putting theory into practice english language aul@w projects wendy anderson lecturer, english...
TRANSCRIPT
‘Putting Theory into Practice’ English Language AUL@W Projects
Wendy Anderson
Lecturer, English Language, University of Glasgow
AUL@W / English Language projects
Two pilot projects:
1. ESOL volunteer training project
2. Oral History fieldwork project
ESOL volunteer training pilot
8-week Volunteer Tutor course
6-month Volunteer Placement
ESOL volunteer training pilot
Student 1:
Female, Junior Honours
Worked with a 19 year old Pakistani man, newly arrived in Glasgow
Part of Red Cross ‘Life Skills’ course
Role included: helping him write a diary, work on job interview skills, communication skills
ESOL volunteer training pilot
Student 2:
Female, Senior Honours
Worked with groups of 10 females, organised by Scottish Refugee Council, various ages, nationalities, educational backgrounds.
Role: work on ‘language survival skills’, e.g. finding locations, vocabulary for food shopping, doctor visits, telling the time
ESOL volunteer training pilot
Student motivations:
• Appeal of teaching; gaining experience• First step towards a qualification • Working with a voluntary organisation
Relevance for:
• Degree course• Job prospects• General life skills
Oral history fieldwork project
Training:
• Oral history fieldwork and interviews• Recording equipment • Ethics and copyright• Transcription of speech data
Fieldwork:
• Glasgow Women’s Library• Supporters Direct
Oral history fieldwork project
Benefits to students:
• Connections with Department’s Honours courses • Students gain original spoken language data for
dissertations etc.• Experience in recording and transcribing• Engagement with project and community group
Some challenges:
• Student expectations • Maintaining momentum with a non-embedded course• Workload (esp. with regard to sustainability beyond
life of AUL@W project)
Student feedback (from Oral History project):
• “…it has been a great experience. … Carrying out the first interview in my life was rather nerve-wracking but I think I coped quite well. … I’m expecting that having the project on my CV can help me stand out among others…”
• “I feel it has given me a chance to extend my learning and also see how the university curriculum can be applied to careers in the outside world - something which can often be hard to imagine during lectures!”
• Professionalism• Creative thinking (planning an interview)• Persistence • Confidence
Pilot projects and students
HEA Employability Profile for English
• Use advanced literacy skills to communicate effectively in an appropriate style
• Apply sustained written and oral arguments coherently and persuasively• Analyse and critically examine diverse forms of verbal and textual
communication• Adapt the critical methods of the discipline to a variety of working
environments• Gather, sift, interpret and organise substantial quantities of diverse
information in structured ways• Organise their time and workload as developed through the planning and
delivery of written assignments, presentations and project work• Exercise independent thought and judgement• Comprehend and develop intricate concepts in an open-ended way that
involves an understanding of aims and consequences• Work with others through the presentation of ideas and information and the
collective negotiation of solutions• Understand, interrogate and apply a variety of theoretical positions and
weigh the importance of alternative perspectives• Handle information and argument in a critical and self-reflective manner• Use IT effectively to retrieve, evaluate and present information
Pilot projects and students
HEA Employability Profile for English
• Use advanced literacy skills to communicate effectively in an appropriate style
• Apply sustained written and oral arguments coherently and persuasively• Analyse and critically examine diverse forms of verbal and textual
communication• Adapt the critical methods of the discipline to a variety of working
environments• Gather, sift, interpret and organise substantial quantities of diverse
information in structured ways• Organise their time and workload as developed through the planning and
delivery of written assignments, presentations and project work• Exercise independent thought and judgement• Comprehend and develop intricate concepts in an open-ended way that
involves an understanding of aims and consequences• Work with others through the presentation of ideas and information and the
collective negotiation of solutions• Understand, interrogate and apply a variety of theoretical positions and
weigh the importance of alternative perspectives• Handle information and argument in a critical and self-reflective manner• Use IT effectively to retrieve, evaluate and present information
Adapt the critical methods of the discipline to a variety of working environments
Gather, sift, interpret and organise substantial quantities of diverse information in structured ways.
Work with others through the presentation of ideas and information and the collective negotiation of solutions.
‘Putting Theory into Practice’ English Language AUL@W Projects
Wendy Anderson
Lecturer, English Language, University of Glasgow