Power and Meaning Making in an EAP Classroom: Engaging with the Everyday

Chun, C. W. (2015). Power and Meaning Making in an EAP Classroom: Engaging with the Everyday. North York, ON: University of Toronto Press. 219 pp. ISBN-13:978-1-78309-293-2Chun's book contributes to the existing literature regarding English for Academic Purpose (EAP) learning and teaching as well as it provides insights about critical literacy pedagogy in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). His book presents an in-depth analysis of an EAP classroom with a focus on how the participating EAP instructor incorporated functional grammar and critical literacy into her classes to further engage students' meaning making. Chun presents and discusses important topics including neoliberalism, globalization, consumer culture, multiculturalism, power, identity, praxis, subjectivity, reflexivity, agency, student engagement, language learning and teaching, as well as teachers' professional development.This book is organized into eight, interconnected chapters. The first chapter provides the background information, the rational for conducting this particular ethnographic study, and Chun's positionality within the research project. Chun also helps readers to understand the EAP program beyond the local context by bringing in the current debate. He also points to new directions for EAP programs, which facilitates the need for background information to continue to read the book.The second chapter takes readers to the EAP classroom where the language and literacies meaning making takes place between the participating EAP instructor and her students in a specific program within a particular institution culture in North America. Chun vividly presents the physical space of the EAP classroom by including classroom pictures. He then he goes beyond the obvious tables and chairs to explore the class rules. These class rules were written by the participating class and posted next to the board with English words, numbers, and drawings for the teacher and students to see on a daily basis. Chun goes deeper to reconceptualise the class text, which goes beyond the physical place, classroom furniture, and class rules and includes the following questions: Who are the participants in the classroom discourses? What are the complex relationships and dynamics among the participants? and How can the dynamics affect and (re)produce different classroom discourses?The third chapter discusses the meaning making process through analyzing a Reading Subject Position event in the spring term of the EAP class. Chun uses the detailed classroom recordings and dialogue from the teaching and learning process to help readers understand the participating teacher's teaching practices. The analysis of the specific methods used by the participating teacher helps readers to further understand the rationale of the research to introduce the topics of systemic foundational linguistics and functional grammar. The discussions of the EAP classroom practices also prepares readers for the critical discussions of the evolving classroom practices, presented later in the book.The fourth chapter examines the multimodalities used in an EAP classroom, focusing on neoliberal globalization discourses in YouTube videos. The fifth chapter continues the conversations of neoliberalization discourse focusing on summer term classes. The sixth chapter explores critical literacy in relation to the topic of modal minority consumer and multiculturalism in Canada using a particular text from the participating EAP classroom. …

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