IELTS Research Reports

Wayne Sawyer and Michael Singhthese students responding to their pupils in their practicum classes - an example of listening, thinkingand formulating one’s answer ‘on the spot’ in English, and a contingency that cannot be planned forin the way that much speaking, reading and writing can be planned in advance by a teacher. A keyissue for these students was being comfortable enough to respond quickly and appropriately to theirpupils. One student supplied the title for this research when he referred to local student teachers beingable to ‘play the classroom tennis very well’ (referring to the back- and-forth of classroom dialogueand interaction with pupils) compared to him. Thus even those linguistic issues which we might seeas very day-to-day, and not even necessarily specific to higher education, take on a different meaningwhen English has to be ‘performed’ in this context. The academic English of their coursework waslisted as an issue (see next question), though the degree of support given for academic English withinthe Faculty of Education for these students was substantial and acknowledged as such by the students5.2 What interventions have been put into place to support you in terms ofEnglish language proficiency? Have these been suitable/adequate?The Faculty of Education in question has in place a number of support mechanisms for these students.These include:■■■■■■■■■■■■a series of 4 course units which are peculiar to this international cohort – specifically:––an English language unit aimed at increasingly sophisticated understandings oflanguage use in a range of contexts, including the discipline of Education––an introduction to Australian education. This unit is composed of school visits whichinclude lesson observations. Some of these visits are to rural schools. This unit (4hours per week of school visits for 10-12 weeks) also has an extra 2 hour per week‘support workshop’ run by the Learning and Teaching unit – it consists of ‘survival’English and ‘academic’ English (especially analysis and critical reflection) and isespecially aimed at assignments, referencing, group assignments, giving presentations––cultural investigations in school––teacher-as-enquirerthe Faculty employment of a PhD student to assist students with aspects of assignments.This student ‘supports the support workshops’use of a retired teacher to mentor students in groupsuse of alumni as further mentors, who are themselves (mostly) teachers. All 2009 studentshad mentors, though prior to this, it was mainly ‘at risk’ students. The total group holdsfortnightly meetings around language and acculturation.micro-teaching sessions18 students are undergoing an ‘international initiative’ in 4 schools, in which they becomethe responsibility of one person in the school who runs a workshop or two for them onacculturation as part of the practicum.The students find the English language unit especially ‘very useful’, as it covers a range of academicEnglish concerns such as: report and essay writing; giving presentations, and critical analysis.Students also stressed the benefits of being in classes with local students - in terms of assistance andacculturation. This they saw as building confidence for interaction with their own pupils. While theybelieved skills taught in one area did carry over into other areas, all felt that more work on academicwriting would be useful.100 www.ielts.org