We have been living with this pain: enquiry-based language learning in Iranian higher education |
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| Authors: | Sue-san Ghahremani-Ghajar Hossein Mohammadi Doostdar Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of English Language and Literature , Alzahra University , Tehran , Iran ghahremanighajar@yahoo.com;3. Department of Science Education , National Research Institute for Science Policy , Tehran , Iran;4. Department of English Language Education , Tarbiat Modares University , Tehran , Iran |
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| Abstract: | This article explores an understanding of learning as authentic enquiry and language as a social practice of meaning construction as the theoretical perspectives underlying an educational initiation beyond mainstream tertiary language education. With a general ethnographic approach and relying on multiple data sources, we investigate critical practices of teaching medical English in an Iranian university and illustrate a contextualized instance of enquiry-based language learning that embodies enquiry and discovery in two senses: students’ research and learning about the content for oneself, and moving away from spoon-feeding views of academic language education to experience language in real social contexts. On this basis, we argue for stepping beyond predetermined content-based approaches to university language teaching and call for living the language that is being learned, which involves enquiring, experiencing, discovering, challenging, and owning it. |
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| Keywords: | enquiry-based language learning English for specific purposes English teaching in Iran Iranian higher education |
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