1. Olwyn Alexander & Sue Argent
Stepping up to the plate: Framing EAP materials through graduate attributes
This workshop briefly introduces the concept of Graduate Attributes and provides a three-stage framework for building lessons around graduate attributes.
Olwyn Alexander & Sue Argent

2. The changing context of university study
Increasingly, both undergraduates and postgraduates are being prepared for professional practice in their future careers.
Globalization and rapid change demand much more than subject specific expertise.
The concept of scholarship at university is being expressed through generic graduate attributes (GAs).
Graduate attributes are currency for employment. They take students beyond subject knowledge and develop a sense of graduateness.

3. Graduate attributes
'the skills, knowledge and abilities of university graduates, beyond disciplinary content knowledge, which are applicable to a range of contexts and are acquired as a result of completing any undergraduate degree'. Barrie (2006: 217)
Graduate attributes are what differentiate university graduates in the job market.

4. Generic graduate attributes to frame an EAP course
Introducing GAs prepares students for the challenges of degree level study by aligning expectations and assumptions of students with those of the academy.
Working with the GAs gave us relevant contexts.
Imagining how students could demonstrate the GAs enabled us to create relevant content.
Task: Which GAs do you think are the most challenging for EAP teachers to introduce?
Handout on Graduate Attributes. Note that there are a number of different ways of grouping and ordering these. TASK: Which graduate attributes do you tink are the most challenging for EAP teachers to introduce?

5. Generic graduate attributes to frame an EAP course
We used a three stage protocol to build GAs
Information
Analysis
Alignment
In developing the concept of Graduate Attributes for the advanced level book, we identified the three things students needed to do – identify and understand the GA, analyse its context and implications (requires CT tasks) and see how they themselves were aligning – shaping up – to the GA (develops autonomy).

6. Information Key information about a GA is presented to the students
What behaviour is expected? What practices are valued? (by the university and academia more generally)
When, why and how? In what contexts?
How is this expressed or demonstrated by university lecturers / academics?
Infomration can be presented in texts or study smart advice boxes.

7. Analysis
Students analyse the GA by working with examples or case studies
to identify the GA or its absence
to identify a rationale for, components of or implications of the GA
to discover the key language requirements of the GA
to apply the GA to specific cases
Analysis involves working with texts and case studies through tasks which promote specific types of interaction.

8. Alignment Students personally align with the GA by
identifying practices and language specific to their own situation or discipline
comparing and contrasting how GAs work in different fields and at different levels of study
becoming aware of changes necessary in their own responses
Students think about how can I align my thinking and responses with these ideas rather than how do these ideas align with my preferences.

9. Access EAP: Frameworks
Graduate attributes are presented at the start of each lesson as What the university expects
Graduate attributes inform the choice of topics, functions and genres
Graduate attributes generate situations and interactions
Graduate attributes generate self-study tasks in which students research their own discipline
The expectations and assumptions of the university are presented at the start of each lesson together with the aims.

10. Conclusion
One of the main challenges for EAP teachers is knowing how to provide content that meets students’ needs for their future academic study.
Graduate attributes offer a practical way of pinning down the more nebulous aspects of critical thinking and student autonomy.
They enable teachers to frame their talk using concepts the institution understands.
The 3 stage protocol for framing lessons helps to translate the GAs into meaningful EAP content

11. References
Alexander, O., Argent, S. And Spencer, J. (2008) EAP Essentials: a teacher’s guide to principles and practice. Reading: Garnet Education.
Argent, S. and Alexander, O. (2010) Access EAP: Foundations. Reading: Garnet Education.
Barrie, S.C. (2006) Understanding what we mean by the generic attributes of graduates. Higher Education, 51, pp 215–241
Bax, S. (2003). The end of CLT: a context approach to language teaching. ELT Journal, 57(3), 278–286.
Nicol, D. The foundation for graduate attributes: developing self-regulation through self and peer-assessment. QAA Enhancement themes Accessed from
Savignon, S.J. (2007). Beyond communicative language teaching: What’s ahead? Journal of Pragmatics, 39(1), 207–220.
University of Glasgow. What are graduate attributes? Available online at Accessed
Wallace, M. and Wray, A. (2011) Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates. London: Sage

12. Thanks
Thanks to Heriot Watt University and Garnet Education for sponsorship Any questions or comments?