https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez Course Design, documentation and evaluation en-us 2016-03-01 09:13:58 UTC 2023-03-10 05:51:12 UTC hello@padlet.com simon_hotchkiss https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109145098 These are the guidance notes written for EAP teachers on the 4.5 months pre-sessional course, produced by the academic manager- it should be noted that the structure is quite similar to the EL7915 report pro-forma we have just completed for the course and so of itself would be considered part of the 'report' social genre, starting with the rationale and then providing details of the text genres and suggested teaching activities. 

As Bruce (2005) argues genre courses should be organised around an analytic syllabus which is top-down in orientation. This corresponds to part VII that introduces the learning/teaching cycle where the texts are presented and then deconstructed, with the individual language items analysed in relation to the larger discourse unit, before finally the students reconstruct the text genre, first jointly in groups and then independently as part of their assignments. The main genres discussed in the notes are evaluative description and simple argument of debatable issues; these broadly correspond to Bieber (in Bruce 2005) core academic genres of ‘description’ and ‘discussion’ and are also core parts of the IELTS test with the IELTS writing Task 1 largely focusing on description, while the IELTS Task 2 focuses on discussion. 

On the other hand, the notes don’t provide much in the way of the other two core genres identified by Bieber (in Bruce 2005) of ‘recount’ and ‘explanation’. Although these are covered in the syllabus, they have much less prominence, which could be as they have less prominence in the IELTS test. Recount texts are largely absent from IELTS writing task 2 and instead are more common in part 2 of the IELTS speaking test where candidates may recount some kind of experience or past event. Explanatory texts do appear in IELTS Writing Task 1 where candidates may be asked to explain how something works or is produced, but these are less common then describing a graph or chart and the explanation part is much more limited as candidates are not allowed to use any background knowledge they may have.   

References:

Bruce, I. (2005) ‘Syllabus design for general EAP writing courses: A cognitive approach’ in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 4, pp.239–256.]]> 2016-05-04 06:41:38 UTC https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109145098 simon_hotchkiss https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109146028 This is the syllabus for the 4.5 month pre-sessional EAP programme at my institution. As suggested by Moore & Morton (2005), it is split between a Core EAP stream and an IELTS Skills stream. At my centre in Jakarta, these are taught by the same teacher, whereas at the Bali centre, these are taught by different teachers. Although this syllabus is much better than the previous one we had, which was largely incomprehensible to most teachers, there are still some concerns I have with it.

The notes, included in the next item, make it clear that the course is to be taught using a genre approach with a clear emphasis on the genres of description and discussion. However, when looking at the syllabus, that approach becomes less clear. While some of the modules are classified by their genre, the first module is ‘Evaluative description’, others are classified by the EAP skill or task, such as ‘Written summary’ or ‘Discussion essay’. Thus, it isn’t really a consistent genre approach and is a bit of a mix between genre and task-based learning. 

The second concern I have is about the split between EAP and IELTS, I discussed this in more detail in my blog post so here I shall just discuss one aspect. As part of the genre approach, Bruce (2005) recommends an ‘analytic syllabus’ that is top-down with the larger discourse units deconstructed and the language analysed in relation to them. Hyland (in McDonough 2005) argues that in this way the grammar and lexis is looked at as a matter of choice, to achieve a particular purpose. However, with the syllabus as it is the language is presented in isolated chunks in the IELTS stream rather than in the core-EAP stream. This is even more problematic if the EAP and IELTS teachers are different as there would not be any direct relating of the grammar and lexis to the larger discourse genre. Both of these issues I think raise serious questions about the desire to take a genre approach and would call for a rethink of the syllabus. 

References: 

Bruce, I. (2005) ‘Syllabus design for general EAP writing courses: A cognitive approach’ in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 4, pp.239–256.

McDonough J. (2005) ‘Perspectives on EAP: An interview with Ken Hyland’, ELT Journal, 59(1), pp.57–64.

Moore, T. & Morton, J. (2005) ‘Dimensions of difference: a comparison of university writing and IELTS writing’ in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 4, pp. 43-66.

]]> 2016-05-04 06:48:22 UTC https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109146028 simon_hotchkiss https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109148605 The file below is a response, by the Academic Manager, to the mid-course feedback from students on the 4.5 month pre-sessional EAP programme. While many of the comments relate to more administrative issues, points 2 and 9 relate to IELTS and the structure of the EAP programme. 

These comments were from a couple years ago when we trialled having two separate sessions a week to focus on IELTS skills in response to student requests to have more IELTS sessions. This is a very common theme in courses which have IELTS as an assessment and must be considered an example of negative washback (Green 2007) as students want to take time away from EAP skills to focus on preparing for IELTS. This is particularly so as often what students mean by more focus on IELTS is more practice tests. Mickan & Motteram (2009) criticized the large number of IELTS candidates who had repeatedly taken IELTS Tests. They argued that the candidates lacked personal agency and strategic action with many of the candidates admitting they did not know how to improve their scores themselves and instead were dependent on expert-help in the form of feedback. The academic manager’s response clearly rejects taking an IELTS only approach to EAP and reminds students that the EAP is supposed to help them with their IELTS as well. Personally, I think having separate sessions for IELTS is a slippery slope as students will inevitably demand more sessions as they did in the feedback as their primary motivation at this particular stage is to get their required IELTS score.

The other main complaint from students were that the EAP sessions lacked focus and jumped around. The academic manager responds to this by saying the course takes an ‘integrated-skills task-based approach’ p.3, which may be different to what the students are used to. It should be noted that these comments were from a couple of years ago before the 4.5 months syllabus I’ve uploaded was fully developed, but I think it’s rather telling that at this stage in the course programme design no mention is made of taking a genre approach and instead the emphasis is on skills and tasks. This relates back to my previous critique of the new syllabus which is supposed to be genre-based but instead still has a large focus on skills and tasks. In contrast, I believe that having a clear genre approach would address some of the student complaints about the course jumping around as each module could be organized around an overall topic which is then sub-divided into discourse entities which can form the basis of individual lessons, from which the genre cycle of deconstruction, language analysis and reconstruction of the text can take place, thus providing a more supportive and coherent framework for students (Hyland 2007). 

References:

Green, A. (2007). IELTS washback in context: preparation for academic writing in higher education. Cambridge:CUP.

Hyland, K. (2007) ‘Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction’ Journal of Second Language Writing Vol.16, pp.148–164.

Mickan, P. & Motteram, J. (2009). 'The preparation practices of IELTS candidates: case studies'. IELTS Research Reports Vol. 10, Report 5. IELTS Australia Pty Ltd, Canberra.

]]> 2016-05-04 07:10:31 UTC https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109148605 simon_hotchkiss https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109150357 Below I’ve included a TED talk given by Bill Gates about teacher feedback. I think it’s important to refer to more popular items like TED talks as they inevitably reach a much wider, more general audience than just academic texts. Bill Gates criticizes the feedback that teachers often receive from observations and assessments as it usually consists of one word ‘satisfactory’; although this is an American context, the OFSTED rating system for primary and secondary education is similar in the UK in that it ranks schools according to those which are outstanding, good, satisfactory or inadequate. As a teacher, I think this speaks more broadly about the role of feedback, which is often used as a form of correction or even punishment rather than constructive feedback that the teacher can use- see, for example, comments by OFSTED on so-called ‘coasting teachers’ http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/oct/21/ofsted-to-target-coasting-teachers. 

Bill Gates’ initiative is to create a teacher mentoring programme, whereby teachers can take videos of their lessons and send them to get real evaluative and constructive comments. In the TED talk, Bill Gates does, unsurprisingly, take a positive, in-depth look at the role of technology in classrooms and largely skates over the negative implications of videoing lessons. Personally, I don’t think the video technology itself is that important, instead the crucial factor is that teachers themselves should take ownership of the mentoring scheme so that it becomes supportive and constructive rather than critical and disempowering, which is the common perception of ratings agencies, such as OFSTED. ]]> 2016-05-04 07:23:53 UTC https://padlet.com/simon_hotchkiss/4y082z3o5hez/wish/109150357