Engaging with the Language – The POA Approach

The POA approach has been developed and implemented over the last ten years within a specific context, that of China, where language planning policies for the teaching and learning of English have seen substantial development particularly since the early 2000s (e.g. Lo Bianco, Orton & Gao 2009). In general, “along with the implementation of the Open Door Policy and development of the nation’s economy, importance attached to and enthusiasm about learning English has been exponentially increased” in China, resulting in a large number of people learning, but also teaching, English (Wen 2012: 371). The POA approach, that represents an innovative shift in perspective from previous English teaching methods in China, is addressed mainly at young adult learners within tertiary education, and aims at developing competence in English with a central focus on productive skills, not least to respond to the increasing demands for language use in communication. This central orientation on production is thoroughly supported by three hypotheses (output-enabling, input enabling and selective learning) that inform the teaching process. By being placed at the beginning of the learning process, output constitutes “a driving force for L2 learning” (Wen 2016: 6); at the same time it also represents the final learning outcome, within a close interconnectedness between input and output. The central role of the teacher is precisely defined as being in charge of both carefully planning the activities and the teaching steps, and closely directing their unfolding in class. Rather than a ‘facilitator’, the teacher is seen in the POA as a professional and a ‘mediator’ who should skilfully orchestrate input (materials and activities), engaging and leading students towards successful learning and active language production. In this perspective, the fact that the learning objectives are to be shared with the learners in the initial phases of each unit, together with communicative scenarios, and that assessment is jointly managed in the teacher-student collaborative assessment phase, can positively contribute to motivation and engagement. This can work towards the development of learner autonomy, too, in a gradual decrease of scaffolding throughout the learning process. A sort of spiral movement can be recognized from the initial production in the motivation phase to the end production in the assessment / project phase, that are gradually and sequentially organized and enabled through input. Possibly, a gradual decrease in teachers’ scaffolding could also be envisaged through well-planned and balanced individual, pair and group work activities involving