UCL LANGUAGE CENTRE
Course Units 2008‐2009 Teaching Committee Meeting - Minutes
1. Wednesday 18 February 2009 11:00‐12:00 Malet Place Engineering, 1.20 Staff present:
Yoko Aldous Anja Boeing Sara Bragadina Siqin Brown Roberto D’Onofrio Madeleine Du Vivier Juan Fernandez Diego Flores‐Jaime Maria‐Teresa Forteza‐Rey Petra Garcia‐Rodriguez Claudia Geithner Apologies: Li‐yun Liao Fernando Gracia‐Garcia Luay Hasan Dr So Hiranuma Dr Christine Hoffmann Lamia Jamal‐Aldin Fabrice Lamotte Mireille Michel Marc‐Georges Nowicki Catherine Plant Carmen Requena Jenny Rodgers Karine Roumetz Adam Salisbury Fabio Sastre‐Alonso Pierre Scordia Chizuko Seki‐Zdrzalka James Sinclair‐Knopp Cristina Testi Anne‐Sophie Vandamme Antonella Veccia Selina Zheng.
LANGUAGE CENTRE and COLLEGE DEVELOPMENTS 1.1 Review of Language teaching: there has been more exchange between the Language Centre and the UCL Language Departments; we have offered to some Departments for students to take their language with us – we can adapt to what is required; 1.2 UCL Research assessment in March for which college is waiting to hear about; there may be less funding available as it would be more evenly spread; 1.3 In a Heads of Department meeting the issue of graduate employment was raised and the following suggestions made: A reduction in MA fees; A reduction in our Evening Course costs; We offer some ‘intensive language courses’; this is something we could look into that CU tutors could teach, for example: An intensive 2‐week course offered at the end of the academic year; Morning or afternoon classes, followed by student reinforcement/self‐study each day; Courses offered in each of the existing 7 Course Unit languages at a beginner and an intermediate level; We wouldn’t necessarily make or lose money, but make sure costs were covered. To be discussed further. 1.3.a. In light of the above, Madeleine Du Vivier raised the possibility of running a short teacher‐
training course in the summer as well, for example a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2009‐02‐18 – Minutes 2. 3. 4. Adults) course, open to UCL staff and students; noted that teaching practise would need to be observed; Noted: Madeleine to provide a breakdown of costing for this; 1.4 In light of financial issues, all at UCL have been urged to be more economical. MANDARIN 2.1 Confirmation given that Shaomin Lee who joined as Coordinator for Mandarin at the start of the academic year has resigned for personal reasons; Dr Christine Hoffmann will act as Coordinator until the position is advertised and filled. Huge thanks given to the Mandarin tutors who have worked hard to keep the team together since November, producing course assessment, finalising examination papers and taking over Shaomin’s classes causing minimum disruption to students. 2.2 The new External Examiner for Mandarin has now been confirmed as Ying Fu from King’s College London. EXAMINATIONS 3.1 Reading & Writing papers: huge thanks to all tutors for the hard work put into this year’s papers; all content seemed appropriate and of a high standard; 3.2 All of our Visiting Examiners have been sent details of the Board of Examiners meeting and moderation dates, as well as course material, syllabi etc. Once we receive the checked exam papers with any comments back from them we will need a very quick turnaround before finalising and giving the papers to Registry; 3.3 Oral examinations: students will use the online system again to book their oral exams this year. Levels A and B should be before Easter, all other levels after however, with the students’ prior agreement this can be flexible; Digital recordings: the oral recordings need to be transferred onto a hard drive and the files re‐named; ideally this would be done by each team at the end of each day, or could just be done by Coordinators. As we have limited equipment we could trial this with just with some languages (e.g. Italian, Japanese and Spanish), then we can buy more equipment in stages so that all languages can use digital recording from next year. All agreed. Coordinators should finalise the oral slot times for both terms, as well as the topics for the oral exams by this Friday 20th February and pass these to the office. 3.3.a. The issue of minimum and maximum Oral exam marks was raised by the French team: Chair confirmed the following: It is not possible to set a sealing mark (highest or lowest) on exams; If someone from a low level reaches 90%+ then something is wrong; higher level students could reach these marks, but examiners must be very careful as this means they are near native; Regarding low marks, a student should only receive 0% if they do not attend, or attend but say nothing at all; 3.4 Exam preparation: Coordinators must confirm details of revision workshops by the end of the week, so that rooms can be booked in time; reminder that the workshop must take place before any oral exams for that level are scheduled to take place. COURSEWORK 4.1 Listening course assessment: 4.1.a. tutors to inform the ICT office well in advance if assistance with material preparation for the assessment will be required; 4.1.b. if students are unable to take the Listening assessment they must provide documentation to support their absence on the day, only then can the assessment be rescheduled for them. 4.2 Projects: coversheets for the Project will be distributed to tutors next week and in addition, a spare set will be left on reception; students can submit their work to the office from 09‐13 March only, not before. Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2009‐02‐18 – Minutes 5. STUDENT FEEDBACK 5.1 Staff‐Student Consultative Meeting There were no major issues from the Staff‐Student meeting which took place on 26 November; The next Staff‐Student Meeting will take place on 05 March: we will circulate draft minutes from this meeting to Coordinators to discuss with teams and respond to action points; minutes and responses will then be posted on the intranet page. 5.2 Student Evaluation Questionnaires Questionnaires will be given to tutors to distribute to students from the week beginning 09 March. Meeting closed at 12.00. Course Unit Administrative Assistant +44 (0) 20 7679 5481 20 February 2009 Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2009‐02‐18 – Minutes