UCL LANGUAGE CENTRE
Course Units 2008‐2009 Course Unit Teaching Committee - Minutes
1.
2. Wednesday 10 September 2008 11:20‐13:00 Malet Place Engineering, room 1.20 Staff present:
Dr. Christine Hoffmann Karine Roumetz Sara Bragadina Fabrice Lamotte Pierre Scordia Anja Boeing Shaomin Lee Chizuko Seki‐Zdrzalka Madeleine du Vivier Cristina Testi Juan Fernandez Li‐Yun Liao Anne‐Sophie Vandamme Diego Flores‐Jaime Mireille Michel Antonella Veccia Maria‐Teresa Forteza‐Rey Marc‐Georges Nowicki Selina Zheng. Claudia Geithner Catherine Plant Fernando Gracia‐Garcia Carmen Requena Luay Hasan Jenny Rodgers Apologies: Yoko Aldous, Marie‐Laure Aris, Sylvie Batlle, Roberto D’Onofrio, Petra Garcia‐Rodriguez, Dr So Hiranuma, and Adam Salisbury. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION 1.1 Welcome back to all and a welcome to our new Coordinators: for Arabic, Luay Hasan and for Mandarin, Shaomin Lee; in relation to this, Liyun Liao (previous Coordinator for Mandarin) will now be responsible for working on Projects and online material and for the Foreign Languages resources room; 1.2 Phillipe Galinier will teach our new French Translation Skills 0.5 course unit and will also be in charge of the equivalent German and Spanish courses; 1.3 Pierre Scordia and Anne‐Sophie Vandamme will now both have contracts within the French team, as Sylvie Batlle is not able to teach here this year – Sylvie will assist with registration, marking and will also write 3 exam papers, returning in term 3 for the examination period, but until Easter time will primarily be working on task chains and researching study material; 1.4 Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Kathy King is now on maternity leave and Jennie Andrews will replace her on the TEFL team. LANGUAGE CENTRE MATTERS 2.1 We have had a positive summer with a good intake on our English for Academic Purposes courses (Graduate Preparatory Course/Pre‐Sessional courses); we have also run a variety of small summer courses; 2.2 We have received an increased number of applications for our EAP courses from European Universities, so we have had to re‐think some of our courses, e.g. students coming with higher levels of English; Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting 2008‐09‐10 – Minutes 2.3 The EAP Diploma course has been restructured: the new Coordinator will be Martin Hall; it will now incorporate more integrated English, so tutors will teach all four skills; so far we have a good number of applications; 2.4 The UPSCE and UPCH courses have also had a successful number of applications so far, with nine groups for English (highest ever) – this is great news for UPCH which only began last year. Sharon Pheasant will take over as Coordinator for UPSCE while Daphne Thomas is on maternity leave; 2.5 James Sinclair‐Knopp will now Coordinate English Part‐Time courses, as well as our two EAP course units: English Language Skills the new 0.5 course unit for students with a higher level of English, covering all four skills and for the Academic Writing in English for Non‐Native Speakers 0.5 course unit. 2.6 Evening Courses: the new Arabic course units may affect numbers on Arabic Evening Courses; we will have to monitor this; 2.7 DELTA: we had another successful year with our Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults course, coordinated by Madeleine du Vivier; although some students did not pass all elements and will be referred, four of our students achieved distinctions in their coursework. The course will change to a modular format from next year and is now officially called Delta modules 1‐3. 3. COURSE UNITS 2008‐2009 3.1 Student Handbook: We have a great new handbook for course units with a separate section for our Foreign Languages Course Units, our EAP Course Units and for TEFL; all EAP courses have now used the same format for their handbooks so that all Language Centre information is harmonised; 3.2 September Meetings: Jane Skirving has circulated to everyone the agenda for September meetings, as you will have seen there are, as requested some Staff Development/Training Sessions on I.C.T issues, e.g. “How to use A.V Equipment” and “File Management”; On 02 October there is also an Interactive Whiteboard Focus Group which tutors should try to attend as it will be very useful; There are two Fire Safety Training Sessions – staff MUST attend one of these if they did not do so last year; There is a General Language Centre Staff Meeting on Wednesday 01 October at 17:15, which all staff should attend. 3.3 Registration Information: Tutors are asked to help with delivering the Course Units Student Handbook and registration information to UCL Departments this Friday 12th. Envelopes will be ready for collection in the office at 10.00 on Friday. 3.4 Team / Coordinators Meetings: We would like to try scheduling fixed language team meetings for the coming academic year and suggest Wednesdays from 17:00‐18:00, as the majority of tutors teach here on Wednesdays. The Coordinators have agreed to postpone their weekly meeting to start at 18:00 on Wednesdays instead. This way, should any issues arise in team meetings, these can be discussed immediately afterwards amongst Coordinators. 3.5 Reading and Writing Exams: it has been agreed that all drafts of Reading & Writing exam papers must be ready by Tuesday 04 November 2008 – tutors to note that this should be the final, complete version and should have already been discussed within the Language team. 4. 5. SELF‐ACCESS CENTRE 4.1 All teams need to check the material in their section of the Self‐Access Centre: we need to check the material, see what else is needed and produce lists including prices so that we can budget and plan for the coming year. If you need to order any material please request for this properly by completing the Staff Material Request Form (copies of this are in the Staff Room) and submitting to Jenny in the office so that material/costs can be checked and then ordered through LCL International. 4.2 There are some sessions in the Self‐Access Centre during September to inform tutors of what work has been carried out over the summer. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 5.1 For the next academic year (2009‐2010) the UPCH course will have a ‘strand B’; which will be primarily aimed at the US market which does not have requirements for an undergraduate degree. They Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting 2008‐09‐10 – Minutes will choose to take a module in Culture & Society and a Modern Language (French, German, Italian or Spanish and they will need to be of an intermediate level. They won’t have to study EAP, they will just be required to carry out some research skills. As well as attending our course unit classes we will also offer extra tutorials. We will use our past exam papers as an entry test; 5.2 Common Timetable: this will officially take effect from next year (2009‐2010); it might be inevitable that we will have to teach from 16:00‐18:00 – this will have a knock‐on effect to our Evening Courses and we may have to resort to teaching 1.5 hour classes. However fortunately we have been exempt from teaching 0.5 units over one term. 5.3 Classrooms: B08 will no longer be available as a classroom – due to a lack of space as well as new courses, expanding teams and student numbers we have to sacrifice one of our rooms as office space. This will be used by the UPCH staff. This will be a temporary move and we hope to have found a solution by January. Regarding space in Bedford Way, we have liaised with Geography to ask about the possibility of sharing the large common room on the first floor; we also asked whether we could “hire” a room from them temporarily – to both these requests the answer was no. Meeting closed at 13.00. Course Unit Administrative Assistant +44 (0)20 7679 5481 17 September 2008 Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting 2008‐09‐10 – Minutes