Preparing EAL students for the interactional demands of mainstream group assessment projects

For NESB (Non English Speaking Background) students, the adjustments required to study successfully at a tertiary institution are varied and taxing (Myles & Cheng, 2003). Probably the greatest difficulty they encounter is overcoming the lack of the appropriate linguistic and cultural knowledge needed for meaningful interaction both in and outside the mainstream classroom (Myles & Cheng, 2003; Zou, 1998). In this article, we review research at our university investigating the challenges facing this cohort and their lecturers. This research indicates that many of these students have great difficulty with oral communication in English and are uneasy about interacting in groups, particularly with their ESB (English Speaking Background) peers. Obviously, this difficulty impacts negatively on their participation in group assessment projects commonly used at our university. Many NESB students find it difficult to participate in the meetings which are an essential part of group projects and often feel sidelined or belittled particularly by their ESB counterparts. We discuss possible reasons for this state of affairs and make suggestions as to how EAP (English for Academic Purposes) lecturers can prepare NESB students to become more successful in their interaction in group projects. Introduction Research at our university indicates that in an education climate where group work is strongly encouraged at university level, and where group projects are routinely used as assessment tools, the difficulties NESB students experience are a cause of growing concern. ESB students are understandably concerned that the presence of students who do not appear to be able to cope with the demands of group projects will negatively impact on their marks. Yet those of us who teach these NESB students know what an enormous contribution many of them are capable of making, and are indeed eager to make, to group projects. The best way, it would appear, to counter the resentments of ESB students and the unhappiness of their NESB counterparts is to encourage open communication. Unfortunately, the oral communication that takes place during the meetings for the group projects can sometimes exacerbate rather than ameliorate the problem. Initial study While we were aware that group projects presented difficulties at our university (Strauss, 2001), the extent of the problem only became apparent during our initial study (Strauss & U, 2005) when we investigated the challenges facing NESB students and their lecturers in mainstream classes at our university. These findings led to our work on group projects. Participants In the initial study, lecturers in all faculties at the university were emailed information about the proposed study and invited to participate. Those who accepted the invitation were asked if we could have access to their classes. Ethical consent for the studies described in this article was obtained from the university’s ethics committee. The project was explained to students in these classes and they, in turn, were invited to participate. The lecturers in the initial study had a wide range of tertiary teaching experience and represented disciplines in the Faculties of Arts, Science and Engineering, Business and Health (Table 1). The students were enrolled in first year degree programmes in the faculties across the university and were from diverse language and cultural backgrounds. (Table 2). Table 1: Lecturers’ Profiles Number of lecturers Faculty ESB lecturers NESB lecturers Experience in tertiary teaching Number of NESB students in classes