Enhancing Conference English Skills through Situated Learning and Communities of Practice: An Action Research Study

The objective of this action research was to investigate whether the integration of Community of Practice (CoP) and cognitive apprenticeship into the existing situated learning framework of the elective course Advanced Studies in Second Language and Conference English could enhance the conference English communication skills (RQ1), knowledge of international conferences (RQ2), and learning motivation (RQ3) of graduate students of translation and interpreting. This approach aimed to address the observed discrepancies in English proficiency among the enrolled students and the lack of formal English communication contexts.

In a class of seven students, three major situational tasks were implemented to train students’ professional English communication skills: a six-minute short talk, a 20-minute simulated interview, and a 1.5-hour end-of-semester public forum. Throughout the course, students received feedback from the CoP, which comprised the course instructor, two co-instructors, senior classmates, and peers.

Students’ communicative performance in the three tasks was assessed using four accuracy and fluency measures: error-free T-units, error analysis, mean length of runs, and speech rate. A 25-item questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were employed to examine their knowledge of conference English and learning motivation. Results from the analysis showed that students’ accuracy and fluency improved the most in the public forum compared to the other two tasks. The questionnaire results, based on a five-point Likert scale, indicated that students perceived an improvement in their overall English communication ability (M =4.33). Feedback from the instructor, co-instructors, and senior students was deemed highly valuable for improving English skills and conference preparation, whereas peer interactions received lower evaluations. The interview data revealed that students’ motivation could be negatively affected by poor peer dynamics. The findings suggest that situated learning and CoP can facilitate the acquisition of conference English, but students require more systematic and structured feedback to maximize their learning outcomes.