Graduate-level English for Academic Purposes courses as part of common education curricula

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02849
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University
• Principal Investigator: Fujioka Mayumi 大阪府立大学, 高等教育推進機構, 教授 (40351572)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 大学院共通教育 / 学術英語 / アカデミックライティング / ジャンルアプローチ / カリキュラム / 授業構築モデル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present study had three-fold purposes: (1) to understand the current situation regarding graduate-level academic English education in Japan; (2) to implement a graduate-level English course across disciplines at Osaka Prefecture University (OPU); and (3) to develop a model for a graduate-level English curriculum. Findings showed that there was a great deal of diversity in the content of different graduate English courses across universities. Regarding the OPU English course, genre approach (e.g., Hyland, 2004b, 2007), which focuses on explicit teaching of structural and linguistic features of research papers, turned out to be effective. Moreover, an ecological perspective (Tudor, 2003) adds to successful implementation of the course by emphasizing the teaching and learning context. Based on these findings, an educational model was proposed for future implementation of a graduate-level English course for students from diverse disciplines.

Free Research Field

英語教育学　応用言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本の大学院教育では、近年研究公正などの共通教育の重要性が高まり、英語教育についても分野横断的な観点からの教育が必要とされる。本研究での成果は、異なる専門分野の大学院生たちを対象として、ジャンルアプローチを用いて学術英語授業の実践方法を示した点において意義がある。さらに、教員と学生のコンテクストを最重要視するエコロジー的視点を加えた点においても教育的意義がある。