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Post-Residence Abroad Curriculum Integration
Index
Oral work
Dissertation work/Project work
Profiling
There are many opportunities for building on student experience in Final Year work.
Students can be asked to reflect on their experiences during oral sessions with the foreign language assistants. This allows the space and opportunity in small groups to assess the personal benefits gained in the year abroad. The sessions with the assistants need to be structured carefully with questions at a deep level going beyond the typical first session 'tell me about your experiences in France/ Germany/Spain'. In addition, where students have made a detailed social, economic or political study of a topic for project assessment, then these experiences can form the basis on which to build in oral sessions.
The students' personal assessment of their year abroad experiences can be incorporated into the curriculum as part of final year oral examinations and could appropriately provide a personalized, relaxed introduction or ending to an oral based around a different task.
On another level, students can be asked to undertake specific tasks during their period of Residence Abroad which can feed into their formal oral assessment at final level. For example, students can be asked to follow specific news items at a local and national level which can then be assessed orally either as a discussion topic or as a formal presentation.
Students could also be asked to undertake more formal research during their period of residence abroad. If students are non-specialist linguists this can provide a key way of tying their language studies into their main units of study. A typical task linking students' subject discipline and their language studies would be for them to mount a trade fair stand, giving a formal presentation on their chosen product or area of business, following which they can engage interested clients (examiners) in conversation. Another typical task might be for students to simulate the interpreting of a business deal for a product they have chosen and researched during their year abroad. This type of task will enable them to demonstrate the sociolinguistic competence they developed to a high level whilst abroad.
Dissertation work/Project work
Many Universities require their students to begin research for their dissertation/ project/project essay topic during the period of residence abroad. This means that the topic can be identified and materials gathered during the period of residence, in consultation with a tutor in the host university or in consultation via e-mail or fax with a tutor in their home department. In some cases, students can be assessed orally on their research progress by a visiting tutor and advice can then be given on the focus and depth of research undertaken. Naturally enough, research for a dissertation topic is best supported by embedding research methods into the second year curriculum so that students are prepared for the task before their departure (see Preparation for Residence Abroad). On their return to Britain, students, with tutor support, complete research and write up their project/long essay or dissertation during the final year and this piece of work is assessed as a final year unit of study.
Similarly, the study undertaken in year abroad could feed into a project or long essay which is written up and assessed, possibly under examination conditions, during the final year.
Debriefing in this way allows the student, with tutor support, to relate aspects of his/her year abroad experiences not only to the curriculum of the fourth year but also to personal and academic development in relation to their future career. Once distinguished, these skills can provide important material to be used to fill in application forms, fill in CVs and help tutors to write references. Furthermore, group discussion used in the debriefing process can give students the opportunity to reflect on their own personal and academic development, and to deepen awareness of career-related transferable competences they have acquired and which they can build on for their future career.
In the profile, students can be asked to record details of experiences under the following headings:
· Personal qualities (such as independence, perseverance)
· Life skills (such as dealing with accommodation, or bureaucratic systems)
· Interpersonal skills (such as interview techniques, making appointments by telephone)
· Study skills and language acquisition (adapting to foreign study skills and methodology)
· Future career (research skills, making useful contacts, work experience)
Post-Residence Abroad questionnaires can also be used to enable students to identify areas of strength gained from their year abroad which can input into final year assessment, particularly were this to be a job interview where personal skills and qualities were to be analysed by the candidate.
Lesley Twomey
University of Northumbria
11.2.99