alannah fitzgerald the toetoe project planning for impact

The TOETOE ProjectPlanning for Impact

Created by Alannah FitzgeraldResearch Fellow at Durham University English Language CentreSCORE Fellow with The Open University

Does it make a difference?

Licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Share Alike

Overview

• Under-used OER for EAP– Open Corpus Tools & Resources

• The Academic Wordlist & Sub-technical Vocabulary• Open Access publications • Genre & function-based approaches

• Re-purposing Existing OER for NGOs– Appropriate OER Design & Development

• Mobile Teaching Unit – Thai-Burmese Border• Curriculum Development with OER• Ownership of Localised OER – The Best Friend Libraries

Impact Issues with OER for EAP

Study skills OER for EAP proliferate Issues surrounding over-use & re-use

Informal networking – BALEAP Issues surrounding accreditation

Need for niche OER for EAP Data-driven OER development

English for Academic Purposes

“You teach a bit of Shakespeare and the present perfect, don’t you?”

EAP Now!http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EAP-Now-english-academic-purposes-Students-

Book-/160562605303?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item256246ecf7

“EAP Now! Unique Features:

• Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening for EAP are included in a single course book.

• Extra EAP skills are also included: Grammar, Critical Thinking, English for the Internet Age and Learner Independence and Study Skills.

• All these skills are thematically linked within each unit.”

“EAP Now! Unique Features:

A table at the back of the book shows students how tasks can be used to practise the four sections (reading, writing, speaking and listening) of the IELTS test.”

250 words

Guidelines for Writing at Masters Degree Levelhttp://resources.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/2963

EAP for the Social SciencesWriting at Masters Level by Ursula Wingate, 2009

Signposting in EAPWriting at Masters Level by Ursula Wingate, 2009

Reflections

• Focus groups– Sourcing, Selecting (Think Aloud) – Using, Rejecting, Re-purposing or Re-creating?

• Iterative – Divergence to create– Convergence to critique– Start over? Baby out with the bathwater– Re-hash? As a service back to the COP

Focus on Vocabulary: Mastering the Academic Word List http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productId=9780131833081

#

Compleat Lexical Tutor v6.2http://www.lextutor.ca/

VocabProfilehttp://www.lextutor.ca/

Flexible Language Acquisition Project (FLAX)http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?page=home

FLAX Web Pronoun Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

BNCwebhttp://bncweb.info/

FLAX Web Pronoun Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

Noticing Text Types – Issues of Register and Genre

FLAX Web Pronoun Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

FLAX Web Collocations Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

FLAX Web Collocations Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

FLAX Web Collocations Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

FLAX Web Collocations Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

FLAX Web Collocations Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

FLAX Web Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

Relevance for teaching EAP vocabulary

Don’t assume that your students know the most frequent 2000 words of English

Teach the AWL/sub-technical vocabulary Choose what to teach according to what students need to do with

the language

If you have a discipline-specific group, teach the technical words of a subject after the first two categories from the AWL have been learned

Raise students awareness of how technical vocabulary is marked in written texts and lectures.

Teach strategies for low-frequency words

Following Diane Shmitt’s EAP@Southbank lecture, 31st January 2011

Discipline-specific behaviour of words

• Different meaning senses will be differentially preferred across disciplines (Hyland and Tse, 2007)

• Collocational patterning differs from discipline to discipline. This affects word meaning. marketing strategy, learning strategy, coping strategy -

Hyland and Tse, (2007) blueberry cell culture, cultures were grown - Martinez et al,

(2009)

Annotation of discipline-specific functions

For example:Indicating Structure (IS) steps, aka ‘signposting’

“This essay will first analyse the general causes…In the second part,…are the key issues to be

discussed. The last part will be a brief conclusion with some implications and suggestions.”

Sociology & Anthropology – AvoidedBusiness & Politics – OptionalLaw - Obligatory

By giving authentic texts & tasks to the students…

We can’t teach ‘down’….we don’t have time….

Text and assignment-wise, nothing we do is ‘too hard’ because it can’t be…

No text is ‘too long’ because it can’t be…

Students must get used to managing difficult texts, tasks and ideas… What we do on PS is NOTHING compared to what their departments expect them to do…

Durham Research Onlinehttp://dro.dur.ac.uk/cgi/latest

The Directory of Open Access Repositories - OpenDOARhttp://www.opendoar.org/index.html

Self-archiving of OER

• Developing OER for EAP based on Open Access publications– Research-led teaching of EAP– Access to specific discourse communities and peer-

review • A function-first approach to identifying formulaic

language (Durrant, P. & Mathews-Aydinh, J., 2010)

• Uploading OER for EAP on university OA CMS– Learning objects from teaching fellows as well as

research output from research fellows?

Impact Issues with OER for NGOs

Developing localised and appropriate OER Issues surrounding choice and ownership

Cascade training of volunteer teachers Issues surrounding accreditation and turnover

Developing stable OER collections Issues surrounding connectivity and access

Burma Education Partnershiphttp://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/about-bep.html

Vague knowledge of OER

• Many iterations of textbook importation and adaptation with limited success• Competing NGOs for ownership of curriculum• ELT teachers trained for resource-rich contexts

• Working from the ground up• Localising content using local narratives• Building trust through local ‘ownership’ of

Mobile Teaching Unithttp://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/5-mobile-teaching-

unit.html

Mobile Teaching Unithttp://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/5-mobile-teaching-

unit.html

Rubbish Dump SchoolPhoto courtesy of John Cleary (BEP volunteer teacher)

http://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/3-john-cleary.html?start=

48

Rubbish Dump SchoolPhoto courtesy of John Cleary (BEP volunteer teacher) http

://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/3-john-cleary.html?start=

24

Cascade OER Training in NGOs

• Coaching in OER:– Sourcing– Development – Management

• Systems for avoiding:– Lost knowledge– Duplication of effort

Teacher Training and Accreditationhttp://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/5-mobile-teaching-

unit.html

Teacher Training and Accreditationhttp://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/2-hard-at-

work.html

Becoming Appropriate Instructors with OER

• For under-resourced contexts of learning• For those that find themselves as teachers

• Narrative Studies (Crossley, 2003)

PHASE ONE: TEACHING LIFE CHAPTERS

• Think of your teaching life as an unfinished book, with definitive chapters so far. For example, 2 or 3.

• Give each chapter a name and describe the overall contents of the chapter.

• Discuss briefly what makes for a transition from one chapter to the next.

PHASE TWO: MEMORABLE EVENTS (CRITICAL MOMENTS & CRITICAL INCIDENTS – EMPHASIS

ON PERIOD OF TIME & COPING STRATEGIES)

• Specific happenings/critical incidents.• Describe in detail the impact this key event

had in your teaching life story. What did you do, feel and think? Did this event change you in any way?

PHASE THREE: SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE (MENTORS/STUDENTS?)

• Describe one or two important people in your teaching life story.

• Specify the relationship with each person and how they have impacted your teaching development.

• Was this a positive or negative relationship?

PHASE FOUR: FUTURE SCRIPT

• You have talked of the past and the present, what of the future?

• Overall plan or script for future teacher development.

• How does your plan enable you to be creative in the future?

PHASE FIVE: STRESSES AND CHALLENGES

• Are there any challenges in your teaching development that must be addressed?

• Can you outline a plan for dealing with these challenges?

PHASE SIX: PERSONAL TEACHING IDEOLOGY

• Sum up your fundamental beliefs and values about teaching.

PHASE SEVEN: TEACHING LIFE THEME

• Can you discern a central theme that runs through the ‘text’ of your teaching development?

Best Friend Librarieshttp://www.thebestfriend.org/maesot/