The Perspectives of English-for-Academic-Purposes Instructors Towards the Transfer Climate

Abstract

This study examines the nature of the transfer climate in an English for academic purposes (EAP) education setting specifically from the perspectives of EAP instructors. The transfer climate refers to the nature of the target context of instruction and the support for learning transfer perceived by a learner in that target context. Therefore, in the case of the EAP education context, the target context of instruction is the discipline courses to which students transition to or take concurrently with EAP courses. These discipline courses may be supportive or unsupportive towards students' transfer of EAP skills. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 EAP instructors. The interview transcripts were analyzed using a process of de-contextualizing and re-contextualizing. Firstly, with decontextualizing, a chunk of text is identified as a unit of analysis and is taken out of context from the transcript. Secondly, all the units can be re-contextualized when transferred from the interview transcript to a single category of units that contribute to a similar pattern towards the research question. The findings revealed that EAP instructors perceived both supportive and unsupportive aspects of different components of the EAP transfer climate [opportunities (lack of) in the course structure, support (lack of) for EAP transfer from discipline instructors or peers in the disciplines]. This study’s findings also build on existing conceptualizations of transfer climate. Practical implications, implications for future research, and limitations are outlined.