Fun with the Fibonacci Sequence Alannah McGregor Gudrun Mackness Brittany Kozak.
Alannah fitzgerald The TOETOE project planning for impact
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The TOETOE Project Planning for Impact Created by Alannah Fitzgerald Research Fellow at Durham University English Language Centre SCORE Fellow with The Open University Does it make a difference? Licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Share Alike
description
Slides of the morning presentation by Alannah Fitzgerald for the event : "Does it make a difference? The impact of repositories and OERs on teaching and learning", March 2011
Transcript of 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
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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=)
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…
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=
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Rubbish Dump SchoolPhoto courtesy of John Cleary (BEP volunteer teacher) http
://www.burmaeducationpartnership.org/gallery/category/3-john-cleary.html?start=
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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/
