Using Galperin’s framework to develop students’ academic communication skills in English: A case of an online pre-sessional course

This chapter outlines the design and implementation of a 120-hour online English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) pre-sessional module across various schools at a UK university. The module’s theoretical basis draws on Vygotsky’s notions of internalization, externalization, and mediation, and the teaching is informed by Galperin’s theory of Systematic Formation of Mental Actions (SFMA), which includes motivation, orientation, materialized action, communicative thinking, dialogical thinking, and acting mentally phases. The chapter explains how the pedagogical design was conducive to the use of SFMA in facilitating student learning. The design centers on flipped learning and reflective group work, with assessment based on dialogic feedback practices. A four-band descriptive achievement scale encourages qualitative formative feedback dialogues between students and teachers and supports the later phases of SFMA. Although the module survey identified student-centered learning as the primary challenge for students, they highlighted several strengths, such as diverse synchronous and asynchronous community-building activities, flipped learning resources facilitating the SFMA “orientation” phase, dialogic feedback, and structured reflective practice enabling other SFMA phases. By demonstrating how sociocultural theory and SFMA can be used to develop students’ academic communication skills, the chapter offers insights for EAP practitioners seeking to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes in similar contexts.