Category Archives: For Academics

Thursday 14th April, 9.30 am–12.30 pm. 34/1020, Highfield Campus. Tea & coffee provided.

There is no charge for this workshop.

Target audience:   For academic staff and education developers of all disciplines.  Maximum of 20 participants.  Please register your interest by emailing intercultural@soton.ac.uk by Monday 4th April with ‘TFS2’ in the subject line.  Please include your role, academic unit and faculty.  We’ll contact you when we have a confirmed date to check if you would like to attend.

Outline:  This half day workshop is for academic staff who work regularly with international students.  It focuses on two specific areas:  written assessment and interaction/group work.  You will therefore benefit from this if you are interested in these specific areas and have experiences to draw on. (For a more general workshop, we recommend you attend Teach For Success 1: Supporting International Students in the Classroom.)

What you can expect to gain:

• Awareness of the types of writing that international students have been assessed on for IELTS and on Pre-sessional courses
• Understanding of the proficiency level of their writing
• Knowledge of ways in which assessment criteria, assignment briefs and exemplar assignments can be used to help students understand what is expected
• The chance to improve the transparency of one of your own assignment briefs*
• Appreciation of how linguistic and educational backgrounds can affect levels of interaction,  and engagement with group work
• Practical strategies for enhancing student interaction in lectures, seminars and group projects
• Resources for you and your students

*If you would like to work on improving the clarity of one of your own assignment briefs, please bring a paper copy to the workshop.

Led by Jill Doubleday, Modern Languages and Alison Dickens, LLAS (Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies) as part of the Intercultural Connections Southampton project

Jill Doubleday has 15 years’ experience of teaching English to international students and is studying for a PhD in the field of internationalisation of higher education.

Alison Dickens currently directs the LLAS academic development programme and develops and delivers training in a number of areas including e-learning, language teaching and internationalisation.

Thursday 17th December, 9.30 am–12.30 pm; 27/3057, Highfield Campus. Tea & coffee provided.

There is no charge for this workshop.

Target audience:   For academic staff and education developers of all disciplines.  Maximum of 20 participants.  Please register your interest by emailing intercultural@soton.ac.uk with ‘TFS1’ in the subject line.  Please include your role, academic unit and faculty.  We’ll contact you when we have a confirmed date to check if you would like to attend.

Outline:  This half day workshop is for academic staff who work regularly with international students.  It will provide opportunities to explore some of the learning and teaching issues which arise in the international classroom and will consider some practical strategies to address them.  If you’ve already attended this workshop, but would like to explore written assessment and interaction/group work in more depth, please consider joining Teach for Success 2:  Managing  Interaction and Assessment in International Student Groups.

What you can expect to gain:

• Awareness of some of the factors that affect the learning experience of international students
• Time to reflect on your own practice and experience, and to share this with others, with particular emphasis on learning and teaching activities, assessment briefs and cultures of learning
• Understanding of students’ level of English at entry, some of the causes of non- or misunderstanding, and practical suggestions for enhancing comprehension and communication
• Resources for you and your students

Led by Jill Doubleday, Modern Languages and Alison Dickens, LLAS (Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies) as part of the Intercultural Connections Southampton project.

Jill Doubleday has 15 years’ experience of teaching English to international students and is studying for a PhD in the field of internationalisation of higher education.

Alison Dickens currently directs the LLAS academic development programme and develops and delivers training in a number of areas including e-learning, language teaching and internationalisation.