Episode 3: Reading for mediation in EAP

This episode addresses the difficulty that many EAP students struggle with in the skill of reading. For many students, simply increasing reading comprehension is a big task. However, EAP classrooms can out of the dominant linguistic focus on vocabulary and main ideas. Instead, there can be more focus placed on helping students understand the greater purpose of reading. Students can read to create a 'team' of sources that the student can then mediate ideas from these reading texts into discussions and essays. Working with teams, both 'reading text teams' and 'classmate teams', expands the student's application of reading beyond merely comprehension assessments. 

However, to motivate students to read extensively and intensively, EAP classrooms need to envisage a wider scope for application. Merely producing essays and giving presentations to a single instructor is not likely to encourage students to do the hard work of reading more.

www.jessestommel.com  Learn more about Jesse Stommel's idea of ungrading and how study is about much more than assessments.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/authors/benjamin-tak-yuen-chan Learn more about Benjamin Tak Yuen Chan's ideas to reimagine the EAP classroom.