Postmodern Groupwork: Developing as a Learner and Thinker through EAP

Abstract

Postmodernism has been defined as questioning the metanarratives that underpin much traditional thinking, such as universal truth and scientific progress. This gives opportunity, in a society where knowledge is valued as that which can be transmitted and computed, to the proliferation of a culture of efficiency and performance. De-centring traditional narratives can also open up a different way of thinking, where (postmodern) knowledge can instead be more fluid, multiple, local and a shared endeavour. The purpose of this study is to imagine an EAP classroom without the common metanarratives (e.g. knowledge as a cultivation of the self, homogeneous student outcomes) or performative substitutes (e.g. knowledge as a personal commodity, performed outcomes) that may underpin EAP activities.  

In a Foundation EAP course at a Scottish university, where learners worked on a group research project, I experimented with a postmodern approach. This involved working with mixed home and international students, supporting collaborative endeavour and welcoming heterogeneous outcomes. The usefulness of the study lies in its proposal of a type of postmodern approach that is under-explored in EAP, but powerful as a challenge to ubiquitous performativity.