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 out…

Aims to provide an insight into the locally lived experience of OU students in Scotland for whom English is not their first language

Objectives to identify issues around reading and writing to find out the extent to which OU resources in general and the 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.

Methodology What we did Who responded Control group

Demographics Geographical spread Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) Financial support for course fees Previous educational qualifications (PEQ)

Previous educational qualifications

Findings: what the students said Reading Writing -Terms -Conceptualisation -Understanding what is expected -Formal writing

Resources Course specific resources General resources Information, Advice and Guidance

Mitsuko’s online experience ‘ There is a problem for non-native speakers – it’s quite overwhelming. When you open the website, you have lots of links and you don’t know which ones are what because there are so many of them. Especially for people of Oriental languages – we don’t use alphabet – and what the screen says is lots of alphabet. Even though we’ve been studying English for a long time, it’s still visually quite challenging’.

Shan’s personal journey ‘ I’ve been here for 12 years… I work before in the welfare system, right - but the detail you need to know … the way they express … it’s difficult. I always think too much in my own language – (but) I think in my own language because it helps me remember it better. [It’s] very difficult to know how to use new vocabulary when [you] don’t know the exact meaning … Sometimes I’ll use the words, but we cannot copy word by word. It’s about expressing myself – that’s 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, it’s 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 it’s a little bit different, you know, my thinking – the sentence structure is different.

Ashima’s 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 what’s in the books and you just write it down and you don’t 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] you’re losing marks on the way, right? … sometimes in the class the teacher would dictate parts of an answer … and you’d just write that down, and so if it turns up in the exam, everybody writes the same thing. That wasn’t a problem in that system. But obviously here you have to be quite independent in the way you write … things that constitute plagiarism here weren’t plagiarism over there. … I’m not used to using my own arguments … being logical about them – I don’t think it’s connected to the language. … In India, [we] didn’t really plan essays – the structure would be in the textbook, if you wanted to discuss theories then you’d just put them down one by one. And that’s about it. I think most people expect at this stage that you know most of these things so now I’m getting a bit embarrassed about it. I think a little more specific … hints for instance [about]… what being independent’s 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 didn’t give that structure but I used the same structure.’

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

Reflections Issues around reading and writing Use of resources

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

Contact Lindsay Hewitt Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator (Widening Participation) OU in Scotland, Learning Development Team or