Learner-centered EAP practices : Managing agenda in tutorial interaction

Abstract

Many higher education institutions support the linguistic needs of ESL students by providing various kinds of tutorial services. Although tutorial interaction has received much research attention, few studies have investigated how tutors and students make decisions about what language skills and activities to focus on during tutorials. In this article, we use conversation analysis (CA) to explore how participants jointly set the tutorial agenda in video recordings from ESL tutorials in dyadic tutor-tutee interactions between an L1 English tutor and L2 tutees at a community college in the United States. We examine participants' interactional practices of initiating agenda management, identifying the tutee's language learning needs, proposing learning activities, and managing disagreement about proposed activities. Our analysis shows how the participants orient to the tutee as the person who is expected to take the lead in agenda setting. From the perspective of a learner-centered EAP pedagogy, agenda management constitutes an important practice because it enables the individualization of the tutorial, which is essential in an instructional environment characterized by a diversity of students' language skills and learning needs. Recognizing the situated, collaborative, and negotiated nature of tutorial interaction can help educational institutions and EAP practitioners further promote learner-centeredness in their practice.