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Exploring EAST
- English for Academic Study Telecollaboration
1) Wider course context
EAS/SMLC runs year-round and summer intensive pre-sessional
courses to prepare international students to enter UofG PG programmes.
The EAST project refers to the last 5-week block and covers subject-
specific, ie related to science, engineering and technology (SET).
ILOs include development of
• subject-specific language and study skills (6.5 IELTS across skills),
• plus some content knowledge.
Assessments
• An individual 1500-word report following a situation-problem-
response-evaluation (SPRE) format on a self-selected SET topic;
• An individual oral presentation summarising the report findings.
2) Literature review to inform innovations
Current changes in the world pose a challenge on teachers who need to
prepare their English for Specific Purposes students to ‘deal with global
communicative practices online, in all their complexity’ (White, 2007).
‘Today, engineers throughout the world must take it for granted that they
will work in other countries or be employed alongside people who have
been trained in other countries’ (Lucena et al., 2008).
‘an ability to learn how to learn, an ability to form learning communities,
and an ability to collaborate in distributed corporate settings, across
countries, continents and cultures’ (Schaeffer et al., 2012).
Most effective ILOs include becoming a scholar, a lifelong learner and a
global citizen (Biggs and Tang, 2011).
3) Introduced innovation – EAST
A group research project on the subject-specific, authentic
and contextualised topic suggested by research buddies
from Islamic University of Gaza (IUG).
ILOs include the development of
• subject-specific language and study skills (6.5 across skills)
• some but highly contextualised content knowledge
• transferrable skills: communication, team working,
problem solving, digital literacies and intercultural awareness
Assessments
• An individual 1500-word report following a SPRE format on a topic
suggested by IUG, researched in groups with ongoing content-oriented
feedback from Gazan students
• A group oral presentation summarising the report findings delivered to
audiences in Glasgow and Gaza (via video link)
4) Project participants
40 students at UofG
• 80% at postgraduate level
• L1: mainly Mandarin and Arabic plus Thai, Korean,
Italian and Portuguese
18 students at IUG
• 80% at postgraduate level
• Civil engineering, IT, environmental engineering,
biological science, mathematics, 2 English literature
• Expected to mentor Glasgow-based students
during the research process
5) Project milestones
Constructive feedback course for IUG students
• Prior to student research telecollaboration, an online group
activity sequence of 6 tasks, delivered over 2 weeks via Google Docs
• The tasks followed the framework of exploration-integration-application:
sharing personal experiences, considering characteristics, researching
and comparing constructive and non-constructive feedback, providing
feedback on students’ written samples
EAST Project
• IUG students submitted SET-related scenarios.
• IUG and UofG students formed groups of 4-6
based on the scenario choice.
• Students communicated via social media to research scenarios, ask
questions and exchange ongoing content-related feedback, using
subject-specific language purposefully.
• UofG students submitted reports.
• Groups of UofG students gave presentations to audiences
in Glasgow and Gaza.
• Students reflected on the project participation and outcomes.
6) Project evaluation
The students were asked to evaluate the project in terms of ILOs:
57% 37%
6%
0%
Communication skills
Very useful Quite useful
A little useful Not useful
54% 39%
7%
0%
Team working skills
Very useful Quite useful
A little useful Not useful
56% 35%
9%
0%
Problem-solving skills
Very useful Quite useful
A little useful Not useful
61%
28%
11%
0%
Intercultural awareness
Very useful Quite useful
A little useful Not useful
32%
59%
9%
0%
Digital literacies
Very useful Quite useful
A little useful Not useful
68%
30%
2% 0%
General academic skills
Very useful Quite useful
A little useful Not useful
Open comments from students
• The best thing about the project has been working with a
team from different countries and the ability to find solutions
related to the subjects and a real situation (UofG).
• I’d recommend this project to my friends because it helps you think ‘out
of the schemes’ as you have to solve a real problem, not a problem
written down in a book (UofG).
• It was a great event in my studying life I ever seen; a lot of exercises
giving me the knowledge how to be patient and insisting on
researching, how to help others (IUG).
Anna Rolinska & Bill Guariento
English for Academic Study
7) Challenges and ways forward
Technology-related: connectivity, hardware/software, electricity shortages
Organisational: time/task management, thinking on your feet
Motivational: imbalanced outcomes for IUG and UofG groups
Extending to other disciplines, eg medical sciences,
Tracking studies to evaluate longer-term impact
Creating toolkits to support student partnerships
This poster is interactive – the embedded QR codes will allow you to explore various
artefacts, watch videos or read students’ reflections. In order to access them you need
a QR code reader on your mobile device.
To know more about the project, please go to the project website
https://easttelecollaboration.wordpress.com
or contact Anna Rolinska: anna.rolinska@glasgow.ac.uk.
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