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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