Openings for Progression Dr Lindsay Hewitt. Background to EAL Survey 2009 What we know What we think...
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An investigation into the learning experience ofO U students w ho speak English as an additional language Lindsay H ew ittand Elizabeth H all CW P C onference,24-25 June 2010 W idening Participation in the 21st C entury:a D ecade ofLearning O U in Scotland :Learning D evelopm entTeam
Openings for Progression Dr Lindsay Hewitt. Background to EAL Survey 2009 What we know What we think we know What we don’t know What we wanted to find
Background to EAL Survey 2009 What we know What we think we
know What we dont know What we wanted to find out
Slide 3
Aims to provide an insight into the locally lived experience of
OU students in Scotland for whom English is not their first
language
Slide 4
Objectives to identify issues around reading and writing to
find out the extent to which OU resources in general and the
www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy webpages in particular were accessed
and found usefulwww.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy to use the survey
findings to inform both the development of language-related
resources and staff development for Associate Lecturers.
Slide 5
Methodology What we did Who responded Control group
Slide 6
Demographics Geographical spread Scottish Index of Multiple
Deprivation (SIMD) Financial support for course fees Previous
educational qualifications (PEQ)
Slide 7
Previous educational qualifications
Slide 8
Findings: what the students said Reading Writing -Terms
-Conceptualisation -Understanding what is expected -Formal
writing
Slide 9
Resources Course specific resources General resources
Information, Advice and Guidance
Slide 10
Mitsukos online experience There is a problem for non-native
speakers its quite overwhelming. When you open the website, you
have lots of links and you dont know which ones are what because
there are so many of them. Especially for people of Oriental
languages we dont use alphabet and what the screen says is lots of
alphabet. Even though weve been studying English for a long time,
its still visually quite challenging.
Slide 11
Shans personal journey Ive been here for 12 years I work before
in the welfare system, right - but the detail you need to know the
way they express its difficult. I always think too much in my own
language (but) I think in my own language because it helps me
remember it better. [Its] very difficult to know how to use new
vocabulary when [you] dont know the exact meaning Sometimes Ill use
the words, but we cannot copy word by word. Its about expressing
myself thats the problem. I find it quite difficult. you need to
write about the points, and then you need to argue. And the grammar
because Chinese is when we think, its just the opposite way. We
think from the beginning, but English is from the end. For example
if I say today, what are you doing, what have you done?
grammatically its a little bit different, you know, my thinking the
sentence structure is different.
Slide 12
Ashimas personal journey it was more with the critical how you
have to be so critical in the essays because mostly [in India] you
just learn whats in the books and you just write it down and you
dont need to analyse so I did decide to look around for tips about
that but I felt that there could have been more about how to be
critical and sort of structure because you start learning as you go
on, [but] youre losing marks on the way, right? sometimes in the
class the teacher would dictate parts of an answer and youd just
write that down, and so if it turns up in the exam, everybody
writes the same thing. That wasnt a problem in that system. But
obviously here you have to be quite independent in the way you
write things that constitute plagiarism here werent plagiarism over
there. Im not used to using my own arguments being logical about
them I dont think its connected to the language. In India, [we]
didnt really plan essays the structure would be in the textbook, if
you wanted to discuss theories then youd just put them down one by
one. And thats about it. I think most people expect at this stage
that you know most of these things so now Im getting a bit
embarrassed about it. I think a little more specific hints for
instance [about] what being independents about [my tutor] helped by
saying that you link two or three different concepts to get a new
argument that helped but I need more one technique they use[d] for
the first TMA, the next TMA they didnt give that structure but I
used the same structure.
Slide 13
Outcomes Attainment and progression 30 out of 33 course
completed 25 out of 31 students passed 3 failed (2 eligible for
re-sit/re-submission) 1 deferral 1 withdrawal 1 post grad student
still studying course
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Reflections Issues around reading and writing Use of
resources
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Recommendations Further research a larger study at this level
of detail that looks at attainment, retention & progression for
EAL Speakers exploration of the diversity of experience and needs
that sits within the overall label of EAL Speaker Dissemination of
findings Discussion and staff development