Discourse Itineraries in an EAP Classroom: A Collaborative Critical Literacy Praxis
Author: Chun, Christian Wai
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Subjects: Reading Lists,Video Technology,Curriculum Development,Student Needs,Reading,Needs Assessment,Applied Linguistics,Theory Practice Relationship,Ethnography,English for Academic Purposes,Critical Reading,Teaching Methods,Discourse Analysis,Grammar,Literacy Education,Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Interviews,Student Attitudes,Copyrights,Records (Forms),Researchers,Cooperation,Language Teachers,Teacher Education

This classroom ethnography documents the developing critical literacy pedagogy of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructor over the course of several terms. My research, which involved extensive collaboration with the EAP instructor, explores how specific classroom practices and discourses are enacted and mediated through dialogic intertextualities, material objects, and social actions that frame representations about language, literacy, and what Lefebvre (1988) called "le quotidien" -- the everyday, and how these affect the students' meaning-making potential in specific ways. It also traces the contours (and detours) of the instructor's classroom practices after the researcher's mediation in the form of collaborative inquiries on functional grammar and critical literacy, and the effects of these classroom practices on making meaning in her EAP classes. I consider several issues from an integrated theory and practice perspective. Because of an urgent need to understand the students' practices and epistemologies as they engage in ever newer forms of multimodal text productions, I contend that EAP classroom practices must be reshaped to facilitate more (inter)active engagements of the multimodal texts that saturate students' lives, both inside the class and outside. Related to this, I highlight in my classroom data what actually counts as the "critical" or the "uncritical" in this EAP classroom and argue why these distinctions matter. Lastly, I suggest ways in which the role of a critical multiliteracies education in EAP can meet the pragmatic needs of both students and teachers. My research contributes to a much-needed dialogue between critically oriented researchers and practitioners in the field of TESOL/Applied Linguistics by bridging the gap between theory and practice. The lessons learned from this collaborative classroom praxis point to concrete ways to help EAP teachers and students utilize their meaning-making pot involves equipping them with an expanded social semiotic tool-kit that can enable them to not only meet their immediate academic needs, but also help create a more active and possibly transformative role in the social constructions of discourse, language, and society. This doctoral dissertation has implications for those who are involved in EAP teaching and research, curriculum planning, teacher training, and student needs assessment. Eleven appendixes are included: (1) Reading List With the EAP Instructor; (2) Transcription Key; (3) Information Letter and Consent Form for EAP Program Director; (4) Information Letter and Consent Form for EAP Instructor; (5) Information Letter and Consent Form for EAP Students; (6) Announcement and E-mail Script for Recruitment of Participants; (7) Email Script for Future Questions for Participants; (8) Guiding Interview Questions for EAP Instructor; (9) Guiding Interview Questions for EAP Students; (10) Permission Letter via Email to Present Copyrighted Textbook Material; and (11) Permission Letter via Email to Present Copyrighted YouTube Video Still Shots. (Contains 10 figures and 2 footnotes.)