Shaimaa El Naggar and Jake Groves
In this paper, we report on a study conducted on the use of hobbies in EAP teaching. We interviewed international students on a pre-sessional course in the UK about their hobbies, which revealed key patterns, for example, hobbies offered a space for enjoyment most relevant to motivation (Kahu, 2013). Thus, we developed activities aimed at promoting students’ academic skills, drawing on their hobbies. Furthermore, during the teaching process, we recorded our observations (O’Reilly, 2009) on students’ interactions in using hobbies as content to explore if these activities generated their interest and engagement. While exploring the theoretical and empirical insights of our study, we will show that the use of hobbies in EAP teaching has a number of benefits: creating rapport in the classroom, facilitating the transitioning to learning EAP skills and steering students’ engagement, tapping into their existing interests and social practices. Our study offers a contribution to research on motivation (Kahu, 2013) and strengthens a vein of research that seeks to bridge the gap between academic literacies and students’ everyday literacy practices (Smith, 2005; Barton and Hamilton, 2012). As such, it will be of interest to both EAP practitioners and linguists.
