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INTEGRATED LANGUAGE AND COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING – A PROPOSED PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR STEPPING INTO ACADEMIA
Authors: Carmen PEREZ-LLANTADA AURIA
Number of views: 348
This article reports on an innovative practice entailing the use of an EAP literacy portfolio as a pedagogical tool for initiating adult language learners in higher education into a language/competency-oriented learning while building up a supportive environment and setting off a culture for learning. The rationale underpinning this integrated language/competency oriented approach was double-fold: firstly, to stimulate the students’ competence in a repertoire of academic literacies and, secondly, to formulate appropriate instructional interventions regarding curricular design, classroom methodology and language assessment system.
The article describes the procedures carried out for
implementing this integrative approach – namely, designing a coherent instruction and teaching materials, planning classroom work, introducing on-line learner management systems for monitoring progress, assessing student performance and supporting on-going, measurable progress of linguistic, metacognitive and interpersonal competencies. On pedagogical grounds, the article discusses how the ELP becomes a suitable tool to make
the course content and pedagogy stay true to the linguistic and generic communicative skills that lie at the heart of academia. In addition, it assesses the advantages of the ELP in helping diagnose each student’s conceptual and competency-oriented progress, organise,
control and support the learning process and make students move from the reactive into the proactive.
Keywords: language learning, EAP (English for Academic Purposes), ELP (European
Language Portfolio), EAP literacy portfolio, academic literacies, TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language)