment protocol in linc and clic” (cic, 2013b, p. 1). in 2011, cic successfully piloted pbla in ottawa, edmonton, moncton, st. john, and fredericton. pbla was later introduced nationally in 2013. before its introduction, using the train-the-trainer model, cic funded the training of pbla lead teachers, who train and support other linc instructors in the implementation of pbla. beaulieu and le thiec (2017) said, “training instructors to use pbla is a vital step in implementing the portfolio and ensuring https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 65 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 standardized practices” (p. 97). furthermore, the centre for canadian language benchmarks (n.d.) provided criteria and guidelines for creating assessments and on giving action-oriented feedback. teachers are also trained on how to review portfolios to determine a learner’s progress. literature highlighting the benefits of pbla includes the works of mudzingwa (2016); drew and mudzingwa (2018); jezak, (2017); o’shea, (2017); senior (2017). senior (2017) called pbla “a major initiative that will change the face of adult esl training in canada” (p. 80). however, works that critically question the benefits of pbla to teachers, students, and the linc program include desyatova (2018, 2020), abbot (2019), fox (2014), ripley (2013), and mohammadian haghighi (2016). abbot (2019), like fox (2014), contended that pbla is not a standardized assessment approach and, in its current format, cannot be evaluated using conventional psychometric methods. as elaborated by abbot (2019), the inconsistencies include the actual pbla tasks, the time allotted to complete tasks, the amount of help students receive, the scoring, and the evaluation criteria. there has also been a huge outcry against pbla, with the contention that it is a “dramatic increase in teacher workload” (desyatova, 2018, p. 43). abbot (2019) made a similar observation, emphasizing that pbla brought “onerous workload for instructors” (p. 9). such observations are frequent in the literature, for instance in fox and fraser (2012), mohammadian haghighi (2016), and ripley (2018). the major contention is how the workload is not commensurate with the remuneration and working conditions of most instructors. furthermore, there are reports of teachers feeling overwhelmed by the demands of pbla, and consequently, believing that pbla is adversely impacting their classroom practices (desyatova, 2018, 2020; fox, 2014; mohammadian haghighi, 2013; ripley, 2013, 2018). in addition, works calling for the outright ban of plba include vanderveen (2018) and (lachini, 2017). lachini (2017) reported of a petition that called for the immediate halting of pbla. deystova (2020) mentioned that the petition “signals persistent exclusion of teachers as engaged and capable stakeholders, relegating them to an unquestioning group at the bottom of pbla implementation hierarchy” (p. 47). despite the challenges raised in the literature, it is irrefutable that the introduction of pbla was a milestone in the linc program, particularly with the constant and continuous training and support on how to implement it. national language placement and progression guidelines. the national language placement and progression guidelines document informs assessors on how to assign benchmarks after the placement assessment tests (the pre-entry stage). the same document “is intended for instructors and coordinators in cic funded language training programs, to ensure a common understanding and interpretation of assessment results based on the canadian language benchmarks (clb)” (citizenship and immigration canada, 2013a, p. 2). the document provides strict guidelines, to ltos, on how to progress learners from one level to the next. a summary of the language training stage. the linc curriculum guidelines, the portfolio-based language assessment, the canadian language benchmarks, and the national placement and progressions guidelines together bring consistency and regularity to the language training stage. these initiatives inform teachers and linc administrators on how to interpret the achieved pbla assessment scores. equally important, these initiatives guide https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 66 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 teachers and linc administrators on how to progress learners to the next level. table 4, presented below, sums up the discussion of the language training stage. table 4 a summary of the language training stage linc standardization model stage government initiatives language training stage linc curriculum guidelines& the canadian language benchmarks  level outcomes taken directly from clbs  theoretical framework of guidelines same as that of clbs portfolio-based language assessment & the canadian language benchmarks  clbs used to determine teaching materials  clb-aligned assessments used to assess learners  learners progress measured using clbs and promoted to the next level national language placement and progressions guidelines and the canadian language benchmarks  formula for progressing students between classes is based on clbs  explains how class levels are organized in accordance with clb scale the exit stage the exit stage is when learners leave the program for whatever reasons. linc and the clic certificate issuance policy, the canadian language benchmarks, and the waitlist management and language referral guidelines are relevant to the exit stage. linc and clic certificate issuance policy. in february 2017, immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (ircc), then cic, issued operational bulletin 472-a, updating ircc staff and linc/clic service providers on the issuance of linc/clic certificates. the bulletin was revised in march 2018. it underscored how linc certificates had become high stakes: “the issuance of standard certificates takes on even greater importance as the department accepts linc and clic certificates as proof of language ability for citizenship purposes” (ircc, 2018, n.p.). cognizant of this, ircc gave strict guidelines on the issuance of linc certificates. the operational bulletin (ircc, 2018) specifies the criteria to be met by ltos for eligibility to issue linc certificates. first, the lto should be delivering the linc program. second, the lto should only accept learners who have taken a clb-based placement assessment from an authorized assessment centre. third, the assessment centre should follow the national language placement and progression guidelines. finally, the lto should use pbla for teaching and inclass assessment. linc certificates are issued to learners at the end of a progress reporting period, with results reported as clbs. the clb scores are established after reviewing the collected assessment (evidence) in the learners’ portfolios. the bulletin is clear that placement results and the clb levels not addressed in a class cannot be used for the issuance of a linc certificate. a https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 67 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 learner has to demonstrate proficiency using evidence in the portfolio in order to be issued a linc certificate. waitlist management and language referral guidelines. the waitlist management and language referral guidelines were shown to be relevant at the pre-entry stage and entry stage, and now at the exit stage. the waitlist management and language referral guidelines carry specific instructions on transfers across ltos, and the mandatory compliance to these guidelines by all ltos. a summary of the exit stage. the relevant initiatives at this stage are the linc and clic certificate issuance policy, the canadian language benchmarks, and the waitlist management and language referral guidelines. they collectively bring consistency to the exit stage. table 5 below summarizes the discussion of the exit stage. table 5 a summary of the exit stage linc standardization model stage government initiatives exit stage issuance of linc and clic certificate & the clbs  learners are given a linc certificate with clb scores they achieved  operation bulletin together with pbla protocols gives guidance on how to assign clbs waitlist management and language referral guidelines  guidelines on how to refer a learner from one lto to another in the literature, there are calls for the introduction of standardized exit tests, similar to the placement assessment tests given to clients before they enter the linc program (see preentry stage). the linc evaluation report of 2010 echoed this view: “one design flaw is the lack of progress and exit tests” (cic, 2010, p. 62). the argument for standardized exit tests is that they would adequately gauge the extent to which linc learners are acquiring language skills in english. british columbia a discussion of the federal government initiatives would not be complete without acknowledging the role played by provinces, service providers, and other stakeholders. in british columbia, for example, service providers and other stakeholders have a long history of seeking consistency in adult immigrant eal training. for instance, linc net emerged from grassroots beginnings in 1992 on the lower mainland, and provided a sector-driven opportunity for providers of linc to work together cooperatively. the organization later changed to elsa net, or english language services for adults network, then to language instruction support and training network (listn). “elsa net has evolved to play a key role in establishing standards, policies and guidelines [emphasis added] for the sector, and in the on-going development of the capacity of the sector to deliver high-quality settlement language services” (elsa net, 2012, p. 5). elsa https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 68 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 net was committed to the standardization and consistency of the linc program, and it produced the comprehensive elsa operational policy guidelines. in 2014, the document was revised by the bc-linc guidelines committee “to better reflect a linc delivery environment” (elsa net, 2012, p. 5). fast forward to 2018, when the bc linc guidelines committee produced the bc linc guidelines under affiliation of multicultural societies and service agencies (amssa). amssa took over the responsibilities of (listn), the successor of elsa net. the bc linc guidelines cover aspects such as eligibility, progressing students, exiting students from linc, and attendance. issues such as attendance are not covered by the federal government’s initiatives and are unique to the bc guidelines. such initiatives illustrate how the provinces’ guidelines complement those of the federal government. in 2011, elsa net launched the elsa curriculum guidelines, which were unique to bc. these were influenced by the national linc curriculum guidelines (see language training stage) and made use of the clbs. to this day, some organizations in bc are still using the elsa curriculum guidelines. the citizenship and immigration canada report of 2010 found mixed opinions on the balance between the federal government’s standardization of the linc program and the need for regional flexibility. some participants believed that the federal government should provide a consistent policy direction and the regions should have flexibility in program delivery to accommodate provincial priorities and community needs. in contrast, others thought that too much flexibility would result in too much variation across regions. implications and consequences of standardization the consequences and implications of the government’s quest for standardization of the linc program warrant discussion. first, there is a risk that the introduction of so many government initiatives may obscure the centrality of the clbs, especially with the rhetoric around pbla. some teachers and administrators may lose sight of how the clbs are the cornerstone of pbla. obfuscating the importance of the clbs has adverse consequences for the practical implementation of pbla, and in turn, for the consistency and reliability of in-class assessments. the portfolio as an assessment method has failed to shrug off the perennial tag of lacking standardization. in addition, it is still dogged by problems of validity, reliability, and subjectivity; some scholars still view it as a non-scientific assessment method (brookhart 2008; gillespie, ford, gillespie, & leavell, 1996; hamp-lyons, & condon, 2000; shavelson, klein, & benjamin, 2009; sweygers et al., 2009). the pbla, which is a portfolio, is not immune to this kind of criticism. this then begs the question: did the advent of pbla bring in a new kind of inconsistency? the question is legitimate and calls for empirical studies. abbot (2019), for instance, mentioned how “there is limited empirical evidence to support the appropriateness of pbla results for such high-stakes accountability purposes” (p. 3). foremost, ircc could examine the consistency of assessments across teachers, service providers, and provinces. considering how linc certificates are now high stakes, this is a matter the government cannot afford to postpone or ignore. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 69 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 the sustainability of pbla is an issue that has already attracted the attention of scholars. holmes (2016) introduced a model of sustainability and proffered the following recommendation: as we move forward, sustainability of pbla initiative will be key, but will require ongoing support for professional learning and classroom resources, development of agreed-upon standards and moderation sessions to ensure consistent application of these standards, and initiation of research to measure the impact of pbla. (p. 122) the million-dollar question is whether the government is prepared to provide the necessary funding and resources critical for the sustainability of pbla. in the literature, there are conflicting views on whether imposing a standard curriculum is beneficial or not. for instance, pinet (2006) found that the clb framework does not significantly restrict teachers’ autonomy in curricular planning (see also, fleming, 1998). in contrast, haque and cray (2010) found that if curriculum guidelines leave too much room for interpretation, this may lead to confusion. given these divergent views on curriculum development, there is need for research so that ircc makes an informed decision. it is indisputable that the linc program is employing a significant number of eal teachers nationally. based on anecdotal evidence, these teachers often join linc service providers directly from tesl teacher education programs with zero-to-minimal knowledge of the linc program, the clbs, and pbla. often, these teachers are thrown into the classroom with little or minimal pbla training, and this may negatively impact the implementation of pbla. to better prepare newly qualified teachers, the government and other stakeholders could include a comprehensive course on the linc program, canadian language benchmarks, and pbla as part of the eal teacher education curriculum—even as an elective. as briefly mentioned under the section portfolio-based language assessment, (language training stage), there is a lack of consistency in the working conditions, salaries, and welfare of linc instructors. haque and valeo (2017) observed, “survey data with teachers of esl to adults, however, have shown enormous [emphasis added] variation in working contexts and conditions, including full-time unionized positions and part-time contact positions” (p. 61). if not addressed, these disparities may lead to disgruntlement, and consequently, have adverse effects on classroom practice. critical literature on different features of the linc program, particularly pbla, have shown how the effort to standardize the linc program and the actual impact may be divorced, demonstrating that the task of standardization encounters a variety of obstacles. appreciating the importance of these obstacles and the critiques of standardization does not undermine the value of studying standardization of the linc program. on the contrary, this appreciation enriches it and underscores the complex dynamics associated with the standardization of an equally complex language training program. indeed, there is a need for further research that would improve the linc program. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 mudzingwa 70 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 conclusion the implementation of the linc program in 1992 was the initial step towards formalized standardized teaching and assessment practices in the federally funded linc program. over the years, the government continued to gradually, but consistently, introduce policies and procedures to standardize different aspects of the linc program. this paper introduced for the first time, the linc standardization model, which was used to describe and analyze these government policies and procedures these included curriculum guidelines; procedures for better coordination among service providers; standardization of tests and certification procedures; and greater consistency to in-class language assessment. it would be naïve to see the move towards standardization of the linc program as the singular sustained effort of the federal government. provincial governments, scholars, instructors, ltos, and all other non-government stakeholders, deserve credit for their unwavering commitment to the process. in conclusion, notwithstanding the challenges cited in this paper and elsewhere, the federal government has made commendable progress towards the standardization of the linc program; the march towards standardization should continue—ad infinitum. acknowledgements i would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. i would also like to thank kamurai mudzingwa for the robust conversations about the linc standardization model. lastly, i am grateful to shingirai makaye; mufaro mudzingwa; and tavonga mudzingwa, for encouraging me to continue working on this paper until its publication. references abbott, m. l. 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(2005). assessment of issues facing immigrant and refugee families. child welfare, 84(5), 563–578. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 https://open.library.ubc.ca/circle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0340525 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/264 https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/264 https://unbscholar.lib.unb.ca/islandora/object/unbscholar%3a9079 http://rcrpp.ca/documents/17243_en.pdf https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v24i1.25 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v14i2.683 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v16i2.717 https://www.bcteal.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/teal-news-winter-2018-final-2.pdf https://www.bcteal.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/teal-news-winter-2018-final-2.pdf https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v30i1.1126 https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/16/limitations-portfolios https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/16/limitations-portfolios mudzingwa 74 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 55–74 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 senior, a. (2017). teaching and assessment: using the clb in a range of contexts under the stewardship of the centre for canadian language benchmarks. in m. jezak (ed.), language is key: canadian language benchmark model (pp.71–88). ottawa, on: university of ottawa press. singh, d., & blakely, g. (2012). federal and provincial policy initiatives–linc and clic: looking back, looking forward. international settlement canada special issue on settlement language training, 7–11. sweygers, a., soetewey, k., meeus, w., struyf, e., & pieters, b. (2009). portfolios for prior learning assessment: caught between diversity and standardization. the journal of continuing higher education, 57(2), 92–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/07377360902978194 taborek, e. (1993, fall-winter). the national working group on language benchmarks. tesl toronto newsletter, 93–94. thomson, r. i., & derwing, t. m. (2004). presenting canadian values in linc: the roles of textbooks and teachers. tesl canada journal, 21(2), 17–33. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v21i2.172 toronto catholic district school board (tcdsb). (2002). linc 1 5 curriculum guidelines tcdsb. retrieved from http://settlement.org/downloads/linc/lcg1to5/overview.pdf. toronto catholic district school board (tcdsb). (1999). the linc 4 & 5 curriculum guidelines: a computer-integrated curriculum based on canadian language benchmarks 4–6. toronto, on: tcdsb vanderveen, t. (2018). the nature and impact of portfolio-based language assessment (pbla). contact magazine, 5–11. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed591438.pdf xhelili, l. (2014). the key to integration? a study of language as a policy strategy for social integration of immigrants in sweden (unpublished master’s thesis). lup student papers, lund university. retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4448217 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/347 https://doi.org/10.1080/07377360902978194 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v21i2.172 http://settlement.org/downloads/linc/lcg1to5/overview.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed591438.pdf http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4448217 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ devos 53 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 comparing first-term students’ english language proficiency at a canadian polytechnic institute nathan j. devos british columbia institute of technology abstract canadian post-secondary classrooms are linguistically diverse. this diversity comes from immigration, more access to higher education for marginalized and minority groups, and international student recruitment. an institute’s language prerequisites serve as tools to help admissions decide who is linguistically prepared for study in english. despite these language prerequisites, some students still need support with their language development to succeed in intense, two-year diploma programs at polytechnic institutes. the objective of this study, therefore, was to explore first-term students’ language proficiency and compare differences based on language and education variables. the long-term goal of the project is to create local language diagnostics to identify and support students during their diploma programs. participants were recruited from four different programs at a large polytechnic institute in western canada. reading, writing, and vocabulary tests were accompanied by a 15-item survey about language and education backgrounds. in total, 437 first-term students participated in the tests and survey. the results suggest that there are statistically significant differences between the first -term participants with an english background and those who do not have an english background. in addition, the range of scores on the tests is wider for participants with non-english backgrounds. i conclude that this range cannot be captured by language prerequisites pre-admissions. with locally developed, post-admission language assessments, diploma-crediting institutes could identify students at the lower end of the range and allocate necessary resources to provide them with early and individual language support so that they can succeed in their programs. background canadian post-secondary classrooms are increasingly linguistically diverse. this diversity reflects canada’s already multicultural society. canada’s pluralistic society alone gives reason for multicultural, multinational, and multilingual post-secondary classrooms, filled with domestic students who have rich and complex language backgrounds, facilitated by waves of immigration over the decades (fox & artemeva, 2017). in addition, higher education has become more accessible to minority and marginalized groups (read, 2016). in canada, for instance, federal and provincial governments are funding post-secondary institutes to better support aboriginal students, students in government care, and students with accessibility challenges so they can attend and graduate with higher education credentials.1 finally, international student recruitment has grown almost 120% from 2010 to 2017 (icef monitor, 2018). by the end of 2017, almost half a million international students were enrolled in institutions and schools across canada. these factors have led to richly diverse language differences in post-secondary classrooms; 1 however, whether these broad support programs can have the right effect is debatable. fox and artemeva (2017), for instance, have reservations about the generic nature of academic success programs and writing centres. meanwhile, gallop and bastien (2016) question the success of programs for aboriginal students in canadian postsecondary institutes. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 54 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 however, this linguistic diversity, which should be treated as a major asset to internationalization and globalization, is blanketed by one major issue—the language of instruction is strictly english. as a result, canadian post-secondary institutes largely require applicants to meet english language prerequisites to confirm that they have the language abilities essential to take on the demands of higher education in english. mostly, post-secondary institutes look for academic achievements and credentials met at various levels of education or scores reached on global standardized tests. these requirements provide evidence of some background of education in english; however, education background, such as the number of years a non-native speaker spends in an english-speaking high school or studying for a standardized test, may not provide enough evidence about stages of language proficiency development. read (2016) states that despite second language (l2) students meeting language prerequisites, institutes still cannot assume all students entering post-secondary programs are “adequately prepared to cope with the language and literacy demands of degree studies through the medium of english” (p. 4). evidence for this can be found, for example, in fox (2005). fox investigated whether the time l2 students spend in an english-medium high school makes a difference in academic achievement in the first years of post-secondary. she found that only about 15% of the students who had spent three, four, or five years in an english-medium high school were on track to meet minimum post-secondary standards. she concludes, therefore, that language residency requirements should be revisited as a prerequisite for post-secondary admission. furthermore, murray (2018) points out that many students still struggle with language despite meeting entry requirements on standardized tests. he argues that gatekeeping tests such as ielts and toefl “are being misused in that entry thresholds are being set too low, or that the tests are not really measuring what they need to be measuring or are only measuring part of what they need to measure” (p. 6). this may be in part because to achieve desired test scores, some students engage in short yet intense bouts of language learning of the four main skills so they can successfully achieve minimum bands commonly required for undergraduate study (e.g., ielts 6.0) (mueller, 2015). however, short and intense test preparation does not foster the larger, more holistic task of long-term language proficiency development and preparation for post-secondary instruction in english. rather, substantial and intense input and output is needed for learners to not only traverse through the early stages of acquisition (buyl & housen, 2015; pienemann, 1998), but also to allow students to gain linguistic competence through “interaction and engagement with genres and registers through which content knowledge is expressed” (llinares, morton, & whittaker, 2012, p. 17). this gaining of competence includes acquiring the basic vocabulary and grammar needed to engage with technical content, spontaneously conversing within the social and learning space of a post-secondary institution, expressing complex thoughts and ideas in writing, and focusing on advanced levels of academic literacy (llinares, morton, & whittaker, 2012). in sum, education background prerequisites such as test scores, years in an english-speaking high school, or credit points from a previous post-secondary institute may not be good indicators of the range https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 55 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 of language abilities that students bring to the classrooms, nor are they good predictors of academic success for post-secondary study. to understand students’ language abilities in english, it may be beneficial to explore their language backgrounds. research in second language acquisition (sla) has shown that individual learner differences affect the rate and pathway of language development (lightbown & spada, 2013). variables such as age of initial language acquisition, length of stay in the target language country, first language (l1), and language upbringing are all factors that have been rigorously explored in language research (bifuh-ambe, 2011). for instance, research shows that somewhere between the ages of 6 and 17 people slowly lose the ability to learn a n l2 implicitly (dekeyser, 2000; hartshorne, tenenbaum, & pinker, 2018). the quality and quantity of language input and output are important during this “critical period” if native-like proficiency is the ultimate goal. although the number of years spent in a target-language country is not linear to higher levels of language proficiency, the length of stay in a target language country can also be a factor in the acquisition of basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) (cummins, 1981). the length of stay may prepare students in their bics, while their exposure, language training, as well as quality and quantity of input and output can prepare students for their calp, which is considered important for success in academic situations (baker, 2011; lyster, 2007). the age of initial arrival, motivation, and aptitude are also confounding variables that effect increased language proficiency, especially in adult learners (dekeyser, alfi-shabtay, & ravid, 2010). finally, l1 background and confidence in the language of instruction are likely important factors for students’ post-secondary success (bifuh-ambe, 2011). l1 exposure influences l2 abilities as learners “draw on the patterns of other languages they know as they try to discover the complexities of the new language they are learning” (lightbown & spada, 2013, p. 57), while telbis, helgeson, and kingsbury (2014) note that international students who are high in their language confidence are also high in their confidence to complete their program. clément, baker, and macintyre (2003) also suggest that language confidence is connected to how willingly and frequently people use the language. understanding language backgrounds may, therefore, provide valuable insights into how to best support students who are struggling to meet post-secondary standards. local, post-entry language diagnostics may be the institute’s best early indicator of the range of first-term students’ language abilities. research on early alert in higher education suggests that student support services should begin within the first three weeks and up to six weeks into the semester (hanover research, 2014). however, instructors often first notice students who are at the most risk of falling behind or failing because of their language skills later than this period of time. support for post-entry diagnostic assessment comes from fox, haggarty, and artemeva (2016), who suggest: the global movement of students, the linguistic and cultural diversity of university classrooms, and mounting concerns about retention and program completion have prompted the increased use of post-entry diagnostic assessment, which identifies students at risk and provides them with academic support. (p. 43) https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 56 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 it should be made clear that the purpose of post-admission language assessment should be to function as a local test that provides an early alert for those students who may be in danger of struggling or failing in their programs. fox, von randow, and volkov (2016) agree: there has been a dramatic increase in the use of post-entry diagnostic assessment to identify entering, undergraduate students at-risk and provide concomitant targeted supplementary learning support early enough in their initial university studies to prevent initial failure and foster academic success. (p. 267) ginther and yan (2017) similarly note that “as entry-level language proficiency requirements fall, requirements for post-entry language proficiency testing and enrollment in eap language support programs tend to increase” (p. 278). the diversity of canadian society and the multiple pathways into post-secondary programs suggest that testing all incoming students is necessary. read (2016) recommends testing all incoming students because social diversity does not provide clear lines between “domestic” and “international” or “native speakers” and “non-native speakers,” thus assessing students post-admissions based on these divisions is problematic and may be discriminatory. knoch, elder, and o’hagan (2016) additionally argue that as access to higher education increases, students who may, based on pre-entry student records, be considered “domestic” students from either english or non-english backgrounds “may also be linguistically at risk in their academic study—even more so in some cases than their international counterparts” (p. 24). therefore, any local post-admission language testing should include all enrolled students, without inclusion or exclusion criteria. the purpose of the present research project, therefore, was to assess all first-term students’ english language proficiency and investigate to what extent polytechnic students’ education and language backgrounds affected the differences in their test scores. the goals were to explore the diversity of the language and education backgrounds of first -term students and determine the range of abilities on four different language tests and if there were significant differences between students based on these variables. because of the growing diversity and multiple pathways to meet language prerequisites at polytechnic institutes, research about the general english language proficiency of first-term students post-admission can provide empirical insights into language differences and range of abilities. using a tailored instrument to assess all students regardless of their residency status, this study sought to contribute more empirical evidence to discussions around language abilities, standards, and thresholds at the institute. the long-term goal of this project was to initiate the first phase of a language diagnostic and support model so students who may struggle academically can be identified early and properly assisted during the course of their studies. the research questions addressed in the present study are: 1. how diverse are first-term students at a polytechnic institute in their language and education backgrounds? 2. what differences exist in general english reading, writing, and vocabulary between groups of first-term students based on their language and education backgrounds? https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 57 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 data collection took place in the first two weeks of september 2018, during the students’ orientation week. the institute’s research ethics board also approved this study in october 2017. the study setting the polytechnic institute where this study took place is on the west coast of canada. in 20162017, 18,755 full-time day school students were enrolled in its programs, with 15,039 students enrolled at the campus where the research took place. full-time students are registered in four different areas: technology, trades and technical studies, technology degrees, or apprenticeships. four programs from four different schools participated in the study: financial management (finman), which includes finance, financial planning, and accounting, as well as risk and insurance management; electrical and computer engineering technology (ecet); architectural and building technology (abt); and computer systems technology (cst). these programs were chosen because they are relatively large programs (their first-term population size was about 770 students), they represent four different areas of study, and they had a representative overall percentage of international enrolment (18%).2 in 2016-2017, 1,092 international students had enrolled in full-time programs at the institute. fifty-two percent of the international students study in the school of business, 11% in the school of computing & academic studies, and 16% in the school of construction & the environment. in 2017, 51% of the first-term students had enrolled at the institute within one year of high school graduation. participants this study recruited from all first-term students in the four abovementioned programs. that is, there were no inclusion or exclusion criteria. for the purpose of the study, i avoided tagging participants with preconceived labels of residency status, language background, prerequisites met, and so on. this was based on the assumption that student records can only provide limited information about factors that influence students’ language abilities and because there are no clear lines between ‘domestic’ and ‘international’ in terms of their language learning levels or abilities. methods this study took a descriptive, cross-sectional approach to investigate the proficiency of first-term students after they had been admitted into a program. following a psychometric tradition, this 2 the population size and percentage of international students are based on the target numbers by program from august 2017. eighteen percent international student enrolment is 2% above the average total of international firstterm enrollment and 1% above province-wide estimation of international students in post-secondary schools (statistics canada, 2016). however, due to estimated growth across the province and at the institute, 18% may now be below these averages. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 58 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 quantitative study aimed to test the influence of different variables on language test scores (nunan & bailey, 2009). that is, this study sought to investigate whether language background or past education had a stronger impact on the language test scores of first-term students at a polytechnic institute. instruments to survey and test the general english proficiency of the study participants, an online test and survey was created and hosted by the institute’s learning management system (lms). this software provided quiz functions that were combined to create a four-part general language proficiency test. the test included four areas: reading (30 cloze items), writing (two open tasks), vocabulary (100 multiple-choice items), and grammar (24 correct/incorrect items).3 participants were allowed 15 minutes for reading, 45 minutes for writing, 30 minutes of vocabulary, and five minutes for grammar. in addition, a 15-item survey was embedded as a surveymonkey® weblink at the end of the test to collect data on the participants’ language and education backgrounds. survey. participants completed a 15-item survey asking them about their language and education backgrounds. this survey helped answer the first research question: “how diverse are first-term students in their language and education backgrounds?” reading test. to test reading comprehension, tailored cloze tests were developed for each of the individual programs. tailored tests for each program ensured that the reading passages were at participants’ expected proficiency and maturity levels, as well as of interest to them (brown, 2014; grabe, 2009). cloze tests for measuring reading ability have been used for both native speakers and non-native speakers and are able to measure reading abilities on both a sentential and intersentential level, overall meaning, or grammatical sensitivity, depending on which words have been deleted from the passage (alderson, 2000; trace, brown, janssen, & kozhevnikova, 2017; brown, 1993). developing the tests consisted of following brown’s (2013) steps for developing tailored cloze tests and piloting five different versions with first-term students the previous semester. item analyses of each version using classic test theory helped to identify the best functioning items. that is, items that showed the best item facility and discrimination for the certain blank in the passage were kept. the chosen blanks included between 30-40% content words and 60-70% function words in each test (chae & shin, 2015). furthermore, a tukey comparison of means showed no significant difference between the final versions of the tests in their development. the final versions for each of the four programs contained 30 items. items were analyzed for internal reliability using both classic test theory and item response theory (irt). guttman’s l2 showed ≥0.7, while an item analysis using rasch modelling showed item reliability scores of ≥0.93.4 writing tasks. two constructed-response writing tasks were developed by a focus group of faculty members based on the idea of functional adequacy (kuiken & vedder, 2016). kuiken 3 implicit grammar knowledge was also originally tested, but the test was low in inner reliability (kr-20 < .40) and will not be discussed in this paper. 4 for validation of the reading tests, reading scores were correlated with vst scores, indicating a significant relationship (r = 0.595, p < .001). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 59 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 and vedder (2016) define functional adequacy as the successful fulfillment of the task as interpreted by the reader. they understand “functionally adequate” as being dependent on the task the writer has been given and how well the reader has received the writer’s message. in their words, “the adequacy of the message transmitted by writer a is understood and interpreted by reader b with respect to the quantity, relation, manner, and quality of the message by a” (kuiken & vedder, 2016, p. 323). therefore, the emphasis is not on language use per se, but rather on the function of the written message. this approach aligned with first-term expectations at the institute as students’ writing tasks are largely technical, business, or workplace writing assignments, which focus on “getting the job done” and “clear and concise communication.” to rate these two tasks, the focus group amended kuiken and vedder’s (2016) analytic rating scale to include six elements that were scored between 0 (incomplete) to 5 (very good).5 by using a multiple trait rating scale, i sought to collect more detailed information for each of the features of the tasks (eckes, mueller-karabil, & zimmerman, 2016; fulcher & davidson, 2007). to reduce the risk of drawing general conclusions about the writing abilities of the respondents, two authentic writing tasks from different genres were developed (eckes, muellerkarabil, & zimmerman, 2016). the first task was a persuasive writing task that involved writing a blog post to peers about balancing a healthy lifestyle while engaging in the rigours of postsecondary study. the situation was a real-world scenario based on the institute’s own blog that allows students to share their experiences with their peers. expectations for the blog were collected from the blog’s editor at the institute, making the task feel as “real world” as possible. this task required participants to write at least 250 words in 25 minutes. the second task was an informational task and asked participants to write an email to a fictitious boss, describing and commenting on two charts that presented the gender pay gap in canada and western provinces. these charts were created based on numbers from a 2017 statistics canada report (statistics canada, 2017). participants were asked to write at least 150 words in 20 minutes. to score the written responses, four non-language expert raters were hired. non-language expert raters were chosen because of the focus on the functional adequacy and not language use per se. according to kuiken and vedder (2014), language expert raters may rate writing samples that focus on functional adequacy too hard or too easy. in addition, to reduce negative rater effects outlined by eckes, mueller-karabil, and zimmerman (2016), such as leniency, central tendency, halo, or rater bias, raters were trained over a four-week period using piloted responses and the rating scales. during the marking process, efforts were taken to ensure that responses contained no identifying, biographical information. scoring of the final responses involved a three-step process: 1. two raters and the principal researcher followed a “divide and conquer” approach (j. fox, personal communication, august 8, 2018). groups of writing samples were categorized into: at-risk, average, and excellent. this was done holistically as a sorting and ranking procedure (fulcher & davidson, 2007). if any responses were not agreed upon, then these were openly discussed until 100% interrater agreement was met. 2. two raters individually scored each response using the functional adequacy rating scale. 3. the parity model was used to operationalize the scores (johnson, penny, gordon, & fisher, 2005). 5 the rating scale for the persuasive task can be found in appendix a. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 60 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 spearman was applied to measure how close the raters ranked the written responses. the results showed high levels of reliability between the raters (≥ 0.8, p < .05). vocabulary size. to test vocabulary size, nation’s monolingual vocabulary size test (vst) version a was used. this test version is available on his website and can be used for testing and research purposes (https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation#vocabtests). the vst can be used to measure both l1 and l2 speakers’ written receptive knowledge (elgort & coxhead, 2016). the vst contains 100 multiple-choice questions that include the presentation of the word (i.e., the stem), plus the word used in a sentence so that the test -taker knows how the word can be used in context; this is followed by four possible answers, one correct and three distractors (coxhead, nation, & sim, 2015). a reliability analysis of the 100 items showed cronbach’s 0.91 and mcdonald’s 0.91. criticism of this test includes its development from corpora that may not be ideal for developing learners (pinchbeck, 2016). in addition, the word frequencies that the test is based on come from the bnc / coca, so some words may not be familiar to a canadian test-taker. also, the word frequencies do not provide a good measure of word difficulty, as high frequency words may be more difficult than low frequency words. finally, because the vst is a test of written receptive vocabulary size, it can only give us a rough estimate about the test-taker’s reading skills. it also does not tell us if or how well a test-taker could use these words in speaking or writing (nation & beglar, 2007). further testing and development is undergoing to address these issues for future projects. analysis the survey results were collected in surveymonkey® and exported as ms excel files for analysis. the survey results were analyzed for frequencies and proportions. the reading and vocabulary parts of the test were collected and scored automatically by the lms, whereas the writing samples were extracted from the lms to be scored by the raters. all the test results were compiled in ms excel tables for data validation, clean up, and filtering. once these tables were completed, test results were entered into minitab 18 for descriptive and inferential statistical analyses and winsteps for rasch analysis. to compare differences of means between two factors, independent samples t tests were run. to compare differences of multiple means, one-way anova was applied. when assumptions for parametric tests to compare means were not met, nonparametric equivalent tests were used. either cohen’s d after t tests or omega squared () after anova were used to test the strength of association between the variables. omega squared is considered by some as a more conservative measure than partial eta squared (ŋ2) when measuring effect sizes for anova (grace-martin, 2019). for t tests, plonsky and oswald’s (2014) suggestion for interpreting the between group effect size of cohen’s d in language testing research were used: 0.40 (small effect), 0.70 (medium effect), 1.00 (large effect). to explain the range of test scores, the interquartile range (iqr) and standard deviations (sd) were analyzed. the iqr represents the middle 50% of the collected data and shows a larger https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation#vocab-tests https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation#vocab-tests devos 61 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 or smaller range in test scores relative to its size. additionally, the sd explains to what extent the scores of a group differ on average from the central tendency (i.e., the average) (green, 2013). results survey results in total, information from 437 participants was collected through a survey. the number of participants from each program is displayed in table 1. table 1 participants by program program n financial management 199 architectural and building technology 98 electrical and computer engineering technology 72 computer systems technology 68 language background. to answer the first research question, participants were asked about their language and education backgrounds. language confidence. the survey asked participants to choose which language they were most confident in at the time of the testing. survey questions that ask students about their first language, native language, or mother tongue can lead to confusion or misunderstanding. therefore, by asking participants to choose the language they felt most confident using, i hoped to mitigate misunderstandings of first, second, native, and mother tongue language acquisition because i had no opportunity to follow up on the responses (dornyei, 2003). seventy-three percent of the participants (n = 319) responded that they were most confident using english, whereas 27% (n = 118) responded that they were most confident in a language other than english. the survey uncovered 22 different languages in which participants were most confident. the top four most frequent languages other than english included mandarin (25%), korean (22%), vietnamese (13%), and cantonese (7%). age of initial english acquisition and language upbringing. to get an idea of language upbringing, participants were surveyed on whether their parents or guardians had spoken english with them since infancy and at what age they started learning english. the survey results showed that 55% of the participants had spoken english to at least one of their parents or guardians since they were babies, while 40% said that they had not. the remaining 5% responded with “i don’t know.” in addition, 62% of the participants began learning english between birth and five years old, 32% started learning english between 6 and 17 years old, and the remaining 5% began learning english after the age of 17. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 62 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 number of years in canada. the survey asked participants for how many years they had lived in canada. the majority of the respondents had spent 11 or more years in canada (65%). eleven percent had spent between 5 and 10 years in canada. meanwhile, 24% of the respondents had spent 4 or fewer years in canada. education background. participants were also asked about their education background. three areas were of particular interest because they related to different pathways students can take to gain entry into the institute: taking a standardized language test, years spent in an english-medium high school, and previous attendance at a post-secondary institute. standardized language tests. most of the participants (75%) had not taken a standardized language test (e.g., toefl, cael, ielts, pte, etc.). of the 17% (n = 75) who had written a standardized language test, 55% had written an ielts test, 7% had written toefl (ibt), and another 7% had written cael. the remaining participants fell in the category “other” because they specified english 12 or provincial 12 as being a standardized language test. this group was not considered in subsequent analyses. a follow-up question for participants who had taken a test was how long ago it had been since they had written the test. sixty-seven percent said it was less than one year ago, 29% said they had taken the test 1-2 years ago, and 4% had taken it 3-6 years ago. years in english-speaking high school. when asked about how much time they had spent at an english-speaking high school, 39% of the participants (n = 173) had spent five or more years in high school, 26% spent five years in an english-speaking high school, and 19% spent 3–4 years in an english-speaking high school. on the other hand, 5% spent only 1–2 years in an english-speaking high school and 10% spent less than one year or no time at an englishspeaking high school. in addition, when asked about where they received their english 12 prerequisites to gain entry to the institute, 69% said from a public high school in the province. private high schools represented 7% of the responses, while international colleges within the province received 4% of the responses. institutions outside the province, either public, private, or international, made up 6% of the total responses. the remaining 15% of the respondents responded with either “none” or “other.” previous post-secondary experience. a possible language prerequisite at the institute includes transferring credits from language-related courses (e.g., anthropology, law, english literature, psychology, etc.) taken at other post-secondary schools; therefore, the survey asked participants about whether they had previous experience as post-secondary institutes. almost half (49%) of the participants had not previously attended a post-secondary institute, whereas 44% had attended one post-secondary institute before taking the survey. six percent of the respondents had attended two post-secondary institutes and the remaining 1% had attended three prior to starting at the institute. of those participants who had previously attended post-secondary (n = 257), 30% had been to the two largest universities in the province, and 55% had been to other institutes across the province. another 9% had attended post-secondary elsewhere in canada, and 6% had been to post-secondary outside of canada. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 63 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 test results the following sections present the results of the tests organized by the variables identified in the survey. these results are divided into two main categories: language background variables and education background variables. the categories were created to answer the second research question: “what differences exist in reading, writing, and vocabulary proficiency between groups of first-term students based on their language and education backgrounds?” the results are presented in percentages and in mean scores for each of the three tests. age of initial english acquisition and language upbringing. in this section, two factors related to language upbringing will be presented: having english spoken to the participants since infancy and age of initial english acquisition. the reason for looking at the latter as a variable comes from research that suggests age of initial acquisition is a robust factor in how l2s are learned. figure 1 illustrates the results when looking at the first factor: the age of initial english acquisition. figure 1. comparison of test scores by age of initial english acquisition figure 1 shows that there is a statistically significant difference between participants who began learning english between birth and five years old and the other two groups. three one-way anovas resulted in the following: reading f(2, 409) = 35.69, p < .001; writing f(2, 403) = 37.90, p < .001; vocabulary f(2, 402) = 68.57, p < .001. however, the tukey pairwise comparison showed that there was no significant difference between the reading scores of the after 17-year-old group and the between 6 and 17 year-old group (p > .05). the difference was also not as significant between these two groups in the vocabulary scores (p = .03). on the other hand, the post hoc comparison showed that there were statistically significant differences between all the groups in the writing scores (p < .001). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 64 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 furthermore, the effect of age of initial english acquisition was the largest between the vocabulary scores (= .25), suggesting that participants’ initial age of english acquisition impacts their vocabulary size more than the other two measures (figure 1). however, the effect size is still considered large in reading and writing. it is of interest to also look at the range of scores within these groups. to do this, i looked at the iqr and sd. these often provide a simple yet reliable way to identify which groups showed a wider range of results than others. table 2 illustrates how the iqr is smaller in each of the tests for the birth to 5 year-old group, suggesting a tighter range around the average for the group. although this is the largest of the groups (reading, n = 256), the iqr is still smaller than the other two groups. as the table shows, the range and iqr are larger for the other two groups, suggesting a wider range of scores on the tests. table 2 interquartile range and standard deviations by age of initial acquisition test age of acquisition n m sd iqr reading from birth to 5 years old 256 60.38% 16.66 23.33 between 6-17 years old 134 46.94% 19.21 30 after 17 years old 22 37.69% 22 30.8 writing from birth to 5 years old 255 62.92% 12.38 15 between 6-17 years old 132 54.22% 14.62 23.13 after 17 years old 19 40% 18.91 35.83 vocabulary from birth to 5 years old 251 72.54% 9.4 11 between 6-17 years old 132 59.65% 13.21 20 after 17 years old 22 53.14% 12.67 17 in particular, the sd in the vocabulary and writing tests jump from the birth to 5 year -old group to the between 6 and 17 year-old group. this increase in the sd underscores the different range of abilities between these two groups. in addition to age of acquisition, i analyzed the test scores between the group of students who responded “yes” to having one parent or guardian speak english to them since birth and those who responded “no” to this item. the results of this analysis are illustrated in figure 2. independent samples t tests showed that the differences between the test scores are statistically significant: reading t(299) = -6.79, p < .001; writing t(297) = -5.61, p < .001; vocabulary t(277) = -9.43, p < .001. using cohen’s d to measure the effect sizes, it is again the vocabulary scores that were most effected by whether or not the participant had been spoken to in english since infancy. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 65 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 figure 2. comparison of test scores by english with parents the “no” group also displayed a larger range of scores in all three tests, suggested by the larger iqr and sd. for instance, the iqr of the “yes” group in their vocabulary was only 12.25, whereas it was 20 for the “no” group. the writing scores also showed much different iqr, 8.5 for the “yes” group and 14.5 for the “no” group. the difference between the groups’ sd is also displayed in figure 3. figure 3. line plot of standard deviations of test scores by english with parents number of years in canada. in this study, participants were divided into three groups based on their number of years in canada: 11+ years, 5–10 years, and ≤4 years. the test results of these three groups are presented in figure 4. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 66 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 figure 4. comparison of test scores by number of years in canada the results of the one-way anovas for each test showed a statistically significant difference between the 11+ years group and the other two groups in all the tests: reading f(2, 409) = 39.09, p < .001, writing f(2, 402) = 25.50, p < .001, vocabulary f(2, 401) = 81.10, p < .001. the post hoc pairwise comparison, however, indicated no statistically significant difference between the means of the test scores of the other two groups. the probability values for the post hoc t tests between these groups were: reading (p = .595), writing (p = .706), and vocabulary (p = .730). looking at the iqr to examine the range of the scores within these groups, we again observe wider ranges in the groups that have been in canada for 10 or fewer years (figures 5–7). the dispersion from the central tendency is the tightest for the vocabulary scores for the 11+ with an iqr of 10 versus the 5–10 year group with an iqr of 23. figure 5. boxplot of reading scores by number of years in canada 11+ years5-10 years≤4 years 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 number of years in canada r e a d in g boxplot of reading https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 67 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 figure 6. boxplot of writing scores by number of years in canada figure 7. boxplot of vocabulary scores by number of years in canada the sd also tell us about the range of test-takers’ abilities, and the differences between these are clearly observed in the line plot found in figure 8. figure 8. line plot of standard deviations by number of years in canada 11+ years5-10 years≤4 years 60 50 40 30 20 10 number of years in canada w ri ti n g boxplot of writing 11+ years5-10 years≤4 years 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 number of years in canada v o c a b u la ry boxplot of vocabulary https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 68 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 in sum, there is a statistically significant difference between participants who had lived in canada for 11+ years and those who had been in canada for 10 or fewer years. however, there was no statistical difference between the average scores if the participant had spent 5–10 years or 4 or fewer years in canada. furthermore, the range of scores is much larger in the 5–10 year group and the 4 or fewer group. this again suggests a wider range of abilities within these groups of participants. language confidence. for the purpose of this study, i considered the question of language confidence synonymous to the participant’s preferred l1. i avoided asking participants for their l1, native language, or mother tongue because i expected these to be complex and may have undergone dynamic change in the participants’ lives. the majority of the participants (56%) reported in the survey that they could read and write in two or more languages. this perhaps confirms the approach to ask for language confidence because sometimes bi and trilinguals have difficulties deciding which language is their “first” language or “native” language (baker, 2011). asking for language confidence also provides information about how linguistically prepared participants feel before begin their post-secondary careers. i compared the scores on the language tests between those students who felt most confident using english (the language of instruction) against those who reported feeling most confident in languages other than english (figure 9). figure 9. comparison of test scores by language confidence the results of independent samples t tests also showed the statistically significant difference between these two groups: reading t(177) = 9.53, p <.001, vocabulary t(158) = 13.00, p <.001, writing t(160) = 7.96, p <.001. as seen in the previous analyses, the largest effect size can be found between the vocabulary scores (d = 1.53), which is considered a very large effect size. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 69 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 similar to the other results, the boxplots found in figures 10-12 show a clear difference in the range of scores between the two groups. the differences in the ranges were most noticeable between the vocabulary and writing scores. figure 10. boxplot of reading scores by language confidence figure 11. boxplot of vocabulary by language confidence otherenglish 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 english or other r e a d in g boxplot of reading otherenglish 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 english or other v o c a b u la ry boxplot of vocabulary https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 70 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 figure 12. boxplot of vocabulary scores by language confidence the increased dispersion from the mean is also visible in the line plot displayed in figure 13. figure 13. line plot of standard deviations by language confidence the increase in sd in the vocabulary and writing scores underscore the results shown in the above boxplots and provide additional evidence for the range of abilities between the test-takers who felt confident in a language other than english. education background this project also compared the participants’ education backgrounds based on their responses to the survey. the following sections present the results of comparisons between: participation in standardized language tests or not, number of years in an english-speaking high school, and previous attendance at a post-secondary institute. noteworthy are the smaller effect sizes of these variables on the differences between the scores in comparison to the language background variables as well as the range differences between groups, which look different from the results of the previous sections. otherenglish 60 50 40 30 20 10 english or other w ri ti n g boxplot of writing https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 71 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 standardized language tests. as a possible language prerequisite to attend the polytechnic institute, participants can use their scores on a number of accredited global language tests such as ielts, toefl, cael, and pte. these tests are considered gatekeeping tests as the test taker must achieve a certain minimum score in order to gain entry into an institute and a program. the programs in the current study required a minimum of english 12 (67%), which was considered equivalent to: ielts 6.5 (overall score), toefl 86 (overall score), cael 70 (overall band score), 60 (minimum on all subsets), pte 60 (overall score). only one of the participating programs implemented a “competitive entry” process that ranked the averages of the applicants’ math and english scores, taking the most qualified applicants based on this ranking. in the following analysis, all the participants in the “yes” group have scored equal to or above the minimums on whatever test they took. a comparison of the test scores between those participants who had taken a standardized test and those who had not can be seen in figure 14. the results of the t tests to test for significance show that the difference is the most substantial between the groups in their vocabulary scores: t(106) = 5.36, p < .001. the difference is less significant in reading, t(106) = 3.22, p < .05, and writing, t(125) = 2.84, p < .05, however. because of the large difference in the group sizes, a nonparametric equivalent of the t test was run (i.e., mann-whitney u) and showed that the difference between the medians was significant in vocabulary (p < .001) but less significant in writing (p = .005) and reading (p = .014). the effect sizes of the reading (d = .23) and writing (d = .34) scores are small, while the effect on the vocabulary score (d = .71) is medium. figure 14. comparison of test scores by participation in standardized language tests https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 72 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 an analysis of the ranges of the groups indicates that in particular the sd between the groups are closer than the sd in the language background variables (see table 2, for example). these results are displayed in table 3. table 3 descriptive statistics of language test scores by participation in standardized language tests variable test n m sd median range iqr reading no 311 56.30% 18.65 56.60% 89.9 23.3 yes 68 49.31% 21.1 49.93% 86.57 35.8 writing no 302 60.13% 14.29 63.33% 79.17 16.67 yes 67 55.05% 14.15 57.50% 65 21.67 vocabulary no 305 68.26% 12.17 70% 72 14.5 yes 68 59.84% 14 61% 55 20.75 the more similar sd suggest that the groups’ average distances do not disperse as far from the means as when i looked at the other language background variables. this might suggest that the standardized language test variable does not show as clearly the range of abilities as the language background variables. number of years in english-speaking high school. the english requirements at the institute consist of completing two years of full-time education in english in an english-speaking high school and english 12. in this study, i undertook two steps while analyzing the participants’ test scores and the number of years they had spent in an english-speaking high school. first, i used descriptive statistics to calculate the means of all participants based on the number of years they had spent at an english-speaking high school. the results are presented in figure 15. figure 15. line plot of mean test scores by number of years in an english-speaking high school multiple one-way anovas indicated that the differences between these scores were also significantly different (p < .001). the pairwise comparison showed that the differences were https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 73 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 most significant between the >5 year and 5-year group and the no time and <1 year group (p ≤ .001). an analysis of the sd found the largest dispersion from the means in the <1 year, 1 -2 years, and 3-4 years groups (figure 16). the higher the sd the larger the range of scores in the group. this range in abilities was also reflected in an analysis of the iqr. figure 16. line plot of standard deviations by years in an english-speaking high school the iqr were the highest for the 1–2 years (iqr = 33) and 3–4 years (iqr = 37) groups in reading, which compared to the 5-years group (iqr = 20). in writing, the no time (iqr = 23) and the <1 year (iqr = 25) differed the most from the 5 year group (iqr = 14). meanwhile, in vocabulary, the <1-year group (iqr = 19) and the 3–4 year group (iqr = 18) showed the widest range of abilities, which compared to the 5 year group that had an iqr of only 9. the second analysis of these groups involved looking at the differences in scores between non-english background participants who had chosen a language other than english as their most confident, had spent 5 or fewer years in an english-speaking high school, and lived in canada for 10 or fewer years. to analyze the results from these remaining students, a nonparametric equivalent of the one-way anova was used, the kruskal-wallis test. the results presented in table 4 show that there are no significant differences in the test scores regardless of the number of years the participant had spent in an english-speaking high school. table 4 kruskal-wallis test of difference between non-english background participants based on number of years in an english-speaking high school test df h p reading (n = 92) 4 2.60 .626 writing (n = 88) 4 5.46 .243 vocabulary (n = 81) 4 5.93 .204 these findings support the abovementioned study by fox (2005) in which she investigated the academic performance of l2 students in a canadian university based on the amount of time they had attended english-medium high schools. she found that there was no https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 74 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 significant difference in academic performance between l2 students who had spent three, four, or five years at english-medium high schools. in this study, i only investigate the performance on language tests based on years in an english-speaking high school; however, the results are similar in that they suggest that the increased number of years do not improve participants’ scores on the language tests. previous post-secondary experience. the final analysis of education background included whether or not participants had previously attended a post-secondary institute before beginning their program at the polytechnic. a possible language prerequisite for participants includes them showing the successful completion of three credits in an english, humanities, or social science related course. the applicant must receive the equivalent of 67% in that course when the program requirement is 67% in english 12. in the analysis, i looked at those students who had previously attended a post-secondary and those who had not. the null hypothesis was that there would be no statistically significant difference between the test scores. the results of this analysis are displayed in figure 17. the independent samples t tests showed that, for the reading and vocabulary tests, i had to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. that is, there were statistically significant differences between the reading and vocabulary test scores based on whether or not the participant had previously attended a post-secondary institution. the results of the independent samples t tests were as follows: reading t(383) = -5.34, p < .001; vocabulary t(383), p < .001. however, i accepted the null hypothesis for the writing test scores, as the difference was not statistically significant: writing t(380) = -1.63, p = .104. comparing to the previous variables, the effect sizes for each of these tests are much smaller, suggesting that previous post secondary experience has a relatively small effect on the differences between the scores. figure 17. comparison of test scores by previous post-secondary experience https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 75 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 regarding the range of scores in the test between the groups, the sd show minimal difference, as illustrated in figure 18. figure 18. line plot of standard deviations by previous post-secondary experience the iqr of the groups also do not display the same differences that were observed when looking at language background variables. for example, the iqr for the reading scores was 26.63 for “no previous attendance” and 25 for “yes previous attendance.” the largest difference between iqr was in the writing scores, with the “no previous attendance” (iqr = 20.52) and “yes previous attendance” (iqr = 17.92). discussion the first-term participants in the current study are linguistically diverse and have complex language backgrounds, making it difficult to use dichotomous labels such as “international” or “domestic” to define who the english language learners (ells)6 are and who are not. most institutes use residency status to define “international” versus “domestic” students. however, the participants’ age of initial english acquisition, whether or not their parents had spoken english with them since infancy, their length of stay, years in an english-speaking high school, and their language confidence are all complexities that are not captured by this status. many participants in this study may have been defined at an admissions level as “domestic” students. in fact, the target average international enrolment for the participating programs was 18%, but the percentage of participants who identified a language other than english as their most confident was 27%. when looking at their language test results, some of these students could, therefore, be considered ells and benefit from additional language support. this underscores the notion that there are no clear lines between “international” and “english language learner,” so these terms cannot be used synonymously. the number of languages (n = 22) uncovered in this study is also noteworthy. from 118 participants, 21 languages other than english were identified. for a traditionally technical and trades institute, this language diversity is comparable to that of larger universities in canada. for 6 a definition of ells is: “[s]tudents who are learning the language of instruction at the same time as they are learning the curriculum and developing a full range of literacy skills” (ontario ministry of education, 2009, p. 2). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 76 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 instance, fox (2005) reported 43 different languages other than english in first-year programs in a study of 265 participants at carleton university, while mcdonough, neumann, and hubertsmith (2018) cited 30 different languages in a study of 409 participants in an eap program at concordia university. having a linguistically heterogeneous student population is, on the one hand, a positive indication of internationalization and globalization that adds value to the diversification of the institute; on the other hand, it can be a daunting task for educators as each student with a different language background other than english has a different trajectory in their language progress as l1 transfer helps or hinders their development at different stages (ellis, 2008; jarvis, 2015). for instructors who know little about language development, stark language differences between their students may be confusing or frustrating. educating content instructors through professional development workshops about language development and individual learner differences may help stem these frustrations from being projected back on the language learner. the second research question in this study was about whether or not there were differences between groups of students on the tests. the findings suggest that there are statistically significant differences between students using a variety of language and education background variables. naturally, limitations to the testing instruments exist as they only tested a small number of subskills and the test did not include important skills such as speaking and listening. also, the sample group was self-selected because participation in the study was voluntary, meaning any particular group may be underrepresented (dornyei, 2003). responses about demographic information could also not be corroborated by admissions because the institute does not collect data on the language backgrounds of its students (golder, reeder, & fleming, 2011). nevertheless, the purpose of the project was to provide some empirical evidence about first-term students’ language proficiency, in part, to counteract or confirm anecdotal evidence at the institute about students’ abilities to use english. for instance, i did confirm that there are significant differences between students who are confident in english and those who are confident in another language, but there were no differences between the foreign languages themselves. it may also come as a surprise to some that a post-secondary student who has successfully gained entry into a program and spent 5–10 years living in canada might still score at the same level on a language test as a student who has spent 4 or fewer years in canada. because language learning is not a perfectly linear process but rather a winding journey that is psychological, cognitive, and social, the pathway to language learning may come easy for some but be seemingly never-ending for others. the correlation between length of stay in a country and language development is not necessarily a strong one (bifuh-ambe, 2011). knowing that the acquisition of bics takes two to three years, and calps takes five to seven years to acquire (cummins, 1981; roessingh, 2006), then some lower level students will likely not get close to the language levels of their native-speaking counterparts during their two-year diploma programs. unlike longer degree programs, any language gaps become particularly magnified during intense two-year diploma programs where there is little opportunity for students to focus on the form and function of language, which is required if language development is to take place in the context of purposeful learning (lucas, villegas, & freedson, 2008; lightbown & spada, 2013). https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 77 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 the results also suggest that language prerequisites cannot capture the range of language abilities students bring to their first-term programs. in the present study, this became obvious when looking at the language background variables yet became weaker when looking at the variables related to language prerequisites. this suggests that the differences that instructors experience in the classroom can be better explained by the students’ language upbringing, age of initial english acquisition, language confidence, and length of stay than by whether or not they fulfilled language prerequisites or their status as “international” or “domestic” students. for example, large global proficiency tests may provide information about general academic proficiency, but as they are first-past-the-post measures, especially when only overall scores and not subskills are considered, they only inform admissions about applicants’ levels of general academic proficiency. in fact, using tests that have prepared students for general academic proficiency may be even less adequate measures for technical institutes where business, technical, and other workplace writing skills are required. knoch and macqueen (2017) posit: it could therefore be argued that these tests [ielts and toefl] are only suitable to make predictions about university study but not beyond to possible performance in the workplace. any use of tests beyond the purpose they were designed for casts serious doubt on the validity of the score-based interpretations made based on the assessment. (p. 294) this argument is underscored by the range of abilities found in the writing and reading tests, which were tailored to the expectations for workplace communication. in sum, technical and trades institutes should have a special interest in developing local tests that reflect the actual workplace language needs of the students (knoch & macqueen, 2017). looking forward, groups who had english backgrounds had smaller sd and iqr on the tests, suggesting that their scores clustered more tightly around the average. on the other hand, groups that had non-english background showed much higher sd and iqr in reading, writing, and vocabulary, suggesting that they had a much wider range of abilities. as a result, a small portion of this latter group fell far below the overall group averages. when i calculated the overall proportion of students who fell one sd or more below the group average on each of the tests, i identified about 14% (n = 70) in the vocabulary test, 19% (n = 90) in the reading tests, and 17% (n = 75) in the writing test. a follow-up study is underway to investigate whether or not these groups are actually at risk of failing, dropping out, or repeating in their programs. the range of scores highlights the need to look at students’ language abilities with more local tests that are tailored to the expectations of the institute. implications students who do not have an english upbringing are expected to meet language prerequisites before entering post-secondary institutes in canada. many students invest resources into meeting these prerequisites, and they, and the institutes, believe they are starting their studies with the linguistic competency needed to succeed. however, there are statistically significant differences in english language proficiency between students with an english background and those who do not. as a result, some students in this study lagged far behind their english-speaking peers in writing, vocabulary, and reading skills. therefore, if institutes could improve local, posthttps://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 78 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 admission assessment screening and diagnostic tools to identify these students both fairly and early, then essential resources could be properly allocated to them and they can receive the support they need to succeed academically. regardless of the accuracy and specificity of locally created diagnostic tools, any language support model must be directly coupled with the specific needs of the learners. a precise and individual support model may be worth pursuing. for instance, similar to “precision medicine” in healthcare (timmerman, 2013), a “precision language education” model could seek to customize language teaching to individual students in short yet intense diploma programs. this model could include options of: small-group tutorials, one-on-one advising, online modules, peer learning, and others. the selection of these methods would be based on not only the students’ language learning profile, including consideration of their language and cultural background, but also on the needs of their specific programs (e.g., esp and esap). doing this might vastly improve ell’s success and learning experience in diploma programs. acknowledgements this project was supported by bcit’s institute research funds and the professional development committee in socas. i would like to thank the research assistants, jessica wang, katie conconi, and serianna schroh, for their tireless efforts. also, i would like to acknowledge all my great colleagues who graciously volunteered their time. references alderson, j. c. 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https://xconomy.com/national/2013/02/04/whats-in-a-name-a-lot-when-it-comes-to-precision-medicine/ https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532215623581 devos 82 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 appendix a: rating scale: persuasive task (adapted from kuiken & vedder, 2016) content: is the number of information units provided in the text adequate and are they relevant? 0 1 2 3 4 5 zero relevant information units are included or they’re included but have no connection to healthy living. only 1-2 somewhat relevant information units are included and the examples are somewhat relevant. 1 information unit and the examples have to do with the healthy living. 2 different information units are included and the examples have to do with the healthy living. 3 different information units are included in the response and all the examples have to do with the healthy living. more than 3 different information units are included in the response and all the examples have to do with healthy living. persuasion: to what extent has the message been persuasive? 0 1 2 3 4 5 the message is not persuasive. the reader is not convinced by any of the writer’s suggestions for a healthy lifestyle. the message is barely persuasive. the reader is only just convinced that any of the writer’s suggestions for a healthy lifestyle would be helpful. the message is somewhat persuasive. the reader is somewhat convinced by some of the writer’s suggestions for a healthy lifestyle. the message is mostly persuasive. the reader is mostly convinced by some of the writer’s suggestions for a healthy lifestyle. the message is persuasive. the reader is convinced by the writer’s suggestions for a healthy lifestyle. the message is very persuasive. the reader is completely convinced by all of the writer’s suggestions for a healthy lifestyle. genre: how many elements of a blog post has the author used to make it successful? 0 1 2 3 4 5 the response reads like anything but a blog post (e.g., academic writing, high school essay, text message, etc.) the response doesn’t really read like a blog post to peers because it doesn’t include any of the following elements: (1) speaks from the writer’s point of view, (2) shares personal life events, (3) talks about your dayto-day activities, (4) invites comments from others. the response reads somewhat like a blog post to peers because it includes similar elements to: (1) speaks from the writer’s point of view, (2) shares personal life events, (3) talks about your dayto-day activities, (4) invites comments from others. the response reads like a blog post to peers because it includes one or two elements of: (1) speaks from the writer’s point of view, (2) shares personal life events, (3) talks about your day-to-day activities, (4) invites comments from others. the response reads like a blog post to peers because it includes three elements of: (1) speaks from the writer’s point of view, (2) shares personal life events, (3) talks about your day-today activities, (4) invites comments from others. the response really reads like a blog post to peers because it includes all four elements: (1) speaks from the writer’s point of view, (2) shares personal life events, (3) talks about your dayto-day activities, (4) invites comments from others. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 devos 83 bc teal journal volume 4 number 1 (2019): 53–83 retrieved from https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 tone: how well does the message match the feeling that’s required for a blog post? 0 1 2 3 4 5 the blog post is far from feeling honest, positive, and/or not appropriate for 0000’s website. the blog post somehow doesn’t feel honest, positive, and/or not suitable for 0000’s website. the blog post feels somewhat honest, positive, and not suitable for 0000’s website. the blog post feels mostly honest, positive, and suitable for 0000’s website. the blog post feels honest, positive, and professional for 0000’s website. the blog post feels very honest, positive, and professional for 0000’s website. comprehensibility: how much effort is required to understand the text’s purpose and ideas? 0 1 2 3 4 5 the response is not at all comprehensible. ideas are unclearly stated and you can’t understand large parts despite your efforts. the response is barely comprehensible. the message is not clear and you struggle to understand the writer’s ideas. the response is somewhat comprehensible. multiple parts are hard to understand at a first reading because of sentence structure, grammar, and/or spelling errors. the response is comprehensible. some parts might need to be read twice because of sentence structure, grammar, and/or spelling errors the response is easily comprehensible and reads fluently. some parts may be unclear but are understood without too much effort. the response is very easily comprehensible and interesting to read. you only need to read the message once and do not need to reread any sentences for understanding. cohesion: how well has the author linked ideas together using a mix of phrases and words? 0 1 2 3 4 5 the message is not cohesive and ideas are not linked together at all. no transitional phrases, words, or conjunctions are used, and ideas seem completely unrelated. the message is barely cohesive and only uses simple transition words to link ideas together (e.g., “and” , “but”) ideas are not well linked by transitional words, phrases, or conjunctions; these are rarely used. the message is somewhat cohesive and links a couple of sentences in the blog post. some transitional words are used, but they are mostly conjunctions. the message is cohesive and links a few sentences in the blog post. it is limited in its use of transitional phrases, parallelism, transitional words, conjunctions, and sequence words to connect sentences. the message is cohesive and links sentences together in parts of the blog post. it uses transitional phrases, parallelism, transitional words, conjunctions, and sequence words to connect sentences. the message is very cohesive by linking sentences and paragraphs together throughout the whole blog post. it uses any number of transitional phrases, parallelism, transitional words, conjunctions, and sequence words to connect sentences. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the authors. https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bctj/article/view/335 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ hernberg 109 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays metacognition and language learning: creating effective k–12 learners stacey hernberg university of calgary abstract in british columbia’s k–12 schools, five years of funded english language learning support is frequently not enough to help english language learners fully develop their english language proficiency. this critical analysis examines the literature on metacognition and language learning to find practical metacognitive instructional features to equip students who are learning english as an additional language with the awareness and the strategies they need to effectively further develop their academic language. by analyzing and synthesizing the literature, it is clear that several models of metacognition have been developed. yet, there is still a need for a fuller model to be developed, thus helping educators better understand how metacognitive instruction can be implemented. furthermore, little research can be found on metacognitive instruction with k–12 language learners. therefore, theme analysis for effective features of metacognitive instruction with post-secondary language learners was used to uncover the most useful characteristics which might prove promising for k–12 students in british columbia. the result is the identification of four features of effective metacognitive instruction that could be used in conjunction with a proposed fuller model of metacognition in language learning. introduction it generally takes a language learner six months to two years to develop their basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) or social language, and then it takes at least another five years, often more, to build their cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) or academic language and structures (e.g. cummins & early, 2015). in british columbia’s (b.c.) public schools, the provincial government provides funding for auxiliary english language learning (ell) services to qualifying students for up to five years (british columbia ministry of education, 2018). therefore, ell support frequently ends before students finish developing their calp. for those who have a strong aptitude for language learning and/or access to additional support this is not a significant issue. for other students who struggle with language learning and lack access to support beyond the classroom, it can mean years of academic challenges and reduced educational opportunities. there is strong evidence that metacognitive instruction can improve language learning performance (e.g. raoofi, chan, mukundan & rashid, 2013). furthermore, the use of metacognitive strategies for language learning “can lead to more profound learning and improved performance, especially among learners who are struggling” (anderson, 2002, p. 3). although research on the role of metacognition in language learning spans four decades (e.g. flavell, 1979; goh, 2019), there are gaps in the literature that need to be addressed. first, a fuller model of the role of metacognition in language learning needs to be developed to help educators better understand it. secondly, research on metacognitive instruction with k–12 ell students is https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 110 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 sparse and needs more attention. as a result, this inquiry reviews the literature on the topic and proposes a fuller metacognition model based on the work of several prominent scholars. it also identifies four metacognitive instructional features that research suggests would be effective with k–12 ell students in b.c. complications with calp and ell cummins was the first to use the term cognitive academic language proficiency (calp), using it to refer to “the dimension of language proficiency which is strongly related to overall cognitive and academic skills” (1979, p.2). calp is the intersection between language proficiency with cognitive and memory skills, and it is a “major determinant of educational progress” (cummins, 1980, p. 178). many of the ell students in b.c.’s k–12 public schools start their language learning in the early primary grades. some of these students stop using their first language by their intermediate years, and those who continue using it at home may not have opportunities to develop their calp in it (roessingh & elgie, 2009). because calp proficiencies in both first and additional languages have been found to stem from the same underlying dimension, younger learners whose calp is not well developed in their first language will take longer to build their additional language calp (cummins, 1979; 1980). thus, many early-entry ells will take longer than five years to develop their calp in english to a level as high as is required for academic success and the opportunities provided by that success. since the number of ell students in b.c. schools that qualify for language learning support has been increasing for decades (british columbia teachers’ federation, 2019), this is an issue that is pertinent for a growing number of students in the province. although the bics/calp framework is subject to criticism, it provides consistent and familiar terminology among scholars and practitioners. critics of this theory have purported that the distinction between the two measures has “created an artificial and arbitrarily delineated dichotomy” (rolstad & macswan, 2008, p. 63). auckerman (2007) explained that this distinction may not be useful for young ells because it may cause assumptions that they are not ready to learn. flores (2020) argued that this type of framework can cause educators to view students from some communities as linguistically deficient. other critics also view this framework as a deficit theory (rolstad & macswan, 2008). it is not the intention of this inquiry to view ells as deficient, but rather understand how they can be empowered to have the same educational success and opportunities as those who demonstrate strong academic language proficiency. not acknowledging the learning needs of ells could result in those needs being overlooked. some of the alternative terms put forward for avoiding deficit implications underscore just how valuable metacognition can be for ells and their asset of knowing two or more languages. for example, auckerman (2007) suggested using the term recontextualization, which refers to using what children already know to build their language knowledge. indeed, when a student knows two or more languages, metacognition can help make them aware of their understanding of these languages and allow them to capitalize on it. flores (2020) proposed the term language architecture as an alternative framework that encourages appreciation that language learners “are able to manipulate language for specific purposes” (p. 25). this term also corresponds well with the use of metacognition in language learning as it highlights the need for https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 111 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 students to work with their knowledge consciously. however, calp and academic language are the terms that educators are most familiar with in practice. the bics/calp framework also allows educators to assess their students for where they are in developing their language proficiency. using this framework for assessment is a significant component of understanding how ell support can empower students. regardless of terminology, ell students must learn the necessary skills to become effective language learners throughout their educational journey so that they can access academic opportunities that they may desire. by understanding the role that metacognition plays in a higher level of language proficiency, like calp, educators might determine how metacognitive instruction could help these learners exercise some personal agency in the further development of their additional language proficiency. the link between metacognition and language proficiency metacognition, or the ability to think about one’s thinking, plays an essential role in language learning (anderson, 2002; flavell, 1979). the literature on metacognition suggests that it helps learners take control of their learning by allowing them to make conscious decisions to maximize their learning opportunities. there are three types of evidence that metacognition plays a critical role in the development of academic language proficiency. one type of evidence is research that explores the characteristics of “good language learners,” or learners that demonstrate a particular aptitude for learning new languages. this research finds these learners demonstrate strong metacognitive knowledge and use of metacognitive strategies (alghamdi, 2016; hong-nam & leavell, 2007; nazri, yunus & nazri, 2016; rubin, 1975; wang, spencer & xing, 2009). the second type of evidence is the literature that explores what strategies are used by learners with different levels of language proficiency. several studies in this area demonstrate that high levels of language proficiency, which is part of calp, are associated with greater use of metacognitive awareness and strategies as well as more variety in their use (al-alwan, asassfeh & al-shboul, 2013; li, 2007; mutar, 2018). the third type of evidence can be found is studies that demonstrate correlations between language skills and use of metacognitive strategies. these studies provide evidence that the use of metacognitive strategies is strongly and positively correlated with the language skills of calp (phakiti, 2003; purpa, 1998; setiyadi, mahpul, sukirlan & rahman, 2016, teng & chan, 2008; vandergrift, 1997). table 1 on the next page highlights the findings of these three types of research. some drawbacks to this argument should be considered. correlations need to be viewed with some caution since a correlation does not imply causation. another factor contributing to higher levels of language skills and the use of metacognitive strategies could exist. one more important note to make is that most of the studies noted above were done with university-aged students. some of this research may not translate precisely to k–12 learners. only the four studies indicated in italics in table 1 were done with students at the middle and high school levels. nevertheless, taken as a whole, this body of research provides strong evidence that metacognition plays a critical role in the development of academic language proficiency. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 112 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 table 1 three types of evidence for the influence of metacognition on calp studies that examine the characteristics of good language learners studies that examine the strategies used by highly proficient language learners studies that examine the use of metacognitive strategies correlated with language skills good language learners: provide evidence that: use of metacognitive strategies correlates with:  monitor their speech and that of others (rubin, 1975)  learn from their mistakes (rubin, 1975)  have metacognitive beliefs of confidence in their language learning ability (wang, et al., 2009)  frequently use language learning strategies, especially metacognitive strategies (nazri, et al., 2016)  prefer metacognitive strategies (hong-nam & leavell, 2007)  demonstrate more selfmanagement (alghamdi, 2016)  proficiency in english as a second language (esl) is associated with the metacognitive strategies of prioritizing learning, creating practice opportunities, directing attention, and selfevaluating (li, 2007)  there is a significant correlation between listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness that was largely explained by the problem-solving and planning/evaluation components of metacognitive strategies (al-alwan, et al., 2013)  students with high levels of language proficiency use a greater variety of strategies including metacognitive strategies (mutar, 2018)  more successful listening in a second language (vandergrift, 1997)  english as a foreign language (efl) reading achievement (phakiti, 2003)  language test performance (purpa, 1998)  better efl listening performance (teng & chan, 2008)  better overall language performance (setiyadi, et al., 2016) *findings in italics were discovered with middle and high school students. inquiry methods this inquiry uses a pragmatic lens to examine the literature on metacognition, its role in language learning, and how to develop it, with the purpose of adapting instruction delivered to ell students to promote their development of metacognition. in this manner, ell students can continue developing their calp even if further support is not available, and if it suits their personal goals. therefore, the questions explored for this purpose are: https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 113 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375  what role does metacognition play in language learning?  what does the literature have to say about metacognitive instruction?  how can this knowledge help educators develop the metacognition of ells in b.c. schools? the literature included in this inquiry project was collected by searching the eric database and the university of calgary’s primo library system for peer-reviewed research. the search terms used included: metacognition, metacognitive strategies, metacognitive awareness, and metacognitive instruction along with english as a second language, esl, english as a foreign language, efl, english language learners, ell, cognitive academic language proficiency, and calp. twenty-seven relevant studies were found and used. critical analysis and synthesis were then used to integrate the different streams of research found. torraco (2005) has explained that synthesis should be done with critical analysis because “new knowledge about previous research is created through critical analysis; and synthesis builds on this to create new perspectives on the topic as a whole” (p. 363). this critical analysis and synthesis was done according to the research question it addresses. it was then synthesized by comparing, contrasting, and critiquing previous models and formulating a more inclusive model. finally, findings were analyzed by coding and clustering them around themes. what role does metacognition play in language learning? analysis four decades ago, flavell (1979) explained that metacognition is “knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena” (p. 906). he was the first to link metacognition to the significant role that it plays in language. flavell described metacognition as consisting of three components whose combined function is to monitor cognition and cognitive functioning, both of which are imperative to the development of language skills. these components are metacognitive knowledge, experiences, and strategies. the first component, metacognitive knowledge, is stored knowledge about how people think while completing cognitive tasks. this component can be further broken down into three categories: person, task, and strategy. person knowledge refers to knowledge about one’s self and others’ thinking abilities. task knowledge pertains to what is involved in completing a task, and strategy knowledge includes what strategies might help accomplish a learning goal (flavell, 1979). later wenden (1998) added the concept of domain knowledge which is knowledge of subject matter, and chamot (2005) used the term world knowledge as a broader more encompassing term. the second component, metacognitive experiences, refers to moments when a learner is in a cognitive process and aware of the sort of progress they are making. these experiences invoke strategies related to goals and actions that monitor the cognitive processes. these metacognitive experiences lead learners to the third component, metacognitive strategies. these https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 114 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 are the strategies consciously used to understand and process cognitive information. flavell (1979) believed that these strategies were for both language learning and use. nearly two decades later, interest in metacognition and language learning began to bloom, and several scholars focused solely on the component of metacognitive strategies by defining and explaining what they were and how they related to one another in the context of language learning (anderson, 2002; chamot, 2005; vandergrift, 1997; wang et al., 2009). coding and theme analysis were used to determine these metacognitive strategies and are shown in table 2. one scholar that went beyond this sole focus on strategies was wenden (1998). table 2 themes found for metacognitive strategies literature on metacognitive strategies themes identified wang et al. (2009)  monitoring  perseverance/problem solving  goal setting/planning anderson (2002)  planning  problem solving  monitoring  evaluation vandergrift (1997)  planning  monitoring  problem identification  evaluation chamot (2005)  planning  monitoring  problem solving  evaluation the purpose of wenden’s (1998) literature review was to build on flavell’s (1979) model and show how metacognitive knowledge influences the strategies used. through this deconstruction, wenden also illustrated how the use of strategies can build metacognitive knowledge. also, wenden (1998) illuminated how the reciprocal relationship between metacognitive knowledge and strategies is mediated through metacognitive experiences. these experiences lead to decisions about what to do about learning, and this monitoring encourages the expansion of metacognitive knowledge. synthesis more recently, goh (2019) has promoted the use of a model of metacognition based on the ones created by flavell (1979) and wenden (1998). this promotion is due to the issue of more current frameworks focusing just on metacognitive strategies and overlooking the pre-eminence of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 115 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 metacognitive knowledge in the broader construct of metacognition. however, the older models used by flavell (1979) and wenden (1998) are limited in the identified processes involved in using metacognitive strategies. thus, goh (2019) argued for a broader framework that focuses on both knowledge and strategies so that it can be used by educators and researchers consistently. this is the purpose of the model illustrated and proposed here, see figure 1. it is based on the information presented in this section. figure 1. proposed model of metacognition. this model illustrates the reciprocal relationship of metacognitive knowledge and strategies (chamot, 2005; wenden, 1998), includes expanded components of each (anderson, 2002; vandergrift, 1997), and places metacognitive experiences in the centre to demonstrate how these experiences build both knowledge and strategies (flavell, 1979; wenden, 1998). this proposed model of cognition could serve as a conceptual framework for deepening teacher understanding of metacognition in language learning, which is one of the useful features of metacognitive instruction that was found through the next inquiry question. what does the literature have to say about metacognitive instruction? critical analysis research on metacognitive instruction is complex. in a comprehensive study that examined empirical data from several studies, raoofi et al. (2013) found mixed evidence that metacognitive interventions improve metacognitive awareness and strategy use. just over half of these studies found positive results for this conclusion. however, all the studies investigating whether metacognitive instruction (mi) could improve language learning performance did indeed find this result. in addition, several studies demonstrated that strategy-focused mi helps learners become more self-regulated and effective in their language learning (raoofi et al., 2013). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 116 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 perhaps metacognition is more challenging to evaluate than language performance. it seems relevant to ask what is more pertinent, that mi develops metacognition according to particular evaluation methods or that it improves language learning? since the purpose of this analysis is to support ells in becoming more effective language learners so that they can play a role in developing their calp, it seems logical to conclude that since there is a great deal of evidence that mi improves language learning performance, then it is worthwhile to examine what constitutes effective mi. much of the research done on mi for improved language learning has been done with university-aged students in an efl context. research with k–12 ells is sparse, but there are some relevant studies. mckeown and gentilucci (2007) argued that their findings suggest that when it comes to reading, a threshold level of competency needs to be reached before a metacognitive strategy like the think-aloud strategy will be helpful. this finding is significant in that it implies that it would be more logical to use mi with students once they have developed threshold levels of competency in language and academics. therefore, focusing on mi after the primary (k-3) years and after the development of bics might be prudent. goh and taib’s (2006) study with 11 and 12-year-old esl students in singapore found that all ten of the students developed their metacognition of task and strategic awareness for listening as well as confidence in their personal ability to complete listening tasks. the mi in this study included traditional listening exercises, reflections on listening experiences, and teacherfacilitated discussions focussed on metacognitive knowledge about listening. unfortunately, it was a rather small-scale study. in a similar vein, but done on a much larger scale, vandergrift (2002) used reflection on the listening process to develop metacognitive knowledge to improve listening performance with 420 french as a second language learners in grades 4–6 and found positive results. here the learning activities were followed with class discussions to prompt reflection on what happened during these tasks and how it was helpful. based on these three studies, it could be summarized that reflections during group discussions and after well-crafted activities are more effective than reporting reflections during a task (goh & taib, 2006; mckeown & gentilucci, 2007; vandergrift, 2002). synthesis with decades of research in the area of metacognition and language learning, it is hard to ignore the large quantity of work out there by prominent scholars who have delved deeply into this topic through literature reviews as well as studies done on mi with university students. several themes can be found in this extended body of research. table 3 demonstrates the theme analysis done with the coding of this research. by far the most prevalent themes were explicit instruction of metacognitive strategies (anderson, 2002; bozorgian, 2014; chamot, 2005; cubukcu, 2008; pintrich, 2002; raoofi et al., 2013), reflection and other awareness-raising activities, as was mentioned in the above studies (goh, 1997; goh & taib, 2006; pintrich, 2002; vandergrift, 2002; wenden, 1998), integrating and embedding mi into content (goh, 2019; pintrich, 2002; sato & loewen, 2018), and teachers’ understanding of metacognition and mi (anderson, 2002; goh, 2019; wenden, 1998). these factors should play a pivotal role in answering the next question of this inquiry. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 117 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 table 3 themes found in research on metacognitive instruction (mi) study findings and literature review recommendations (in italics) themes identified corrective feedback accompanied with integrated mi that explained the usefulness of activities to students and used prolonged training was better at promoting l2 development than corrective feedback alone (sato and loewen, 2018).  integrated into content  awareness-raising  prolonged instruction teaching the metacognitive strategies of planning, monitoring, and evaluation through the pedagogical cycle improved listening skills (bozorgian, 2014).  explicit strategy instruction using systematic direct instruction for metacognitive reading strategies found significant improvements for both reading comprehension and vocabulary (cubukcu, 2008).  direct/explicit strategy instruction through the use of listening diaries many students demonstrated strong awareness of the three aspects of listening (goh, 1997).  reflection/listening diary pintrich (2002) recommended that metacognitive knowledge 1) needs to be taught explicitly, 2) mi is embedded into content lessons, 3) metacognition should be explicitly labelled when it comes up, 4) mi be made part of everyday classroom discussions, 5) metacognitive strategies are modelled for students.  explicit instruction  integrated/embedded into content  awareness-raising activities  classroom discussions/reflection  model strategies/explicit strategy instruction wenden’s (1998) recommendations for strategy instruction: teachers should 1) inform learners of the purpose of the strategy being taught 2) explain what the strategy is used for 3) help learners understand what tasks a strategy can be used for 4) advance their understanding of their learners’ metacognition, 5) encourage the use of awareness-raising activities that elicit a learners’ metacognition, get them to articulate this awareness, challenge them with alternative views, and have them reflect on what has been learned. 6) understand the importance that instruction helps students learn how to learn.  explicit/direct strategy instruction  teachers’ understanding (of student metacognition)  awareness-raising activities  reflection activities  teacher understanding (importance of) anderson (2002) recommended educators should: 1) be explicit about the goal of lessons and guide learners to set their own goals 2) explicitly teach learning strategies 3) have learners stop and ask themselves if they are using the strategy as they should 4) help them see the variety of strategies they could use for a task 5) ask them to reflect on each component of strategy use.  explicit strategy instruction  explicit purpose  application activities  teacher understanding (of metacognition for guidance) chamot’s (2005) review of literature on lsi summarizes that explicit instruction of learning strategies is more effective than implicit instruction, and it fosters metacognition  explicit strategy instruction goh (2019) argued for embedding strategy learning and metacognitive knowledge development in everyday language learning tasks. additionally, goh explained the importance of teachers’ conviction of the effectiveness of mi and how it can be integrated into their teaching.  embedded into content  teacher understanding (importance of) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 118 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 how can this knowledge help educators develop the metacognition of ells in b.c. k–12 schools? discussion and implications goh (2019) pointed out that to avoid the argument that strategy instruction might take too much time away from content teaching, educators should “embed strategy learning and metacognitive knowledge development in everyday language learning tasks” (p. 274). embedding and integrating mi into content is an essential factor for the context of b.c. public schools. since most ell students in b.c. are taught using content-based instruction in mainstream classrooms, it would be challenging to take time away from the curriculum to focus on developing metacognition. even when ell support is provided through small group pull-out, it is still meant to focus on the language learning goals determined for students and support their grade level curriculum. additionally, embedding mi into content promotes connectivity between the process and using it to learn more effectively (azevedo, 2020). explicit strategy instruction is one way to integrate mi into the content. the call for the teaching of metacognitive strategies and making it explicit is overwhelming: “research reveals that explicit strategy instruction is an effective way to enhance learners’ awareness about the learning strategies” (raoofi, 2013, p. 36). chamot (2005) explained it is “more effective than simply asking students to use one or more strategies” (p. 123). it seems plausible that explicit strategy instruction would foster metacognition in students by making them more aware of the strategies they can and do use, thus expanding their metacognitive experiences and further developing their metacognitive knowledge. the metacognitive strategies that should be taught are listed in the proposed model above (figure 1) and were derived from the themes found in the literature (table 2). this explicit strategy instruction is consistent with another theme that was found: reflection and awareness-raising activities. a common theme among the awareness raising-activities brought up in the literature is that they involve reflection. these activities included listening diaries (goh, 1997), the thinkaloud strategy (mckeown & gentilucci, 2007), and class discussions (goh & taib, 2006; pintrich, 2002; vandergrift, 2002; wenden, 1998). the think-aloud strategy produced mediocre results, and it requires a great deal of time for one-on-one conferences. diary entries regarding personal reflections on strategy use would be more reasonable to use, but they do not allow for the constructive and collaborative building of ideas like classroom discussions do. classroom discussions are easy to fit into the day and therefore ensure time for content learning. since some additional language learners are more reluctant to share ideas orally, brief journal entries or small group sharing before whole-class discussions might be helpful for these students. this strategy was also a noted feature found in the small body of research done with similarly aged students (goh & taib, 2006; vandergrift, 2002). teachers may not use strategy instruction if they are not convinced of its effectiveness or understand how it can be integrated into their teaching (goh, 2019). additionally, metacognitive instruction requires that teachers guide learners through the process of using those strategies (anderson, 2002), and craft metacognitive experiences for them (flavell, 1979) to expand their https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 119 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 knowledge and strategies (wenden, 1998). for this purpose, all teachers need to understand the role that metacognition plays in language learning, and this role of metacognition is where the results of this inquiry, and the fuller proposed and illustrated model of metacognition can guide both classroom and support teachers. limitations one must also consider the affective barriers that can interfere with additional language learning. using metacognition to deal with these issues, such as regulating emotions, motivation, and the social processes falls under the subject of self-regulation. this literature review has not examined the role of self regulated learning (srl) in language learning. azevedo (2020) highlighted the need “to avoid the common interchangeable use between metacognition and self-regulated learning” (p. 92) because distinctions between the two are needed to advance an understanding of each topic. in b.c.’s public schools, the topic of self-regulation is currently quite popular. for example, a google search of “self regulated learning,” “workshops,” and “b.c.,” reveals numerous professional resources, and an m.ed. program is even offered through a b.c. university. however, a similar search for “metacognition,” “workshops,” and “b.c.,” reveals that resources in this area are not as available. yet, there is a critical need for metacognitive training for teachers since they cannot be expected to teach metacognition if they do not understand it (azevedo, 2020). the purpose of this inquiry was to delve into the distinctive benefits and features of metacognition and the teaching and learning of metacognition. this intent was not meant to detract from the value of promoting srl. conclusion this inquiry has pointed out the benefits of metacognition which can help teachers in helping their students become more effective additional language learners. with the guidance of their teachers, ell students can become more powerful agents in their own effective language learning journey. research has confirmed the significance of metacognition in calp development, which plays a significant role in educational accomplishments. it has also been shown that effective mi should involve explicit strategy instruction after the primary (k–3) years and be integrated into content. it should use plenty of awareness-raising activities and collaborative reflection after those activities, as well as include a more sophisticated understanding of metacognition and mi by the teachers who work with language learners. because metacognition consists of three components: metacognitive knowledge, strategies, and experiences, the fuller metacognition model proposed here should be used for developing this understanding. based on the findings and conclusions of this inquiry, learning activities can be developed that can form the basis of mi as part of a holistic teaching practice. this development could lead to a case study or action research project on how the four features that this inquiry found to be useful could be practically implemented into teaching practices with ell students who are developing their higher levels of language proficiency. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 hernberg 120 bc teal journal volume 5 number 1 (2020): 109–122 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 references al-alwan, a., asassfeh, s., & al-shboul, y. 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(2018). metacognitive instruction enhances the effectiveness of corrective feedback: variable effects of feedback types and linguistic target. language learning, 68(2), 507–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12283 setiyadi, b., mahpul, sukirlan, m., & rahman, b. (2016). language motivation, metacognitive strategies and language performance: a cause and effect correlation. international journal of applied linguistics and english literature, 5(7), 40–47. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.7p.40 teng, c. & chen, c. (2008). an investigation of metacognitive strategies used by efl listeners. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed504568.pdf torraco, r. j. (2005). writing integrative literature reviews: guidelines and examples. human resource development review, 4(3), 356–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305278283 vandergrift, l. (1997). the comprehension strategies of second language (french) listeners: a descriptive study. foreign language annals, 30(3), 387–409. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1997.tb02362.x vandergrift, l. (2002). it was nice to see that our predictions were right: developing metacognition in l2 listening comprehension. canadian modern language review, 58(4), 555–575. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.58.4.555 wang, j., spencer, k., & xing, m. (2009). metacognitive beliefs and strategies in learning chinese as a foreign language. system, 37(1), 46–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2008.05.001 wenden, a. l. (1998). metacognitive knowledge and language learning. applied linguistics, 19(4), 515–537. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/19.4.515 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375 https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12283 https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.7p.40 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed504568.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305278283 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1997.tb02362.x https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.58.4.555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2008.05.001 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/19.4.515 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ freimuth & walter 1 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 1–7 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 research paper an examination of lgbtq+ representation in a canadian elt newspaper hilda freimuth thompson rivers university leah walter dalhousie university abstract up to 30% of the world’s population is part of the lgbtq+ community. yet, representation in english language programs and classroom materials around the world appears to be minimal to non-existent. this study conducted a content analysis of lgbtq+ representation in one locally produced elt newspaper in british columbia, canada to investigate if a more localized publication with less pressure to appeal to a mass readership would yield greater representation. the study found that five instances of representation occurred in a four-year span of production of thirty-nine newspapers. this finding is significant in that very few examples of this type exist in the literature. introduction the drive towards greater inclusion and diversity in the field of english as an additional language (eal) education has been commendable in the past few decades. diverse racial and ethnic representation in many english language teaching (elt) textbooks, once invisible, is now relatively common although more work still needs to be done (bowen & hopper, 2022). however, representation of gender and sexual identity, which has also been non-existent in elt textbooks, has not fared as well in terms of an increase in visibility (evripidou, 2020; freimuth, 2022; gray, 2013; merse, 2015; nelson, 2009; paiz, 2019, seburn, 2019). with up to 30% of the world’s population identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning + (lgbtq+) (varrella, 2022), it is important to have representation of the community within elt classrooms, textbooks, materials, and lessons. in fact, unesco has called for this inclusion in all school-related materials to build safer schools and greater inclusivity in educational programs worldwide (unesco, 2016). seburn (2021) has argued comprehensive inclusion of the lgbtq+ community in materials not only makes learners from this community feel relevant but also makes learning more effective as a result. bollas (2021) claimed this lack of learning is, in fact, a result of limiting a learner’s additional language learning motivation. according to seburn (2018), materials that do make an attempt to include the lgbtq+ community either are as close to heteronormative as possible or are offered in a separate chapter, thereby otherizing or marginalizing the community itself. in an attempt to build a sense of belonging in the elt classrooms of british columbia and canada, representation of the lgbtq+ community needs to occur in a number of ways. one of these is representation within the materials used for instruction. whereas textbooks published for mass audiences in the united kingdom and north america have shown little to no inclusion https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 freimuth & walter 2 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 1–7 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 of the lgbtq+ community (evripidou, 2020; freimuth, 2022; gray, 2013; merse, 2015; nelson, 2009; paiz, 2019, seburn, 2019), more localized publications could include greater representation as they may have less concern for profit. moore (2020) asserted the concern for profit (mass audience appeal) is the main reason for the lack of lgbtq+ representation in textbooks. so, would a more localized publication include more representation? in answer to this question, this study examines the content of a local elt newspaper published in british columbia—the westcoast reader (wcr)1. the wcr covers news stories from across the province in such a way that english language learners of varied english language abilities are able to read and understand the news articles. this type of localized publication in a province that supports and promotes the rights of the lgbtq+ community through the b.c. human rights commission (b.c. government, 2022) should ideally have some representation in place. this study, therefore, examines the wcr to determine the amount of presence of lgbtq+ representation within its papers. literature review two terms central to this study are diversity and inclusion. with these meaning different things to different people, the words require defining here. in terms of this study, diversity is defined as the presence of “a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations etc.” (oxford learner’s dictionaries, 2022). inclusion, on the other hand, is the act of creating a sense of belonging for all people, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, and identity (petriwskyj, 2010). the literature shows that while there has been a great effort made in terms of diversity and inclusion of racial and ethnic representation in elt textbooks, little representation of the lgbtq+ community exists (evripidou, 2020; freimuth, 2022; gray, 2013; merse, 2015; nelson, 2009; paiz, 2019, seburn, 2019). it appears diversity of gender and identity are not even minimally represented in elt materials despite findings of this lack of representation twenty years ago. back in 1999, thornbury (p. 15) claimed representation was “nowhere to be found. they [the lgbtq+ community] are still firmly in the coursebook closet. coursebook people are never gay.” de vincenti et al. (2007) found this to be true of french, italian, and japanese language materials used at an australian university as well. in 2013, gray conducted a study in the united kingdom on lgbtq+ representation in a number of elt textbooks. this study also confirmed a dearth of representation. paiz’s (2015) findings also drew a similar conclusion. seven years later, another study on five textbooks that are part of a popular north american elt series found, yet again, zero representation of the lgbtq+ community even though fifteen instances of possible inclusion (e.g., the lgtbq+ coming of age ceremony in japan) were noted (freimuth, 2022). the reason for this lack of representation likely lays with the publishers and their fear of lower profit margins (moore, 2020). in fact, when authors try to include representation, the publishers often censor the content (goldstein, 2015). this lack of representation, therefore, is linked to reaching as wide an audience as possible. this focus on a wide audience then begs the question: do elt materials produced for a more localized audience house greater 1 the name of the elt newspaper that is the subject of this article has not been anonymized to let readers know how useful this newspaper is and to encourage them to use it with their learners for its inclusivity. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 freimuth & walter 3 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 1–7 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 representation? a thorough search of the literature revealed few studies on this worldwide, let alone in canada. one study that was found on localized elt materials at a state university in turkey showed misand under-representation (selvi & kocaman, 2020). but what about places where lgbtq+ communities are supported? is there greater representation in localized elt materials then? to answer this question, a number of issues of one elt newspaper for english language learners in british columbia were examined. method the method of investigation chosen for this study was content analysis. this approach is one kind of qualitative or quantitative research method used to analyze data in text form, be it derived from narratives, interviews, observations, or print media (hsieh & shannon, 2005). it is a research tool that enables the researcher to determine the presence of something, such as certain words or themes. therefore, content analysis allows for the easy analysis of print media (such as newspapers) and for the counting of instances (such as lgbtq+ representation) within the material. this type of newspaper analysis is not new and was born out of the need for ethical standards in newspapers in the united states in the late 19th and early 20th century (krippendorf, 2019). it continues to be used today as it allows for a relatively simple, systematic way of analyzing newspapers and other written texts. the wcr was chosen for two reasons. firstly, it is free to many english language learning programs in british columbia and thus widely used. for those institutes or individuals that do pay, a minimal fee of twenty dollars is charged annually. the paper is also based out of a large urban centre. with funding from the b.c. government (westcoast reader, 2022), this newspaper should, ideally, be free to include a fair representation of all peoples in british columbia without profit margin concerns. copies of the wcr available to the principal investigator through the university in which they work were used in this study. this totalled thirty-nine newspapers ranging from march 2018 to june 2022, with no publications taking place in july and august. each newspaper was first analyzed by the principal investigator. instances of lgbtq+ representations (e.g., pride parade) were highlighted and recorded in a table. upon completion of the analysis, a university student from the lgbtq+ community completed the analysis as well, without having access to the data generated in the first round. the two findings were then compared to ensure reliability. no discrepancies were found in the two data sets. instances were then added up for a total count. instances were not analyzed for positive or negative representation of the lgbtq+ community, only for presence. findings the findings showed a total of five instances of lgbtq+ representation over a span of four years. issues for may 2018, october 2018, may 2020, june 2020, december 2020 were not included in the data set as they were unavailable at the time of research. the years of 2018, 2019, and 2020 all had one instance of representation each while 2021 had two and 2022 had zero to date. the content analysis of the readers revealed the following data (table 1): https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 freimuth & walter 4 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 1–7 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 table 1 lgbtq+ instances of representation in wcr number month + year instances total 1 march 2018 0 2 april 2018 0 3 june 2018 0 4 september 2018 1 – rcmp safe place program 1 5 november 2018 0 6 december 2018 0 7 january 2019 0 8 february 2019 0 9 march 2019 0 10 april 2019 0 11 may 2019 0 12 june 2019 0 13 september 2019 0 14 october 2019 1 rainbow crosswalk 1 15 november 2019 0 16 december 2019 0 17 january 2020 0 18 february 2020 1 nonbinary term 1 19 march 2020 0 20 april 2020 0 21 september 2020 0 22 october 2020 0 23 november 2020 0 24 january 2021 0 25 february 2021 0 26 march 2021 1 gender neutral title / 1990 gay games 2 27 april 2021 0 28 may 2021 0 29 june 2021 0 30 september 2021 0 31 october 2021 0 32 november 2021 0 33 december 2021 0 34 january 2022 0 35 february 2022 0 36 march 2022 0 37 april 2022 0 38 may 2022 0 39 june 2022 0 total 5 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 freimuth & walter 5 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 1–7 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 discussion the goal of this research was to determine if more localized elt materials, in this case the wcr, feature more representation of the lgbtq+ community than textbooks written for wider audiences by more substantial publishers. the findings indicated that yes, more representation exists although still limited in number (with only five instances). something to note is that the calendar of holidays and celebrations in all of the issues did not feature the yearly pride parade or lgbtq+ festivities across b.c.—an ideal place to promote greater inclusion. the reason for this omission is unknown and required further investigation and will be addressed later in this discussion. on another interesting note, the wcr appeared to be highly inclusive in terms of indigenous content and ethnic diversity, which leads to the question—why is there so little lgbtq+ representation, which is also part of being inclusive? while the representation is greater than that in standard elt textbooks, for which the paper should be commended, five instances over four years is by no means extraordinary. if one third of the world’s population (and thus by extension b.c.’s population) identifies as part of the lgbtq+ community in some way, perhaps one-third of all the newspaper’s content should reflect this. it would certainly be a fairer representation. if so, then the representation in the papers would total around thirteen instances rather than five. however, the process of article selection—which draws from newspapers across b.c.—is unclear. perhaps the representation in the various sources used is simply not there. or the selection process does not take into account the need for diversity in gender and sexual identity to the same degree it does ethnicity and indigenous representation. in an effort to clarify how diversity is taken into account by the newspaper, the principal investigator reached out via email to the wcr for more information. the co-editor of the paper informed the principal investigator of the following. firstly, the selection team consists of a journalist, teacher, and literacy practitioner who meet monthly to review possible stories for inclusion. articles are chosen to reflect the diversity of the wcr readership, which include english language and literacy learners, elementary and secondary school students, new canadians, multicultural senior groups, prison inmates, people with disabilities, and patients with stroke and brain injuries. in a recent survey of members, the wcr found that the majority of readers are especially interested in current b.c. government news, the canadian way of life, food, health, and nature. in an effort to show regional balance, the team draws from many different sources, including community newspapers from rural and remote areas of b.c. in response to the question regarding the missing pride parade event on the annual calendars in the wcr, the co-editor explained items on the calendar are statutory holidays, international days of observance, important dates in canadian history, or seasonal occasions like halloween. local events specific to one location are not usually included, but the co-editor noted that the wcr would be happy to include pride festivities. perhaps this study will encourage the wcr to include greater lgbtq+ representation in the future. conclusion this study’s content analysis of thirty-nine issues of the wcr found five instances of lgbtq+ representation—resulting in a resounding yes to the research question: is there greater representation in localized elt materials where lgbtq+ communities are supported? while the number thirty-nine is relatively strong in terms of analysis, the newspaper is over forty years https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 freimuth & walter 6 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 1–7 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 old and has the potential for an analysis of hundreds of papers. a more comprehensive study could therefore be beneficial in the future. this future investigation could include a closer look at the distribution of lgbtq+ representation over time and answer questions related to the first mentions of lgbtq+ content and how the selection process and criteria have changed over time. this study’s positive findings, as incremental as they may be, are important in terms of the literature. few studies, if any, have found lgbtq+ representation in elt materials worldwide. it appears that canada, in particular b.c., may be leading the way to greater inclusion in terms of localized materials for english language instruction, thereby being one of the first countries to answer unesco’s call for greater inclusivity. references b.c. government. (2022). gender equity and lgbtq2s+ resources. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/gender-equity/resources#lgbtq2s bollas, a. (2021). a critical discussion of inclusive approaches to sexualities in elt. elt journal, 75(2), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccaa075 bowen, n., & hopper, d. (2022). the representation of race in english language learning textbooks: inclusivity and equality in images. tesol quarterly. early view. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3169 de vincenti, g., giovanangeli, a., & ward, r. (2007). the queer stopover: how queer travels in the language classroom. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 4(1), 58–72. https://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/v4sp12007/ward.pdf evripidou, d. (2020). effects of heteronormativity on cypriot efl classroom participation: students’ experiences. gender and education, 32(8), 1019–1033. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2018.1533920 freimuth, h. 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(2015). queer-informed approaches and sexual literacy in elt: theoretical foundations and teaching principles. language issues: the esol journal, 26(1), 13–20. moore, a. (2020). understanding heteronormativity in elt textbooks: a practical taxonomy. elt journal, 74(2), 116–125. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccz058 nelson, c. (2009). sexual identities in english language education: classroom conversations. routledge. oxford learner’s dictionaries. 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(2019). queering practice: lgbtq+ diversity and inclusion in english language teaching. journal of language, identity, and education. 18(4), 266–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2019.1629933 petriwskyj, a. (2010). diversity and inclusion in the early years. international journal of inclusive education, 14(2), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110802504515 seburn, t. (2018). lgbtq+ inclusivity in the language classroom: attitudes and considerations. tesol ontario contact magazine, 18–23. http://contact.teslontario.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/tyson-seburn.pdf seburn, t. (2019, july 31). this post will make you gay (or your mats anyway). 4cinelt. https://fourc.ca/lgbtqia2-coursebook/ seburn, t. (2021). how to write inclusive materials. elt teacher 2 writer. selvi, a., & kocaman, c. (2020). mis-/underrepresentations of gender and sexuality in locally produced elt materials. journal of language, identity, and education, 20(2), 118–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1726757 thornbury, s. (1999). window-dressing vs cross-dressing in the efl sub-culture. folio 5(2), 15–17. https://tinyurl.com/yc55ebnb unesco. (2016). out in the open: education sector responses to violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000244756 westcoast reader. (2022). about the westcoast reader. https://thewestcoastreader.com/about/ varrella, s. (2022, june 21). lgbtq+ worldwide – statistics and facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/8579/lgbtq-worldwide/#topicheader__wrapper the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.501 https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.4.1.03pai https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2019.1629933 https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110802504515 http://contact.teslontario.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/tyson-seburn.pdf http://contact.teslontario.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/tyson-seburn.pdf https://fourc.ca/lgbtqia2-coursebook/ https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1726757 https://tinyurl.com/yc55ebnb https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000244756 https://thewestcoastreader.com/about/ https://www.statista.com/topics/8579/lgbtq-worldwide/#topicheader__wrapper http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ surtees & yamamoto 29 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 creating an interactive online orientation to academic practices for international students victoria surtees university of the fraser valley masaru yamamoto university of british columbia abstract while universities are increasingly implementing programs to support international students’ language development, fewer orientation programs have sought to provide explicit guidance on expected academic practices in canadian institutions. many such academic norms—including the expectation to complete weekly readings, the use of first names with instructors, or participation grades—may be unfamiliar to students who were socialized in different academic cultures. this paper describes the creation of an online orientation module that introduced newly arrived international students to three aspects of local classroom practice: participation, preparing readings for class, and emailing instructors. drawing on theories of academic discourse socialization, the module discusses norms (e.g., asking questions is expected) and provides ready-made language models for engaging in related practices (e.g., email templates). initial results of a pilot with 74 incoming students suggest that these types of modules provide a promising avenue for supporting international student success. details of the design process, including the selection of appropriate platforms and tools and the implementation of inclusive, accessible, and multimodal design principles, are presented. recommendations for institutions wishing to develop similar support materials are also provided. introduction over the last decade, international student numbers have tripled in british columbia (bc), with over 60,000 international students attending bc’s post-secondary institutions (heslop, 2018). given these massive increases, universities’ strategic plans for internationalization are now foregrounding the need to foster students’ sense of belonging and their ability to participate in the local academic community. in addition, the covid-19 pandemic has precipitated the need for high-quality, accessible, and inclusive online offerings for domestic and international students alike. to date, studies conducted at english-speaking institutions (e.g., heng, 2017; ryan & viete, 2009) have reported that international students often feel that the prevailing norms for classroom participation do not value their contributions (e.g., instructors dismiss international perspectives or do not make an effort to understand students’ accents). other researchers (straker, 2016; yates & nguyen, 2012) have noted that international students are often (incorrectly) perceived by instructors and others as “shy” or “uncritical” and are thereby implicitly positioned as deficient participants within the local learning space. other work has provided a more hopeful vision, describing linguistically and culturally supportive classes in which international students are viewed as intellectual and cultural resources who can contribute their unique multicultural perspective to their local community (see for example, morita, 2004). these studies raise important questions about how instructors and institutions can create https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 30 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 (scaffolded) opportunities for international students to meaningfully and legitimately participate as active and valued contributors. we propose that one way to support international students is through resources and discussions that help them decode the implicit norms of their classroom communities. such interventions are likely to have multiple benefits: students receive explicit guidance about local practices and, through the discussion process, instructors and staff are afforded the opportunity to think critically about the cultural nature of participation in higher education in the host community (murray & mcconachy, 2018). in this paper, we describe the process of designing and implementing an online orientation module that introduced students in a one-year study abroad program to three communicative practices: in-class participation, preparing readings, and emailing instructors. drawing on research in academic discourse socialization (kobayashi, zappa-hollman, & duff, 2017), we discuss the theoretical principles and tools used to design online activities for the project. students’ feedback and lessons learned will also be presented. background and rationale the online orientation module grew out of a workshop designed to support a cohort of international students participating in a one-year sheltered study abroad program (the origin of the students and the program name are omitted to maintain confidentiality). each year, a cohort of between 75 and 100 students from the same university arrives in august to take classes in academic writing, culture, and intercultural awareness with their cohort-mates at a postsecondary institution in canada. grounded in a social and constructivist notions of learning, classes within the program require regular attendance and encourage small group discussion, group presentations, critical analysis assignments, and interaction with instructors in person and via email. many of these practices differ significantly from the students’ home university practices, where attendance is not closely monitored, and assessment is typically exam-based. over the years, many instructors have remarked that newly arrived students are unsure of how to negotiate the instructor-student relationship and that students have few strategies for managing the program’s demanding reading and assignment loads. through informal consultations, we learned that students’ ability to succeed in the program was often tied to their ability to quickly take up and navigate the program’s unfamiliar classroom norms. in 2014, a team of instructors proposed that a workshop be developed to support students in decoding the implicit norms of classroom practice. the two-hour face-to-face workshop, initially developed in 2014, focussed on the following areas: • introducing oneself in the classroom • saying no/refusing requests from peers • participating in class discussions • giving in-class presentations • reading and class preparation strategies • emailing instructors at the time of writing, the workshop had been running for five years and had received highly positive reviews from students, staff, and instructors. in 2019, the team received a small https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 31 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 grant to extend the workshop into an online module. ultimately, a hybrid model was proposed in which part of the workshop would be delivered face-to-face, followed by a 30–45-minute-long online module that would reinforce and extend several of the topics covered in the workshop. this paper focuses on the online component of this project. theoretical framework in selecting and designing our content for the online orientation, we drew upon scholarship in academic discourse socialization (ads). ads research explores the nature and development of academic practices promoted in specific institutions and disciplines (e.g., presentations, in-class discussions, and academic writing). ads offers insights into the socialization processes by which newcomers (usually students) gain the communicative competence and sociocultural knowledge necessary for meaningful participation in those practices, often through interaction with more expert members (kobayashi et al., 2017). these processes are conceptualized as complex and multidirectional: experts’ practices are shaped by the behaviours and attitudes of novices just as novices learn from more experienced members of the academic community. newcomer students’ learning trajectories are also influenced by their capacity for and interest in seeking out “additional resources independently to facilitate and mediate their own socialization into academic and other communities” (duff & anderson, 2015, p. 338). ads researchers that have examined socialization of additional language speakers also recognize that while socialization often occurs through interaction, interaction can also be a potential site of struggle, especially when the values and expectations underpinning local language practices do not align with newcomers’ previous experiences in education (see duff & talmy, 2011). for this reason, ads studies pay special attention to the explicit and implicit ways that classroom interactions shape—and are shaped by—students’ ability and willingness to participate in new practices and the extent to which new students become aware of the norms and values that underpin those practices (for a review of ads research in canadian contexts, see duff, zappa-hollman, & surtees, 2019). findings have illustrated the ways in which misalignments between student and instructor expectations can negatively impact international students’ experiences and success (e.g., yang 2010). studies also point out that participants often lack prior experience and training in skills and knowledge necessary for fuller participation in the target academic discourse (e.g., morita, 2004), calling for explicit instruction and assistance for various forms of oral, written, and online academic communication. the module described in this paper responds to that call by providing scaffolding for several practices that consistently posed a challenge for students in our target program: classroom participation, preparation for class, and emailing instructors. target practices: classroom participation and email exchanges socialization into classroom participation and emailing practices have both been researched from an ads perspective. morita (2004) examined the challenges faced by three japanese graduate students participating in open-ended classroom discussions at a canadian university. findings showed that students often remained silent to save face despite their desire to participate during whole-class conversation. their continued silence, in turn, reinforced their positionality as “limited” contributors within the class, further exacerbating their reticence in the classroom. in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 32 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 other words, students’ participatory challenges and their positionality were mutually influencing and thus co-constitutive of each other. one of morita’s participants reported how her experience of classroom participation differed in supportive and unsupportive courses: in supportive classes she felt she was able to modify her modes of participation to adjust to academic life, while in an unsupportive class, she felt ignored. morita’s findings suggest that although students may be aware of the norm that requires active participation, students need more support than simply being told that speaking up is important. emails to instructors are another academic form of communication with which international students can sometimes struggle. economidou-kogetsidis (2011) analysed ukuniversity lecturers’ perceptions of the textual features of 200 request emails written by greek cypriot university students using english as an additional language. she reported that the emails were characterized by significant directness marked by lack of appropriate opening and closing, absence or underuse of hedged language (i.e., overuse of imperatives), and misuse of address forms (dr. first name). she found that students who employed direct request strategies (e.g., “please email the syllabus …”) were unknowingly judged by university lecturers as abrupt and disrespectful (pp. 3209, 3212). like the other authors cited in this paper, economidou-kogetsidis emphasized the need for incorporating explicit email instruction into language curricula. taken together, ads studies have suggested the need to not only scaffold students’ understanding of norms (i.e., by telling students that it is important to participate), but also the need to provide explicit guidance on the types of language use that correspond to local practices. based on these findings, the module described in this paper was designed to provide scaffolding for academic practices in two ways: it explicitly states the tacit norms of various classroom communication practices, and it provides examples and models of language that could be used to engage in those practices. in the remainder of the paper, we describe our design process for the online orientation. project overview the online module was developed collaboratively by the two authors over five months beginning in march 2019 and was hosted on the university’s course learning management system (lms), canvas. the final version of the module is divided into six sections: an introduction, three subsections with activities, an overview with information for accessing additional support, and a feedback survey. the three subsections contain content from the face-to-face workshop that the team felt would benefit from additional scaffolding and would be suited to online delivery. emailing was selected because written communication strategies could easily be addressed through asynchronous textual modes. in-class participation, including the importance of attendance and asking clarifying questions, was also identified as requiring additional reinforcement, particularly given the high stakes nature of regular participation in the program. finally, strategies for preparing readings for classes (e.g., writing down main ideas and keywords, noting questions to ask in class) were identified as a topic that was often less engaging in a large group setting and could be more easily modelled through videos and activities online. each of these three subsections was further broken down into a short lesson, including: https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 33 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 • an introduction page with objectives • a minimum of three interactive activities (each on a separate page) • a self-check quiz in which participants indicate how confident they feel about each objective in what follows, we describe the principles used to design the activities. design principles for online activities online modules can offer flexible, multimodal, and self-paced learning experiences (e.g., videos, games, and quizzes), making them an ideal choice for delivering content to large numbers of students who may or may not be present on campus. however, to access content, students often have to navigate unfamiliar online platforms, which can present a supplementary learning burden for students. in addition, the lack of personal interaction in online modules means that students who are having difficulties may not have the opportunity to ask questions. based on discussions around these benefits and drawbacks, the team agreed on three key principles to guide our design: multimodality, accessibility, and representation. these principles, which are similar to those described in work on universal design for learning (cast, 2018), reflect a growing trend in online design work to reduce barriers to learning and to cater to a variety of learning styles. multimodality. content that is multimodal is delivered via several modes (e.g., images, sound, and text). we decided that not only should our content be multimodal, but learners should also have the opportunity to manipulate and interact with the knowledge presented by answering questions, exploring content in non-linear ways, and organizing new ideas (i.e., multiple modes of engagement). to achieve our aims, we embedded interactive videos and activities throughout the module. interactive videos included embedded comprehension questions to enhance student interaction with the video content. our interactive activities were created using h5p, which is a web-based service that allows the user to create activities, such as flash cards, drag-and-drop activities, interactive timelines, and image hotspots that can be embedded directly into the html code of webpages, such as pages in canvas (www.h5p.org). figure 1 on the next page shows an example of an h5p multiple hotspot activity embedded in the module. in this activity, students must find hidden “hotspots” by clicking on the image of an email from a student to a teacher. when the area containing inappropriate language is clicked, advice on how to modify the email is provided. the activity is completed when all hotspots have been discovered, at which point the student can click “next” to move on to the next section of the module. the purpose of this activity is two-fold: it raises awareness about norms (e.g., by explaining that demanding help is inappropriate), and it provides language models to support participation (e.g., “could you give me some feedback”). this activity was the last of four in the “email” section. previous activities included: a video on reasons to email instructors, a hotspot activity of a sample “good” email, and a drag-and-drop activity of email openings and closings. each of these activities took only a few minutes to complete. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 http://www.h5p.org/ surtees & yamamoto 34 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 figure 1. h5p multiple hotspot activity. accessibility. both linguistic and technological accessibility were central to our project design. firstly, it was essential that the oral and written language in our module was manageable in terms of both its quantity and complexity. we limited the written text to just a few sentences per page, employed active verbs, and used repetition strategically to expose students to key academic vocabulary. for instance, the word “efficiently” (a frequently used academic word) is repeated several times and was also repeated in the final self-quiz for this section. figure 2 on the next page shows the text for an activity page from the section on preparing for class. the use of bullet points breaks up the reading to make it less intimidating for students. figure 2 also shows a screenshot from the accompanying video about strategies for completing course readings. to make the video accessible, narration was recorded at a deliberately slow pace with pauses throughout. in addition, notes, such as the ones shown in figure 2, are displayed to highlight the most important information for students. the linguistic content was also reviewed by speakers of english as an additional language to identify challenging words or expressions. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 35 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 figure 2. interactive video on preparing readings. to enhance technological accessibility, we ensured that all content would display correctly across most devices (e.g., phones, tablets, and desktops) and operating systems (e.g., mac os, ios, windows, and android). cross-platform usability was also enhanced by limiting content on each page to reduce the need for scrolling. all content was embedded directly within the module to reduce any rerouting issues. the choice to use canvas as the hosting platform was also driven by concerns of accessibility: all students had been granted canvas usernames and passwords and would have to learn to use the platform for their coursework. these circumstances enabled us to reduce registration issues and provided a legitimate rationale for requiring students to learn a new platform. representation. to ensure that the audience for the module (study abroad students) would have an opportunity to see themselves represented as legitimate and valued members of the campus community, we decided to include copyright-free images and clips that showed a variety of students, including students of colour, and to feature narrators with a variety of accents as narrators in our videos (e.g., american, japanese, and british). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 36 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 implementation first, we created the draft version of the activities within a digital “sandbox,” where we could experiment with different media and ideas. after testing the activities across devices, the module was migrated to the program’s shared canvas hub, where it would be accessible to students during their stay (september–april). two instructors and a staff member provided feedback. the module was introduced to students during their face-to-face orientation session the week before classes in september. one section of the online module (topic: in-class participation) was completed in the 2-hour workshop face-to-face to ensure that students were able to log in and locate the content. the remaining sections were assigned as homework, to be completed independently before the end of the following week. students were reminded via email and in classes to complete the module. one of the authors was available via email for technical support during this period. once the module had been completed, students filled out an anonymous online feedback form containing 12 questions related to interest/usefulness, accessibility, time to complete the module, and preferred sections/elements (see questionnaire in appendix a). student responses (n=70) were collated and qualitative responses were analyzed for recurring themes. a “response” was counted if at least one question was answered. the response rate was around 90% (74 students attended the face-to-face workshop); however, these numbers are reported as approximate because it is impossible to know if some students completed the module or the survey more than once, which might have inflated the numbers. around 75% of respondents indicated that they had completed all the activities while the remaining respondents admitted that they had completed only some of the activities. in addition, not all respondents answered all the questions. with those caveats in mind, the initial feedback suggests that students found the module to be useful, interesting, and accessible. student feedback table 1 on the next page displays students’ responses on likert questions related to overall usefulness of the module as well as linguistic and technological accessibility. note that the total number of respondents differs slightly for each question. overall, the results for questions 1 and 2 show that students’ experiences with the module were largely positive. most students either agreed (4) or strongly agreed (5) that the module was both useful and interesting. their open-ended comments suggest that they specifically appreciated the enhanced accessibility and clarity made possible by the interactive features and video materials. for example, one student commented on the “clear and understandable movies,” while another mentioned “there are some activities in the instruction. i like these.” these findings point to the importance of multimodality for enhancing students’ understanding of materials. when asked if they would like more modules on additional topics, the majority of students (58/61) expressed interest depending on the topic. they identified extracurricular activities and recycling practices as areas where they would like to learn more. students’ interest in these topics demonstrates their desire to participate in all aspects of campus https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 37 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 life. it also indicates a relatively high level of satisfaction and engagement with materials that orient them to the implicit norms of the local institution. table 1 participant responses to likert questions 1 2 3 4 5 total average q1. the information was useful. 0 0 3 16 50 69 4.7 q2. the activities were interesting 0 0 8 20 40 68 4.5 q3. the level of english was okay for me. 0 0 10 22 34 66 4.4 q4. the activities worked well on my device. 0 1 9 12 45 67 4.5 note. to enhance linguistic accessibility, ratings were in the form of stars (i.e., 5 stars = strongly agree). with an average of 4.4, responses to question 3 suggest that for the majority of students, the level of english was generally suitable. this trend was also reflected in students’ open-ended responses regarding their favourite features of the module, with five students commenting that the module was “easy to understand/read/see.” however, 10 students rated the english level of the module as a “3,” indicating that some students found aspects of the module difficult to understand. in the qualitative comments, several students suggested that an automated subtitle feature would enhance their online learning experience; however, other students commented that they viewed the module as an opportunity to learn english (e.g., “there is no subtitles so i could practice listening”). these comments suggest that additional support needs to be optional to provide a linguistically suitable condition for students with different language proficiencies. the average rating for technological accessibility for the module was 4.5, indicating a generally high level of functionality across devices. however, nine students rated the module as a “3,” and one rated the module as “2,” indicating that they experienced some difficulties. because of the absence of detailed feedback, the reason for the reduced accessibility remains unidentified. however, it would be advisable for program administrators to request that students update their operating system beforehand, or that they use a device provided by the institution to limit potential issues related to technology. it might also be prudent to survey students to find out about the devices they will be using and their ability to access high quality internet services prior to implementing online programming. lessons learned throughout the design process and implementation, we encountered a number of stumbling blocks and successes, two of which are discussed here. the first challenge we faced was in upholding our commitment to equitable representation. the majority of copyright-free materials represented certain types of student population (namely white students) more often than others, with those portraying bipoc (black, indigenous, people of colour) markedly less available in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 38 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 the database. very few visual materials were available that represented racial and gender diversity in teaching staff. finding appropriate images often required the use of racial keywords (e.g., “asian students” and “diversity on campus”), marking students of colour as “others.” the overrepresentation of white students and white male instructors as the default representation for the “student” and “instructor” categories points to ways in which mainstream media continues to enable english-speaking institutions to centre whiteness as the status quo (for a discussion of whiteness in english as an additional language teaching and learning, see gerald, 2020). we agree with gerald (2020) that it is the duty of english language educators to actively disrupt this status quo in order to provide a sense of safety, belonging, and legitimacy for incoming racialized students. ultimately, as a result of our careful selection of copyright-free images, video-clips, and narrators, we were able to represent linguistic and racial diversity throughout the module. however, without an explicit commitment to equity from the outset, it is unlikely we would have arrived at the same result. the second unexpected outcome was related to delivery and impact. as mentioned in the implementation section, the module was introduced during a face-to-face session. this in-person introduction to the online content was especially helpful for securing student buy-in, as evidenced by the high participation rate we had from the student cohort (over 90%). what we did not expect was that the feedback process and face-to-face presentation would also generate buyin from the faculty and staff who attended. for faculty, the module served as evidence that students were being given tools to be more successful in their courses, which in turn made them feel supported. for student support personnel who attended the face-to-face seminar, the module was a valuable resource: they reported referring students back to its various activities during their one-on-one sessions. for the administrative staff (including a representative from the students’ home institution), exploring the module raised their awareness of expectations that might be new for students. in other words, while the module was originally created for the benefit of the students, it ultimately generated productive conversations among staff and faculty collaborators as well. recommendations for our students, faculty, and staff, this module was a valuable resource. its value resides in its accessibility, its integration within our local digital infrastructure and programs, and its responsiveness to specific needs within our context. in that sense, the exact content and design are likely not suited for all students or institutions. with that in mind, we have developed a list of more general recommendations to keep in mind when embarking on this type of project: • keep it relevant: select content based on the local needs of students. • support not only understanding but also language: address both what students need to know (academic expectations) as well as how they can use language (and other behaviours) to fulfill those expectations. • incorporate interaction: ensure that activities are not only text-based but also provide opportunities to interact with ideas and content. make the language accessible for learners at a variety of levels and if possible, include (optional) subtitles for all videos. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 surtees & yamamoto 39 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 • make it convenient: host content on a platform that students either already know how to use or will need to know how to use. insofar as possible, ensure that content works on a range of devices. • develop content collaboratively: involve not only students but also staff and instructors. • keep it representative: include diverse speech models and images to provide positive reinforcement for incoming students. finally, a few words of caution. it would be simple to create a module that seeks to uncritically acculturate international students into western forms of participation. however, most internationalization strategies at bc institutions seek to create spaces that value the knowledge and practices that newcomers contribute to canadian institutions. thus, crucial to this type of project is the recognition that norms for classroom communication and participation are not common sense for most students—international or otherwise. rather, they are profoundly cultural and institutional. as murray and connachy (2018) have suggested, academic staff and lecturers can also benefit by reflecting critically on their beliefs about the value and form that class participation might take and to what extent those beliefs reproduce colonial perspectives. by consulting multiple stakeholders, including the students themselves during the development of support resources, projects such as this one could also constitute meaningful opportunities for transformative discussions about institutional cultures and practices. acknowledgements we would like to thank dr. reginald d’silva for his encouragement and insights related to this project, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. this project would not have been possible without the gracious seed funding provided by the department of language and literacy education at the university of british columbia. references cast (2018). universal design for learning guidelines version 2.2. retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org duff, p. a., & anderson, t. 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(2018). international students in bc’s education systems: summary of research from the student transitions project. retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/post-secondary-education/dataresearch/stp/stp-international-research-results.pdf kobayashi, m., zappa-hollman, s., & duff, p. a. (2017). academic discourse socialization. in p. a. duff & s. may (eds.), language socialization (3rd ed., pp. 239–254). cham: springer. morita, n. (2004). negotiating participation and identity in second language academic communities. tesol quarterly, 38, 573–603. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588281 murray, n., & mcconachy, t. (2018). “participation” in the internationalized higher education classroom: an academic staff perspective. journal of international and intercultural communication, 11(3), 254–3270. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2018.1459789 ryan, j., & viete, r. (2009). respectful interactions: learning with international students in the english-speaking academy. teaching in higher education, 14(3), 303–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510902898866 straker, j. (2016). international student participation in higher education: changing the focus from “international students” to “participation”. journal of studies in international education, 20(4), 299–3318. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315316628992 yang, l. (2010). doing a group presentation: negotiations and challenges experienced by five chinese esl students of commerce at a canadian university. language teaching research, 14(2), 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168809353872 yates, l., & nguyen, t. q. t. (2012). beyond a discourse of deficit: the meaning of silence in the international classroom. international education journal: comparative perspectives, 11(1), 22–34. https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/iej/article/view/6766/7411 appendix a anonymous online feedback form question response form what did you think about the module? • the information was useful. ☆☆☆☆☆ • the activities were interesting. ☆☆☆☆☆ how easy was it to complete the online module? • the level of english was okay for me. ☆☆☆☆☆ • the activities worked well on my device (e.g., laptop, tablet). ☆☆☆☆☆ https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1293873 https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/post-secondary-education/data-research/stp/stp-international-research-results.pdf https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/post-secondary-education/data-research/stp/stp-international-research-results.pdf https://doi.org/10.2307/3588281 https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2018.1459789 https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510902898866 https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315316628992 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168809353872 https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/iej/article/view/6766/7411 surtees & yamamoto 41 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 29–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 how long did it take to do the module? • less than 10 minutes. • 10–20 minutes. • 20–35 minutes. • more than 35 minutes. did you do all the activities? • yes, all of them! • i did some activities. • i only did a few activities. which topic did you find most useful • participating in lectures and seminars • preparing for class • emailing instructors • none were useful what did you like about the online module? (answer in english or in students’ first language) open-ended text entry response what did you not like about the online module? (answer in english or in students’ first language) open-ended text entry response do you want more online modules? • yes, i want more online activities about life at the university. • maybe, it depends on the topics and activities. • no, this module was enough. what topics would interest you most? open-ended text entry response do you have any other questions or comments? (answer in english or in students’ first language) open-ended text entry response the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ huang 42 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays the stories of my life: a task-based, oral narrative lesson for employment purposes for learners with refugee backgrounds li-shih huang university of victoria abstract this classroom practice oriented article provides the instructional framework and procedures for one of the sample field-tested lessons from the oral narrative units derived from the syrian learners of english for employment in canada (sleec) project (huang, 2021, 2022). this sharing is intended to provide a ready-to-use lesson plan and materials for implementation in the classroom, as well as to inform the work of practitioners supporting learners with refugee experiences. context since the start of the syrian civil war, more than 6.6 million syrians have fled the country, making the syrian refugee crisis one of the largest global humanitarian crises of our time. to date, canada has been one of the leading countries endeavouring to resettle these refugees. from 2014 to 2020, syria was the top country of origin for refugees resettled to canada (macklin & blum, 2021), with a new 2021 resettlement target set at 36,000 (paperny, 2021). however, a needs assessment study involving both learners’ and instructors’ perspectives within the federally-funded language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program revealed serious concerns by both parties that linc was not adequately addressing the language-learning needs and practical circumstances of learners with refugee backgrounds (e.g., huang, 2021; waisman, 2018). the multi-phase syrians learning english for employment purposes (sleec) project at the university of victoria, british columbia, was therefore designed to tackle these language-training issues (www.sleec-uvic.com). the sleec program was developed from the results of a needs assessment carried out in 2017–2018 that highlighted both instructors’ and learners’ concerns about the mismatch between learners’ needs and employment-related language training, and about the inadequacy of materials suitable for meeting those needs (huang, 2021). as per the needs assessment data, both instructors and learners noted the inaccessibility of employment-purposed language training, or so-called “enhanced language training,” for learners below the level of canadian language benchmark (clb) 5. the majority of offerings are targeted to the advanced level (e.g., linc employment related language training offered by the saskatchewan intercultural association: clb levels 7 and 8; enhanced language training offered by the toronto district school board: clb 6 or higher; linc for employment offered by issofbc: clb 7 and 8; and the level specified by settlement.org as “advanced”) (see also zhang, 2018). since then, changes appear to have been introduced by some providers in order to offer work-specific english instruction to learners at clb 2 to 4 (e.g., the helping newcomers work initiative by the agincourt community services association based in ontario). the sleec program has to-date https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 http://www.sleec-uvic.com/ https://saskintercultural.org/english-language-programs/language-instruction-for-newcomers-to-canada-linc/linc-erlt/ https://saskintercultural.org/english-language-programs/language-instruction-for-newcomers-to-canada-linc/linc-erlt/ https://www.tdsb.on.ca/adult-learners/learn-english/enhanced-language-training https://settlement.org/ontario/education/english-as-a-second-language-esl/esl-for-adults/what-is-enhanced-language-training-elt/ huang 43 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 implemented over 100 instructional units (see figure 1) focused on oral communication skills across different proficiency levels in the course of field-testing both lessons and instructional and learning materials. figure 1 sample sleec lessons empirical and theoretical support one of the recommendations developed through the needs assessment was to afford syrian learners with refugee backgrounds opportunities to navigate often contradictory identities within the context of learning english for employment purposes—for instance, from being a business owner to needing to seek temporary employment, or from being a medical professional to needing to be recertified (huang, 2021, 2022). oral narratives, or autobiographical storytelling, are one way to address this need. the efficacy and applicability of storytelling in job applications https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 44 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 and professional communication have been well established (e.g., boris, 2017, heifetz, 2016; kurnoff & lazarus, 2021); furthermore, the skills acquired apply beyond employment. our proclivity to tell stories to make sense of our world is one of the distinguishing features of being human. oral autobiographical storytelling involves speakers’ sharing selected events in their lives and their associated feelings and reactions to those events. indeed, narratives both as a phenomenon and a research methodology have generated a rich body of research (e.g., goodson et al., 2017). given the shared experiences by syrian learners with refugee experiences, but also recognizing that every learner’s experience is unique even within the broader shared experience of forced migration, this lesson rests on the assumption that people tend to share their experiences with others by narrating them. it is best introduced after the mid-way point or towards the end of the sleec program, once a sense of support and safety for experimenting with expressions of meaning and emotional disclosures has been firmly established. (for general english instructions for non-refugee learners, the lesson can be implemented earlier as a way for learners to get to know one another and for building a learner community.) even so, narrating experiences that one has coped or is currently coping with is an inherently intricate matter and always deserves sensitivity in its implementation. the lesson’s learning potential lies in the rich, multiple dimensions of oral narratives, namely, emotional, cognitive, and social. for the emotional dimension, narrating an experience may lead to different degrees of reexperiencing that event and reevoke its associated emotions, which in turn may intensify, lessen, or be altered during or after the narration through direct reappraisal, as well as reappraisal derived from gaining some temporal perspective. narrating an event can neutralize traumatic inhibition (pennebaker, 1997). however, it is by no means an uncomplicated process, and it has the potential to reignite trauma if it is implemented without self-perceived distancing and a self-defined safe space for sharing, receiving, and understanding personally meaningful expression and exploration (piazzoli & cullen, 2021). for the cognitive dimension, narrating life stories requires learners to explicate their experiences and translate them into a narrative through languaging (see jensen, 2014). this requires the learner to construct the meaning of, or understand, a lived experience in a way that moves beyond the emotional dimension, whether vague (because of distance in time or other affective variables) or sharp (because of nearness in time or the intensity of the experience, for example). finally, narrating life stories taps into the social dimension, which requires sharing that narrative and, by extension, the lived experience with someone else. having a broader, shared refugee experience and, within the context of learning the target language for employment, the presence of empathetic others in a sense validates the learner’s reality at a fundamental level that facilitates sharing and understanding other interpretations of life events. learners’ reasons for sharing, based on those stories that have already been shared, also typically involve these three dimensions: for example, reexperiencing a positive event (cognitive and emotional), informing others (cognitive and social), and gaining support (emotional and social). other reasons gleaned from research include clarifying the meaning of a chosen event, gaining empathy, releasing emotions, and seeking advice (babermas, 2018). reflecting on one’s past experience can also give rise to learning, which “may be defined as the process of making a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of an experience, which https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 45 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 guides subsequent understanding, appreciation, and action” (mezirow, 1990, p. 1). the power of autobiographical narratives has also been extensively researched and argued (goodson et al., 2017). the method does have limitations in that the lesson design necessarily constrains the type of story that is allowed to emerge, following a certain chronological order or set of sequences or narrative stages. for those teaching advanced learners, however, removing the constraints to enable learners to construct their own timeline of self-selected key events in their professional life can be the first step toward an expanded life story as the course progresses. retelling a story or re-narrating stories we have read, heard, or witnessed is a common act. retelling is how both fiction and non-fiction stories are passed down through the generations. in language teaching, the use of storytelling in various contexts and learner age groups has generated some empirical support for its efficacy in developing different aspects (e.g., vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax) and domains (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) of the target language (see lucarevschi, 2016; peters, 2021). re-narrating to oneself or to different people in small groups or outside of class can also promote fluency, syntactical complexity, and accuracy (e.g., bui, ahmadian, & hunter, 2019). different types of retelling are a form of context-embedded recycling for consolidating learning and can involve, for example, narrating similar events with the same theme, narrating the same event but making a different point, or narrating different events with the same underlying theme or point. the potential for narrative storytelling to induce healing, moreover, is a process that takes time and requires both narrators and listeners to anticipate the non-static, unfinalizable nature of narrating and understanding lived experiences (goodson et al., 2017). it is worth noting that the field-testing of the lesson included in this article did not give rise to learners’ sharing of experiences of trauma or violence (e.g., waterhouse, 2016) or of racism, classism, or discriminatory behaviours related to employment, or even general negative emotions triggered by the stories they shared. instead, the sharing generated deeply moving, positive emotions of pride, joy, gratitude, and aspiration (jensen, 2014). this could be the result of the stage of their resettlement—most of those at clb stage 1 (initial basic ability) have recently arrived or are in transition to canada. it is also not to deny the possibility that such sharing could lead to unexpected directions and territories. for navigating issues related to trauma or violence, readers may refer to waterhouse (2016), earner (2018), valenzuela (2021), or the materials on guidance for stress and trauma developed by the unhcr (2019). for work on systemic racism and discrimination related to employment, refer to jackson et al. (2013). the sections that follow describe the instructional framework and procedures. lesson design and procedures level: the lesson can be easily modified to suit learners at different proficiency levels. suggested timeframe: 120 minutes goals: to create and orally narrate a personal story through identifying topics from specific points in time and recalling the specific events, emotions, and impact of those lived experiences. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 46 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 objectives: to develop learners’ confidence in telling their stories with descriptive details, mediated through objects or pictures they select to represent something meaningful from the past, present, and future. instructional framework the lesson design adheres to long’s (2014) task-based language teaching, where task design starts with a needs analysis to identify target tasks for a specific group of learners—in this case, syrian learners with refugee experiences. for long, the term “tasks” refers to “real-world activities people think of when planning, conducting, or recalling their day” (p. 6). through modifications, the target task (not the grammatical features)—in this case, storytelling—becomes “a series of progressively more complex pedagogic tasks,” defined as “the activities and the materials that teachers and/or students work on in the classroom or other instructional environment” (long, 2014, p. 6, emphasis in the original). the framework uses the cycles of pretask (for preparing learners for doing the main task), main task (the target, real-world task), posttask (for focusing on forms to ensure that learners “get it right in the end”), and follow-up task (homework for consolidating learning) (willis & willis, 2007, pp. 30–32). these embody the modified principles for developing an instructional sequence originally put forward by nunan (2004), as follows: (1) scaffolding (i.e., tasks and materials provide support within the task and for subsequent tasks); (2) withinand between-task dependency (i.e., each task builds on those that have been completed); (3) context-embedded recycling (i.e., the target language is used in different contexts); (4) active learning (i.e., tasks are designed to engage learners through activities using the language); (5) integration (i.e., the lesson integrates meaning, function, and form); (6) creation (i.e., the lesson is designed in a way that helps learners engage in authentic language use); and (7) reflection (i.e., opportunities are provided for guided reflection on the process and/or product). implementation this section describes the lesson procedures after the lesson was field-tested in remote learning mode by learners in clb stages i (initial basic ability) and ii (fluent intermediate ability), corresponding to the common european framework of references for languages (cefr) ratings a1.1 to b1.1 (centre for canadian language benchmark; actfl). for classroom teaching, teachers can use the one-page lesson plan for easy reference (appendix a). pre-task cycle: the tasks in this cycle are designed to introduce the lesson’s target task (storytelling) and activate the learners’ background (linguistic, content, discourse, and/or strategic knowledge). pre-task 1: ask questions to prompt learners to share their experiences with or perceptions about storytelling: do/have you shared your stories with others? why is storytelling important? play the 1,000 dream video clip to elicit what the clip is about. for more advanced learners, questions may include: why is it important who tells the story? what are the pros and cons of personal stories told by oneself versus others? what are the benefits of storytelling? how is storytelling relevant to english for employment purposes (the context of the program) (e.g., heifetz, 2016). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 https://www.language.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/clb_nclc_overview-of-competencies.pdf https://languagetesting.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/pdf/research/alignment_of_the_actfl_proficiency_ratings_to_the_clb_d7.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa0raoyzryw huang 47 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 pre-task 2: play a video clip of an immigrant talking about her past, present, and future using the three items she has selected. note that the clip is not for learners to regurgitate the language, format, or style used by the speaker; it is important to emphasize that people tell their personal stories in their own ways. elicit from learners what the speaker talked about, and what other topics one could talk about in creating a story about one’s professional life (e.g., place of birth, family background, parents’ and siblings’ characters, interests, work and school or educational experiences, work history, other personal interests and pursuits, future aspirations). write those items in the chat (for remote learning) or on the board (for face-to-face learning) for learners to draw inspirations from when they carry out pre-task 3. pre-task 3: in three stages, have learners search for one object or photo apiece from their past, present, and future. (1) past: give learners one to two minutes to search for one object/photo from their past that shows something they are proud of. record those items on slide 1 (appendix b). after learners have briefly showed their items, use slide 2 to elicit only key words from learners to describe the who, what, where, when, and why. it is important to stress that they need only to generate key words to describe the object/photo. for a larger class size and in-person instruction, learners can share their items with their neighbouring peers. the slide can be a sharable and editable one where learners can enter their own key words. (2) present: give learners one to two minutes to search for another object/photo that is important to them in the present. repeat the procedures described in (1). (3) future: given learners one to two minutes to search for a third object/photo that represents something they aspire to in their future. repeat the procedures described in (1). as ausubel (1968) once said: “the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. ascertain this and teach [them] accordingly” (p. 18). by building on and drawing from what the learners know, including their own language (huang, 2021, 2022), completing these pre-tasks also serves to scaffold their performance of the main task. main task cycle: using the slides from the pre-task cycle, provide learners some strategic planning time (where they consider what they will say in terms of content and language before undertaking the task) to create their own narratives, as well as some online or during-task planning time (where they are allowed to complete the task) to enhance fluency, accuracy, or complexity of oral production (e.g., skehan et al., 2012). encourage learners to focus on the meaning and content they wish to express to engage their listeners. have learners take turns telling their stories. as a way to build confidence, or if the lesson is implemented early in the course, have them first share their stories within a small group as a way to rehearse telling their stories in a less intimidating setting before sharing them with the class. after each one-minute story, use a quick question based on the learners’ proficiency level (e.g., can you relate to the story? what’s one thing you like about the story? how did the story make you feel?) to encourage them to pay attention to others’ stories as listeners. audio-record or have learners audio-record their own stories for use in the follow-up task cycle. have each group volunteer to tell one story from the past, present, or future to share with the class, and make sure there is a story from each period (past, present, and future) for form-focused work in the post-task cycle. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 https://youtu.be/9fl-yt6ltz0 huang 48 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 while learners tell their stories, use slide 3 to concurrently transcribe their oral stories. alternatively, have learners draft their stories using a sharable document such as google docs or slides to facilitate form-focused work in the postand follow-up task cycle. post-task cycle: use the transcribed texts from the previous task cycle to do form-focused work. avoid the temptation to correct all errors. prioritize pronunciation issues that compromise intelligibility. focus on common deviations that are within the learners’ level—for instance: (1) lexical: descriptive details and word choices (may involve lexical accuracy or diversity depending on level); (2) phrasal: verb tenses; (3) discourse: well-organized description of event sequences, transitional words or phrases to signal time shifts, or a theme-rheme analysis (theme: the semantic starting point for a clause or sentence; rheme: the end point or destination that comments on the theme) for more advanced learners (halliday, 1994). use the find it, analyze it, and correct it (fac) strategy (huang, 2010) to elicit input from learners to make this cycle interactive and to facilitate the self-editing work they will do in the follow-up task. encourage learners to read out their sentences (which further serves as auto-input; ellis, 2003) when they revise their stories. follow-up task cycle: divide the homework into a three-level challenge to enhance learning outcomes. remind learners to complete the level 1 challenge as soon as they are able to maximize the benefit of reflective learning. level 1 challenge: review, listen, and reflect. have learners review the lesson within 24 hours by viewing the videos and reviewing the slides used during the lesson before listening to their own oral story recorded in class. use the reflection prompts to guide their reflection: what did you do well? what did you find challenging? what would you say differently? level 2 challenge: refine and record. have learners use the form-focused slides from the posttask to refine their own stories by applying the fac strategy before re-recording their oral stories. level 3 challenge: listen, compare, reflect, and apply. have learners compare the story recorded in class and the story they recorded to complete challenge 2. use prompts (e.g., what improvements have you noticed? what did you find challenging in revising your story?) to guide their reflection. have learners retell their stories to a friend or family member. to scale up the lesson: for more advanced learners, instead of using the past–present–future framework, have them create a timeline of major events in their lives, along with an image presenting each milestone. depending on the complexity of the stories, the lesson can also be implemented in multiple units to enable different types of retelling. these may give rise to important transformative learning through exploring values, beliefs, and worldviews, and through autobiographical reasoning that facilitates making connections between different parts of the learner’s past, present, and future, leading to personal development (habermas & köber, 2015). figure 2 presents an overview of the instructional framework (huang, 2021). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 49 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 figure 2 sleec’s task-based instructional framework conclusion as clandinin and connelly (1994), two prominent figures in the field of narrative inquiry, stated: “stories are the closest we can come to experience as we and others tell of our experience. a story has a sense of being full, a sense of coming out of a personal and social history…. people live stories, and in the telling of them reaffirm them, modify them, and create new ones” (p. 415). with the benefits of developing cultural awareness, building a learner community, attending to the affective and social dimensions of learning, listening to learner voices, and practicing emergent, language-focused teaching that addresses learners’ needs (not needs predetermined by the teacher), the potential of oral narrative for telling, retelling, reliving, and learning from stories of personal or professional experiences is boundless. those narratives, moreover, have the potential of helping learners with refugee experiences move into—and through—moments of learning, of transition, and of life every time they narrate a life story. acknowledgements i would like to express my gratitude to our syrian friends and to the sleec team for their contributions to the development and field-testing of this lesson. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 50 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 funding statement this article is derived from the sleec project funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (insight grant). references ausubel, d. 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[unpublished ma thesis]. university of victoria. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 https://hbr.org/2021/05/the-key-to-landing-your-next-job-storytelling https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/wplc/article/view/15309 https://www.asileproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/country-fiche_canada_final_pub.pdf https://www.asileproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/country-fiche_canada_final_pub.pdf https://reut.rs/2rhx2f7 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00403.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00403.x https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/ipp_collection/758/ https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.15.2.1 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168811428414 https://www.unhcr.org/teaching-about-refugees https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-trauma-informed-strategies-supporting-refugee-students https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-trauma-informed-strategies-supporting-refugee-students https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/05/02/news/two-years-ups-and-downs-syrian-refugees-who-settled-vancouver https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/05/02/news/two-years-ups-and-downs-syrian-refugees-who-settled-vancouver https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v33i0.1244 huang 52 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 appendix a one-page lesson plan https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 53 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 appendix b sample sharable slides sample slide 1 sample slide 2 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 huang 54 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 42–54 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 sample slide 3 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.459 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ walsh marr 132 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays the promise and precarity of critical pedagogy in english for academic purposes jennifer walsh marr university of british columbia abstract english for academic purposes (eap) has become an increasingly prominent sector of the english language teaching profession in british columbia, providing english language preparation for post-secondary education across a range of disciplines. this theoretical paper gives overviews of eap and critical pedagogy, then delves into four central tenets that are parallel in both fields: decoding, contextualization, praxis, and critical thinking. beyond the parallels, it explores both promising initiatives and tensions in the enactment of critical pedagogy in eap, not least of which is the precarity of many instructors in the field. recognizing the contributions of eap and moving the field from the margins of the academy would make for better opportunities to realize the full potential of international students and international education through critical pedagogy. introduction international education is celebrated for bringing diversity and additional income to postsecondary institutions in canada (bccie, 2019; government of canada, 2020). the gateway through which many multilingual international students enter the academy is english for academic purposes (eap) instruction: language instruction that is designed to prepare students for not only the linguistic but also the cultural demands of studying in english in canada. the field of teaching eap is a teaching field that is consistently positioned in the service of the academy (haque, 2007; macdonald, 2016). despite their deep linguistic knowledge, breadth of pedagogical proficiencies, and responsiveness to distinct disciplinary practices, eap instructors are typically tasked with preparing international and multilingual students for the “real work” of coursework (murie & fitzpatrick, 2009, p. 166) to come later, rather than being acknowledged as members of the academy themselves. that same academy professes a pursuit of deeper and critical learning and of nuanced and transformative education. central to this intellectual endeavour should be critical thinking and critical pedagogy: a deeper understanding and engagement with contextual factors with an eye to improving them for all. as aspects of academic habitus, there are important parallels between eap and critical pedagogy. however, there are also deep divisions between the stated goals of international education, the positioning of eap in the margins of the academy, and the enactment of critical pedagogy. this paper discusses the underlying principles of eap and critical pedagogy, draws out parallels between the two, and discusses critical tensions that threaten the inclusion of critical pedagogy within eap instruction. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 133 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 eap as a field eap is “the study of english for the purpose of participating in higher education” (bruce, 2011, p. 6). the study and practice is at once both a narrow and wide field; it is narrow in its particular focus on preparing students’ english language skills for future studies, but wide with variables such as the academic level of studies an eap student pursues (undergraduate, graduate, or professional work), whether instruction is english for general academic purposes (egap) or discipline-focused english for specific academic purposes (esap), and/or if english studies are embedded in their course of study in a content and language integrated learning (clil) model (ding & bruce, 2017; hyland & shaw, 2016). each of these variables is impacted by language ideologies, institutional discourses, and curricular goals. eap curricula are ostensibly informed by english language features valued within academic modes of communication. most obviously, this mode of communication is academic writing that summarizes and synthesizes other academic work after having determined the main ideas, salient arguments, and key points. academic texts may also draw from functions such as comparing and contrasting ideas and explaining the causes and effects of certain choices. eap students need to gain familiarity with the various linguistic features of these functions, as well as where and why they occur. students also need to build their academic lexis for both receptive and productive purposes. eap is essentially “a needs-driven activity,” where “deconstructing learner need in relation to academic skills and competencies is complex and multifaceted” (bruce, 2011, p. 7). curricula need to suit students’ linguistic proficiency, academic readiness, and cultural dispositions and expectations as they arrive in the eap classroom, with an eye to preparing them for their academic careers. the core and peripheral concerns of the present and future situations need sophisticated navigation and deep contextualization. teaching eap requires the development of language knowledge and disciplinary readiness, which draws on significant breadth and depth of knowledge from the instructor. for those who completed general language teacher education, as is almost exclusively the case, adapting more general language pedagogy and professional practice to meet the needs of the academy goes to the heart of the challenge faced by many competent elt [english language teaching] practitioners who are asked by employers to develop and teach eap courses in order to meet the increasing demand for this type of course. in effect, such teachers are being required to create and deliver courses in a specialized area of english language teaching (an area that differs considerably from more general elt courses) without the requisite specialist training and support. they are being asked to introduce students to academic discourses and practices in systematic and theorized ways although they themselves may only be able to draw upon their own personal, eclectic experiences and intuitions about the academic world that is the object of their pedagogy. (bruce, 2011, p. 68) further, the purpose-driven and seemingly unproblematic content of eap curricula may or may not recognize the breadth of international student identities, plurilinguistic repertoires, and networks (duff, zappa-hollman, & surtees, 2019), or rely on western-dominant frames of reference, rather than critical pedagogy that supports critical thinking. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 134 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 eap and international education eap is often positioned as a gateway (if not gate keeper) to international students’ participation in higher education in canada. institutions set english language proficiency requirements for admissions, typically through the international english language testing system (ielts), the test of english as a foreign language (toefl), or other standardized language assessments. students who do not yet meet these scores typically register in english courses to improve their qualifying test scores, and most of these courses are subsumed under an eap umbrella. previous scholarship has discussed how standardized tests such as ielts do not adequately represent the full range of linguistic demands of academic study (moore & morton, 2005; stigger, 2019). it is also important to recognize that eap courses are often international students’ first encounter with the western academy, and are often construed as sites of acculturation as much as language training grounds. while eap curricula are often expected to not only incorporate but “train” students in critical thinking (moore, 2017) and intercultural communication (douglas & rosvold, 2018) through critical pedagogy (haque, 2007), the institutional discourses around international education risk undermining authentic engagement in the potential that international voices bring to the academy. despite the qualitative arguments made for internationalizing education, most of the measures of the impact are quantitative: the number of international students enrolled and their economic impact (bccie, 2019; cbie, 2020). in british columbia in 2017, international education (much of which is eap) contributed $2.7 billion to the provincial economy, 39% of which was from students enrolled in public post-secondary institutions (bccie, 2019). it is important to acknowledge this figure represents not only direct tuition fees international students pay for their classes, but also “spin off” economic benefits through housing, extra-curricular activities, and general student support offered through their host institutions and agencies. to be critical thinkers, however, people involved in international education and the field of eap must look beyond the economic benefits international students bring to institutions. institutions that not only host but compete for these students, as well as the instructors who directly engage with them, need a clear-eyed view of the differing philosophical frameworks of international education that range from socio-cultural or academic rationales to political or economic interests (knight & de wit, 1999, as cited in knight, 2012; qiang, 2003). this understanding would include acknowledging the impact of positioning international students as economic vehicles versus rights-bearing citizens (roberston, 2011) as these discourses both inform and impact interactions. administrators, educators, and policy makers need to query the role of international students in “nation building via higher education” (mccartney & metcalfe, 2018, p. 216) and eap instructors’ roles in mediating this endeavour not only for and with post-secondary institutions, but for and with international students as well. it is time to revisit the foundations of critical pedagogy and how it relates to eap. critical pedagogy critical pedagogy is not something to deliver, but something to engage in. it is a situated, dialectic practice that prioritizes not only the needs and aspirations of students, but the transformation of oppressive contexts (darder, 2018; guilherme, 2012). a central goal is to empower agentive citizens, rather than produce technically competent, yet passive, peons to https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 135 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 perpetuate the status quo (guilherme, 2012, p. 3). it is a pedagogy to engender “a common striving towards awareness of reality and towards self-awareness” (freire, 2013, p. 163), rather than a methodology to train for standardized proficiency. in the foundational pedagogy of the oppressed, freire (2013) problematized a “banking” model of education, stating, “dialogue cannot be reduced to the act of one person’s ‘depositing’ ideas in another, nor can it become a simple exchange of ideas to be ‘consumed’ by the discussants” (p. 158). instead, critical pedagogy interrogates and responds to contexts with humility and faith in change. it seeks to transform rather than accommodate hierarchies, and, in the process, to liberate both the oppressed and the oppressor. the dialectal act of responding to and reconfiguring contexts engenders a deeper understanding and critical awareness of interacting forces on individuals and society. it moves towards a reconsideration of established views and underlying assumptions of the “political and cultural superstructure of society” (bronner, 2017, p. 2) and forces participants to think about their learning. it begets critical thinking, that is, “thinking which perceives reality as process, as transformation, rather than as a static entity” (freire, 2013, p. 159). in essence, critical pedagogy embodies the promise of transformative education. parallels in critical pedagogy and eap in discussing the relations and tensions between critical pedagogy and rigorous eap practice, it is important to recognize how their key attributes parallel one another. to begin with, deciphering academic texts, both their meaning and linguistic features, is central to eap. the process of “decoding” disciplinary vocabulary, concepts, and patterns of argumentation is accompanied by practicing “encoding” meaning into disciplinary terms (irwin & liu, 2019). the movement from the everyday to the academic relies on increased objectivity and abstraction through particular linguistic features well beyond a general communicative purpose (liardét, 2016). further, there are valued patterns of encoding and decoding through texts and across disciplines that build meaning; deliberate movement between types of knowledge (and knowers) is key to not only texts, but good pedagogy as well (maton, 2014). freire (2013), too, discussed the practice of “decoding,” the process of unpacking phenomena and their “investigation by means of abstraction” (p. 162). in the context of critical pedagogy, it is a parallel “dialectal movement of thought” (p. 162), from the concrete to the abstract and back again, that facilitates participants’ recognition of themselves and their relevance in it through “naming the world” (darder, 2018, p. 74). a more fundamental construct of critical pedagogy is the centrality of contextualization: “a critical investigation into people’s lives and their actual needs” (darder, 2018, p. 90). this contextualization is putting aside “arrogance” (freire, 2013, p. 158) and patronizing assumptions about what educators think others need and engaging in dialectal methodology that generates more authentic themes from participants’ perspectives and lived experiences (darder, 2018; guilherme, 2012). it rejects rigidity in favour of responding “to collective microand macrocontexts and, therefore, is sensitive and attentive to ontological, epistemological, social and pedagogical issues and changes in language and culture education” (guilherme, 2012, p. 4). in order for pedagogy to be appropriate and critical, it must be situated in the lives and needs of participants. in the context of eap, this means adherence to four main principles: authenticity, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 136 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 groundedness, interdisciplinarity, and relevance. this adherence means texts and tasks should be real (not contrived), research-informed, representative of the fields of influence and application, and relevant to students’ needs (hyland & shaw, 2016, p. 3). of particular consequence to the discussion at hand is the principle of relevance, contextualizing course curricula with “needs analysis to systematically identify the specific skills, texts and communicative practices that a particular group of learners [emphasis added] will use” (p. 4). this is a pedagogy that is both specific to situated, disciplinary usage and responsive to the students who are engaging with it. it cannot assume shared background knowledge, and it cannot frame “others” with different background knowledge and discourse practices as deficient. a systematic framing of needs analysis for eap was articulated 35 years ago when hutchinson and waters (1987) set curricular planning questions that began with “why do learners need the language?”; “who will the learner use the language with?”; and “where will the learner use the language?” (as cited in bruce, 2011 and hyland & shaw, 2016). this framing puts learners before language and requires nuanced curricular responses to shifting student demographics and their goals. a third parallel is praxis. for freire, praxis was built upon both reflection and action, “a dynamics between theory and practice” (guilherme, 2012, p. 1), setting them into an iterative cycle: “praxis as dialogical manifestation of critical knowledge and creativity, rooted in reflection and action for transformation” (darder, 2018, p. 85). in the eap context, praxis is research-informed teaching practice. while this is reminiscent of a thorough student-centred needs analysis, it also relies on the interdisciplinary knowledge base that converges in eap: applied linguistics, writing and rhetoric, intercultural communication, identity and motivation theories, and pedagogy. research examines the language patterns of valued texts, their pedagogical deployment, eap students’ emergent reproduction of academic english features, the impact of eap context on students’ identity, and back again. eap teaching both applies research to pedagogy and informs future avenues of investigation. finally, there is critical thinking. long the goal of higher education, eap departments have been saddled with “training” students to think critically as part of their academic socialization tasks. atkinson (1997) highlighted and critiqued the typical acritical incorporation of critical thinking into eap pedagogies a quarter century ago, and it has often manifested as a “fifth skill” (in addition to reading, writing, listening, and speaking) in eap curricula. in striking parallel with english instruction itself, critical thinking is often conceived of as a discrete set of skills that can be taught divorced from context and in preparation for academic pursuits. this “skills based” approach is the one most commonly found in eap textbooks (moore, 2017) as a checklist of “cognitive operations” (p. 21) that interrogates specificity, contradiction, and logic. however, moore has also made direct relations with an “ethics approach” to critical thinking, which closely aligns with critical theory and critical pedagogy. its goals encompass “the critical scrutiny of social structures and practices” (moore, 2017, p. 22) from a normative stance to engender student agency in change-making within and beyond the academic institution in which they study. this is easily recognizable as drawing from freire’s (2013) aims of social transformation through discussion and engagement. freire claimed that “critical thinkers…are committed to the change required for our continued humanization” (as cited in darder, 2018, p. 88) in contrast to “naïve thinking, which sees ‘historical time as a weight, a stratification of the acquisitions and experiences of the past,’ from which the present should emerge normalized and ‘well-behaved.’ for the naïve thinker, the important thing is accommodation to this normalized https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 137 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 ‘today’” (freire, 2013, p. 159). critical thinking, as skill or disposition, allows for a clearer view of context and provides the means for pushing the bounds of the existing parameters of what is towards what could be. both the academy and critical pedagogy see critical thinking as a means of engagement. at its core, critical pedagogy seeks to dismantle oppressive hierarchies and facilitate everyone attaining their full potential. the responsiveness to participants’ needs and the process of seeking that input is more open ended and may well be “messier” than a tidy curriculum aligned with standardized learning outcomes consistent across participant groups. promising initiatives despite the default “practical orientation” of eap (hyland & shaw, 2016, p. 2), some important critical pedagogy and research is occurring across a variety of contexts. recognizing the critical lens that language itself can be, motschenbacher (2019) has advocated for “an inclusion-oriented applied linguistics” (p. 288) that interrogates the “communicative phenomena” and “linguistic barriers” (as opposed to language barriers) that hinder students’ inclusion and agency. the most obvious of these barriers include discourses that position international students as deficient in knowledge and skills. instead, motschenbacher has called for a pedagogy of “applied linguistics [that] harnesses the very notions of negotiability, instability and changeability” (p. 288). this call mirrors the authenticity, groundedness, interdisciplinarity, and relevance central to strong eap curricula (hyland & shaw, 2016, p. 3) beyond linguistic and academic needs to better represent the discursiveness of critical pedagogy. further, the use of language detail can be “a mode of inquiry” (moore, 2017, p. 24) where eap pedagogy “demonstrate[s] the linguistic means by which different types of judgements are enacted in texts, or that enable a writer to assume some kind of authorial stance” (p. 23). this closer look at language features in contexts of racialized discourses (chun, 2016; motha, 2016), indigenous-settler histories (walsh marr, 2019), queer linguistics (sauntson, 2019), and queer critical race pedagogy (aguilar-hernádez, 2020), draws attention to normative and exclusionary language practices and facilitates students’ critical thinking and language development. pushing back against the “commodification and disembodiment of language,” meighan (2021, p. 77) has advocated for looking more closely at language itself to decolonize our frames of reference towards a “more equitable, sustainable and transformative way of viewing and interacting with the world” (p. 78). none of these topics is in competition with or in contradiction of one another. this language-informed critical pedagogy is an opportunity for eap instructors to think about the question, “what does pedagogy look like if we refuse to separate the intersectional experiences” of students? (aguilar-hernádez, 2020, p. 683) as “social inequities are multi-pronged and manifest in higher education classrooms” (p. 692). this questioning is the academy’s opportunity to embrace the insight and diversity that is, or at least could be, internationalization and critical language awareness. critical tensions critical pedagogy prioritizes “the creation of a world grounded in an ethics of social and material liberation” (darder, 2018, pp. 2–3). this understanding can be at odds with the ways in which eap departments, and, by extension, their instructors, are positioned in relation to the academy. rarely credit bearing and often housed adjacent to the academy (rather than situated within it), https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 138 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 eap practice is positioned as remedial and mere preparation for the “real work” of the academy (murie & fitzpatrick, 2009, p. 166). rather than a professional field with opportunity for critical pedagogy, eap is seen as “language training” in practice. the “practical orientation” is problematic in tertiary education, where eap students are patronizingly seen as empty vessels “with a deficit of literacy skills which can be topped up in a few english classes. in this view, literacy can thus be taught to students as a set of discrete, value-free rules and technical skills usable in any situation” (hyland & shaw, 2016, p. 2). this view completely erases the agency of students. further, educators should recognize that nothing is in fact value free and neutral, particularly in education. the eap class is an opportunity to reify the power imbalances or engage with the greater potential of education, as “any position one takes in education is a political position, even the pretense of neutrality or maintaining the status quo means taking a side” (nieto ángel et al., 2020, p. 147). on one end of the spectrum is the role of teacher as deliverer of packaged curricula for standardized assessments, and at the other end is the teacher as mediator or “agent of empowerment” (haque, 2007, p. 94). recognizing eap instructors are working with international students in a largely globalized world, there is the opportunity to create a “critical pedagogy of the global [that] must be able to reckon with the fundamental transformations of consciousness, experience, and identity that are central to the shift to the historical condition of globality” (de lissovoy, 2020, p. 185). this condition of “globality” is “the organization of human life and meaning on a much vaster and more complex scale” (p. 184) and the world in which post-secondary education and students engage. by ignoring the potential of critical pedagogy, particularly with international students, the academy shirks the promise of more meaningful engagement and learning all around. the flexibility and responsiveness required of critical pedagogy requires significant investment and agency on the instructors’ part; they cannot do this deep planning and preparation and delivery without significant support. keeping in mind that “the starting point for organizing the program content of education or political action must be the present, existential, concrete situation, reflecting the aspirations of the people” (freire, 2013, p. 161), eap curricula need to be responsive and situated. this need for investment, agency, and support brings us to a particularly problematic aspect of the relationships required of critical pedagogy: the precarity of eap instructors. despite the depth and breadth of knowledge required of eap instructors (baleap, 2008), they typically occupy a “third space” (macdonald, 2016) adjacent to the academy, rather than embedded (and protected) within it. this marginalization is due to both ideological and economic factors. ideologically, english language instruction has long been positioned as a remedial “butler” service to the academy, rather than a full-fledged discipline (raimes, 1991). eap instructors are seen as “academic workers…hired to perform a specific, standardized teaching task” (mccartney & metcalfe, 2018, p. 214) and part of “a service industry to provide students with access to a neutral body of knowledge” (haque, 2007, p. 94). this characterization negates the linguistic, disciplinary, intercultural, and pedagogic expertise eap instructors carry and deploy. further, eap instructors are marginalized by the conditions of their employment, with typically temporary contracts and placed out of view and concern of the academy at large (mccartney & metcalfe, 2018). while it may be distasteful for educators to celebrate the economic impact of international education, there is an oppressive disparity between international student fees and the material wellbeing of eap instructors. with fluctuations of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 walsh marr 139 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 132–141 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 student enrolment, marketing initiatives, and study visa processing, few eap instructors can rely on steady employment. recognizing that “impermanence has remained a consistent feature” (breshears, 2019, p. 42) throughout english instruction in general for several decades, this precarity undermines eap instructors’ opportunity to engage with critical pedagogy in deep and meaningful ways. recalling that dialogue is central to critical pedagogy, freire (2013) asked, “how can i dialogue if i am afraid of being displaced, the mere possibility causing me torment and weakness?” (p. 158). the chronic precarity of eap employment, exacerbated by global crises such as covid-19, undermines universities’ opportunity to realize the full potential of dialogue with international students and their academic english instructors. post-secondary institutions cannot rely on precariously employed individuals to carry out the larger goals of higher education from the margins of institutions they “serve.” there is a greater opportunity for deeper dialogue, relations and learning. however, if post-secondary institutions want eap departments to engage with eap students in critical thinking and the bigger concepts of higher education, they need to engage in discussions with these departments and international students to see what insights they have to share. there needs to be greater recognition of the nuanced work that eap instructors do and the professionalism required to straddle academic, service, and pedagogical demands, “for only dialogue, which requires critical thinking, is also capable of generating critical thinking” (freire, 2013, p. 160). international education, eap instruction, and higher education are in no way incompatible; they are as of yet not attaining their full potential to dialogue and realize the promise they hold for one another. references aguilar-hernádez, j. 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(2019). an english language teacher’s pedagogical response to canada’s truth and reconciliation commission. new directions for teaching and learning, 2019(157), 91–103. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20332 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12237 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39808-8_9 https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2003.1.2.5 https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.558590 https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12239 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v4i1.339 https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20332 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ khatri 94 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 universal design for learning: its application to english for academic purposes classrooms in canada raj khatri george brown college abstract in a time when students around the globe continue to pursue their higher studies in englishspeaking countries, educators also continue to explore innovative teaching methods and approaches in order to support learning. universal design for learning (udl) is an innovative teaching framework that has recently drawn considerable attention among educators and researchers alike in canada. a udl framework helps educators, including english-foracademic-purposes (eap) and english-as-an-additional-language (eal) instructors, consider learner variability, motivate and engage learners in in multiple ways, provide instructional resources and materials in various forms, and offer learners opportunities to demonstrate learning in alternate pathways. this article presents three core udl principles: multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression and establishes connections to teaching eap. the purpose is to interpret these three udl principles and respective guidelines in eap contexts and discuss how these principles and guidelines can be applied to eap classrooms in order to support language learning in canada. introduction there has been a surge in the number of international students in english-speaking countries, including canada, where the number of international students has also increased at institutions of higher education (allen et al., 2018; khatri, 2018). upon arrival in a foreign country where they plan to pursue their higher studies, these learners not only have to adapt to the different teaching methods and approaches of their instructors but also have to adjust to a new culture (ortmeierhooper, 2008). while an increase in learners from around the world provides instructors with an opportunity to expand their teaching experience, this increase also contributes to the growing challenges instructors and learners face daily in the course of their teaching and learning activities (ryan & carroll, 2005). to provide these learners with necessary support in their academic pursuits, institutions of higher learning are offering english for academic purposes (eap) courses that are crucial to learner success (huang, 2018). in addition, instructors also continue to explore and implement innovative curriculum and teaching methods and approaches in their teaching (boothe et al., 2018). as teaching is an “intentional and reasoned act” (anderson & krathwohl, 2001, p. 3), it is important for instructors to effectively engage in both the “intentional” and “reasoned” parts of teaching. while teaching as a reasoned act is associated with what learning objectives instructors include in their teaching, teaching as an intentional act points to how instructors support their learners in meeting those objectives. as a tool for eap instructors to effectively and efficiently navigate both the “what” and “how” of teaching and to address the needs of their international students, universal design for learning (udl) can be a powerful educational framework to draw on. as such, udl principles and guidelines can enhance learner engagement and task performance (kumar & wideman, 2014). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 95 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 udl in education universal design for learning was influenced by architecture’s design concept that a building can be designed to be accessible by everyone, regardless of the level of ability (hutchinson & specht, 2020; rose & mayer, 2002; story et al., 1998). when a building is designed with accessible features, such as wide doorways, level entrances, and ramps, there is no need for retrofitting it upon the arrival of a person with accessibility needs. indeed, the accessibility features that are “essential for some,” that is, people with disabilities, are almost always “good for all,” that is, for everyone (meyer et al., 2014, p. 90), whether that be an individual with rolling luggage bags or baby strollers. initially the concept of udl was applied to environments that served learners with disabilities. however, udl principles and guidelines have now been found to work effectively among learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds as well as learners with varied language proficiencies (e.g., allen et al., 2018; tobin & behling, 2018). in the early 1990s, meyer et al. (2014) developed an approach that addressed the “disabilities of schools rather than students,” an approach that was later named udl (p. 5). their intention was to develop curriculum that helped promote interactions between the learners and the curriculum and to support all learners rather than simply address the needs of the hypothetical average student. udl holds that the curriculum, learning goals, instructional methods and materials, and assessment tools are the problem—not the learners. udl provides opportunities for learners to interact with the curriculum in a way that helps them engage in their learning outcomes, the methods and approaches used, the instructional materials and assessment tools, and the strategies applied for language development. brown (2020) considered udl a promising pedagogical philosophy. to use udl is to assume that no learners are disabled or unable to learn but to acknowledge that the curriculum is disabled and interferes with learners accessing content and benefiting from the teaching methods and resources (meier & rossi, 2020). udl and additional language learning at the heart of the udl framework is its support for learner variation. individuals’ characteristics and abilities are not uniform or static. rather, traits regularly shift as individuals interact with their environment. as meyer et al. (2014) argued, “each individual varies over time, and responses across individuals to the same environment also vary…variability is the rule both within and between all individuals” (pp. 81–82). as these authors discussed, learner variability is systematic and predictable and learners’ capacity to learn is context dependent. therefore, this predictability supports instructors in planning their lessons based on udl principles (rose & strangman, 2007). because learner variability is systematic and predictable, educators can design their curriculum and lesson plans knowing learners in their classrooms will more likely be motivated to learn, engage in tasks, take in information, and demonstrate their learning in multiple ways. in an additional language (l2) context, there is considerable learner variability among eap learners when it comes to their personal experience and background, individuality, including their “shyness versus gregariousness,” as well as their exceptionalities or disabilities https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 96 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 (rao & torres, 2016, p. 461). as learners vary in their interactions with their environment, so does their level of motivation to learn about and complete their tasks, their use of strategies, and their apprehension of information. therefore, planning lessons based on the variability of learners and providing multiple avenues for learning is of paramount importance in their effort to learn and succeed in eap and english as an additional language (eal) programs. meier and rossi (2020) argued that instructors can proactively address learner needs and minimize the instructional barriers they face in the classroom by developing curriculum and lesson plans that capture learner variability in their classrooms. they can then provide support that caters to learner strengths, needs, and other traits and thus provide multiple, flexible pathways for learners to succeed in language learning. udl principles and guidelines studies in education and technology continue to shape the udl framework. however, the development of udl is mainly influenced by neuroscience research that involves studying interconnected networks for learning in the brain that affect individual learning (cast, 2021), namely, learners’ affective, recognition, and strategic networks (cast, 2018; meyer et al., 2014). these are the three major types of networks that constitute a large part of the human brain and contribute to learning. affective networks, which are located in the central part of the brain, constitute the “why” of learning and are associated with learner motivation and engagement. recognition networks are located at the back of the brain and are associated with the “what” of learning. they are used for apprehending information and processing it into knowledge. strategic networks are located in the front part of the brain and dictate the “how” of learning. they involve executive functioning and make possible planning, organizing, and launching actions. it is important that a positive atmosphere be created for these three networks to be active among learners in classrooms and beyond. based on this three-network model of learning, udl is built on three core principles: multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression, which together provide a structured framework that supports educators in exploring avenues to address learner variability and help all learners succeed in their academic endeavours. each of these udl principles contributes to helping learners become experts (meyer et al., 2014). studies have suggested that eap educators acquaint themselves with and operationalize these three udl principles in order to address the diverse linguistic and cultural contexts of their students as well as learner variability (lopes-murphy, 2012; rao & torres, 2016). they can also be used in designing curriculum and lessons when working with eap learners in an academic language context (rao & torres, 2016). by designing curriculum and instructional materials according to learner variability, that is, presenting information in multiple ways and helping learners comprehend information and meet their outcomes using alternative methods, instructors can motivate learners and help them engage in and stay focused on their tasks throughout their learning process. for that to happen, instructors should engage in practices that respect and value diversity and inclusivity, which is possible via udl. at the same time, it is also essential that the physical environment be safe for everyone and be conductive to learning. instructional resources and materials as well as technological tools should be engaging, varied, and flexible and used in multiple ways for all learners to access these resources as well as engage in and demonstrate their learning in multiple ways. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 97 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 table 1 presents the three core udl principles and their respective guidelines (cast, 2021) that can be used in l2 classrooms to help enhance language learning. however, these guidelines are not prescriptive, and eap instructors can choose certain guidelines to work with at particular times in their classrooms (rao & torres, 2016). table 1 universal design for learning principles and guidelines multiple means of engagement purposeful, motivated learners multiple means of representation resourceful, knowledgeable learners multiple means of action and expression strategic, goal-directed learners provide options for recruiting interest ✓ optimize individual choice and autonomy ✓ optimize relevance, value, and authenticity ✓ minimize threats and distractions provide options for perception ✓ offer ways of customizing the display of information ✓ offer alternatives for auditory information ✓ offer alternatives for visual information provide options for physical action ✓ vary the methods for response and navigation ✓ optimize access to tools and assistive technologies provide options for sustaining effort & persistence ✓ heighten salience of goals and objectives ✓ vary demands and resources to optimize challenge ✓ foster collaboration and community ✓ increase mastery-oriented feedback provide options for language & symbols ✓ clarify vocabulary and symbols ✓ clarify syntax and structure ✓ support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols ✓ promote understanding across languages ✓ illustrate through multiple media provide options for expression & communication ✓ use multiple media for communication ✓ use multiple tools for construction and composition ✓ build fluencies with graduated levels of support for practice and performance provide options for self-regulation ✓ promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation ✓ facilitate personal coping and strategies ✓ develop self-assessment and reflection provide options for comprehension ✓ activate or supply background knowledge ✓ highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships ✓ guide information processing and visualization ✓ maximize transfer and generalization provide options for executive functions ✓ guide appropriate goalsetting ✓ support planning and strategy development ✓ facilitate managing information and resources ✓ enhance capacity for monitoring progress universal design for learning guidelines © 2021 cast. used with permission. all rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 98 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 principle 1: multiple means of engagement (affective networks) udl stresses helping learners become experts. for learners to engage in and stay motivated as they carry out their tasks, udl principle 1: multiple means of engagement provides options for developing interest, purpose, and self-regulation among learners. given the wide range of environments learners come from, they vary in the way they are motivated to learn and engage in their tasks. in addition to helping learners develop strong self-regulation, which is tied to their ability to find purpose and set goals, this principle recommends supporting learners in developing self-assessment and reflection skills as well as in sustaining their efforts to reach the goals they set at the beginning of the learning process. this principle is aligned with the importance of motivation, which is often explored in l2 acquisition (masgoret & gardner, 2003; ushioda, 2014). krashen’s (1982) affective filter, which conceptualizes language acquisition as a cognitive process in which negative feelings and emotions can block comprehensible input, is also relevant in that he recommended creating learning environments that help lower the affective filter, including learner anxiety, in order to motivate learners. rao and torres (2016) also recognized the importance of this lowering of emotional barriers when discussing the udl framework in an l2 context. similarly, this principle, which fosters collaborative work and a community of learners in teaching and learning, compliments vygotsky’s (1978) social constructivism that is crucial to l2 learners’ meaning making in social interactions and cooperative learning. therefore, providing learners with multiple means to engage in learning plays a critical role in language learning. using this principle, instructors in eap and eal programs can motivate learners and help them engage in their learning in multiple ways. while some learners may prefer to read a print book for their reading assignments, others may want to engage digitally because of the interactive features and augmented reality experience that e-books often provide. still others may be interested in listening to an audio book. while some learners may find classroom time sufficient for interaction and may comprehend the materials, some others may require additional time. if necessary, learners can be provided with ways to connect with each other and the instructor in and outside of their classes (tobin & behling, 2018). at the same time, there might be a few learners who may not get anything from their reading until they have access to an appropriate amount of scaffolding or receive peer support, which may warrant the use of different group configurations for collaboration and cooperative learning. regardless, it is important for instructors to pay attention to learners’ enthusiasm and flexibility when it comes to group work. it may be possible that a learner is comfortable speaking in the target language in a one-on-one conversation with their peer or instructor, but at the same time, this learner may not use the target language effectively to communicate their message during a group discussion. providing learners with varied opportunities to work on their tasks in ways that suit them diminishes learners’ off-task or confused behaviour and helps them demonstrate their learning and meet their outcomes as articulated in their course. types of resources or grouping patterns are not the only aspects that contribute to learner motivation or engagement. among other factors, a variety of tasks (including real world ones), assessment tools (including rubrics), and context or environment also contribute to learner motivation in l2 classrooms. therefore, it is important that learner variability be studied and multiple opportunities for engagement be provided in and outside of eap classrooms. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 99 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 eap instructors can provide opportunities for learner engagement in a wide variety of ways, but considering udl principles well in advance of their lesson planning and acting proactively is of utmost importance in this regard. meier and rossi (2020) recommended helping learners use a checklist in a multi-step assignment in order for them to identify the steps completed and those that still require the learner’s attention. this process, as the authors indicated, helps learners stay motivated, self-regulate, and independently complete complex tasks. to sustain learner engagement, concepts can be repeatedly presented and discussed through classroom activities, homework, lab assignments, and fieldwork (allen et al., 2018). learners can regularly be provided with mastery-oriented feedback so that learners remain motivated and engaged in their tasks until their tasks are successfully completed. udl principle 2: multiple means of representation (recognition networks) this principle is designed to support learning through recognition networks, and the use of multiple means for learning comprehension, vocabulary, syntax and structure, and perception in addition to options for developing expertise in content areas are recommended. learners differ in the ways they comprehend information from discussions. in this regard, this principle focuses on activating background knowledge, highlighting critical features, clarifying vocabulary, syntax, and structure, customizing the display of information, and providing alternatives for auditory and visual information in order to provide input that is comprehensible and create a nuanced learning experience for learners. this principle is in line with krashen (1982), who focused on the provision of comprehensible input as a critical factor in language acquisition. when the language input is challenging and is at a level above the learner’s state of knowledge (i+1), then learning takes place progressively. similarly, vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development and the notion of scaffolding are also evident in this udl principle. this udl principle thus effectively includes both of these theories although one (krashen’s) operates from an innatist perspective and the other (vygotsky’s) from a sociocultural framework. in addition to comprehensible input and scaffolding, this principle also addresses focus on forms that plays a role in language learning through learner awareness, consciousness, or noticing of linguistic forms (long, 1991; schmidt, 1990, 1992), which was also pointed out in rao & torres (2016). similarly, as mentioned above, activating background knowledge is one of the support criteria that is explicitly mentioned in principle 2 and its guidelines. according to studies of cognitive processing, learner background or prior knowledge is crucial in supporting learners’ understanding of new ideas/concepts and their construction of new knowledge. this knowledge is stored in networks in the brain known as schemata (zadina, 2008); these schemata must be activated for learners to relate to and comprehend the content (vogt, 2005). therefore, by providing background information on concepts being studied, eap instructors can support learner comprehension of the new concepts and demonstration of their understanding of the concepts. using this principle, eap instructors can help their students learn through the use of a wide range of instructional methods and resources that include multimedia, demonstrations, audio-visuals, realia, hands-on manipulatives, adapted texts, graphic organizers, and outlines among other tools. because learners vary in their ability to understand and learn information, which is dependent on the types of instructional resources and methods available to them (meyer https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 100 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 et al., 2014), instructors should present information in a variety of ways that support learning (meier & rossi, 2020). when learners are provided with multiple opportunities to comprehend information, they can choose the option they are most comfortable with. for teaching and learning, udl recommends that course outcomes be created in a way that addresses learner variability and learning preferences and highlights critical information, that transcripts of audio/visual presentations be provided, that feedback be prompt and mastery-oriented, and that social media be used (boothe et al., 2018). depending on the context learners are associated with, some learners may need to access the same material repeatedly in order to identify the process involved and understand the content. in such circumstances, recording the lesson or providing screencast walkthroughs on the particular concept or process being discussed can be very helpful. for instance, screencasting a process that demonstrates how l2 learners can extract academic words out of their reading text using cobb’s (2021) compleat lexical tutor can be extremely useful for both learners and instructors. apprehending the process that involves multiple steps from a one-time demonstration of it can be daunting when there are 15 to 25 learners in class, especially in an online environment, and not all learners may promptly be able to grasp the process during the demonstration process. therefore, if learners can access it multiple times following the initial demonstration, they can practise the process at their own pace, saving the instructor from having to demonstrate it several times. allen et al. (2018) suggested the use of videos and screencasts as well as vocabulary/concepts augmented with hyperlinked glossaries and explanations as well as exposing learners to these vocabulary and concepts multiple times. the covid-19 pandemic has “fundamentally reshaped many aspects of teaching and learning” (yi & jang, 2020, p. 1), and institutions have moved from their traditional face-to-face teaching to online facilitation of classes (payne, 2020). during online classes that include both synchronous and asynchronous environments, eap instructors can motivate and engage their learners through online interaction and provide their instructions and resources in multiple ways, using multiple tools and formats, and on multiple platforms, including google docs, ms word, ms sway, ms forms, socrative, nearpod, flipgrid, and h5p, in addition to different learning management systems, including blackboard collaborate, ms teams, adobe, and zoom among several viable options. this allows l2 learners to access instructional materials and content in multiple ways, which can positively contribute to their learning. udl principle 3: multiple means of action and expression (strategic networks) learners vary in the ways they approach, interact with, and strategically navigate their learning environment. therefore, as this principle makes clear, it is important that learners be provided with multiple opportunities or avenues to demonstrate their learning. this principle also underscores how strategic networks in the brain are vital for academic language and skill development. eap instructors can support learners in their use of multiple media and technology for developing communication and writing skills as well as for demonstrating their learning. in addition, this principle also emphasizes the importance of having multiple options for executive functions directly related to learners engaging their cognition for planning, organizing, and monitoring their own task performance, which they strategically engage in during their learning process. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 101 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 eap learners can be supported in their learning by being encouraged to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways. while some learners may want to deliver an oral presentation to show their understanding of the task, others may want to demonstrate their learning through a written report. if the outcomes are udl friendly and do not specify the methods learners are required to use, learners can choose to demonstrate their learning in different ways and still meet their outcomes. for instance, a learning outcome such as “deliver an effective and engaging oral presentation on a researched topic for 7 to 10 minutes” instead of “deliver an effective and engaging in-class oral presentation on a researched topic for 7 to 10 minutes” offers leeway for learners who experience speaking anxiety in front of their peers. some learners may prefer to video record their presentation rather than give an in-class presentation, which would meet udlfriendly learning outcomes. the intent is not to water down the content but to provide all learners with an equal opportunity to engage in their tasks. given the learner variability in their classrooms, instructors should design a flexible curriculum and lesson plans with opportunities for learners to demonstrate their strengths (see meyer et al., 2014). it is possible that instructors following this udl process will have to create multiple rubrics for the same task to accommodate learners’ delivery modes. however, this allows eap learners to reach competency and demonstrate their learning in alternate ways that include essays, oral presentations, and audio-video clips from among the many learning tools available. singh and wallace (2021) recommended that jamboard be used for learner interaction, in place of breakout rooms that instructors may use as the only means of engagement. these authors emphasized that jamboard, in this context, may also provide learners with opportunities to participate when they do not want to speak in breakout rooms. this process can help learners engage in their learning and gain confidence in their ability to perform challenging tasks (meyer et al., 2014). incorporating such flexibility would have a significant impact on student learning and also prevent the curriculum from being considered “disabled.” when designing courses and lesson plans, learning objectives can be flexible, which leaves room for eap instructors to personalize their teaching and assessment tools and strategies for their learners and provide their learners with multiple paths to meet their objectives and demonstrate their learning. for example, learners in an eap class could be asked to read cry freedom (briley, 2008) and demonstrate their comprehension of the novel by writing an essay. if the learning outcome is to “comprehend the text” and not explicitly to “write an essay or summary,” there is room for instructors to personalize their assessment tools for learners who may prefer to demonstrate their comprehension in alternate ways. some may want to demonstrate their comprehension of the novel by giving an oral presentation or producing a video recording. others may dramatize a scene with commentary as a group project. by allowing for interactive options, learners can demonstrate their learning through multiple paths and still meet their learning outcomes. eap instructors can also support their learners in the development of their executive functions, including using cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. inclusion of appropriate rubrics can contribute to learners self-monitoring and self-assessing their learning progress (meyer et al., 2014). in other words, learners are not only able to monitor and adjust their learning but also be responsible for their own learning. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 102 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 one of the approaches that recognizes learner diversity as per udl principles and guidelines is differentiated instruction, which is a tool for instructors to help their learners work at a “moderately challenging, developmentally appropriate level” (hutchinson & specht, 2020, p. 227). instructors can differentiate the content of the lesson, the delivery, and the product (tomlinson, 2017). while instructors might include varied group configurations, they can also make groupings flexible. providing tiered assignments and incorporating learning centres in classrooms contributes to the process of differentiating instruction (chappuis, 2014). hutchinson and specht’s (2020) adapt framework can also be incorporated in differentiated learning: account for students’ strengths and needs: instructors gather information on learner strengths and their academic, physical, social, emotional, and behavioural needs. demands of the classroom on students: instructors study the social, emotional, and behavioural demands of the classroom. adaptations: instructors identify adaptations needed for differentiated instruction. perspectives and consequences: instructors critically reflect on adaptations and take into account perspectives on these adaptations from multiple angles. teach and assess the match: instructors teach and assess their adaptations. conclusion the udl framework recognizes the need for creating curriculum and classroom materials and resources that address the varied needs of learners from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds, including learners with disabilities and diverse language skills and proficiencies (king-sears, 2008; meyer & rose 2000). when properly applied, udl principles and guidelines can help eap instructors examine learner variability and prepare their lessons in advance of their classroom instructions. this process can help reduce or eliminate barriers that impede learners in their learning so that they can access content and resources and demonstrate their learning. flexible options support learner engagement (dickinson, 2018). instructors can thus make informed decisions in a timely manner about incorporating flexible options to enhance learning. udl is an important framework for eap instructors to design curriculum and facilitate their instruction to meet the demands of the growing number of diverse learners at institutions of higher learning (rao et al., 2014). instructors should expect and plan for systematic variability even before they design their lesson plans or develop or re-develop their course. optimal levels of challenge as well as scaffolds should be supplied as necessary in order to help learners develop their academic language and skills. including udl principles and guidelines in classrooms and curriculum, eap instructors can ensure that their instructional resources and materials, teaching methods, assessment tools, and strategies cater to the “why,” “what,” and “how” of learning and that all learners have access to these resources and tools in multiple ways https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 khatri 103 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 94–105 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 and forms and can engage in and demonstrate their learning in alternate pathways. doing so not only supports learners for whom specific adaptations are made but it also provides all learners in eap classrooms with opportunities to engage, learn, act, and express in multiple ways and become expert learners. acknowledgements the author would like to express his sincere gratitude to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful feedback and the editor of the bc teal journal for his support. references allen, m., berg, c., dawson, j. q., & leveridge, n. 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(1992). awareness and second language acquisition. annual review of applied linguistics, 13, 206–226. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190500002476 singh, e., & wallace, a. (2021, winter). harnessing principles of university design to foster student engagement in online learning. teal news, pp. 12–13. https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/teal-news-winter-2021final.pdf story, m. f., & mueller, j. l., & mace, r. l. (1998). the universal design file: designing for people of all ages and abilities. the center for universal design. https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/pubs_p/pudfiletoc.htm tobin, t. j., & behling, k. t. (2018). reach everyone, teach everyone: universal design for learning in higher education. west virginia university press. tomlinson, c. a. (2017). how to differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms (3rd ed.). association for supervision and curriculum development. ushioda, e. (2014). motivation, autonomy and metacognition: exploring their interaction. in d. lasagabaster, a. doiz, & j. m. sierra (eds.), motivation and foreign language learning: from theory to practice (pp. 31–49). john benjamins publishing company. vogt, m. e. (2005). improving achievement for ells through sheltered instruction. language learner 1(1), 22–25. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. yi, y., & jang, j. (2020). envisioning possibilities amid the covid-19 pandemic: implications from english language teaching in south korea. tesol journal, 11(3), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.543 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.447 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190500002476 https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/teal-news-winter-2021-final.pdf https://www.bcteal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/teal-news-winter-2021-final.pdf https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/pubs_p/pudfiletoc.htm https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.543 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ penner, abbott, & lee 85 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 theoretical analysis, classroom practice, opinion essays scaffolding self-regulated learning for english as an additional language literacy learners tara l. penner university of alberta / norquest college marilyn l. abbott university of alberta kent k. lee university of alberta abstract emergent multilingual english as an additional language literacy learners (ealls) have unique learning needs as they are learning to read and write for the first time in any language while they are also beginning to develop formal learning strategies that support successful school-based learning. consequently, ealls require specialized instruction in how to regulate the metacognitive, cognitive, behavioural, motivational, and emotional aspects of learning in formal classroom environments. theories of self-regulated learning can inform english as an additional language (eal) literacy programming and guide instructors in the development of ealls’ formal learning strategies. the effective use of formal self-regulated learning strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning is essential for successful school-based learning. in this paper, we review three models of self-regulation (dörnyei, 2005; oxford, 2017; zimmerman, 2013) that inform an instructional sequence designed to support ealls’ selfregulated learning in the classroom. we describe our research-informed instructional sequence and provide examples of how instructors can encourage ealls’ use of self-regulatory strategies including commitment, metacognitive, satiation, emotional, and environment control strategies, as well as the development of metastrategies that support self-regulated learning. in summary, we demonstrate how research on self-regulated learning can inform instructional practices for ealls in eal literacy classes. introduction emergent multilingual english as an additional language literacy learners (ealls) are readers who are learning to decode/encode print for the first time in any language and those who have either been denied access to formal school-based learning or have few prior experiences with formal learning. in british columbia and elsewhere in canada, many of these learners attend english as an additional language (eal) literacy classes offered in programs such as language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) that are guided by the canadian language benchmarks (clbs) (cclb, 2012). the goal of linc programming is to provide newcomer immigrants and people with refugee experiences with basic formal language instruction and other settlement related knowledge and skills to facilitate their integration into canadian society (ircc, 2020). in linc, there are two streams of language instruction: one for literate eal https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 86 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 learners who are able to use their first language literacy to support their english language learning and the other for ealls. the clbs are national standards that describe 12 levels of eal proficiency across three stages: stage 1/beginner, clb 1–4; stage 2/intermediate, clb 5– 8; stage 3/advanced, clb 7–12. in addition to language and pragmatic knowledge, strategic competence is an important component in models of additional language proficiency (e.g., bachman & palmer, 1996, 2010) that inform the clbs (cclb, 2015). current conceptualizations of strategic language learning and use are grounded in self-regulation theory, as the ability to autonomously deploy language learning and use strategies relies on the learners’ capacity to regulate their cognition, emotions, and social behaviours (oxford, 2017). however, the benchmarks and their theoretical framework (cclb, 2015) do not directly reference any models of self-regulation that could inform instruction for ealls enrolled in pre-benchmark and clb 1–4 literacy classes. self-regulation involves the ability to control one’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours, motivation, and to some extent the environment to achieve one’s goals (dörnyei, 2005; oxford, 2017; zimmerman, 2000). self-regulated learning (srl) strategies can facilitate language learning by promoting the goal directed behaviours involved in planning for, monitoring, and evaluating one’s language learning efforts, performance, and outcomes (oxford, 2017). we argue that ealls, particularly those who were denied access to any formal school-based learning, will benefit from self-regulation instruction as they have been reported to struggle with the formal strategies required for success in the eal literacy classroom (faux & watson, 2020; wrigley, 2010), such as utilizing print literacy strategies to manage their time and reflect on learning (abbott et al., 2021). by fostering their students’ awareness and control of their selfregulatory behaviours, instructors can encourage students to transition from being teacherregulated strategy users to self-regulated strategy users. in the ensuing sections, we briefly review three models of self-regulation (dörnyei, 2005; oxford, 2017; zimmerman, 2013). then we present a research-informed instructional sequence to guide srl strategy instruction for ealls in task-based language classes in which learners are taught to complete real-life tasks such as filling out a form at a doctor’s office. we also share an srl strategy observation checklist for instructors to use or adapt for use in their eal literacy classes. ealls in linc adult literacy learners, who are developing print literacy for the first time in any language, were never able to develop the basic reading and writing skills that form the foundation for acquiring literacy and for other kinds of learning. they face the dual challenge of learning a new language while trying to develop the skills and strategies associated with decoding and comprehending print. (condelli, 2020, p. vii) linc providers recognize these challenges; therefore, when numbers permit, ealls are initially placed in specialized linc literacy classes to assist them in developing “the skills and strategies that will help them cope and continue learning in mainstream classes [in the future]” (cclb, 2016, p. 11). these skills and strategies extend beyond basic reading and writing in english, and https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 87 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 encompass how to learn in formal classroom environments that incorporate print-based material in most learning activities and tasks. although adult eal literacy learners have developed significant skills and knowledge through lived experience, expectations of formal learning environments are often unfamiliar to them (decapua, 2016). for this reason, literacy instructors from british columbia and ontario have expressed the need to prioritize the development of ealls’ academic skills (fleming et al., 2015). in british columbia, organizations such as the affiliation of multicultural societies and service agencies (amssa) have taken on the responsibility of supporting linc service providers (mudzingwa, 2020) and have produced a resource guide (solnes et al., 2019) that highlights the need to accommodate eal literacy learners in linc and references the resources developed by bow valley college for ealls. bow valley college (2018) has created instructional frameworks and guidelines for explicit instruction in goal-setting, reflection, and organizational and time management strategies for ealls; however, these resources do not reflect the current reconceptualization of learning strategies research through the lens of self-regulation theory (see oxford, 2017). self-regulation and learning learning in a classroom setting involves self-regulatory processes that have been delineated in several models of self-regulation. three models that are useful for informing instructional decisions to develop ealls’ formal srl strategies and promote their language learning include zimmerman’s (2000) srl cycle, dörnyei’s (2005) conceptual self-regulation model of control in second language (l2) learning, and oxford’s (2017) strategic self-regulation model in l2 learning. these models are described in the following sections. the self-regulated learning cycle zimmerman’s (2000) theory of srl is informed by the work of vygotsky (1978), who argued that cognitive abilities and language develop through social interactions. consequently, in zimmerman’s theory, self-regulation develops through the mediation/scaffolding of more capable others. the more capable other, often a teacher, breaks down the learning task into the essential components, so that the learners become aware of the parts and then assists the learners in planning for, monitoring, and evaluating their performance as they complete each part of the task. this other-regulation by the teacher supports the development of student self-regulation. zimmerman (2013) divided the srl cycle into three phases that occur before, during and after task performance, and involve processes such as goal setting, pre-task planning, and monitoring, controlling and reflecting on task performance. experiences incurred throughout the phases and processes inform the next srl cycle. research suggests that some students are better than others at srl (see zimmerman, 2013). zimmerman (2013) explained that “students who set superior goals proactively, monitor their learning intentionally, use strategies effectively, and respond to personal feedback adaptively not only attain mastery more quickly, but also are more motivated to sustain their efforts to learn” (p. 135). zimmerman (2000) attributed student difficulties in self-regulation to not having had the srl cycle taught and modelled for them in school—a typical state of affairs for ealls, particularly those who have been denied access to formal school-based learning. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 88 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 conceptual self-regulation model of control in l2 learning dörnyei’s (2005) conceptualization of self-regulation in l2 learning, which is based on zimmerman’s (2000) idea of task control, includes five categories of control strategies: 1. commitment control strategies focus on goal attainment by keeping positive incentives or rewards in mind. 2. metacognitive control strategies maintain attention and reduce unnecessary procrastination by focusing on the first step of a task or by identifying distractions. 3. satiation control strategies add interest to tasks and eliminate boredom by introducing creative variations or challenges into the task. 4. emotion control strategies manage disruptive emotions through the use of relaxation and meditation techniques and positive self-talk. 5. environmental control strategies reduce environmental stressors and make the environment more supportive of goal attainment (e.g., moving away from distracting sources or using the resources in the classroom to support learning). by developing additional language learners’ awareness and control of these self-regulatory strategies, these learners can improve their task performance (dörnyei’s, 2005; tseng et al., 2006). the strategic self-regulation model of language learning oxford’s (2017) model of strategic self-regulation is also situated in sociocultural theory (vygotsky, 1978). from this perspective, self-regulated language learning is socioculturally mediated through interacting with others and with cultural, linguistic, and technological tools and resources. in oxford’s (2017) model, paying attention, planning, organizing learning, monitoring, and evaluating are conceptualized as metastrategies that are used to control/regulate specific aspects of additional language learning including one’s thoughts, emotions, motivation, and social interactions. oxford also emphasized the influence of self-efficacy on self-regulated learning, as learners need to believe in their own ability to achieve their goals by strategically overcoming barriers to learning. teacher mediation (i.e., assistance/scaffolding) plays an important role in the development of students’ self-regulation including their ability to use srl strategies to overcome these barriers. self-regulation and the adult eal literacy learner in the l2 self-regulation research literature, srl strategy use has been found to predict eal learning achievement in studies conducted with learners who possess well-developed first language literacy skills (chen et al., 2020; seker, 2016; teng & zhang, 2016), and one recent study conducted with ealls has shown that srl strategy use is associated with their literacy achievement (abbott et al., 2021). these findings suggest that adult additional language learners who have emergent literacy skills will likely benefit from educational experiences that develop their strategic self-regulation. our experience teaching and working with ealls, however, indicates that the development of their formal srl strategies can be challenging for a number of reasons. first, srl strategies involved in planning for, monitoring, and evaluating one’s own https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 89 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 learning typically rely on print-based literacy, and eal learners who are becoming literate for the first time are in the process of developing these formal learning strategies that will support their additional language classroom learning (e.g., note-taking, utilizing print-based reference materials/resources). second, if ealls were either denied access to or had few prior experiences with formal, school-based learning, this lack of formal schooling reduces the likelihood that they have had the srl cycle modelled for them in a formal learning environment or received other forms of teacher mediation to scaffold their formal srl. third, many ealls are unfamiliar with expectations of how to regulate their cognition, emotions, and behaviours in a formal classroom environment. for example, linc instructors have reported that self-reflection in english is often difficult for ealls (abbott et al., 2021), yet self-reflection is a key component of srl (zimmerman, 2013). we argue that explicit instruction and structured practice in using srl strategies in eal literacy classes can overcome these challenges and improve ealls’ ability to control their language learning in formal environments. self-regulated strategy instruction for ealls explicit instruction throughout the srl cycle involves teaching learners how to first of all plan for effective task completion before attempting a language task; secondly monitor/control thoughts, feelings (e.g., self-beliefs), behaviours (e.g., concentration) and motivation to keep trying during the task; and finally evaluate/reflect on task performance and strategy use after completing the task. in our experience, our 10 step research-informed instructional sequence which outlines specific practices and activities has been successfully used to guide and support ealls’ through each phase of the srl process (i.e., before, during, and after task performance). the 10 steps were also designed to develop ealls’ understanding of the three key words in the srl cycle: plan, monitor, and evaluate. the activities in the steps may need to be simplified/scaffolded for ealls at clb 1 or extended for those at clb 4. step 1 the first step involves developing a collaborative classroom learning environment where students feel comfortable engaging in the social practices of learning in the eal literacy classroom (santos & shandor, 2012; tarone et al., 2009), in communication with one another and the instructor, and with the environmental/technological tools available to mediate learning. for example, establishing expectations, developing consistent classroom routines, and orienting learners to the available resources could increase learners’ comfort. to communicate these expectations, routines, and resources to ealls, students in more advanced classes could create videos that explain and demonstrate the expectations, routines, and resources in their first languages. an example video about online classroom expectations following this sequence could show students logging into an online classroom, verbalizing to themselves, “i should mute my microphone,” clicking the mute icon, then reminding themselves, “i should pay attention to the person speaking.” because literacy practices always occur in a “specific sociocultural context” (street, 2016, p. 336), the activities in this first step are intended to socialize ealls into a collaborative classroom context and respect collectivist approaches to goal achievement, which according to decapua (2016) may be preferred by students who have limited or interrupted formal education. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 90 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 supportive social networks can help students brave challenges that may otherwise feel insurmountable (usher & schunk, 2018). in addition, the social modelling of more capable peers can strengthen students’ feelings of commitment to achieve goals and standards, as well as enhance their self-efficacy for self-regulation (bandura, 1997; zimmerman, 2013). step 2 the second step consists of collecting observational data of ealls’ self-regulated strategy use and using this information to inform strategy instruction (see figure 1 on the next page for an example observation checklist that we developed which is informed by dörnyei’s [2005] five task control categories). a checklist of learners’ observed strategy use can guide students to selfawareness, self-diagnosis, and control of their strategy use (cohen, 2014). ideally, learner selfreported data of strategy use would also supplement instructor observational data. for example, the checklist we developed that is presented in figure 1 could be adapted for learner selfreflection/assessment by simplifying the language and changing “learner can” to “i can.” step 3 in the third step, instructors model the iterative srl cycle (zimmerman, 2013) during task completion through demonstration and thinking-aloud while planning for, monitoring, and evaluating/reflecting on the performance of a language task. this type of explicit guidance and modelling throughout the phases has been found to enhance students’ srl (mak & wong, 2018). teaching ealls the meaning of “plan,” “monitor,” and “evaluate” is essential. if possible, solicit the assistance of interpreters/students who are able to translate these words into the students’ first languages. because these terms are abstract, instructors could explain the concepts through a story-telling approach. for example, instructors could tell a story about buying groceries which is a task that is likely familiar to learners: i need to go to the grocery store. first, i plan my shopping trip. i look in my fridge and cupboard to see what i need. then i make a shopping list. at the store, i monitor how i am doing by checking items off my list. i see chips. i want to buy them. i check my list. chips are not on it. i do not buy them. before i leave the store, i evaluate how i did by checking the things in my cart with my list. i have everything. my shopping trip is successful thanks to my plan and my list. during subsequent language tasks, instructors can explicitly refer to the phases of the srl cycle during task completion, as awareness of the phases will aid transfer to other learning tasks (schunk & zimmerman, 1998). step 4 the fourth step consists of teaching students how to set clear goals and subgoals or short-term goals in relation to specific tasks and the skills/steps required. instructors could conduct a task analysis activity that involves providing ealls with an illustrated list of subgoals that may or may not be relevant to the completion of a specific task, then ask students to identify the relevant ones. for example, for the clb 1 reading task “identify dates and amounts on a pay stub” https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 91 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 (cclb, 2012, p. 77), relevant subgoals may be understand what the dollar symbol ($) means and understand aspects of the western calendar (month, day, year), whereas an irrelevant subgoal may be circle the company’s address. setting optimal goals and subgoals are important srl strategies that have been found to contribute to sustained motivation and learning mastery (zimmerman, 2013). figure 1 instructor observation checklist of students’ self-regulation strategies https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 92 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 step 5 the fifth step involves providing students with self-monitoring/tracking tools to help them develop awareness of their thoughts, behaviours, attention, emotions, and the learning environment. monitoring activities can optimize performance by promoting the revision of goals, plans, and strategies during task completion (hadwin et al., 2018). for example, to encourage students to monitor their attention when completing a language task, students could be provided a list of time intervals (e.g., every 10 minutes) and asked to circle whether they are on-task or off-task. to keep track of their emotions, instructors could present students with an emotional temperature checklist (figure 2) and have them circle the emoji/word that best captures how they are feeling during a task. when students are completing listening and speaking tasks with partners or in groups, students could be presented with a checklist and asked to circle whether or not they can hear their partners or group members and if they have all the materials needed for task completion. to increase students’ awareness of the supports that are available in their immediate learning environment (e.g., a word wall), when ealls ask for teacher assistance, instructors could first direct their attention to a pictured list of the resources available in the classroom and have students circle the potentially useful one(s). regular discussions of selfobservation checklists/tracking tools with learners can help them recognize the behaviours, thoughts, emotions, and environmental resources that support rather than interfere with their task performance (stoeger & ziegler, 2011). figure 2 emotional temperature checklist step 6 the sixth step involves teaching students strategies to manage/control their thoughts, behaviours, attention, emotions, and environment and to deal with defensive self-reactions (e.g., procrastination, task withdrawal) that may arise when they encounter obstacles as they engage in language learning tasks (see dörnyei’s [2005] control strategy categories and our examples of associated strategies in figure 1). one way to support students’ strategy development is by adding self-regulation strategies to the self-monitoring tools described in step 5 above. for example, to encourage metacognitive control of attention, “good work—keep going” could be beside “on-task” and “okay, back to work” could be added beside “off-task.” to promote emotion control, instructors could add strategies below the emojis (figure 3). to foster environmental control of the learning environment, on the checklist beside “can’t hear my group members,” the directions “move so you can hear them” or “ask them to speak up” could be added; to stimulate students’ use of learning resources. on the pictured list instructors could add “find it and use it.” self-monitoring tools that offer strategic actions such as those presented in this step can guide learners towards effective srl by helping them to manage their defensive reactions (stoeger & ziegler, 2011) through the use of srl control strategies (see dörnyei, 2005 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 93 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 and figure 1) that “focus on what they can control rather than on what they cannot” (usher & schunk, 2018, p. 33). figure 3 emotional temperature checklist with strategies step 7 the seventh step involves building ealls’ self-efficacy (i.e., the belief in their ability to achieve goals/accomplish tasks/learn) by providing them with credible praise and encouragement (“you can do this”) and ongoing feedback on their effort, the appropriateness of the strategies that they employ to meet their goals, and their achievement of goal(s) and subgoals. for each task, instructors could demonstrate how to break down the task into a manageable number of achievable steps/subgoals, write the steps on the classroom whiteboard, and then provide students with a simplified checklist of the steps/subgoals. as students work through the task, they could be asked to check off and celebrate their progress as they complete each of the steps/subgoals (see example rewards in step 8 below). because “students’ capabilities to selfregulate depend significantly on their self-efficacy beliefs” (zimmerman et al., 2017, p. 313), and teachers’ feedback, encouragement, and modelling of srl can increase students’ selfefficacy, effort, and commitment to achieve their goals (usher & schunk, 2018), the activities in this step have the potential to foster ealls’ srl. step 8 in the eighth step, instructors could encourage ealls to reward themselves for their goal completion. for example, rewards could range from small gestures such as asking students to give themselves a pat on the back or a self high-five, to larger actions such as allowing students the freedom to reward themselves with a snack, a walk around the classroom, or a tea/coffee break when they achieve a (sub)goal. self-rewards have been found “to be more effective motivators than external rewards” as they help students adhere to their plans for accomplishing their goals (usher & schunk, 2018, p. 28). step 9 in the ninth step, instructors support students to select and coordinate the use of both metastrategies and specific language learning strategies in the cognitive, motivational, social, and affective domains that are appropriate for each task (oxford, 2017). for ealls, instruction in metastrategies and cognitive reading strategies is particularly important given their unique https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 94 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 learning needs. during a task such as reading a covid-19 poster for information to protect oneself and others from getting sick, examples of reading strategies include the following: ● taking a poster walk while paying attention to pictures (e.g., a person sneezing in their elbow) and enhanced textual features (e.g., bold/larger font which signify importance) ● making a prediction (“what is the poster about?”) ● telling a partner what you know or want to know about covid-19 ● brainstorming with a partner words related to the pictures or bold print, then trying to find and underline those words in the poster ● circling words or phrases on the poster that you know ● touching the words as you read ● searching for unknown words on google images ● trying to sound out words that you don’t recognize ● underlining do not and don’t because literacy learners tend to rely on semantic processing strategies—focusing on meaning with little or no attention to form (bigelow et al., 2006), it would be beneficial to emphasize phonological (e.g., recognizing words that begin with the same sound) and morphosyntactic strategies (e.g., recognizing the grammatical functions of word parts), as these strategies are particularly helpful for learning to read and write in english. zimmerman et al. (2017) suggested that in addition to instruction in how to use strategies appropriately, emergent readers require instruction designed to increase their awareness of the value of srl strategies. it is likely that instruction in strategies such as those identified in this step will promote greater success in reading and, in turn, increase the value ealls place on both srl/metastrategies and reading strategies. step 10 the tenth step consists of guiding students’ self-reflections on their task-performance and srl/metastrategy use. then students could be asked to link the reflections back to their initial goals and set new goals when their previous goals have been met. for example, after completing a task, instructors could assist ealls with self-reflection by creating a checklist that includes specific srl strategies which instructors modelled/taught/observed students using in class. instructors could also pose some of the following questions to guide students’ self-reflections; however, first language support will likely be necessary: • what can i do now that i couldn’t do before? • what is one thing i would change if i were to do the task again? • what did i learn? why is it important? • why was i successful or not? (e.g., i was successful because (a) i followed the instructions; (b) i managed my time appropriately by spending enough time completing each of the task’s subgoals; (c) i used strategies to help me when i ran into problems; (d) i coped with my emotions/frustrations in a positive way). other questions that students could reflect upon to compare their task performance to their goals include: https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 penner, abbott, & lee 95 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 85–97 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 • did i achieve any of my english learning goals? if yes, which one(s)? • what did i do to achieve my goal(s)? • what are my new goals? students’ reflections on their strategy use and learning can promote the conscious examination of their behaviours (oxford, 2017), which can then be used to optimize their reactions to learning and inform the next srl cycle (zimmerman, 2013). once ealls become familiar with the srl cycle and are able to use srl strategies appropriately, to encourage them to become self-regulated strategy users, instructors need to gradually remove the teachergenerated scaffolding and remind the learners to select and use these strategies on their own in the future. conclusion the goal of srl instruction is for students to internalize how to self-regulate their learning through the selection and use of appropriate strategies for planning, monitoring and evaluating their thoughts, behaviours, emotions, motivation, and their learning environment. srl strategies help students organize their learning and promote greater independence, confidence, and success as they learn to complete language tasks in formal learning environments such as those found in linc classes in british columbia. the research-informed instructional sequence and example tools and activities described in this paper can provide ealls with opportunities to develop formal srl strategies that have the potential to enhance their learning in the eal literacy classroom. references abbott, m. l., lee, k. k., & ricioppo, s. 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(2013). from cognitive modeling to self-regulation: a social cognitive career path. educational psychologist, 48(3), 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2013.794676 zimmerman, b. j., shunk, d. h., & dibenedetto, m. k. (2017). the role of self-efficacy and related beliefs in self-regulation of learning and performance. in a. j. elliott, c. s. dweck, & d. s. yeager (eds.), handbook of competence and motivation (2nd ed., pp. 313–333). guilford press. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 https://www.amssa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/a-principles-based-approach-to-supporting-linc-learners-april-2019.pdf https://www.amssa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/a-principles-based-approach-to-supporting-linc-learners-april-2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-017-9411-z https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12339 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ami046 https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2013.794676 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 42 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 english for academic purposes writers’ use of reporting verbs in argumentative and cause-and-effect essay exams pakize uludag concordia university william j. crawford northern arizona university kim mcdonough concordia university abstract the effective use of reporting verbs is an important part of establishing credibility in sourcebased writing. although comparative studies of academic writing have shown that the reporting verbs used by novice and expert writers differ by discipline, fewer studies have examined whether such differences exist in english for academic purposes (eap) writing, which often focuses on generic essay types as opposed to discipline-specific academic genres. using a corpus of 1027 texts written by eap students at an english-medium canadian university, this study explored whether additional language (l2) writers’ reporting verb choices differed in cause-andeffect and argumentative essays. adopting semantic classifications from previous research, the occurrence of 34 reporting verbs across four semantic categories (argue, think, find, show) in the two essay types were compared. results indicated that eap students relied on a limited number of reporting verbs regardless of essay type. in contrast to disciplinary writing, find verbs occurred infrequently while argue verbs were most frequent. pedagogical implications are discussed in terms of the relationship between essay type and l2 writers’ use of reporting verbs. introduction incorporating information from sources into academic writing has been identified as a key literacy skill and learning outcome in university writing studies (haswell, 2000; mcalpine & amundsen, 2011). when composing academic texts, writers typically provide support for their arguments through the use of source materials rather than depending solely on their prior knowledge or experiences (gebril & plakans, 2009; list, du, & lee, 2020). similarly, in english for academic purposes (eap) contexts, where post-secondary students are learning english with the goal of studying and carrying out research in that language (flowerdew & peacock, 2001), additional language (l2) writers might be expected to validate their opinions by incorporating evidence from sources. providing such evidence requires that writers introduce, restructure, and respond to source information in their texts, which presents distinct challenges as compared to writing from prior knowledge. to incorporate citations successfully, writers need not only to understand source content but also to establish relevance and authority of source ideas (petrić & harwood, 2013; wette, 2010). researchers have acknowledged that it is difficult for some novice l2 writers to articulate coherent understanding of sources (britt & aglinskas, 2002; segev-miller, 2004), which impacts how they evaluate source content. in addition, expressing attitudes when attributing information to sources might also be challenging for these writers https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 43 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 because integrated writing tasks elicit more sophisticated linguistic features compared to independent writing tasks (cumming et al., 2006; guo, crossley, & mcnamara, 2013). these challenges suggest that instruction should focus on how to use grammatical devices, such as reporting verbs, to achieve certain functions within source-based writing (hyland, 1999). however, while teaching l2 writers how to avoid plagiarism using citation conventions receives considerable attention in the eap curriculum, building authorial stance though the use of different reporting structures is less emphasized (borg, 2000; liardét & black, 2019). in academic writing, reporting verbs (e.g., claim, imply, argue) play an important role in establishing a writer’s arguments by attributing information to external sources and communicating authorial stance (hunston & thompson, 2001; swales, 1990, 2014). while citing from sources, writers select verbs that show their stance toward source information to attain credibility. therefore, it is common for experienced writers to use a variety of reporting verbs with different functions to establish arguments and convey their perspectives (hyland, 2002, 2005; thompson & yiyun, 1991). in the case of l2 writers, understanding semantic and functional differences among reporting verbs may present a challenge when integrating information from sources. comparative studies of academic writing have shown that the reporting verbs used by novice and expert writers differ by discipline (e.g., harwood & petrić, 2011; lee, hitchcock & casal, 2018; thompson & tribble, 2001). however, less research has examined whether such differences in the use of reporting verbs occur in eap writing, which often focuses on generic essays (i.e., classroom, school, or curricular genres) as opposed to discipline-specific academic genres (swales, 2019). because eap programs accommodate students from a variety of academic disciplines, they often focus on academic reading and writing skills through an essayist tradition (hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002; leki & carson, 1994, 1997). in eap classes, l2 writers may be asked to compose essays with distinct linguistic, structural, and discourse features. for example, argumentative essays elicit a goal-directed persuasion process with the use of substantive claims in support of a point of view. writers build on their existing knowledge of argumentative discourse, develop arguments, and respond to counterarguments using directives or clear exposition (hayes, 1996; graham & harris, 1997) with the help of the instruction that they receive in eap classrooms. cause-and-effect essays, on the other hand, do not necessarily require taking a point of view. writers draw on a causal discourse and they use linguistic expressions of causal relations to reconstruct meaning in their texts (xuelan & kennedy, 1992). when composing these different essay types, eap students need to use reporting verbs to achieve their discourse-specific goals (e.g., contrasting, emphasizing) and express their stance (freddi, 2005; hyland, 2002). for example, by using argue as a reporting verb, writers acknowledge the plausibility of propositions, whereas claim as a reporting verb signals distancing from propositions. both reporting verbs are considered to be evaluative since they indicate epistemic/evidential comment of writers (hunston & thompson, 2001). to understand such differences, it has been suggested that university-level eap courses provide students with sufficient practice on using a range of reporting verbs to present, criticize, and question source information and to express their stance towards the subject matter (crosthwaite, 2016; hyland, 1999; shin, velázquez, swatek, staples, & partridge, 2018). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 44 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 a large number of studies have analyzed the occurrence of reporting verbs in disciplinary texts through reference to francis, huston, and manning’s semantic classification (1996, pp. 97101), which consists of four categories: argue (verbs that are concerned with taking up a position), think (verbs that are concerned with a mental activity or feeling), show (verbs that are concerned with a fact or situation), and find (verbs that are concerned with coming to know something). examples of verbs in each category are provided in table 3. using this framework, charles (2006) found that l1 english writers in politics/international relations and materials science used argue verbs most frequently, although they occurred less often in materials science than politics (i.e., a social science discipline). although writers primarily referred to the cited authors using argue verbs in both disciplines, the materials science writers also relied on find and show verbs (e.g., show, find, observe) when presenting the results and situations. in an l1 writing development study, friginal (2013) examined whether using a concordance program along with instructional practice impacted forestry students’ development of report writing skills. using the same four categories of reporting verbs, he looked into the frequency distribution of reporting verbs used in the corpora and found that in comparison to professional writers, the upper-level undergraduate students overused specific reporting verbs with a limited range (e.g., show and find) in their research reports. after a two-week instructional practice period, students increased their use of reporting verbs in the argue category and relied less on verbs in the show category, thereby diversifying their choice of reporting verb structures. as for research with l2 writers, studies exploring college-level academic texts have reported that they tend to use a limited range of reporting verbs when writing from sources, which negatively affects their ability to support their arguments in texts (biber & reppen, 1998; hinkel, 2003; pecorari, 2008). in addition, they depend on verbs that are more commonly used in speech (e.g., say, know, think) rather than those found in academic writing (biber, johansson, leech, conrad, & finegan, 1999; kwon, staples, & partridge, 2018). for example, examining semantic differences in first year undergraduate l2 writers’ reporting verb choices, kwon et al. (2018) found that students used a limited range of reporting verbs (e.g., find, think), many of which are more commonly used in spoken discourse than academic writing (e.g., say, think, know). using the same corpus as in kwon et al. (2018), shin et al. (2018) investigated whether undergraduate l2 students’ reporting verb use changed after attending a corpus-based workshop about the semantic aspects of reporting verbs. they compared post-intervention texts with randomly selected texts from a corpus. the students who participated in the intervention used fewer verbs associated with speech rather than academic writing (i.e., say and talk about). overall, these studies have shown that in academic writing, argue verbs are in the majority despite variation in task and discipline, reflecting their focus on written communication; however, show and find verbs tend to occur less frequently in lower proficiency writers’ texts. although previous comparative studies have provided evidence of syntactic and lexical complexity variation based on essay type (e.g., lu, 2011; yoon & polio, 2017), studies to date have not examined reporting verbs specifically. despite the growing recognition as to the importance of reporting structures in various academic disciplines, there is little research examining how l2 writers use reporting verbs in different essay types. for l2 writers to adopt appropriate positions that reflect their authorial stance, they need to develop rhetorical awareness to attribute information to sources through the use of reporting verbs. in light of the need to provide clear descriptions of l2 reporting verb use to identify potential areas for pedagogical https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 45 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 attention, the current study investigated the semantic distribution of reporting verbs in eap argumentative and cause-and-effect essay exams. these essays were written by eap students at an english-medium university in quebec who were simultaneously taking disciplinary courses. for readers in british columbia, it is interesting to note that students in british columbia’s postsecondary institutions also complete similar writing tasks that require extended length essays with source documentation. for example, one of the learning outcomes of university transfer courses offered at okanagan college and camosun college is to “incorporate quotations and paraphrases effectively into writing and use appropriate citation practices for each” (“articulation guide”, 2019, p. 49). thus, it is important to shed light on how reporting verbs are used in generic essays in eap courses. the research question was as follows: how frequently do eap writers use reporting verbs from the argue, think, show, and find semantic categories in their argumentative and cause-and-effect essays? method the research context and corpus the argumentative and cause-and-effect essays were sampled from the concordia written english academic texts (cweat) corpus (mcdonough, neumann, & leu (2018), which consists of timed writing exams from english l2 students enrolled in an eap course with an instructional focus on source-based writing at concordia university. the cweat corpus consists of 1027 argumentative and cause-and-effect essays (over 500,000 words) collected over a five-year period. as shown in table 1, despite a slight variation in the total number of essays in each subcorpus, the mean number of words is comparable for both argumentative and cause-andeffect essays. table 1 words by essay type argumentative (n = 551) cause-and-effect (n = 476) total words 314,730 244,947 m 571.16 552.92 sd 109.38 112.88 the essays were written by undergraduate english l2 students enrolled in the second of two, six-credit courses in the eap program. the students were admitted into undergraduate programs, but they were required to take the eap course based upon their performance on an inhouse university placement test that included a writing component. the eap course objectives involved improving reading and writing skills to prepare students for university level academic tasks. the writing component of the course focused on paraphrasing and summarizing skills with a specific focus on argumentative and cause-and-effect essays. following the assessment procedures of the eap program, students wrote two three-hour exams (midterm and final) which https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 46 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 required them to integrate information from pre-specified sources included in the course-pack and acknowledge the use of these sources through in-text and end-of-text citations. the exams targeted different essay types with the midterm exam focusing on a cause-and-effect essay and the final exam eliciting an argumentative essay. two weeks prior to each exam, the students were presented with a reading list with six to seven different sources. the eap instructors were encouraged to discuss these sources in class and help students take notes using a note-taking template with text fields for notes about source citation, key terms, and lexical items. the exam topics were related to the general themes covered in the eap course. for exam security reasons, the prompts cannot be shared, but the distribution of essays by topic has been provided in appendix a. students could bring one note sheet for each of the six sources and use an englishonly dictionary. table 2 displays students’ demographic information. table 2 demographic characteristics of l2 writers in each corpus text type male* female* most frequent l1s m age argumentative (n = 551) 267 (48.5%) 262 (47.5%) chinese (n = 253) french (n = 94) arabic (n = 64) persian (n = 16) spanish (n = 16) vietnamese (n = 10) russian (n = 9) other (n = 89) 22.4 (sd = 4.4.) cause-and-effect (n = 476) 220 (46.2%) 231 (48.5%) chinese (n = 223) french (n = 79) arabic (n= 53) spanish (n = 14) persian (n = 16)) russian (n = 12) other (n = 79) 22.8 (sd = 4.9) * gender was not reported by some of the students analysis the students’ handwritten essays were typed, verified, de-identified, and included in the corpora as text files. the frequency and distribution of reporting verbs across four semantic categories (i.e., the argue, think, find, and show categories) were identified. the reporting verbs included in the analyses were selected from a larger list comprised of 53 verbs (see appendix b) analyzed in kwon et al., (2018). using antconc (anthony, 2014) for exporting concordance lines, the frequencies of the 53 reporting verbs for the entire dataset were calculated. any instances in which a reporting verb was not used in a reporting structure (e.g., using means of public transformation, … vs. the researcher means that…) or used in quotation marks (according to the researcher, “the research team found…”) were omitted. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 47 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 next, the occurrence of all 53 reporting verb lemmas (e.g., write, writing, writes, wrote, written) was examined to identify those verbs that had occurred in at least 25 different argumentative or cause-and-effect texts (i.e., at least 10% of the texts in each sub corpus). the analysis was limited to those 34 reporting verbs to ensure that they were used by a wide range of writers in our corpus as opposed to only a few uses by a few writers. as in kwon et al., (2018) and friginal (2013), the reporting verbs in the final list were classified into different semantic categories proposed by charles (2006). similar to kwon et. al. (2018), both raw and normed counts per 100,000 words were calculated and reported in the findings. examples from each of these categories as well as the final list of each reporting verb are found in table 3. table 3 reporting verbs by semantic categories categories verbs examples from the corpus argue (n = 19) argue, suggest, predict, write, explain, conclude, mention, admit, observe, accept, add, report, claim, point out, maintain, say, state, talk about, acknowledge “sachs (2005) predicts that if rich countries donate 0.7% of their gdp donate to the poor, by the year 2025, the poverty rate will decrease by half.” show (n = 6) show, illustrate, indicate, demonstrate, reveal, mean “solomon (2002) revealed that a consumer's level of self-esteem can be affected by marketing communications.” find (n = 5) realize, establish, recognize, discover, find out “fuentes-nieva (2014) has found that the 85 richest people in the world are richer than the bottom half population of the world.” think (n = 4) know, think, hold, feel “karnani (2007) thinks that poor nations could spend more money to create more jobs to decrease poverty rather than only using microcredit.” the first researcher coded the entire data to identify the most frequent reporting verbs across four semantic categories in each essay type. an independent rater checked the dataset to ensure that no instances of the target verbs had been omitted. any verbs missed by the first researcher were then included in the dataset. findings the research question explored eap writers’ reporting verb use in argumentative and cause-andeffects essays in terms of the frequency distribution across four semantic categories. as illustrated in table 4, students used reporting verbs at a rate of 908.43 per 100,000 words in argumentative essays and 822.41 per 100,000 words in cause-and-effect essays. taking into consideration variation in mean length, students used more than five reporting verbs per argumentative text and 4.6 reporting verbs per cause-and-effect text. the overall frequency in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 48 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 both essay types is much lower than both the research reports in friginal (2013), which contained around 1500 reporting verbs per 100,000 words, and kwon et al., (2018), which contained 1633.91 per 100,000 words. the lower use of reporting verbs may be related to variation in both the writing assignments as well as the writers themselves. whereas kwon et. al., (2018) investigated literature review assignments, friginal (2013) focused on undergraduate students’ research reports. in these disciplinary writing assignments, students generate new knowledge about a topic by providing a comprehensive summary of prior research and using an array of sources such as scholarly articles, books, and reports (torraco, 2005). in contrast, these argumentative and cause-and-effect essays limited the writers to a relatively small pool of sources (i.e., only six source texts). although students could cite information from the same source multiple times, the relatively low number of sources may account for their lower use of reporting verbs. furthermore, these essays were written under exam conditions, so time pressure may have reduced the frequency of reporting verb use. table 4 reporting verb frequency across semantic categories categories argumentative cause-and-effect raw count normed raw count normed total verbs 2907 908.43 1850 822.41 argue 1423 451.82 898 399.21 think 756 240.21 447 198.71 show 594 173.82 377 167.59 find 134 42.58 128 56.90 as for the distribution of the 34 reporting verbs across the four semantic categories, argue verbs occurred most frequently in both argumentative and cause-and-effect corpora, followed by think, show, and find verbs. drawing on the normed frequency counts, argumentative essays elicited more reporting verbs across the semantic categories of argue, think, and show (table 4). turning to the most frequent reporting verbs in the corpora, the ten most frequent reporting verbs displayed in table 5 accounted for more than 68% of all the reporting verbs in each corpus. four reporting verbs think, argue, say, and feel made the top ten list in both corpora, which indicates a strong reliance on a limited range of reporting verbs regardless of the essay type. in addition, certain reporting verbs are more common in conversation than in academic writing (e.g., biber & reppen, 1998; kwon et. al., 2018, staples & reppen, 2016). this use of conversational reporting verbs is the case in both essay types (think, say, mean in argumentative writing and say, think in cause-and-effect) with the most frequent verb in both argumentative writing (think) and cause-and-effect (say) being more common in conversation than in academic writing. however, we note here that students wrote cause-and-effect essays as part of their midterm and then wrote argumentative essays for their final exams. the increase of the use of reporting verbs between cause-and-effect and argumentative essays may be related to task requirements or may also be related to increased writing experience throughout the class. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 49 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 regarding the semantic categories, argue verbs were most frequent and had an equal distribution in argumentative and cause-and-effect essays. notably, none of the five find verbs (realize, establish, recognize, discover, find out) were among the most frequent ten verbs used in the entire corpus. two think verbs (i.e., think and feel) made the ten most frequent reporting verbs in each text type. table 5 the 10 most frequent reporting verbs semantic category reporting verb lemma argumentative cause-and-effect raw percentage raw percentage argue verbs argue 255 8.8% 153 8.3 % say 234 8.0 % 183 9.9 % claim 127 4.4 % -- state 125 4.3 % -- mention 114 3.9 % -- admit -- 130 7.0 % accept -- 125 6.8 % add -- 83 4.5 % show show 316 10.8 % -- mean 153 5.3 % -- demonstrate -- 118 6.4 % reveal -- 93 5.0 % think think 348 11.9 % 102 5.5 % feel 101 3.5 % 138 7.5 % know 217 7.4 % ---- hold ----133 7.2 % total 1990 68.3 % 1258 68.1% *--not on the top 10 list as seen in figure 1, the distribution of these semantic types of reporting verbs illustrates some interesting differences from kwon et al. (2018), who found fewer argue verbs and more find verbs in undergraduate l2 writers’ literature review assignments. for our writers, both argumentative and cause-and-effect essays required them to present their own subjective viewpoints in ways that differ from literature review assignment where the writer’s subjective opinions are not as highly valued as synthesizing source materials. in addition, when composing literature review assignments, students typically depend on empirical studies as their source materials, and they provide a summary of what the researchers found. our students, on the other hand, used commentaries and news reports that synthesized information from research studies as their sources, which perhaps accounts for the lower rates of find verbs in the corpora. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 50 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 figure 1. semantic types of reporting verbs compared with literature review writing from kwon, et. al., (2018) (by percentage). similar to previous research with undergraduate disciplinary writing (charles, 2006; friginal, 2013) argue verbs had the highest frequency rate in both essay types representing over 48% of all reporting verbs. more frequent use of argue verbs by our students indicate that eap writing tasks, regardless of essay type, elicit similar reporting structures to academic writing. however, there were some differences in the specific verbs used in the argue category. whereas claim, state, and mention made the top-ten of argumentative essays, they were replaced by admit, accept, and add in cause-and-effect essays. this variation could be associated with the differences in topics, prompts or source materials assigned to them for their midterm and final examinations. turning to the next most frequent semantic category, think verbs occurred more often in these essays (around 25% of all reporting verbs in each text type) than in prior disciplinary writing studies (charles, 2006; friginal, 2013). since think verbs are associated with more informal or spoken settings (biber et al., 1999; hinkel, 2003; staples & reppen, 2016), expert writers might avoid using them when composing academic texts. for example, undergraduate students in friginal’s (2013) study used think verbs infrequently (3%) in their research reports. eap students in the current study, on the other hand, often reflected their viewpoints about the topic assigned to them using think verbs and without citing a specific source. this use of think verbs might have helped them develop their arguments through general attributions (i.e., general information or position without corroboration) to be supported with evidence later in the essay. according to charles (2006), writers present a claim to be supported or refuted and hide their actual stance when they use general attributions. excerpts (1–2) below illustrate this pattern where the students choose the verb think to report opinions of others about the topic using uncited generalizations. 48.98 48.5 38.08 26.02 24.16 24.35 20.45 20.38 18.32 4.54 6.92 19.24 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% argumentative cause and effect kwon et. al., 2018 argue think show find https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 51 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 1. argumentative essay: although some proponents think that microcredit that provides some money to create jobs can reduce the poverty, no one can deny that microcredit might also cause the loan sharking. 2. cause-and-effect essay: many people think modern technology is helpful for food supply, but the truth is it hurting food supply much more. as for show verbs, the overall frequency was similar in each corpus, representing 20% of all reporting verbs. two reporting verbs show and mean accounted for almost 16% of all reporting verbs in the argumentative essay type. interestingly, neither of these reporting verbs was among the most frequent ten reporting verbs in cause-and-effect essays. previously, kwon et al. (2018) reported that show accounted for 8% of all reporting verbs in undergraduate students’ literature review assignments., in swales’s (2014) research, show was one of the two most frequently used reporting verbs in the michigan corpus of upper-level student papers (micusp). l2 writers in the current study were able to reflect the same pattern in terms of using show most frequently while writing argumentative essays. in cause-and-effect essays, they used the reporting verb demonstrate more frequently than show as illustrated in the excerpts (3–4) below. 3. argumentative essay: as seery's research shows, 20% of the poor families, which send their children to private schools, that costs 127% income of these families. 4. cause-and-effect essay: petrini (2005) demonstrated, in the past 20 years, more than twice as many chemical fertilizers have been used in food process. find verbs represented the least frequent semantic category in both the argumentative (4.6%) and cause-and-effect corpus (6.9%) of our students and none of these verbs made the ten most frequent verbs used in the entire corpus. conversely, find verbs represented a higher frequency in previous studies. for example, in friginal’s (2013) research, find verbs accounted for 27% of all reporting verbs in research reports. this discrepancy is likely because the source materials assigned to our students were not scholarly articles but commentaries and news reports that synthesized information from research studies, presenting opposing views and/or emphasizing a certain opinion. indeed, the students were successful in evaluating the source content as shown in the excerpt (5) below where, the student was able to evaluate that jowit (2008) was not the primary source and cited the information using an argue verb rather than a found verb. 5. the original text: “the living planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more resources than the earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species” (jowit, 2008). the student’s citation: jowit (2008) reported from the living planet that humans are using more natural resources than those available in the living planet (argumentative text type). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 52 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 pedagogical implications the results of this study show that eap students depended on a limited number of reporting verbs in both types of source-based essays. similar to disciplinary writing, argue verbs represented the most frequent semantic category whereas find verbs occurred infrequently. these results could be interpreted in the light of pedagogical issues surrounding the use of reporting structures in eap essay types. as reported in previous research, using a wider range of reporting verbs would be indicative of students’ ability to critically examine arguments in sources (biber & reppen, 1998; hinkel, 2003). overall use of reporting verbs for these eap learners (around five reporting verbs per essay) seems to be much lower than disciplinary writing (e.g., kwon et al., 2018). thus, an important question to ask is whether the essays commonly targeted in eap courses help students get ready for their academic subject courses. to prepare students for disciplinary courses, the pedagogical materials used in eap courses should teach them how to read and evaluate academic texts and produce text-responsible writing that reflects their stance (hyland & shaw, 2016). since these eap students depended on a restricted set of reporting verbs to incorporate source information in their texts, writing instruction should include a focus on reporting verbs with different functions. using corpus-informed materials has been shown to help students use a wider range of reporting verbs (bloch, 2009; friginal, 2013) and develop awareness of reporting verbs in academic writing (shin et al., 2018). in addition, although textbooks and course-based materials encourage students to fully develop their arguments using sources, eap students would further benefit from strategy training emphasizing the role of reporting verbs in source integration. this instruction could be done focusing on individual aspects of academic writing (e.g., purpose of source use, development of authorial voice) and introducing discourse tools (e.g., cohesive devices) that are elicited by different essay types (freddi, 2005; hyland, 2002). the most commonly used reporting verbs in our corpora were associated with conversation rather than academic writing, which suggests that students were using developmental strategies when attributing information to sources in their texts. as part of an eap curriculum, moving beyond the essayist tradition and introducing l2 students to authentic academic genres with rhetorical conventions would help them move progressively from spoken discourse to written language. encouraging students to produce writing similar to literature reviews, an authentic academic genre across academic disciplines, might be considered as an additional curricular objective. in addition, having exposure to primary research as opposed to secondary sources will contribute to students’ academic writing skills in terms of creating opportunities for research synthesis using more find verbs. limitations although our findings have implications for eap courses, the results should be interpreted cautiously. because the midterm and final examinations were administered in an existing eap course, all students wrote cause-and-effect essays four weeks before the argumentative essays. there was no control group to counterbalance the order of tests. thus, replication studies are needed to confirm that it is the essay type, not development, that accounts for the differences. furthermore, our study compared eap essay types in terms of the distribution of reporting verbs across semantic categories. although the results provide insights into the frequency of reporting https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 53 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 verb use across essay types, we did not explore the rhetorical functions of those verbs. previous studies have shown that students in disciplinary courses use reporting verbs to achieve a variety of functions such as self-reference and uncited generalizations (kwon et al., 2018; shin et al., 2018). future studies that focus on eap writing should extend research into rhetorical functions of reporting structures in different essay types. conclusion this study explored l2 writers’ reporting verb choices across two different essay types to examine whether eap writing elicits similar reporting structures to academic writing. drawing on corpus-based analysis, we found that eap students relied on a limited number of reporting verbs regardless of essay type. we also found that, in contrast to more advanced academic writers’ texts, find verbs occurred infrequently while argue verbs were most frequent in l2 writing. because generic essay types, such as argumentative and cause-and-effect, are commonly targeted in eap curriculum and assessment, our findings are useful for understanding how l2 students refer to source information when composing timed essays. our future research aims to investigate eap writers’ engagement with primary sources while composing untimed classroom genres to examine how they introduce, evaluate, and position themselves in relation to the information presented in source materials. funding statement funding for this study was provided by a mitacs globalink grant awarded to the first author. references anthony, l. 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(1992). expressing causation in written english. relc journal, 23(1), 62–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/003368829202300105 appendix a topics by essay type argumentative (n = 551) cause-and-effect (n = 476) government (n = 100) advertising (n = 84) microcredit (n = 75) poverty (n = 68) inequality (n = 60) wealth (n = 58) organizations (n = 39) resources (n = 35) charity (n = 26) marketing (n = 3) food (n = 3) food and drink (n = 101) ecosystem (n = 54) wildlife (n = 44) consumerism (n = 43) population (n = 43) modern diet (n = 37) marketing (n = 36) environment (n = 36) agriculture (n = 31) industrial farming (n = 21) water supply (n = 19) technology (n = 11) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2016.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2019.01.003 https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088313515166 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/12.4.365 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2010.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.296 https://doi.org/10.1177/003368829202300105 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 57 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 appendix b the list of 53 reporting verbs and frequency counts in each essay type semantic category lemma argumentative cause-and-effect raw normed raw normed argue category (n = 32) argue 255 81.0 23 9.4 suggest 37 11.8 15 6.1 assert 5 1.6 5 2.0 predict 11 3.5 36 14.7 write 38 12.1 49 20.0 explain 53 16.8 42 17.1 conclude 85 27.0 54 22.0 mention 114 36.2 93 38.0 admit 48 15.3 3 1.2 observe 16 5.1 17 6.9 accept 47 14.9 19 7.8 imply 8 2.5 0 0.0 add 42 13.3 118 48.2 complain 7 2.2 5 2.0 hypothesize 1 0.3 0 0.0 insist 6 1.9 3 1.2 propose 9 2.9 2 0.8 remark 1 0.3 6 2.4 reply 2 0.6 0 0.0 speculate 0 0.0 0 0.0 stress 0 0.0 0 0.0 contend 4 1.3 0 0.0 report 13 4.1 15 6.1 postulate 0 0.0 0 0.0 posit 0 0.0 0 0.0 claim 127 40.4 39 15.9 point out 68 21.6 83 33.9 maintain 72 22.9 23 9.4 say 234 74.3 125 51.0 state 125 39.7 130 53.1 talk about 13 4.1 14 5.7 acknowledge 25 7.9 0 0.0 show category (n = 7) demonstrate 30 9.5 12 4.9 illustrate 25 7.9 37 15.1 indicate 50 15.9 37 15.1 confirm 6 1.9 2 0.8 reveal 20 6.4 20 8.2 mean 153 48.6 133 54.3 show 316 100.4 138 56.3 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 uludag, crawford, & mcdonough 58 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 42–58 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 find category (n = 8) realize 50 15.9 53 21.6 find out 13 4.1 11 4.5 discover 5 1.6 24 9.8 establish 43 13.7 26 10.6 infer 0 0.0 1 0.4 recognize 23 7.3 13 5.3 note 10 3.2 10 4.1 identify 13 4.1 6 2.4 think category (n = 6) know 217 68.9 183 74.7 assume 10 3.2 7 2.9 think 348 110.6 153 62.5 hold 90 28.6 9 3.7 feel 101 32.1 102 41.6 hope 11 3.5 12 4.9 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ bhowmik & chaudhuri 11 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 “i need my instructor to like sit with me”: addressing culture in l2 writing instruction subrata bhowmik university of calgary anita chaudhuri university of british columbia abstract one of the objectives of examining culture vis-à-vis additional language (l2) writing is to conceptualize an effective l2 writing pedagogy (matsuda & atkinson, 2008). kaplan’s (1966) analysis of english as an additional language (eal) texts was a pioneering endeavour in this regard, although due to ensuing controversy surrounding his claims, the desired goals of his effort were never achieved, leaving a gap in culture studies of l2 writing (abasi, 2012; belcher, 2014). this article reports on an investigation of student views on what instructors can do to help overcome cultural challenges l2 writers encounter in an english for academic purposes (eap) context. drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys, this qualitative case study examined 27 students at a canadian university. data analysis yielded six categories of instructor support: (a) providing explicit feedback on writing; (b) providing english text structures; (c) using exemplars; (d) creating opportunities for in-class writing and reviews; (e) explaining cultural differences between first language (l1) and l2 writing; and (f) providing more writing practice. the findings underline the importance of instructors’ roles in unpacking various cultural underpinnings in l2 writing. also, they support the (re)conceptualization of l2 writing pedagogy that integrates empirical evidence into instruction. the implications for l2 writing instruction are discussed. introduction additional language (l2) writing scholars unequivocally acknowledge the important role culture plays in l2 writing. much research that relates to l2 writing vis-à-vis culture has been conducted within the purview of contrastive rhetoric (cr), or its most recent incarnation, intercultural rhetoric (ir) (connor, 2011). ir’s main precept is that different languages have different rhetorical thought patterns; as a result, english as an additional language (eal) writers find it challenging when they write in english, for they apply their first language (l1) specific rhetorical thought patterns to english texts (connor, 2011). this application results in a mismatch between eal texts and the expectations of english readers (leki, 1991), causing an impediment to the efficacy of texts by eal writers. this phenomenon is palpable in postsecondary contexts in british columbia, where the international student population has almost tripled between 2010 and 2019 (e.g., see british columbia data catalogue, 2020). consequently, addressing cultural challenges that eal students encounter in writing is important so that they are prepared to take on the academic rigours, specifically with regard to academic writing, that lie ahead. kaplan’s (1966) famous article, which marked the genesis of ir, addressed how culture impacts eal student writing. the goal was to come up with a pedagogical framework to address https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 12 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 cultural challenges l2 students encounter when writing in the target language (matsuda & atkinson, 2008). unfortunately, the ensuing controversy surrounding his claim, which many l2 scholars described as a speculative intuition rather than scientific proof (e.g., kubota & lehner, 2004; leki, 1991; matsuda & atkinson, 2008), took the focus off ir’s main agenda: a pedagogical framework to address cultural challenges in l2 writing. although this trend is beginning to change with new research agendas addressing culture in l2 writing (e.g., abasi, 2012; akbari, 2009; ene, mcintosh & connor, 2019; mcintosh, connor & gokpinar-shelton, 2017), there is a paucity of scholarship related to how instructors can help l2 writers to overcome challenges due to writers’ differing cultural backgrounds. unlike previous research that used textual data (e.g., connor, 2014; kaplan, 2005), the study described in this paper drew on semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys, and was guided by the following research question: how can instructors help overcome cultural challenges that impact english for academic purposes (eap) students’ writing? literature review culture vis-à-vis language has been studied by linguists and anthropologists since the early twentieth century. frank boas pioneered this research, which was later continued by linguists and anthropologists edward sapir and benjamin whorf (hinkel, 1999; kramsch, 2004). sapir’s contention was that language is a system that describes beliefs and understanding about the world that a community shares, whereas whorf’s belief was that the language system determines the world views and realities of people in a community (hinkel, 1999; kramsch, 2004). these two perspectives provide early accounts on language and culture. from the 1960s to the 1970s, culture and language research received renewed focus owing to the work by a number of american sociolinguists and anthropologists such as del hymes, john gumperz, and edward hall who underlined the influence of culture on language and language learning (cf. gumperz, 1982; hall, 1976). for example, the concept of communicative competence, first used by hymes (1967) to refer to the competence that users of a language must possess, has been influential in l2 pedagogy. in fact, communicative language teaching (clt) is so popular that it has been one of the preferred language teaching methods since its inception in the late 1960s. the core goal of clt is to have learners achieve spoken, behavioural, and interpretive skills that are followed in the target language community (cf. larsen-freeman & anderson, 2011). this understanding of clt underlines the importance scholars have ascribed to additional culture acquisition in l2 learning. kaplan (1966) considered the role of culture in l2 writing and came up with a theory that claimed that cultural thought patterns played an important role in the rhetorical organization of l2 prose. although kaplan’s claim drew much criticism, scholars generally agree on the significant impact it has had on l2 writing studies (belcher, 2014). the main objective of kaplan’s theory was to come up with a sound pedagogy to address the challenges eal students encountered in writing, but subsequent research on the issue somewhat stalled (e.g., matsuda & atkinson, 2008). research on text and genre analyses, for example, has provided useful insights into the understanding of l2 texts in general, but it has not directly addressed l2 writing pedagogy. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 13 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 one of the challenges researchers encounter when conceptualizing culture-sensitive l2 writing pedagogy is the difficulty in drawing a concrete set of criteria regarding what culture actually is (and is not) (atkinson, 1999; atkinson & matsuda, 2013; canagarajah, 2013). this lack of consensus has seriously constrained research on the pedagogical implications of culture and l2 writing. however, new research approaches have emerged, studying culture from the bottom up (atkinson & sohn, 2013) and examining “culture as represented in the lives of its individual users from their perspectives” (connor, ene, & traversa, 2016, p. 272), which posit that culture should be examined in the way it is lived (by stakeholders) rather than hypothesized (by scholars) (canagarajah, 2013). the advantage of adopting a lived approach to culture is that it circumvents the conundrums with an all-encompassing definition of culture (atkinson, 1999); instead, the focus of investigation remains on how culture is lived and practised by those whom it concerns most in an l2 context—the l2 learners. atkinson and sohn’s (2013) study, although not directly related to writing, illustrated how culture is lived and practised by an l2 learner, jija. the findings illustrated the fluid nature of culture as an individual holds multiple cultural footings simultaneously. the authors argued that a fixed, monolithic notion of culture is simply not conducive to studying l2 learning and that learners evolve both personally and culturally throughout their lifetime. in another study, harklau (1999) illustrated how intricate issues involving culture affected four eal learners’ writing in english. the author found out how a specific approach to culture affected student learning negatively and caused resistance in the classroom. as well, students’ own cultural identities were at odds with those practised by instructors, and this played out quite markedly in writing tasks and class discussions. abasi (2012), in his study, found that members of a given language background found it easier to follow the rhetorical structures of that language and vice versa. he also found that students responded differently to two dissimilar texts with distinct rhetorical patterns (i.e., american and iranian). these findings reaffirmed the cultural underpinnings of text structures in languages and how l2 instructors can integrate disciplinespecific rhetorical conventions as a learning strategy. it may be relevant to underline the interplay of various micro cultures and its influence on academic writing as well. writing scholars have pointed out how disciplinarity and genres play an important role in shaping the texts that students produce in academic settings (e.g., russell, 1997). consequently, writers need deep knowledge about respective disciplinary conventions to accomplish academic writing tasks. for eap writers, this need for deep knowledge becomes doubly challenging considering their limited proficiency in english and unfamiliarity with academic writing in a disciplinary culture (e.g., casanave, 2008). recent scholarship in l2 writing has pointed out the importance of utilizing the cultural and linguistic resources that l2 students bring to the classroom, and translingual practices (ene, mcintosh, & connor, 2019; lee & canagarajah, 2018; mcintosh, connor, & gokpinar-shelton, 2017). rinnert and kobayashi (2016) in this regard have underlined the importance of the deployment of “writer knowledge” in effective l2 text construction. it is important to note that writer knowledge transcends various levels, including knowledge in the first and additional languages, educational contexts, and experience in writing, to mention a few. for example, gentil (2018) maintained that l2 writers make comparisons across languages and cultures in order to construct l2 texts. this comparison serves to suggest that l2 writing instructional https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 14 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 strategies should not only focus on delivering new ideas to be added to l2 learners’ extant knowledge but should also tap into their existing linguistic and cultural repertoires. in light of the above, the current study situates itself in the conundrums of the various implications of lived cultural phenomena in academic writing by l2 students. adopting a bottom-up approach to culture study and asking student writers about their experiences of academic english writing, this study fills an important gap in l2 writing scholarship related to how instructors can help l2 students overcome the cultural challenges in academic writing. methods a case study approach and qualitative methodology were adopted for the study. prior to the operationalization of the project, appropriate institutional ethics approval was obtained. specific details are discussed below. setting the study took place at an eap program in a mid-sized public university in western canada in fall 2016 and winter 2017. this program prepares eal students for university by providing english language support. although the intake size varies from semester to semester, between 80 and100 students enrol in the program each semester. the eap program uses its own in-house tests for placing students in one of the three tiers: 1 (intermediate), 2 (upper intermediate), and 3 (advanced). the writing courses for all three tiers meet for 100 minutes per day for four days each week. the content of these courses ranges from discrete-point grammar lessons, to recognizing and producing grammatically correct sentences and academic texts, which vary in length depending on the tier. for instance, tier 1 students are expected to produce short paragraphs whereas tier 3 students are expected to write multi-paragraph essays using secondary sources. writing tasks include in-class timed writing, take home assignments, and multi-draft writing assignments such as term papers, analyzing graphs or charts, summarizing, and writing by using sources. class activities are mostly student-centred and task-based with intermittent instructor led discussions. for example, typical class activities include group discussions, peer review of drafts, and revision activities using both peer and instructor feedback. the writing courses use both formative and summative feedback, and common assessment practices used are discrete-point grammar tests, timed writing tests, take-home assignments, multi-draft writing assignments, homework, midterm exams, and final exams. participants twenty-seven students from all three tiers of the program participated in the study. they represented nine different l1s and 17 nationalities. there were six male and 21 female participants and their average age was 27 years (48 being oldest, 17 youngest). all participant names used in this paper are pseudonyms. detailed demographic information of participants is provided in table 1. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 15 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 table 1 participants’ demographic information participant pseudonym age gender tier country l1 anam 25 f -* saudi arabia arabic ashley 31 f 2 south korea korean bella 18 f 3 venezuela spanish beth 23 f 2 peru spanish gaia 18 f 2 belgium french reyan 18 m 1 kuwait arabic jessica 17 f 2 china chinese krista 17 f 2 china chinese lily 37 f 3 venezuela spanish monica 24 f 3 algeria arabic samara 47 f 1 saudi arabia arabic francis 43 f 2 mexico spanish paula 20 f 3 colombia spanish raj 19 f 2 bangladesh bengali ali 21 m 3 yemen arabic star 20 f 2 china chinese summer 19 f 2 china chinese troy 47 f 3 turkey turkish vickie 19 f 2 china chinese bob 19 m 3 china chinese amy 45 f 2 china chinese romero 48 m 3 canada romanian jack 34 m 3 iran farsi nima 28 f 3 saudi arabia arabic sarah 23 f 2 iran farsi steven 18 m 3 oman arabic suzy 34 f 3 cameroon french *the participant did not provide the information. data collection the primary data for this study were drawn from semi-structured interviews (see the appendix for sample interview questions), as scholars (kaplan, 2005) have identified this to be a useful data source for research on this topic. a questionnaire survey was also administered to collect participants’ background information. this study is part of a larger project that investigated the cultural factors that l2 students perceived to affect their writing. data analysis a grounded theory approach (corbin & strauss, 2008; silverman, 2014) to qualitative data analysis was adopted, meaning a set of a priori themes were not imposed at the beginning of data analysis. rather themes emerged via participant response, as we, the researchers, read through a portion of data for open coding (corbin & strauss, 1990) with the research question in mind. as part of the open coding process, the researchers read participant responses carefully and assigned a short but meaningful descriptor for each observed phenomenon in the interview transcripts https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 16 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 being analyzed. subsequently, the research assistant followed the example codes and open-coded the remainder of interview transcripts. after open coding, the nvivo computer program was used to assign each coded transcript a label and to group all coded transcripts under appropriate nodes. the researchers then read through all coded data to identify broad categories with a unique, self-explanatory descriptor that would best represent a particular teacher support that participants had mentioned. throughout the data collection and analysis process, reliability and validity of information was ensured. regular correspondence was maintained between the researchers and research assistant for the ongoing task, while clarifications were sought at times when confusion arose. the researchers and research assistant together coded a portion of data to ensure inter-rater reliability, which was found to be around 89% for five interview transcripts or about 20% of data. since the sample size was fairly large, the information gathered through interviews was deemed reliable. results participant accounts on how instructors could help overcome cultural challenges in l2 students’ academic writing were divided into six categories. these categories were related to providing explicit feedback on writing, providing english text structures, using exemplars, creating opportunities for in-class writing and reviews, explaining cultural differences between l1 and l2 writing, and providing more writing practice. below, each of these categories is discussed with select excerpts from interviews in a table. provide explicit feedback on writing most participants considered instructor’s “talk” or follow-up on assignment feedback or comments to be an important support to overcome academic genreand culture-related challenges in writing. analysis of interview excerpts provide insights into how instructor facilitation to understand common errors in classrooms played out in students’ minds. they were interested in listening to the instructor to develop a broader, socially (i.e., academically) accepted understanding of textual and grammatical structures. table 2 collates some of the common themes that emerged in which students expected instructors to help them navigate the unfamiliar, and often complex and conflicting academic writing expectations by offering one-on-one and inclass feedback or “talk” sessions. students like monica, bella, amy, star, and vickie acknowledge the value of the instructor to “like sit with me [them]” to explain not only the assignment requirements but also textual features such as formality of language use, transition between ideas or sentences by using conjunctions, and characteristics of l1 writing that impede meaning making in the context of academic english writing. the following examples on the next page in table 2 capture these themes. provide english text structures offering english academic text structures is another category of support that study participants thought instructors could provide. it is possible that because this study took place in an eap context participants were particularly aware of the importance of following the conventions of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 17 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 academic writing. however, their accounts, as illustrated in table 3 on the next page, do provide insights into the challenges they encountered. the interview excerpts illustrate students’ awareness of composing in an academic genre and the content knowledge related to the topic. but the english academic conventions coupled with having to translate the l1-specific content knowledge into writing in english were perceived to be challenging, as noted by participant raj who reported “we know we have ideas about this topic, but we cannot write it.” eap writing, as illustrated in the excerpts below, requires an understanding of the general principles of academic writing and practising the specific forms and structures of writing in the disciplines. table 2 interview excerpts: provide explicit feedback on writing interview excerpts main ideas i need my instructor to like sit with me in ½ hour or an hour and i will express my idea…once a week, for example, i will prepare my essay, for example, then he asks me to say my idea and then he will correct me. i should understand their culture first. when i understand their culture, i will have more ideas. i can add in my essay more ideas and more facts and like this. (monica, l1 arabic, algeria) create feedback opportunities for writing …more time with students when you’re going to study and when you are writing in a language is not your first one, you will always find something that is not easy and you need help, more like you and the teacher, more moments they will tell you like specific what you need to improve. (bella, l1 spanish, venezuela) provide feedback on complex ideas in english writing … we talked about our writing and my classmates had two sentences, there is no conjunction… i don’t know how to use the conjunction and he [the classmate] is also from china so we don’t know how to conjunction [combine] two sentences and when we ask the teacher, he give us some conjunctions, more, however, to connect the two sentences. (amy, l1 chinese, china) unpack feedback on grammar and sentence construction how can i write academic writing that is formal? i think he [instructor] will tell us which sentence is informal and what kind of sentence is informal, because most of the sentences that he think[s] is informal, but when i write it in china, there is no problem, so it is difficult for me to discuss which one is formal and which one is informal. (star, l1 chinese, china) unpack cultural aspects of writing use exemplars study participants suggested (see table 4 on the next page) that exemplars be used in writing instruction, providing students with models of good english academic writing. while essay structures as discussed above would give students ideas about the various components of an essay, exemplars would provide a big picture of what good essays look like. furthermore, exemplars can be useful for novice writers to “self-learn” (krista) the features of an essay such as the style and voice to be used in academic writing. using model essays can also be extended to writing practice and analysis. participants like summer, krista, and anam talk about benefits of this practice beyond “getting marks” and suggest that establishing a “standard” of writing expectation and analyzing “every sentence together” leads to greater clarity and an improved final essay submission. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 18 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 table 3 interview excerpts: provide english text structures interview excerpts main ideas … i have good general knowledge because i have been in canada and i read little bit, but still it’s hard to find ideas in other language. but what happens is i try to find ideas in my language, romanian and i try to translate and to think in romanian, but you have to think in english and write down your thoughts in english and the way it should be like introduction, paragraph, thesis sentence, topics. so, in romanian language it is almost the same, but there is not so much structure so that i find other challenge in my writing besides the grammar. (romero, l1 romanian, canada) provide structures of academic english texts in writing class, i want to learn how to write academic writing properly and i give you an example. i have an idea, but i cannot write it so umm i want the teacher to help me how to write it. i hope he will teach us about that and i told him it was my problem…i think this is very difficult for us and we know we have ideas about this topic, but we cannot write it. (raj, l1 bengali, bangladesh) unpack academic writing … it’s important to know the general at first, the general information about how we can make an essay and how many sentences we need to write in an introduction or in the paragraph, how we can think about...it’s very simple here and it’s very clear and i like that. (francis, l1 spanish, mexico) discuss general to specific structures of academic essays they gave us the structure, then they gave us homeworks which we should write, then they…after that they will send us feedback and where we should improve, where are our mistakes and then we work on them. (monica, l1 arabic, algeria) provide feedback on text structures first before providing opportunities for writing practice table 4 interview excerpts: use exemplars create opportunities for in-class writing and reviews the idea of in-class writing and review was viewed as a useful activity by study participants. as illustrated by interview excerpts in table 5 below, spending in-class time with peers and interview excerpts main ideas i think the teacher can give us a short essay with good structure and let us to remember it every day… to explain where is the benefit, where can you get points to get marks, where we can learn from this and use in our articles. i think this is the best way to improve our writing. (summer, l1 chinese, china) provide model english essays … give me some examples of informal and formal [texts] and the ways i can learn…to tell the difference between formal and informal writing. (star, l1 chinese, china) provide english essays with good writing styles i don’t know how to write the [thesis] statement, i don’t know how to write the essay, so sometimes i need an sample or a standard [model] before i do some things and i can self-learn things which is good. (krista, l1 chinese, china) provide english essays with good structural components …we should analyze every sentence together [of an example essay] and discuss about this, why he didn’t write this, this writer, it will be more clear to us. (anam, l1 arabic, saudi arabia) deconstruct the exemplars with whole class for student learning https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 19 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 instructors helped students address various cultural challenges in english writing such as the “order” or organization of an essay, vocabulary choices, or making discipline-specific word choices. participants noted that in-class time gave them the opportunity to clarify the confusion they could not resolve by themselves. as well, it gave them more confidence when they worked in the presence of instructors and peers and discussed a range of errors. observing how others write can also contribute to one’s own understanding of best practices in writing. ultimately, as summer pointed out, this opportunity to observe would address the challenge l2 writers face when instructors are inadvertently “too confident about us [l2 writers],” and level the playing field by accepting that sometimes for learners “there is no way to get how to fix this [writing]” by themselves. finally, it also alleviates the issue of time constraints as it was reported that there was not enough time for feedback or for students to revise drafts. table 5 interview excerpts: create opportunities for in-class writing and reviews interview excerpts main ideas i like the idea that we can spend more time… with the instructor and do something in the class … it’s better than to do time at home, yourself... if you do it with the other, it is more helpful. (nima, l1 arabic, saudi arabia) create more in-class writing opportunities …because we do not have enough time in school and sometimes i spend hours to try to find the correct word, the correct things. and sometimes i search and that’s why i feel that it is better to have writing in class in order to measure the capacity or improve it, to have better exercise, because when you are working, you do not have much time to spend. you need to respond right away…when i see my colleagues, my friends writing, i see that hmm, i did the same thing. but when you write [alone] you do not notice… we need to have more time to learn in class and more time to review our book with the teacher. (troy, l1 turkish, turkey) create an enabling peerlearning environment in the classroom maybe it helps to start from the most bottom level to take all the students to go together, because [there] are difference between one student to another one and the teacher have to cover all the points …i think you will never improve to writing if the teachers don’t tell you oh no this order, this is conclusion, this is right with your teachers advice so you can catch your errors. (reyan, l1 arabic, kuwait) address a range of errors in-class for parity among diverse learners … sometimes the teacher is too confident about us… we are students and we need to learn, and sometimes the teacher [would] want to teach us some grammar mistakes [in texts] because he thinks we can find it by ourselves but actually some students can’t... there is no way to get how to fix this… (summer, l1 chinese, china) recognize students’ cultural challenges in english writing explain cultural differences between l1 and l2 writing some participants reported (see table 6 below) that while they were aware that there were differences between writing in english and writing in their l1, they were not fully certain of these differences. nonetheless, student writers seemed to value these cultural differences and considered them as learning opportunities. interview excerpts suggest that student writers found it useful to gain insights into how their l1 might influence english writing. this follows that instructor support in helping recognize the cultural differences of writing between students’ l1 and english would be useful for students. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 20 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 table 6 interview excerpts: explain cultural differences between l1 and l2 writing interview excerpts main ideas i would like my teacher to tell me about my culture, because yes i have…many books in spanish, but i would like to know the differences, because maybe it would give me more light in what i am doing [when writing in english]. (francis, l1 spanish, mexico) help recognize l1specific cultural factors affecting writing in english …when i write an essay, i don’t think the sentence is not correct, but my teacher always says the sentence is influenced by my first language, but i don’t know how it is influenced it and how it is not correct and my first language how it influences it. i can’t get the point. i don’t know the reason. (vickie, l1 chinese, china) discuss l1 influences on english writing i have to learn and i am working on it…when i have some questions, i go directly to the person or make some phone calls or email them…that’s the way i find easy for me to figure out what is the way and what are those difference between their two manners and two cultures. (reyan, l1 arabic, kuwait) help learn cultural differences of writing between the student’s l1 and english …to know that, for example, in asian culture, sometimes they try to talk about and at the end say the main idea at the end, everything. it’s different, but it’s interesting to know how, maybe for my classmates that are in that culture, to understand how they are writing in their own culture in comparing with the way they are learning now. (sarah, l1 farsi, iran) help compare, learn and apply the knowledge of cultural differences to english writing table 7 interview excerpts: provide more writing practice interview excerpts main ideas i think we should have more writing practice tasks…let’s practise writing a thesis statement or let’s practise paraphrasing. we have to practise task and then that test. so, in theory there’s only one chance to practise, but throughout the week, we should…it would be a great idea to practise paraphrasing or how to quote properly, like do the writing and then have the practice test and then that test. (paula, l1 spanish, colombia) provide shorter writing tasks for focused practice …when i write something…i don’t have lots of problem with grammar…we actually want to learn about how to write…and academic essay, this type of things. (raj, l1 bengali, bangladesh) provide writing tasks to help learn how to write basically, i need to learn how to express myself, express my ideas, good summary…good examples in essays, writing essays, writing paragraphs, papers, it is difficult and how to describe something in academic way. umm its okay with grammar, they teach grammar, but we need to improve the more the real academic writing, essays, paragraphs, quotations, describe chart. (beth, l1 spanish, peru) provide writing tasks to help improve expression like he [instructor] said you need to practise writing more by putting yourself in a situation with a specific time and this will help you come up with more ideas and more sentences and that’s what i did and that’s why i think i am improving with this. (samara, l1 arabic, saudi arabia) provide timed writing tasks to simulate tests provide more writing practice several participants indicated that instructors can create more opportunities for low-stakes writing tasks. for some, practising writing in english would help them develop clearer ideas https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 21 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 about different sub-tasks such as writing thesis statements and integrating research into writing through paraphrasing and quoting. other participants were willing to write more to learn about academic genres and engage with various rhetorical choices and work on appropriate expressions for different contexts of writing. the excerpts in table 7 on the previous page illustrate this. discussion and implications culture in l2 literature is a contested topic and there are good reasons for this. after all, each individual represents a unique culture (cf. atkinson, 1999; atkinson & sohn, 2013). despite this individual variation, l2 scholars generally agree that culture plays an important role in various l2 learning phenomena. from that perspective, the findings of this study provide an emic view of l2 writers’ perceptions of how instructors can help them to overcome the cultural challenges in an eap writing context. this is a departure from research that has typically relied on etic perspectives and textual data for culture research in l2 writing (e.g., connor, 2014). although case studies warrant caution in the interpretation of the results, in this study the research question directly relates to a pedagogical issue—i.e., what instructors can do to help students overcome challenges due to their cultural background. thus, the six categories of support that have emerged from this study can be part of an overarching pedagogical framework in an eap writing classroom. for this reason, in a context like british columbia, where the eap student population is on the rise and post-secondary institutions are looking for ways to support them (e.g., landry, 2019), the findings of this study are particularly relevant. generally speaking, the findings indicate that instructors have an important role to play in helping students overcome cultural challenges in eap writing. l2 students need support in unpacking various cultural underpinnings in english academic writing, many of which may cause major constraints in their performance. for instance, eap students may appear to be unsure about culturally loaded concepts such as thesis statements and essays (e.g., as noted by the participant krista) as well as academic english text structures used for instructional purposes that are taken for granted by instructors. a useful strategy to address this issue would be “socializing intellectual talk” that recognizes an instructor’s in-class explanations on a writing assignment, follow-up responses, and discussions as important constituents of building an effective learning culture (parsons, 2017, p. 75). additionally, some l2 students may understand the theoretical aspects of a particular concept in eap writing; however, they need exemplars and activities that deconstruct texts for clarity. instructors, thus, need to offer culturally responsive support in student writing, much like what lillis and curry (2010) recommend for literacy development. since instructors are at the frontline of l2 students’ writing development, they need to be proactive in playing the role of cultural brokers for learners, so students gain an understanding of l2 text structures and assignment expectations. interestingly, such an l2 writing teaching approach aligns with most recent scholarship in l2 writing pedagogy that calls for implementation of systemic functional linguistics (sfl) or sfland genre-based pedagogy through a teaching/learning cycle’s (tlc) (rose & martin, 2012; rothery, 1996) deconstruction, joint construction and independent construction stages (cf. caplan, 2019; caplan & farling, 2016). in sfl-based writing pedagogy, the functional aspect of language use is of utmost importance as writing is considered to be a means to achieve certain communicative functions. consequently, students are https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 22 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 introduced to specific genres. they then participate in deconstructing the texts to understand a given genre’s functions and how those functions are achieved. subsequently, students go through the joint and independent construction stages as they write collaboratively and independently to consolidate their knowledge. specific examples of this writing pedagogy can be found in caplan and farling (2016) as well as de oliveira and lan (2014). as several participants indicated that they desired teacher feedback on writing, the current study provides insights into how feedback can be directed for student benefits in the eap classroom. findings indicate that in spite of the efficacy of the use of implicit feedback in error correction, in order to help l2 writers overcome cultural challenges in writing, teachers need to provide explicit feedback. as well, teacher feedback should not be limited to mechanics and discourse-level issues in writing. rather, feedback on the cultural appropriateness of texts, culture-specific writing styles and text patterns is also important. in fact, some l2 writers may need such feedback to get them started with producing target language texts. manchón’s (2017) distinction between feedback for acquisition and feedback for accuracy is relevant here, as l2 students need to focus on acquisition first to overcome challenges due to cultural incongruences in l2 writing. availability of time is an important consideration vis-a-vis instructor feedback. limited time means instructors can reach fewer students and discussion topics. there are ways to address this issue: utilizing flipped classrooms and encouraging peer feedback. the concept of flipping instruction implies that students would spend more time in the classroom “for practice, discussions, and learning activities that are designed to promote higher-order thinking” (mori, omori, & sato, 2016, p. 731). by utilizing flipped classrooms, instructors can create more inclass writing opportunities, encouraging students to ask questions about various global issues, including those that have cultural connotations such as text structures, l1 and l2 cultural differences, and strengths and weaknesses of example texts. this use of flipped classroom approaches will enable students to spend more time writing. flipped classrooms also allow feedback to be prompt as desired by students, evidenced in troy’s comment that “you need to respond right away.” on the other hand, peer feedback, in spite of its limitations, provides instructors the flexibility to discuss other views and ways to develop academic writing skills. additionally, peer feedback affords intercultural mingling in the classroom, promoting cosmopolitan and translingual practices (canagarajah, 2013) in writing. somewhat related to the above, this study provides empirical evidence of what leki (1991) speculated as the pedagogical implications of ir about three decades ago—it is important for instructors to address culture-specific writing differences in english and other languages. this call for attention to culture-specific writing differences raises the question—to what extent can an instructor provide students with effective writing lessons with diverse eap classes in mind? a practical goal for teachers would be to help raise student awareness about the various linguistic and cultural resources they have at their disposal as multilingual writers (ene, mcintosh, & connor, 2019, p. 109) and emphasize that students’ writing performance is not dependent upon target language proficiency alone, it depends on language-specific text patterns also (abasi, 2012; leki, 1991). thus, consciousness-raising activities along with focused feedback on text structures can help students overcome many of the cultural challenges. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 23 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 the findings further suggest that instructors need to be mindful about maintaining a balance between students’ actual abilities and assigned writing tasks. if instructors have unreasonably high expectations, especially regarding their knowledge about culturally loaded concepts such as thesis statements or essays, this possibility of unreasonably high expectations may give rise to confusion, as reflected in summer’s comment, “maybe sometimes the teacher is too confident about us.” findings indicate that l2 writers expect writing instructors to clarify concepts for all students, if necessary, by “start[ing] from the most bottom level” (reyan) and providing feedback on writing before assigning graded tasks. it also appears that cultural incongruences in writing may occur in the unlikeliest of circumstances as the nature of cultural implications for writing are unpredictable, ongoing, local, conflictual, and disperse (e.g., canagarajah, 2013). this potential for cultural incongruences implies that writing instructors cannot afford to generalize students’ writing challenges owing to their differing cultural backgrounds. an inductive or bottom-up approach to writing instruction might offer a solution especially because participants want “examples all of the time” (romero). in an inductive approach to teaching writing, model texts will be at the forefront of instructional practices. instructors do not teach explicit rules; instead, teachers and students analyze exemplars as a whole class (i.e., see the deconstruction stage discussed above) to identify target text structures and writing patterns applicable to a task. students actively engage with texts and contexts to critically examine various l2 writing concepts such as “voice,” “originality,” and “clarity” that are presumed to be culturally loaded (e.g., atkinson, 2003, p. 6). once these concepts are sufficiently clear to the class, the instructor can engage students in a whole class writing activity as part of a joint construction task (caplan, 2019; caplan & farling, 2016). joint construction will help eliminate cultural incongruences in l2 writing, and most importantly, help students experience how meaningful texts are produced utilizing the language and context. an inductive approach to instruction will promote autonomous learning. for instance, learners can self-discover cultural influences on texts. sometimes students may have ideas but be hesitant when organizing texts due to their disparate literacy and cultural backgrounds. adopting inductive instruction and analyzing model texts in the classroom will help l2 writers feel more confident about producing texts in the target language as students will experience first-hand how language is used in writing for meaningful communication. difficulties with l2 text structures have been part of empirical research (e.g., abasi, 2012). hence, adopting inductive teaching and creating opportunities for more writing practices are sound pedagogical choices. more practice, with prompts to address various academic genres, has deeper implications as learners adapt to l2 text features and are better prepared to address a writing scenario, audience, and improve testtaking skills. finally, the findings of this study make the case that all facets of human actions are steeped in culture—individual, shared and borrowed. it is an indispensable part of everything people do, experience, or enact. as a result, teaching l2 writing entails the knowledge of cultural differences and how that impacts the culture of teaching and learning. in light of this, the implications of this study, in terms of what instructors can do to address cultural challenges of student writers in the eap classroom, can be summarized as follows: https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 24 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387  facilitate cultural exchanges: “when i understand their [peers’] culture, i will have more ideas” (monica)  teach, support, and encourage: “we know we have ideas about this topic, but we cannot write it” (raj)  deconstruct good writing in the target culture and discuss the features of good writing: “we should analyze every sentence together [of an exemplar] and discuss…why he didn’t write this, this writer” (anam)  avoid assuming all l2 student writers’ knowledge about academic english writing and culture is comprehensive: “… sometimes the teacher is too confident about us” (summer)  translate the influence of the l1 into the l2: “tell me about my culture” (francis)  reconceptualize assessment procedures to incorporate room for practice: “let’s practise… and then that test” (paula) one needs to be mindful that these lived experiences are emergent, ongoing, and contested, as argued by leading l2 scholars (cf. belcher, 2014; canagarajah, 2013). therefore, the findings may not be generalizable, and as with any empirical study, further research needs to incorporate other eap writing contexts. conclusion the current study investigated student views on what instructors can do to help them overcome culture related l2 writing challenges. in spite of useful insights that the findings of this study have provided, there are a few limitations of this research. first, the study occurred in an eap context at a canadian institution. future studies can implement a broader scale (local and international) and multiple contexts of l2 writing (e.g., graduate-level, discipline-specific) to enhance the generalizability of results. as well, given the limited english proficiency of participants, there may have been a mismatch between participants’ intended message and what they could actually communicate. consequently, future studies may explore students’ perceptions of culture-related challenges and instructional needs and track if these perceptions evolve over time. finally, other sources of data, such as focus group interviews, surveys, reflective writing, and writing journals can be included to complement interview data and triangulate findings. despite the limitations, this study is an addition to culture research in l2 writing and a springboard for future inquiry on this important issue. the findings yielded six categories that provide a culturally nuanced pedagogical framework for l2 writing classrooms. this study takes into account the keen observations of study participants to provide insights into what tasks and learning practices can enhance l2 writers’ academic experience. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the participants for agreeing to take part in this study, and the taylor institute for teaching and learning at the university of calgary for the sotl grant that made this work possible. we would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor of the bc teal journal for their feedback. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 bhowmik & chaudhuri 25 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 references abasi, a. r. 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(2014). interpreting qualitative data (5th ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. appendix semi-structured interview questions 1. what does “culture” mean to you? can you give an example? 2. now that you’re living in a different country, what are the differences you’ve seen between your culture and the new culture? 3. can you talk about your writing in your native language as well as in english? are they the same or different? how? give examples. 4. how do these differences or similarities affect your writing? can you explain with examples? 5. based on your understanding of culture, do you think culture is related to writing? is it related to your english writing? in what ways? 6. what challenges do you usually face in your academic english writing because of the cultural factors you have mentioned? how do you deal with these challenges? can you explain with examples? 7. do you think your writing instructors can help you overcome the challenges in writing because of cultural factors you have just described? if so, how? 8. can you provide specific examples how instructors can help you overcome the challenges due to various cultural factors you have described? https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12222 https://doi.org/10.14434/v17i1.20514 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614511335-020 https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088397014004004 bhowmik & chaudhuri 28 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 11–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.387 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mao 78 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 thriving through uncertainties: the agency and resourcefulness of first-year chinese english as an additional language writers in a canadian university jing mao university of victoria abstract amidst the increased enrolment of international chinese english as an additional language (eal) students in north american universities, scholars have reported on their academic and social experiences in navigating english-medium studies (e.g., liu, 2016; zhang & zhou, 2010). although informative, some studies focus on eal learners’ perceived deficient language proficiencies, and how these deficits can negatively impact their academic success. in contrast to studies based on deficit models, this study argues that participants exhibit agency as evidenced in their responses to challenges encountered in and changes to their perceptions of and practices in academic writing. employing an ecological perspective and (second) language socialization theories (duff, 2010, 2019; van lier, 2004, 2008), this qualitative case study examined how six first-year chinese eal learners enacted their agency and resourcefulness when navigating their academic writing trajectories. ultimately, this study’s findings recommend that composition faculty, administrators, and eal educators recognize eal writers’ agency in accessing multiple resources while acknowledging their writing challenges, providing an optimal learning environment, and empowering them to thrive in their mainstream composition studies. the importance and challenge of academic writing for eal students since english functions as the dominant language for academic communication and scholarship globally, writing efficiently and appropriately in english is extremely important but often poses challenges for students who learn english as an additional language (eal) (hyland, 2013). as hyland (2013) indicated, “we are what we write” (p. 53); therefore, students and researchers are defined and judged by how they write as academics. additionally, an article by jabeen et al. (2019) identified three main factors that play a role in eal learners’ academic experiences and performance: academic engagement, academic socialization, and social integrity. among these factors, english language proficiency is considered a predictor that accounts for eal learners’ academic performance. focusing on chinese eal learners (both at the graduate and undergraduate levels) at a canadian university, zhang and zhou’s (2010) study found that a lack of oral and written communication abilities were factors that prevented students’ academic success. although not specifically focused on academic writing, these studies have shown the importance and challenges of academic writing for eal learners who aim to achieve academic success in english-medium canadian universities, as well as the necessity for educators to support these students. chinese eal learners in canadian universities given the global trend towards and impact of the internationalization of higher education, an increasing number of international students, especially those from china, are studying in colleges and universities in canada. accordingly, chinese eal students (including the six participants in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 79 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 this study) are one of the largest non-domestic student groups at canadian universities. at both undergraduate and graduate levels, chinese students account for approximately 30% of the total number of international students—a trend that has continued to increase yearly (cbie, 2016). therefore, researchers have paid attention to reports on the academic and social experiences of chinese international students. some studies have focused on the challenges, impacting factors, and outcomes of students’ experiences (e.g., liu, 2016; preston & wang, 2017; zhang, 2011; zhang & zhou, 2010). although informative, some studies focused on eal learners’ perceived deficient language proficiencies and how these deficits can negatively impact their academic success. in contrast to this deficit model, a few other studies have paid attention to students’ holistic experiences including both their struggles and successes, as well as their agency and dynamic changes in their academic performance (e.g., anderson, 2017; heng, 2018). aligned with holistic studies focused on academic writing, this study investigated six chinese eal writers’ experiences in navigating first-year composition courses in an english-medium canadian university by drawing from ecological and language socialization approaches. an ecological perspective on language learning and (second) language academic socialization this study employed an ecological perspective and (second) language socialization as its theoretical framework. as a holistic and contextualized framework, an ecological approach does not view language learning as a product that is acquired; instead, this approach emphasizes that learning is a process that is emergent and relational to the environment on physical, symbolic, and social levels (dufva, 2013; van lier, 2004; 2008). as steffensen and kramsch (2017) summarized, the main tenets of ecological approaches to second language acquisition (sla) are as follows: language learning and use are emergent; affordances in the environment play a crucial role; language plays a mediated function in education; and language learning experiences are subjective and historical. in essence, an ecological perspective regards language learning as holistic, situated, emergent, and dialogical within the interrelatedness of the whole environment. in some researchers’ exploration of the relationship between individual organisms and their environment, the notion of affordance and agency plays a key role from an ecological perspective. in language education, van lier (2004) defined affordance as perceived opportunities for actions or dynamic relationships between the environment and active learners. according to van lier, learning resources are not yet affordable until learners as agents perceive of, reflect on, and act on these resources, which involves a dynamic process of mutual interaction between learners and the environment. another important concept of agency refers to the capacity to act, which is “mediated by social, interactional, cultural, institutional, and other contextual factors” (van lier, 2008, p. 171). defining agency in this way means that the capacity to learn is socially constructed. also, van lier (2008) proposed that three core features of learner agency: (1) initiative or self-regulation; (2) contextual interdependence; and, (3) responsibility for one’s actions vis-à-vis the environment. altogether, these features are helpful for examining eal writers’ agency in the current study. in addition to an ecological perspective, the second theory that has guided this study is (second) language socialization (duff, 2010; duff & talmy, 2011). researchers operating within a language socialization theoretical framework investigate the activities and processes of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 80 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 learning in which novices (newcomers) learn the language or cultural knowledge of a target community through “interactions with others who are more proficient in the language and its cultural practices” (duff, 2010, p. 172). when it comes to adult additional language (l2) learners, their socialization processes differ from their first language (l1) counterparts. these adult l2 learners need to learn a non-native culture and literacy practice through an additional language despite having already been socialized into their l1 communities and having their own perspectives on issues such as identity and power relations (steffensen & kramsch, 2017). as duff and doherty (2015) theorized, learner agency plays a crucial role in facilitating or impeding the process of language socialization since “learners bring their agency to bear on the affordances of their personal context and the resources available to them” (p. 69). it is worth mentioning that learner agency has attracted increasing scholarly attention in recent years. for instance, larsen-freeman (2019) has conceptualized agency from a complex dynamics system theory (cdst) perspective and discussed educational practices for supporting learner agency. these conceptual discussions provide rich insights into understanding learner agency among eal learners for this study. methodology this study employed a multiple case study approach (duff, 2014; yin, 2018). aligned with a holistic theoretical framework, this case study was designed to allow for an in-depth investigation of the individualized perceptions and experiences of participants in the context of real-world situations. in this study, the selection of multiple cases, rather than a single case, aimed to provide “several instances of the phenomenon in question,” which has become “the new norm” in contemporary case study research in applied linguistics (duff & anderson, 2015, p. 114). the overall aim of this study was to examine the evolving perceptions and performances of six chinese eal writers, especially in terms of how they navigated their writing trajectories by exerting their agency and multilingual resources. context and participants the study was conducted in a medium-sized english-medium university in western canada. in the academic year of 2017–2018, approximately 2,392 of the university’s 18,400 undergraduates were international students. among them, chinese eal students ranked as the largest group with around 1,400 students enrolled (citation redacted for anonymity). the study focused on a course titled comp 100 (pseudonym, as with other courses named in this study) because it was a popular required course that nearly all undergraduates take in their first year. the course aimed to teach the practical skills needed for successful academic writing across a variety of subject areas. the basic course assignments of comp 100 included four elements: a summary, a genre or rhetorical analysis, a research paper, and a final exit exam. my recruitment of student participants began in the fall of 2019. informed by creswell and poth’s (2018) instructions for recruiting participants for a qualitative study, i employed purposive sampling for the current study. ideal participants for the study were chinese eal students enrolled in comp 100. these chinese eal learners were enrolled from across various disciplines in their first year of study in the university. six participants (one in her third year of study and excluded from this report) were finally recruited through an international students’ https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 81 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 club and the social media application wechat (a popular application among chinese students). the following table presents a brief summary of the personal, linguistic, and educational backgrounds of each student. table 1 list of student participants’ information pseudonym gender age major prior education english test (name and score) young male 21 economics college in china ielts 6 uap 82 zoey female 21 finance college in china ielts 7 momo female 18 business international high school provincial test (pass) ielts 6.5 emily female 18 business international high school toefl 100 steve male 18 health information science international high school act 30 toefl 100 serena female 21 math chinese high school ielts 6 uap 80 data collection and analysis in this qualitative case study, multiple data collection methods were employed to produce rich descriptions and analyses of participants’ writing-related perceptions, practices, and changes with regard to their academic writing in a first-year composition context. data collection instruments included mainly background surveys and semi-structured interviews. two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants (see appendix). held in a study room at the campus library, each interview lasted from forty-five minutes to one hour and was audio-recorded with permission from participants. the interview and survey data for this study were analysed thematically (braun & clarke, 2006; yin, 2018). after reading through the whole data set several times and developing some initial ideas, i conducted the formal initial coding through the use of a web-based program for qualitative data analysis. as i began to understand the data sets on a deeper level, some codes were collated, deleted, or re-grouped into different code clusters representing new logical relations. the use of a web-based program was a convenient way to code data extracts and make changes in the coding process. during the phase of further categorizing different codes and code groups, i identified potential overarching themes that accounted for participants’ holistic experiences. the major themes addressed in this paper were related to students’ enactment of their learner agency and resourcefulness. findings: enactment of learner agency and resourcefulness during the four-month semester in 2019, participants experienced challenges as well as improvements in their academic writing practices and socialization experiences by interacting and engaging with learning affordances within and beyond their first-year composition classes. the following discussion highlights the key role of learner agency that students displayed in drawing on academic supports beyond classrooms, especially how students’ enactment of agency impacted their self-directed socialization processes. four salient themes emerged from the data https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 82 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 analysis regarding the manifestation of learner agency and resourcefulness in l2 academic socialization processes: adaptive alignment of awareness and actions in accessing learning affordances; dynamic integration of past and present experiences; proactive building-up of support networks; and autonomous decision-making in navigating uncertainties. i highlight the role of learner agency among eal students in accessing multiple learning affordances through dynamic interactions and engagements with the environment across time and space. adaptive alignment of awareness and actions in accessing learning affordances in this study, most participants felt overwhelmed and challenged by the prospect of succeeding in their writing studies when entering into their first-year composition courses. as most participants proclaimed, “everything was so new” to them. however, when confronted with the demanding expectations of english proficiency, complex assigned readings, and various types of writing assignments, most participants not only became aware of such challenges early on but also proactively sought supports from their surrounding environment. for example, when asked whether she had experienced challenges since her arrival, zoey responded: “yes, i almost met new things every day. but i basically handle them well since i take them as opportunities to learn from” (first interview, oct 8, 2019). as shown, zoey recognized certain challenges upon entering mainstream studies and actively aligned her actions with what she perceived as the learning opportunities identified. according to an ecological perspective, once learners recognize that learning opportunities vary for different learners, they can begin to act on available resources (van lier, 2004). in the case of zoey, her decision to seek resources by translating an assigned article from english to mandarin chinese aligned with her early awareness of her difficulties in comprehending complex academic readings. despite spending a great amount of time on the task of reading, zoey reported that she could understand articles at a deeper level by means of translation. furthermore, she also learned how to write by imitating the structure and rhetorical features of her assigned readings. similarly, another participant named young originally sought help from his instructor and later adjusted his strategy when he recognized that his instructor was not available to provide the support he expected in his class: i used to visit my instructor’s office time, twice a week. but later i decide not to go there to avoid misunderstanding. the writing centre is very helpful for my study. i asked questions from the tutors relating to my assignments and course content. i also visited the library yesterday and asked for help from the teacher at the research help desk (young, first interview, september 10, 2019) young’s expression of “misunderstanding” reflected his perception that communications with his instructor were not as smooth as he expected. as young recalled, his instructor seemed a bit “unfriendly” and repeatedly recommended that he withdraw from the course whenever he asked questions during his instructor’s office hours. as will be discussed, young decided to seek help outside the classroom to avoid feeling frustrated by his instructors’ responses. by visiting the writing centre to meet with tutors on a regular basis, young gradually improved his writing practices and gained confidence by positioning himself as an eal learner in need of academic support. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 83 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 within any ecological system, an individual must be willing to discern learning affordances and act upon them. the resources that young mentioned were available to every student; however, young was the only participant in this study to visit the writing centre consistently and persistently. in fact, young grasped simple but important skills for newcomers: asking for help when he encountered struggles rather than withdrawing from challenges. he articulated his concerns by interacting with various supporting agents without feeling intimidated by his instructors’ discouragement. as shown, the cases of zoey and young showed the alignment of their perceptions and actions when dynamically interacting with the affordances in their learning contexts. dynamic integration of past and present experiences another salient theme that emerged from this study is related to participants’ integration of their prior learning experiences and current composition studies. in this study, most participants realized that their previous experiences in academic reading and writing were limited, which prevented them from effectively managing their current composition studies. however, recognition of the differences or inconsistencies between two academic systems progressively changed over time. as eal students became familiar with current course expectations and gained practice composing course assignments, participants tended to modify their perceptions toward their prior writing experiences and future goals. for example, emily initially believed that she knew how to write academically since her required written essays were similar to what she practised for her test of english as a foreign language (toefl) exam. by the end of the semester, however, she changed her stance when asked about the relevance of toefl preparation to her current composition practices: jing: do you think your previous writing experiences, such as toefl or other exambased preparation was sufficient enough to support your writing in your composition course? emily: not that much. they are quite different. the toefl exam preparation might help me a bit with the summary writing, but the citation rules and writing research papers were totally new to me. i am still learning how to make a strong argument by including a claim, ground, and warrant. it is also hard for me to include my own ideas in an organized way. (second interview, december 17, 2019) as shown, emily appeared to progressively develop her understanding of the similarities and differences between what she previously practised and her current writing. when she recognized that her previous writing experiences preparing for the toefl examination were not enough to support her learning in her current composition course, emily took agentive action to learn how to compose a strong argument and recognized that she needed to take further action to improve her writing practices. similarly, young reported that he benefited from a pathway program he took before enrolling in his composition studies and indicated that, “without that one-month experience, i will feel more challenged now.” what young noted is aligned with scholarship in the field of eap or l2 writing, which reports that pathway or sheltered programs are helpful for eal writers transitioning into mainstream canadian studies (fox, et al., 2014; haggerty, 2019; keefe & shi, 2017). for instance, haggerty (2019) found that a pathway program, which was a newly designed post-secondary academic language program, benefited https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 84 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 eal learners transferring into their mainstream studies in a british columbian university. however, given the constraints of institutional policies and lack of funding, creating new programs may be unrealistic for some canadian universities. in addition to integrating past and present learning experiences into aligned efforts, some participants also cherished long-term or future goals rather than obtaining a passing grade in the course. for example, when asked about his course goals, steven responded that, in addition to successfully completing the course, he hoped to know the difference between himself and other academic writers in order to bridge such differences. when revisiting his goals in a second interview, steve held onto this optimistic belief despite the unexpected challenges that he encountered: i think my goal to write academically has been somehow achieved, but not quite obvious. i am unsatisfied since the course instructor provided me quite limited feedback, but the course is effective, and i have achieved my goal by self-learning (second interview, december 28, 2019) as shown, steve was aware of the importance of academic writing for his learning journey and set a clear goal to improve his writing practices in the long run. although he selfperceived that his goal was “somehow” achieved, he seemed to enjoy the “self-learning” process and was proud of the progress he made. in addition, steve identified “limited feedback” from his instructor as an external factor that contributed to his dissatisfaction. from a second language socialization perspective, eal students can be positioned as marginalized learners when they obtain insufficient feedback on their written work, which may impede their academic socialization process. although influential, the effect of obtaining limited feedback on steve’s learning seemed less detrimental since he held a long-term goal and took an agentive role in the process of self-directed socialization. furthermore, steve and other participants developed their reflexivity in the process of exerting their agency. during the second round of interviews, participants presented a deepened understanding of academic writing and reflected on how their writing could be further improved if they gained greater familiarity with the academic conventions expected in their composition classes. for example, zoey reported her realization about the importance of “critical thinking” in reading and writing essays by reflecting on her learning “to integrate others’ perspectives appropriately” into her essay writing rather than arguing her own ideas. likewise, when he received a low grade for his summary writing, steve took responsibility and reflected on how he “should ask for clarification before writing” (second interview, december 28, 2019). as such, steve displayed developed self-reflection skills while gaining more knowledge in his writing practices. proactive building-up of support networks in this study, participants proactively built up their individual networks of academic writing practices by interacting and engaging with various agents, communities, and resources. beyond interactions with composition instructors, other resources included one-on-one tutoring at the writing centre, soliciting peer support (both l1 and l2), attending workshops, and employing https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 85 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 online tools. by placing learners at the centre of the socialization process, zappa-hollman and duff (2015) have proposed using the construct of individual network of practice (inop) to examine the types and roles of various agents and resources. aligned with their guidance, i present how participants socialized their academic practices in the context of first-year composition studies in what follows. first, every participant reported that they had visited the writing centre, but differed in terms of times and consistency. writing centres are a common form of academic support in north american universities and the main source of help for eal learners (okuda & anderson, 2018). from an academic socialization perspective, tutors at the writing centre serve as agents to socialize eal writers into expected writing conventions and norms. however, whether or to what extent students’ academic writing improves varies for individual learners. in this study, the students who visited the writing centre persistently and regularly tended to express their appreciation for the support they received, as well as benefited from acquired writing skills and knowledge. for example, young described in detail how a tutor at the writing centre guided him through hands-on assistance on one of his writing assignments: i remembered the first time when i asked about how to write a reflective letter, she wrote everything on a piece of paper in detail, explaining what it is by relating to what i’ve learned before, such as, what are my ideas and how to use it to respond to the summary i made by reading the article...that is really helpful. (first interview, september 10, 2019) apparently, interactive one-on-one tutoring was very effective in accommodating young’s concerns and writing needs. studies have found that eal writers prefer one-on-one interactions with instructors, especially to gain direct feedback through conferencing about their writing (e.g., best et. al., 2015; hu, 2019). compared to his communication with his instructor, young reported he felt more comfortable and confident when interacting with tutors at the writing centre, who were encouraging and less judgemental. additionally, by joining a six-week learning plan (an individualized learning program set for eal writers) recommended by his instructor, young gained extra one-on-one support for his writing practices. altogether, young noted that he spent almost five to ten hours meeting with tutors per week throughout the semester. his devotion of time and energy into interacting with writing tutors, an enactment of agency, facilitated his academic writing improvement and socialization process. in addition to seeking academic support from tutors at the writing centre, learner agency among participants was also reflected in their efforts to informally establish individual networks. for instance, for the purpose of obtaining different perspectives on his written drafts, steve exerted his agency by asking for advice from an academic advisor in his discipline as well as his native english speaking (nes) roommates, and by attending workshops related to academic writing: one is organized by the library; another one may be organized by the residence. i am not sure since they said if you want to improve your writing, just come to the fair. so, i did. the library one is huge like a peer-reviewed workshop. students are invited to read each other’s papers and provide feedback. because there is limited time for a student to read each other’s papers, i think the effect is limited. (second interview, december 19, 2019) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 86 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 the fair that steve described seemed to be a group peer-review activity, in which students were organized to review others’ written work, provide feedback within a limited period of time, and then exchange papers with another student. in doing so, students could obtain quick feedback from multiple perspectives and contribute their ideas to each other’s work in a reciprocal way. although the effect of engaging in this activity was “limited,” steve made a crucial step to immerse himself in his local environment, which is important for international students. moreover, the positive comments that he received from nes students facilitated his awareness and socialization of key aspects of academic writing conventions and practices. promisingly, steve noted that he learned how to conduct self-directed studies, an unexpected benefit, by interacting and engaging with various agents and resources. from a language socialization perspective, both eal learners and their peers can be powerful agents of socialization, especially when the main facilitators (such as instructors) are absent (duff, 2010; zappa-hollman & duff, 2015). indeed, steve validates how building up individual networks through the enactment of agency can facilitate improved academic writing practices and selfdirected socialization experiences. another manifestation of learner agency was eal learners’ effective use of online tools and resources. for example, an important strategy momo employed was searching for information online and making use of various digital tools in her process of “learning to write.” momo reported that she learned the apa citation style mainly from the university website and other online resources. additionally, she chose a research topic related to social media and took interest in her research process. although she reported that finding academic sources was challenging because of her chosen topic, momo took an agentive role in making full use of her digital literacy to gain knowledge by surfing websites in both english and mandarin chinese. equipped with previous experience using online tools, eal writers in this study seemed to naturally integrate such tools into their learning process. for instance, zoey reported that she found using zotero helpful to automatically generate citation lists, but she also manually checked the lists again before submitting her research paper. furthermore, when she felt confused or uncertain about particular rules, she asked the research help desk or writing centre for assistance. additionally, by employing web-based google docs, she was also involved in collaborative writing with one of her classmates, which enriched her writing experiences. therefore, exerting learner agency by using digital tools and online resources provided eal learners with complementary opportunities for learning, which facilitated their academic socialization. autonomous decision-making in navigating uncertainties students’ academic socialization processes are not only mediated by various external agents and resources, such as instructors or tutors at the writing centre, as well as textbooks and online resources, but can also be internally mediated or self-directed (anderson, 2017). having agency and having choices are closely connected (larsen-freeman, 2019). in the process of self-directed socialization, learner agency in this study was also manifested when participants made informed decisions and modified their own coping strategies to navigate their writing trajectories. the effect of exerting their agency can either facilitate or impede their academic socialization (duff, 2010). a typical example was young, who resisted his instructors’ repeated advice to withdraw from his composition class by staying in his section, as mentioned earlier. according to young’s description, since he was the only eal student in his class, his instructor treated him the same as https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 87 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 students from nes backgrounds. during the process of interacting with his instructor, young felt an increasing amount of stress: i cannot fully understand what the teacher said in class time, first of all. since she might tell a joke that only native speakers can understand. i felt lost and sad about it since i cannot figure out what is happening. every time i go to her office hours, she might suggest that i register for comp 99 and just stop to answer my questions anymore (young, first interview, september 10, 2019). as shown, young interpreted his instructor’s suggestion as a signal of unwelcomeness, and he became too intimidated to communicate with the instructor during her office hours since he was unsure of how to deal with the stressful situation and tried to avoid potential misunderstandings. his instructor’s suggestion that he withdraw from his course socialized him into a category of inferior eal learners marginalized from others in his class. young reflected that he felt “so bad about himself.” despite his rocky interactions with his instructor, young excised his agency by deciding to stay in the class and seek support outside his classroom, as discussed above. in addition to being socialized into positioning himself as inferior to his nes peers, young also socialized his instructor into believing that he would exert his utmost efforts into his composition studies to stay in the class. as young later reported, his instructor provided him with an opportunity to enrol in a six-week learning plan specifically designed for eal writers in need of writing assistance. this time, young exerted his agency by accepting his instructor’s offer and made a commitment to go through with his writing practices. both young’s act of resistance and acceptance of his instructor’s advice demonstrated his enactment of agency: making his own decision with the options and resources provided. in addition to making their own decisions, another important aspect of the participants’ self-directed socialization was strategically coping with uncertainties about and struggles in their academic writing practices. for instance, emily developed her own way to incorporate various resources when completing her writing assignments at different stages of her composition studies. when asked about her development in academic writing, emily cheerfully shared a set of procedures she developed for composing and revising her written drafts: at first, i will follow the guideline and samples that the instructor provided very carefully and write the first draft, then i will send my draft to the instructor for suggestions. after i get the feedback, i will make changes accordingly and revise the draft. then i will bring them to the writing centre to meet the tutors there. we work together on my paper, which is also quite helpful. sometimes i could even have a whole paragraph changed. then i might feel ready to produce the final version and hand it in. (first interview, september 28, 2019) it seemed that emily not only worked hard but also learned how to wisely and strategically make use of the supports available to her. in addition to benefiting greatly from interactions with her instructor and the help gained from the writing centre, emily indicated the positive role of feedback from peer-editing practices, of exchanges with her chinese friends on her research ideas, and using grammarly to check her grammar and diction. her agency demonstrated a self-directed process of interacting with texts as well as various agents in her https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 88 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 academic discourse and community. emily also enhanced her confidence by interacting and engaging with learning affordances in her language socialization process. discussion informed by an ecological perspective and language socialization theory, these findings exemplified how the students in this study attempted to seek learning opportunities and engage with various agents and sources in order to navigate their writing journeys and improve their academic performance. in alignment with previous research on second language academic socialization, the findings showed that the learner agency of eal writers greatly affects their writing trajectories, especially their self-directed learning processes (anderson, 2017; duff & doherty, 2015). being active agents, most participants leveraged external and internal resources strategically to create favourable learning opportunities and outcomes in their writing trajectories. therefore, the interrelatedness between “active learners” and their surrounding environment revealed the uniqueness and diversity of learners’ agency in interacting with mediated affordances for academic writing development. the findings of student participants’ efforts to seek various affordances to improve their academic writing were aligned with empirical studies on multilingual students. for instance, morton et al. (2015) found that multicultural learners who solicited feedback from numerous people have a “multiplicity of resources” at their disposal. as zappa-hollman and duff (2015) emphasized in their study, “what is remarkable was just how resourceful the participants were in drawing on a wide range of human and other forms of support” (p. 357). similarly, participants in this study worked out their own ways to understand their environment and seek resources for academic success. these findings show that students’ enactment of agency was impacted by a range of contextual and individual factors when they engaged and interacted with different resources. future studies should therefore focus on how eal students’ employment of resources is dynamically impacted by various factors in different contexts. despite their efforts, the actual resources that participants chose to employ, the amount of help they obtained, and the extent to which they drew upon various affordances varied greatly from participant to participant in this situated context. as discussed above, some participants were more agentive and resourceful than others in the ways they sought supports from their surrounding environment. these findings also showed that students who were more aware of their challenges early on and actively familiarized themselves with surrounding supports were better equipped to achieve their course goals. that said, the outcome of academic socialization is complicated and unpredictable, and cannot be guaranteed by the enactment of learner agency. instances of students’ exerting learner agency highlight the function of socialization in building support networks for academic writing practices and being autonomous in their decision-making, which is conducive to students’ self-directed socialization processes and academic performance. pedagogical recommendations from an ecological perspective on language learning and academic socialization, i discuss how the findings of this study can inform pedagogical considerations for creating agency rich environments to support eal learners in first year composition courses. as biesta and tedder https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 89 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 (2007) pointed out, agency is not a personal trait nor an independent power but can be “achieved by means of an environment, not simply in the environment” (p. 137). to facilitate the achievement of eal learners’ agency in their composition studies, instructors are important agents who have power over the learning activities, resources, and opportunities that students access (douglas fir group, 2016). it is also important to acknowledge that the achievement of learner agency depends on the efforts and openness of both students and instructors (larsenfreeman, 2019). as such, several pedagogical implications can be drawn from this study. first of all, this study suggests composition instructors and eal educators become more aware of the complexities of academic writing for eal learners and appreciate students’ resourcefulness in developing their academic literacy. it is also helpful for instructors to learn that eal students’ struggles with english proficiencies do not mean that they are non-agentive or only a product of socialization. from a contemporary language socialization perspective, duff and doherty’s (2015) study indicated that agency is a crucial component in students’ selfdirected process of socialization since “highly motivated learners plan and exert their agency in various ways to achieve their goals” (p. 55). thus, composition instructors could holistically understand eal students’ learning paths and support them by recognizing eal learners’ multiplicity of resources for practising academic writing, while acknowledging their challenges in developing english capacities in taking writing courses. additionally, composition instructors can prompt eal learners’ agency by optimizing the learning environment and guiding students to be adaptive to changing situations (knoblock & gorman, 2018; larsen-freeman, 2019; shapiro et al., 2016). for instance, shapiro et al. (2016) proposed a framework of “teaching for agency” (p. 31) and exemplified how to promote the agency of multilingual writers in classroom practices. some pedagogical innovations, such as integrating agency as a central construct in designing writing assignments, may serve as a model for promoting eal writers’ agency by optimizing resources in situated contexts for eal students. since writing centres play a central role in supporting eal writing needs (simpson & waye, 2016), composition instructors could invite a writing tutor as an embedded guest in daily classroom activities. all the students, especially eal learners, would benefit from such teaching practices. furthermore, this study suggests composition instructors trust eal students’ choices and create spaces for the latter to exercise their decision-making capacities with respect. as larsenfreeman (2019) indicated, “at least create a place where students are not silenced because they cannot draw on all their language resources in the classroom” (p. 72). one practical way to achieve this trust and space can be initiating new projects, such as “writing about films,” chosen to encourage eal writers to make choices and optimize their resources (shapiro et al., 2016). the authors also indicated that allowing students to “thrive and stumble” with trust in these created spaces can lead to “learning and resilience” as a reward (p. 49). a specific example in this study was when participants who performed well in their genre analysis assignments were given the option to choose a genre type they were familiar with, such as a chinese advertisement or fairy tale. as such, eal learners felt empowered to exercise their agency by utilizing multiple resources. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 mao 90 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 limitations and suggestions for future research there were several limitations to this study. first, the sampling of this case study was small and student groups were limited to chinese eal writers in a canadian first-year composition course context. future research could include eal learners with diverse linguistic and cultural groups, which would further enrich research findings in this field. in particular, considering the local context of this study, it was also necessary to include the needs of domestic students who were also eal learners because of their families’ immigration status. compared to international eal learners, the academic writing needs of domestic eal students were less visible and tended to be overlooked by instructors and academic support services. in addition to the sampling of eal learners, the design of research methods can also be modified within specific institutional contexts. preferably, if future studies could include an ongoing needs analysis of eal learners with a larger sample size, the findings could identify and categorize students’ specific needs with updated information to complement qualitative case studies. institutional policies and programs would also benefit from such investigations. moreover, it would be interesting to compare and contrast eal learners and nes students in terms of their attitudes, needs, and expectations in taking first-year composition courses (e.g., stuart, 2012). the results would provide insights for pedagogical approaches to teaching composition with an inclusive and culturally responsive curriculum. acknowledgements i would like to thank the participants for agreeing to take part in this study. i would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor of the bc teal journal for taking time to read the earlier version of this article and giving their feedback. references anderson, t. 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(2010). understanding chinese international students at a canadian university: perspectives, expectations, and experiences. comparative and international education/education, 39(3), 43–58. https://doi.org/10.5206/cie-eci.v39i3.9162 appendix: semi-structured interview questions a. first interview 1. in general terms, how has your time in this university gone so far? 2. have you experienced any academic challenges or barriers in your studies? https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12536 https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5841/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2015.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.406 https://doi.org/10.1108/tjced-05-2017-0006 https://doi.org/10.1108/tjced-05-2017-0006 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v1i1.230 https://doi.org/10/1007/978-3-319-02327-4_2-1 http://doi:10.1002/9780470694138.ch42 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.188 https://doi.org/10.20360/g27g6r https://doi.org/10.5206/cie-eci.v39i3.9162 mao 93 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 78–93 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 3. how often do you write in english in your daily life? 4. what do you think are the main differences between daily writing and academic writing? 5. have you ever been taught how to write papers in your first language? if so, when and how? 6. have you ever been taught how to write papers in english? if so, when and how? 7. what writing skills and knowledge have you learned so far from the course? 8. how does the reading of academic articles help you in academic writing? 9. what challenges have you experienced so far in your writing assignments (both in-class and out-of-class)? 10. could you understand the writing expectations (such as class assignments or writing guidance) in the course clearly? 11. do you feel satisfied with your academic writing so far? what are the parts of your writing that you feel good about or bad about? 12. do you feel your language proficiency (will) affect your performance in the academic writing? 13. how do you feel being a chinese eal student in the class? what challenges do you think you’ve encountered or experienced being a first-year international student? 14. have you consulted anyone (e.g., friends, the writing centre) while writing and revising your assignments? how often do you do it? 15. what are your goals in the course for academic writing? b. second interview 1. since our first interview, what sorts of changes, if any, have occurred regarding your academic writing here at the university? 2. what kind of writing skills or competence have you gained or developed from the course? 3. do you feel your academic writing has improved, regressed, or stayed the same? 4. which assignment for academic writing do you feel most challenging so far? why? 5. have you found the written feedback from the instructors to be helpful? how? 6. in what ways does the writing course support you in your subject learning? 7. do you feel you have received enough support with your writing? why or why not? 8. what writing-related support have you sought to obtain so far? (e.g., one-on-one writing tutoring, writing workshop)? how does it help or facilitate your studies? 9. for what writing skills or writing-related knowledge do you feel you need further support? 10. based on the support and guidance you have received thus far in your program, what do you feel will be your biggest challenges for academic writing in the future? do you feel prepared to advance to your next academic stage? what role does writing have in this process? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.390 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 59 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 student volunteer motivations in a student support centre for english for academic purposes students joe dobson thompson rivers university hilda freimuth thompson rivers university ishka rodriques thompson rivers university abstract the findings presented in this paper look at the motivations of volunteers who supported english for academic purposes students at a self-access language learning centre at a university in canada. it also importantly sheds light on the motivations of a less investigated aspect of volunteerism, that of non-native english speakers who provide support to english language learners. in this study, 90% of the volunteers were non-native speakers of english, with most being international students. the majority of the volunteers were also graduate students (90%). thirty volunteers in total participated in the survey, with seven volunteers participating in the focus group study. the data gleaned from both the survey and the focus groups in terms of motivations were analyzed (the latter via a content analysis) and then placed into the categories of clary et al.’s (1998) volunteer function inventory. the analysis revealed that a strong motivating factor for many was career-related, with a secondary motive of learning through volunteering in the centre or of using previously unused skills at the centre. additionally, 97% of the volunteer students surveyed stated their work at the centre was an opportunity to make new friends. introduction attending university is much more than only going to class, and students and universities can benefit from student volunteer contributions in myriad ways. students are on the receiving end of many opportunities that allow them to develop personally and professionally through on-campus volunteer activities. volunteer opportunities help students build their skills, experience, resumes, and social connections. this paper presents research on the motivations of student volunteers who provided support for english for academic purposes (eap) students in a language learning centre (llc) at a public university in british columbia. this llc was established in 2017 with a model that included both paid teaching assistants and volunteers. while understanding the needs of the students for whom the volunteers’ support is important, so too is gaining an understanding of what makes the experiences at this llc meaningful for the student volunteers themselves. at this public university in british columbia, the opportunity to create a student-driven self-access centre filled a gap in much-needed student support for eap students as well as to provide volunteer opportunities for students. with a mandate to provide self-access support for https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 60 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 students through one-on-one or small group tutorials, workshops, and events, the llc was established in 2017 to create robust support and other opportunities for eap students. teaching assistants and volunteers were mentored through a combination of orientation and training sessions alongside observation and peer mentoring. the llc’s evolution was rapid, and this study, which highlights the perspectives of student volunteers, may not only help shape the llc in the future, but may also provide useful insight for other institutions that are seeking new approaches to support students and provide meaningful volunteer opportunities. in this study, 90% of the volunteers were both international students and non-native speakers of english, most of whom were relatively new to canada. this is notable as changing student demographics at canadian universities have been profound in recent years. at many universities, international students comprise an increasingly large percentage of student numbers, with 642,480 alone registered in 2019 (canadian bureau for international education, 2020). this study not only highlights the motivations of student volunteers but, more importantly, sheds light on the motivations of a less investigated aspect of volunteerism, that of non-native english speakers providing support to english language learners. literature review volunteerism and its many components, specifically the motivations of volunteers, has been a well-researched topic within the academic community. with investigations into the various reasons individuals volunteer, research has found that motives span from job security (baines & hardill, 2008) and personal development (omoto et al., 2010) to societal pressure or the need to be of assistance (matsuba et al., 2007). in order to understand the underlying reasons behind volunteerism, one must first understand what constitutes a volunteer and the term volunteerism. in the early 17th century, the term volunteer was first used to describe citizens who enlisted in the military in times of emergency for no monetary compensation (cnaan et al., 1996). it is interesting to note how this act of free service has now expanded to include other areas of service outside the military framework. in fact, the expansion of the notion of volunteerism was witnessed in canada’s own war efforts during world war i, where civilians contributed in a “meaningful and practical way… to the national war effort” (wartime canada, n.d., line 3). this contribution included not only signing up for service but also giving time, money, skills, and knowledge to the war effort in general. civilians were strongly encouraged to become involved in the war effort in any way they could—even if it meant participating in alternatives to enlisting. this view on volunteerism grew in the 20th century and morphed into areas beyond war efforts. hence, a number of different definitions exist. one common definition of volunteerism is that of handy et al. (2010) who defined the term as free labour or assistance given towards an activity by a person to either a non-relative or a stranger. while it can be argued that this is a well-stated definition, it can also be maintained that it lacks the personal gain element often included in the act. wilson (2012) expanded the definition to include the personal gain element by defining volunteerism as “a form of unpaid labor, consuming resources and motivated by the promise of rewards” (p. 178). this definition highlights that though there may be no monetary compensation in the volunteer act itself, there is other equally tangible compensation available. snyder and omoto (2008) offered a more https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 61 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 inclusive definition of volunteerism that reflects this lack of monetary compensation. they described it as participating in acts that are “freely chosen and deliberate… [which] extend over time [and] are engaged in without expectation of reward or other compensation… often through formal organizations, and that are performed on behalf of causes… ” (p.3). another noteworthy definition is that volunteering is a non-salary-based activity which is done by a participant for the benefit of people other than oneself whether it be for an organization, individual, [or] initiative (wilson, 2000). for the purpose of this research paper, wilson’s (2000) definition is the one that will be used as it encompasses all aspects of the student support centre on which this study is based; benefits are reaped not only by the organization (university) but by individual students as well. motivations for volunteering volunteerism has been and continues to be a highly sought-after activity by both the general public and students alike. studies have shown that many benefits exist for students that choose to volunteer. these include, but are not limited to, enhanced brain function and moral development (ewing et al., 2002) as well as the building of leadership, teamwork, and time management skills (madsen, 2004). according to moser (2005), volunteering also improves a student’s academic performance, not to mention the increased employability options that result from volunteering (astin & sax, 1998). astin and sax (1998) have added that the honing of critical thinking and conflict resolution skills are also benefits from volunteering, and madsen (2004) has claimed that self-confidence is also increased by the act. given this long list of benefits, it is understandable why students would want to volunteer. however, there is more to the decision to volunteer. research has shown that reasons in the general population vary from being an extrovert and having the ability to deal with people (omoto, snyder, & hackett, 2010); feeling good about oneself for helping (matsuba, hart, & atkins, 2007); and using the experience as a stepping stone or protection from the societal stigma of not being able to find a job (baines & hardill, 2008); to a means of nation-building or a sign of citizenship (patel, 2007). these reasons, among others, resonate with many volunteers, some of whom are students. the motivational factors driving students, however, may be influenced by other forces as well. for example, youth volunteers’ motivations at drop-in centres for at-risk youth in israel were more relationship-oriented than their adult counterparts (haski-leventhal et al. 2008). there are also unique challenges that students may face which prevent them from engaging in volunteer work. the economic struggles associated with the acquisition of higher education is one such issue. this challenge often demands the need for paid work for students, leaving little to no time to volunteer (evans & saxton, 2005). in spite of this, many students do find the time to volunteer. exploring the underlying reasons for these efforts has been the focus of much research. in terms of university settings, students can often be found volunteering on campus in various support centres, of which the writing centre is a popular choice. originally created in the united states, the writing centre is very common at north american and canadian universities. it is characterized as a space where students receive free academic writing support, usually from student tutors or volunteers. it is usually based on a collaborative, peer learning approach. initially, writing centres were developed as student-centred spaces where students could work https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 62 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 together to discover and construct the knowledge needed for the writing process (bruffee, 1984). some centres also have university instructors and community volunteers providing assistance. english language learning centres, which are very similar to writing centres, could also be classified as a special type of self-access support centre for students. this kind of centre differs from the writing centre in that it comes to the aid of non-native english-speaking students on post-secondary campuses. the main goal of such centres is to help english language learners manage and understand the content material within their academic studies (okuda & anderson, 2018). this research study was conducted in this particular setting. student motivations for volunteering with very little time in a student’s schedule left to volunteer, the question must then be asked, why do students volunteer their time, and what motivates them to do so? clary et al. (1998) constructed a pivotal and widely used assessment tool which illustrated some influential factors. this assessment tool, the volunteer functions inventory (vfi), lists the factors which influence the decisions to become a volunteer. these factors are related to values, career, understanding, society, enhancement, and protection. in this study, clary et al. (1998) found that the altruistic motive was the predominant motive behind student volunteerism. there have been other studies which support this view of altruistic value-based volunteering as well (cnaan & goldberg-glen, 1991). while this may be the driving force in many cases, there are also other reasons students volunteer. for example, social reasons (cappellarri & turarti, 2004) and career-related reasons (mccabe et al., 2007) rank high on the list. the latter study found that the career motive was the second most important reason, followed by enhancement. in this study, the social and protective motives were deemed less important. other studies have shown that there has been an increase in career-based motives by student volunteers as well (handy et al, 2010). according to eley (2003), a major motivating factor for the younger generation is the opportunity to acquire the relevant work experience and qualifications to obtain a job. a uk study showed that learning new skills was the second most important reason for volunteering within the 16–24 age group (low et al., 2007). in a canadian study, students were found to volunteer for the sake of job opportunities themselves (hall et al., 2006). societal recognition of volunteer experience as work experience plays an important role here. studies have shown that employers use volunteer experience to distinguish among candidates who would be more suitable for a given position (smith & weaver, 2006). consequently, students may choose to volunteer as a means of appearing more employable (ellingsen & johnanesson, 2009). volunteering also allows students to build a social network, which may help with future employment opportunities as well (wuthnow, 1998). barton, bates and o’donovan’s (2019) uk study showed that although students initially signed up to volunteer for career-related reasons, they often stayed for reasons of enhancement. barton et al. (2019) categorized their findings into the initial need to volunteer, the reasons to continue to volunteer, and the result of the experience. they found that students were motivated to begin volunteering to acquire necessary work experience and increase their employability levels. the volunteer experience also allowed students to discover possible career paths free of cost and with no real commitment. interestingly, students were motivated to continue volunteering on the basis of “doing good and making a difference” (barton, bates & o’donovan, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 63 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 2019, p. 458). according to clary et al.’s (1998) vfi assessment tool, these two motives would be classified respectively as enhancement and understanding. moreover, the barton et al. study also concluded that there is no set motivation for volunteering, as motivations are subject to change with time and experience. gender also may impact student volunteer decisions. for example, stroup et al. (2015) claimed that in addition to altruistic reasons, gender and experience as a volunteer play an instrumental role in the decision to volunteer. both females and male students who had past volunteer experiences showed a stronger motivation to volunteer for altruistic reasons. unlike female students, male students who had little to no volunteer experience, however, rarely volunteered. while this study may suggest that women are generally more inclined to volunteer, confirmed by clerkin & paynter (2009) and gallant et al. (2010), it is important to note the influence of previous experience on male volunteers (marks & jones, 2004). joseph and carolissen’s (2018) study also supported the notion of gender playing an important part in the decision to volunteer, with results similar to that of stroup et al. (2015). they found that men with little to no experience were more likely to be influenced based on social interactions and career opportunities. this finding suggests that male students tend to be more extrinsically motivated than female students. research has also shown that there are other notable factors to take into consideration when examining motivations for volunteering including age, race/ethnicity, academic-based components, and personality traits (cruce & moore, 2007). cruce and moore’s (2007) us study, which was done across 623 degree-granting schools, called attention to the importance of how these factors can influence students to volunteer. they found that among first-year undergraduate students, those aged over 20 were more inclined to volunteer compared to students below 20; caucasians were not necessarily more willing to volunteer when compared to students from other backgrounds such as african american, latino, and asian american; students who acquired higher academic achievement were more likely to volunteer than their counterparts; and students majoring in education, business, biological science, and social science were more likely to volunteer than arts and humanities majors. many of the findings mentioned in this section; however, relate to the united states only. the case may be different in other parts of the world. international studies on student volunteers with much of the student volunteer research done in the united states (haski-leventhal et al., 2008) and this particular study focusing on student volunteers from all over the world (albeit currently residing in canada), it is important to examine international studies on student volunteer motives. when considering motivations to volunteer, the country in which a person lives can be an influencing factor. for example, grönlund et al. (2011) found students in korea, japan, and finland do not volunteer for the sake of resume building—as is often the case in north america—but for a variety of other reasons. according to szabo and marian (2010), young people in hungary choose to volunteer based on the need to belong to a community, to develop professionally, to spend time in a useful way, or to make new friends. in china, students choose to volunteer as a means of repaying their home community (geng, 2008). joseph and carolissen’s (2018) study of three south african universities provided another international perspective, albeit a little different in nature. this study revealed that institutions were being given incentives to implement community engagement activities into their curriculum. hence, the culture of the institution influenced the need to volunteer. the study also found that altruistic https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 64 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 values and personal development (interpersonal skills) were some other reasons for students’ volunteer efforts in the community. patel (2007) conducted a large study across five african countries. this study’s findings revealed volunteer motives linked to citizenship, with south african students in particular volunteering for the sake of nation-building. students from the south african universities in the study also indicated that understanding, values, and social responsibility were the top drivers to volunteer—all in line with global volunteer responses according to van den berg and cuskelly (2014). joseph (2018), however, felt that the motive of social responsibility was a unique finding when compared to other south african studies on volunteering. grönlund et al. (2011), mentioned earlier, conducted an international study on data from thirteen non-african countries. they found that altruism (values) and learning (understanding) were the most popular motives for volunteering overall. further, their findings indicated that while social motives were in the fore in the united states, canada, and belgium, the predominant motives in india and korea were protective in nature. ultimately, this study suggests that the environment in which a student grows up and develops can impact their decision to volunteer. the relevance of context is evidenced by the finding that while in africa it is important to give back to society, this is not necessarily the case in north america. another study that looked at different groupings was bocsi, fenyes, and valeria (2017). their study was conducted in four central eastern european countries: hungary, romania, serbia, and ukraine. this study shows—once again—how the motives of volunteers may differ based on culture and ethnicity. it found that the volunteers fell into different categories: careeroriented volunteers, unmotivated volunteers, highly motivated volunteers, the helping new type of volunteer (with reasons to volunteer such as making new friends or making good use of free time), and the volunteer in an anti-volunteering climate (those who find volunteering important in and of itself but do not showcase their efforts). interestingly, the study found commonality amongst the countries for the anti-volunteering group. romanian student volunteers, however, stood out as career-oriented people whose strong religious belief system might explain their high altruistic response to volunteering. hungary, on the other hand, was found to have the highest level of unmotivated groups, illustrating an overall lack of volunteering culture in the country. one significant finding in this study was that not all young volunteers actually wished to volunteer. an interesting point that has found commonality amongst much of the research is the distinguishing of volunteers. further categorizing students into volunteers, non-volunteers, and occasional volunteers can provide good analytical perspectives in terms of motivation. an australian study by mccabe et al. (2007), for example, provided a comparison between volunteers and non-volunteers. the study found that values and understanding were the most important motivators for both groups of students but that non-volunteers also felt volunteering for career reasons was important, unlike the volunteer group. this finding illustrates how the experience as a volunteer may change the initial reasons to volunteer. overall, it appears that volunteer motives are subject to change and are influenced by a number of different factors, of which culture is only one (eley & kirk, 2002). with this in mind, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 65 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 this study investigated the motivations of volunteers at a language learning centre for eap students at a public university in british columbia in the hopes of gaining a better understanding of what drives the students to volunteer and what could be done to enhance their experiences while volunteering. in light of this, this research study aims to answer the following questions: 1) what are the student volunteers’ primary motivations for volunteering in the llc, 2) what are the student volunteers’ secondary motivations for volunteering in the llc, and 3) what are the student volunteers other motivations for volunteering in the llc. methods this study used a mixed methods approach to investigate the motivations of the llc student volunteers. the reason for the use of a mixed methods approach is that it allows for the collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data, resulting in a more in-depth examination of the research question (creswell & clark, 2007). firstly, the researchers conducted an online survey open to all past volunteers at the centre. a total of 30 students partook in this survey (over 60% of all volunteers). all past student volunteers were then invited to participate in small focus groups, which is a form of group interview where participants answer questions and interact with one another, commenting on each other’s perspectives as well (powell & single, 1996). the rationale behind using focus groups is that the method allows researchers to closely examine the experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and opinions of the participants in the study (krueger, 2015). there were three focus groups in all, with a total of seven volunteer students participating. group one and group two each had two volunteer students while group three had three past volunteers. the data gleaned from both the survey and the focus groups in terms of motivations were analyzed and then placed into the categories of clary et al.’s (1998) volunteer function inventory (vfi). the focus group data underwent a content analysis, a process where raw data (in this case transcripts) are analyzed for the existence or frequency of themes and then coded and placed into categories—in this case, the vfi (silverman, 2011; bryman, 2012). according to gage and thapa (2012), the vfi is now “…the standard instrument [used] to assess volunteer motivation” (p. 413). given this, it is logical for the data gleaned in this study to be represented in the six categories outlined in the vfi, namely: values, career, understanding, society, enhancement, and protection. for example, if a student volunteer in the focus group says one reason to volunteer at the llc was “to gain some working experience, especially when i put that in the resume…,” then this would be placed into the career category. for this study, the focus group interviews included two separate questions on motivations: primary and secondary. this separation allowed for a more detailed analysis and understanding of motivations. in the cases where two motivators of equal value were given by student volunteers, .5 was assigned to the category in which the motivator fit. if one main motivator was given, 1 was assigned to the corresponding category. table 1 shows the itemization of what each vfi category refers to in terms of motivational factors as described by clary and snyder (1999). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 66 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 table 1 functions served by volunteering and their assessment on the vfi (clary & snyder, 1999, p. 157) function conceptual definition sample vfi item values the individual volunteers in order to express or act on important values like humanitarianism. i feel it is important to help others. understanding the volunteer is seeking to learn more about the world or exercise skills that are often unused. volunteering lets me learn through direct, hands-on experience. enhancement one can grow and develop psychologically through volunteer activities. volunteering makes me feel better about myself. career the volunteer has the goal of gaining career-related experience through volunteering. volunteering can help me to get my foot in the door at a place where i would like to work. social volunteering allows an individual to strengthen his or her social relationships. people i know share an interest in community service. protective the individual uses volunteering to reduce negative feelings, such as guilt, or to address personal problems. volunteering is a good escape from my own troubles. the answers to the survey questions (see appendix a) and the semi-structured interview questions (see appendix b) were placed into the vfi’s six categories for further analysis. the focus group study transcripts underwent an analytical content analysis to match the vfi categories. any full category answers received a score of 1. any divided answers (two answers as main drive) were given a .5 score in the respective categories. the numbers of instances in each category were compared to determine dominant student volunteer factors for the llc. results of the 30 survey respondents, 90% reported that english was not their first language. in terms of gender, 21 students identified as female, eight as male, and one as other. the majority of the students (27) were graduate students with another two at the post-baccalaureate level and one student was an undergraduate student. the survey results show that more than half of the respondents, 18 to be exact, volunteered for one semester at the llc. just over a quarter of the volunteers, nine students, reported volunteering for two semesters. three or more semesters of volunteer service was unusual, with only four students reporting this option. in terms of volunteer hours per week, the majority of the students (14) volunteered 3–4 hours a week, with 10 students volunteering 1–2 hours per week. a total of six students recorded five or more volunteer hours a week. when asked if students had prior volunteer experience of any kind, 19 students responded yes—although whether that experience encouraged them to volunteer at the llc was unclear in most cases. the survey itself focused on general questions related to volunteering, not specific motives per se, unlike the focus group study. at this point then, the primary and secondary motivations to volunteer, highlighted in the focus group study, need to come to the fore. the tables that follow indicate the student volunteers’ primary motives as discussed in the focus group (table 2), the students’ secondary motives as found in the focus group (table 3), the answers to the survey questions on motivation to volunteer (table 4), and participant responses to questions on motivations to volunteer (table 5). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 67 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 table 2 primary motives of volunteers student value understanding enhancement career social protective a 1 b .5 .5 c 1 d .5 .5 e 1 f 1 g 1 total 1 .5 0 4 1.5 0 table 3 secondary motives of volunteers student value understanding enhancement career social protective a 1 b 1 c 1 d 1 e 1 f 1 g 1 total 1 3 0 3 0 0 table 4 survey questions on motivations to volunteer i strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree total volunteering helps my professional development and growth 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 30.00% 9 70.00% 21 30 volunteering is an opportunity to be part of a teaching and learning community 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 36.67% 11 63.33% 19 30 volunteering provides me with the opportunity to explore different career paths 0.00% 0 16.67% 5 40.00% 12 43.33% 13 30 volunteering is an opportunity to gain confidence as an educator 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 40.00% 12 60.00% 18 30 volunteering will help me gain experience which will help in future job searches 0.00% 0 3.33% 1 33.33% 10 63.33 19 30 i learn through helping others as a volunteer 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 24.14% 7 75.86% 22 29 i feel more connected to peers and others through volunteering 3.33% 1 6.67% 2 30.00% 9 60.00% 18 30 i have skills that can help others 0.00% 0 6.67% 2 23.33% 7 70.00% 21 30 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 68 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 table 5 survey questions on motivation to volunteer ii strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree total i am genuinely concerned about the students i support 0.00% 0 6.67% 2 43.33% 13 50.00% 15 30 i feel less lonely due to volunteering 0.00% 0 16.67% 5 33.33% 10 50.00% 15 30 through volunteering, my self-esteem has increased 0.00% 0 6.67% 2 40.00% 12 53.33% 16 30 volunteering makes me feel important 0.00% 0 13.33% 4 40.00% 12 46.67% 14 30 my friends volunteer and i want to work with them 10.00% 3 13.33% 4 36.67% 11 40.00% 12 30 volunteering helps me learn about career options 0.00% 0 20.00% 6 50.00% 15 30.00% 9 30 i place a high value on community service 3.33% 1 16.67% 5 33.33% 10 46.67% 14 30 volunteering helps me forget about some of my personal problems 13.33% 4 30.00% 9 30.00% 9 26.67% 8 30 i can learn how to work with a variety of people through volunteering 0.00% 0 6.67% 2 33.33% 10 60.00% 18 30 volunteering is an opportunity to make new friends 3.33% 1 0.00% 0 36.67% 11 60.00% 18 30 my resume will be stronger with this volunteer experience 0.00% 0 3.33% 1 30.00% 9 66.67% 20 30 the survey responses confirmed the strong career-oriented motivations of the focus group. results showed that 100% of the student volunteers felt that volunteering at the llc would help their professional development and growth. of the 30 participants, 29 also believed that volunteer experience gained at the llc would help them with future job searches, with another 25 stating that volunteering in general gives them opportunities to explore different career paths. in addition, 97% of the student volunteers stated their resumes would be stronger thanks to their volunteer positions at the llc. students in the focus group reiterated this time and time again: investigator: … so you are saying you wanted to gain some…umm. work experience, is that right? student b: yes. student a: yea, exactly. i agree that [i] can gain some working experience especially when i put that in the resume… i think it will uhhh bolster my ability… student c: …thinking career-wise, i think it [variety of students from esl (english as a second language) to mba] gives us ummm a better working experience… student e: ummm, so i always wanted to ummm get some experience… we don’t have an internship or anything [in the med program] that’s can give us working experience in canada…so i was super excited when i heard about this chance… https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 69 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 student f: so, i want to get more experiences on tutoring… investigator: okay, in canada or just in general? student f: …maybe in canada because you know i was a teacher in china for almost 7 years… so i want to get more experiences on tutoring … so for me maybe in the future… if i have an opportunity to stay … maybe i can get some opportunity to get position at [this university], right? student g: … uh back into the teaching field… that was my main goal…i don’t want to be dead in my career… i have been teaching for a long time before coming [here]… good chance for me to resume my career… the motive of understanding ranked high in the student volunteers’ secondary motives. this motive refers to learning through volunteering in the llc or the use of previously unused skills at the llc. of the students surveyed, 97% reported that they learned through helping others while 93% believed they learned how to work with a variety of different people through their efforts. the focus group study supported these findings as well: student a: yeah for me, it has kind of improved my interpersonal skills—like talking to people from different countries in the world… student b: ah, for me quite similar [to student a] student c: …like i feel i could empathize more with their [students’] feelings … experience at the centre gave me a bit more perspective… student d: …it’s provided me with a better understanding of ummm what those challenges are that people face and its helped given me broader perspective of ummm different cultures, different countries… i think i have more of … better listening skills to be able to identify different languages… student e: it’s a good personal growth and it is actually helping me with umm intercultural skill as well… the social motive ranked a distant second in the primary motives of the focus group. this finding indicates that students also volunteer at the llc to enhance their social relationships. the survey confirms this finding with 97% of the volunteer students stating their work at the centre is an opportunity to make new friends. in fact, 23 of the 30 surveyed reported they volunteered so that they could work with their friends. another 90% felt they were more connected to their peers and others through volunteering, with 83% claiming volunteering made them feel less lonely, and 100% stating it gave them the chance to be part of a greater community—the teaching and learning community. this social motive is further evidenced in the focus group study: investigator: can you tell me your main drive for volunteering…? student a: …umm i think i am very passionate about teaching and also making friends… my friends was volunteering in the fall semester… student c: …umm building connections student e: … you know you really got a sense of community… for me, i was having a lot of friends there… https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 70 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 student f: … you know, i contact to with any all other students… and i feel of that the atmosphere there was very, you know, social, right? although the motive of value only received third-place ranking in both the primary and secondary motives, it appeared important to student volunteers nonetheless as 80% maintained they place a high value on community service. of the 30 surveyed, 28 were genuinely concerned about the students they supported. this desire to help others came through in the focus group study as well: student b: ah because i find… passionate helping out in any like students who are esl. student c: … i just want to umm know more about how i can help them [the students] better… student e: … i just wanted to help out student learn about english… and sometimes there is a bunch of us… just there talking about …like what we can do to help all the people… student g: … but i think we need to encourage more students to come up with, you know, different questions… the motive of enhancement which refers to the psychological rewards or growth due to volunteering received no primary or secondary status in the focus groups. in the survey, however, participants acknowledged its importance with 87% stating volunteering made them feel important. another 93% claimed the act of volunteering also increased their self-esteem, with 100% of the participants reporting a gain in confidence as an educator. two students in the focus group study touched on this briefly: student b: i think for me…uh… i gained confidence after helping out there… student a: yes, totally agree. the protection motive also achieved no primary or secondary status in the focus group study. this motive refers to volunteering in order to escape one’s personal problems or negative feelings. it was only addressed once in the survey with the statement: volunteering helps me forget about some of my personal problems. of the 30 survey responses, 17 agreed with this statement. the focus group study, however, revealed no further details on this motive. in terms of the research questions then, the findings in this study indicate the following answers to the questions: 1. what are the student volunteers' primary motivations for volunteering in the language learning centre? the primary motives are career and social in nature. 2. what are the student volunteers’ secondary motivations for volunteering in the language learning centre? strong secondary motives include career and understanding themes. 3. what are the student volunteers’ other motivations for volunteering in the language learning centre? other motives touched on in the study revealed value and enhancement motives to a lesser degree with no protection motive. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 71 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 discussion the main goals of this research were to gain insight into student volunteers’ primary, secondary, and other motivations for volunteering in the llc. to this end, our analysis shows a strong relationship between volunteering and student career motivation. this finding aligns with previous research and indicates a strong link between career ambitions and motivations for students to volunteer in general (barton, bates & o’donovan, 2019; eley, 2003; ellingsen & johnanesson, 2003; hall et al., 2006; handy et al, 2010; wuthnow, 1998). internationally speaking, grönlund et al. (2011) found students in korea, japan, and finland volunteered for a variety of reasons, but not for resume-building purposes—a finding at odds with ours. another finding contradictory to ours is geng’s (2008) study. findings revealed that in china, students mainly volunteer to repay and give service to their home community—not to build their careers. interestingly, the volunteers in our study, who were 90% international students (with many from china), did not identify this as a primary factor. another primary motive for student volunteers at the llc was social in nature. this finding is substantiated by grönlund et al.’s (2011) study which highlighted this as a primary motive for students who volunteer in canada. wuthnow (1998) also underscored the notion that volunteering allows for the building of a strong social network. cappellarri and turarti (2004) also found social reasons to be important motivations for volunteering. in terms of gender, 21 students of the 30 surveyed identified as female, eight as male, and one as other. this large number of female volunteers is in line with studies (see clerkin & paynter, 2009 & gallant et al., 2010) that indicate females are more likely to volunteer than males. the student volunteers’ secondary motives were either career-related (for those whose primary motive was something different) or understanding related. the understanding motive connects to volunteering for the benefit of using one’s otherwise unused skills or for learning something new about the world. this finding is supported by patel’s 2007 study which revealed that understanding was one of the secondary themes for volunteering for south african students. in this study, the student volunteers’ other motivations revealed—to a lesser degree— value and enhancement motives, but no protection motive. this finding was somewhat surprising as at the llc, as we observed, many student volunteers have various personal problems. consequently, it was assumed by the investigators that volunteerism might serve as a way for some students to have a mental escape from their problems. this was not the case. based on the results of this study, we have several recommendations those coordinating language learning centres may want to consider. knowing that career-oriented motivations are critical for many students, centres can run special workshops for volunteers to learn how to incorporate and showcase their volunteerism in things such as resumes and interviews. analysis of the data also suggests the importance of strengthening social relationships and providing space for this to happen. more effort should therefore be made to create a feeling of belonging and friendship in learning centres. one way of building important connections is through hosting social events and other activities for volunteers. as with most studies, however, this study is subject to limitations. the design of the study itself (case study) is limiting in nature as it provides a glimpse into student volunteer https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 72 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 perspectives at one language learning centre at one institution. the number of participants in the study also limit the findings. conclusion despite the limitations, the results of this research study may be helpful for institutions with eap programs and for administrators of language learning centres. by highlighting the students’ need for greater social connection and more career-oriented experiences, this research hopes to improve the experience of student volunteers in self-access language learning centres. the findings are also notable as they illustrate the motivations of a less investigated aspect of student volunteerism, namely the motivations of international student volunteers. international students, as they navigate study and life in a new cultural, linguistic, and academic culture have distinct needs from their domestic counterparts, and the opportunity to serve as volunteers may benefit them in establishing social connections and new friendships and in getting relevant experience that may help them with career opportunities. this study uncovers some areas where further research could further help shed light on student volunteer motivations. possible future areas of inquiry include exploration of questions such as whether prior volunteer experiences predispose international students to volunteer, what the perceptions and experiences (outside of canada) of volunteers are that international student volunteers bring with them, and whether the perceptions (and motivations) of international student volunteers change over time after volunteering in a university. these questions and other related ones, could help further build understanding of student volunteer motivations and help institutions identify robust and meaningful ways to provide opportunities for students. 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(1998). loose connections: joining together in america’s fragmented communities. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. appendix a: survey questions 1. i give my permission for my survey answers to be used as part of this research. a. yes b. no 2. how many semesters have you volunteered in the language learning centre? a. one https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.406 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00667.x https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1816&context=csd_research https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1816&context=csd_research https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.499 https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.543 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2008.00009.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2008.00009.x https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/fyesit/fyesit/2015/00000027/00000001/art00004 https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/fyesit/fyesit/2015/00000027/00000001/art00004 https://doi.org/10.1177/2047173417717061 https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc162496 https://wartimecanada.ca/essay/volunteering/volunteering-first-and-second-world-war https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.215 https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764011434558 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 76 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 b. two c. three or more 3. is english your first language? a. yes b. no 4. what is your gender? 5. which best describes your status when you have volunteered in the language learning centre? a. undergraduate student b. post-baccalaureate program student (e.g., tesl program) c. graduate student (e.g., masters of education) 6. on average, how many hours did you volunteer per week each semester? a. 1-2 hours per week b. 3-4 hours per week c. 5 or more hours per week 7. prior to volunteering in the language learning centre have you worked as a volunteer in another 8. capacity? a. yes b. no 9. if yes (you have been a volunteer previously), how did that experience influence your interest in serving as a volunteer in the language learning centre? 10. considering your personal and professional motivation and your experience as a volunteer, please indicate how important each of the following aspects is for you as a volunteer based on the following scale: 1. strongly disagree, 2. disagree, 3. agree, 4. strongly agree. a. volunteering helps my professional development and growth b. volunteering is an opportunity to be part of a teaching and learning community c. volunteering provides me with the opportunity to explore different career paths d. volunteering is an opportunity to gain confidence as an educator e. volunteering will help me gain experience which will help in future job searches f. i learn through helping others as a volunteer g. i feel more connected to peers and others through volunteering h. i have skills that can help other 11. please consider the following statements and rate these based on the following scale: 1: strongly disagree, 2. disagree, 3. agree, 4. strongly agree. a. i am genuinely concerned about the students i support b. i feel less lonely due to volunteering c. through volunteering, my self-esteem has increased d. volunteering makes me feel important e. my friends volunteer and i want to work with them f. volunteering helps me learn about career options g. i place a high value on community service h. volunteering helps me forget about some of my personal problems i. i can learn how to work with a variety of people through volunteering j. volunteering is an opportunity to make new friends k. my resume will be stronger with this volunteer experience https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 dobson, freimuth, & rodriques 77 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 59–77 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 12. do you feel that your work as a volunteer tutor made an impact? please explain. 13. are there any suggestions you have which you feel would improve your experience as a volunteer? appendix b: focus group questions (semi-structured) 1. when did you first volunteer in the llc? 2. what was your main reason for volunteering? 3. were there any secondary reasons? 4. how has your work at the llc helped your future or your growth? 5. what was your favourite activity in the llc? 6. in what ways can the facilitator of the llc help you with your growth? 7. what else can we do to improve the llc? more resources? physical space? more hours? 8. any other comments? the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.389 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ steiger 1 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 research paper placing students for success: a comparison of ielts, local, and other placement methods for english for academic purposes courses jane d. steiger thompson rivers university abstract while previous research on student success has focused on disciplinary academic classes and programs with varying results regarding the predictive validity of english proficiency tests, namely the international english language testing system (ielts), none have studied student success within the non-program-specific context of an english for academic purposes (eap) program in which the cut scores set by the university align with the ielts guidance. using data collected during the intake of new international students and at the completion of each semester, this study primarily sought to determine how students placed via ielts fared compared to those placed via other tests, including the in-house english placement test (ept), and whether they were more likely to fail eap courses during their first semester. across six semesters, success data for 663 english language learners (ells) enrolled in eap courses during their first semester at the university were collected and compared on the basis of the placement test used, students’ test scores, and their final course grades. logistic regression analysis results revealed that the ept performed significantly better in placing students into level-appropriate courses than ielts. the findings indicate the predictive value of the in-house ept process and suggest further research into semester-to-semester variations, emergent placement methods, and the probability of seeking services to mitigate academic challenges. introduction accurately assessing the language ability of prospective students is key to allowing postsecondary institutions to make wise placement decisions that positively impact student success. the popularity of one english language proficiency test, the international english language testing system (ielts), is undeniable with many prospective students submitting ielts scores to gain college and university admission. this trend has been bolstered by immigration, refugees and citizenship canada’s decision in june 2018 to implement a “student direct stream” to allow for expedited processing of study permits for applicants who meet certain requirements, including an ielts “academic or general training score of 6.0 or higher in each skill (reading, writing, speaking and listening)” (government of canada, 2021). thompson rivers university (tru), a medium-sized public university in british columbia, has experienced this growth firsthand. the tru website states the following requirements for international students who are applying for admission: applicants are required to meet minimum english language proficiency requirements for direct entry into academic programs. students may meet this condition by either https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 2 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 providing an acceptable english language proficiency test score (test of english as a foreign language (toefl), ielts, etc.) or by achieving an acceptable score on the tru english placement test (ept). (tru, n.d.b) students are also placed into english for academic purposes (eap) courses based on either their english language proficiency test scores (ielts, etc.) or their tru ept scores which include “a set of computer-adaptive, untimed tests” assessing accuplacer grammar, reading skills and sentence meaning, and in-house remarking of their writing samples as well as oral interviews (college board, 2009, para. 4). the number of students placed via ielts scores as opposed to the tru ept has steadily increased over the years. a concern shared by members of the english language learning & teaching (ellt) department is that students placed according to their ielts scores may lack the necessary prerequisite skills to succeed in their assigned eap courses. this unease stems from the observation that, in some cases, ielts scores allow students to take courses that are one, two, or even three levels higher than their ept scores would have allowed. students who are assessed on both ept and ielts are placed according to whichever test yields the highest placement. this situation raises the question: do these students have adequate english language preparation to pass the course levels into which their ielts scores place them or are they being set up to fail? concerns over language proficiency tests, namely ielts, have prompted extensive investigation with numerous articles on the predictive efficacy of ielts in the context of disciplinary academic courses and programs at post-secondary institutions in australia (e.g., cotton & conrow, 1998; dooey & oliver, 2002; feast, 2002; woodrow, 2006), the united kingdom (uk) (e.g., dang & dang, 2021; hu & trenkic, 2019; thorpe et al., 2017; yen & kuzma, 2009), and the united arab emirates (uae) (e.g., schoepp & garinger, 2016; schoepp, 2018), as well as cross-locational or broad literature reviews (e.g., macdonald, 2019; murray, 2015, 2018; pilcher & richards, 2017; stigger, 2019). this literature raises questions about the appropriateness of the cut-scores set by universities for admission into programs (e.g., feast, 2002; hu & trenkic, 2019; macdonald, 2019; murray, 2015, 2018; schoepp, 2018; thorpe et al., 2017; woodrow, 2006), concerns about test fraud (e.g., hu & trenkic, 2019; macdonald, 2019; murray, 2015, 2018), and concerns about score inflation due to curriculum-narrowing practices or repeated test taking (hu & trenkic, 2019). the vast amount of research on the ielts test indicates that concerns regarding its use are widespread and varied. the present research project contributes to the literature by studying student success within the non-program-specific context of an eap program in which the cut-scores align with the guidance provided by ielts (ielts, 2019a), allowing for more focused examination. by comparing two methods of placement, this study can illuminate whether students who are placed with one method rather than the other are more likely to fail thus identifying students who may need further support and contributing to eap professionals’ consideration of the efficacy of placement testing options. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 3 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 literature review previous research concerning the predictive validity of ielts has delved into the success of non-native english speakers (nnes) in either their first semester or their first year of an academic program at various universities around the world, and the findings from these studies have been mixed. for example, woodrow (2006) found a moderate level of predictive power after examining the academic performance of 62 international students who gained admittance to a post-graduate university program in australia via their ielts scores. likewise, there was a moderately significant level of correlation in yen and kuzma’s (2009) study of 61 chinese business students attending a university in the uk. as well, dang and dang (2021) investigated 80 vietnamese students studying in academic disciplines at 31 uk post-secondary institutions and found that “these students’ ielts scores moderately correlated with their academic results” (p. 13). however, several studies resulted in stronger affirmation that ielts scores predict academic performance, at least to some extent. schoepp and garinger’s (2016) review of 241 undergraduate students enrolled at a uae university revealed a strong link for ielts scores of 7.0 and higher but a weaker link for ielts scores of 6.0 and 6.5. schoepp (2018) found “statistically significant correlations between overall ielts score and all measures of gpa” after analyzing 953 nnes students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in the uae (p. 281); however, unlike the university programs featured in many other studies, the first year and a half of this bachelor’s degree program consisted of “very prescriptive general education” courses and the minimum requirement for admission was exceptionally low: an ielts score of 5.0 (p. 273). lastly, hu and trenkic (2019) analyzed 153 chinese students enrolled in a master’s degree program at a uk university and also found a strong correlation but noted that the correlation was stronger for the more linguistically demanding programs than for the less linguistically demanding programs. in contrast, other studies found that ielts scores were either not connected or only weakly connected with academic performance. cotton and conrow (1998) analyzed three different measures of academic outcomes and a sample of 33 international students studying in a variety of undergraduate or graduate disciplines during their first year at an australian university and did not find any significant correlations for the overall ielts scores but did find “weak correlations between the reading and writing subtest scores” for both the faculty and student ratings of academic performance (p. 109). similarly, a study by dooey and oliver (2002) of 65 students enrolled in the business, science, and engineering programs at an australian university found that only the ielts reading module significantly predicted academic success while the other ielts modules did not. feast’s (2002) investigation of 101 undergraduate and graduate nnes attending an australian university resulted in “a significant and positive, but weak, relationship between english language proficiency . . . and their performance” (p. 83). finally, a study involving a uk post-secondary institution with a sample of 611 undergraduate and 245 post-graduate nnes found a correlation between ielts scores and academic performance in the case of undergraduate students, but not in the case of post-graduate students (thorpe et al., 2017). although all of the above studies focused on international students during their first postsecondary courses at english medium institutions, the sample sizes, contexts, and results varied greatly. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 4 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 a common notion in the current literature is that using an english proficiency test that focuses on general english to assess the readiness of nnes to study in discipline-specific academic programs is inappropriate. in fact, stigger (2019) postulated that the incongruity between the decontextualized language used in ielts and the contextualized language used in academic disciplines might be responsible for the inconsistent findings regarding the predictive validity of ielts. furthermore, murray (2018) argued: tests such as ielts and toefl do not—and do not claim to—assess test-takers’ conversancy in the particular academic literacies of their future disciplines, and this is likely why students who meet even more rigorous english language entry conditions will often still struggle subsequently with course work. (p. 19) similarly, pilcher and richards (2017) asserted that post-secondary institutions are “entrusting too much power to a test that assesses its own [sic] individual, subjective type of ‘english’, which differs from the ‘english’ students need to succeed” in discipline-specific contexts (p. 12). in essence, these, and other, researchers have questioned the broad-scale use of a test that claims to measure “english language proficiency needed for an academic, higher education environment” but does not actually include the types of tasks and language that are predominant in undergraduate and graduate academic programs (ielts, 2019b, p. 4). another prevalent argument is that there is a mismatch between the cut scores set by many universities and the recommendations made by ielts. according to the guidance ielts provides universities to help them determine institutional and program entry requirements, for “linguistically demanding academic courses,” scores in the range of 7.5 to 9.0 are acceptable while 7.0 is “probably acceptable;” in the case of “linguistically less demanding academic courses,” scores in the range of 7.0 to 9.0 are acceptable while 6.5 is “probably acceptable” (ielts, 2019a, p. 15). however, published research has revealed that numerous universities in the uk, australia, and uae had minimum entry requirements that fall below the suggested cut scores and did not take into account the linguistic demands of various programs and disciplines (e.g., feast, 2002; schoepp, 2018; thorpe et al., 2017; woodrow, 2006). the situation is similar in canada, where 6.5 is the common minimum entry score for undergraduate admission to postsecondary institutions irrespective of the linguistic demand of the courses or program (macdonald, 2019, p. 165). several studies (e.g., macdonald, 2019; murray, 2015, 2018; thorpe et al., 2017; woodrow, 2006) identified the same key factor, which macdonald (2019) described as “the influence of market conformity and economic pressures,” that prompts universities to set lower entry requirements than the ielts recommendations (p. 166). indeed, feast (2002), macdonald (2019), and schoepp (2018), among others, mentioned that some universities stand to experience “unacceptably high losses of international students” by raising their ielts entry thresholds (feast, 2002, p. 84). the discrepancy between the ielts guidelines and the cut-scores set by many institutions raises an important ethical consideration regarding whether these institutions are creating a situation that undermines student success. hu and trenkic (2019) succinctly explained the crux of this concern: international students accept their offers in good faith, believing that if the university has accepted their qualifications, their english skills must be good enough to allow them to fulfil their academic potential. for those who find out that their english is not strong https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 5 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 enough to allow them to learn and perform at the true level of their ability, this risks jeopardising their educational experience, their mental health and wellbeing, and their future employment prospects. (p. 22) in order to address the mismatch and better serve students, recommendations range from raising the entry requirements to account for the linguistic demands of the program (e.g., feast, 2002; hu & trenkic, 2019; schoepp, 2018) to offering nnes in-session support to help them develop academic literacies, acclimate to the academic environment, and bolster their language proficiency (e.g., dang & dang, 2021; macdonald, 2019; murray, 2018; stigger, 2019). this project differs in several ways from other research on this topic and thus fills a gap in the literature. first, whereas other studies featured australian, uk, or uae universities, this project features a canadian university. second, this study considered a distinct perspective by comparing the efficacy of two different english proficiency tests in placing english language learners (ells) into appropriate courses: ielts and the tru ept. another way in which this project contributes to research is by featuring a setting that had not been explored: ielts students’ success in an eap program. according to woodrow (2006), “there is . . . a need for continuing predictive validity studies that take into account specific settings” (p. 52). while other studies explored student success in academic university programs, the present study explored student success in a program designed to prepare eap students for a variety of academic disciplines. furthermore, unlike several other studies, the sample size used in this project was large and homogeneous, aligning with the recommendation by cotton and conrow (1998). the sample included 319 ells placed into eap courses, rather than various academic disciplines, via their ielts scores. finally, compared to many university programs analyzed in the published studies, the eap program featured in this study does not contradict ielts’s “guidelines for educational institutions” (ielts, n.d.b) and more directly aligns with the non-discipline-specific english used in ielts. a more direct correlation between students’ scores and their performance in the eap program is expected since there is no requirement for these students to have specialized disciplinary knowledge to succeed in their eap courses. the present study addressed the following research questions with english language proficiency test and eap success data from students across six semesters: 1. what were the success rates of new students placed into eap courses via the tru ept, the ielts test, and other placement methods? 2. how many students who had taken the tru ept were placed into higher course levels as a result of their ielts scores, and how did they perform in those courses? 3. were the students placed according to their ielts scores more likely to fail their eap courses during their first semester than those placed according to the tru ept? 4. did the students who had higher ielts overall band scores than required have a greater success rate than those whose overall band scores met the requirements for the eap program level in which they were placed? https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 6 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 the study the eap program that was the focus of this study consists of five levels, ranging from beginner to advanced, of skill-based eap courses, namely reading, writing, oral communication, and grammar. normally, ells can complete a level in one semester. level one, two, and three students take five eap courses per semester. in level four, students can take one disciplinespecific academic course in addition to four eap courses while level five students can take an additional three courses along with two core eap courses. this study relied on data that are routinely collected during the intake of new international students and at the completion of each semester. data were collected over a period of six semesters from fall 2018 to fall 2020. at the beginning of each semester, ells enrolled in eap courses during their first semester at the institution were identified. this information, as well as the placement method used and students’ test scores, was compiled along with the final grades and the courses which students did not successfully complete. subsequently, the success rates of students placed via different placement methods were compared. ethics approval was granted prior to the commencement of data collection and was renewed in subsequent years. design first semester of enrollment and placement method served as the two independent variables for this project. the rationale for examining students’ performance during their first semester of studies at tru was twofold. first, yen and kuzma (2009) found ielts scores were better able to predict academic outcomes in the first semester, suggesting a stronger correlation would be found between students’ ielts scores and their success rate in eap courses during their first semester at tru than in subsequent semesters. second, the focus on students’ first semester was intended to control for additional student performance factors, such as the effects of grades in the previous semester and increases in english proficiency through further instruction. the main placement methods studied in this research project were the ielts test, labelled as ielts, and the tru ept, labelled as ept. for students whose ept placement matched their ielts placement, the placement method was labelled as “ept = ielts.” although this study primarily compared ielts placements to ept placements, the data set included “other” placements, such as pathway programs, toefl, other english proficiency tests, including the pearson test of english (pte) and duolingo, and unspecified placements where not noted in the isp database, the international student management software. these equivalency tests are posted on the tru website (n.d.c). meanwhile, the dependent variable was success in the assigned eap course. in the tru eap program, students need to earn a c+ (65%) in order to successfully complete a course. as such, a grade below a c+ (65%), as well as not completing a course (i.e., a did not complete (dnc)), was counted as a failure, and a final grade equal to or greater than a c+ was counted as a success. if a student withdrew from a course prior to the institutional withdrawal date (i.e., up to eight weeks in a one semester course), the course was removed from the data (tru, 2016). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 7 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 procedure the analyzed student data were routinely collected during the intake process, and, as such, nothing additional was collected from the participants. students with ielts scores request their ielts testing agency send their official test scores directly to tru admissions. upon receiving the test scores from the testing agency, tru admissions staff input them into the isp database. international student advisors compile a list of students who plan to take the in-house ept upon arrival at tru. the other students are placed according to their ietls scores. an ellt faculty member creates an eap intake spreadsheet and adds the names and id numbers, which are provided by the tru assessment centre, of the students who are writing the ept and, if necessary, accesses the isp database to verify any ielts scores missing from the spreadsheet. after the students with ielts scores who have chosen to take the in-house ept have completed the ept, ellt faculty members enter their scores and placement results into the eap intake spreadsheet. students’ grades for eap courses (the pass/fail list in this study) are recorded by the registrar’s office and provided to the ellt department so faculty can use this list to ensure that the students registered in their courses have met the prerequisites. in order to identify students placed directly via their ielts scores and to filter out returning students, my research assistants and i relied on spreadsheets generated from the isp database and cross-referenced them with the eap intake spreadsheet. the raw data were organized into separate spreadsheets for each semester under review, and information was added as it became available. after the completion of the final semester of this study, we collated the data from each semester into one ms excel document and removed identifiers to make the data set anonymous. finally, the data were summarized and analyzed to determine whether students placed through ielts were more likely to fail than those placed through the tru ept. as a further means of comparison, students placed via other methods were also included in some data sets. the tru ept, which serves as the comparison to ielts, is a multistep process that relies on ellt faculty involvement. first, students complete the computer adaptive reading skills, sentence meaning, and language use components of the college board accuplacer english as a second language (esl) test, which are electronically scored. then students complete the timed writing component of accuplacer by responding to a prompt that is assessed by at least two ellt faculty members. next, faculty members interview students to assess their speaking and listening skills. finally, small groups of ellt faculty determine eap course placements by carefully considering all of the assessment results, and then faculty meet one-on-one with students to share their results and assigned courses. accuplacer scores are combined with faculty-based assessment to determine students’ placement into skill-based eap courses in one of six levels. level one to three students are enrolled strictly in eap courses while level four and five students can take some discipline-specific academic courses concurrently. the sixth level is sufficient for direct entry, and thus these students are not in the eap program or in this dataset. where there are jagged scores with one skill area being stronger than another, faculty input is key to determining the placement. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 8 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 participants this research project focused on students enrolled in at least one eap course during their first semester of study at tru. returning students, defined as those who have previously taken courses at the institution, and students who gained direct entry into academic courses were not included in this project. in addition, students placed into strictly level one and/or two eap courses were excluded in order for the control group (i.e., students placed via ept) to more closely match the test group (i.e., students placed via ielts). students placed into level three or above, or into a blend of level two and three eap courses were included in this study. the majority of the students in this study were international, but some domestic students who were ells were also included. though the exact proportion of international to domestic students included in this study is difficult to ascertain based on the available information, according to the tru integrated planning and effectiveness course enrollment reports for the winter and fall semesters from 2018 to 2020, international students represented approximately 92% of all course enrollments in the tru eap program while domestic students represented approximately 8% (institutional planning & effectiveness, n.d.; institutional planning & effectiveness, 2020). to protect the anonymity of the participants, identifiers, such as their name, student id number, gender, and nationality, were removed from the final data set. this study relied on student data that are normally collected during the intake process, making it possible to have a relatively large sample size. initially, the number of participants was 694. however, 17 students were removed due to a variety of placement discrepancies which resulted in them enrolling in courses that differed from their placement method scores, such as a graduate program with a higher entrance score. seven were removed after they withdrew from all of the eap courses in which they were initially enrolled. a further seven students were removed as their first semester of study at tru or placement method could not be confirmed, resulting in a final sample size of 663 students. these students represented a total of 1,879 eap course enrollments spread out over the six semesters included in this study (see figure 1). figure 1 total number of new ells and eap course enrollments by semester. 1879 194 158 468 155 203 701 663 77 49 177 45 65 250 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 total f 20 w 20 f 19 s 19 w 19 f 18 students course enrollments https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 9 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 analysis and results analyses were completed using ms excel, including the xlminer analysis toolpak add-in. the results of this study are presented in response to each question posed. prior to describing the analysis and results of each question, i articulate the rationale for the units of analysis and sampling. unit of analysis in this study, the case was defined as a course in which a student was enrolled since there is considerable variation in the number of courses students take each semester, with some students taking as many as five eap courses and others taking only one. while the analyses were done for both the course as a case and for the student as a case, analyzing by students who passed all courses or failed at least one course, combined the students who failed one course with those who failed multiple courses, resulting in a less sensitive metric of student success. thus, i report the data by course unit (each course that a student enrolled in) rather than by student. i used an alpha level of .05 for all statistical tests. addressing sampling implications of covid-19 in order to control for the extraordinary circumstances generated by the pandemic, i removed the 2020 winter and fall semester data from the analyses entitled, “pre-covid-19.” i also included all six semesters in several analyses as points of comparison. the covid-19 pandemic struck during the final year of this research project, thus impacting the data in several ways. first, efforts to curb the spread of the virus resulted in an abrupt halt to face-to-face instruction in march 2020, resulting in a shift to alternate modes of instruction, namely online, for the last few weeks of the 2020 winter semester. this move to online teaching necessitated amendments to course outlines, such as weighting completed course work more heavily than originally indicated and eliminating the final exam. in addition, the university issued extraordinary provisions allowing students to withdraw from a 2020 winter semester course instead of receiving a failing grade (tru announcements, personal communication, april 3, 2020). furthermore, the continued suspension of face-to-face instruction affected the 2020 summer semester. tru was not able to offer the ept as face-to-face testing was not permitted. therefore, all new international student applications for that semester were suspended, which meant that i was unable to collect any data during what was supposed to be the final semester of data collection. finally, the pandemic continued to disrupt the 2020 fall semester. due to travel restrictions, only two students were able to come in person to tru to take the on-campus ept. to address the void in covid-safe testing options, duolingo was added to the list of accepted english proficiency tests since it enables candidates to take the test from the purported safety of their own homes. consequently, there was a shift in the number of placements made through the different methods. moreover, courses were again delivered remotely to comply with provincewide restrictions. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 10 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 what were the success rates of new students placed into eap courses via the tru ept, the ielts test, and other placement methods? table 1 presents a summary of eap placements based on tru ept scores. to study the success rate, i analyzed the failure rate. a total of 177 students were placed into 682 eap courses during the six semesters included in this study: fall 2018, winter 2019, summer 2019, fall 2019, winter 2020, and fall 2020. the failure rate for all semesters was 9.7%. removing the precovid-19 semesters resulted in a minimal decrease in the failure rate to 9.5%. there was considerable variability in the percentage of courses failed from semester to semester with the lowest percentage of course failures in the 2019 summer semester at 1.4% and the highest precovid-19 failure rate in the 2018 fall semester at 12.1%. although the 2020 fall semester actually had a much higher course failure rate than the 2018 fall semester, with a sample size of only two students enrolled in eight courses, the results for this semester were very different from the other semesters and occurred during pandemic times. table 1 tru ept placements semester number of students number of eap courses number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed fall 2018 68 282 34 12.1% winter 2019 22 83 6 7.2% summer 2019 19 74 1 1.4% fall 2019 52 179 18 10.1% winter 2020 14 56 3 5.4% fall 2020 2 8 4 50% all 6 semesters 177 682 66 9.7% pre-covid-19 161 618 59 9.5% the success rates of new ells placed into eap courses via the ielts test are presented in table 2 (next page). in all six semesters combined, 319 students were placed into 885 eap courses resulting in a 12.2% course failure rate. when the semesters that were affected by the covid-19 pandemic were removed, the failure rate increased to 13.4%. again, there was a relatively large degree of semester to semester variation. the lowest course failure rate, 4.6%, occurred in the 2020 winter semester while the highest course failure rate, 17.1%, occurred in the 2019 winter semester. table 3 (next page) presents a summary of all students whose placement via the oncampus ept coincided with their placement via the ielts test. the sample included a total of eight students in this category representing 24 course enrollments and an overall course failure rate of only 4.2%. however, the sample size was too small to make meaningful comparisons. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 11 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 table 2 ielts placements semester number of students number of eap courses number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed fall 2018 116 302 50 16.6% winter 2019 37 105 18 17.1% summer 2019 25 79 7 8.9% fall 2019 77 215 19 8.8% winter 2020 28 87 4 4.6% fall 2020 36 97 10 10.3% all 6 semesters 319 885 108 12.2% pre-covid-19 255 701 94 13.4% table 3 ept = ielts placements semester number of students number of eap courses number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed fall 2018 3 9 1 11.1% winter 2019 1 4 0 0% summer 2019 1 2 0 0% fall 2019 2 7 0 0% winter 2020 1 2 0 0% fall 2020 0 0 0 0% all 6 semesters 8 24 1 4.2% pre-covid-19 7 22 1 4.5% the success rates of the new ells placed into eap courses via other placement methods, including pathway programs, toefl, pte, duolingo, other english proficiency tests, and unspecified placements, are presented in table 4 (next page). over the six semesters, 159 students completed a total of 288 courses with an overall failure rate of 22.2%. removing the semesters affected by the pandemic, the 2020 winter and fall semesters, resulted in a drop in the failure rate to 15.1%. prior to the pandemic, the semester with the highest failure rate, 17.6%, was the 2018 fall semester, and the semesters with the lowest failure rates were the 2019 winter and summer semesters, both 0%; however, only five students were placed in winter and none were placed in summer via other methods. as seen in figure 2 (next page), the fall semesters attracted the largest number of eap course enrollments by new ells. furthermore, ielts placements consistently accounted for the most enrollments, followed closely by the on-campus ept. the only semester that did not follow these patterns was the 2020 fall semester which, primarily due to pandemic travel restrictions, experienced an overall drop in enrollments, a substantial increase in other placement methods, namely duolingo, and a considerable decrease in tru ept placements. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 12 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 table 4 other placement methods semester number of students number of eap courses number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed fall 2018 63 108 19 17.6% winter 2019 5 11 0 0% summer 2019 0 0 0 0% fall 2019 46 67 9 13.4% winter 2020 6 13 1 7.7% fall 2020 39 89 35 39.3% all 6 semesters 159 288 64 22.2% pre-covid-19 114 186 28 15.1% figure 2 total number of eap courses new ells took each semester by placement method overall, the average eap program failure rate when all placement methods were combined was 12.7% for all six semesters (figure 3, next page) and 11.9% when the two semesters affected by the pandemic were excluded (figure 4, next page). on average, ielts placements produced higher course failure rates than ept placements did. for all six semesters combined, 12.2% of ielts placements and 9.7% of ept placements resulted in unsuccessful completion of a course. removing the 2020 winter and fall semesters, increased the overall ielts failure rate to 13.4% and marginally decreased the overall ept failure rate to 9.5%. other placement methods accounted for the highest failure rates for all six semesters, 22.2%, and for pre-covid-19 semesters, 15.1%, while ept placements that matched the ielts placements accounted for the lowest course failure rates: 4.2% and 4.5% respectively. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 13 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 figure 3 total percentage of eap courses new ells failed by placement method for all six semesters figure 4 total percentage of eap courses new ells failed by placement method for all pre-covid19 semesters 9.7% 12.2% 4.2% 22.2% 12.7% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% ept ielts ept=ielts other combined p e rc e n ta g e o f c o u rs e f a il u re s placement methods https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 14 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 how many students who had taken the tru ept were placed into higher course levels as a result of their ielts scores, and how did they perform in those courses? to answer this question, i began by identifying which students had both tru ept and ielts scores. the test group included the students whose ielts scores resulted in higher eap course placements than the ept would have permitted. the total across the six semesters was 104 course enrollments within the test group (see table 5) with a course failure rate of 13.5%. table 5 course placements bumped up via ielts scores (test group) semesters number of eap courses number of eap courses passed number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed all 104 90 14 13.5% pre-covid-19 93 81 12 12.9% i created two different control groups to determine how these students performed by comparison. control group 1, which included the ielts course placements that were not bumped up to a higher level, constituted 120 course enrollments with a 5.0% failure rate (see table 6). control group 2 was comprised of all eap course placements made according to the ept scores, totalling 118 enrollments and an overall failure rate of 6.8% (see table 7, next page), combined with control group 1, the ielts course placements that were not bumped up. because only two students were placed via the tru ept in the 2020 fall semester and they did not have ielts scores, this semester was excluded from the analyses. the descriptive statistics show that students had a higher failure rate in the courses in which they were bumped up one or more levels due to their ielts scores; however, to ascertain whether this observation was significant, i employed inferential statistics. table 6 ielts course placements not bumped up (control group 1) semesters number of eap courses number of eap courses passed number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed all 120 114 6 5.0% pre-covid-19 91 85 6 6.6% note. this table includes placements in which the ept matched the ielts course assignment. to examine the relationship between placement method and success in a course, i conducted chi-square tests of independence using control group 1. my hypothesis was that ielts course placements that were higher than the respective ept scores were more likely to result in failure than ielts course placements that were not higher. the correlation between the variables was significant, x2 (1, n = 224) = 4.91, p = .03, meaning that ells were more likely to fail eap courses in which they were bumped up. however, when the 2020 winter semester was removed, the results were no longer significant, x2 (1, n = 184) = 2.07, p = .15. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 15 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 table 7 ept course placements semesters number of eap courses number of eap courses passed number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed all 118 110 8 6.8% pre-covid-19 109 101 8 7.3% note. this table excludes placements in which the ept matched the ielts course assignment to avoid counting these courses twice. further chi-square tests of independence were performed using control group 2, ielts course placements that were not bumped up combined with ept course placements. again, my expectation was that course placements bumped up by ielts scores stood a greater chance of failure. the first chi-square test showed that there was a significant association between placement method and the failure rate, thus confirming my hypothesis, x2 (1, n = 342) = 5.53, p = .02. conversely, the second chi-square test, which included only pre-covid-19 semesters, failed to reject the null hypotheses, x2 (1, n = 293) = 2.74, p = .098, with a .05 alpha. were the students placed according to their ielts scores more likely to fail their eap courses during their first semester than those placed according to the tru ept? to determine if there was a relationship between placement method, semester, and course success i ran several logistic regression analyses. the independent variables were method of placement and first semester of study, and the dependent variable was success in a course. the results of these analyses are presented in table 8 below: table 8 course failure rate analyses analyzed methods and semesters results (case = course) all semesters (ept vs. ielts) placement method: beta value = .34, se =.17, p = .044* semester: beta value = -.16, se =.05, p = .002* pre-covid-19 semesters (ept vs. ielts) placement method: beta value = .41, se =.18, p = .02* semester: beta value = -.2, se =.07, p = .004* all semesters (all placement methods) placement method: beta value = .32, se =.06, p <.001* semester: beta value = -.03, se =.04, p = .51 pre-covid-19 semesters (all placement methods) placement method: beta value = .16, se =.08, p = .046* semester: beta value = -.19, se =.06, p = .003* * significant (p < .05) as previously mentioned, the analyses done for the course cases were also done with student as the case but resulted in non-significance for placement method. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 16 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 in the logistic regression analysis that compared the tru ept with ielts, both the placement method (p = .044) and the semester (p = .002) significantly predicted success in an eap course. the results remained significant for both independent variables with the removal of the 2020 winter and fall semesters. similar chi-square analyses were run which did not control for semester variation. these analyses were not significant except for the pre-covid-19 semesters (ept vs. ielts) analysis which was significant, x2 (1, n = 1319) = 4.78, p = .03. in the logistic regression analysis that investigated the relationship between all placement methods and all semesters, the placement method had a significant effect on success in an eap course (p = <.001) while the semester did not (p = .51). when only pre-covid-19 semesters were included in the analysis, both the placement method (p = .046) and the semester (p = .003) were predictive of course success. did the students who had higher ielts overall band scores than required have a greater success rate than those whose overall band scores met the requirements for the eap program level in which they were placed? to determine program and course placements of nnes, tru staff and faculty rely on both the ielts overall band score and the lowest band score. this reliance on overall and lowest band scores means that some students may have an overall band score that would normally allow them to enroll in a higher eap course level or an academic program but have one band score that is below the threshold for entry into that level or program. i conducted two chi-square analyses to find out if the students who had an overall ielts band score above the course level in which they were placed were more likely to succeed in their courses than students whose overall ielts band score matched the level. the students whose ielts band scores were not specified in the available documents were removed from the data set, leaving a sample size of 206 students representing 586 eap course enrollments (see table 9, next page). a total of 69 students for all six semesters combined and 40 students for pre-covid19 semesters (see table 10, next page) had overall band scores above the required threshold. according to tables 9 and 10, the students who had higher overall ielts band scores actually had higher failure rates (11.9% and 13.2%) than those who had lower overall band scores (7.2% and 7.7%). nevertheless, the outcome of the chi-square that included data from all semesters failed to reject the null hypothesis (x2 (1, n = 586) = 3.43, p = .06) as did the chisquare that only included pre-covid-19 semesters (x2 (1, n = 402) = 2.58, p = .11). a lack of significance suggests equivalency. table 11 (next page) shows the distribution of ielts placements across the eap program levels, which reveals a potential reason for the higher—though statistically insignificant—failure rate of students with overall ielts band scores above the threshold. the percentage of level five course enrollments by students with high overall band scores (i.e., 64.3%) was much larger than for those with regular overall band scores (i.e., 33.0%). this is noteworthy because level five students can take three other academic courses alongside their eap courses, so they may have placed more importance on passing those courses than the eap courses. as well, level five courses are, inherently, more challenging than lower level courses. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 17 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 table 9 ielts placements: all semesters overall band score number of students number of eap courses number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed above threshold 69 168 20 11.9% meets threshold 137 418 30 7.2% table 10 ielts placements: pre-covid-19 semesters overall band score number of students number of eap courses number of eap courses failed percentage of courses failed above threshold 40 91 12 13.2% meets threshold 102 311 24 7.7% table 11 ielts placements by eap level: all semesters overall band score number of level 3 course enrollments level 3: percentage of overall number of level 4 course enrollments level 4: percentage of overall number of level 5 course enrollments level 5: percentage of overall above threshold 20 11.9% 40 23.8% 108 64.3% meets threshold 80 19.1% 200 47.8% 138 33% discussion this study investigated eap student success through the effectiveness of the ielts test compared to the tru ept in placing students into appropriate eap course levels by examining four questions. the first question explored the eap course failure rate for each of the following placement methods: tru ept, ielts, and all other methods. the descriptive statistics revealed that students placed via ielts scores were less likely to succeed in eap courses than those placed via tru ept scores. the greatest course success rates were attributed to those cases in which the students’ ept scores and the ielts scores led to the same placement. this result affirms the expectation that when course placements based on two different tests coincide, the chances of success would increase. other placement methods, which include a wide range of pathway agreements and other tests, generally resulted in the highest course failure rates. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 18 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 research question number two attempted to answer an important ellt faculty concern: do students have adequate english language proficiency and preparation to succeed in the eap course levels into which their ielts scores place them? as mentioned in the introduction, this concern primarily arose from some students taking eap courses that are one, two, or even three levels above where the tru ept would have placed them. the results of chi-square tests suggest that the concerns may be warranted. students whose course level via ielts placement was not higher than their course level would have been via ept placement tended to be more successful. third, to determine whether or not students placed via ielts were less likely to succeed in eap courses than those placed via the tru ept, i used logistic regression analyses comparing these two placement methods, which confirmed that ielts placements resulted in a greater likelihood of course failure. when i expanded the logistic regression analyses to include the “other” placement method category, the placement method remained statistically significant. the comparison of course success of students who had overall ielts band scores above the minimum requirement to those with overall ielts band scores that met the eap course level requirement did not yield a significant difference. in other words, students with higher overall ielts band scores did not have higher success rates than those with regular overall ielts band scores. this result supports the current tru practice of giving consideration to both the overall band score and the lowest band score to place students into appropriate eap course levels. pedagogical implications the results indicate that the on-campus ept more effectively predicts student success and more closely aligns with the eap program at tru than the ielts test does. this outcome could be attributed to the contribution of ellt faculty expertise in the eap placement process. a study by james and templeman (2009) that confirmed the efficacy of the tru ept found that ellt faculty involvement was integral: the effectiveness of the comprehensive eap placement process at tru was determined to depend to a significant degree on extensive involvement by faculty. by facilitating the oral interview, assessing the writing sample, and interpreting the accuplacer esl results, faculty significantly improved the accuracy of student placement. (p. 94) according to murray (2015), having “a sense [sic] of what different test scores represent in real performance terms” is a key element for those making university admission and placement decisions based on test scores to possess (p. 111). this sense of what test scores represent makes ellt faculty uniquely qualified to accurately place students; from years of teaching, they not only have an experiential awareness of ells’ capabilities but also a thorough understanding of the eap program. limitations and future research the logistic regression analyses showed semester-to-semester variations in terms of eap course enrollments and student success which may have influenced the results of this study. with https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 19 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 programs typically beginning in september, fall semesters have the highest number of new student course enrollments while summer semesters have the lowest. furthermore, although this study did not track student demographics, including nationality, i have observed in practice patterns, such as groups of japanese university exchange students typically enrolling in eap courses in the fall semesters. semester-to-semester variations, a pandemic, and emergent placement methods, such as duolingo and ielts indicator, necessitate further years of data comparison to allow for controlling for the effects of semester and deeper exploration of methods. furthermore, counting course dncs as failures may have affected the results. according to the tru grading systems policy (n.d.a), failing to complete at least 50% of course work or mandatory course components without officially withdrawing from the course results in a dnc. however, there are reasons unrelated to academic readiness and english proficiency which may lead to a dnc, such as a personal crisis, a health issue, or time mismanagement. to mitigate this effect, future research could include a qualitative student survey with subsequent focus groups that examine students’ experiences in the courses, as well as their perceptions of the accuracy of the test. since students who were placed into eap courses via their ielts scores had a higher failure rate, it is worth exploring ways to further support these students. there are already two academic student services available to eap students: the ellt department’s language learning centre and the tru writing centre. although these services are already recommended to eap students at tru, the number of students placed via ielts versus ept who access these services is unknown. there may be a link between the placement method and the probability of seeking services yet to be demonstrated by research. the findings of this study raise an important question, especially in light of uncertain global circumstances. while one advantage of the ielts test is its worldwide availability allowing nnes to take the test in their home countries, the recent global pandemic has exposed the need for more flexible testing options to address mobility restrictions and allow students to continue to access post-secondary education. this need for flexibility has led to the emergence of remote testing options, such as duolingo, which enable students to take english proficiency tests from the presumed safety of their homes. the ielts academic test and in-house epts were not originally designed to be administered remotely. this lack of remote options has posed a challenge for many post-secondary institutions, including tru, and has partly been responsible for a decline in international enrollments since the pandemic began, leading to an important question: is there a way to remotely administer the in-house ept without jeopardizing prospective students’ privacy, compromising the test’s security, or removing a crucial component of the ept process, the involvement of ellt faculty? during the pandemic, ielts (n.d.a) temporarily offered a remote test in several countries, but not mainland china, and the remote option was accepted by some but not all institutions. conclusion this study explored the relationship between the placement method and student success in eap courses. the results of logistic regression analyses revealed that the in-house ept performed https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 steiger 20 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 significantly better in placing students into level-appropriate courses than ielts. these findings support the continued and perhaps increased reliance on the ept process as it yields more accurate eap course placements and thus greater student success compared to the ielts test. it is not time to abandon in-house english placement tests at post-secondary institutions. acknowledgments this research was supported in part by a grant from the centre for excellence in learning and teaching of tru. i would like to thank my undergraduate research assistants kirsten hales and mikhayla maurer, dr. carolyn hoessler for her invaluable scholarship of teaching and learning (sotl) research guidance and expertise, eric kim for his isp database technical support, and for the feedback i received from dr. jim hu and dr. hilda freimuth, co-chairs of the ellt research & pd committee. references college board. 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(2017). challenging the power invested in the international english language testing system (ielts): why determining ‘english’ preparedness needs to be undertaken within the subject context. power & education, 9(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743817691995 schoepp. (2018). predictive validity of the ielts in an english as a medium of instruction environment. higher education quarterly, 72(4), 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12163 schoepp, k., & garinger, d. (2016). ielts and academic success in higher education: a uae perspective. international journal of applied linguistics & english literature, 5(3), 145–151. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.3p.145 stigger, e. (2019). the correlation between ielts scores and international students' academic success: a literature review. bc teal journal, 4(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v4i1.339 thompson rivers university. 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(n.d.c). program overview. retrieved may 21, 2021, from tru education and social work: https://www.tru.ca/edsw/schools-anddepartments/esl/academic_esal/regulations.html https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 https://www.ielts.org/-/media/publications/guide-for-teachers/ielts-guide-for-teachers-uk.ashx https://www.ielts.org/-/media/publications/guide-for-teachers/ielts-guide-for-teachers-uk.ashx https://www.ieltsindicator.com/for-organisations/ https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/organisations/setting-ielts-entry-scores https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v26i2.416 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v36i1.1308 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139507189.005 https://doi.org/10.32234/jacetjournal.62.0_15 https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743817691995 https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12163 https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.3p.145 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v4i1.339 https://www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/withdrawals5640.pdf https://www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/ed_03-5_grading_systems35364.pdf https://www.tru.ca/future/admissions/international/admission-requirements.html https://www.tru.ca/future/admissions/international/admission-requirements.html https://www.tru.ca/edsw/schools-and-departments/esl/academic_esal/regulations.html https://www.tru.ca/edsw/schools-and-departments/esl/academic_esal/regulations.html steiger 22 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 1–22 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 thorpe, a., snell, m., davey-evans, s., & talman, r. (2017). improving the academic performance of non-native english-speaking students: the contribution of pre-sessional english language programmes. higher education quarterly, 71(1), 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12109 woodrow, l. (2006). academic success of international postgraduate education students and the role of english proficiency. university of sydney papers in tesol, 1, 51–70. https://faculty.edfac.usyd.edu.au/projects/usp_in_tesol/pdf/volume01/article03.pdf yen, d., & kuzma, j. (2009). higher ielts score, higher academic performance? the validity of ielts in predicting the academic performance of chinese students. worcester journal of learning and teaching, 3, 1–7. http://eprints.worc.ac.uk/811/1/yenkuzmaieltscores.pdf the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.451 https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12109 https://faculty.edfac.usyd.edu.au/projects/usp_in_tesol/pdf/volume01/article03.pdf http://eprints.worc.ac.uk/811/1/yenkuzmaieltscores.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ shoecraft, martin, & perris 23 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 research paper eap learners as discourse analysts: empowering emergent multilingual students kelly shoecraft griffith university jodie l. martin university of british columbia greta perris university of british columbia abstract english for academic purposes (eap) aims to equip multilingual students with the tools to effectively engage in disciplinary academic communication, especially writing. an ongoing challenge is how to transfer students’ knowledge of language from the eap classroom into their current and future disciplines (monbec, 2018) and how to empower them as independent learners and collaborators in their knowledge development. this paper reports on an eap curriculum project in which first-year international science students in british columbia were scaffolded to conduct independent comparative discourse analysis to develop their academic literacy abilities. we demonstrate how students not only improved their understanding of specific language features, but also were empowered with the critical knowledge and skills to become apprentice scholars and active members in the science community. the students were therefore legitimized as academic apprentices, rather than framed as deficient in language or victims of circumstance (gallagher & haan, 2017). we therefore present evidence of non-linguist language students successfully conducting independent discourse analysis to further their own language and learning goals. introduction in english for academic purposes (eap), students risk being framed as deficient in language or victims of circumstances (gallagher & haan, 2017). however, this view does a disservice to english language learners who are in fact multilingual emerging academic scholars. as such, eap students are in need of tools to help them navigate the new forms of discourse they encounter and the new forms of writing they must produce. these tools can empower students to understand and use language strategically to position themselves—and understand how others may be positioning them—within academia and beyond. in this way, eap can help students overcome linguistic and other educational barriers through access to powerful discourse. one tool for achieving this outcome is engaging students in discourse analysis. discourse analysis reveals the diversity of language use and its relation to multiple influencing factors, such as the status of the author, the topic under discussion, the purpose of the communication, and the intended audience (schleppegrell, 2012). while discourse analysis frequently informs explicit instruction in eap (basturkmen, 2019; campion, 2016; ding & https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 24 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 bruce, 2017), it tends to be conducted by teachers to shape lesson planning and materials design. at the same time, an ongoing challenge of eap is how to guide students to be independent learners and co-collaborators in their knowledge development. we argue that supporting them to conduct language analysis on texts and topics of their own interest empowers them as language users and emerging scholars, and to potentially transfer knowledge to new contexts they encounter. discourse analysis as a pedagogical tool in eap classrooms is the focus of this article. we describe and discuss a first-year research writing course refocused on discourse analysis as a research method in order to explore its efficacy as a language learning strategy (as evidenced in the students’ writing). the course was part of a first-year program for international students in canada with embedded eap instruction based on systemic functional linguistics (sfl) (halliday & matthiessen, 2004) and genre-based pedagogies (martin & rose, 2008), which focus on language use as patterns of contextualized choices. students were required to conduct comparative discourse analysis research by investigating language features they had studied and producing a typical academic report based on their study. by conducting analysis themselves, students increased their knowledge and understanding of the features of language and their uses within academic and non-academic genres. moreover, they were empowered to recognize and use language features, whether sfl or otherwise, within their own writing across disciplines and explore their use outside the language classroom. this article begins by situating discourse analysis within eap pedagogy literature, followed by an overview of the context and methodology for the study. we will describe the corpus we collected and present examples from the students’ discourse analysis projects to demonstrate how they engaged in individual language analysis that was real and relevant. finally, we discuss how students in this study were empowered by conducting discourse analysis in various ways. this paper will therefore demonstrate how discourse analysis is an effective pedagogical tool for academic language development, especially for eap students who are not linguistics students. this study has implications for eap teaching in british columbia as well as other eap contexts in higher education. literature review: discourse analysis in language and writing instruction discourse analysis involves exploring patterns of language features in a particular body of language (schleppegrell, 2012) and actively connects language choices to a wider context of language use. comparative discourse analysis focuses on how language use varies across texts by highlighting how different factors generate or are generated by different language features (eggins, 2004). therefore, discourse analysis can be useful in language and literacy education as it explicitly highlights the use of language features in a particular text, genre, or corpus, and contributes to the development of knowledge about language. this is particularly relevant in eap, where courses may be generalized across the university, streamed to particular fields (e.g., sciences, arts), or targeted to specific disciplinary discourses. discourse analysis is therefore part of a set of knowledge and research skills required of eap practitioners in order to teach across or within disciplinary boundaries (baleap, 2008; basturkmen, 2019; campion, 2016; ding & bruce, 2017). many materials for discourse analysis are thus aimed at the practitioner https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 25 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 (alexander et al., 2008) and not at the students themselves, who are guided by instructors and teachers, typically in analysis of pre-analyzed texts. the benefits of discourse analysis for students are well documented in multiple contexts. in k–12 in the united states, discourse analysis applying sfl has been shown to raise critical language awareness in both first and additional language learners (gebhard, 2019; moore & schleppegrell, 2014; o’hallaron et al., 2015). for eap in particular, the active engagement in language through deconstruction and analysis of academic texts develops students’ ability to read with an eye for writing (lin, 2016), actively noticing rather than simply comprehending language (richards, 2006). rather than just reading for content, discourse analysis requires students to focus on specific language features that are present (or absent) for specific purposes. understanding why these language features have been used requires contextualization by making explicit the purposes of the texts (genre), the specific contexts they engage with and signal (register), as well as the substantive topic of those texts, and learning that these can be manipulated (machin & mayr, 2012) and can be connected to power (chun, 2015; fairclough, 2001; weninger & kan, 2012). there are limited studies on academic language socialization for international students in eap courses (duff & anderson, 2015). one of few studies found of students applying discourse analysis is cheng’s (2007) case study of a single student writing three versions of an introduction section for different audiences. this study demonstrated learners’ awareness and justifications for language choices and text structure according to genrebased pedagogy. this knowledge about language gives students tools to grapple with new contexts in their future studies and careers (monbec, 2018). advanced language learners encounter increasingly overlapping aspects of learning language, learning through language, and learning about language (ferreira & zappa-hollman, 2019; matthiessen, 2006), and it is this learning about language, or knowledge about language, that is a key aspect for eap learners to develop in order to fully participate in their academic disciplinary community. comparative discourse analysis in particular exposes students to different genres of writing, thus making explicit not only what is present but, equally important, what is and is not appropriate in academic writing. english as an additional language (eal) students are rarely exposed to varieties of english genres to the same extent as their native speaker counterparts (macalister, 2008). thus, eap classrooms can provide an opportunity for extensive reading which benefits students’ development of academic skills as well as broader english language skills. scientists who are non-native english speakers “need to read textbooks or research articles published in english, and many wish to publish in english themselves” (bloor & bloor, 2013, p. 223). therefore, science students in particular (as with those students in the present study) can benefit from exposure to english genres—both academic and for a general audience—in order to participate fully and with more confidence in the scientific community, within and beyond academia. there are multiple recommendations in literature that students are capable of conducting discourse analysis themselves. indeed, thompson (2001) and moore (2007) advocated that such student discourse analyses do not need to be complex, but instead can be focused on limited features or texts to still gain greater understanding of language use. such a task is beneficial for students to increase their language ability, understand the content more thoroughly, and transfer what they learn within an eap classroom to new contexts (monbec, 2018). further, cheng https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 26 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 (2007) highlighted a need to explore connections between students’ analysis of language features and their subsequent writing performance. nevertheless, descriptions of students conducting original discourse analysis in general, let alone for language learning purposes, are remarkably absent in the literature. it is in this gap that we situate our study. context this course is offered in a university program in british columbia which extends entry into firstyear university courses to multilingual students who do not fully meet the language proficiency requirements and therefore need additional language instruction. the program runs simultaneously with students’ first-year courses in their specific disciplines, and through a pedagogical approach that draws on sfl (see ferreira & zappa-hollman, 2019 for a description of this approach). the discourse analysis focus discussed in this article was implemented in an academic research-writing course in the science stream in term two of the three-term program, following an initial academic writing course in term one. the overall goal of the course is to develop students’ skills for designing, conducting and reporting on a small research project in the appropriate academic register. it builds on students’ linguistic knowledge from the corresponding academic-writing course in the first term, which included academic genres and stages typically encountered in science disciplines and the metalanguage of systemic functional grammar. the specific learning objectives of the course focused on the ability to identify features of academic and professional writing, understand how language choices are related to the context of a text, such as audience and purpose, and apply that understanding in their own language choices. it was only after designing and developing this curriculum that the authors of this paper recognized the importance of this type of pedagogy for eap contexts. we decided to conduct a study on the use of discourse analysis by students in the eap classroom and began to retrospectively collect the data. ethical approval was obtained in 2019 and emails were sent to past students to seek their consent to their previously submitted writing being included in the study. students’ grades were not affected as consent was given after the course had finished. the students’ research projects examined how one or two specific language features were used differently in two types of texts and interpreted the reason for and effect of those differences. the analysis involved a quantitative comparison of the use of specific language features across texts, and an analysis of the patterns noticed in the form of a data commentary. the types of language features selected and comparisons performed by the students are described below. the assessments for the course involved drafts of each section and a 1500-word final research report following an introduction, methods, results, discussion (imrd) structure and a reflective presentation. the students received guidance on their analyses during in-class workshops and tutorials. however, as the goal for this course was not to create technically accurate linguists but language-empowered students within their own disciplines, the students were not assessed on the analyses themselves, but on their ability to write about them using academic genres and language. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 27 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 methodology a corpus of student projects was built in 2019 and again in 2020. a total of 36 students from the classes of the three investigators of this project consented to participate in the study. these students were aged 18–20 and had achieved ielts 5.5. the total corpus of texts was formed from the final research reports of these 36 students and each of the drafts of the four sections of the research report (n=180). the initial analysis of these data consisted of collating the language features the students chose to investigate and the text types they chose to compare. we then selected specific language features that were both popular choices among the students and relevant to academic writing in the sciences and grouped them according to metafunction. students’ texts investigating these language features were analyzed for their conclusions about the use of these language features in different genres. for this reason, the discussion sections of student texts were chosen as relevant examples in this paper. in addition, student presentation powerpoints were included as they contained reflections on their process during this research project. findings: student discourse analysis projects the corpus of 36 student projects provides insight into the value of discourse analysis for multilingual language learners and how it can empower students. the students were able to select the disciplines and topics they studied, the language features they worked on, and what types of texts they compared. this reflects both the concepts they were familiar with from the preceding writing course as well as which language features and texts they were interested in. the most popular language features across the corpus were nominalization and noun groups (n=8), with significant focus on attitude (markers), theme (types and patterns), and process types (n=6), as shown in figure 1. it should be noted that as a few of the studies compared multiple language features, the total in figure 1 is greater than the number of projects in the corpus (n=36). nominalization (the process of turning verbs and adjectives into nouns), theme patterns (the connections made between content in clauses), and process types (functions of verbs) have been shown by linguistic research to be important in science (halliday, 2004; lin, 2016), and indeed were topics emphasized in both the preceding writing course and in this particular course as being key features of academic language. however, attitude, which focuses on evaluative language (martin & white, 2005), is not significantly analyzed in research into scientific language, and had not been a major point of instruction in the students’ classes, so it is somewhat surprising that so many students chose this for investigation. we shall hypothesize that this interest in interpersonal positioning and evaluative language was due to students’ awareness that this was an important area for their language development. in the following sections we explore each of these focal language features to examine why they were a valid choice, what the students found in their own research, and how that may have benefited their own writing. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 28 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 figure 1 focal language features in student projects given the research methodology was comparative discourse analysis, the type of comparison chosen was also a key feature of the corpus, revealing the types of texts students thought were valued and were interested in themselves. table 1 displays the main comparison for the texts, although often the projects involved multiple variables for comparison. for example, the most common comparison project was to compare a journal article with a ted talk (n=9). the differences in language feature use observed could therefore be explained as a difference of mode (written versus spoken), audience (expert versus general public), and purpose (informative versus informative and entertaining). this selection potentially helped students not only confirm for themselves what they had learned about academic writing, but also understand how often the same experts adapted their language in a highly successful format for the general public. similarly, comparisons of journal articles with web articles and general audience multimedia (podcast, educational video, popular science video) suggested an interest in how both audiences and modes played a role in language use. another group of comparisons involved comparing journal articles, whether with other forms of writing (textbook, wikipedia entry), across disciplines, across languages, or across time, or even sections within those articles. this focus again legitimized students’ lessons by having them conduct the analysis themselves, understand enough literature to discuss their findings, and rationalize the use due to the specifics of their data. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 29 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 table 1 types of comparisons in corpus main comparisons tally journal article vs ted talk 9 journal article vs web article 7 imrd sections within articles 4 journal article vs general audience multimedia 3 journal article vs textbook 3 academic expert speaking to different audiences 2 different use of two language features 2 disciplinary journal articles (chemistry vs computer science) 1 journal articles in different languages (chinese vs english) 1 food guides in different languages (chinese vs canadian english) 1 journal article vs wikipedia entry 1 journal articles across time periods 1 lecture vs textbook 1 by allowing for an independent selection of both language features and texts for comparison, students were scaffolded to extend their learning from the eap classroom to different topics, different texts, and different text types, potentially enabling transfer of knowledge and encouraging students to see language as reproducible and predictable patterns which can be variously followed or defied. studies of language features in this section, we present examples of the students’ discourse analysis projects according to the language features they investigated, focusing both on those most popular in our corpus, and those established as significant in science (halliday & martin, 1993). the description is organized according to the three concomitant metafunctions of systemic functional grammar. the metafunctions describe the various ways language and grammatical resources relate to meanings; the ideational metafunction construes meanings through a focus on content (what the text is about), the textual metafunction constructs meanings by organizing language (how the text is organized), and the interpersonal metafunction enacts meanings by focusing on relationships between participants (who is involved in what way) (matthiessen et al., 2010). these metafunctions were explicitly taught to students as part of the introduction to these concepts in the first term. ideation the language of science is characterized by technicality and abstraction, and two key grammatical resources for realizing these characteristics are nominalization, the process by which verbs and adjectives are turned into nouns, and process types, functional categories for verbs (halliday, 2004). the main process types are relational (defining, for example the verb “to be”), material (acting/doing), verbal (communicating), and mental processes (thinking and feeling). these two features were a prominent teaching point in students’ language courses, closely tied with academic writing of different genres in the first term, and then with the sections and stages of writing their own research reports. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 30 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 nominalization. by comparing journal articles with ted talks and web articles, students recognized the high usage of nominalization in academic writing in comparison to other types of genres. while they had learned of nominalizations as a useful feature in scientific language, to fully interpret the results, they needed to explore different ways of classifying and comparing the nominalizations and connect that to contextual features of the texts. one student who compared nominalizations in a journal article and a ted talk extended their research to identify differences between nominalizations derived from verbs (e.g., argue–argument) and derived from adjectives (e.g., real–reality). drawing on literature and with scaffolding, this student connected the nominal derivation to particular characteristics: “this research implies that scientific texts prefer using nominalizations derived from verbs to nominalization derived from adjectives since it enables texts to be more conceptual and objective.” the main finding of the project connected the usage to the mode (oral/written) and the audience: this research result suggests that oral speeches tend to use nominalizations that are not difficult to interpret since those are written for general public, whereas journal articles tend to use nominalizations that are technical and professional because those are written for experts. the result also indicates that nominalizations are used as the method of condensing scientific data. thus, the student demonstrated their increased awareness of the use of nominalizations, not only as a countable feature, but the more specific nuanced usage of technical and specialized nominalizations as well as their variations in form. their conclusion also validated their research by demonstrating an understanding of the actors involved and their potential audiences: “this research is useful for linguists who investigate the difference between scientific speech and journal article and scientists who want to present their findings in front of the general public.” furthermore, this conclusion potentially enables the transfer of knowledge from this project to any form of presentation to the general public that they undertake in the future. the study of nominalizations by students therefore confirmed the writing advice they had received about the use of nominalizations in scientific language, and also involved deeper exploration of exactly how to identify and classify nominalizations according to form or meaning, and how to connect that usage to the topic and context of the language use. processes. a number of students investigated process (verb) types, comparing academic journal articles with textbooks and with general audience texts (web articles and ted talks), or comparing within sections of articles themselves. this independent research largely confirmed and validated the advice they had received in class: that the use of material processes and relational processes was significant in academic writing, but used differently in academic and pedagogical texts, or between sections of texts. for example, one student investigated the use of process types in method and discussion sections in journal articles on artificial intelligence. the analysis showed a higher usage of material processes in the method section, and a higher usage of relational processes in the discussion section. in their own discussion section, the student drew significantly on literature to interpret the findings, while, incidentally, implementing those findings by making significant use of relational processes in their writing: https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 31 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 the higher frequency of material processes in the method section which suggests that descriptive language is more important in procedure. [...] based on martinez’s research, the method section seems to be the most active part in science research articles (martinez, 2001). the material processes will provide more information and help the readers visualize the procedure. in comparison, the low frequency of material processes in the discussion section displays more conceptual ideas instead of physical activities. the method section is the description of the experimental steps (martinez, 2003). on the other hand, the frequency of relational processes in the discussion section is higher than the method section, which is opposite to the distribution of material processes. the higher frequency in the discussion section is related to its purpose, because the discussion section is to evaluate the result and address thoughts to audiences which is similar to martinez’s study (2001). the discussion section may be the most controversial and conceptual part (martinez, 2003). by associating use of material processes with the activity recount of the methods section, and relational processes with evaluation and hence with more abstract ideas characteristic of discussion sections, the student’s writing shows a heightened awareness of variability of register, from more concrete for “visualizing” procedures to more abstract for “conceptualization,” according to different genres. the student was also able to contextualize the differences between their findings and the consulted literature, identifying a gap in study that was referenced: however, there are more material processes in both discussion (60%) and method sections (77%) while comparing with relational process (38%) & (21%) which is not addressed in martinez’s research. the reason is that martinez’s research is based on physics, biology and social science, and mine is computer science which is a unique subject in science. journal articles in computer science do not share the same pattern with other science journal articles. in most of the science research articles, the imrd section is clear, but in computer science, there are only three distinct sections: introduction, result and discussion section, and computer science needs to explain the reason and method for analytic process (posteguillo, 1999). that is also the reason why there are more material processes than relational processes in both sections. the student thus demonstrated an awareness of the diversity of scientific disciplines and disciplinary texts. the student may therefore be better prepared to move into their chosen field, or any other, and both meet genre expectations overall and understand specific purposes and variables that may change the language requirements. in summary, by conducting their own analysis of ideational language such as nominalization and process types, students had the opportunity to confirm and clarify for themselves their importance in science writing. these features are often glossed over by being conflated into a vague “formal language” category at risk of being missed in general english classes although it can actually benefit and empower students in their academic writing. often students recognize that writing is “more formal” or “more academic,” but do not recognize the use of nominalization or have the metalanguage to describe it. similarly, verbs are often glossed https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 32 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 simply by grammatical agreement or formality levels, but understanding different process types helps connect language use to broader purposes of defining (relational processes) or connecting with audiences (verbal and mental). textual an important aspect of academic writing and scientific writing is information flow—the organization of information and the logical sequencing of ideas (halliday, 2004)—which can be a challenge for students. one manner in which this is achieved is the organized use of themes (the beginning of a clause) in patterns. academic writing features combinations of theme patterns: linear pattern (repeating the start of a clause in the next), zigzag pattern (using the end of a clause as the start of the next), or derived pattern (ending a clause with a list or category that becomes the theme of subsequent sentences or sections. it is worth noting that these were the labels used in our context, but different labels are used in various literature sources (see for example eggins 2004; humphrey et al., 2012; thompson, 2014). students learned about theme patterns as a major organizational method in their first term, and investigating them across academic and non-academic texts and contexts provided evidence of how and when they are used to present logical, cohesive arguments. a number of students in the present study chose to focus on the use of theme patterns across genres. one student found more frequent use of linear patterns in a ted talk when the speaker was recounting their personal experience, as compared to multiple theme patterns present in a journal article by the same person for the underlying organization. the student explained that the linear pattern was more useful for maintaining information flow in a spoken text as the audience needs more reminders, while in a written text information flow cues are visible at all times and the text can be re-read numerous times. one consequence of grappling with real language usage, and in particular focusing on function as well as form, was that the students had to explore interconnected purposes of language. in order to explain the use of a linear theme pattern in the ted talk, the student explored why those themes were personal pronouns: the data analysis reveals that the methods section of text a uses significantly more personal pronouns in theme position than text b, which can be linked to the different points of departure. the theme choice in text a, i and we, are fulfilling almost the whole text, “i grew…”, “i figured…”, “i gathered…”, “i had…”, “we got…”, “we got…” (cl. 1, 2, 4, 5, 13, 19) and so on. these theme choices are all departing from the author’s experience. according to eggins (2004), in face-to-face conversation, our point of departure is to communicate about ourselves or those messages are connecting with us. in academic writing, the theme choice demands the thematization of abstraction, and the interpersonal connection between the author and readers is less emphasized. this explanation not only clarified organizational details about the text, but content selection. this student applied this insight in their final research presentation, presenting their methodology section with their slide highlighting the linear theme pattern they were using in their speech by repeatedly starting each clause with “i.” https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 33 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 another student noted a higher usage of zigzag patterns in the results section of a journal article when compared to the introduction section, which itself included a higher frequency of linear and derivative patterns. this student commented on the different genres of each of the sections within the journal article, thus developing their understanding of language choices related to organization within an academic text. this student highlighted the usefulness of this research: “in particular, it benefits the writing skills for non-native speakers by guiding academic journal article writing.” by identifying the varied use of theme patterns in different genres, students were developing an awareness of cohesive devices other than conjunctions (which are often a focus in eal writing lessons). students began to recognize appropriate moments for the use of repetition, or when other patterns were more suitable. interpersonal although research shows that academic language in science requires careful positioning of claims and evidence and adoption of stance (hyland, 2005), within the limits of a research project or eap course, researchers and teachers tend reasonably to focus on features like nominalization, process types, and themes and theme patterns as having more central importance. indeed, as has been demonstrated above, these are key features in academic scientific writing. however, a significant number of students within our cohort who chose to study language features from the interpersonal metafunction, which deals with the way an author presents opinion and certainty, and constructs relationships with their readers, merits some exploration. whether students chose more easily identifiable features like self-mention or hedging modal verbs, or analyzing more nuanced language choices like attitude markers, the corpus reveals a number of interesting topics and comparisons, which suggests international students may be eager for further instruction on these topics. student discourse analyses that focused on interpersonal positioning drew on two frameworks: interactional resources (hyland, 2005) and appraisal (martin & white, 2005). those focusing on interactional resources chose one or two features and compared across time, disciplines, modes, and audiences. those focusing on hedging and boosting investigated how claims were positioned as certain and reliable, and therefore sometimes challenged students’ expectations that scientific academic writing would display only features of high confidence. interactional resources. a number of studies focused on self-mention, perhaps reflecting students’ curiosity about the common injunction against their own use of self-mention, although it is far from absent in academic discourse, or alternatively simply because they expected it to be easy to analyze methodologically. nonetheless, teasing out which personal pronouns were self-mention (i, my, we, our) and which were engagement markers (we, our, you, your) revealed interesting differences. for example, several students found that public speeches, like ted talks and educational videos, used an inclusive “we” to indicate a shared experience of humanity, and to engage and persuade the audience. by contrast, in articles written for other experts, writers used an exclusive “we” to refer to the research team and claim ownership or responsibility for the actions and conclusions drawn. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 34 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 another study grappled with how these particular interactional resources contributed to interactivity between speaker and audience (in a ted talk) and writer and reader (in journal articles). the student framed this audience awareness explicitly in their introduction, writing: although the role of self-mention and engagement is to enhance the interactivity of the article, the interactive experience the author is hoping to provide for a particular reader might be different. therefore, the research question is: when addressing the academic audience and general public, how do human geographers include themselves with readers and audiences in their language? having identified the significantly higher usage of self-mention and engagement markers in the ted talk than in the journal articles, the student took a further step of identifying what participant roles those instances of self-mention played: the ted talks used a lot of self-mention and engagement markers in order to give the audience a sense of direct interaction and participation; scientists played the role of actors (a type of participants, function: to construe the material world of doing) while conveying their messages. for academic papers, it has a few interactive words, and most of them are sensers (a type of participants, function: to construe and may project the inner world of consciousness). they therefore identified the difference between scientists talking about what they did (as actors) to a general audience and talking about what they think or understand (as sensers) to an academic audience. this revealed quantitative and qualitative differences for the usage and granted the student insight into not only whether to use the first person in their own writing, but also why, when, and how. appraisal. a number of students also chose to analyze evaluative language with the attitude system from appraisal, differentiating positive and negative meanings according to emotion (affect), evaluations of people and their behaviour (judgement), or evaluations of objects and ideas (appreciation). this proved a fruitful avenue of study, with students mostly comparing modes and investigating a broad range of objects of study: dissociative identity disorder, vegetarianism, aerogels, and quantum computing. indeed, o’hallaron et al. (2015) emphasized the usefulness of appraisal for critical awareness of science texts. the students’ choice also represented an awareness of differences present in discourse with different audiences, such as being more emotive in representing a new technology to general audiences in popular science texts and more restrained in a journal article aimed at other experts. for example, in a focus on vegetarianism, a student compared a website of a vegetarian association with an article investigating the nutritional benefits of vegetarianism. during the course, they described the choice of topic (vegetarianism) as one that could have interesting features for interpersonal positioning, which was an aspect of language they felt they needed to improve in their own writing. initially, they anticipated that the discourse around vegetarianism would include judgement of people for following or not following a vegetarian diet, but in fact their findings surprised them. they concluded their project: https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 35 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 this study has investigated the use of different types of attitude adjectives and how they impact the reader in academic and non-academic texts under the same topic. website articles tend to use attitude adjectives in a more personal and interactive way, establishing ideas that contain particular purpose from the author, while journal articles are more objective and have less interaction with the reader. […] the findings can help explain why a source is appropriate or inappropriate to use in academic writings based on its subjectivity and the interactivity. whether or not the students’ analysis was technically accurate, undertaking the research raised the students’ awareness of how language was used in different contexts for different purposes. making the connection back to their own context of study and concluding that this language feature can help them select appropriate academic sources shows a deeper language awareness of how language responds to and creates context. this critical language awareness is ultimately one of the major goals of the course: to prepare students to meet their immediate academic course requirements and further equip them for their ongoing studies. the students’ attention to interpersonal positioning therefore revealed a range of insights into how to negotiate different topics, communicate with different audiences, and achieve different purposes. the fact that a significant number of these eal students chose to focus on interpersonal positioning suggests that this metafunction merits greater focus in eap classes and more broadly in eap research, as argued by thompson (2001) for eap and similarly by o’hallaron et al. (2015) for science. lexical density and grammatical intricacy one key feature of academic language that operates across metafunctions is the characteristics of lexical density (ld) and grammatical intricacy (gi). ld tallies the lexical or content words (as opposed to grammatical or non-content words) as a percentage of the total word count, and gi calculates the average number of clauses per sentence. academic texts are generally characterized by higher ld (a higher percentage of lexical words) and lower gi (fewer clauses per sentence) (eggins, 2004; fang, 2005). while some students used these quantitative calculations to contextualize the use of other language features, one student focused on these features in the introductions of journal articles and textbooks on the same topic. the two main findings of the analysis, higher ld in research articles as compared with textbooks, and higher gi in textbooks than research articles, are associated with the purpose of specific text types and the audiences the texts address: this study has revealed that the degree of lexical density and grammatical intricacy significantly depend on the purpose of different scientific writing genres on the same topic in order to address different audiences. scientific research articles have higher lexical density and lower grammatical intricacy as they normally are aimed towards specialists on specific topics by using more academic language, while textbooks have lower lexical density and higher grammatical intricacy in order to help students understand scientific concepts easily by applying more spoken language. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 36 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 while not a major focus in the corpus, this highlights the benefit of disciplinary analysis of not only academic texts (e.g., journal articles) but also pedagogical texts (e.g., textbooks). students can gain an understanding of how language is adjusted in pedagogical texts to suit an audience and can therefore better interpret that language. student reflection and feedback as part of the research project, students were asked to deliver a presentation on their study and findings. this presentation also required self-reflection on the research process, providing insight into students’ experiences and perceived benefits of completing discourse analysis research. one student highlighted that as a science student they had never considered language to be important, but by completing this project they discovered that “language is really interesting.” another student mentioned that this project helped them better understand the concepts of sfl learned in term 1. other students appreciated the option to choose the science discipline and language feature. another student recognized the challenge of so much reading, but also that they improved their reading skills and became faster and more proficient by the end of the course. this feedback from students reiterated the benefits of exposure to a variety of texts and genres, developing critical language awareness, and the contribution to students’ empowerment. one student applied their reflection analytically, turning their analysis of nominalization frequency in astronomy onto their own writing. during this student’s oral presentation, they compared their own use of nominalizations in their very first draft and the final version of their submitted writing tasks (image 1), reflecting on their own increased usage over time. thus, the student was beginning to notice the language used in their own writing, contributing to their critical awareness of language use and how to use it effectively. all in all, these students’ reflections are positive indicators of the benefit of science students conducting discourse analysis for the purpose of language learning. image 1 powerpoint slide from student’s oral presentation. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 37 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 discussion: empowering students with discourse analysis the comparative discourse analysis research projects described above empowered the students to participate in various communities, to develop knowledge and understanding of language as strategic choices, to recognize opportunities to position themselves as social actors, and ultimately to become apprentice scholars. these knowledge and skills benefited and empowered the eap students in three key ways: students sharpened their critical awareness of language and its functions, developed their ability to analyze texts within and outside academic contexts, and potentially applied this knowledge to their own language use. critical language awareness we argue that the explicit focus on language variation across types of texts and the interpretation of linguistic patterns as authors’ choices promoted students’ development of critical language awareness—a way of actively engaging with a text by interpreting and questioning its production and impact (hasan, 1996; o’hallaron et al., 2015; weninger & kan, 2012). to this end, functional grammar theory and concepts were valuable tools for noticing, researching, analyzing, and interpreting language. mediated by functional grammar, the students learned that language is a powerful meaning-making resource and that authors, even in scientific informational texts, make intentional language choices to meet specific purposes as well as genre and register constraints (halliday & martin, 1993). in this paper, we have shown that analysis of only one linguistic feature (e.g., nominalization) relevant to science discursive communities, or even an aspect of it (e.g., verb-derived nominalization), provided rich ground for analysis and interpretation at this level. for example, students’ close readings and analyses of attitude in the texts demonstrated that the language of science is not devoid of subjectivity and language choices are made purposefully. recognizing language as a choice is empowering as students learn to question and resist texts by evaluating linguistic choices and their purpose and impact (hasan, 1996). science communication occurs in many forms and contexts, which are relevant to university students for their learning, sharing research, and general participation in societies. by comparing linguistic choices across different genres, students were exposed to academic language as a set of linguistic registers (schleppegrell, 2009), rather than a singular academic language, and, thus, were scaffolded towards a nuanced understanding of disciplinary discourses in science. transfer to other contexts the immediate goals of the course were to guide students’ language development to be capable of meeting the demands of subject content courses in science and the genres valued in this context. students who chose to study topics relevant to the content courses, such as computer science topics, thus gained some insight into how these disciplines tend to use language. at the same time, students had the freedom to choose other texts and topics they were interested in but not currently studying, such as biology or human geography. they therefore investigated a variety of academic contexts, potentially preparing them for courses they might choose in their https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 38 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 second year and beyond. in this way, the eap course encouraged them to apply their language awareness to new texts from beyond the immediate context of their first-year program. these research projects introduced students to a large variety of texts, both academic articles and texts for more general audiences. the students read published journal articles as part of their literature review and analyzed them as objects of study. by reading texts valued in the academy, intended for experts rather than apprentice scholars, students were given access to the types of texts which form high stakes reading (macalister, 2008). furthermore, by comparing academic texts with texts for general audiences, such as videos, ted talks and web articles, they learned to apply their critical linguistic awareness more broadly. this exercise prepared the students to extend their discourse analysis skills to professional contexts and analyze, understand, and question any text. consequently, the students were being prepared to operate as scientists and english language users talking to a range of audiences, both specialized and general. by choosing and investigating diverse and multimodal texts, students were empowered to participate more fully in academic and non-academic communities. teaching students discourse analysis therefore empowered students to deconstruct and find patterns in any text, as opposed to simply being taught the organization and discourse patterns of a limited number of genres. benefits to their own language use when conducting comparative discourse analysis, students began to notice language and understand how it is used, rather than just reading for content. by noticing and identifying language in action in a variety of genres and comparing this language use across texts, students developed a better understanding of how language is structured. furthermore, they were capable of recognizing how and why language choices were made in specific genres to achieve specific purposes for particular audiences. the ultimate goal of the course was that the students would be equipped with the skill to transfer this developing knowledge to their own writing and be able to make more informed choices of language functions for their own purposes, both academic and otherwise. whether they achieved this will be the subject of future research. discourse analysis therefore empowered these international multilingual students in a number of ways, by providing another avenue to improve their own academic writing in addition to the explicit instruction of the course. in this way, they were enabled to build knowledge for themselves and potentially transfer language knowledge beyond the context of the eap classroom, into their other topics, future studies, and beyond. conclusion throughout this paper we have demonstrated that students are capable of conducting discourse analysis projects, specifically first-year international science students in a program with embedded academic english courses. through this process of comparative discourse analysis, students were simultaneously being apprenticed into research (both conducting research and writing a research report) and developing their understanding of academic writing and science communication more broadly. this complemented and supported the other science courses students undertook in their first-year program, particularly those with a research focus. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 shoecraft, martin, & perris 39 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 23–41 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 providing opportunities for students to conduct discourse analysis empowered them in numerous ways. recognizing language use as choices according to genre, purpose, and audience supported the development of critical language awareness. by focusing on one specific language feature in particular contexts, they could gain greater awareness of how to use that language feature more effectively in their own writing—a skill which is transferable to both academic and other contexts. in this way, they were developing the tools needed for successful and appropriate science communication which would allow them to participate more fully in their specific disciplinary communities and the science community in general. this discourse analysis focus was possible in part due to its position within a program which provided multiple courses and small classes for students, conditions which enabled extensive scaffolding of both metalanguage and analytical technique. nevertheless, similar projects can be implemented with students in any discipline within higher education and not necessarily limited to international students. english as a first language students also struggle with academic writing and do not necessarily receive (arguably, much needed) explicit instruction on how to write appropriately in academic genres (hyland, 2008). we argue that this type of explicit instruction and discourse analysis is beneficial to all students entering or currently in academic educational contexts, particularly in british columbia. future research will investigate whether engaging in discourse analysis had an effect on students’ writing within the course. references alexander, o., argent, s., & spencer, j. 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(critical) language awareness in business communication. english for specific purposes, 32(2), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2012.09.002 the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.452 https://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/view/509 https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022207072199 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2014.01.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2015.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0889-4906(98)00001-5 https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688206063470 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/22.1.58 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2012.09.002 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ chang, lane, & power 8 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 research paper a preliminary investigation into the effectiveness of online modules for teaching research and writing skills to multilingual international post-secondary students daniel h. chang simon fraser university julia lane simon fraser university hope power simon fraser university abstract this paper describes a pilot project undertaken in 2019 by library instructors at simon fraser university (sfu) to transition from in-person to online research and writing skills instruction within the context of a foundational course for multilingual international students at fraser international college (fic), an international pathway school to sfu. our research and writing skills modules were integrated into a course with academic skill-building opportunities to support students’ successful transition to english-medium university studies. this article reports findings from our mixed-methods study about the effectiveness of these modules. the first semester after we transitioned online, we collected response data from course instructors and students. preliminary findings suggest students benefited from the self-paced and flexible nature of the online learning experience and resources. course instructor feedback suggests a blended learning approach combining in-person and online components might be more effective for developing students’ university-level research and writing skills. our work on the modules was highly collaborative, involving an extraordinary level of commitment from fic and sfu library staff and instructors. our findings suggest further collaboration with more specialists, especially with expertise in the area of english language learning, would produce more effective online resources for multilingual international students developing their research and writing skills. introduction as this paper makes its way to publication in 2023, we are aware that faculty, staff, and students in post-secondary institutions have become all too familiar with transitioning in-person programs and services online, and then often back again, in response to the global covid-19 pandemic. however, this paper describes work undertaken in 2019 at the simon fraser university (sfu) library in british columbia (bc), canada to transition research and writing skills instruction from an in-person model to a fully online model. whereas the widespread transition to online instruction beginning in march 2020 was undertaken as an emergency response intended to help slow the spread of covid-19, our team of library instructors transitioned this aspect of our programming online back in 2019 for far more quotidian reasons. namely, the number of requests we were receiving for research and writing skills workshops to support a foundational, academic skills program offered at fraser international college (fic) was becoming https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 9 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 unmanageable due to our staffing and space constraints. as a result, we needed to work towards developing a more strategic, course-integrated and sustainable approach to library instruction in this area. background sfu is a public research university located in bc with over 30,000 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs. fic is located on the burnaby campus of sfu, and offers classes at both the burnaby and surrey campuses. fic is an academic pathway college for international students in bc, many of whom are also multilingual and english as an additional language (eal) learners. students from all over the world are admitted into fic with a combined letter of offer from sfu, and students who successfully complete one year at fic may directly transfer into the second year at sfu. fic’s program is specifically designed to support international students with the transition to studying in a canadian post-secondary environment, including supporting multilingual students who are actively engaged with eal learning as a part of their transition to canadian post-secondary studies. the fic cornerstone course provides students with foundational, skill-building opportunities as they begin post-secondary studies in canada. this course also includes a particular focus on eal learning. sfu library has a memorandum of understanding (mou) with fic that affords fic students with access to library resources, including some research and writing support services. as a part of this mou, fic instructors are encouraged to coordinate with library instructors (including instructors from the student learning commons, which houses sfu’s equivalent to a writing centre) to support their students’ research and writing skills development. in 2018, library instructors offered 40 in-class research and writing skills development workshops to approximately 900 fic students. at that stage, the three-year trend also indicated that the number of fic cornerstone course sections would likely continue to increase in future (although, it is worth noting that the covid-19 pandemic significantly disrupted this trend). scheduling these workshops was complex as it involved ensuring that all of the following were available during the requested class time: • the library’s one instructional computer lab that was large enough for the classes; • an instructor from the library’s learning and instruction (l&i) division; • an instructor from the library’s student learning commons division. in addition to being concerned about the sustainability of offering these in-class workshops from an administrative perspective, we also had pedagogical concerns. these workshops were scheduled as two back-to-back, one-hour sessions: a research focused session followed by a writing focused session. these back-to-back sessions were content heavy. as a result, library instructors often felt time pressures when covering the workshop content and activities. the intensive pace of these research and writing skills development sessions also seemed pedagogically unsupportive for multilingual students who were actively engaged in english language learning. the integration of these research and writing skills development workshops into the fic cornerstone course fits within an approach to instruction that is known across the library https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 10 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 profession as “one-shot” instruction. in september 2022, the college and research libraries journal (c&rl) published a special issue focused on one-shot instruction. according to cook’s (2022) meta-analytic study on the effectiveness of library one-shot instruction published in that issue, this is “the most pervasive method of providing information literacy instruction” in academic libraries (p.739). cook further explained that “the category of the ‘one-shot’ includes a diverse range of pedagogical approaches, goals, and outcome measures, all bound together by the common qualities of being a single standalone, time-limited (often 45or 60-minute, though may be as short as 15 minutes) session” (p.740). in the introduction to the c&rl special issue on one-shot instruction, pagowsky (2022) wrote, i am not claiming that one-shots are entirely problematic all of the time. however, this deep-seated, and perhaps innate at this point, instruction model does need to be problematized for us to even have the option to break free. we can do this through the lens of critique as care, meaning we critique because we care and hope for better. (p.714) as part of the critique as care offered in that special issue, cook’s (2022) meta-analysis on the effectiveness of one-shot instruction suggested “that one-shots that are targeted at specific skills to be measured on a test are more likely to have an effect than those that ask students to perform authentic tasks” (p.746). relevant to the content of our instructional support, lemire et al. (2023) argued that “separating library instruction from the teaching of writing skills creates the perception of a false division between library research and writing, as though they are discrete processes. research and writing, however, are intertwined and recursive; they are inherently linked” (p. 293). our instruction in the fic cornerstone course was intended to support students to complete their final course assessment, which was to write a compare-andcontrast essay drawing on sources they found through library research—an authentic task goal. furthermore, we were attempting to support the students with both their research and writing tasks for the assignment, and to avoid reinforcing a false divide between these skills. we were therefore motivated to take a different approach to our library instruction for this course because of the intersection between increasing demand and concern about the effectiveness of our instruction to genuinely support students with their research and writing tasks. as we wrote in our initial funding proposal to support the project: it is difficult to staff, schedule, and book rooms for all requested classes. instructors are challenged to fit all requested content into the available course sessions and times. students experience information overload and struggle to find time to reflect on or practice strategies covered in the classroom. (goldrick-jones et al., 2018, p.1) as a result of these intersecting concerns, in 2018 we secured financial support from sfu’s administration to develop a series of online, interconnected research and writing skills modules (hereinafter, “the modules”) for fic cornerstone within canvas, sfu’s learning management system (lms). project overview we hired a graduate writing facilitator and a reference librarian to support us with the work of developing these modules, which were focused on introducing and elaborating on the content https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 11 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 from our past in-class research and writing workshop presentations. in developing these modules, we worked closely together to ensure we were taking a coordinated and integrated approach to teaching these skills and concepts so that we could effectively present research and writing skills as “iterative and recursive processes that inform each other” (lemire et al., 2023, p. 307). another intended benefit for students in transitioning to these online learning modules was that they could be used throughout the entire semester of study in their course, and provide more accessible, point-of-need learning support in comparison to the one-shot sessions we had previously delivered. through this online and asynchronous approach, students could revisit the resources at their own pace as their learning progressed through the course and as they took up the work required by their course assignments (munn & small, 2017). we intentionally created the modules to leverage the strengths of online, asynchronous learning supports. namely, they were designed to encourage students to interact with, reflect on, practice, and repeat research and writing exercises at various points in their assignment preparation when developing and applying those skills would be most relevant and helpful. screenshots of the modules are provided below to help the readers visualize what we are discussing (see figures 1–4 below). the modules represented a significant departure from the way we had previously provided instructional support for fic cornerstone. although sfu and fic use different learning management systems—canvas at sfu and moodle at fic, the modules were built in canvas because this was the platform that we, as library instructors, had direct access to work within. in addition to building the modules, we wanted to ensure that the course instructors were supported to engage effectively with the modules. we recognized that both the (potentially) unfamiliar platform and this change in approach to library instruction would heighten the need for course instructor support. once the content of the modules was complete, we set up an instructor-only sandbox course. we also attended an fic instructor professional development day to present the modules and discuss opportunities for integrating them into the existing fic cornerstone curriculum. figure 1 module thumbnail in canvas dashboard https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 12 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 figure 2 overview of all of the research and writing modules work to develop the modules and introduce them to the course instructors took place over the spring and summer terms in 2019, and we did an initial pilot of the modules in two sections of the fic cornerstone course in fall 2019. we did a full-scale pilot of the modules in spring 2020, integrating the modules into all sections of fic cornerstone that term. it was during this full-scale pilot that we conducted the research that informs this article. of course, it was also during the spring 2020 semester that emergency work from home orders were received by many around the world in response to covid-19. these orders impacted both sfu and fic, with many international students returning to their home countries before the end of the spring 2020 term. while the modules provided some instructional continuity and stability in the context of these emergency orders (since they were already available for remote, asynchronous access), these orders undoubtedly impacted our research for this project, including the student response rate for our survey. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 13 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 figure 3 content in the introductory module figure 4 content in the final combined research and writing module literature review the development of information literacy and writing skills is a continuing and iterative process that involves a range of abilities and knowledge practices on a spectrum, from basic and practical skills to advanced intellectual cognitive functioning (secker & coonan, 2011). library instructors can play a vital role in supporting students with building their research and academic https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 14 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 writing skills, and we are grateful when course instructors recognize our expertise in these areas and seek to collaborate with us in this area (chao et al., 2010; xu & morris, 2007). collaborations may involve library instructors being “embedded into disciplinary courses where they teach multiple one-shots, co-design assignments and assessments, and provide instructors with activities and train-the-trainer workshops. these strategies can be effective ways to increase information literacy learning beyond the scope of a one-shot” (lemire et al., 2023, p. 296). in this study, our emphasis on the use of learning modules is not intended to replace other kinds of innovative and productive collaborations between course and library instructors, but rather to see what is possible when we bring these into an online, asynchronous mode. many post-secondary institutions have been exploring the possibilities offered by online learning modalities for years. these modalities include both fully asynchronous and blended approaches that integrate online and in-person learning components. these online options have the potential to increase accessibility, accommodate greater flexibility, and recognize the familiarity that many students already have with online search tools and resources. online materials can also be especially useful for students who are studying in a language that they are actively engaged in learning. this usefulness is because multilingual students, including those who have eal, may strategically seek out online tools that can help them with translating asynchronous course content into another language as they study, and they can also work through this content in a self-paced way without the time pressures of in-person learning. in these ways, online learning modes can offer a strengths-based approach to developing information and academic literacy. for the purposes of this paper, we define academic literacy as a set of interconnected skills and abilities that students require to be successful in their post-secondary coursework (gunn et al., 2011; sutton, 2011). these are skills that are not discipline or course-specific, though there are also discipline and course-specific academic literacies. our project focused on supporting students to develop their writing and information literacy skills as core competencies of academic literacy. information literacy is an important component of academic literacy, and is defined as “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (framework for information literacy, 2015). in practice, information literacy instruction is often focused on developing strategies and skills for strategically finding, critically evaluating, and effectively using research resources for a range of course assignments. to our best knowledge, to date, little study has been conducted on the online delivery of information and academic literacy instruction for multilingual international students. we are aware that some canadian scholars have developed a nation-wide survey aiming to measure the effectiveness of library information literacy instruction in canadian higher education (julien, 2005). but, as trescases (2008) wrote, “these studies focused on information literacy instruction in general and not on instruction aimed primarily at first-year students” (p. 303), or, in our case, multilingual students seeking to transition from an international college into university. research focused on the effectiveness of online academic literacy instruction is an increasingly essential area of study since the covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for adaptable and easily accessible ways of learning and seeking academic assistance. understanding the potentials of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 15 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 online academic literacy support and instruction delivered to multilingual international students can help to shape effective practices for the development of successful online library instruction. it is also rare in the existing literature to hear directly from students and classroom instructors about the ways they actually use online support modules or about their own assessments of the value of such online learning tools. we believe that discussing evidence from students and course instructors creates a more complete picture of the effectiveness of online academic literacy supports. the study research questions and methods our assessment of the modules has focused on the following areas: 1. students’ perspectives on the value, efficacy, and usefulness of the research and writing modules, especially for completing core course requirements. 2. instructors’ perspectives on the value, efficacy, and usefulness of the research and writing modules, especially for supporting their core curriculum expectations. 3. challenges that students and instructors encountered when using the research and writing modules, especially compared to the in-person research and writing instruction previously offered by the library. we received an assessment grant from the sfu library to support our research into the impact of the modules. this assessment grant funded us to hire a research assistant who helped us to design and conduct a research process. the core of this process was distributing two surveys, one to fic cornerstone instructors and the other to students in the course. both surveys were administered using the sfu-supported version of surveymonkey. we distributed these surveys at the end of the spring 2020 term, after the students had completed their final compareand-contrast essay, which the modules were designed to support them to research and write. the instructor survey contained several logically connected open-ended questions. the student survey contained fifty-one questions including a combination of yes/no, likert-scale, and openended questions. to guide the development of our survey instrument for students, we examined relevant research articles about the effectiveness of online library and writing centre instruction. we developed the student survey based on kirkpatrick (1996) and tham and werner’s (2005) recommendations for survey constructs, such as perception, content learning, and behaviour, with some open-ended questions that elicited written feedback at the end of the survey. the course instructors were our close partners in the development and delivery of the research and writing modules, and so our questions for them targeted: • how they used the online modules in their classes, • the challenges they faced supporting their students to engage with the modules, • the merits they thought the online modules had, and • their suggestions for future improvement of the modules. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 16 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 invitations for filling out the survey were sent out to the students enrolled in seven cornerstone classes. we had thirty-five (n=35) student respondents. these students indicated the following languages spoken at home: chinese, korean, and portuguese. six course instructors (n=6) responded to the instructor survey. they were all experienced teachers specializing in developing multilingual international students’ academic literacy. data analysis the student survey consisted of 52 items, 36 of which were binary (yes/no) questions pertaining to components of the modules. the next nine questions were likert scale questions in which students were asked to select their level of agreement with statements reflecting their perceptions of the modules. to prevent acquiescence bias (krosnick, 1999), there was no neutral choice presented. the next seven questions inquired about students’ suggestions for the modules, their demographic information, their stage of completeness at fic, and their linguistic backgrounds. for the purposes of this article, we focused our analysis on one yes/no question asking about the students’ general experience with the online modules: whether the modules helped them with their final essay. we also analyzed the likert scale items (nine questions in total) and determined the response rate for each scale (agree, kind of agree, kind of disagree, and disagree) among the 35 respondents. we extracted the three open-ended questions and analyzed them thematically. the bullet points below show the details of the three open-ended questions: • what’s one thing you learned in the online modules that you think will stay with you? • what’s one question that you still have about the research and/or writing process? • what suggestion would you give us to improve the online modules (e.g., what functions do you want?) for the instructor survey, six instructors answered 18 open-ended questions on their pedagogical use of the modules, their experiences with the modules, and suggestions for improvement. our approach to data collection and analysis drew on grounded theory approaches (cohen & manion, 1994; martin & turner, 1986). we analyzed and categorized the instructors’ responses based on the codes developed, hoping to seek some guiding principles for online instruction from the data we collected. initially, we analyzed all instructor responses and identified common themes. the instructors’ responses were then extracted and categorized according to the established themes. the project team had two meetings to discuss the categories, obtain consensus, and, where required, modify the categorization. findings student survey students generally agreed that the online modules helped them to develop their research and writing skills for their final essay (yes = 86%; no = 14%). specifically, as can be seen in table 1 below, students agreed that after working through the online modules, their summarizing skills had been improved (71%), they learned helpful strategies for writing their essays (61%), and they applied what they had learned while writing their final essays (71%). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 17 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 table 1 student survey descriptive results questions/scale agree kind of agree kind of disagree disagree q37* after working through the writing module on summary writing, i feel that my summarization skill has been improved 71% 12% 9% 9% q38 after working through the research module, i am more confident in conducting research 50% 27% 12% 12% q39 after working through the research module on evaluating sources, i learned some good strategies for identifying trustworthy sources for my research 50% 29% 15% 6% q40 after working through the writing module on essay paragraphs, i learned some good strategies for writing my essays 61% 12% 18% 9% q41 after working through the writing module on thesis & outline building, i am more confident in brainstorming ideas for my essays 56% 27% 3% 15% q42 after working through the research module, i can describe ways to identify scholarly and popular sources 47% 32% 9% 12% q43 i know how to get help from the library when i need it. 56% 27% 12% 6% q44 at the end of the semester, i feel that the online modules supported my independent learning 59% 24% 12% 6% q45 i used what i learned from the online canvas modules when researching and writing my final essay for fic efc 71% 18% 6% 6% *questions in the table start at 37 because question 1 to question 36 are yes/no questions; only results of one of the yes/no questions is reported here as it is the most relevant to this article. based on their written responses, we can also report that students felt that after using the modules, their apa citation skills had improved and that these skills would likely be retained after the course (student 4, student 15, student 26). some of the students indicated that they would like to see more interactive features included in the online modules (student 21, student 23, student 34). some of the students appreciated that the online modules were easily accessible at any time (student 5). however, other students reported that they experienced technical difficulties when using the modules (student 5) as they were hosted on a different lms than the one primarily used and supported by the college. instructor survey three common themes that emerged from the instructor survey included “how modules were used,” “benefits of using the modules,” and “challenges.” subthemes were further developed as shown in the table 2 below. complete data are included in appendix 2. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 18 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 table 2 instructor survey themes subthemes example excerpts how were modules used in class? • homework • extra practice • i had students do many of the modules as homework in preparation for research. students were more able to identify academic sources. they understood how to evaluate credibility better. (instructor 1) • the students used the module as both review and practice and as assignments to do before the lectures. (instructor 4) benefits of using the modules • research skill improvement • writing skill improvement • self-pacing advantage • others (specific modules that are helpful) • many of the students were able to distinguish the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing their sources within their research papers and properly use i.c.e. in their paragraphs. (instructor 2) • a good chunk of the class was able to use ice in their writing in a way that made sense connected to their topic in a meaningful way. (instructor 5) • they were able to check the information and examples as many times as they wanted on a screen—they seem to be more motivated by onscreen info. the information is quite dense and some students had issues finding their way around. (instructor 6) • paragraph and essay writing had to be the best ones. lots of great examples even though they were difficult topics. i loved the brainstorming/thesis building module. there were videos i believe on the steps needed to take to come up with a thesis. (instructor 5) challenges • research skills • writing skills • content level • student language level • pedagogical • technical • many still had problems with using apa to properly cite their sources (in-text citation and references) and struggled with patchwork writing despite class practice and usage of canvas on avoiding plagiarism and patchwork writing. there was also a confusion with weaving contents from their research versus using their own input. some ended up not using any research sources within parts of their paper to properly support a point while others made a mistake of using too many facts from their sources (one after another) without explaining the significance of their ideas properly to the reader. (instructor 2) • some examples and exercises were still at a too high level of challenge for some students. (instructor 4) • the information is quite dense and some students had issues finding their way around. students benefited from the types of sources and evaluating sources bit. it is clearly highlighted and it saved them tons of time and saved me tons of explaining! i cannot say they are less effective. i find the course is already overloaded with info and to be honest, we could not cover a lot of things. one of the main issues is the amount of information in some of the modules. (instructor 6) • i did not use the part on the “independent paragraphs” within the writing module section because the information was not really relevant to what was covered in class with my own materials on writing paragraphs, especially with the samples of “video game addictions” and the post quiz related to forest fires did not use the same structure, transitions, cause and effect phrases, and topic/concluding sentences format taught in class. (instructor 2) recommendations • improving language • adding content • blended modules • i would love to have both the online components and the in-person training to help students prepare for research to help them navigate the sfu library portal and how to access information. (instructor 1) • we are teaching the basic essay structure, so would you mind changing the 1–2 sentence thesis explanation to a complex one-sentence thesis in your description? (instructor 3) • they [the students] would benefit from more paraphrasing exercises and from evaluating source exercises—easier examples helpful … some examples and exercises were still at a too high level of challenge for some students … both formats of workshops [in person and online] were helpful and appreciated. if we could have more videos and audios it might help with engagement and confidence levels of students. (instructor 4) • i’d like to keep the online library modules, but i’d really like the opportunity for students to still go to the computer labs at sfu and have the library staff there help them with their initial researching. (instructor 5) discussion based on the students’ and instructors’ survey responses, we have found that there are merits to using online modules for research and writing instruction, especially for multilingual international students enrolled in an academic preparation program. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 19 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 the majority of student respondents indicated that they returned to the modules when they were completing their assignments for their course (q45: 71% agree; 18% kind of agree; 12% kind of disagree/disagree). this finding confirmed the original intention of the project—that is developing students’ research and writing skills through the opportunities to view the modules when they were most relevant to their coursework and return to them multiple times if content needed to be reviewed. consistent with previous research findings (e.g., zhang et al., 2015 ), the present project reveals that students seem to benefit from the repeatability of online modules. the content of the modules seems to have supported students with developing both declarative and procedural knowledge of academic writing and information literacy (myhill & jones, 2015; penner et al., 2022). in particular, the online modules can help students develop criteria and guidelines for conducting research for their final essay assignment, including how to select keywords to search with, critically evaluate resources, select appropriate citation styles for specific genres or disciplines, and understand the importance of citing other scholars’ work when paraphrasing (yahia & egbert, 2023). in addition, the online modules can also help these students develop the procedural skills needed to cite the sources, such as using a reference management software or formatting the citation manually. repeatedly accessing the online modules might reinforce the acquisition of these students’ research and writing skills and make them more likely to transfer what they have learned in the online modules to the completion of their class assignments (amiryousefi, 2016). it might also further develop their confidence for engaging in scholarly research and writing activities (kim, et al., 2015). when student writers navigate content in the online space, their self-organizing and self-regulatory systems allow them to take in given information, process the information, and create new information internalized as part of their declarative and procedural knowledge (myhill & jones, 2015). online modules provide an accessible environment that repeatedly reinforces students’ academic literacy skills as they complete their assigned coursework. the self-paced nature of the online modules and the flexibility of pedagogical ways to incorporate them into the existing course curriculum also stood out as benefits. from the perspective of self-regulated learning theory (panadero, 2017), the modules engage student agency and empower their conscious decisions vis-à-vis their own learning. online modules allow multilingual students to assess their own learning and decide on pathways to further their learning (penner et al., 2022). the students’ overall positive perceptions of the online modules suggest that library instructors should consider developing additional online support materials to increase the accessibility, repeatability, and flexibility of instruction. some of the course instructors’ written responses pointed to potential benefits of integrating both in-person and online instruction. as suggested by walton and hepworth (2013), students may benefit from a blended approach to academic literacy instruction, with more foundational materials presented online (for ease of access and repeatability) and more complex materials presented in-person. having said that, the terms blended and hybrid have been somewhat contested and evolving in recent years. at sfu, the centre for educational excellence (cee) has defined blended learning as a type of course where some of the face-to-face classroom sessions are substituted with self-paced online activities (garrison & vaughan, 2008; martínezcaro & campuzano-bolarín, 2011). the modules in this project were originally designed to replace the in-person instruction provided by the library. however, the findings from our https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 20 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 research suggest that we may need to consider a more hybrid approach to this instruction and its incorporation into classes—with some content offered through online modules and other content addressed through in-person activities. the course coordinator for fic cnst captured this desire for a hybrid approach well by explaining that one of the benefits of the in-person workshops that was not replicated with the online modules was the sense that students had of being “part” of the university because the workshops took place in the sfu library computer lab and involved interaction with librarians and slc staff members. walton and hepworth’s (2013) study investigated the use of such an approach, and their findings have indicated that the students who participated in blended information literacy learning outperformed those who received either in-person or online-only instruction. in this study, the blended approach involved face-to-face instruction followed three weeks later by an online component. this finding points to an important pedagogical implication. first, timing of spaced interventions blending two delivery modes might enhance the effectiveness of information literacy and academic writing instruction. from the information processing perspective, skills and knowledge gained by students might be lost if intervention only occurs once. multiple or mixed offerings of academic literacy sessions might reinforce or strengthen their acquisition of key research and writing skills. this finding is unsurprising, as it stands to reason that students benefit from multiple opportunities to engage with content, including in different formats and modes. that being said, this finding presents a challenge for one of our initial reasons for undertaking this research: the challenge of meeting increasing demand for workshops. offering both online and in-person supports for each course increases the workload on library instructors. as such, libraries need to consider these findings and determine if they can provide sufficient resources for a blended learning approach to instruction if this is, indeed, the most pedagogically sound approach. future research will also need to focus on determining which learning goals and skillsets are best addressed online and which are best addressed inperson, as also discussed in walton and hepworth (2013). the course instructors’ feedback also recommended several ways to improve the online research and writing modules, such as adapting the language level in the modules, particularly the writing modules (instructor 3); including more interactive video and audio content (instructor 4); incorporating easier examples for exercises (instructor 4); and offering a blended model of instruction including both in-person sessions and online modules for students in future semesters (instructor 4; instructor 5). in follow up correspondence, the fic cnst coordinator emphasized that one of the strengths of the modules is that students and instructors alike appreciated that the modules were created specifically for them. he elaborated that we could further build on this strength by ensuring that content is tailored toward students’ interests (e.g., nutrition and relationship wellness) could help to support engagement. evidence from cognitive psychology and multimedia learning suggests that increasing the content relevance and interactivity of the modules, including by incorporating more audio and video content, might indeed impact students’ retention of the materials, their attention, and their focus (geri et al., 2017). further, it suggests that details, such as the length of the videos, be taken into consideration to maximize their impact (geri et al., 2017). it is also possible that easier examples for exercises might impact these multilingual students’ self-efficacy (williams & takaku, 2011). while improving selfefficacy could potentially give them the false impression that they had learned the skills in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 21 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 question, it could also provide increased motivation to continue learning and practicing those skills. the instructors reiterated several times the concern that the language used in the modules was too advanced for their students’ english proficiency levels (teacher 4), and that there were inconsistencies between the online modules and their course textbooks (teacher 6). teacher 4 and teacher 6’s concerns shed light on the consistencies of composition language (or terminologies) used for instructions and the need for even closer collaboration in the development of course-integrated academic literacy materials. it is worth noting, however, that instructors shared similar concerns about the use of language with in-person library instruction as well, indicating that the research and writing workshops were often not at the right level and, further, that workshop instructors spoke too quickly for students to follow. determining the appropriate level of language and content, therefore, appears to be an important issue to address for library instruction, regardless of the mode of delivery. according to a systematic review carried out by munn and small (2017), embedded models of instruction are the most effective approach for teaching information literacy and academic writing skills. in their words, the embedded model “moves the development of information literacy and academic skills into the mainstream unit curriculum” (p. 59) in contrast to the one-shot approach in which information literacy “resources, modules, or workshops are offered outside of timetabled unit sessions, either lectures or tutorials” (p. 59). their findings point to the need to bring course instructors, research and writing support specialists, and instructional designers together when developing curricular content such as these modules. in this way, support modules can become fully embedded into the academic literacy curriculum for multilingual students (munn & small, 2017). additionally, in classroom practice, teachers adjust their level of vocabulary in teaching to accommodate multilingual students’ level of understanding. for example, in a lower-level english for academic purposes (eap) class, a thesis statement might be called the main idea, an argument might be called a claim, and supporting evidence might be called supporting ideas. theoretically speaking, presenting materials slightly above students’ level (i+1) might facilitate acquisition of language learning (krashen, 1992), yet the application of this theoretical i+1 idea has not been clearly documented in the research literature or classroom practice, especially in writing pedagogy or information literacy (payne, 2011). therefore, effectively embedding instructional supports into a classroom requires consistent use of language and terminology which is best accomplished through even more direct collaboration between course and library instructors. where our modules were largely created by library instructors for use by fic course instructors, more sustained and intentional collaboration between both sets of instructors would undoubtedly result in more effective modules. however, as the course instructors’ comments also note, this collaboration can be challenging because they are already hard-pressed to cover everything in their content-heavy classes. in our project, we were also concerned that contract instructors might end up having to do substantial unpaid labour if we asked them to collaborate even more intensively on the modules. as it was, many fic and sfu library staff members and instructors took on additional responsibilities to create and implement these modules. without this level of commitment, it is doubtful that we could have completed this project. however, after we received this feedback from the course instructors, we sought out further support by https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 22 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 consulting with educational designers from sfu’s centre for educational excellence (cee) who specialize in eal supports. they provided valuable feedback on the language used in the modules and suggested that future iterations more intentionally reflect the admission requirements expected of students at fic. one practical way they suggested to gauge these expectations was to examine the can do statements included on admission gatekeeping tests like tofel or ielts and ensure that the language used in the modules was in step with the relevant admission levels. next steps we were encouraged to see the overall positive responses we received from students who experienced the modules. however, we are also aware of the socially desirable responding effect (paulhus, 1984). some students may have felt pressure to tell us what we wanted to hear by responding that they found the modules useful and that they had made use of what they learned when researching and writing their final essays. we also note the discrepancies between the students’ self-reported learning and their instructors’ perceptions. around 50% of the students surveyed indicated that they were more capable of conducting research, finding trustworthy sources, and identifying scholarly and popular sources. an even higher percentage (60–70%) of students felt that their summary and essay writing skills had improved through what they learned in the modules. while these findings suggest that the modules were effective as part of building these students’ self-efficacy, they are not necessarily reflected in the instructors’ views of their students’ progress. for instance, the instructors consistently indicated that they felt the level of the modules was too high for their students (a concern that no students themselves raised) and told us that even at the end of the term, the students’ work demonstrated ongoing challenges, especially with citing and paraphrasing their sources. these discrepancies suggest to us that more research into the impact of these modules—including, ideally, longitudinal studies to examine the students’ ongoing skills development—would be beneficial. the urgency that we originally felt to develop these online modules has largely dissipated since the broader move to emergency remote teaching due to covid-19 and especially since the fic cornerstone course has been slow to recover its enrolments. since our pilot in 2020, however, we have worked to transition the modules from canvas into moodle, to further integrate them into the class curriculum. this transition of lms platforms was challenging and has unfortunately slowed the uptake of the modules. we therefore have work to do to improve the instructor and student experiences of working with the content in moodle. we are also continuing to consider options for adjusting the language levels and types of examples and exercises provided in the modules. however, with lower enrolment, there are also fewer fic cornerstone instructors and so collaboration with those who are directly in the classroom has continued to be a practical challenge. we have continued to work on adjusting the content and language level in the modules, both in the fic cornerstone versions and in more generic version of the modules (which we call research essay essentials) that we have adapted as an open educational resource (oer) for sfu students. we continue to be interested in how we might effectively blend in-person and online components of research and writing skills instruction. we also continue to be interested in considering which content benefits from self-paced, easily repeated asynchronous online https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 23 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 delivery and which content may benefit from synchronous in-person delivery. if we can demonstrate that the blended approach makes a significant and positive impact on students’ and instructors’ experiences of our academic literacy support, it will provide additional data to support the use of online, flexible, and course-integrated alternatives to the more traditional, oneshot model of library instruction. in addition, we will continue to seek and build on instructional collaborations, both within and beyond the library, to advance the integration of information literacy and writing skills development across the undergraduate curriculum. acknowledgement we would like to thank all the fic staff, instructors, and students who contributed to and collaborated on this study. we are also grateful to kate elliott (graduate writing facilitator) and melissa smith (reference librarian) for their excellent work on the research and writing modules. finally, we would like to thank the two reviewers and the editors for their feedback on this article. the creation of the research and writing skills modules was funded by sfu’s vp academic office. research into the effectiveness of the modules was funded by an sfu library assessment grant. references amiryousefi, m. 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(2011). a new curriculum for information literacy. http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/ancil_final.pdf https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 https://doi.org/10.29173/cais290 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.01.016 http://hdl.handle.net/10822/555484 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.50.1.537 https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2023.0011 https://doi.org/10.1177/002188638602200207 https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2011.619647 https://doi.org/10.18438/b8qs9m https://doi.org/10.1080/11356405.2015.1089387 https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.7.05nit https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.83.5.713 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00422 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.46.3.598 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2011.07.002 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.469 http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/ancil_final.pdf chang, lane, & power 25 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 sutton, p. 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(2015). integrating library instruction into the course management system for a first-year engineering class: an evidence-based study measuring the effectiveness of blended learning on students’ information literacy levels. college & research libraries, 76(7), 934–958. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.7.934 appendix 1 instructor survey 1. describe how you integrated the modules into your course. (e.g. at what point(s) in your lessons did you refer students to the canvas modules?) 2. as an instructor, describe an improvement that you noticed in the students’ research and writing skills, as reflected in their final assignments 3. based on what you saw in your students’ final assignments, what aspects of research and writing do you think your students still need more support with? 4. describe a specific situation where you and/or your students found the modules helpful. 5. if any, describe a specific situation where the modules were not helpful for your students. 6. tell us what module(s) you found the most effective. 7. tell us what modules you found the least effective. 8. when you worked with the online modules, what challenges did you encounter? (e.g. technical challenges or pedagogical challenges) 9. can you please tell us why you did not integrate the modules into your class? 10. what changes to the online modules would you recommend, so that you will consider using the online modules in your future classes? https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2011.040204 https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190501100203 https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320810895387 https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/6310/ https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000611434999 https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2011.03.01.1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-006-9033-5 https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2023.14.03.01 https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2023.14.03.01 https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.7.934 chang, lane, & power 26 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 11. even if you did not integrate the modules directly into your classes, did you find other ways to make use of the module content? (e.g., using examples from the modules, using the quizzes, providing them to students as optional support materials)? 12. have you previously requested in person research and/or writing workshops from the pu library? 13. if relevant, what benefits did you observe the students receive when they participated in inperson workshops? 14. if relevant, what were the challenges when students participated in in-person research and writing workshops? 15. if relevant, what benefits did you observe when the students used the online modules? (if you did not use the modules, please feel free to skip) 16. if relevant, what were the challenges when students used the online modules? (if you did not use the modules, please feel free to skip) 17. overall, which method of delivery did your students find more engaging? 18. do you have any additional feedback for us to help us improve our instructional services? appendix 2 instructor responses teacher 1: use online modules as homework; students struggle with apa i had students do many of the modules as homework in preparation for research. students were more able to identify academic sources. they understood how to evaluate credibility better. we found the models on research and accessing sfu useful. some aspects of paragraph writing i did not agree with. sometimes students had difficulty logging on. i would love to have both the online components and the in-person training to help students prepare for research to help them navigate the sfu library portal and how to access information. teacher 2: technical problems; students continue to struggle with analytical skills; struggle with research skills; content level challenges. mostly [integrated] with summary writing, paraphrasing, research (finding sources, getting started, evaluating sources), writing an outline and thesis for final essays, writing cause/effect essays (paragraph structures/using i.c.e., citation, avoiding patchwork, apa usages etc.). many of the students were able to distinguish the difference between quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing their sources within their research papers and properly use i.c.e. in their paragraphs. many still had problems with using apa to properly cite their sources (in-text citation and references) and struggled with patchwork writing despite class practice and usage of canvas on avoiding plagiarism and patchwork writing. there was also a confusion with weaving contents from their research versus using their own input. some ended up not using any research sources within parts of their paper to properly support a point while others made a mistake of using too many facts from their sources (one after another) without explaining the significance of their ideas properly to the reader. "getting started" (concept maps, background information) "finding sources" (keywords, library search), "evaluating sources" (different information sources, reliability and credibility, scholarly vs. popular sources). we focused on these various modules during class time when it came to looking at the library website to properly locate sources; knowing how (using keywords), where to find sources as well as saving https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 27 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 the links (by pinning or emailing them) or downloading the pdf files or knowing the 5w to properly locate the information on the sources were particularly useful. i did not use the part on the "independent paragraphs" within the writing module section because the information was not really relevant to what was covered in class with my own materials on writing paragraphs, especially with the samples of "video game addictions" and the post quiz related to forest fires did not use the same structure, transitions, cause and effect phrases and topic/concluding sentences format taught in class. writing module on paraphrasing/summary writing and research modules (all of them)/combined research and writing module [were most effective]; writing module: independent paragraphs [were least effective. [there were] some technical challenges e.g. students were not able to join or access canvas at times.] teacher 3:use as supplementary materials; adapting and changing the language level students were asked to read/review sections pertaining to the material covered in class ( from paragraph to essay/research) and we worked with their knowledge on class assignments. [paraphrasing] is something that will change only if students come in with higher level of english vocabulary knowledge. at this time, their english is not at the level to paraphrase with confidence. examples of academic writing and research modules [are useful and effective for students]. we are teaching the basic essay structure, so would you mind changing the 1-2 sentence thesis explanation to a complex one-sentence thesis in your description? teacher 4: use online modules as supplementary materials and extra practice in class; concern about the language level of the online modules; include more interactive videos; offering blended models; easier examples. the students used the module as both review and practice and as assignments to do before the lectures. i did notice an improvement among students who were motivated. they clearly gained more understanding of the skills in the module, but weaker students avoided doing the module readings and assignments as they found it difficult. they would benefit from more paraphrasing exercises and from evaluating source exercises--easier examples helpful. it had some good introductions to the writing process and also a good intro to using the library. [however,] some examples and exercises were still at a too high level of challenge for some students. the paragraph writing and the citing sources [are most effective for students]. students struggled with the paraphrasing and selecting sources at the right level. they choose articles that were far too advanced for their actual reading capability. i had several students who could never access canvas even with sfu it help. both formats of workshops [in person and online] were helpful and appreciated. if we could have more videos and audios it might help with engagement and confidence levels of students. teacher 5: improvement in student essays; offering blended model particularly for research, paragraph and essay writing. i assigned modules that corresponded to each topic prior to studying them or after we studied each topic to further solidify their knowledge. their ability to paraphrase academic material was much better than other semesters. also, their ability to use apa was significantly better. such an improvement! students definitely need more help with ice. it was a difficult concept for them to grasp and so much more practice is still needed for them to really get it. however, a good chunk of the class was able to use ice in their writing in a way that made sense connected to their topic in a meaningful way. since we didn't do the library modules in class, i don't know which ones the students found to be more https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 chang, lane, & power 28 bc teal journal volume 8 number 1 (2023): 8–28 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 helpful than others. paragraph and essay writing had to be the best ones. lots of great examples even though they were difficult topics. i loved the brainstorming/thesis building module. there were videos i believe on the steps needed to take to come up with a thesis. however, i found that since students were not doing an argumentative essay, some of this would have been confusing for them. intg 100 (the class following cnst) does an argumentative essay so this would've been super helpful for that class. pedagogical challenges as some of the techniques just didn't match with what i was teaching the class. i didn't want to confuse them further by teaching the students the modules in class, so the modules were used more as extra practice outside class time. overall, i'd like to keep the online library modules, but i'd really like the opportunity for students to still go to the computer labs at sfu and have the library staff there help them with their initial researching. teacher 6: use as supplementary (before class); overloaded information; self-pacing advantage; challenges with apa and understanding information or integrating information in writing. it was pre-class most of the times eg. they read about paragraph structure and we had a quick quiz at the beg. of the lessonother times i used the materials during classespecially to analyze examples on the board (we noted on examples on the board while projecting the material). a small percentage had fewer problems using apa. they have a very hard time making sense of the information the find. say they have a relevant point for the topic of their paragraph. they use it. they add something else also relevant, but they cannot add their interpretation of what the information meanswhat are the implications-. most of them have never experienced this kind of writing assignments. not sure we need to push them to interpret as of yet. they were able to check the information and examples as many times as they wanted on a screen they seem to be more motivated by onscreen info. the information is quite dense and some students had issues finding their way around. students benefited from the types of sources and evaluating sources bit. it is clearly highlighted and it saved them tons of time and saved me tons of explaining! i cannot say they are less effective. i find the course is already overloaded with info and to be honest, we could not cover a lot of things. one of the main issues is the amount of information in some of the modules. also, the fact that you have to jump from one page to the next one to do the exercises. wondering if some of these can be done side to side. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v8i1.499 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ corcoran, williams, & johnston 55 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 research paper english for academic purposes in canada: results from an exploratory national survey james n. corcoran york university julia williams renison university college, university of waterloo kris pierre johnston york university abstract the growing trend of internationalization at canadian institutions of higher education has led to increased need to support plurilingual students using english as an additional language (eal). this support, often embedded in english for academic purposes (eap) programs, is offered in a wide range of contexts across canadian institutions of higher education. however, relatively little is known about this sector or those who work within it. in this article, we seek to delineate the canadian eap landscape by providing findings from the first phase of a mixed methods investigation into eap programs and practitioners across canada. we surveyed eap programs and practitioners across three types of canadian institutions involved in the provision of eap support (n = 481). findings point to a diversity of program models and practitioner profiles across canadian regions and institutions, as well as significant differences in practitioners’ professional satisfaction based on role and institution type. further findings point to substantial concern among eap practitioners regarding job security, collaboration with other institutional stakeholders, and professional development opportunities. adopting a critical pragmatic lens, we discuss findings, raising questions for consideration for eap administrators, instructors, and post-secondary institutional policy makers, and conclude with a call for greater research into canadian eap programs and practitioners. introduction though figures are very much in flux due to covid-19 (languages canada, 20211), internationalization policies at canadian post-secondary institutions have led to a dramatic increase in the population of international students enrolled at canadian universities and colleges over the past decades2 (canadian bureau for international education, 2020; douglas & landry, 2021; macdonald, 2016; mckenzie, 2018). many of these international students achieve english language proficiency scores that allow them to directly enter their undergraduate or graduate programs of study without additional english academic language support. however, many international students who use english as an additional language (eal) either do not achieve the required english language proficiency scores for admission or achieve scores that are borderline 1 the international language education sector in canada is worth an estimated 22 billion dollars, according to the 2021 languages canada report. 2 canada is ranked fourth internationally in terms of total international english language education. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 56 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 (e.g., ielts 5.5–6.5), requiring further pre-program language or language and content integrated studies. still other eal students achieve language proficiency scores that permit entry to a postsecondary program that requires them to take language or language and content integrated (often credit-bearing) courses as part of their programs of study. for the former, these studies may happen at a range of locales, including post-secondary institutions such as colleges and universities, or off-campus at private language institutes3. for the latter, this academic language instruction necessarily happens within the confines of their academic programs at the postsecondary institution where they were accepted. regardless of where it is offered, all the instruction mentioned above falls under the umbrella of english for academic purposes (eap), a “specialist theoryand research-informed branch of english language and literacy education” (ding & bruce, 2017, p. 53) that prepares students for post-secondary study4 (charles, 2022). as eap programs have expanded to meet the global demand for english medium postsecondary study in countries such as the united kingdom, the united states, australia, and canada, so too has a burgeoning field of research that aims to better understand an expanding international educational sector that has been notoriously difficult to document. in canada, for instance, recent eap research has enhanced an understanding of canadian eap assessment practices (e.g., abrar-ul-hassan, 2021; huang, 2018; johnson & tweedie, 2021), pedagogical approaches (e.g., galante, 2020; marr, 2021; van viegen & zappa-hollman, 2020), writing instruction (maatouk & payant, 2020; uludag et al., 2021), (perceived) efficacy of eap instruction (fox et al., 2014; tweedie & kim, 2015), and teacher education and professionalism (farrell & ives, 2015; macdonald, 2016; valeo & faez, 2013). however, despite this recent uptick in domestic eap research, there is still little available data on eap programs across canada (douglas & landry, 2021; van viegen & russell, 2019). for example, questions remain regarding how many practitioners work in the area of eap in canada, in which provinces and types of institutions these eap programs are located, and what the professional profiles are of practitioners working in these eap programs. before we delve into our attempt to delineate the canadian eap landscape, it is worth considering why the eap sector operates in a rather occluded space. adopting a critical lens, answers to the occluded nature of the eap sector may lie in the onto-epistemologies (lau & van viegen, 2020) of neoliberal post-secondary institutions within the new global knowledge economy (altbach, 2013; demeter, 2019), where there is focus on the “production, processing, quality, and the cost-effective delivery of knowledge content to student consumers” (hadley 2015, p. 39). indeed, though such data are not made public, eap programs often serve as cash cows5, delivering high yield profits (ding & bruce, 2017; hadley, 2015). 3 adding to the complexity of eap support and terminology is that private language institutes may provide language support on-campus, as well, and be more or less integrated with institutions of higher education. these organizational arrangements are often unclear and shifting, and one caveat of this study is that survey respondents may have interpreted the term english language institute (eli) differently when choosing between the university vs. college vs. eli options. 4 definitions and conceptions range from eap as solely instruction to eap as a legitimate sub-field of research and teaching at the intersection of education and applied linguistics. we align with the latter conceptualization of the burgeoning field of eap. 5 this is not always the case, however. for example, british columbia has a range of post-secondary eap programs (e.g., capilano university) that are tuition free. see https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/adulteducation/adult-upgrading-learn-english https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/adult-education/adult-upgrading-learn-english https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/adult-education/adult-upgrading-learn-english corcoran, williams, & johnston 57 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 within such educational models, where international students are akin to valued consumers, and eap programs are delivering knowledge in the form of language or content and language integrated instruction, eap practitioners are often positioned as disposable, interchangeable, or non-essential student support, leading to potentially precarious employment conditions (breshears, 2018). from a pragmatic standpoint, however, such instruction is undoubtedly beneficial for many students who use eal as they develop the academic literacies necessary to succeed at canadian post-secondary institutions (corcoran & russell, 2021; fox et al., 2014). as such, eap instructors play an integral part in language support that affords eal students access to post-secondary education that may benefit their academic and professional outcomes. but who are these eap practitioners, where do they work, what are their linguacultural, educational, and professional backgrounds, and how do they view themselves and their work in these uncertain times? this study aims to shine a light into the dimly lit space of eap in canada—highlighting the programs and practitioners that provide instruction to the large cadre of students using eal at post-secondary institutions—in an attempt to raise the profile of eap practitioners, an under-appreciated and under-researched group of language educators. specifically, in this article, we describe and interpret findings from the first of a two-phase, mixed-methods study of canadian eap: a survey-questionnaire administered in 2019 and completed by 481 eap practitioners (directors and instructors), answering three research questions: 1) where is eap instruction taking place in canada? 2) who is providing eap instruction? and 3) what are eap practitioner levels of job satisfaction? the study this study was a culmination of the researchers’ shared interests in eap program characteristics and eap practitioners’ perceptions of their profession. in this article, we present findings from the first of a two-phase mixed methods investigation into eap practitioners across canada. findings are based on responses to the 62-item, exploratory survey-questionnaire regarding respondents’ eap programs, workload, linguacultural and educational backgrounds, employment status, and job satisfaction levels (see appendix). the survey-questionnaire: data collection and analysis drawing on past national and regional surveys in the field of eap and language teacher education (dyck, 2013; sanaoui, 1997; tesl canada, 2019), our survey-questionnaire aimed to explore the landscape of eap across canada. survey items were constructed using qualtrics software6 with the explicit aim of identifying salient characteristics of eap programs and practitioners, considering similarities and differences across regions, institution types, and professional roles. survey design also included the creation of eight likert-scale questions and an open response item aimed at ascertaining practitioners’ job satisfaction. anticipating a diverse group of respondents, and aiming to increase internal validity, the survey was piloted with eap practitioners from different types of institutions and modified twice based on feedback received. attempting to achieve a full sample, we recruited participants via official letters of recruitment posted on national (e.g., tesl canada, languages canada) and provincial (e.g., tesl ontario, 6 technical support for survey construction provided by qualtrics and it specialists at the university of waterloo. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 58 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 bc teal) tesl organization listservs, via emails sent to public-facing eap program administrators across canadian universities, colleges, and language institutes, and privately via our shared scholar and scholar-practitioner networks. between october and december 2019, we received responses from 481 eap practitioners (360 or 75% who identified as eap instructors; 121 or 25% who identified as eap directors). figure 1 proportion of respondents who held director vs. instructor positions in their institutions given the exploratory nature of the survey-questionnaire (dörnyei, 2010), data analysis was primarily descriptive, utilizing embedded qualtrics graphing and tabling functions. descriptive statistical analysis was carried out with all survey items, and inferential statistical analysis, employing spss software7, was carried out with respect to the eight likert-scale questions, which were converted to a scale that would allow for comparison across multiple variables. open-ended survey items were analyzed using a grounded approach, in which the data were open coded and then categorized according to thematic orientation. quantitative and qualitative findings with respect to rq #3 (practitioner satisfaction) were then combined and interpreted. finally, data analysis with respect to rq #3 also allowed for analytically driven sampling of phase ii of this study, where interview participants were selected based on variables identified as significant from phase i (i.e., professional role, region, and institution type). phase ii findings will be reported in a subsequent paper. findings eap programs in canada survey respondents (n = 481) included eap practitioners from a diverse range of universities, colleges, and english language institutes (elis), and from five regions within canada (see table 7 assistance with inferential data analysis was provided by the institute for social research at york university. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 59 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 1). respondents represented both program instructors and directors, from both credit-bearing and intensive eap programs that offered both english for general academic purposes (egap) and discipline-specific eap models. in this section, we attempt to represent the diversity of the distribution of respondents and their contexts. despite some noteworthy limitations with respect to terminology, our findings represent a robust snapshot of eap practitioners in canada, their programs, linguistic and educational backgrounds, and levels of employment satisfaction prior to the covid-19 pandemic. of 481 respondents, an equal number, 202 respondents (or 42%), work at universities and colleges, while 77 (or 16%) work at elis. the respondents represented programs from the five canadian regions of british columbia (18%), the prairies (18%), ontario (52%) quebec (three percent) and atlantic canada (nine percent). seventy-five percent of the respondents were instructors while 25% were program directors. table 1 the distribution of eap programs across canada eap programs bc prairies ontario québec atlantic universities 15 13 40 5 14 colleges 16 20 30 4 7 elis 5 6 16 3 8 other (adult eal) 1 2 10 0 2 total programs8 45 43 102 13 33 the numbers in the first four rows in table 1 reflect the programs of instructors and/or directors from whom we received survey responses. universities and colleges are publicly funded institutions of higher education while elis are independently funded institutions. programs indicated as “other” include responses from instructors and/or directors working in the adult eal sector at school boards, non-profit organizations, social-services organizations, and private schools. to identify the total number of eap programs in each region as accurately as possible, we also completed exhaustive internet searches to identify eap programs from which we did not receive responses. these programs are represented in the total institutions displayed in the final row of table 1. the numbers yield program totals per region for a national total of 236 eap programs. low numbers of survey respondents from eap programs in québec demonstrate the need for more research of eap practitioners and programs in that province. douglas and landry’s (2021) consideration of canadian eap programs via website analysis identified 74 eap programs at 50 canadian universities. our comparable data is 87 eap programs at 60 universities. our data seems in line with douglas and landry’s findings, as they only included public university programs which were members of universities canada, which excluded some programs at private universities, francophone universities, and public universities which were not part of universities canada. eap programs reflected diversity in their names, sizes, and types. eap programs were most commonly referred to as english second language (esl), english language studies, english for academic purposes, english language training, english language bridging, and 8 this total includes institutions identified via preand post-survey internet searches. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 60 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 english pathway programs. program size, measured in number of students per year, also varied. results showed that 19.4% of programs were small, serving fewer than 100 students (e.g., royal roads university, selkirk college; university of northern british columbia); 39.5% were of medium size, with 101 to 400 students (e.g., thompson rivers university; vanwest college, douglas college), 23.5% of programs were considered large, with 401 to 1000 students (e.g., capilano university; ubc vantage college, langara college, vancouver island university), while 11.4% of programs were considered “super-sized,” serving more than 1001 students annually9 (see figure 2). university super-sized programs were located at the university of alberta, carleton university, dalhousie university, université laval, the university of waterloo, and york university. college super-sized programs were housed at centennial college, conestoga college, humber college, and red river college. these data suggest that super-sized programs are most frequently found at universities and colleges in the prairie (specifically alberta) and ontario regions, with none found in british columbia. figure 2 the number of students enrolled in respondents’ eap programs the size of eap programs measured by number of instructors closely followed the pattern reflected by the annual number of students: 20.2% of programs are small, with just one to five instructors; 32.9% are of medium size with six to 15 instructors; 25.8% are large employing 16 to 30 instructors, while 14.4% are super-sized and employ more than 30 instructors (see figure 3). 9 the remaining number of respondents, approximately six percent, were unsure of their program size, which may indicate that these respondents were precariously employed to the extent that they do not know the annual enrolment of the programs in which they work. we will discuss employment precarity in greater detail later in this paper. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 61 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 figure 3 the number of instructors employed in respondents’ eap programs survey respondents also indicated their programs varied by program model or type. respondents reported the types of programs in which they worked, and many respondents worked in multiple programs, either in the same institution or in different institutions. therefore, the total number of responses for program type sum to greater than 481; as a result, we report the raw numbers (rather than percentages) for program type. with the caveat that there is overlap between categories (e.g., some eap programs such as ubc’s english foundation program may indeed be both egap and bridging/pathway), the greatest number of responses, 270, indicate eap instructors teach in an egap program where instruction prepares students for further education at a college or university level. next, 235 responses indicate instructors work in a bridging or pathway program that leads to direct acceptance at a college or university. these two program types, egap and bridging/pathway programs, are the predominant types of eap programs in canada. smaller numbers of responses report employment in alternative program types: 70 responses from instructors who teach in content-focused programs where eap instructors deliver both content and language instruction; 60 responses from instructors who teach in english for specific academic purposes programs (e.g., eap for science or engineering); and 41 responses from instructors who teach in content and language-integrated (clil) programs where content and eap instructors teach collaboratively in the same program. we acknowledge the conversation regarding the limitations of labelling educators as either “content” or “eap” instructors; however, we use these terms here to reflect a shared understanding of the differences between instructors with language-focused outcomes and those with disciplinaryfocused outcomes in the fields these students wish to pursue. our data reveal that very few eap https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 62 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 instructors teach in programs where they interact with content instructors while the vast majority of eap instructors teach in egap and/or bridging or pathway programs. as a way of further distinguishing program type, and again with the caveat that these category boundaries may be fuzzy, respondents were also asked whether their programs were credit-bearing or non-credit bearing. within the three institutional categories (universities, colleges, and elis), and across the five regions, respondents reported teaching or administering credit bearing programs under two conditions: the eap courses held credit status and/or the eap courses supported a credit-bearing disciplinary (or content) course. results reveal that the highest percentage of credit-bearing eap programs are offered at universities and colleges in the regions of ontario (74% and 61%) and british columbia (67% and 33%). credit-bearing eap programs are less prevalent in the prairie, québec, and atlantic canada regions. in the regions where respondents reported that universities and colleges offered the highest percentage of credit-bearing programs (i.e., british columbia, ontario, and atlantic canada), the elis offered the lowest (or zero) percent of credit-bearing programs. in regions where respondents indicated the universities and colleges offered fewer credit-bearing eap programs, the elis offered a higher percentage of credit-bearing programs, perhaps compensating for the lack of such programs at the publicly funded institutions of higher education. further research on programs offered through elis, as defined in this paper, should be undertaken to determine what program models they are adopting to offer credit-bearing opportunities for students. eap practitioners in canada one of the objectives of this investigation was to identify a full sample of eap practitioners in canada. through a combination of survey responses and exhaustive internet searches (one presurvey and one post-survey) of public-facing eap programs, we have established the population of practitioners to be 1,90910. clearly, given the range of limitations when delineating the eap practitioner population (lack of distinction between eap and other language support programs; occluded nature of private eap programs; lack of survey responses from québec; etc.), this number is open to scrutiny. however, this is clearly a robust cadre of practitioners. the remainder of this section is focused on these practitioners. survey data reveal the linguacultural diversity of eap practitioners in canada. respondents reported their first language status as predominantly english (see figures 4.1 and 4.2). native english-speaking teachers (nests) comprised 56% of the instructors at elis, 58% at colleges, and 73% at universities. respondents in atlantic canada and the prairie regions were most likely to be nests where 78.9% and 70.5% respectively reported their first language as english. across canada, when respondents were divided by employment categories, 60% of instructors and 73% of directors identified as nests. these data suggest that being anglophone is still the norm for eap practitioners in every region except québec (where only 35.7% 10 this number is by no means definitive. the exact process of identifying this total of eap practitioners included, first, an initial search for public-facing eap programs at institutions of higher education and private elis. subsequently, we drew upon survey data and tallied responses from directors and instructors about the size of the programs in which they work. next, we identified programs we missed based on program names provided by survey respondents. finally, we did another exhaustive internet search, identifying any programs we had previously missed, estimating the practitioner population in these programs based on like programs (according to size and region). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 63 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 identified as anglophone). however, our data also reveal a more complex linguistic landscape; of those who did not identify as anglophone, respondents indicated their first languages as french, japanese, spanish, german, or other11. further, ten percent of practitioners identified as having multiple first languages. in ontario, the highest percentage of practitioners (21%) identified as having a first language other than english, with the lowest percentage of similarly identified practitioners (7.9%) in the atlantic region. figure 4.1 self-identified native english-speaking eap practitioners by role and institution next, our data reveal that canadian eap practitioners are a highly educated cohort. eap practitioners holding phd degrees can be found in all three institutional categories: 14% of university, 11% of college, and 9% of eli eap practitioners hold phds (see figure 5.1). practitioners indicated their academic disciplines by identifying the area of their undergraduate degrees to reveal that 76% completed their undergraduate degrees in arts, humanities, or education, 12.8% in social sciences (including linguistics), 8.3% in natural sciences, and 2.8% in engineering (see figure 5.2). perhaps most noteworthy, given the expectations for supporting students from across disciplines, is that not a single respondent reported a terminal or graduate degree in science, technology, engineering, and math (stem). though it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the open question of efficacy of discipline-specific versus discipline-broad eap support, one wonders at how reasonable or desirable it is to expect eap programs to have instructors with advanced stem degrees. finally, the low percentage of eap practitioners with 11 of note, respondents were asked what were the most common first languages of the students they taught. responses indicated that across all regions, mandarin was the first language of the majority of students. other frequently identified student first languages included arabic, spanish, korean, cantonese, and punjabi (most common in british columbia). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 64 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 phd degrees is remarkable and may impact relations between eap practitioners and their potentially higher-educated colleagues at post-secondary institutions. figure 4.2 the proportion of native english-speaking eap practitioners by region figure 5.1 proportion of eap practitioners with phds https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 65 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 figure 5.2 eap practitioners’ areas of undergraduate degrees canadian eap practitioners form a highly experienced workforce, reporting many years of eap teaching experience (see figure 6). forty percent of practitioners report more than 16 years of teaching experience, with 29% of directors and 23% of instructors indicating they have taught for 21 or more years. thirty-six percent of practitioners have six to 15 years of teaching experience, and 18% have one to five years of teaching experience. while only three percent of overall respondents reported teaching experience of less than one year, 10% of eap directors report no classroom teaching experience whatsoever. this lack of teaching experience is a potentially troubling finding, and fuels critique of eap as a profit-driven sector; that being said, much more research is necessary in order to better understand eap directors across institution types. within the three institutional categories, eap practitioners with more than five years of teaching experience are found at universities (79%), colleges (76%), and elis (68%). a full 65% of eap practitioners have international teaching experience. eli practitioners have the fewest years of overall english language teaching experience but the highest amount of international teaching experience. this finding suggests that many practitioners returning from international teaching secure a canadian eap contract at elis. the precarity of employment in the field of eap has been previously documented (most recently by breshears, 2018). our survey respondents confirmed this reality with 41% indicating they worked part-time, or more than part-time for less than a full year (see table 2). directors (at 89%) are more likely than instructors (at 50%) to have full-time work. similarly, directors (at 96%) are more likely than instructors (57%) to work a full year. across all five regions, 47% of practitioners reported they have temporary or limited-term positions. those working in the prairie and british columbia regions are most likely to have permanent positions while ontario has the highest percentage of temporary and limited-term contract positions. this precarity is also reflected in the number of programs and institutions at which practitioners work: 15% work at more than one institution; 32% work in more than one program or unit; and 12% work in more https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 66 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 than three programs/units. overall, 36% of directors and 41% of instructors work in more than one program or unit. the impact of this employment precarity is addressed further in phase ii of our research and expanded upon briefly in the section that follows. figure 6 years of eap work experience among eap practitioners table 2 a comparison of the level of employment precarity between directors and instructors full-time employment full-year employment multiple institutions or programs directors 89% 96% 36% instructors 50% 57% 41% practitioner satisfaction we were also interested in eap practitioner satisfaction with their work. our survey asked respondents about their satisfaction in relation to the quality of the work environment, level of compensation, level of respect and collaboration within and outside the program, and opportunities for professional development (see figure 7 for an overview). the likert scale responses generated satisfaction scores within a 1-to-32-point range and revealed satisfaction differences between directors and instructors, among practitioners at the three institution types (colleges, universities, and elis), and between full-time and part-time practitioners. first, the https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 67 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 data indicate a significant difference (p value = .001) in mean satisfaction between directors (m = 26.4, n = 67) and instructors (m = 24.2, n = 284), indicating that directors are significantly more satisfied than instructors. among practitioners working at colleges, universities, and elis, those working at colleges reported higher levels of work satisfaction (m = 25.8, n = 160) than those at universities (m = 24.3, n = 164, p value = .044) and elis (m = 23.0, n =57, p value = .005). while no significant differences in satisfaction were evident across the five regions, results from a t-test for equality of mean satisfaction between full-time and part-time practitioners showed that there is a significant difference between their mean satisfaction. the means for fulltime practitioners and part-time practitioners are 25.24 and 23.93 respectively, with a confidence interval of 0.14–2.50, p value = .028. these data indicate that directors experience more work satisfaction than instructors, college practitioners are more satisfied than those at universities, and university practitioners are more satisfied than those at elis. finally, practitioners who work full-time are more satisfied than those who work part-time. figure 7 a comparison of the levels of self-reported satisfaction examining the qualitative survey data12 for specific areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction reveals differences between instructors and directors. as seen on table 3, instructors indicate they are most satisfied with their work environments, classroom teaching experience, and degree of autonomy; however, they express dissatisfaction with employment precarity, lack of benefits, insufficient remuneration, and lack of collaboration with non-eap colleagues. regarding the issue of precarity, instructors clearly related their concerns: “our 12 these responses came from an open-ended survey question that prompted respondents to add anything further about satisfaction or dissatisfaction with eap work. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 68 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 program is cost recovery, based on enrolment. eap student enrolment is always volatile, and this makes us feel insecure and under threat of layoffs. this is the big concern.” (anonymous university eap instructor). as another university eap instructor noted, “work at eap is mostly limited to contract, part-time (less than 6 hours per week) …making employment precarious. some are lucky to be in permanent or partial load contracts, which come with benefits…” (anonymous eap instructor). finally, as a college eap instructor reflected, “i am not satisfied with the precariousness of contract teaching [at my college]. after some time, it does take a toll on my mental health. with no job security, i have come to see it [eap] as a job rather than a career.” (anonymous eap instructor). in contrast, the data highlight director satisfaction with employment stability, ability to impact the work environment, and opportunities for growth, engagement, and innovation. however, they are dissatisfied with the lack of institutional collaboration and respect, workload, and program instability, with many noting frustrations at relations with non-eap units at their institutions: “it is unfortunate that there is limited appreciation for the [eap] expertise…colleges find themselves struggling to provide academic support for international students…providing this support is something eap programs and instructors do every day!” (anonymous college eap director). table 3 emergent themes of satisfaction or dissatisfaction among eap instructors and directors instructors directors satisfaction ● engagement and interaction with students ● autonomy ● intra-program respect ● employment stability ● program impact ● program growth and innovation dissatisfaction ● employment precarity ● poor remuneration and benefits ● student lack of motivation ● lack of opportunities for pd and collaboration ● lack of respect for eap within institutions ● workload ● sector / program instability discussion eap programs the findings from this study add to the literature on eap across canadian post-secondary contexts, allowing for a wide-angled view of the sector, and providing a baseline from which to understand its programs and practitioners. the main finding with respect to canadian eap programs and practitioners is that of diversity. with respect to programs, our findings point to a range of institutional contexts (university vs. college vs. eli programs) where eap happens, as well as a wide range of program names (e.g., english as a second language; english for academic purposes), affiliations (departments of education, applied linguistics, continuing education; international education; independent); sizes (serving anywhere from under 100 to over 1000 students); and types (general vs. specific eap; pre-sessional vs. bridging). the https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 69 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 diversity of eap programming highlighted in our findings is very much in line with the extant literature, adding to a growing body of work pointing to a diverse, diffuse landscape of eap programming across a variety of canadian institutions (douglas & landry, 2021; fox et al., 2014; macdonald, 2016). given the small number of studies into eap programs, the vast majority of which are case studies (e.g., van viegen & russell, 2019), there exists a clear need for greater research at the national and regional levels, including in british columbia. however, our study has unearthed some minor areas of divergence. for example, while douglas and landry (2021), in their website analysis of university eap programs, estimated that approximately 25% of programs include credit-bearing options13, our respondents reported much higher numbers (closer to 65%). this disparity may be explained by survey participant misinterpretation of “credit-bearing” or our inclusion of “pass/fail” as included within the “credit-bearing” category. where our findings diverge substantially from previous work is in the additional data related to programs and practitioners working in non-university eap settings (colleges, off-campus private language institutes, and schools). though there is occasionally crossover of terminology with respect to universities and colleges (e.g., renison university college, university of waterloo, where several eap programs are housed within a “university college” within the university of waterloo), any discussion of eap in canada needs to take stock of programs taking place at colleges (which house some of the largest eap programs in the country), and, though far less numerous in terms of total eap programs and practitioners, private programs that feed universities and colleges and operate at the margins of the post-secondary sector (larsen, 2020; macdonald, 2016; maqsood, 2021). building on other recent work (e.g., douglas & landry, 2021), our study highlights the fuzzy boundaries of eap, raising questions of what programs belong in this rather nebulous category of teaching and research. employing our critical, pragmatic lens, what counts as eap is perhaps less important than better understanding how eap programs and practitioners contribute to the necessary work of supporting eal students’ academic literacies at neoliberal institutions of higher education ostensibly ever more interested in profit accumulation (ding & bruce, 2017; hadley, 2015). ultimately, there is a clear need for in-depth charting of the robust canadian eap sector, both the transparent and the occluded, particularly given findings from our study that point to the lowest levels of satisfaction among instructors working in private eli and pathway programs. elucidation of the landscape of eap programs, and their place within our institutions of higher education, is a necessary precursor to better understanding the lived experiences of the thousands of practitioners working therein. eap practitioners as suggested earlier, diversity is one of the key findings of this study, including with respect to eap practitioners. the cultural and linguistic diversity of the eap cadre in canada is noteworthy, but not uniform, with certain regions displaying a higher percentage of selfidentified “native” english speaking teachers (referred to earlier as nests) than others. unsurprisingly, ontario and british columbia have the greatest number of “non-native” english speaking teachers (nnests) or those who identify as “both/neither.” the high percentage of 13 douglas and landry (2021) defined credit-bearing as courses that resulted in credit towards graduation at the undergraduate or graduate levels. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 70 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 nnest and “both/neither” respondents across canada, but particularly in provinces with larger cosmopolitan centres such as ontario and british columbia, may denote a shift in the profession away from nest dominance (faez, 2011; galante et al., 2019; moussu, 2016); however, more research is necessary on these types of demographic trends in the profession moving forward. also of interest is the much higher percentage of nest eap directors (particularly acute in atlantic canada). drawing on our conceptual lens once again, these findings raise specific questions related to power relations within the “market” of canadian eap. does the higher number of nest directors vs. instructors suggest that power is still skewed towards nest practitioners? this situation is likely the case, but, again, more research is necessary into directors’ backgrounds, especially given findings that a rather surprising percentage of eap program directors have never taught eap. in terms of professional experience in the field, eap practitioners were quite experienced, with over 80% of respondents having been in the profession for more than five years. in line with results from another recent survey (tesl canada, 2019), this finding points to a very experienced group of eap professionals, but perhaps needs to be considered a candidate for selection bias given that these respondents may have more job security than novice eap practitioners (those with less than 5 years’ experience) and thus more time to complete such a survey. with respect to educational backgrounds, again, the cadre of respondents are highly educated, with approximately 70% of instructors and 75% of directors holding a graduate degree, with graduate degrees being far less common at elis than at colleges and universities. however, one wonders if the lack of phd status among eap practitioners (only 14% of respondents) may be one of the causes of their (real or perceived) marginalized institutional status, particularly at universities, where content faculty are almost certain to have phds (bell, 2021; ding, 2019). perhaps a better question should be, do eap instructors need a phd in order to provide effective academic language support for eal students? and if a phd is indeed a form of “equalizer” that can enhance the status of eap professionals at their institutions, what are the financial incentives for eap instructors to pursue this degree in a labour market where there is a dearth of opportunities for commensurate employment? digging a bit deeper, there is a clear lack of stem disciplinary expertise among eap practitioners (only 11% have an undergraduate degree in stem and none had a graduate degree14), something that may impact the ability to deliver effective support to students in those areas (see hyland [2018] for a discussion of eap and disciplinary specificity) and may be mitigated through effective collaboration between eap and content (stem) experts15 (zappahollman, 2018), especially when supporting graduate students. more research is necessary to identify trends with respect to educational backgrounds and terminal degrees of eap practitioners in canada, including how educational backgrounds and credentialization position eap practitioners as (un)equal partners in the provision of post-secondary education as they operate in what macdonald (2016) has termed, the marginalized “third space” (p. 106). 14 another caveat here is that those who provide language support may not self-identify as eap, and thus may not have taken this survey despite being actively involved in eap instruction at institutions of higher education. 15 this collaboration may be beneficial to both eap and content instructors, and given the applied language teaching expertise of eap instructors, might enhance their status at the institution. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 71 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 perhaps the most salient finding with respect to eap practitioners was that there are differing, statistically significant satisfaction levels between directors and instructors, those who are fully vs. partially employed, and those who work at colleges and universities vs. private language institutes. drawing on a combination of the quantitative and qualitative survey data, some explication of these different levels of satisfaction is possible. with the caveat that the qualitative findings—driven by coding of a single open-ended item on the survey—are just a precursor to more substantive data from phase ii of this project (semi-structured interviews), there appear to be salient reasons for greater dissatisfaction among instructors, those working at private language institutes, and those working only part-time. while there are several areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction for both directors and instructors (see table 3), the most salient area of complaint was job precarity, something noteworthy not only in this study, but in other research investigating the political economy and experiences of english language instructors across canada, including eap (breshears, 2018; sanoui, 1997; valeo & faez, 2013). while it is reasonable to question the validity of findings with respect to perceived satisfaction without more qualitative follow-up (phase ii of this project is forthcoming), these findings amplify an issue endemic in the field, and of concern to practitioners working in increasingly neoliberal-oriented institutions of post-secondary education in canada (breshears, 2018; rockwell, 2021; walsh marr, 2021). teachers as a marginalized group is not a novel concept, nor are findings of eap instructor precarity surprising (fong, 2018; raphael et al., 2020). thus, once again drawing on our critical lens, we pose a simple question without an obvious answer: what is to be done in order to attend to real conditions of precarity that plague this cadre of professionals, and who is responsible for enacting measures to counter these conditions? in pandemic times, these questions are much more than academic (caut, 2020). limitations phase i of this study was not without its limitations. first, as is always the case with survey data, selection bias (e.g., perhaps those with more job security were more likely to take time to respond to the survey invitation) and response bias (e.g., perhaps those with stronger feelings about their job satisfaction were more likely to share their qualitative comments) cannot be ignored. next, through our data analysis, it is clear that not all survey respondents interpreted our terminology in the same ways. for example, we categorized instructors employed at private, forprofit institutions as working at elis; however, there are some elis that are embedded in universities and colleges. also, several respondents shared after taking the survey that they were unsure whether to self-identify as director or instructor, given that they have acted or are acting in both roles. these inconsistencies in interpretation of terminology resulted in messy data that may have clouded our results; at the same time, they made clear one of the challenges of surveying eap practitioners is accurately defining terminology. though these issues of survey clarity may have impacted the validity of results—and thus claims of generalizability of findings—we posit that the fuzziness of category boundaries is a feature of eap programs and practitioners, potentially confounding to researchers, but salient nonetheless. next, though we attempted to ascertain an accurate total canadian eap practitioner population size, n = 1,909, even using survey responses to triangulate with public-facing data, our exploratory data suggest only a data-driven estimate of the total population of practitioners in https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 72 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 eap or eap-adjacent roles. further, with what appears to be a low response rate from québec practitioners, much more accurate data is necessary regarding this under-researched population. finally, when considering this cadre of eap practitioners, we erred by avoiding the topic of gender; in a precarious profession that skews female identifying (our randomly selected interviewees suggest a great disparity), we should have allowed for self-identification that could have enabled an even fuller analysis based on this potentially important variable. conclusions the first phase of this research project has yielded survey results that point to a diverse set of canadian eap programs across three major institutional post-secondary contexts. in tandem with recent research emanating from the emerging field of eap (e.g., douglas & landry, 2021), our results should provide a clearer picture of the canadian eap landscape. however, our charting of the breadth and depth of eap programs—while potentially instructional for eap researchers, administrators, and practitioners—is far from definitive. ultimately, more research is necessary across regional and institutional contexts in order to paint a more complete picture of this area of post-secondary language support, including in british columbia. this need is especially true given the fluid nature of eap programs in what seem like never-ending pandemic times. with respect to better understanding eap practitioner populations across canada and in british columbia, our survey has outlined the extensive professional experience and the cultural and linguistic diversity of this under-researched cadre of language support professionals. in addition, survey results point to segregated levels of satisfaction between directors and instructors, and those working in private elis versus colleges and universities. although british columbia reported the second highest level of overall satisfaction across regions (ontario was first), qualitative data pointing to employment precarity and related dissatisfaction among eap instructors are concerning. we aim to provide greater levels of clarity as to the divide in satisfaction between those with different professional roles, as well as those working in different sectors, via interviews in phase ii of this research project. the findings from phase i of this mixed-methods study have provided baseline data on eap programs and practitioners that can be used by post-secondary policy makers, practitioners, and researchers. the data have also raised a number of questions that require further investigation, both empirically and ethically, including perhaps most importantly, attending to the issue of employment precarity among eap instructors. how should teacher educators prepare future language teachers for this uncertain employment? how might eap programs promote greater bi-directional knowledge exchange with other institutional stakeholders? how can researchers better understand the political economy of post-secondary english language teaching given the oft-occluded nature of eap programs? though phase ii of this study will surely shed more light on how eap instructors navigate the shifting eap economic landscape, much more research into eap instructors’ and directors’ lived experiences is necessary. as neoliberal institutions of higher education continue to court increasing numbers of international students using eal, understanding and attending to eap practitioners’ perspectives and experiences is crucial. better understanding of the lived experiences of eap professionals—including how they navigate precarious professional https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 73 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 waters—may lead to improved employment conditions for eap practitioners across canada, which, one hopes, would result in more equitable and effective language education. acknowledgements first, we would like to thank the social science and humanities research council, york university, and renison university college, university of waterloo for their generous financial support of this project. next, we would also like to recognize the support of tesl canada, languages canada, and multiple provincial eal teaching and learning organizations in spreading word about the survey. finally, and perhaps most importantly, we would like to thank the hundreds of eap directors and instructors who participated in this project—we hope that sharing these findings leads to greater recognition of not only some of the systemic inequities many of you face, but also the fine work you do, often under challenging circumstances. references abrar-ul-hassan, s. 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(2021). the promise and precarity of critical pedagogy in english for academic purposes. bc teal journal, 6(1), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.341 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v34i1.1258 https://theeyeopener.com/2021/03/ryerson-moves-ahead-with-navitas-program-as-western-halts-negotiations/ https://theeyeopener.com/2021/03/ryerson-moves-ahead-with-navitas-program-as-western-halts-negotiations/ https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 https://doi.org/10.11575/cpai.v1i2.54599 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315641263 https://www.thecanadianfacts.org/the_canadian_facts-2nd_ed.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2019.1686512 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v14i2.684 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v33i1.1226 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.388 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v31i1.1164 https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v36i1.1304 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 corcoran, williams, & johnston 76 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 zappa-hollman, s. (2018). collaborations between language and content university instructors: factors and indicators of positive partnerships. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 21(5), 591–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1491946 appendix eap across canada survey 2020 thank you for taking the time to complete a survey of those working to support students’ academic english—a field widely known as english for academic purposes (eap) —at canadian colleges and universities. this survey is the first canadian eap survey of its kind, and the results will delineate the canadian eap landscape. it is hoped that sharing these research findings leads to greater recognition of the importance of english language support at our post-secondary institutions. topics covered on the survey include the academic and professional background of eap professionals, the structure of eap programs, and the professional satisfaction of eap practitioners. although this survey asks for some minor demographic information (educational background; teaching experience; etc.), rest assured that this information is not linked to your name. those who complete the survey will have the option of entering a draw to win one of ten $50 gift cards! if you agree to participate in this study, be assured that participants’ privacy will be protected at all times. the online survey strives to protect participant anonymity, with no identifying features. further, data will be reported in aggregate so that no individual respondent can be identified. this survey is divided into three sections, and it will take you approximately 20 minutes to complete. please allow sufficient time to complete all the questions in the survey. if you work in more than one eap program, please complete this survey with information from your primary program (i.e., the program in which you work the most). this study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance from xxxx and xxxx. if you have ethical questions or concerns, please contact xxxx with any questions or concerns you may have about this study. please indicate your willingness to complete the survey by clicking on the “yes, i consent” button below (or if you do not consent, please click the “no, i do not consent” button). ● yes, i consent. ● no, i do not consent. q1 please note that by agreeing to participate in the study, you are not waiving your legal rights or releasing the investigator(s) or involved institution(s) from their legal and professional responsibilities. please indicate your willingness to complete the survey by clicking on the “yes, i consent” button below (or if you do not consent, please click the “no, i do not consent” button). ● yes, i consent. ● no, i do not consent. q2 what term best describes your primary eap role within the institution? select only one. ● program director ● program assistant director ● program coordinator ● head/lead instructor ● instructor ● department chair ● professor (research) ● professor (teaching) ● other ___ (text) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1491946 corcoran, williams, & johnston 77 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q3 please identify any of your additional eap roles check all that apply. ● program director ● program assistant director ● program coordinator ● head/lead instructor ● instructor ● department chair ● professor (research) ● professor (teaching) ● other ___ (text) q4 at what kind of institution do you teach/administer eap? ● university ● college affiliated with or located within a university ● college ● english language school or institute q5 in which province or territory do you work? ● british columbia ● northwest territories ● nunavut ● yukon ● alberta ● saskatchewan ● manitoba ● ontario ● quebec ● new brunswick ● nova scotia ● prince edward island ● newfoundland and labrador q6 what is the name of your academic institution? (optional) q7 what is the name of the program/unit in which you work? (optional) q8 each year, approximately how many students’ study in your primary eap program? ● less than 100 ● 101-200 ● 201-400 ● 401-600 ● 601-800 ● 801-1000 ● more than 1000 ● i do not know q9 each year, approximately how many instructors teach in your primary eap program? ● 1-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● more than 30 ● i do not know q10 please indicate where the course/program is housed. ● an academic department ● a continuing education unit ● another unit (please specify-text option) ● off campus (please specify-text option) ● i do not know q11 (internal logic – if an academic department is the response to q10) in which academic department is the course/program housed? ● english ● applied linguistics ● education ● modern/second/foreign languages ● other (please specify-text option) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 78 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q12 the eap program in which i work is __. (check all that apply) reminder: if you work in more than one eap program, please complete this survey with information from your primary program (i.e., the program in which you work the most). ● an english for general academic purposes program ● an english for specific academic purposes program (e.g., science or engineering stream eap) ● a content-oriented program where eap instructors deliver both content and language instruction. ● a content and language-integrated program where both content and eap instructors teach together in the same program or course. ● a bridging/pathway program that, upon completion, leads to direct acceptance to the university / college. ● i do not know q13 students who successfully complete your eap program/course receive ___. (check all that apply) ● a university/college course credit listed on their transcript (credit with a grade). ● a university/college course credit listed on their transcript (credit pass/fail). ● an eap certificate that allows successful students to obtain admission to university/college. ● an eap certificate and one or two “content” credits that allows successful students to fully participate in their academic programs. ● i do not know q14 students in the eap program in which i work are __________. (check all that apply) ● currently enrolled in a university or college program. ● preparing to enter the canadian university/college where i work. ● preparing to enter other canadian universities/colleges. ● preparing to enter universities/colleges in other countries that use english as a medium of instruction. ● preparing to enter universities/colleges that do not use english as a medium of instruction. ● preparing to enter the workplace. ● planning to return home upon graduation. q15 what is/are your first language(s)? ● arabic ● cantonese ● english ● farsi ● french ● german ● indigenous language (please specify) ● italian ● japanese ● korean ● mandarin ● polish ● portuguese ● punjabi ● russian ● spanish ● tagalog ● urdu ● vietnamese ● other (please specify) q16 which language(s) do you speak/use/teach? (check all that apply) ● arabic ● cantonese ● english ● farsi ● french ● german ● indigenous language (please specify) ● italian ● japanese ● korean ● mandarin ● polish ● portuguese https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 79 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 ● punjabi ● russian ● spanish ● tagalog ● urdu ● vietnamese ● other (please specify) q17 which is/are your eap students’ first language(s)? (check all that apply) ● arabic ● cantonese ● english ● farsi ● french ● german ● indigenous language (please specify) ● italian ● japanese ● korean ● mandarin ● polish ● portuguese ● punjabi ● russian ● spanish ● tagalog ● urdu ● vietnamese ● other (please specify) q18 which is the most common first language of eap students in your program? (select only 1) ● arabic ● cantonese ● english ● farsi ● french ● german ● indigenous language (please specify) ● italian ● japanese ● korean ● mandarin ● polish ● portuguese ● punjabi ● russian ● spanish ● tagalog ● urdu ● vietnamese ● other (please specify) q19 please indicate the number of institutions where you do eap work. ● one ● two ● three ● four or more q20 please indicate the number of programs/units in which you do eap work (across all institutions). ● one ● two ● three ● four or more q21 i have other paying work besides my eap work. ● yes (please specify) ● no q22 in my primary eap program (the one in which i work most), i work… ● full-time ● part-time (anything less than full-time) q23 in my primary eap program (the one in which i work most), i work… ● full year ● partial year (less than 12 months) q24 in my primary eap program/unit (the one in which i work most), my contract is... ● permanent (renews automatically) ● limited term (one to three years) ● temporary (may or may not be renewed) q25.1 in general, my eap workload is (please enter a percentage for each of the types of workloads indicated below) % teaching (including preparation and feedback) q25.2 in general, my eap workload is (please enter a percentage for each of the types of workloads indicated below) % administration (e.g., hiring; scheduling; managing; etc.) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 80 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q25.3 in general, my eap workload is (please enter a percentage for each of the types of workloads indicated below) % research (e.g., researching, presenting, and writing for publication) q25.4 in general, my eap workload is (please enter a percentage for each of the types of workloads indicated below) % service (e.g., committee work) q26 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week resolving student issues (e.g., academic integrity, mental health, special needs, etc.). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q27 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week preparing to teach (e.g., lesson planning). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q28 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week teaching in class. ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q29 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week marking/ grading/ evaluating/ providing feedback. ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q30 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week performing service work (e.g., committees and meetings). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q31 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week developing curriculum for new/existing course(s). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q32 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week providing out-of-class student support (e.g., office hours). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q33 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week providing leadership/support/training to instructors. ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 81 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q34 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week mentoring student teachers (e.g., supervising practicum). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q35 with respect to my eap work, i spend ___ hour(s) each week doing other activities (please specify). ● 0 ● < 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● > 31 q36 with respect to my eap work, courses are ___ instructional hour(s) per week. ● less than 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● more than 5 q37 with respect to my eap work, courses generally run for ___ weeks. ● < 4 ● 5-8 ● 9-13 ● 14-24 ● > 24 q38 with respect to my eap work, i teach ___ course(s) per year. ● 0 ● 1 ● 2 ● 3 ● 4 ● 5 ● 6 ● 7 ● 8 ● > 8 q39 with respect to my eap work, class sizes range from __ to __ students per class. ● 5-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● 21-25 ● 26-30 ● 31->31 ● i do not know q40 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the quality of my work environment is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q41 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the level of compensation is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q42 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the level of respect shown to me by colleagues within my eap program/unit is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 82 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q43 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the level of respect shown to me by institutional colleagues (e.g., content faculty) outside my eap program/unit is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q44 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the opportunities for professional development are... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q45 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the workload assigned to me is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q46 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the level of collaboration among instructors in my program/unit is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q47 please answer the following questions with respect to your job satisfaction: the level of collaboration among eap instructors and content instructors at my institution is... ● completely satisfying ● mostly satisfying ● somewhat satisfying ● somewhat dissatisfying ● mostly dissatisfying ● completely dissatisfying ● i prefer to skip this section q48 please add any further comments regarding your satisfaction (or lack thereof) with your eap work. q49 the benefits i receive for my eap work include… (check all that apply) ● pension ● health ● professional development funds ● teaching relief ● other _______ (text) ● i do not know https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 83 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q50 through my eap employment, i am a member of... (check all that apply) ● a union ● an association ● neither a union nor an association ● other _______ (text) ● i do not know q51 if you would like to provide further clarification regarding your employment benefits (or lack thereof), please provide comments in the space below: q52 what are the minimum educational / professional expectations for instructors in your eap program/unit? (check all that apply) ● undergraduate degree ● master’s degree ● ph.d. ● member of provincial eap/esl organization ● member of tesl canada ● language teaching certification / accreditation ● experience working with english language learners ● other (please specify) ● please check the minimum educational/professiona l expectations for instructors in your eap program. (check all that apply.) ● other (please list any further requirements) ● text response q53 what are your formal educational qualifications? (choose highest degree obtained) ● undergraduate degree ● master’s degree ● ph.d. q54 (if chose undergraduate for q 54) undergraduate degree faculty: ● arts/humanities/education ● social sciences (including linguistics) ● natural sciences ● engineering ● math q55 (if chose master’s for q54) master’s degree faculty: ● arts/humanities/education ● social sciences (including linguistics) ● natural sciences ● engineering ● math q56 (if chose phd for q54) ph.d. faculty: ● arts/humanities/education ● social sciences (including linguistics) ● natural sciences ● engineering ● math q57 what are your formal teaching qualifications? (check all that apply) ● bachelor of education ● tesl certification ● graduate degree in tesol or language studies ● none of the above ● other ________ (please specify) https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 corcoran, williams, & johnston 84 bc teal journal volume 7 number 1 (2022): 55–84 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 q58 (if tesl certification selected for q58) tesl certification from which category of association? (choose all that apply) ● provincial association (e.g., bc teal; tesl ontario; atesl) ● national association (e.g., tesl canada) ● international association (e.g., cambridge; oxford) ● private association (e.g., oxford learning seminars) q59 how many years of post-secondary teaching experience do you have? ● 0 ● less than 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● more than 21 q60 how many years of eap teaching experience do you have? in canada? ● 0 ● less than 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● more than 21 q61 how many years of eap teaching experience do you have? outside of canada? ● 0 ● less than 1 ● 1-2 ● 3-5 ● 6-10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● more than 21 q62 thank you for completing the question portion of our survey. click the “right arrow” button below to record your answers and have the opportunity to a) participate in phase 2 of this research project; and b) win a prize for completion of this survey. the bc teal journal is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. copyright rests with the author(s). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v7i1.498 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mortenson 106 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 white tesol instructors’ engagement with social justice content in an eap program: teacher neutrality as a tool of white supremacy leah mortenson keio academy of new york abstract this study highlights the teaching practices of three white instructors—who addressed social justice issues in the context of their english for academic purposes (eap) classes—to contextualize their pedagogy in relation to intersections of whiteness and english language teaching. the study was conducted at a four-year private university on the east coast in the united states, and data were collected over the course of a semester through observations, interviews with teachers, and document analysis. using social justice pedagogy (sjp) and critical whiteness studies (cws) as my frameworks for analysis, i suggest that white instructors’ remaining neutral on social injustices maintains whiteness in the context of english language teaching. implications are discussed for white eap instructors who seek to engage emergent bilingual (eb) students in conversations about social justice issues and disrupt existing power dynamics of whiteness and colonial legacies within english language teaching. introduction historically, english for academic purposes (eap) programs have prioritized using inauthentic, standardized materials to teach skills-based language instruction over adopting more critical positions to english language teaching that recognize the impact of the surrounding sociocultural and political histories on classroom contexts and interactions (flowerdew & peacock, 2001). rather than addressing ideological issues, or “cultural beliefs that justify social arrangements, including patterns of inequality” (macionis, 2010), discussions of societal inequities—which may unveil conflicting views among discussants—are often foregone, withholding opportunities for emergent bilingual (eb) students to participate in complex conversations about relevant social issues (benesch, 2010). the outer world impacts eb students’ school-based experiences, so bringing in relevant content that deals with historical and contemporary societal issues may provide them with opportunities to practise critical reading and research, deducing fact from fiction, and participating in civic dialogue: all skills and competencies that are crucial for their academic and career success. this study highlights the teaching practices of three white instructors—who addressed social justice issues in the context of their eap classes—to contextualize their pedagogy in relation to intersections of whiteness and english language teaching. the study was conducted at a four-year private university on the east coast in the united states, and data were collected over the course of a semester through observations, interviews with teachers, and document analysis. using social justice pedagogy (sjp) and critical whiteness studies (cws) as my frameworks for analysis, i suggest that white instructors’ remaining neutral on social injustices maintains whiteness in the context of english language teaching. implications are discussed for white eap instructors who seek to engage eb students in conversations about social justice issues and disrupt existing power dynamics of whiteness and colonial legacies within elt. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 107 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 the study offers implications that echo the call of gerald (2020) for teacher education programs to integrate critical whiteness studies (cws) and critical race theory (crt) into their curricula in order to better prepare the majority white teaching force to work with diverse learners and adopt self-reflective, harm-reducing practices. it surfaces the “complicated conversation” (pinar, 2004) about curricula traditionally used in english language teaching and showcases it as a site of struggle reflecting the political, institutional, and sociohistorical priorities of a given moment. finally, it prompts journals to provide platforms for interdisciplinary investigations that seek to better understand the intersections of language and race, which has been minimally researched. literature review whiteness and english language teaching the population of north america is rapidly diversifying, and the relative proportion of white people is declining (frey, 2020; harvey & houle, 2006). for example, according to statistics canada (2021), 22.3 percent of the canadian population belongs to a visible minority group or groups, and that number is expected to rise to between 31.2 percent and 35.9 percent by 2036 (“2021 census,” 2021). the needs and interests of students are shifting in line with changing demographics, and white educators must evolve their practices to meet those needs. “decolonizing” english language teaching necessitates recognizing that the english language has been used as a colonizing force around the world to carry out acts of domination and oppression (kumaravadivelu, 2016; pennycook, 1998). lin and luke (2006) have recognized that the naming of teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol) already establishes a dynamic of self-other in which the anglo teacher is “self,” and the learner is the perpetual “other” found lacking, which upholds a colonial narrative of oppressor and oppressed. instead of ignoring historical wrongdoings committed by anglo english speakers, an alternative is to acknowledge those histories within english language teaching to engage students in critical inquiry over social justice issues related to oppression through content-based language instruction (lynn et al., 2002). english language teaching may be seen as a border site where imperialism, linguicism, xenophobia, and racism overlap (kubota & lin, 2006; liggett, 2014; sterzuk, 2015; taylor, 2006). teaching english and whiteness—the set of rules, norms, and behaviours that govern status quo society and uphold white supremacy (roediger, 2006)—are intermingled as a majority of tesol instructors and college professors are white (davis & frey, 2019; motha, 2006), the idealized native speaker is often positioned as white (ruecker & ives, 2015), and both being white as well as being a native english speaker are identity markers that connote global power (motha, 2006). as the mode of communication for many colonialist acts, english has acted as a medium that reproduces and otherizes those of different racial, national, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds (luke, 2004). the “anglo” bias of english language teaching has been well documented in the literature, and scholars have denounced eap programs’ willingness to forego critical approaches to language teaching (canagarajah, 2002; flowerdew & peacock, 2001), condemning the ways that english language teaching tends to herald whiteness as “both a prize and a goal” (gerald, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 108 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 2020). a study by lee (2015) showed how eap instruction in liberal multicultural canada uses culture as a proxy for race, replicating power dynamics that otherize eb students and position english as metonymic with whiteness. mackie (2003) addressed the role of patronizing desire and white saviourism in her teaching of the “esl [english as a second language] other,” who she constructed in her mind as “a monolithic community of people, joined by their sameness to each other and their difference from [her], and by their dependence on [her] to help them out of their difficulties and to provide a model of canadianness to which they could aspire” (p. 30). the task to recognize and disrupt patterns of whiteness in english language teaching is not an easy one as it has deep ties to colonialism. to avoid repeating societal patterns of domination and settler colonialism, white english language teachers must account for the intersections of whiteness and the english language to disrupt the colonizing power of tesol (kubota & lin, 2006). scholars have been engaged with the question of how to actualize decolonial, anti-racist teaching practices for many years. for example, kouritzin’s (2005) editorial in tesl canada asked what it means to be a white english language teacher and teacher educator who seeks to adopt anti-racist practices while simultaneously acknowledging her own internalized racism. wihak’s (2004) perspective investigated what it means to be white in canada and offered personal reflections on her own racial identity in a society that continues to marginalize indigenous communities despite governmental structures that proclaim to offer freedoms equally to all, writing that “insidious blindness to the effects of race is pervasive in white canadian society” (p. 112). fleming’s (2005) article asked what it means to be an anti-racist educator who resists personal privilege to challenge eb students to “seize hold of canada as their own creation to mold” (p. 90). educators and scholars have developed theory around the intersection of race with tesol (crump, 2014; ennser-kananen, 2020; lin & luke, 2006; kubota, 2002; kubota & lin, 2006; shin, 2011; von esch et al., 2020), investing time and energy into developing curricula that merges english language teaching with socially conscious content (guerrettaz & zahler, 2017; walsh marr, 2019). however, few studies have asked white english language teachers to reveal their own views about using ideological and/or social justice-related content to teach english. since english language teaching is wrapped up with native speakerism and whiteness (motha, 2006; ruecker & ives, 2015), this exploration of white english language teachers’ views is a critical piece of the puzzle to understand how to manifest decolonial approaches to english language teaching, and this lack of research into white english teacher views is the gap this study seeks to address. uncritical approaches in eap programs scholars have long critiqued eap programs for adopting uncritical and/or pragmatist approaches to english language teaching (allison, 1996; benesch, 1993; hyland, 2004; paltridge, 2001; pennycook, 1994; santos, 1992). uncritical and/or pragmatist approaches leave eb students unprepared to engage successfully in university-level content-area work, which necessitates understanding ideological issues (such as racism, sexism, gender discrimination, and ethnocentrism) that result in societal inequities. benesch (1999; 2001; 2010) has argued for the use of critical pedagogy in eap classrooms and has provided models for intervention and mediation in the context of critical conversations wherein teachers can model that critical https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 109 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 thinking is “neither an unguided free-for-all nor a didactic lecture but a balance between extended student contributions and gentle challenges by the teacher” (1999, p. 578). haque (2008) has argued that employing critical pedagogy in eap teaching is futile if not undertaken with simultaneous critiques of the institutions in which it is occurring. the challenge is multiplied when efforts are undertaken in contexts that self-position as “neutral sites” in which eap is seen as a “service industry to provide students with access to a neutral body of knowledge” (haque, 2008, p. 94) rather than an institution that is itself ideologically motivated and responsible for perpetuating inequities that otherize eb students. eap programs encourage instructors to adopt new genres, technologies, and researchinformed practices into their teaching (bahrami et al., 2019; hyland & shaw, 2016); however, the debate about what the larger purpose of eap programs should be—whether it is to convey a practical set of language skills to students, or to develop students’ critical thinking, effective communication, and abilities to speak in informed ways about relevant social issues such that they can participate in academic communities successfully—remains an active and ongoing one. canagarajah (2002) posited that the “accommodationist” approach so often employed in eap settings ignores students’ cultural backgrounds and neglects opportunities to advance their critical thinking skills about subject area content. more recent scholarship has highlighted potential outcomes of critical approaches to english language teaching that merge language and content instruction, reciprocally, to encourage learners to make text/context connections, and make the rhetorical and social expectations of texts clear (airey, 2016; canagarajah, 2006; schleppegrell 2013). for example, walsh marr’s (2019) response to canada’s 2008 truth and reconciliation commission (trc) sought to teach students about canada’s mistreatment of first nations communities while foregrounding critical english language instruction through examining historical texts and analyzing the language structures within the texts that construct specific narratives about what occurred, such as the use of active vs. passive voice to connote or deny responsibility for the harm committed against indigenous communities by whites in power. in a united states context, guerretaz & zahler’s (2017) article highlighted possibilities to de-silence race in an academic literacy class through using the novel a lesson before dying by ernest gaines (1993) to foreground multiliteracies and african american vernacular english (aave), as well as initiate critical conversations about historical injustices experienced by black americans in jim crowera united states—conversations that can set the stage for addressing contemporary injustices against black and brown communities and societal responses such as the black lives matter movement. talking to eb students about contemporary societal issues and the impact of culture, race, gender, class, and language (among other identity markers) on individuals’ and groups’ experiences of opportunity and/or oppression in varying contexts can position eb students to be more critical of the authority invested in english as compared to their first language (l1), which is a key component of decolonizing english language teaching (parkinson, 2016). this case study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the practices of three white eap instructors who foregrounded social justice-based content in their eap instruction. the study offers implications for white english language teachers invested in adopting anti-racist, decolonial practices and highlights the importance of reflecting on one’s personal beliefs, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 110 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 prejudices, and biases regarding racism, white privilege, and personal responsibility towards societal inequities. this study suggests that english language teachers who seek to decolonize their teaching cannot do so while remaining neutral on issues of injustice. research questions data for this study were collected over a semester, and the questions that guided it were: 1. how do white eap instructors conceptualize the politics of english language teaching? 2. what are tensions and/or alignments between how white eap instructors understand themselves and their beliefs about racism, prejudice, white privilege, and colonialism and how do those beliefs manifest in classroom conversations about social justice issues? 3. how do instructors’ conversations about social justice issues maintain or disrupt whiteness in english language teaching? methods theoretical framing social justice pedagogy (sjp) social justice pedagogy (sjp) represents a sustained commitment to acknowledging that systemic injustice is real and that in order to disrupt it, those with more power than other communities/groups/individuals must actively subvert their own privilege. taking inspiration from the definition given by cumming-potvin (2009), i understand sjp to be ethics in action that drive instructors to 1) promote visibility of marginalized persons; 2) speak out against oppressions and continually work to destabilize the status quo surrounding race, class, culture, and all other marginalized or minoritized identity markers; and 3) accept the above two codes of conduct as one’s ethical responsibility. a social justice agenda in teaching is one that sees the process of teaching as being instrumental to creating a fairer and more just society (zeichner, 2003). in this way, the purpose of teaching is to help students to grow into full participants and change agents for greater equity in their communities (parker, 2006). teaching for social justice is not a simple task, and the challenge is doubled when it is undertaken in the context of an educational system entrenched in historical inequities and oppressive institutions. for this reason, it is critically important that teachers not only engage students in conversations about social justice topics, but that they are also continually reflecting on the privileges and prejudices they may bring with them into the classroom and to these discussions. freire (2010) identified that liberatory and transformative pedagogy only occurs when both teacher and student are learning together, co-creating and re-creating knowledge, and when hierarchies of teacher and student dissolve and all parties are learning subjects (p. 69). similarly supportive of liberatory classrooms, hooks (1994) argued that in opposition to the banking model of education in which students are constructed as passive recipients of information, critical inquiry is an important part of learning since the “cozy, good feeling [of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 111 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 being a passive recipient] may at times block the possibility of giving students space to feel that there is integrity to be found in grappling with difficult material” (p. 154). diangelo and sensoy (2012), kendi (2019), and saad (2020) further identifed that personal growth and learning may be found through embracing productive discomfort, seeking critical understandings of history, and reflecting on one’s positionality in society in relation to others. it is through this understanding of social justice pedagogy that i approached my analysis of the data and my interpretations of the participants’ words and actions in their classrooms. conceptualizing whiteness gillborn (2019) distinguished between “whiteness” and “white people” as not being one in the same; however, they often work in collaboration. “whiteness” comprises a set of assumptions, beliefs, and practices that disproportionately privilege white people and their interests; people who identify as white might serve the agenda of whiteness, but this is not a given, nor is it inevitable. leonardo (2002) delineated that while “white people” refers to an identity category typically based on skin colour, “whiteness” is a social concept that relates to structural inequities rooted in white supremacist racial dominance. as a “well-entrenched structure that is manifested in and gives shape to institutions” (castagno, 2013, p. 102), whiteness serves as a powerful kind of “social amnesia” that transcends national boundaries (leonardo, 2002) and upholds the status quo. in the context of education, it undergirds sustained inequities in schools that result in achievement gaps, pushes out students of colour, and maintains the school-to-prison pipeline (leonardo, 2013; morris, 2016; skiba, et al., 2014). in this study, “whiteness,” “white supremacy,” and “status quo” are used interchangeably to indicate the inextricable connections between society, as it has always been and currently is, and the maintenance of a racialized hierarchy. diangelo (2018) has provided a set of guidelines for identifying and working against white fragility—a state in which even the smallest amount of racial stress becomes unbearable for white people, triggering a series of defensive moves such as outward displays of guilt, fear, anger, as well as behaviours like silence, defensiveness, or leaving the stressful situation, all of which serve to reinstate the white racial equilibrium (p. 2). diangelo’s (2018) definition and examples of white fragility provided me with a critical framework for understanding statements of teachers in my study that relayed their relative levels of race consciousness and the degree to which the conversations they had with students about ideological issues maintained or disrupted whiteness in the educational space. study design positionality i am a white, well-educated, native english-speaking woman. i do not viscerally experience the societal injustices with which i am concerned (kay, 2018). however, given the privileges i have, i understand that it is my ethical obligation to listen to those whose lives have been challenged by more obstacles than my own, and i must also act out of my awareness of those facts. i seek to use my positionality to give voice to issues affecting individuals and communities for whom society is not constructed, since remaining silent on issues of injustice maintains the status quo of https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 112 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 white supremacy. milner (2007) identified that studying the self and studying the self in relation to others in one’s community can be a powerful means to effect change. wihak (2004) stated that “the meaning of being white is created by my own actions rather than just by the actions of other members of the white race” (p. 114). i do not believe it is possible to develop a positive white identity, and i agree with diangelo (2018) that we may strive to be “less white,” less racially oppressive, and more committed to “break[ing] with white silence and white solidarity, to stop privileging the comfort of white people over the pain of racism for people of colour, to move past guilt and into action” (p. 150). it is my hope that through researching my own community of white eap instructors and through subsequent actions taken in my own teaching and advocacy work, i can continue learning, evolve my teaching practice to be more equitable, and work to be a better accomplice for social justice work (kendall, 2021). i conducted this research in a united states context; however, i have chosen to submit this article to a canadian journal because racism within english language teaching is not limited to the united states, and both the u.s. and canada have similar legacies of racism, colonialism, and indigenous genocide with which to reckon (veracini, 2015). in u.s. universities, the student body is diversifying faster than the university instructors who are educating them, where 70 percent of university professors continue to be white, with disparities increasing in relation to professor status—adjunct, tenure, etc. (davis & frey, 2019). statistics canada collects data on age, rank, and gender of faculty and students in canadian universities; however, it does not collect data on race or ethnic makeup of faculty and students, and neither do provincial governments (wong, 2017). u.s. data may represent the most relevant parallel of information that may apply to canadian contexts. because the observations and conclusions made in this study may be transferable to a canadian context, i seek to understand, in the spirit of malcolm x’s (1965) call to white allies to get to work across our own communities, how we may contribute to building more equitable institutions and disrupt settler colonial, racist, and xenophobic patterns within english language teaching. case study case study was a suitable research method for this study as it allows for in-depth examination of a specific field site and community in which there is a shared culture (leedy & ormrod, 2013, p. 236). the study took place in the context of an eap program where i also taught at the time of the study. like my participants, i am also a white eap instructor. because my goal was to understand this group of teachers and gain a better understanding of the impact of white teachers’ underlying beliefs on the ways they engage with ideological content in the eap classroom, case study was a fitting research design as it may be utilized to learn more about a “little known or poorly understood situation” (p. 231). historically, eap programs have not adopted ideological approaches to english language instruction, so case study was an appropriate research method to allow me to gain insight into an understudied area. case study may also be utilized to highlight changes that occur in individuals or programs in response to specific events or circumstances (leedy et al., 2019), so it was appropriate for my goal of examining white teachers’ approaches to ideological content in the wake of social injustices happening in real time, such as instances of police brutality happening against black and brown people in the u.s. and in canada (simpson, 2020). https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 113 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 research context the study was conducted at a private, four-year university on the east coast of the united states. the university has about 14,000 students between both the undergraduate and graduate schools, and the eap program was founded a little over ten years ago. there were about 230 students enrolled in classes in the program for spring 2018, ranging from undergraduate to graduate levels and including both credit and non-credit bearing courses. demographically, students in all programs represented over thirty-seven countries; however, the majority of students came from china. as of spring 2018, there were 19 teachers on staff—14 of whom were adjunct and five who were full-time. fourteen of the teachers were women, and five were men. the demographics of the instructors were consistent with national trends for both the u.s. and canada in that 15 of the instructors were white, three were asian, and one was black. participants and data collection to gain access to participants for this study, i first sent out an informational email to all faculty in the eap program to explain my goals—namely, to observe the teaching of eap instructors whose courses addressed social justice issues—to better understand the opportunities and challenges in addressing such content with eb students. i received interest from three instructors, and after discussing the content they planned to address in their classes as well as working out scheduling requirements, since i would be observing their classes throughout the semester, i determined their classes to be suitable for the study. one instructor was male, two were female, and all three instructors identified as white. two of the instructors were american and one was canadian. the instructors all had non-tenure track appointments; one had a full-time position within the program and the other two taught as adjunct instructors. while each class within the eap program had overarching objectives that needed to be met, instructors had freedom to determine how they did so and could choose their own curricula and materials. the three classes i observed were 1) a graduate course in advanced reading, 2) an undergraduate academic writing class, and 3) an undergraduate course on media and culture. some of the ideological, social justice-based content that instructors addressed in their classes included police brutality against black indigenous and people of colour (bipoc), the black lives matter movement, protests, gentrification of the surrounding metropolitan area, and the violent legacy of christopher columbus. the classes met three times per week for 55 minutes per class. the teachers as well as the students in their classes consented to be observed and have their class participation and words documented. students in the classes came from vietnam, venezuela, saudi arabia, u.a.e., palestine, and ethiopia; however, a majority of students were from china. i collected the data for the study by audio recording each class period, taking detailed fieldnotes, and transcribing the period after class for later coding and analysis. i received ethics approval for the study from the institutional review board (irb) committee at the university where i was conducting the research as well as the university where i was completing my doctoral work as this comprised part of my dissertation research. for the sake of anonymity and in keeping with current reference guidelines in the publication manual of the american psychological association (7th ed.) (apa, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 114 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 2020), i refer to the participating individual teachers and their students using the third person singular “they.” data sources and materials data sources for this study included observations, field notes, artifact review (of syllabi, class materials, etc.), and semi-structured interviews with instructors at three points throughout the semester (see table 1 for summary of database). i audio recorded class periods and interviews on my computer, i took detailed fieldnotes throughout the classes, and i bracketed my personal observations/evaluations in my fieldnotes in an effort to record only that which was observable in the classroom (emerson et al., 1995). my data analysis was ongoing and recursive, involving continual de-construction of my initial observations to reach deeper understandings (stake, 1995). in my transcription process, i documented interactions between students and teachers as “scripts” (grimm et al., 2014) and referenced students as “s1,” “s2,” etc. to maintain anonymity. table 1 summary of database methods data collection period (january 2018may 2018) data classroom observations ongoing fieldnotes, audiotape, and transcription on 54 lessons in three courses totaling 67.5 hours of observation fieldnotes ongoing recorded notes in classroom observations. focused on observable phenomena and bracketed personal thoughts interviews with teachers interview 1: beginning of semester interview 2: middle of the semester interview 3: end of the semester audiotaped and transcribed nine interviews with an average length of 1.5 hours per interview documents ongoing course syllabi, outlines, in-class materials, course website codebook ongoing synthesized quotes from classes and interviews to develop themes using an online qualitative data coding software program to relay participants’ words truthfully, i utilized verbatim coding (saldaña, 2021), and i allowed themes to emerge from the data (leedy et al., 2019). i employed a web-based coding software to help me to categorize, tag, and analyze my data (salmona et al., 2019), uploading https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 115 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 class and interview transcripts to the program and using the software to create a codebook that helped identify and organize overarching themes and sub-themes across data sources. creswell’s (2013) data analysis spiral served as a model for me to organize my data, analyze it as a whole, identify overarching categories and themes, and delineate findings within those themes. i repeated this process to identify outliers and/or allow for more nuanced understandings to develop from my initial observations. in line with scholars like maxwell (2013) and chang (2008), i believe that research is an ongoing process that expands outward to allow for more meaningful connections and analyses to be made the longer one sits with the data. findings i have organized my findings into three overlapping categories that relate to the earlier stated research questions, with my findings contextualized in relation to the research questions. the question related to the impact of instructors’ conversations about social justice issues on whiteness in english language teaching is addressed throughout the findings section and is further elaborated on and contextualized in the subsequent discussion. teachers’ beliefs about the politics of teaching “you can’t pretend it’s not political” in interviews, teachers shared their beliefs about the politics of teaching and showcased varying understandings of colonialism, xenophobia, racism, and white privilege. during an interview, a participant claimed that “you can’t pretend [teaching] is not political—especially language teaching,” and indicated that they valued allowing students’ own opinions and voices to take centre stage rather than their own, saying that they “weren’t there to create mini mes.” one participant shared that there have been moments when they have heard students’ opinions on social issues that they have “found repugnant,” which led them to question how they felt about helping students acquire language to express views with which they disagreed. a teacher shared that, in their opinion, it’s none of their business what students’ personal views are and how they may clash with their own. another teacher shared that they thought it was important to keep their feelings “tapped [sic] down” during conversations [about social justice issues].” another teacher shared that they had heard students make homophobic comments in class and asked, “what to do about that? if you figure out that answer, i will happily buy your book.” “i think the teacher should be neutral” teachers in the study expressed a desire to be neutral when speaking to students about ideological issues related to societal inequities. one teacher identified that they think that in order to be an effective facilitator of discussion, the teacher should be neutral on social issues. they did not think it was useful to share their own beliefs or “try to convince students of things” and said that instead, they wanted to communicate information to students “just the way [it is]”. one instructor shared their own experiences attending a seminar-based high school where teachers adopted neutral stances when discussing social and political issues, reflecting that these experiences shaped their own conceptions of “how things should be” in the classroom. when https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 116 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 discussing the process of choosing texts and resources for classes, teachers reported that selecting materials for how well they revealed “the reality of things.” another teacher shared that early on in their english language teaching career, they decided “to try to be as neutral as possible on social issues that come up.” they explained that they were raised in a military family where “you never talk politics and you never talk religion because military’s the family, and you have people from all sides coming in, and for an army officer, you always follow your leader no matter what your personal beliefs are.” teachers shared that they have had students who ask them on the side where they stand and they refuse to tell them because they have seen other teachers who do “go there” with students, and they were concerned about conflicting views being shared that could result in hurt feelings. when students asked what their political views were, one teacher answered, “i’ll tell you the answer my parents told me for 40 years—secret voter.” the teachers in this study did not see it as desirable or appropriate to share their personal politics with students and instead, insisted it was best to keep these separate from their teaching. all three teachers identified that “preserving the peace” and “minimizing potential conflict” were values they held in high esteem in their classrooms. they identified that they saw it as important to not “get on a soapbox,” and “yammer on about [their] opinions.” one teacher expressed pride when, in class, a student asked for their opinion on a race-related topic and another student cut in to say, “don’t ask [them]. [they’re] always neutral!” for the teachers, the idea of being seen by students as neutral on ideological issues related to racism, social, and political injustice seemed to be an ideal to which they aspired and viewed as a hallmark of effective and ethical teaching. teachers did not see a contradiction in acknowledging the political nature of teaching while also remaining silent about social injustices. scholars like diangelo (2018) may assess this denial of personal responsibility to address injustices as retreating from stress-inducing situations rather than showing beliefs that white people with unearned privileges are obligated to speak out on issues of injustice. many scholars (diangelo, 2018; kendi, 2019; saad, 2020) would agree that such denials foreground white fragility and reinforce the racial status quo. teachers’ beliefs about racism, white privilege, and personal responsibility “i don’t feel that i have the expertise to address these issues” in interviews, teachers shared their personal beliefs about racism, colonialism, white privilege, and personal responsibility to address societal inequities. common findings were that teachers believed a) they were not the appropriate person to speak about racism and other social inequities and that education and educating about such issues should be carried out by minoritized individuals, b) present-day inequities had nothing to do with them if they were not acting in racist ways, and c) any conversations about race, racism, or other injustices should be carried out in a “civil” manner in which no one is called a racist or told they are wrong. one teacher shared in an interview that because they don’t face racial prejudice themselves, they don’t often notice or think about it until/unless it is pointed out. this teacher has close family members of colour, and they identified that sometimes these family members https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 117 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 will “call [them] out on things with comments like ‘that’s such a white comment.’” i asked the teacher if they were bothered by these “call-outs” and they said no—that they found them helpful and that they “want[ed] to be educated about these issues so please, tell [them] what to do.” teachers shared that they don’t feel like they have the expertise to discuss racism with their students, and one participant said that “if [students] had a professor from a minority background, that would be very helpful.” other teachers shared similar views, identifying that because they are white, they don’t feel capable of speaking about injustice in an informed way. they said they would like to help forward the conversation, but they don’t know how, and one participant said, “i would like to be able to hear what the issues are—how can i help forward the conversation? how can i hear you? please stop me and let me know right away—you know— call me out on it.” they expressed a desire to be educated on racial and social justice issues and to be alerted if/when they were not understanding something, and they indicated feeling like it was more appropriate to be educated by minoritized people on issues related to injustice rather than educating themselves. “the confederacy is not my fault… i think we’ve got to drop it” teachers did not see themselves as being complicit in present-day inequities if they were not participating in individual acts of racism. one teacher shared their view that the alt-right has a slogan that “being white is okay” and said that they agree with this statement. they further explained their opinion that white americans “don’t need to bear the burden of the civil war,” elaborating to say, i think it’s a little absurd to be having these arguments about the confederacy still. because no one my age is responsible for it. i mean even if you are related to confederate soldiers, even if you know people that protested against the civil rights movement—it’s not my fault, and i don’t think it’s their fault either. at some point, i think we’ve got to drop it because as we’ve seen, it creates a lot of animosity. this teacher did not see themselves as having benefited from white supremacy, nor did they view its historical legacy as something that belonged to them. their comments highlighted a desire to smooth over past injustices and construct a vision of societal harmony rather than prioritize accountability. another teacher shared their experiences talking about racism while growing up, and said that they “were always able to have open dialogue [...] and everyone was allowed to share their opinions. and… you know, [these conversations] were conducted in a civil and organized way no one was called a racist and no one was told they’re wrong.” similar to the participant comment above, this teacher did not see it as their personal responsibility, as a white person, to account for racism’s historical legacy or present-day impact, and indicated valuing “civility and organization” in race conversations over accurate historical renderings and justice-oriented understandings. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 118 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 manifestations of teachers’ beliefs in the classroom teachers’ beliefs regarding racism, white supremacy, the legacy of colonialism, and white accountability manifested in the classroom when speaking about social justice-related issues. teachers enacted their preferred stances of remaining neutral on ideological issues of social justice while simultaneously revealing their personal beliefs, both of which served to maintain whiteness. “i’m not saying right or wrong” teachers expressed their desire to remain neutral on issues of social justice in the classroom, and this value manifested in their approaches to teaching about social justice topics. in one teacher’s class on media and culture, students spoke about an excerpt they watched of the show black-ish about an upper middle-class black family trying not to lose touch with their racial community while facing pressure to assimilate to white, middle class norms. the episode is called “juneteenth” and it highlights a school play for thanksgiving put on by a white teacher whose efforts at diversity and inclusion include making students of colour play columbus and other colonizers. during the debrief of the episode, the teacher gauged students’ understandings of basic plot points, asking, “so, who’s christopher columbus?” a student responded that columbus “invaded north america and got the land and killed people,” to which the teacher responded, “ok, ‘invaded.’ interesting terminology. i’m not saying right or wrong.” in this case, the teacher’s perception of what it meant to be neutral on ideological issues meant that they did not confirm a student’s assessment of what columbus did as an “invasion," which by definition means “an unwelcome intrusion into another’s domain.” when i asked the teacher about this moment in a subsequent interview, they shared the following: t: i felt that it was such a loaded word [l: invaded?] yes. so, yes: he [christopher columbus] came. and yes, there was a lot of destruction. not true that he was in north america [laughs] ok, but i say all this—i was doing research on it, a day or two beforehand doublechecking what we were seeing in the show. ‘cause i was like, ‘well, i’ve got to see what’s true.’ so, i didn’t have all the research, i wasn’t able to go back and make sure: ‘this is absolutely true’ or not. so hence, i said ‘i can’t say true or not’ [laughs] ‘i can’t say right or wrong,’ but yet, i know there are some facts that we were taught that are incorrect. so, it was the loaded word [that made me respond in the way i did] and it would have been useful to say, ‘that’s a loaded word,’ because ‘invasion’ means that you are going there to destroy—in my mind, that’s the insinuation, the connotation. in this interaction, the teacher shares that they had been put off by the student’s use of a “loaded” term and did not feel adequately informed on the issues to be able to speak to what was true or untrue. this response indicates a gap, not only in the teacher’s own education on christopher columbus’ actions and legacy, but also in their confidence in being able to navigate addressing “loaded” terminology in the classroom. scholars like hess and mcavoy (2009), kay (2018), and loewen (2018) have addressed the utility of leaning into conflict in the classroom while also https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 119 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 acknowledging that it is an underdeveloped skill in teachers. this contention indicates that there is a gap not only in being informed on the issues, but also being equipped to address moments of discomfort, disagreement, ambiguity, and conflict so that the teachable moments that could come out of such tensions are not sacrificed. “riots are uncontrolled, unthinking beasts” teachers contradicted their stated desires to be neutral on social justice-related issues in the classroom. in the midst of a conversation about major turning points in the civil rights movement, for example, students discussed an image displayed on a screen showcasing burning buildings during civil unrest following the death of martin luther king jr. students were confused about why black people were burning their own neighbourhoods in protest, and the following interaction occurred: s1: why are angry people just destroying— s2: but when there are riots, you are supposed to fight for some rights… right? what are they doing? s3 [in disbelief]: why did they destroyed their own neighbourhoods?! t: riots are uncontrolled, unthinking beasts. there is no logic. s4: yeah, because it shows they are not thinking. s1: that’s like you just go out and destroy something. s5: for example, you’re angry and you destroy your tv. your own tv! [students laugh] s2: i read about attica—do you know attica riots? those african american prisoners were fighting for their rights because they have miserable lives in the prison. i thought that’s right, right? s5: they are expressing their anger, but they are not doing it in a proper manner s1: i just don’t get it because if i’m fighting for my rights, i don’t burn my own stuff [students laugh] t: well, i don’t think an angry crowd is going to take the bus to [wealthy neighbourhood] [students laugh]. s3: that’s what i say when i saw the baltimore thing. like why are you lighting fires in police cars and the cvs… t: ok, let’s move on. that’s where we finish. instead of prompting students further—for example, asking students what they thought would constitute a “proper” manner of protesting and/or providing information about the institutional, systematic disenfranchisement and discrimination experienced by bipoc that could reasonably lead to an eruption like the one they had seen in the pictures—this teacher positioned protests as unreasonable, illogical, and remained silent while students laughed about the idea of burning one’s own neighbourhood and made flippant comments about destroying their tv. rather than foregrounding riots as martin luther king jr. did—as “the language of the unheard” —and creating space for debate and informed discussion among students about the efficacy of protests in creating societal change—the teacher presented their opinion about riots in a way that left little room for debate, research, and discussion that may have expanded students’ conceptions of what this historical moment represented for oppressed people around the world. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 120 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 discussion social justice pedagogy (sjp) requires sustained commitment to the idea that systemic injustice is real and that in order to disrupt it, those with more power than others must actively subvert their own privilege. the first research question of this study was answered in that the teachers in this study claimed to understand teaching to be political, conceptually, but did not act out of this understanding—as showcased by their avoidance of discussing social justice issues in unambiguous ways and/or approaching this content through critical lenses. tensions were showcased in teachers’ understandings of themselves in relation to racism, prejudice, white privilege, and colonialism, as they did not see these legacies as relating to them nor did they feel a need to account for them in their life or teaching. in the instructor’s refusal to address columbus’ legacy in clear and unambiguous ways, they sacrificed an opportunity to provide students with additional context and information about what columbus and other colonizers did, directly, via rape and genocide, and indirectly, to the taino and other indigenous people, and then ask students what they thought. for example, they could have addressed that prior to white contact, indigenous numbers in the united states and canada are thought to have been around 14 million, and by 1880—due to the disease, destruction, and deculturation brought by european settlers—indigenous numbers had declined by 98 percent (loewen, 2018). the teacher could have leaned into this moment of tension to discuss the meaning of the word “invasion,” allowing students to do their own research and debate, in relation to evidence discussed, whether columbus should continue to be celebrated as a hero. instead of doing any of this, their “neutral” response reaffirmed whiteness and revisionist history and neglected an opportunity for a critical conversation. the teacher who claimed riots are “unthinking beasts” that “[have] no logic” similarly missed an opportunity to engage students in a critical conversation while simultaneously sharing their own prejudiced perspective. this teacher did not follow up with students in this interaction during a few critical moments—for example, when the student said i read about attica—do you know attica riots? those african american prisoners were fighting for their rights because they have miserable lives in the prison. i thought that’s right, right? —this opportunity could have been a moment in which the teacher could ask students to pause and reflect over this statement to consider why someone might “burn their own stuff” as a form of protest: namely when they don’t have any other option. in interviews, this teacher indicated that they thought teachers should remain neutral in class conversations about social justice issues; however, in the context of this class conversation, they made their personal views about protests apparent, which students then mirrored in subsequent responses that such acts show “[people] are not thinking” and that “[protestors] are not doing it in a proper manner.” in contrast to the goals of sjp, the three white eap instructors in this study showcased personal beliefs and classroom practices that upheld whiteness when discussing social justicerelated content. they forewent opportunities to provide information about complex sociocultural phenomena, historical events, and cultural moments for their students, and in so doing, they did not serve the goal of disentangling english language teaching from colonial traditions but further reinforced dynamics of white supremacy. rather than minimizing confusion, misunderstandings, and stereotypes that were conveyed within these conversations, they sometimes added to the https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 121 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 misinformation and/or stereotypes themselves. the instructors operated under the assumptions that pedagogical neutrality is both possible and desirable while simultaneously revealing their personal beliefs about what is proper and correct. in interviews, instructor understandings of their own racial identities mirrored the idea that “they [bipoc]—not we [white people]—have race, and thus they are the holders of racial knowledge” (diangelo, 2018, p. 62), and showcased discomfort in addressing race and social justice issues in unambiguous ways. scholars like diangelo (2018) have addressed how white people often think they exist outside of the racial hierarchy and so don’t have to speak to it, when in fact, these silences are central to the hierarchy’s existence and maintenance. similar to this, the instructors in this study remained silent in conversations about racial and colonial injustice and did not approach these conversations from critical lenses (diangelo & sensoy, 2012), moving the class along to the next topic when they felt ill-equipped to navigate the challenging dialogic terrain. they denied access to white capital (solomona et al., 2005) and did not claim responsibility for dismantling hierarchies of oppression. in their discussion of social justicerelated topics in their classrooms, they re-affirmed whiteness with both their contributions and their omissions. counter to sjp scholars like cumming-potvin (2009) and zeichner (2003), the teachers in this study showed little awareness of teaching as instrumental in creating a fairer and more just society. in her essay “age, race, class, and sex: women redefining difference,” audre lorde (1984) reminded readers that, whenever the need for some pretense of communication arises, those who profit from [black people’s] oppression call upon us to share our knowledge with them. in other words, it is the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes. i am responsible for educating teachers who dismiss my children’s culture in school. black and third world people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. (p. 114) in the same way lorde indicated above, instructors in the study desired to be educated by bipoc individuals on societal injustices. questions they asked such as how can i hear you? please, stop me and tell me right away, demonstrated their thinking that “black and third world people . . . [must educate] white people as to [their] humanity.” in contrast, white instructors’ personal and professional development, reflection, and personal responsibility to educate themselves about their own histories and racial identities is a necessary step to decolonizing education. in the context of contemporary social justice issues such as ongoing police brutality and disproportionate rates of incarceration of black and brown communities (alexander, 2010), disparate impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on bipoc individuals, especially women (erickson, 2020), and the lasting impact of worldwide colonialism on indigenous communities (loewen, 2018), white teachers’ neutrality in conversations about such social injustices serves the status quo of injustice (applebaum, 2009; nurenberg, 2020). love (2019) wrote that social justice pedagogies must call out the ways in which racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other forms of prejudice and hate are structural in order to consciously commit to building equitable school communities and societies (p. 55). the false https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 122 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 presumption that neutrality is possible in the classroom foregoes opportunities to use positions of privilege to a) educate oneself about history in accurate and inclusive ways, and b) use that knowledge to give voice to the social inequities facing minoritized communities. it sacrifices opportunities for rich, nuanced discussions that could help model for students what engaged civic dialogue and debate could look like (hess, 2009; parker, 2006). neutrality also presumes that all perspectives are competing on an equal playing field, which is untrue in our present-day contexts of societal injustice (kay, 2018; oluo, 2020; wilkerson, 2020). furthermore, researchers find that neutrality is impossible, and students are able to deduce their teachers’ views without them having been explicitly communicated (hess & mcavoy, 2009). milner (2017) argued that what and how teachers teach is never neutral since the questions asked, what information is included in syllabi and materials, and even who is called on are all choices that are impacted by one’s personal beliefs, values, and prejudices. if teachers’ beliefs already enter into their teaching in ways that are unbeknownst to them, one could argue that may be more beneficial to transparently disclose opinions so that these are not presented as facts. such transparency could help to promote open dialogue, debate, and allow students to develop their own ideas and critical thinking skills. it could also model for students that working through conflict can be an arena for growth and personal development (kay, 2018). research has found that students may perceive information differently depending on the racial and gender identity, among other identity markers, of the teacher who is presenting the information. for example, a study found that when a white man (who teaches at a prestigious u.s. university) taught his students about issues of race and societal injustice, students reported him as “objective,” “scholarly,” and “disinterested,” in their course evaluations. conversely, when an african american woman at the same institution taught about issues of race and societal injustice, she was perceived as “self-interested,” “bitter,” or “putting forth a particular agenda” (ladson billings, 1996). ideas about who can be neutral, when certain topics are allowed to be broached, and by whom, are deeply embedded in the racist fabric of our institutions. in order for educators to help build a more equitable framework, they must train themselves to see who discourses of neutrality serve, and who they marginalize. educators must further acknowledge that neutrality on the part of white teachers and silences on social justice issues are manifestations of white fragility that showcase leave-taking of stress-inducing situations (diangelo, 2018), which maintains a white supremacist framework. scholarship has shown that engaging students in conversation and debate in which participants may have differing views is essential for the development of requisite skills to participate in civic dialogue (hess & mcavoy, 2009; kay, 2018). teacher neutrality obscures the political nature of education and hides from view the pillars of prejudice on which neutrality, as a concept, rests. heybach (2014) has traced the etymology of the word “neutrality,” and reminds readers that the essence of the word means “no power being transmitted” and “being disengaged.” it is worth considering: what are the implications of “no power being transmitted” in the context of white english language teachers’ attempting to talk to eb students about social justice issues? https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 123 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 implications implications for ma tesol program development in light of the disproportionate numbers of white educators as compared to the increasing diversity of the student body (davis & frey, 2019), there is an urgent need for ma tesol programs to integrate critical whiteness studies (cws) into their curricula to address historic inequities, dynamics of white privilege that continue to manifest and duplicate in school settings, and the role of teachers in disrupting these patterns (gerald, 2020). white teachers must better understand themselves, the lasting legacy of white supremacy, and the power and privilege they bring to classroom interactions to change their behaviours and approaches to teaching english accordingly. teaching is a political act through which social stratification is either reinforced or disrupted (buchanan, 2015), so it is imperative to closely examine the content that is being taught in ma tesol programs to understand the role it plays in disrupting or maintaining whiteness in education. in english language teaching, this demand is all the more pressing because of ties between the english language, colonialism, xenophobia, and the relative capital afforded based on the languages one speaks and the colour of one’s skin, which have social, political, and economic ramifications (bourdieu, 1986; guerrettaz & zahler, 2017; ruecker & ives, 2015). there is scant research on white eap practicing and pre-service teachers’ engagement with confronting whiteness, privilege, and anti-black racism in the context of their studies (ennser-kananen, 2020; motha, 2006). however, crt scholars such as boler (1999) and ohito (2016) have suggested the value of practicing a “pedagogy of discomfort” with white pre-service teachers to push them to see themselves located within an inequitable system and “make meaning of the contours of racial oppression” (p. 455), and similar pedagogies can be practised in ma tesol programs. for example, faez (2012) showcased the takeaways of teacher candidates who engaged in critical reflection over their own linguistic experiences and identities, foregrounding race in those reflections. in initiating (white) pre-service teachers’ investigation of their own racial identities, teacher educators may help to render visible the “tight yet seemingly invisible hold that white supremacy maintains on teacher education” (ohito, 2016, p. 454), allowing such programs to begin addressing and responding to historical inequities in meaningful ways rather than being guided by people in power who may be motivated more by interest convergence than true changes of heart and/or a desire for racial equity (bell, 1980; gillborn, 2006). implications for eap programs there has long been debate in eap scholarship about the degree to which eap programs should adopt critical or pragmatist approaches to english language teaching (benesch, 1993; hyland, 2004; paltridge, 2001; pennycook, 1994; santos, 1992). scholarship showcases the importance of language learning being integrated with authentic content (airey, 2016), and scholars have criticized eap programs’ approach to language teaching that teaches the four skills areas (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) in isolation, arguing that this approach leaves eb students unprepared to participate in university-level content-area work meaningfully, since https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 124 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 university coursework tends to engage with ideological issues (canagarajah, 2002; 2006; parkinson, 2016). the work of benesch (1999; 2001; 2010) has argued for the use of critical pedagogy in eap classrooms and provides models for intervention and mediation in critical conversations, demonstrating, for example, how eap instructors can serve as “conversation facilitator[s] and, more judiciously, intervener[s] (1999, p. 578), prompting students to elaborate on their ideas to model that critical thinking is “neither an unguided free-for-all nor a didactic lecture but a balance between extended student contributions and gentle challenges by the teacher” (p. 578). haque (2008) and luke (1992) have identified that critical pedagogy in eap teaching could fall short in similar ways as uncritical language teaching if it is not undertaken in tandem with critiques of the institutions of which the eap programs are a part (haque, 2008, p. 94). this issue is exacerbated when eap programs, and universities more broadly, are constructed in the societal imagination as “service industries” allowing students access to a “neutral body of knowledge” (p. 94) rather than institutions that are ideologically motivated. in light of this, the primary recommendation for eap programs that comes out of this study is to engage faculty—in particular white faculty—in professional development that foregrounds: 1. explicit education about the historical intersections of tesol with whiteness, colonialism, racism, and xenophobia 2. critical approaches to eap that promote awareness of the politics of language teaching 3. critical reflection about the role that eap teachers play in upholding or dismantling white supremacist thought in the classroom setting 4. guidance for undergoing critical dialogues about social justice issues with students, for example, the bc teal respectful interactions guidelines (rigs) framework (“bc teal,” n.d.) and/or the bc human rights code (“human rights,” 2021). there are many other resources that could aid in this education and professional development, including use of and reflection over the harvard implicit association test (iat), critical readings of texts like white fragility by robin diangelo (2018), and not light, but fire: how to lead meaningful race conversations in the classroom by matthew r. kay (2018). authors such as davis (2017) have discussed the benefits of professional book clubs for fostering conversations about social justice issues, addressing biases, and reflecting on and critiquing one’s background and personal values to better understand the impact of educators’ socialization on their teaching practices. engaging in this kind of dialogic inquiry—in supportive and collaborative environments—may be a productive way for white english language teachers to hold themselves and each other accountable to understanding the legacy of whiteness in their work and the obligation to take action in their practice to effect change (kendi, 2019; oluo, 2020). limitations and future research this study was limited by time, and its findings are limited to three white eap instructors whose teaching i followed over the course of a semester. in spite of these limitations, i believe the takeaways from this study are transferable to contexts where similar problems may exist within english language teaching related to whiteness and settler colonialist histories. this study https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 125 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 responds to a gap in the literature related to calls to de-silence social justice issues in tesol— namely, how these conversations are undertaken, by whom and with what background knowledge and underlying beliefs—and showcases that understanding these factors are just as, if not more, important than solely the fact of having these conversations integrated into eap teaching. this study builds on the body of work that has been done regarding intersections of whiteness, racism, and settler colonialism in tesol (gerald, 2020; kubota & lin, 2006; lin & luke, 2006; sterzuk & hengen, 2019; von esch et al., 2020) and provides a cautionary tale to those who are interested in integrating social justice-related content into their eap teaching about the ways in which whiteness may find a home in these conversations—just as a spider weaves its web (lin & luke, 2006)—if they are not undertaken with simultaneous critical race reflection and anti-racist professional development of white instructors. future research could engage in critical inquiry about professional development framed by critical whiteness studies (cws) and social justice pedagogy (sjp) and its impact on white eap instructors teaching about social justice issues. conclusion the teachers in this study showcased contradictory beliefs about the political nature of teaching and their perceived obligation to account for historical and contemporary racial inequities, which manifested in the classroom conversations they undertook regarding social justice issues. teachers integrated social justice-related content, yet did not see themselves as the appropriate person to talk about such inequities. they did not believe they had an obligation to speak to historical and present-day racism, and they desired for conversations about such topics to be undertaken in an “open, civil manner” in which no one was called a racist or told they were wrong. they acknowledged the political nature of teaching more broadly and english language teaching, specifically, while simultaneously seeking to remain neutral on ideological issues in their classrooms. this study showcases the tensions in the three participants’ practices that ultimately maintained whiteness. white eap educators who are invested in decolonizing their teaching practices and seek to engage students in meaningful conversations about social justice issues must read and engage more with the concept of white fragility to uncover their own blind spots, understand and interpret their gut reactions to being called to account for racism in present-day society, and be willing to engage in critical conversations about social justice issues within their classes in a clear and unambiguous way. without programmatic development in eap and ma tesol programs to educate white teachers on the intersections of tesol with race, settler colonialism, and whiteness, the status quo will continue to reproduce itself through these programs, and use of social justice content in eap programs will reinforce dynamics of white supremacy rather than provide opportunities for critical inquiry, debate, and growth. acknowledgments i wish to thank my husband for his support and multiple reads of this manuscript. i would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editor scott douglas for gracious comments, https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 mortenson 126 bc teal journal volume 6 number 1 (2021): 106–131 https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 constructive feedback, and publication guidance. thank you, as well, to dr. kimberly brown for the encouragement to write and continued mentorship. references airey, j. 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