Hi, we’re Debra Jones and Hazel Newton, the new pre-sessional coordinators at CELFS (more information relating to this summer’s pre-sessional can be found at the bottom of this post).
We’d like to introduce ourselves…
Category: Uncategorized
Introducing … the Professional Services Team!
This post is based on the information that the then Centre Administration Manager Sarah Armstrong put together for the IFP tutor induction at the start of the 2017/18 academic year.
Do tutors realise the sheer breadth of tasks being handled by the Professional Services Team? Take a moment right now to estimate what the CELFS Admin Team do. (more…)
Teacher Talking Time – input or blah-blah?
When I began teaching classes with predominantly Asian students, I was shocked and seriously disappointed to see that my good old teaching methodology — which I had been using with US, UK, and other western international students — didn’t seem to be effective for them, or me. (more…)
Non native English speaking tutors: Difference as an advantage, not a burden
In our presentation at the BALEAP PIM on Intercultural Communication in Nottingham, Kazuo Yamamoto and I argued that non-native English speaking tutors (NNESTs) can use their own background and experiences to help international students. (more…)
“Now talk to your partner in Chinese” – A tyrannical dictator’s journey along the cline of L1 (in)tolerance (Part 2)
by Nick Roll
In my Part One blog I confessed to my shifting position from a somewhat narrow-minded “English only in the classroom” policy to a more flexible approach to the use of L1 in the classroom. This was partly based on the idea that emergent bilinguals and multilinguals naturally use translanguaging strategies in their real lives – therefore, I asked why we shouldn’t occasionally harness this outside literacy practice into our pedagogy when appropriate and possible to do so. (more…)
“Now talk to your partner in Chinese” – A tyrannical dictator’s journey along the cline of L1 (in)tolerance (Part 1)
by Nick Roll
Neo-fascism in the classroom
My policy on the use of learners’ L1 in most of my classes throughout my career has been close to “neo-fascist” zero tolerance, sometimes even involving fines that would go towards an end of course cake buying activity. This was justified by the need for learners to immerse themselves in the language and learn to manage communication difficulties as they would have to do so in the so-called “real world”. Some recent experience and a little research has challenged this narrow default approach and I now move more fluidly up and down the cline of L1 (in)tolerance. (more…)
SAQs: assertions, supporting evidence and citations
by Ryan Simpson
Background
The UoB pre-sessional course includes the SAQ (Short Answer Question) as an assessment item (20% of the total), and classes every week are dedicated to preparing students for a summative examination in which they will write two 250-word essays. (more…)
End of Pre-sessional Ceremony 2017
A short video of this year’s ceremony and celebrations.
Incidentally….. building social English into the pre-sessional programme
by Christine Lee
December. A street in Bristol. A smiling student stands in front of me. “Hello Christine!” I recognise the face but cannot recall the name – I just know he’s one of the many pre-sessional students I had met/taught in the summer. “Oh hi!” I reply. “Great to see you! How’s it going? Busy? Going away for the break?” (more…)
Foregrounding critical thinking in the classroom
I’m not sure about here in the UK, but where I teach (in California, when I’m not on the PS10), something has gone off in our approach to teaching in the last 10-15 years. When I compare the ways that I was taught to be a student, how to read, what to consider, and what I see in my students now, there is a marked distance—and not only in our age as I acknowledge I am getting older! (more…)