Archived ebulletin: November 2005

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This bulletin contains information on the following:

1. Starting out in the HE languages department
2. Sharing good practice in teaching Area Studies
3. Specialist Language Degrees in Higher Education
4. Facilitating Transition: looking at the student experience
5. E-Learning Symposium: Pedagogy and Practice
6. Personal Development Planning, skill development and learning support in modern languages at HE
7. Plain English versus gobbledegook
8. Distance learning in HE Modern Foreign Languages
9. Introducing a Tandem Learning module
10. Disciplines in Dialogue workshop: A sustainability case study
11. Globalization, a very Canadian Perspective
12. Teaching Translation
13. Cascading good practice - Call for Bids
14. Survey: Outreach and cross-sector collaboration activities
15. Subject Centre Good Practice Guide - Call for articles
16. Student award 2006 - Call for essays
17. Other events
18. Subject Centre Website updates: new resources this month

Subject Centre Events

1. Starting out in the HE Languages Department

A one-day course to support new academic language staff
10 November 2005 - CILT, London
There are still a few places left on the following event. If you are interested, please call CILT to register as soon as possible at 020 7379 5101

This day is aimed at academic staff who are new to teaching languages in HE. The course intends to cover a range of topics, both pedagogical and more general, facing new language teaching staff and will include presentations from CILT, the National Cente for Languages, the Higher Education Academy, experts in pedagogy and professional development of language staff, as well as a personal view from the perspective of a recently-appointed language teacher. Further information and how to register for this event can be found at the Subject Centre Events page.

2. Sharing good practice in teaching Area Studies

14 November 2005 - CILT, London
When examined from the point of view of the student, it is apparent that Area Studies courses offer many opportunities and challenges for both students and their teachers. In this workshop, five teachers of Area Studies explore ways in which they have developed courses and pedagogies that enhance the experiences of their students in acquiring knowledge and developing appropriate skills in their chosen area study. For more information on this event and to register, please go to the Subject Centre Events page.

3. Specialist Language Degrees in Higher Education

25 November 2005 - Goodenough Club, London
The aim of this conference is to examine current trends and curriculum innovation in schools in order to inform the future design of specialist language degrees. The event would be of particular interest to year one coordinators or those with particular responsibility for curriculum development. For further details and to register go to the Subject Centre Events page.

4. Facilitating Transition: looking at the student experience

2 December 2005 - CILT, London
Aim: This workshop focuses on facilitating transition into languages in HE by examining the student experience of both A-level and year 1 undergraduate studies.
The programme for the day will include presentations on the following themes:
Changing provision of national qualifications pre-university. How could university involvement improve the experience of secondary and sixth form students? - Asset Languages: Can Asset languages help students to bridge the gap into HE? - Reading and independent learning: Whats happening with A-level and year 1 undergraduate students? - Integrating year 1 students into HE: expectations, reality and reflections on the experiences of year 1 students. Further details and information on how to register can be found at the Subject Centre Events page. A full programme will be published shortly on our website.

5. E-Learning Symposium: Pedagogy and Practice

14 December 2005 - University of Southampton
The overall aim of the symposium is to consider how research into e-learning pedagogy is shaping the direction of thinking in languages, linguistics and area studies and how this is impacting on the student learning experience.
Speakers include: Professor Grainne Conole, Co-director of the UK e-learning Research Centre, University of Southampton; Professor Wendy Hall, CBE, Founding Head of the Intelligence, Agents & Multimedia Research Group, University of Southampton; Caroline Moore, Director IT Services in British Council Teaching & Exams Further details and information on how to register can be found at the Subject centre Events page.

6. Personal Development Planning, skill development and learning support in modern languages at HE

11 November 2005 - CILT, London
With the QAA requirement for PDP (Personal Development Planning) to be implemented at HE from Autumn 2005. LLAS are organising an event to be held at CILT on 11th November 2005 to exchange ideas on the issues involved for Modern Languages at HE. The day will be of interest to modern language teaching staff, support staff working in or with modern languages, learning and teaching coordinators and staff working in university careers or learning and teaching centres. For more information and to register go tothe Subjct Centre Events page .

7. Plain English versus gobbledegook

Wednesday 16 November 2005 - University of Brighton, Room M129
Mayfield Lecture Theatre, Falmer Campus (1.00 - 2.00pm)
Guest lecture: John Dwyer will: - take a tongue-in-cheek look at the continuing battle between plain English and gobbledegook - outline the achievements of the UK plain English movement over the past twenty years and its effect on business, government and the law - show examples of contrasting writing styles: some heart-warming in their clarity; some frightening in their complexity; some hilarious in their pomposity. Please contact Catherine Watts c.watts@brighton.ac.uk for further details and to register or go to the Subject Centre Events page.

8. Distance learning in HE Modern Foreign Languages

Thursday 17 November 2005 - Open Univeristy in Wales, Cardiff
This conference is organised by the partnership between CILT Cymru and the Subject Centre. It seeks to promote a constructive debate on the possibilities of new technologies in Welsh HE MFL. The contributors are Margaret Southgate from OU Modern Languages in Wales; Ewan McIntosh from Scottish CILT in Stirling University; Theo Hermans, Prof of Dutch at UCL; and Carol Thomas from the Welsh Department in UW Lampeter. For more information on this event or to register please contact Virginia Giannelli v.giannelli@bangor.ac.uk alternatively please go to the Subject Centre Events page.

9. Introducing a Tandem Learning module

Friday 18 November 2005, 1.00pm - 2.30pm Round Table presentation / discussion at the University of Surrey (sponsored by the Subject Centre for LLAS, Guest Speaker Fund)
This discussion will be led by John Morley who has been running tandem learning modules for six years at the University of Manchester and has published and presented widely on the subject. For more information and to register to attend the round table session, please contact Cathy Pyle at: c.pyle@surrey.ac.uk. Details can be found at the Subject Centre Events page.

10. Disciplines in Dialogue workshop: A sustainability case study

WHEN: Monday 5 December, exact times to be determined, but all day
WHERE: Higher Education Academy main offices in York
WHY: It's free! Travel and accommodation (if necessary) will be
reimbursed and lunch is included.

WHAT will you get out of it?

• The chance to tackle a sustainable development case study with
  colleagues from other disciplines around the UK.
• A demonstration of how Problem-Based Learning (PBL) can work in your
  own classroom.

WHAT is in it for us?

• Insight into how disciplines speak to each other and what the barriers
  are to this happening effectively. For this reason, the day will be tape
  recorded.
• Participants will be be expected to write a short article about their
  impressions of the event in return for an honorarium.

HOW do you sign up?
Please email John Canning at LLAS j.canning@soton.ac.uk by Friday 4 November 2005 specifying whether you would like to 'represent' languages, linguistics or area studies.

CAVEAT
Due to space limitations, we can only invite one lecturer from each discipline. If someone from your discipline signs up before you, you will be notified of this and asked if you would like to be put on a waiting list for a cancellation.

11. Globalization, a very Canadian Perspective

8 December 2005 - Queen's University Belfast
This conference is organised by the Centre of Canadian Studies. Dr Anthony Gristwood's paper, 'Critical Networks: Using the Internet in world issues curricula', is sponsored by the Subject Centre's guest speaker fund. Speakers include: Professor Terry McGee, Dr Anthony Gristwood, Professor Walter Epp, Professor Neil MacFarlane. Further details available from Susan Hodgett sl.hodgett@ulster.ac.uk and a programme is available at the Subject Centre Events page.

12. Teaching Translation

20 January 2006 - University of Wales, Swansea
The maturing of Translation and Interpreting Studies as academic disciplines offers new opportunities to often hard-pressed Modern Languages departments.
In response, new taught MAs (and more recently, BAs) have been developed with a wide spectrum of academic and vocational orientations. The conference will seek to assess current approaches and likely future directions, including the wider impact of translation on traditional
degrees. It will provide an opportunity for sharing experience and pooling ideas, focusing on the following issues: the UK market for Translation and Interpreting Studies; role of translation/interpreting theory and linguistics; language technology tools (MT, CAT, localisation and terminology tools, concordancers, etc.); the place of literary and/or technical translation in language teaching; interpreting (consecutive, dialogue, simultaneous); work experience and the interface with the language services professions. To register go to the Subject Centre Events page.

Projects

13. Cascading good practice - call for bids

Deadline: 30 November 2005

The Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies is inviting bids to develop training packs for enhancing staff and students in the relevant subject areas. The successful applicant will be required to produce a training pack and run two regional training sessions for HE staff. Themes and criteria for bidding can be found at the Subject Centre News page . Deadline for applications: 30 November 2005

Survey

14. Survey: Outreach and cross-sector collaboration activities

In order to help with the promotion of languages in both schools and universities, the DfES has commissioned the Subject Centre to survey the range of language outreach activities across universities and schools. This will map current provision and encourage the sharing of good practice in this area. Please contribute to the survey by completing
the short online questionnaire (www.geodata.soton.ac.uk/llas_survey). Answers will be treated in the strictest confidence and all respondents who provide contact details will receive a free copy of the final project report.

Subject Centre Good Practice Guide

15. Subject Centre Good Practice Guide - Call for articles

The Editorial Board of the Good Practice Guide invite contributions from new and existing authors. The GPG is now peer reviewed. Contributions are welcome from new researchers and postgraduate students as well as from established authors. For details please visit the Subject Centre Good Practice Guide page. Papers should be submitted to Marie Weaver m.weaver@soton.ac.uk

Student award 2006

16. Student award 2006

Closing date: 17 February 2006
The Subject Centre is giving language students the chance to offer their opinions and experiences in a 1000-word essay entitled How does your experience of your course compare with any expectations you may have had? This opportunity is open to anyone studying Languages, Linguistics or Area Studies as part of their HE course. There is a 250 prize for the winning entry, which will be featured on the Subject Centre website. For further details see the Subject Centre News page. If you would like some postcards, flyers and/or posters to promote the competition, please contact Paula Davis at pd2@soton.ac.uk

Other events

17. Other events

Please visit the Subject Centre Other Events page for details of events not being organised by the Subject Centre.

Subject Centre website update

18. Subject Centre website updates: New resources this month:

Pedagogic research: Issues in Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
Author: John Canning

Global issues, local responses: Engaging with environmental issues through Languages and Area Studies curricula
Author: John Canning

Event report: Higher Education and the National Languages Strategy
Enhancing the role of Modern Languages in HEIs

Case study: Supporting student learning at level 1 Linguistics
Author: Liz Morrish, Nottingham Trent University

We would be grateful if you would forward this bulletin to colleagues and relevant mailing lists. Please do not hesitate to contact the Subject Centre if you have any queries regarding this bulletin.

Sue Nash
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies Modern
Languages, School of Humanities University of Southampton, Highfield,
Southampton, SO17 1BJ

Tel: 023 8059 4814 Fax: 023 8059 4815
Email: llas@soton.ac.uk