Learning Transfer in Higher Education: Applications & Challenges in EAP Classrooms. Rethinking English Language Teaching and Learning for a COVID-19 Endemic World: Global, Glocal and Local Perspectives 57th RELC International Conference (RELC 2023), Singapore, 13-15 March 2023.

Abstract

<p>Learning transfer plays a crucial role in the dynamics of student learning process in higher education, especially in facilitating students’ learning to support their university studies. Learning transfer arises when students apply the prior experience and acquired knowledge to address new challenges in other learning contexts (Hirvela, 2016; James, 2014; Navarre Cleary, 2013). It is important to explore teachers’ perspectives of how to promote learning transfer and students’ understanding of how to make transfer happen more effectively (Law & Fong, 2020) in higher education. Course coordinators and teachers in an English-medium international university were invited to complete an e-survey to solicit their perceptions of learning transfer in EAP courses. The findings unveil teachers’ suggestions of how to motivate learners to be more engaged in transfer in their university study. The presentation will discuss teachers’ challenges of the promotion of learning transfer and subsequent changes to the course curriculum after the study. It will also analyse how to raise students’ awareness of learning transfer and showcase the best practice in innovative teaching materials to foster a productive transfer climate in the language classrooms.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>References:</strong></p><p>Hirvela, A. (2019). <em>Connecting Reading & Writing in Second Language Writing Instruction</em> (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.</p><p>James, M. A. (2014). Learning transfer in English-for-academic-purposes contexts: A systematic review of research. <em>Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 14,</em> 1-13.</p><p>Law, L., & Fong, N. (2020). Applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in an investigation of undergraduate students’ learning transfer of academic English. <em>Journal of English for Academic Purposes</em>, <em>46</em>, 100884. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100884">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100884</a></p><p>Navarre Cleary, M. (2013). Flowing and freestyling: Learning from adult students about process knowledge transfer. <em>College Composition and Communication, 64</em>, 661-687.</p>