Off-Shore and out of Reach: Student Voice in Pre-Departure EAP pedagogies

This paper explores the complexities of developing and delivering English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pre-departure programs. We reflect on experiences of co-teaching in a Lao PDR based program for students planning to undertake tertiary studies in New Zealand or Australia. Taking a sociocultural perspective, we examine the way that the Lao pre-departure program aims to attend to the particularities of both local and target contexts and to facilitate student adaptation to the chosen institution and discipline. The program takes a participatory approach to EAP and the broader acculturation processes, making space for individual student voice as part of the modeling and scaffolding of academic English. Based on this experience of transnational collaboration in development and delivery, we discuss critical issues of relevance to the planning and delivery of EAP pre-departure courses and productive international study experiences.