CASP Cultural Awareness for Specific Purposes A reaction to International Objectives LSPHE University of Oxford September 8th, 2017 Thomas Smith – The Language Centre at Queen’s University Belfast

Today Background and context Growth Focus of the CA What about the SP? Potential for growth in other institutions Accreditation Generating consensus and next steps

Background Cultural Awareness – Key Transferable skill ‘Culture as the software of the mind’ – Geert Hofstede QUB context From Staff training to diverse incarnations Growth area Institutional drivers International objectives and education strategy

Growth to date Staff Training Healthcare Engineering Management Medicine Nursing and Midwifery Pharmacy – Training the trainers Engineering ELP - Workshop All Engineering students Management Psychology Academic Lecture looking at the relationship between Culture and psychology Post doc preparation for teaching in a multicultural classroom

The focus of the ‘CA’ Theory Self- Reflection Consideration Experience sharing Developing cultural empathy Communicative competence Verbal Non verbal Example activity Advice

Instruction

What role does the ‘SP’ play in this context? Part 2 of the training – practical application Flexibility of the model as a strength Collaboration with academics to highlight key areas and context Why do THEY feel the training is important for their students? Preparation + Research carried out by the facilitator Taking a workshop approach to SP elements which delegates can inform on

Growth across institutions Similarly international/outward looking objectives Where do the course facilitators come from Potential for collaboration Online course facilitation Commercial potential

Accrediting CA What would accreditation look like? How would it shape a course? Would Assessment/accreditation be advantageous? Does standardisation spell the end of innovation? Does learning need to be assessed to be meaningful? UNILANG model?

Going forward Step 1 – beginning the discussion Potential further development Focus group/online discussion forum Collaboration on implementation, design and useful resources Collaboration on assessment How can we actualise the potential of this type of support in order to develop our offer whilst responding to institutional need

Questions, comments, further discussion… Thomas Smith The Language Centre at Queen’s University Belfast E: t.smith@qub.ac.uk T: 028 9097 6137 TheLanguageCentreAtQueens @QUBLangCent