Assessing the EAP Curriculum

Skills that learners are expected to acquire by the end of taking a particular course are usually spelt out as objectives in the curriculum for the attention of the teacher, the learner, and the assessor. In measuring the quality of a course then, it is important to take into account its objectives as they constitute the benchmarks for the assessment. The three main stakeholders in this – teachers, students, and managers were thus asked to appraise the existing EAP curriculum in use in their institution.

In assessing the comprehensiveness of the existing EAP curriculum 78.3% of the students said the content of the EAP curriculum was comprehensive enough, while in the view of 18.8%, it was not. Those who were unsure constituted only 2.9%. Although majority of students agreed to the comprehensiveness of the existing curriculum, they also believed there was still room for improvement. Respondents who advocated the review suggested the introduction of the following areas in case of a possible review and justified their proposals accordingly as:

 General knowledge (72.5%): In view of globalisation and current trends, it is important that the scope of the EAP curriculum is broadened to equip students with a broader worldview.

 Basic communication (20.3%): Introducing basic communication into the curriculum would help learners understand basic communication theories and how they can be applied to EAP.

 Syntax, usage, and phonetics (7.2%): The student respondents consider grammar as the bedrock of usage and enhanced communication skills. It is also seen as the mainstay of remediation of the poor foundation many learners had in the language. With phonetics, they can be helped to get over their pronunciation and spelling problems which are linked to their ethnic backgrounds and L1s.

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Interestingly, most of the areas that the students identified like syntax, usage, and phonetics were also cited by their teachers. What was a bit intriguing about the results though was the apparently low response rate on the need to include the three areas – syntax and phonetics, seeing that the teachers as well as their students identified these as major areas needing extra intervention. On whether some topics should be excluded from the new curriculum or not, most student respondents disagreed, arguing that all of them were important. The few who supported the exclusion stance identified: “résumés, and components of communication. A respondent justified the exclusion arguing: “Issues that are outmoded in recent days should be removed; and e.g.

new ways of writing CVs introduced.” Another respondent observed that some of the topics in the existing EAP curriculum overlapped others in the other English-related course and therefore should be merged; a view that was supported by one of the lecturers.

On the scope and relevance of the content of the existing EAP curriculum to student needs, only one of the three interviewees responded in the affirmative with the other two disagreeing. They disclosed that the curriculum, which was developed over a decade ago (October, 2001), is yet to see any major review. In spite of the apparent disagreements, all the teachers felt that the curriculum needed to be reviewed. On which new areas they would recommend for inclusion in a new curriculum if the current one were to be reviewed, the lecturers recommended the following:

 spoken English tasks, an hour a week;

 extensive reading tasks;

 creative/essay/technical writing and critiquing

 approach to comprehension,

 summary writing

 grammar and mechanics, especially spelling techniques, parallel structure, and word formation

 current affairs, e.g. petroleum industry

When asked to identify topics in the current curriculum deemed less relevant and should be left out in the event of a review, the only respondent to the question cited “Job Search”, a topic in the Secretarial English syllabus, and said it should be a general course in final year rather than the focus of the course in the 4^thsemester. According to him, “Job search is not just English.” He

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also observed that the current English/Communication courses have too many repetitive topics which overlapped. The other two participants declined to respond.

From the managers’ perspective, facilitating the development and the periodic assessment of curricula to confirm the extent to which programmes were meaningfully structured and organised are very essential in assessing quality in teaching and learning. This, they observed helps to assess how far goals and learning objectives are being achieved, and represents some of the key roles of the institution in ensuring the existence of a conducive learning environment for EAP learners. Another important role of the institution in its quest for establishing a learner-friendly environment is the implementation of quality policies through educating stakeholders about the policies and offering training opportunities for teachers so they can apply quality tools. Their responses did not include specific areas for inclusion or exclusion in the curriculum the need arises for a review.

Overall

The results generally show that students and their teachers especially felt strongly that the existing EAP curriculum being used in Wa Poly should be reviewed. However, the students did not fully agree with their teachers on some of the specific areas that should be included or excluded from the new curriculum if the need arose for one. While the students felt that the curriculum was comprehensive enough; their teachers thought otherwise, as only one of them supported the student view. Questions posed to the managers did not touch on specific curriculum review issues, but rather addressed general quality issues that could contribute to the overall quality of teaching and learning environment of the polytechnic. On the recommended review of the (Communication Skills) EAP syllabus, it must be observed that the Wa Polytechnic is not the only institution using it currently. Since all the other nine polytechnics in the country make use of the same syllabus, a review anytime soon would only be possible upon receipt of similar complaints from them. This suggests the need to conduct a similar survey in other polytechnics to offer their students, teachers and managers the opportunity to assess the existing twelve-year-old curriculum and submit their recommendations to the NABPTEX, its originator and moderator.

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4.1.9 Participant Views on the Relevance of Tertiary-Level English Teaching and Learning