If Your Unis Got It, Flaunt It.

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If Your Unis Got It, Flaunt It.

• Rhona Brown
• University of Glasgow
• Language Centre, EFL Unit

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University of Glasgow Pre-sessional Course

• Background

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• Pre-sessional course
• Gate-keeping function
• Block B
• EFL IELTS equivalent grade IELTS grade

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Block B 2006
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Selecting Reading Texts

• In the past
• Law related texts from EFL course books
• Web texts selected by teachers

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Designing Reading Tasks

• Traditional comprehension questions,
• true or false, matching, re-ordering
• Problems
• Time-consuming to create worksheets and answer
  keys
• Not authentic task
• Not validated
• Focused on content

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The Impetus for Change

• Course evaluation or lack of!
• Number of International Students
• Staff

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Aims for EFL Unit

• Get out more
• Build our subject specific knowledge
• (Nominate subject experts)
• Raise our profile
• Build good relationships with other departments
• Develop further subject specific in-sessional
  courses

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If Your Unis Got It, Flaunt It

• Input Use departments reading lists and
  lectures
• Tasks Use seminar discussion questions or
  essay questions to structure reading tasks
• e.g. What skills would the students need in order
  to read effectively to prepare for the seminar?
•  

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Aims and principles of course design

• The course is essentially task-based. There is
  structured guidance on selected features of
  language and study skills, but this is within a
  framework of study tasks that are designed to
•  
• be as authentic as possible
• be meaningful to the student
• promote the affective, cognitive, and
  behavioural capabilities needed for effective
  study
• 2006 Teachers handbook

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Developing the Syllabus

• Prioritising Skills LLM
• Reading
• Writing
• Listening and Speaking

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Degree of Collaboration Masters in Law (LLM)
Bridging Course
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Degree of Collaboration LLM Bridging Course

• Week 5
• Workshops in
• Commercial Law
• International Law
• International Competition Law
• 3 x 90 min sessions conducted by 3 lecturers
  from School of Law

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Company LawExample seminar preparation question

•   
• Is the standard of skill and care expected from
  directors under UK Company Law too low?

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 Is the standard of skill and care expected from
directors under UK Company Law too low?

• Focus on
• Recognising the difference between fact and
  opinion.
• Drawing inferences from textual information

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Exploiting the Text

• Using the text as
• A model of language structures
• A model of citation / footnoting conventions
• A corpus-style vocabulary bank
• A springboard to productive skills
• Preparation for listening skills

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Workshop Materials

• To what extent do these materials meet our aims?
• To be as authentic as possible
• To be meaningful to the student
• To promote the affective, cognitive, and
  behavioural capabilities needed for effective
  study
• 2006 Teachers handbook

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New Problems

• Assessment
• Student Expectations
• Teacher Expectations

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Problem 1 Assessment

• IELTS equivalent targets v. LLM texts and tasks

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Problem 2 Student Expectations

• Level of difficulty
• Pre-Sessional and Masters course content
• Chance of passing

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Problem 3 Teacher Expectations

• Skills and language v. content

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Problem 3 Teacher Expectations

• You teach them the Englishand well teach them
  the law.
• (Howe. 1993).

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• EAP teachers require
• a positive attitude towards the ESP content
• a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the
  subject area
• an awareness of how much they probably already
  know
• the ability to ask intelligent questions.
• (Hutchinson and Waters. 1987)

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• Additional requirements
• Clear objectives
• Support

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Workshop Problems

• Comment on these 3 problem areas
• Relate to own experience
• Recommend / suggest
• - Assessment - Student Expectations
• - Teacher Expectations

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Thank you

• Rhona Brown
• r.brown_at_admin.gla.ac.uk