Professional and Academic English, Volume 30, Number 1

Journal of the IATEFL English for Specific Purposes Special Interest Group WHITE PANTONE 213 C Alternative option using “&” instead of “AND” ISSN 2520-2545 Vol. 30 No 1 June 2023 Copyright Notice Copyright for whole issue IATEFL 2023. IATEFL retains the right to reproduce part or all of this publication in other publications, including retail and online editions as well as on our websites. Contributions to this publication remain the intellectual property of the authors. Anyrequests to reproduce a particular article should be sent to the relevant contributor and not IATEFL. Articles which have first appeared in IATEFL publications must acknowledge the IATEFL publication as the original source of the article if reprinted elsewhere. Published by IATEFL, 2-3 The Foundry, Seager Road, Faversham, ME13 7FD, UK. www.iatefl.org Disclaimer Views expressed in Professional and Academic English are not necessarily those of the editor(s), of the IATEFL ESPSIG, of IATEFL or its staff or trustees. 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Editor-in-Chief Dr Katalin Egri Ku-Mesu University of Leicester, United Kingdom Editors Dr Mona Nishizaki Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy Dr Veronico Tarrayo University of Santo Tomas, Philippines Editorial Board Dr Mahdi Aben Ahmed Jubail English Language and Preparatory Year Institute, Saudi Arabia Dr Sharif Alghazo University of Jordan, Jordan Patricia Lorena Bustos Gonzalez Universidad de los Andes, Colombia Dr Elis Kakoulli Constantinou Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Dr Hung Phu Bui University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Andrew Northern Imperial College London, United Kingdom Martin Percy University of Westminster, United Kingdom Dr Jemma Prior Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy Dr Mark B. Ulla Walailak University, Thailand Anna Whinnett Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE), United Kingdom Layout design © Express Publishing, 2023 Price £4.50, free for ESPSIG members http://espsig.iatefl.org www.iatefl.org Journal of the IATEFL English for Specific Purposes Special Interest Group Vol. 30 No 1 June 2023 ISSN 2520-2545 5 Contents Articles Mikhail Demidov From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing ....................... 7 Basma Bouziri Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills ............................................................................................................ 29 Postgraduate research Hayley Dormand Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university ................................................ 43 Book reviews Irena Aleksić-Hajduković Review of Learning the Language of Dentistry: Disciplinary Corpora in the Teaching of English for Specific Academic Purposes ..................................................................... 71 Vicky Papageorgiou Review of International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times ....................................................................................................................... 71 Feruza Akhmedova Review of Communication that Counts: Language Practice and Ideology in Globalized Accounting ............................................................................................................................... 71 7 From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing. 1 Introduction In recent years, there has been increased emphasis on co-creative learning (Bovill, 2020). In her seminal work Phenomenal Learning from Finland, Lonka (2018) makes a case for scaffolding that enables learning in a pedagogically meaningful fashion. Meanwhile, other authors refer to the ecosystem of learning, dubbing students and teachers as active contributors (Kunnari et al., 2019). The concept of ecosystem is also applied to multi-stakeholder environments elsewhere. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidance on evidence-based decision-making draws upon the following definition: ‘A system reflecting the formal and informal linkages and interactions between different actors (and their capacities and resources) involved in the production, translation, and use of evidence’ (WHO, 2021a, p. IX). An important element in transforming evidence into practice is a shortcut, i.e. a workaround that is used to promptly Demand-driven and competence-based approaches to training have been prevalent across various professional domains for several decades. While foreign language teaching has greatly benefited from existing competence assessment tools, there is a relative paucity of reliable tools for comprehensive assessment during direct observation. Radar charts have been shown to bridge this gap efficiently. This paper addresses a tool for co-creative learning that was originally developed for peer-assessment in simultaneous interpretation and later repurposed for peer-assessment in foreign language teaching. The tool is an online implementation of radar charts that relies on Office 365 Suite components (Power Automate, Excel and Microsoft Forms), which could be a simple, affordable and feasible solution for many institutional users. The paper provides a description of the tool as well as the results of usability testing during a simulation exercise for eight educators enrolled by convenience sampling. This study relies on qualitative content analysis that gives insight into the key variables and key themes addressed during the usability testing. The findings corroborate earlier research on using radar charts for competence assessment and make a case for keeping feedback accessible to learners. Furthermore, the findings agree with earlier research that had revealed the high value of negative feedback for experienced professionals. The tool has also been shown to have limitations. Yet, with adequate measures in place, such as the triangulation of the radar chart-based assessment with free-form feedback and other inputs, users can obtain a reliable means of instructional scaffolding. Mikhail Demidov Freelance translator and terminologist, CELTA certified teacher of English Finland email: [email protected] ABSTRACT ARTICLES 8 deliver the accessible and concise summary of theoretical findings to end-users (Haby et al., 2016). This vision of co-creative ecosystems that rely on scaffolds or shortcuts to facilitate the exchange of knowledge seems to relate to a broader context of instructional vs. scientific representations (Cook, 2006). Practical implications of this dichotomy in the domain of Translation1 are addressed in the works of Gile (2009). Gile argues that instructional tools (inhis example for students of Translation) ‘should not contain many more concepts that can reasonably be considered practically useful to the trainees’ (Gile, 2009, p. 18). This would imply simple, user-friendly tools that resonate with learners’ worldviews or value systems. They are also expected to be modified to be less technical and more pedagogical (Gile, 2009). As a result, the tools should teach trainees to take specific actions in a given set of situations. This means that the tools should not be 100% accurate in terms of the latest advances in science but should provide actionable (although somewhat simplified) algorithms instead. All of the above is highly relevant for foreign language teaching. The concepts of scaffolding, as well as collaborative interaction with peers, are addressed in many reputable sources, including the Companion Volume to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR-CV) (Council of Europe [COE], 2020) and Cambridge English Teaching Framework Components (Cambridge English Language Assessment, 2019). This paper addresses a tool for co-creative learning that was originally developed for peerassessment in simultaneous interpretation and later repurposed for peer-assessment in foreign language teaching. The paper provides a description of the tool as well as the results of usability testing by a group of educators during a simulation exercise. These findings may be useful for the development of feedback tools, whereas the descriptions could be conducive to the practical implementation of a similar tool in the classroom. 1.1 Background For over 20 years now, demand-driven and competence-based approaches to training have kept relevance across various professional domains (Vandepitte, 2008). For instance, the process that led to the creation of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for language learning began in 1971 (COE, 2020). A homologous competence framework for professional translators has been in development since 1997 (Hurtado Albir, 2017). The competence approach is also in use elsewhere. For example, the Strategic Plan for 2021-2025 by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (responsible for the research agenda in rehabilitation) acknowledges the importance of data-driven and experiential learning (WHO, 2021b). Foreign language teaching and Translation have greatly benefited from existing tools that range from powerful cloud-based platforms (Ardley & Hallare, 2020)2 to relatively low-tech paper forms (Walczyński, 2017). However, a relative paucity of reliable tools for comprehensive assessment during direct observation has long been noted (Keister et al., 2012), and radar charts have been shown to bridge this gap efficiently on many occasions (Kaczynski, 2008; Keister et al., 2012; Różewski et al., 2019; WHO, 2020). From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing ARTICLES 1 ‘Tranlation’ with a capital T is to refer both to translation and interpretation as a cognitive processs. 2 The mention of specific manufacturers, companies, products or services is solely for information purposes and does not imply any endorsement, recommendation, offer, advice, invitation or solicitation. 9 ARTICLES From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing 9 This paper presents an online implementation of radar charts using the components of Office 365 Suite (Power Automate, Excel and Microsoft Forms), which could be a simple and feasible solution for numerous educational institutions (Aires et al., 2021). This implementation is further referred to as ‘the Tool’. In foreign language teaching, this may apply to situations of peer-assessment in near real-time, whereby peers rate the productive skills/performance of a member of the group first and share their reflections at the debriefing stage later. We used various implementations of the chart as a prototype of the assessment tool in our own teaching practice when visualizing inputs from many assessors across several parameters. This has proven to be relevant during brush-up workshops for recently graduated students of a programme in interpreting. A typical event would address the presentation of statistics, very much like IELTS Writing Task One, in which participants report on charts, diagrams and maps (Cambridge English Language Assessment, 2009). The author’s objective in using the Tool was to combine multiple inputs from a heterogeneous ad-hoc group of learners and produce structured feedback. A similar task has been described in the domain of service design (Stickdorn & Schneider, 2018b). Stickdorn and Schneider were looking for a simple model to map the state of mind of service users. The rationale behind this was to explore why the same service offering caused the same users to respond very differently depending on a specific context. The authors used a simplified linear version of the radar chart (called AESEO), which somewhat resembled a graphic equalizer. Although they acknowledge their tool to be highly subjective, they testify to its fitness for bringing together multiple inputs in an understandable way. 1.2 Aims and objectives The current iteration of the Tool was presented to a group of education professionals as a part of a larger study that compared various prototypes of peer-feedback tools. The author admits that the contexts and aims of assessments may be variable, and further and more targeted studies will be instrumental. This study seeks to explore some common perceptions of the Tool (i.e. the online implementation of radar charts using the components of Office 365 Suite) and some common usability issues that an audience of education professionals is likely to have. The aim is to test the configuration of the Tool and to explore the practical aspects of its usage by an audience of educators. The objectives are: • To explore the attitudes to pedagogical scaffolding for giving feedback to an audience of professional educators This was achieved by conducting a simulation exercise (online workshop) and initiating a discussion about adequate and pedagogically meaningful scaffolding in the context of the exercise. 16 From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing ARTICLES The assessment criteria, which the author proposed, and their wordings were also subject to review by the participants since this simulation exercise was part of a larger project examining peer-assessment. However, as discussed earlier, this paper mainly addresses the implementation of the Tool and its uptake by users, thus rendering other aspects outside the scope of this discussion. The back-end component relevant to the assessment procedure consisted of four radar charts. Overlapping polygons on the charts showed the scores assigned to the Speakers by each Assessor against each of the criteria. This way, the Speakers could see immediately what impression their renditions had produced. A large overlap would suggest that the impression was distinct and, therefore, preferable. Little or no overlap would indicate a vague impression, thus revealing areas to focus on. 2.5 Data analysis The active participants reflected on their experiences and the efficacy of the assessments as a follow-up to each assessment cycle (i.e. after each of the four renditions), as well as during the discussion at the end of the workshop. The workshop was recorded for further transcription in Otter.ai and/or NVivo and coding in QDA Miner. This study relies on qualitative content analysis, which, according to Schreier (2014), may apply to conversation analysis, discourse analysis, or thematic coding in different contexts. The author adheres to Schreier’s version presented in Qualitative Content Analysis, which is closest to thematic coding. The Figure 4: Front-end of the Tool MS Forms 17 ARTICLES From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing procedure required a provisional coding frame that was later tested at the pilot phase to make amendments and develop the definitive version. After that, the definitive version of the coding frame was used to analyze the data. The coding frames are mutually exclusive, unidimensional and data-driven, which reflects the systematic nature of the method (Schreier, 2014; see also Schreier, 2012). Following the recommendation by Schreier (2014), the coding frame did not exceed three levels of hierarchy. As required by the procedure (Schreier, 2014), the rules of assigning classes, clusters and topics were developed, which were almost exclusively based on ‘indicator’ criteria (Schreier, 2012). Thus, a particular quotation was assigned to a particular topic if it contained specific wordings. Clusters and classes, however, were defined based on practical experience, common sense and logic, as described below. • Level 1: Classes The division produced by the author and based on logic, common sense and practical experience. These are the most extensive classes of responses that comprise: o A advantages o B limitations • Level 2: Clusters Broad themes (derived from the study data) that subsume more specific topics addressed by the active participants. These are different aspects of the classes described above. In particular: o For class A: ■ A.1. Positive role of the Tool per se — contains pieces about different forms of feedback in which participants give obvious preference to the Tool. ■ A.2. Positive role of the Tool in combination with other forms of feedback — contains pieces in which participants refer to synergies between different forms of feedback without any explicit preference of any specific one. o For class B: ■ No specific clusters; the class subsumes four topics that address the downsides of the Tool. • Level 3: Data-driven topics Specific matters addressed by the participants. o For For cluster A.1: ■ shallow learning curve ■ ease of follow-up on one’s progress ■ better clues for the learner ■ better clues for the assessor 18 From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing ARTICLES o For cluster A.2: ■ Numerical approach and free comments are complementary. ■ The Tool has the potential to reveal bias, if used for triangulation. o For class B: ■ Real-time assessment can be difficult. ■ Criteria are context-dependent. ■ Numbers are not the perfect proxy of performance. 3.1 Advantages All active participants (n=8) addressed some form of benefit that, in their opinion, the Tool could bring. Specific types of benefit mentioned can be grouped into two clusters: Positive role of the Tool per se and Positive role of the Tool in combination with other forms of feedback. The first cluster encompasses all the topics that reveal the users’ preferential regard for the Tool. The second cluster includes all the topics that focus on deriving benefits by combining the Tool with other forms of feedback. 3.1.1 Positive role of the Tool per se Four topics are subsumed under this cluster. These are subjective experiences of the participants that they brought up. Five out of eight participants raised the topics categorized in this cluster. 3.1.1.1 Shallow learning curve (i.e. little effort needed to get used to the Tool) Arthur [Non-teaching professional, Assessor T+] said that although the Tool looked unfamiliar at first, by the time he had to assess the third of the fourth speech, he started to gain more confidence. He referred to some difficulties assessing the speakers while listening (addressed in the Limitations section) but added that ‘in the third or fourth time I understood the how to do it, and it solved rapidly.’ When asked if the Tool had saved her any time or effort during the assessment procedure, Ashley [Non-language teacher, Assessor T+] replied that ‘it was really quick. I could do it really quick.’ 3.1.1.2 Ease of follow-up on one’s progress Anna [Language teacher, Speaker] considered using the Tool from the learner’s perspective. She said that she personally found immediate oral feedback of little use because she might give it little regard on the spur of the moment and forget it later. As she put it, ‘people and I don’t usually tend to note down feedback. So I would probably forget about it.’ The Tool, however, could help her reflect on her performance at her own convenience. She also felt that the Tool would enable her to see her progress in the follow-up, if she had been evaluated with this Tool on a regular basis. 19 ARTICLES From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing 3.1.1.3 Better clues for the learner When asked to comment on the radar chart reflecting her performance, Anna [Language teacher, Speaker] said that the chart was much more informative than the oral feedback she had received before. She also wondered whether the accuracy of her assessors’ oral feedback could have improved if they had used the Tool. When commenting on the radar chart assessing his performance, Alex [Language teacher, Speaker] said that ‘everything’s is scored quite nicely there.’ In his case, the oral feedback has proven to be softer than the written one4, and he was asked whether he thought the Tool did him justice. He assumed that the negative formal feedback ‘can also do me justice, because that could be a fair assessment.’ 3.1.1.4 Better clues for the assessor According to Alice [Non-language teacher, Assessor T-], the availability of the Tool before the session would have given her more confidence and would have improved the feedback that she had produced. She admitted that she might have missed certain points that the Tool could have prompted her, had she used it. Amanda [Language teacher, Assessor T-] said that ‘having criteria helps, in the sense that you know what to look at’, which seems to suggest better sensitization of assessors to certain aspects of speaker performance when using the Tool. 3.1.2 Positive role of the Tool in combination with other forms of feedback The cluster includes two topics raised by four out of eight participants 3.1.2.1 Numerical approach and free comments are complementary Amanda [Language teacher, Assessor T-] pointed out that ‘when it [feedback] is random, you may get some input that otherwise you would have never thought of. So in a way, I think they [the Tool and free-form feedback] are complementary.’ Amelia [Non-teaching professional, Assessor T-] pointed out that the written feedback of Anna’s rendition was good overall. However, when one of the participants floated the idea of whether anyone would pay for Anna’s services if that were a genuine translation, ‘some more details came up with the informal or the unstructured feedback.’ 3.1.2.2 The Tool has the potential to reveal bias, if used for triangulation As discussed earlier, Alex’s performance sparked a discussion because the oral and written feedback he had received differed dramatically. This discrepancy led the participants to conclude that the Tool could become a means of triangulation. 4 Following the natural variability of expression during the discussion, this section uses several words interchangeably: the feedback provided by Assessors T+ in the Excel table (radar charts) is referred to as ‘structured’, ‘formal’, ‘written’, or just ‘Tool’. The feedback provided by Assessors Tis referred to as ‘oral’, ‘spoken’, ‘free’, ‘free-form’, ‘informal’, or ‘unstructured’. Such variability is preserved to accommodate for different wordings in the quotations. 20 From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing ARTICLES Arthur [Non-teaching professional, Assessor T+] pointed out that Assessors Thad praised Alex’s rendition as one of the best speeches, while Assessors T+ had given him extremely low marks. He also pointed out that two of the three Assessors T+ were pretty much ‘aligned’ in their grading of the other speaker, while their assessments of Alex diverged. In his opinion, ‘it’s because there is a personal bias going on.’ He suggested that either of the two assessment methods had failed but chose not to specify which one exactly: ‘it’s so bizarre to have an evaluation which is super low on the Tool and super high on the discussion, here we see that one of the two methods doesn’t work.’ Amelia [Non-teaching professional, Assessor T-] agreed with Arthur’s point about the assessment bias taking place and noted that the discrepancy had occurred toward the end of the meeting, and one cannot ‘blame any more that it’s hard to use the Tool. So people are now aware of how to work. So you could imagine it’s quite honest feedback’, which suggests that the Tool is probably instrumental in revealing bias, if used for triangulation. Alex [Language teacher, Speaker] commented on the matter by saying that ‘the informal feedback that I received afterwards was indeed quite nice. And this one [written feedback] is a bit more depth.’ He added that he would be interested in exploring the underlying causes of this discrepancy in greater detail. 3.2 Limitations This class includes all the topics that focus on negative aspects of the Tool that are probably intrinsic to it, i.e. some usability issues that did not seem to have a feasible solution at the time of discussion. Four out of eight participants raised one of the following topics. 3.2.1 Real-time assessment can be difficult Arthur [Non-teaching professional, Assessor T+] said he ‘was a little bit uncomfortable at listening. <…> You know, while I was providing the feedback, I did not have the time to listen to the speaker, because I was focused on the form.’ 3.2.2 Criteria are context dependent Audrey [Non-teaching professional Assessor T+] pointed out that answering the questions in the Microsoft Forms front-end was at times difficult because the wordings of the criteria were not unambiguous to her: ‘it was difficult to rate so quickly. For example, ‘Engaging’ was difficult for me to read. So I wasn’t so sure about how to rate that.’ Ashley [Non-language teacher, Assessor T+] agreed and admitted that, upon quickly finishing all the assessments, ‘I was wondering, do I really do justice?’ Amanda [Language teacher, Assessor T-] added that the relative weight of the assessment criteria varies significantly. She referred to translating for a group of experts where ‘just missing one word that is a key word can be very annoying’, whereas the same omission would be acceptable for a lay audience. 21 ARTICLES From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing 3.2.3 Numbers are not the perfect proxy of performance Audrey [Non-teaching professional Assessor T+] seemed to be unhappy with the numerical assessment. As she put it, ‘I felt very uncomfortable. First of all, I’m not used to giving just a scoring in terms of number. <…> That’s not really a feedback. It’s just a number.’ She added that the numerical assessment was a one-off process that did not account for the uneven quality of any given rendition while it unfolded. She went on to continue that, in her opinion, the sequential one-off numerical assessment of several speakers was not practical either: ‘For example, I gave Anna a four. And then I heard Alex’s text, and I was like, okay, this is more difficult. So there’s no way that they will give him more than four. Even though maybe his performance was better. So there was like, a lot of, yeah, uncomfortable moments for me.’ 4 Discussion This study sought to explore what the attitudes of educators to pedagogical scaffolding for giving feedback were, as well as whether the Tool could be seen as a suitable means of feedback. The results of this study suggest that the usage of scaffolding was overall seen as preferable, especially when it provided more meaningful output at the cost of a shallow learning curve. The negative aspects of scaffolding that were addressed did not challenge its usage as such but rather highlighted the need for a more careful technical implementation. This observation would align with the findings by Swan et al. (2014) or Jarvis and Daller (2013), who argued in favour of practical, simple and validated tools in light of language professionals’ common practice of adopting tools without proper testing of their operability. The Tool was seen as beneficial because it enabled systematic and structured assessment by reminding the evaluators about the important aspects of assessment and allowing the learners to keep track of their progress. This would agree with the results obtained by Keister et al. (2012) or Różewski et al. (2019). This study has also shown the potential of the Tool to elicit strongly negative feedback. Although some participants considered this a probable sign of dysfunctionality, others saw this as an opportunity to explore some underlying processes, such as bias. This would partly align with the work by Finkelstein and Fishbach (2012), who argued that negative feedback increases ‘experts’ sense that they were making insufficient progress’ (p. 22) and is therefore preferentially sought. Interestingly, the audience did not seem to address the front-end component. A few references have been made to the technical aspects of assessment, such as difficulty grading while listening, lack of a mechanism to correct the grading on second thought, or grading the performance only once without accounting for the natural variability of the unfolding public speech. However, user-interface issues, such as logging in, accessibility, seamless operation on different devices, or navigation (Hotjar, n.d.), have not been raised. This probably testifies to the fact that the Office 365 implementation of the Tool might suit user needs and be a workable out-of-the-box solution. 22 From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing ARTICLES The limitations of the Tool described in this paper are consistent with earlier studies. Gile (2009) showed the need for an introductory explanation of the conceptual framework (e.g., assessment criteria) before implementing the respective learning tools. Furthermore, Gile repeatedly stressed the importance of reminding learners about the conceptual framework throughout the course, which is especially relevant for feedback and self-reflection. In his opinion, it may be preferable to ask the student ‘whether s/he has conducted a plausibility test’ rather than simply point out to a specific mistake, ‘telling him/her that the sentence makes no sense’ (Gile, 2009, p. 20). The participants of this study emphasized the context-dependent nature of the assessment criteria (i.e. competencies), as well as somewhat ambiguously framed questions. The contextual nature of competencies and their decontextualization in assessment was addressed by Keister (2012), who also acknowledged the language-related limitations of assessment forms. Keister recognizes the need for improved, more uniform and settingappropriate language to avoid evaluator confusion. A similar set of concerns seems to be addressed in the BMJ Opinion, which stresses the need for user-friendly formats of guidelines reporting on rapidly evolving scientific data (BMJ Opinion, 2020, para. 2). 5 Conclusion This study presented a customizable, visual and ready-to-deploy tool for competence-based assessment of productive skills in foreign language teaching and/or interpreting. An Office 365 implementation was proposed, which could be an affordable and accessible solution for many institutional users. The observations of this study would seem to corroborate earlier findings regarding the advantages and disadvantages of radar charts in competence assessment across several specialties. Provided that adequate measures are taken to minimize the effects of limitations, for example, by triangulating the results of radar chart-based assessment with free-form feedback and other inputs, users can obtain a reliable means of instructional scaffolding. Furthermore, the results imply the role of competence frameworks in teaching and reaffirm the need to consider the concept validity of scaffolding (peer-assessment tools included), i.e. its capacity to act as an instructional representation of subject matter. Several limitations to this study need to be acknowledged. First is the context-dependent nature. This is a qualitative study with non-random sampling and a small number of participants, which precludes quantification and generalizability. 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Meta, 53(3), 569-588. https://doi.org/10.7202/019240ar Walczyński, M. (2017). Assessing interpreting trainees’ performance in a consecutive interpreting test with reference to affective factors: A proposal of a consecutive interpreting assessment tool. In M. Grygiel (Ed.), Cognitive approaches to specialist translation (pp. 121-135). Publishing Office of Czestochowa University of Technology. World Health Organization. (2020). Rapid Hospital Readiness Checklist for COVID-19. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-hospital-readinesschecklist-2020.1 World Health Organization. (2021a). Evidence, policy, impact. WHO guide for evidence-informed decision-making. Geneva. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240039872 World Health Organization. (2021b). Strategic plan 2021–2025: Alliance for health policy and systems research. World Health Organization. 25 ARTICLES From service design to public health: Is actionable feedback on your radar? A qualitative study of user experiences with radar charts for debriefing Appendix 1 Wording of Questions in Microsoft Forms 1. Please indicate your nickname for this session. Make sure it’s not your real name. This way we’ll keep the privacy. 2. You have just heard several people chat freely. In general, would you say that they were crystal clear, you didn’t have to listen twice? 3. They sounded just right for this meeting, neither too academic nor too informal. 4. They sounded very relaxed and natural; it was just like another story. 5. All the sentences were complete. He/she did not drop phrases. 6. The story sounded logical and coherent. 7. Names and numbers were credible and realistic. 8. He/she engaged the listeners. 9. He/she was keeping it short. 32 Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills ARTICLES 3 Method 3.1 Scoring rubrics The assessment of the writing samples was conducted using four rubrics: Discourse, Language, Mechanics, and Topical control. ‘Discourse’ and ‘Language’ reflect the linguistic characteristics of the written productions. Discourse features are situated at the macro-level and refer to aspects of the language including coherence and organization, cohesion, and the use of a formal academic style. Participants’ writing is thus gauged in terms of the extent to which their arguments are well organized and relevant to the viewpoint put forth as well as to the absence of redundancy (Weigle, 2002). The Language rubric refers to micro linguistic features such as grammar, word choice, and sentence construction (Bachman & Palmer, 1996). These should all contribute to clearly express the arguments put forth. The third rubric, Mechanics, is also considered a micro linguistic feature but was included as a separate category from ‘Language’ in this study due to the skills assessed. Mechanics involves the effective use of punctuation, capitalization, and correct spelling. The fourth and final rubric is Topical control which includes the statement of a clear position towards the topic selected, the quality and quantity of arguments advanced and developed, and the use of rebuttals reflecting an awareness of other people’s points of view. To address the writing task, the participants are therefore required to present a clear organization of their arguments and counterarguments, use specific details and examples to illustrate these arguments, demonstrate accuracy in the use of grammar and word choice along with mechanics to convey their intended meanings. 3.2 Scoring method Because the focus of the writing course was on content development, argumentation skills, and organization, the rubrics were differentially weighed to place more weight on discourse and topical control than on the language and mechanics rubrics (see also Weigle, 2002). To enact this, the researcher gave merit scores which were calculated by ascribing one score for each rubric and then calculating a composite score for each student by summing up all the sub-scores given on each rubric. This analytic scoring technique will contribute to providing more detailed information about the participants’ writing performance on the four rubrics thus providing valuable diagnostic information to teachers (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Weigle, 2002). Subsequently, Value Merit Product (VPM) scores were computed for each student based on the value scores set in Table 1 below. 33 ARTICLES Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills Rubrics Value Score (VS) Discourse 4 Topical control 4 Language 3 Mechanics 2 Value Scores (VS) Value Scores (MS) Very important ....... Somewhat important Excellent ....... Unsatisfactory 4 Very important 3 Important 2 Somewhat important 5 Excellent 4 Very good 3 Good 2 Fair Table 1: Rating scale Value scores are different from merit scores in that they express the worth of a rubric in relation to another. Merit scores reflect an evaluation of the intrinsic properties of one single rubric rather than of its relationship with another one. The VPM scores calculated for each participant take into consideration both the merit scores and the value scores attributed into the evaluation of students’ productions. More value was thus set for the rubrics that reflect mastery of the argumentative rhetorical features. Accordingly, discourse and topical control receives the value of4, language gets the value of3, and mechanics gets the least value which is2. A qualitative analysis was then carried out. The aim is to identify and discuss rhetorical issues that would require special pedagogical attention. 4 Findings and discussion Two sets of findings are provided in this section. The first relates to the quantitative analysis of students’ essays in terms of the scores that were attributed. The second set provides insights into specific issues encountered by the students. 34 Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills ARTICLES 4.1 Quantitative analysis Table 2 displays the merit scores obtained by each participant on the four writing rubrics. Discourse Topical Control Language Mechanics Student A 3 3 3 3 Student B 4 4 4 4 Student C 3 3 3 2 Student D 3 4 3 2 Student E 2 3 3 2 Table 2: Merit scores across writing rubrics All students scored ‘very good’ or ‘good’ with respect to the discourse and topical control rubrics, the two foci of the writing course. This reflects a positive impact of explicit writing instruction and feedback on participants’ performance on these two rubrics. As their teacher, I could make this observation since I have been assessing their written products from the outset of the semester. Regarding the rubric of ‘language’, it is rated as ‘good’ and the lowest scores are for ‘mechanics’ with three students rating ‘fair’, one ‘good’ and only one student rating ‘very good’. These ratings are likely to be due to the absence of instruction in mechanics throughout year 1 and 2 of their language curriculum. Table 3 displays the results of the Value Merit Product (VPM) scores of the students. As stated earlier, the VPM scores have been calculated to reflect the importance conferred to discourse and content as reflectors of the students’ ability to use language for particular communicative purposes. These VPM scores are also displayed graphically in Figure 1. Discourse Topical Control Language Mechanics Student A 12 12 9 6 Student B 16 16 12 8 Student C 12 12 12 4 Student D 12 16 9 4 Student E 812 9 4 Ideal 20 20 15 10 Table 3: Value Merit Scores 35 ARTICLES Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills Figure 1: Rating chart Overall, Student C and Student E scored the lowest on all rubrics whereas Students A, B, and D scored the highest. The highest VMP scores are once again for discourse, topic control, and the language rubrics except for Student E who scored low in discourse organization and coherence. The lowest scores are obtained in mechanics with three students obtaining the score of 4 out of 10. The results again reflect that direct instruction in and feedback on macro features related to argumentation during the writing course seemed to lead to improvement of the students’ proficiency in this area. Such findings also demonstrate that students were able to transcend the cultural patterns that characterize academic writing in Arabic to move towards learning the rhetorical features of English academic writing. In other words, the findings represent evidence that instruction in the writing conventions of a foreign language with a focus on the macro-rhetorical features of discourse and topical control had an effect on the development of English argumentative writing among the participants. Such finding echoes those of studies conducted on multilingual writers (Kobayashi & Rinnert, 2023) which also provided evidence for the benefits of training in the rhetoric of English on the quality of Japanese students’ EFL writing. 4.2 Qualitative analysis Overall, positive developments in the participants’ writing after instruction have been noted, especially in relation to the way arguments were stated and developed through examples and explanations. This finding can reflect the special emphasis put on this aspect of writing during the course. In fact, the instructor observed weaknesses in the participants’ writings in this regard at the beginning of the course and thoroughly discussed those writing issues with the students who had opportunities to address them in their subsequent writings throughout the semester. Upon closer analysis, four writing issues have been identified. The first two are related to content and discourse while the last two are related to sentential issues and mechanics. The first issue is redundancy of arguments where instead of moving from one argument to the other, the writer reformulates the same argument in a different way as shown in Example 1 below. 36 Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills ARTICLES 1) First of all robots can go far down into the unknown places where the humans would be crushed, they can give us the information that the humans can’t get they can work without any salary and food plus they don’t get bored .Second robots can perform the tasks faster than the humans and much more consistently and accurately […]. What is more robots are designed to work in harsh environments like in space without the air underwater and in the fire they Can be used instead of the people when the human safety is a concern. (Student D) Redundancy may be explained in terms of the cultural influence of Arabic writing on English. In Arabic writing conventions, this redundancy is rather described as parallelism and circularity (Kaplan, 1966), which may have been exploited when participants wrote in English. More exposure to English texts along with additional writing practice are needed for these students to fully adopt the English rhetorical conventions. Feedback on this aspect in class based on exemplars such as the above can also lead to raising awareness of the need for more directness and less redundancy when writing in English. The second issue is related to cohesion, particularly inappropriate pronoun reference and use of transition words. Example 2 shows the ambiguity created using the pronoun ‘it’. 2) Finally, Social media have the great advantage of rapid dissemination of educational content in the COVID-19 era, for example, it developed an infographic about airway management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Itwas shared through Twitter and WeChat. (Student A) One implication is that more time to be devoted to assessment tasks that would direct students’ attention to issues of reference. My experience in implementing tasks on discourse cohesion in other classes have proven very helpful in class to raise students’ awareness on these types of errors. Such tasks can therefore be scheduled for the present participants. The third issue is the use of run-on sentences, which is probably due to a transfer from Arabic (Kaplan, 1966) as in Example 3. 2) First of all robots can go far down into the unknown places where the humans would be crushed , they can give us the information that the humans can’t get they can work without any salary and food plus they don’t get bored. (Student D) Sentential issues such as run on sentences and parallelism should therefore be part of the writing instruction of pre-service teachers since Year 1. The fourth issue is punctuation which is either missing or inappropriate (see Examples 2 and 3 above) and capitalization. Again, this is due to the absence of instruction on mechanics throughout their language training at the secondary and post-secondary levels. In the long term, such training needs to be established as part of secondary school English language teaching. Meanwhile, the writing and reading sections of the English language course for first year pre-service teachers should devote some time into remedying at this deficiency before introducing different types of writing. 37 ARTICLES Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills 5 Conclusion The study aimed to assess the impact of training in argumentative paragraph writing on university students in Education on the development of their writing skills at the level of discourse and topical development. The study analyzed a sample of five argumentative paragraphs submitted at the end of the course instruction after participants had practiced argumentative paragraph writing on a variety of topics and received specific feedback on the quality of their arguments, rhetorical organization, and use of rebuttals. The study used VPM as a scoring method that put special emphasis on the rubrics of discourse and topical control since the primary objective of the course is to develop these two features during the course. Findings reflected that most participants scored high on these two rubrics but low on language and mechanics. Qualitative analysis of the writing samples also identified issues such as redundancy of arguments, pronoun references, and punctuation. 6 Pedagogical implications This study demonstrates that explicit instruction and formative assessment regarding argumentation techniques in academic writing yield positive developments of the preservice teachers’ rhetorical skills. It is therefore hoped that instruction in the art of rhetoric can contribute to upgrade participants’ communication skills and their use of language for communicative purposes when they teach English to YLs. Argumentative writing is particularly challenging for EFL writers as it is a cognitively demanding task. Improvements in the participants’ argumentation skills in this study are therefore very encouraging, demonstrating that development in foreign language writing proficiency is possible within a short time span. However, issues such as redundancy of arguments, appropriate pronoun reference, along with transition markers, and sentence related problems needs to be addressed in future course implementations at university drawing attention to the variations between Arabic and English academic writing conventions. Micro language issues at the level of grammar and mechanics, in particular, still persist among pre-service teachers. This may lead to reconsider the way general English courses are delivered from primary to secondary levels in Tunisia as focus at university should be mainly geared towards developing their academic skills namely in EFL writing. 38 Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills ARTICLES References Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1996). Language testing in practice: Designing and developing useful language tests. Oxford University Press. Baker, W. (2013). Interpreting the culture in intercultural rhetoric: Critical perspective from English as a Lingua Franca studies. In D. Belcher & G. Nelson (Eds.), Critical and corpusbased approaches to intercultural rhetoric (pp. 22–45). University of Michigan Press. Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals; Handbook I: Cognitive domain. In M. D. Engelhart, E. J. Furst, W. H. Hill, & D. R. Krathwohl (Eds.), Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain (pp. 201-207). David McKay. Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education. Language Learning, 16(1–2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1966.tb00804.x Kobayashi, H., & Rinnert, C. (2023). Developing multilingual writing. Springer Hamman-Ortiz, L., Santiago Schwarz, V., Hamm-Rodríguez, M., & Gort, M. (2022). Engaging teachers in genre-based pedagogy for writing arguments: A case study of shifts in practice and understanding. TESOL Quarterly, 57(2), 402-432. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3156 Liu, F., & Stapelton, P. (2020). Counter argumentation at the primary level: An intervention study investigating the argumentative writing of second language learners. System, 89(2), pp.1-15. Long. M. (1985). Input and second language acquisition theory. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 377–393). Newbury House. Majidi, A., Janssen, D., & de Graaff, R. (2021). The effects of in-class debates on argumentation skills in second language education. System, 101, pp. 1-15. Ministry of Education (2019). The EFL curriculum in primary education. http://www.cnp.com.tn/arabic/PDF/CurriculumOFENGLISH.pdf Ögeyik, M. C. (2017). The comparative effectiveness of noticing in language learning. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), 56(4), pp.1-24. Santalla Fernández, A., & Lasa Alvarez, B. (2019). An argument for arguing: Debates as a teaching and learning resource in the English classroom. Digilec, 6, pp. 54-74. Tsang, A. (2022). ‘The best way to learn a language is not to learn it!’: Hedonism and insights into successful EFL learners’ experiences in engagement with spoken (listening) and written (reading) input. TESOL Quarterly, 57(2), 511-536. Wang, Y., & Xie, Q. (2022). Diagnostic assessment of novice EFL learners’ discourse competence in academic writing: A case study. Language Testing in Asia, 12(47), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-022-00197-y Weigle, S. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge University Press. 39 ARTICLES Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills Appendix: Samples of pre-service teachers’ writing Student A The 21st century has brought many inventions that effects on almost every aspect of social life to make it more comfortable and convenient. It’s difficult to point out those inventions but in my opinion the most remarkable one is social media. First of all, The power of social media has changed most of the things in our daily life. Around the world, infinite number of people go online every minute to access their social profile where Every person is not just a person in the physical world but is also a different person in the online world. This means he or she has a separate identity in online platforms, another virtual life alongside the human life, and that’s what called Online communication where people can connect each other across the world by channels like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Photobucket, Reddit, Pinterest... More over the social media has revolutionized and completely changed the way we send and receive information. It is more interactive, can be done in real time and uses a wide number of media like text, audio, video, pictures, graphics and more. Unlike the traditional media such as radio, television, newspapers and mails where information flow is only in one direction, social media has completely changed the way we connect and communicate with others. With these sites, sending and received messages offline and in real time, audio and video chatting, sharing picture, video and text, going “Live” to many audience. Finally, Social media have the great advantage of rapid dissemination of educational content in the COVID-19 era, for example, it developed an infographic about airway management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. It was shared through Twitter and WeChat, in a few days requests were received for its translation into more than ten languages, dissemination of information regarding preventive measures . To sum up, Social media has taken its position into the real world and has interfered with the lives of many. Student B Nowadays, it is more than evident that virtual learning is increasingly becoming one of the most important inventions in the 21st century that may positively transform the educational system all over the world for several reasons. Some people think that virtual learning has many blemishes. To start with, at times virtual students may experience feelings of isolation or a sense of detachment from the real school due to the lack of face-to-face interaction especially in self-paced courses or difficulty in developing relationships with classmates. Moreover, if applicable a virtual course requires high budgets for computer, software programs, and the internet connection. Such a fact may deprive poor families and even countries of the right of new educational tools. Personally I think that, a virtual course is as close as a computer with an internet connection. Hence, students can take online courses whenever they need them, not based on some college’s annual or semester schedule and with no set class times, students themselves decide when to complete their assignments and readings. Added to this, prices are often cheaper for online courses than traditional college and trade courses with no housing or meals plans to worry about. Moreover, students don’t feel the necessity to travel or move far away from home for learning. As a conclusion, virtual learning can prepare students for real professional career via training courses on the net in a world that is becoming more and more digital and globalized. 40 Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills ARTICLES Student C One of the most important inventions of the 21st century is robots, many benefits of robots seem to be most noticeable, first of all they can produce a greater quantity in a short amount of time and perform the tasks faster than the humans and much more consistently and accurately, not only are robots able to work with better accuracy, which reduces the amount of time and materials wasted they also makes our lives more easier, so Robots are able to perform many tasks that humans aren’t able to. This helps to set apart robots from humans and make everyday life a little easier. Another benefit of the robots is exploring the space and planets, they are the key to future space exploration. Besides the good side of robots, there is also downside, robots lead humans to lose their jobs so they take peoples jobs, They can take the place of the humans in several situations, If the robots begin to replace the humans in every field, They will lead to unemployment . In addition Robots cost much money in maintenance and repair, In case of breakdown, however the cost of repair may be very high, the procedures to restore lost code or data may be time-consuming and costly. Also Robots can store large amounts of data but the storage, access, retrieval is not as effective as the human brain, they can perform repetitive tasks for a long time but they do not get better with experience such as the humans do. In conclusion, I think that although robots are important invention for human’s development, but their negative side should not be ignored. Student D Nowadays thanks to the development of technology robots eye thinking that they do not have that importance and man does not need them ,First of all robots can go far down into the unknown places where the humans would be crushed ,they can give us the information that the humans can’t get they can work without any salary and food plus they don’t get bored .Second robots can perform the tasks faster than the humans and much more consistently and accurately .Third even in the medical field robots have played imprerative rhave invated all fields yet many people contenu to turn a blind oles .For instance robots help the surgeon do precise movements and work ,robotic surgery is now being used worldwide .What is more robots are designed to work in harsh environments like in space without the air underwater and in the fire they Can be used instead of the people when the human safety is a concern , Finally the overall cost of the product reduces as the work is done by robotic machines . However no body can deny that robots have many disadvantages initially it costs a lot of money to make or bye a robot and cost much money in maintenance and repair ,The programs need to be updated to suit the changing requirements .Moreover robots are not intelligent or sentient they can never improve the results of their jobs outside of their predefined programming .What is more robots can take the place of many humans in factories so the people have to find new jobs or be retrained .At last people should know that robotics become increasingly present in our every day life: medical ,industrial,airports and restaurants so they can dominate the human species. To conclude people should be wise while dealing with robots and try to benefit as much as possible from their positives. 41 ARTICLES Assessing the writing of pre-service teachers in Tunisia: Focus on argumentation skills Student E Over the centuries, human didn’t stop discovering and inventing stuff. Therefor, every side of moderne human life has been influenced by technology and science. Among those advancement, robots have become significant in peoples lives . Without doubt, robots have always managed to solve most of people day-to-day problems, but they can still create problems. First of all, robots can’t deal with emergencies. Moreover, they are useful; people didn’t need them to deal with their daily life, they are just for entertainment. While, robot have already begun replacing human at an alarming rote, which means they lead peopls to lose their jobs. Also, they are so expensive to install and run. Let’s talk about robot’s bright side. First, they helped people to save time, they are so productive; they can perform more accurate and high quality work. Whereas, they can work without any pauses or breaks, robot doesn’t get tired as human. Furthermore, robots are important in human lives like, robotic technology include (wheelchairs, robotic arms, robotic legs,…) has helped disabled people who lost their arms or legs. In addition, robots are now used in medicin doing the hardest surgery and save many human lives. To sum up, robots has changed the world around us to provide us with new technology. Basma Bouziri is an Assistant Professor at the University of Gabès Institut Supérieur des Arts et Métiers, Tataouine, Tunisia, where she teaches TEYL to pre-service primary school teachers. Her main research interests are academic discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, TESOL, and teacher training. Author biography 48 Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH importance of culture on other levels, such as ethnic, generational (Rogerson-Revell, 2003), regional and gender. Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) describes an individual’s ability to effectively communicate and interact with individuals from different cultural backgrounds (Guilherme, 2000). Byram (1997) refers to a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary for successful IC. According to Byram (1997), ICC involves knowledge of one’s own culture and understanding other cultures, including the cultural dimensions that shape attitudes and behaviours. It also includes awareness of the impact of culture on communication, the ability to effectively communicate in cross-cultural situations, respect for cultural differences, and the ability to be flexible and adaptable in intercultural interactions. In today’s globalised world, communication is increasingly cross-cultural. English is the language of international business and BE learners need to possess IC skills for successful international (and intercultural) business communication. Learners must have knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, but they also need to be able to use the language in ‘socially and culturally appropriate ways’ (Byram et al., 2002). Therefore, language teaching, culture and work culture are intrinsically linked in EIB contexts. The concept of Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) emerged from research on business communication in English between non-native speakers (Gajšt, 2014). BELF refers to speakers from different linguistic backgrounds using English as a shared language. The B in BELF (business) encapsulates three contextual elements: global business as the domain of use, the role of its speakers as business professionals, and the ultimate objective of interactions or ‘getting the job done’ (Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2014). BELF settings are inherently intercultural since speakers of BELF come from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. However, the term BELF excludes native speakers of English. European business settings, such as the one chosen for this assignment, tend to comprise a combination of non-native and native speakers of English. The term English for International Business Purposes (EIB) refers to such contexts (Rogerson-Revell, 2008). An important role of the business English teacher, particularly in BELF and EIB environments, is to help learners develop their ICC to communicate effectively in multicultural work settings (Gajst, 2014). ESP courses must prepare learners to use English effectively and appropriately and be aware of intercultural dynamics. Therefore, BE teachers face the challenge of teaching language skills as well as providing learners with IC skills. This is reflected in the Council of Europe’s (2001, 2020) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) which is widely used to establish and assess standards and levels of language knowledge in Europe. As stated in CEFR (2001, 2020), communicative language competence refers to both linguistic competences and sociolinguistic competences. Linguistic competences include grammatical, lexical, phonological, and orthographic abilities, whereas sociolinguistic competences refer to the skills needed to manage the social aspect of language use, such as levels of formality, politeness and turn-taking conventions, register, familiar expressions and sayings. 2.6 Byram’s model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), which is used in the CEFR attainment targets and descriptors, identifies attitudes, knowledge, skills, and awareness as the key components of ICC, in addition to the values speakers have due to their social 49 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university identities. Teachers are encouraged to help learners become intercultural speakers by developing these ICC components in language teaching. The cornerstone of ICC is attitudes, which refers to ‘curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own’ (Byram et al., 2002, p.12). Teachers can use visual images and videos to spark curiosity and interest. Literature, authentic texts and texts written by or about professionals from other cultures could also be used in class. Other ideas for learning include virtual or face-to-face activities with people from other cultures (Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von Ditfurth, 2007). Another major element is knowledge of social identities and groups, and how IC interaction works. The teacher is not expected to know, nor the learner to learn, everything about the target culture(s) (Byram, 1997). In EIB settings, the target language culture is not the focus but rather the multitude of cultures involved. Teachers and learners can explore cultures and develop their knowledge together. Learners can share facts about their own cultures in class. Stereotypes can be explored. Authentic materials such as texts, articles, films, and internet videos can be used (Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von Ditfurth, 2007). Skills of interpreting and relating are essential for ICC, this refers to the ‘ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one’s own’ (Byram et al., 2002, p. 13). This can help learners foresee possible misunderstandings and consider possible resolutions. Hypothetical or real cultural misunderstandings can be analysed in class. Learner experiences can be discussed. Roleplays or dramatisations can be performed (Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von Ditfurth, 2007). Skills of discovery and interaction are equally important for learners to be able to discover and integrate knowledge with their existing knowledge (Byram, 1997). This can be developed in class with compare and contrast activities, virtual and face-to-face exercises with people from other cultures, as well as role-plays and negotiation of cultural misunderstandings (Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von Ditfurth, 2007). 2.7 ICC and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) The intercultural (IC) dimension in language teaching is a logical development of the CLT approach which aims to develop communicative competence. While teaching methods changed with the emergence of CLT, The Council of Europe’s CEFR emphasised the importance of ‘intercultural awareness’ and ‘intercultural skills’ in its language learning and assessment descriptions. The CEFR establishes ICC in the objectives of language teaching. The aim is for learners to not only be able to communicate information but also develop relationships with people of other cultures. Hence, becoming ‘intercultural speakers’ (Byram et al., 2002). In response to the increasing focus on ICC in language teaching, the concept of mediation as a communicative ability was added to the CEFR in 2001, in addition to the original abilities: reception, production and interaction. Mediation is defined as the ability to act ‘as a social agent who creates bridges and helps to construct or convey meaning, sometimes within the same language, sometimes from one language to another’ (Council of Europe, 2020, p. 90). 50 Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Mediation is a cross-linguistic competence, meaning that the speaker can draw on various linguistic and cultural repertoires for different communicative purposes (ECLM, n.d.). Communication in the 21st century has become increasingly intercultural and mediation skills are highly relevant to be able to use language to cooperate and to be adaptable. Further descriptors and scales of mediation related to three main categories: mediating a text, mediating concepts and mediating communication, were included in the CEFR Companion Volume (2020) to help educators integrate mediation into their courses (ECLM, n.d.). Mediation tasks in language teaching can help learners to take initiative and be adaptable, as well as develop literacy skills, negotiate meaning, formulate hypotheses and propose alternatives. Overall, mediation tasks aim to enable learners to become more versatile and effective IC communicators. 3 Course design 3.1 Teaching context The short course is designed for staff at a private international university in Madrid, Spain, which uses EIB. The university boasts students and staff from over 140 nationalities. Many of the university staff currently participate in EGBP courses which span the academic year (October to June). Learners receive two one-hour online (Zoom) classes per week and each group consists of six to eight learners. The short course designed for this assignment focuses on developing ICC as well as language skills and is aimed at advanced-level (C1) learners. It will be incorporated into the ongoing EGBP course whose primary goal is to enhance the employees’ language proficiency and communicative abilities in their professional setting. 3.2 Undertaking a needs analysis (NA) A NA was designed considering Basturkmen’s (2018) criteria as outlined in the literature review using the task as the main unit of analysis (Long, 2014) as well as language ability and IC. To collect data on PSA, TSA and LFA, a task-based questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was sent to eight learners, and responses were received from seven (87.5%). Data regarding PSA, TSA and TCA were also gathered from teacher observation and informal interviews (see Appendix 2) with the Language Centre Director and the Talent Management Director who oversee the staff language courses. 3.3 Summary of findings of the NA The seven learners, all native Spanish speakers (five from Spain, one from Colombia, and one from Peru), currently have a C1 level of English. They occupy diverse roles at the university and have been in the same online class together since October 2022. Two of the learners are new to the course this year, while one has attended one previous course, and the rest have been attending for three to five years. They have been taught by the author throughout. Based on teacher observation and the participants’ self-assessment, all learners have average to strong abilities in speaking, writing, grammar, and vocabulary. Reading was rated strong to very strong while listening was rated weak to very strong. All seven learners (100%) use English at work for spoken and written communication with native and non-native speakers of English from all over the world. They all consider spoken communication to be the most challenging aspect of using English at work. Most learners (71.4%) said that the aspect of the classes that is most helpful for job-related tasks is speaking, followed by writing (28.5%), listening (14.2%), vocabulary and expressions (14.2%). The learners use all the main English 51 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university skills for work (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). Speaking (85.7%) and listening (85.7%) are the skills that were most chosen to be improved, followed by vocabulary (42.9%), reading (28.6%), writing (28.6%) and grammar (28.6%). The most frequent tasks that learners currently or will perform in English are meetings and discussions (85.7%), phone calls (85.7%), videoconferences (71.4%), emails (71.4%), networking (71.4%), everyday conversations (57.1%), presentations (57.1%) The tasks in which learners would most like to improve their English skills are meetings and discussions (85.7%), everyday conversation (71.4%), phone calls (71.4%) and emails (57.1%). Regarding IC, 85.7% of the participants would like to improve in business communication (written v spoken, politeness, formality) and 100% would be interested in covering it in class. 71.4% would like to improve and learn about building relationships (formality, socialising, forms of address, authority, rapport). 71.4% want to improve in business management (meeting styles, problem-solving, decision-making) and 57.1% would like to cover this in class. 42.9% would like to improve in and learn about the areas of work routines (work hours, punctuality, deadlines) and business etiquette (small talk, entertainment, dress codes). Informal interviews with the Language Centre Director and the Head of Talent Management found that the main objective of the English classes is to improve the staff’s language and communication skills to use English for work purposes. Staff need training in English for tasks such as meetings, presentations, phone calls, emails, and dealing with students. IC is an intrinsic part of the university which considers diversity to be the key to its open and global mindset. Both stakeholders agreed that incorporating an explicit ICC component into the English courses would be both engaging and beneficial for staff. 3.4 Course outline The findings of the NA and the literature review were used to design the following course outline which includes unit topics, work culture, target tasks, pedagogical tasks, language skills and sociocultural aspects. 52 Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Unit 1 Work Culture Target Task Pedagogical Tasks Language Skills Sociocultural Aspects Introduction to Business English and Intercultural Communication International Business English intercultural communication Everyday Conversation Opinion exchange Cultural awareness questionnaire Vocabulary building Listening for general comprehension/ details Speaking Reading Listening Vocabulary Identity Bias Stereotypes Highand lowcontext cultures Communication styles Unit 2 Work Culture Target Task Pedagogical Tasks Language Skills Sociocultural Aspects Business Etiquette and Protocol Forms of address Greetings Small talk Dress codes Entertainment Socialising Networking Reading for general comprehension/ details Vocabulary building Problem-solving Role-plays Speaking Reading Vocabulary Listening Politeness Power Social Taboos Time Public v private life Unit 3 Work Culture Target Task Pedagogical Tasks Language Skills Sociocultural Aspects Building Business Relationships Authority and status Formality Rapport Phone call Video Call Listening for general comprehension/ details Opinion exchange Grammar and vocabulary of diplomatic language Role-plays Listening Speaking Grammar Vocabulary Politeness Face Power 53 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university Unit 4 Work Culture Target Task Pedagogical Tasks Language Skills Sociocultural Aspects Business Routines and Management Meeting style Leadership style Decision-making Problem-solving Negotiating Meeting Listening for general comprehension/ details Opinion exchange Problem-solving Role-plays Speaking Listening Vocabulary Grammar Time Individual/ collective Uncertainty avoidance masculine/ feminine Unit 5 Work Culture Target Task Pedagogical Tasks Language Skills Sociocultural Aspects Written Business Communication Business communication Formal v neutral v informal style Email Error correction Gap fill Grammar and vocabulary building Writing emails Giving feedback Writing Grammar Vocabulary Speaking Listening Power Politeness Formality High?Low context cultures Communication styles Unit 6 Work Culture Target Task Pedagogical Tasks Language Skills Sociocultural Aspects Presentation Skills Public speaking Presentations Asking questions Dealing with questions Presentation Listening for general comprehension/ details Building vocabulary and key structures Presentation Speaking Listening Vocabulary Grammar Depends on the topic and setting of the learners’ presentations 54 Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH 3.5 Course units and tasks The course outlined is designed to provide university staff with a comprehensive understanding of the key concepts and strategies related to IC in an EIB context while improving their language skills. The tasks serve as the central focus of the learning experience and provide opportunities for learners to receive input, engage in communicative output, and receive feedback on their language performance (Long, 1997). The tasks should be carried out in three phases to help facilitate language acquisition by providing learners with a model or key language, opportunities to interact with the target language and receive formative feedback, which contributes to their language development and proficiency (Jackson, 2022). The tasks are authentic and relevant to the learners and provide opportunities for them to practice the language and communication skills necessary for success in EIB settings. Additionally, this course will help staff members be more aware of cultural differences and develop strategies to communicate effectively across cultures in the international university setting while developing their BE skills. The course comprises six units, each of which is intended to be completed within a timeframe of four hours, in the form of two one-hour classes per week. The total completion time is 24 hours over approximately 12 weeks. The prescribed order of the units should be followed because they are designed to build upon each other in a logical systematic way. Each unit exposes learners to relevant content and aims to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to progress to the next unit. The six units follow the CEFR framework (2001, 2020) as tasks are used to focus on aspects of work culture and sociocultural concepts (Rogerson-Revell, 2003), and involve the development of the key components of ICC (attitudes, knowledge, skills and awareness) (Byram,1998) as well as language skills. A target task was chosen for each unit based on the results of the NA which revealed the needs and preferences of the learners. Each unit consists of several pedagogical tasks, with the final one being a realistic simulation of the target task. A sequence of supporting pedagogical tasks was assigned to help learners prepare for the final task. Additionally, in accordance with the NA findings regarding language abilities, the course aims to enhance all language skills with a stronger emphasis on speaking and listening. The tasks aim to develop learners’ ability to understand and interpret intercultural interactions, act as effective communicators and mediators, and in some cases negotiate and resolve intercultural conflicts and problems. Unit 1 is an introduction to business English and intercultural communication, with a cultural awareness self-assessment and reflection exercise, as well as key concepts in IC. The target task is everyday conversation, so the pedagogical tasks focus on developing speaking, listening and vocabulary. Learner attitudes will be cultivated as they are encouraged to share facts and opinions about their own cultures and engage in discussions about cultural biases and stereotypes. An authentic video will be shown to practice listening skills as well as awaken curiosity and interest. As the class will consist of learners from different cultural backgrounds, authentic intercultural exchange and connections will occur. Unit 2 addresses business etiquette and protocol in different cultural contexts. The target tasks are socialising and networking. Through pedagogical tasks, learners will read about and discuss aspects of work culture such as forms of address, greetings, small talk, punctuality, and entertainment which are determined by sociocultural dimensions of politeness, power, 55 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university social taboos, and time (Rogerson-Revell, 2003). Using authentic online materials, learners will develop skills of interpreting, relating, and mediating by analysing cases of real-life misunderstandings between different cultures and developing strategies to resolve them. The learners and teacher together will develop their intercultural knowledge of different countries’ cultural norms and work conventions. Learners will practice language and communication strategies and participate in role-playing tasks simulating social interactions and networking which also aim to develop skills of discovery, interaction, and mediation. Unit 3 focuses on building business relationships, with a focus on effective language and communication strategies. The target tasks are phone and video calls so learners will be provided with key phrases and taught diplomatic language. They will participate in listening comprehension tasks and engage in role-playing tasks simulating video calls and phone calls with international colleagues, students, and suppliers. As in unit 2, this unit aims to enhance skills of interpreting, relating, interacting, and meditating as well as increasing cultural awareness related to authority and status, formality and rapport influenced by sociocultural dimensions such as power, face and politeness (Rogerson-Revell, 2003). Unit 4 is about business routines and management and the target task is a business meeting. The sociocultural aspects that may be relevant include time, individual/collective, uncertainty avoidance and masculine/feminine (Rogerson-Revell, 2003). Learners will develop their knowledge of different meeting styles, leadership styles, and negotiation strategies. Pedagogical tasks include listening comprehension and simulations of a multicultural team working on a project. Learners will also practise diplomatic language and communication strategies for effective meetings while engaging in problem-solving and decision-making through role-play. Again, skills of interpreting, relating, discovery, interaction, and mediation will be enhanced. Unit 5 focuses on written business communication and the target task is business emails. Learners will analyse formal/neutral/informal language related to sociocultural dimensions such as politeness, power, formality and high/low-context communication styles. Key phrases and diplomatic language for effective communication will be practised in the form of gap-fill and correction of authentic intercultural business emails. Learners will write business emails for authentic work purposes and exchange with classmates for feedback. Unit 6 focuses on presentation skills with the target task being presentation. Learners will discuss presentation objectives, audience focus, presentation structure and prosody. They will also be provided with key language for presentations. Pedagogic tasks aim to improve listening comprehension and key phrases and include a video of a real presentation. Learners will prepare for and give their own final presentation in which they apply what they have learned to a real-life intercultural business situation within their area of expertise. 3.6 Pedagogy and methodology The teaching methods and techniques recommended for this course are as follows. Taskbased pedagogy in which the focus is on performing communicative tasks that reflect authentic situations is proposed. A learner-centred approach in which learners are given opportunities to take control of their own learning and are encouraged to participate in tasks actively should be employed. The focus is on the process of performing the task, rather than on specific language forms (Prabhu, 1987; Nunan, 2004). It is recommended that 56 Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH authentic materials, such as news articles, websites, videos and audio recordings, be used whenever possible to provide authentic language input. Group work is encouraged. Tasks performed in small groups allow for collaboration, negotiation of meaning (Long, 1997, 2005, 2014) and opportunities for interaction. Reflective language analysis is recommended in which learners reflect on their own and their classmates’ language use during tasks. Feedback and error correction should be offered in a supportive and non-threatening manner in the post-task phase. These methods and techniques work together to create a dynamic, communicative language learning environment that focuses on the acquisition of language through the performance of meaningful tasks. 3.7 Course assessment and evaluation The assessment and evaluation process should be ongoing throughout the course to provide learners with regular feedback on their progress and to allow for ongoing adjustments to the course content and teaching methods. Teachers may use CEFR handbooks for guidance on assessment. The assessment should be both formative and summative as both provide different types of information that teachers can use to enhance learning outcomes. Formative assessment is ongoing throughout the course and helps teachers adjust instruction to meet learners’ needs. Summative assessment is a final evaluation which measures learners’ achievements at the end of a course or unit. It provides a summary of learning outcomes to evaluate learners’ achievements and feedback for further improvement (Jackson, 2022). For formative assessment, teachers can engage in classroom observation during tasks to assess the learners’ use of language and intercultural communication skills. The performance tasks in each unit can be used to assess learners’ ability to apply language and intercultural communication skills in real-life situations. Learners who engage in formative assessment achieve significantly better results. Effective teaching is centred around formative assessment, which has a powerful, positive impact on achievement and improves standards (Black & Wiliam, 2010). A summative end-of-course assessment in which learners can be asked to reflect and provide feedback on the course, including their perceptions of their language and intercultural communication skills (Byram et al., 2002) and their progress in relevant tasks (Jackson, 2022) may be implemented. This may include self-reflection exercises or surveys. The short TBLT course is designed to be incorporated into an ongoing EGBP course which has a summative final evaluation at the end of the academic year. Therefore, this final evaluation can include the summative assessment of the task-based ICC component. This would include a grammar and vocabulary test, listening and reading comprehension tasks, a written assignment and a speaking task or presentation. The final evaluation should be a comprehensive reflection of students’ language and IC skills and used to guide future course design and implementation. 3.8 Limitations Due to the scope of this assignment, detailed descriptions of tasks, and the creation of materials and lesson plans were not feasible. The pedagogical tasks are not provided with specific details for the three phases, leaving room for teachers to have the discretion to conduct and modify the tasks and classes as needed. Also, additional pedagogical tasks may 57 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH Designing a short task-based business English course for intercultural communicative competence in an international university be added. The course outline is designed to be flexible provided that the units and the main target tasks are followed. Furthermore, the course can be adapted to suit different proficiency levels. 4 Conclusion Designing this short task-based BE course to improve language and IC skills has been both challenging and rewarding. Creating the needs analysis was a complex task that involved careful consideration of various factors, such as teaching context, course objectives, and learner and stakeholder goals and expectations. Also, designing the course required a thorough analysis of the NA results, the application of the NA findings and the literature in a meaningful and effective way. Furthermore, aiming to achieve a balance between the development of language skills and ICC while following a weak TBLT framework proved challenging due to the consideration of multiple factors simultaneously. Nevertheless, it has been very rewarding since it has deepened my knowledge and understanding through the research undertaken and the application of various theories and approaches, such as TBLT, NA, and ICC. This assignment was developed within an authentic teaching context, and the course content was tailored specifically to current learners’ needs and the course’s learning objectives. It is likely that the short TBLT course can be implemented within the international university’s staff language courses. The opportunity to implement and instruct the course presents a highly rewarding prospect. Being able to witness its outcomes and evaluate its effectiveness in enhancing the language and IC skills of the university staff would provide invaluable insight and further contribute to the pedagogical development of such courses. The successful implementation of such a TBLT business English course has the potential to make a significant impact on the professional and personal development of learners and on the overall functioning of the international workplace. Further studies could aim to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of TBLT in BE and IC, particularly in terms of language proficiency and ICC. In today’s increasingly globalised world of business, there is a need for continued exploration and improvement in this important and dynamic area of language education. References Basturkmen, H. (2010). Developing courses in ESP. Palgrave Macmillan. Basturkmen, H. (2018). Needs analysis and syllabus design for language for specific purposes. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 1-13). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0861.pub2 Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171009200119 Belcher, D., Belcher, W. L., & Connor, U. (2011). Needs analysis in language teaching. Cambridge University Press. Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: a practical introduction for teachers. Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/16802fc1c3 65 Learning the Language of Dentistry: Disciplinary Corpora in the Teaching of English for Specific Academic Purposes was published by John Benjamins Publishing Company within their Studies in Corpus Linguistics(SCL) series. The SCL series is devoted to the development and use of corpora, quantitative research methods, and innovative tools for analysing language texts in order to contribute to various (pedagogical) aspects of language study. BOOK REVIEW Review of Learning the Language of Dentistry: Disciplinary Corpora in the Teaching of English for Specific Academic Purposes Peter Crosthwaite and Lisa Cheung, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2019 ISBN 978 90 272 0427 1 (HB) ISBN 978 90 272 6198 4 (E-BOOK) Reviewed by Irena Aleksić-Hajduković School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade Serbia email: [email protected] 66 Review of Learning the Language of Dentistry: Disciplinary Corpora in the Teaching of English for Specific Academic Purposes BOOK REVIEW According to its authors, the monograph is expected to assist English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) practitioners, whose knowledge of the target discipline is usually limited, in their efforts to design courses that will introduce future dentists to the rhetorical practices of their profession. The authors have opted for a data-driven learning (DDL) pedagogical approach hoping that it will enable novice dentists to improve their writing skills within the discipline. The book contains seven chapters (222 pages). There are two key sections consisting of three chapters each. These major sections are preceded by an introduction, which outlines them and provides a brief overview of each chapter. Section 1 investigates the linguistic features of the following three genres of dentistry: experimental research articles, professional and novice research reports within the realm of Dental Public Health, and case reports. Each chapter provides exhaustive information on different genre-dependent data-collection processes, the methodology applied, and software tools used (e.g., Multidimensional Analysis Tagger, SÉANCE, AntConc, etc.). Section 2 is a prime example of how a linguistic analysis may be exploited for pedagogical purposes, thus surpassing the disciplinary boundaries, as it relies on the results obtained in the first section to draw implications for practitioners teaching ESAP within dentistry and for future dentists learning ESAP. This section puts the use of corpora and DDL in the context of guiding students to explore the patterns and features of dentistry writing by providing specific corpus-based tasks and insights based on tracking learners’ corpus use. The corpusbased and dentistry-related activities described in Chapter 5 first involved an online concordancer and language problem cases, which allowed students to focus on the appropriate usage of tenses when reviewing the literature, or on the use of hedges in their statements. Nonetheless, these tasks were later expanded to include seven corpus-based activities designed for an online corpus platform and aimed at helping students practice how to refer to themselves in the Introduction section, use wildcards to examine what verb tenses are used when writing the Methodology section, explain the causes, use strengthening devices, etc. Chapter 6 offers insights into DDL learners’ query habits and their level of engagement, and reveals the fact that after completing the course, students are not likely to continue using corpora to improve their dentistry writing. Lastly, the final chapter offers reflections on the work done to create and analyse a whole variety of corpora, while highlighting the main findings in terms of the specificity of the language of dentistry writing, as well as their lexical and semantic implications for dental ESAP courses. It also provides directions for future investigations in the field of corpus-based learning. In summary, given the fact that ESP resources tailored to the needs of future dentists are scarce and that this monograph is the first ESAP resource of its kind, it is implied that it represents a valuable resource for ESAP practitioners teaching the language of dentistry at the tertiary level. Given its structure and systematicity, this publication represents an invaluable resource when it comes to exploiting corpora to enhance students’ writing skills and overall academic literacy. Therefore, it can serve as a model for corpus-based explorations within other disciplines as well. Dr Irena Aleksić-Hajduković is Assistant Professor in English for Medical and Dental Purposes at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Author biography 67 BOOK REVIEW 67 Review of International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times James Fenton, Julio Gimenez, Katherine Mansfield, Martin Percy, and Mariangela Spinillo (Eds.), Routledge, 2023 ISBN 9781032254784 Reviewed by Vicky Papageorgiou Aegean College Greece email: [email protected] International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times is a book that explores the challenges and opportunities of teaching academic English in today’s rapidly changing world. It focuses on the impact of globalization, technological advances, and socio-political changes on the teaching and learning of English as an academic language. 68 Review of International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times BOOK REVIEW An important disruption to university life and teaching, having also affected English for academic purposes (EAP) instruction and led to major changes (Pusey & Nanni, 2021), was the pandemic, which is also, as expected, discussed in this book. Many universities implemented a sudden shift from in-person classes to online ones (e.g., Allen et al., 2020). Therefore, it seemed crucial to the book’s authors to discuss the current challenges we are confronted with so that we are ready for the future ones. The edited book is a compilation of essays and research articles written by scholars and experts from various countries and cultural backgrounds in the field of English language teaching and applied linguistics. This makes the book an interesting read as it has collected articles/essays from a variety of backgrounds that all try to address crucial issues for everyone involved in higher education. It is also a valuable collection of practical adaptations to EAP instruction and learning, hopefully of interest to EAP practitioners, as they aim to offer diverse perspectives on the topic. This book is divided into four parts with 21 chapters in total that focus on different aspects of online teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first part includes the first six chapters that examine the institutional responses to the pandemic using education theories and evidence-based teaching practices to respond to the unforeseen changes in the field of EAP. EAP practitioners from six different countries (Finland, the United Kingdom, Montenegro, Qatar, Sweden, and New Zealand) share their context-specific solutions, such as adjusting expectations and adapting pedagogy to remote tools, as well as general support for learners (Chapters 1, 5, and 6). Staff support is the focus of Chapters 2-4, suggesting that institutions and departments should provide adequate training on key skills, such as digital literacy training. In this section, mental health was also considered. For example, the formation of learning and teaching communities was suggested to mitigate the isolation often felt in online teaching. What was demonstrated was that collaborative efforts have been crucial in effectively addressing the challenges brought about by disruptive events. Overall, support for both staff and learners was considered in this section, along with the need for a ‘holistic’ approach. The next part of the book explored how five different countries (Luxembourg, Chile, Argentina, Albania, and Uzbekistan) adapted their academic-skills courses, in terms of teaching and managing them, to the online environment in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally speaking, personalised approaches were suggested above all. To begin with, digital fatigue for instructors in setting up, managing, and giving feedback on their online courses was a common issue mentioned. To address this, some authors, such as Deroey and Skipp from Luxembourg and Pereira-Rocha from Chile, experimented with creating videos that could be used asynchronously (for summaries of theories, skills, or practices) to reduce synchronous contact. The authors also discussed the difficulties of replicating the face-to-face environment in online teaching. In fact, some authors had to reconsider their typical teaching approach. For example, Akhmedjanova and Akhmedova (Chapter 11) from Uzbekistan transitioned from communicative language teaching (CLT) to a teacher-centred approach due to time constraints, while Alhasani from Albania tried to maintain a student-centred approach. In contrast, other authors, such as Deroey and Skipp (Chapter 7), Colombo, and Pereira-Rocha (Chapter 8), adopted a highly humanistic approach, personalising their courses, making them more supportive and flexible, for example, through flipped classrooms (Chapter 7). 69 BOOK REVIEW Review of International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times Another difficulty to overcome was the lack of student socialization and motivation in the online environment, which is important for building relationships and creating a positive learning environment, for which a proposed solution was setting up WhatsApp groups. Therefore, the importance of adopting a highly personalized approach, using various online platforms to enrich the learning experience, is highlighted. The third section, which covers Chapters 12-16, illustrates how collaboration, a key aspect of academic English (AE) in higher education (HE), was achieved during these difficult circumstances and highlights various ways in which it can continue to be fostered in the future. In Chapter 12, Caplan discusses how collaboration was necessary to address attitudes and expectations within his department, requiring institutional-level collaboration to reconcile new strategies with national and international requirements. Steyne and her colleagues (Chapter 13) from different European institutions outline how they redesigned an academic writing course through collaboration, highlighting the importance of collaboration in course design, building trust, establishing clear rules, and understanding others’ needs to enable effective collaboration. Rodas, in Chapter 14, shares how peer-feedback groups were adapted to support academic writing and research across disciplines and institutions. Next, Lennon and his team reveal how virtual spaces were enhanced to create opportunities for dynamic communication in EAP courses. Ishii, in the last chapter of this section, explores engagement and social presence in online classrooms through a lens of humanizing the experience for all participants. To do this, he provides multiple ways to utilize technology for maintaining social presence and effective collaboration in online classrooms, recognizing individual differences through a targeted subject matter. In the last section (Chapters 17-21), the challenges and outcomes of implementing formative and summative assessments online during the pandemic are discussed. It is recognised that the transition from physical learning environments to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had a transformative impact on assessment practices in tertiary institutions, leading to increased attention to various considerations in the context of online assessment. In fact, assessment was one of the areas of EAP provision, which generated much concern (Bruce & Stakounis, 2021). However, it needs to be underlined that there has been limited research on EAP assessment practices during the pandemic, both in terms of formative and summative assessments. In Chapter 18, Tchekpassi and Zhang, as well as Smirniova and Shchemeleva (Chapter 19), highlight the challenges faced during the transition to remote synchronous learning, in relation to implementing formative assessments online. Dinneen, in Chapter 17, also acknowledges that there may be a need for training sessions for students on online collaboration and scaffolding to facilitate various competencies, such as socio-pragmatic. Li, Jing, and Guoying, in Chapter 20, as well as Sitthitiku and Tuvajitt (Chapter 21), emphasize that the shift to online delivery of their programmes resulted in a higher proportion of formative assessments and a lower proportion of summative assessments, requiring an increased focus on the learning process. Sitthitiku and Tuvajitt replaced peer-evaluation processes with self-evaluation and a formal test with a group project. They concluded that 70 Review of International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times BOOK REVIEW self-reflection guidelines were not followed properly, which resulted in the lack of transformative impact on their construction of texts. It was finally considered that critical self-reflection on such practices would be beneficial. Final thoughts Overall, the book aims to provide insights and practical strategies for teachers and researchers who are involved in teaching academic English to students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It also highlights the importance of addressing the socio-cultural and political dimensions of language teaching and learning in today’s turbulent times. For those interested in teaching and learning academic English, this book is likely to be a valuable resource. References Allen, J., Rowan, L., & Singh, P. (2020). Teaching and teacher education in the time of COVID-19. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 48(3), 233-236. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2020.1752051 Bruce, E., & Stakounis, H. (2021). The impact of Covid-19 on the UK EAP sector during the initial six months of the pandemic. BALEAP-funded Report. https://www.baleap.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/06/BALEAP-Report-Covid-and-EAP-May-2021.pdf Pusey, K., & Nanni, A. (2021). EAP in a time of crisis: Preliminary perspectives on emergency remote teaching. English Australia Journal, 37(2), 5-19. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ EJ1324120.pdf Vicky Papageorgiou is Adjunct Lecturer at the Aegean College, Greece, and an EFL tutor for the British Council. She is a member of the IATEFL Publications Committee and a coeditor at ELTA Serbia Publications. Her fields of interest are ESL and Art, EdTech and MOOCs, creativity and inquiry-based learning, and the use of video in education. Author biography 71 BOOK REVIEW 71 Review of Communication that Counts: Language Practice and Ideology in Globalized Accounting Pia Patricia P. Tenedero, Multilingual Matters, 2022 ISBN 9781800416475 Reviewed by Feruza Akhmedova Westminster International University in Tashkent Uzbekistan email: [email protected] The ability to communicate in English has become demanding in our globalized world. It is hard to name a field or a workplace where communication and a good command of English are optional. This means that the role of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) should be intensified and that challenges in ESP need to be investigated (Chan et al., 2022; Cheng & Xu, 2022). With these ideas in mind, it can be stated that Pia Patricia P. Tenedero’s book titled Communication that Counts: Language Practice and Ideology in Globalized Accounting is a valuable resource to explore the challenges and hurdles to communication faced by 72 Review of Communication that Counts: Language Practice and Ideology in Globalized Accounting BOOK REVIEW accountants in schools and workplaces in Manila, the Philippines. Indeed, Tenedero’s book not only addresses the current issues in accountants’ communication skills but also reveals the history of accountancy in the Philippines (Chapter 1). The book consists of two parts: part 1 covers chapters 1-4, and part2, chapters 5-7. In part1, the author examines how accountants’ communication skills are developed in schools; in part2, on the other hand, Tenedero thoroughly discusses how accountants apply their English communicative skills to practice in the workplace. Throughout the book, the author shares her investigations on how communication is understood in education and work in the case of Filipino accountants in Manila, with the concern that accountants are labeled as boring, extroverts, or poor communicators. To shift those labels away, Tenedero intends to research the root cause of the accountants’ poor communication skills in school and at work. Also, she wonders if “curricular alignment with professional practice is the key to the issue” (p.4). As a first step of the investigation, Tenedero analyzes how the notion of communication is embedded in policy documents in accountancy education and curricula of two high-ranking universities based on teaching accountancy in the Philippines (Chapter3). She meticulously examines and compares curricular documents investigating the position of communication from different perspectives: writing, speaking, relationships, and using technology. Also, there is a clear explanation of how two languages (i.e., English and Filipino) are articulated in communication. What is interesting is that the author prefers to employ discourse analyses through corpus linguistics, which is believed to be an effective tool or approach (Shanavas, 2018). By doing so, Tenedero investigates what notions are collocated with the term communication. Along with discussing how communication is emphasized in the curricular and policy documents, the author explains that two languages – English and Filipino – are ‘competing for recognition as capital for the performance of identity and competence’ (p.44). Having insightfully examined how communication is constructed in curricular documents, Tenedero logically moves to the analysis of how communication is achieved in classrooms for accountants. The author presents two different mediums of instruction: one of them is based on the English-only-policy(EOP), and the other is flexible in the languages (i.e., English and Tagalog) used, with justifications from both teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Further, the author stresses how English is a sign of ‘power and prestige’ for reputable exams in the Philippines; referring to the discourse, the author describes Filipino as a ‘sidekick,’ while English as a ‘superstar’ (p. 55). Notwithstanding the high reputation of English, the author successfully observes how L1 (Filipino) is also actively employed in a range of circumstances (Chapter 3) stating, for instance, L1 ‘is indexed as the language of ease and comfort, which is used to create or express a desire for closeness’ (p.60). To understand what ‘good communication’ means, Tenedero investigates the work domain where she scrutinizes offshore and onshore job advertisements that require high communication skills. Furthermore, she interviews in-practice teachers and employees, along with bosses who urge their workers to communicate in English with clients. From the interview excerpts, it was clear that, in most cases, Filipino accountants felt discomfort when asked to speak English; they expressed feelings of intimidation or embarrassment of incorrectly using English in communication. For example, the accountants revealed that it was hard for them to explain certain thoughts and jokes in English, and in most cases, they tended to keep silent, avoiding losing face. 73 BOOK REVIEW Review of Communication that Counts: Language Practice and Ideology in Globalized Accounting One of the strengths of the book is the scope of research. The author investigates the issue of problematic English communication from different perspectives, such as studying the history of the accounting enterprise in the Philippines, analyzing policy documents, and interviewing people from different ranks, which make Tenedero’s findings helpful to better understand sociolinguistic realities. This leads to the fact that the book is a quality source for practical advice and tips on how to solve the problems of English communication in the field of globalized accounting. I believe that the recommendations and future implementations (Chapter7) given in the book are useful for different groups. Researchers whose interest fields cover medium of instruction, bilingualism, multilingualism, or curriculum development will benefit from the book since the author provides thought-provoking findings pertinent to those areas. It should be emphasized that the book benefits ESP curriculum developers as they can learn what components of communication should be considered in designing curricular documents for language learners in certain fields. Also, the book can serve to raise recruiters’ awareness of challenges and obstacles in using English (or other foreign languages) to demonstrate good communication skills. Finally, while the book heavily concentrates on context-specific languages, its findings could be applicable to any language and in other contexts. References Chan, S. M. H., Mamat, N. H., & Nadarajah, V. D. (2022). Mind your language: The importance of English language skills in an International Medical Programme (IMP). BMC Medical Education, 22, 405. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03481-w Cheng, L., & Xu, J. (2022). Chinese English as a foreign language learners’ individual differences and their willingness to communicate. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 883664. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.883664 Shanavas, S. A. (2018). Incorporating corpus linguistics into ELT in MENA countries: Bridging the gap. Language In India, 18(7), 41-49. http://www.languageinindia.com/july2018/basheermiddleeasternenglishcorpus1.pdf Feruza Akhmedova is a Lecturer in Academic English at Westminster International University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She holds an MA TESL from Webster University in Tashkent. Her research interests include classroom management and learner motivation. She was an honorary visiting scholar at the English Department, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, USA. Author biography