UCL LANGUAGE CENTRE
Course Units 2006-2007
Board of Examiners Meeting - Minutes
Wednesday 06 June 2007 10:45 – 12:20 Chadwick Building, Room 218 Chaired by Dr Christine Hoffmann Deputy Chair: Roberto D’Onofrio Present:
 Edward de Chazal  Yoko Aldous (arrived 12:00)  Dr. So Hiranuma  Marie‐Laure Aris  Madeleine du Vivier  Dr. Christine Hoffmann (CH)  Haruyo Baietti (arrived 12:10)  Mireille Michel  Sylvie Batlle  Juan Fernandez  Marc‐Georges Nowicki  Anja Boeing  Catherine Plant  Sara Bragadina  Diego Flores‐Jaime  Jenny Rodgers  Mercedes Coca Rodríguez  María‐Teresa Forteza‐Rey  Adam Salisbury (AS)  Alessia Cogo  Claudia Geithner  Chizuko Seki Zdrzalka  Richard Cullen  Fernando Gracia Garcia (arrived 12:10)  Jacqueline Gresham  Ariane Smart  Roberto D’Onofrio (arrived 12:00)  Cristina Testi. 1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION 1.1 Christine Hoffmann welcomed all and introduced our new Visiting Examiner for Italian, Alessia Cogo from Kings College and for Academic Writing in English, Jacqueline Gresham; 1.2 New courses offered this year were Academic Purposes (Introduction, equivalent to Level C and High level) which have been an interesting development and a good addition. 2.
APOLOGIES 2.1 Marion Engrand O’Hara (French External Examiner), Dr Claudia Faust (German External Examiner), Petra García Rodríguez and Marion Sadoux. 3.
CONDUCT OF EXAMINATIONS 3.1 Chair confirmed that the examination process ran smoothly and without irregularities, despite huge factors such as moving premises during the exam period and difficulties with our database; 3.2 Portico did not function well or make the administrative process any easier; we felt that the system was not robust enough; 3.3 Two of the Visiting Examiners (for German and Spanish) attended some of the oral examinations and found it very useful. 4.
GENERAL COMMENTS Comments and Observations were given by the External Examiners; 4.1 Mercedes Coco Rodríguez (Spanish): Course Units Board of Examiners Meeting 2007‐06‐06 ‐ Minutes  Thanks to the Spanish team and the administration team – overall a very good year with healthy discussions;  Examinations were well prepared and received on time;  Mercedes attended some of the Oral examinations so could see how marks are applied and could also see when the language skills were good, but presentation skills not so strong;  Language Centre could explore using digital recording for Oral examinations – this was used successfully last year at LSE; RESPONSE / ACTION: this is something that we can explore and will pilot with one language. 4.2 Alessia Cogo (Italian):  Thanks to the Italian team; st
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 Examinations seem to have been very well conducted with marking criteria well applied and 1 and 2 marking well done;  Cassettes are also used for Oral examination recording at Kings College and it works well. 4.3 Haruyo Baietti (Japanese):  Second year as Examiner and the process is very well conducted with a very clear system and the Japanese team worked very hard;  Japanese language has a very different writing system – if the Chinese character is not taught properly then it can be problematic for the student to read;  Project is a good idea as a concept but it is difficult to base the oral examination on the project – this should be changed so that students are instead encouraged to talk about something they have learned such as an aspect of Japanese culture, or something about themselves and their life; RESPONSE / ACTION: we will discuss this in our end of year Teaching Committee review meetings 4.4 Dr Claudia Faust (German) – comments emailed and read to all by CH:  The German team are devoted teachers who conveyed a supportive and relaxed atmosphere during the oral examinations; they prepared their students well and were interested in their work and progress;  The courses seem well administered; all the relevant data and information needed was at hand;  The examinations were of a high quality with a good variety of challenging tasks based on interesting and informative topics; tasks given were appropriate for the level with authentic language application well tested;  The Project is a useful instrument of guided language acquisition and is a piece of work that both students and tutors can be proud of; st
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 There was clear evidence of 1 and 2 marking and of fair marking according to the guidelines;  It is a good idea that the final mark is a result of both coursework and final examinations as this reflects the students’ efforts and achievements over the whole academic year. 4.5 Marion Engrand O’Hara (French) – comments emailed and read to all by CH:  Thanks to the administration team and to Mireille Michel for their hard work especially with entering marks onto the database;  Congratulations to the French team on their dedication and outstanding quality or work, as illustrated by students’ achievements and particularly some of the projects;  The assessment format currently in place works very well and deserves praise for being reliable and versatile. 4.6 Jacqueline Gresham (Academic Writing in English for Non‐Native Speaker’s):  First year as Examiner for this course and satisfied with everything;  Some amendments to marks have been made (see results below). 4.7 Richard Cullen (TEFL):  Third year as Examiner; TEFL team always rigorous and consistent;  Looked at a sample of high, medium and low marks ‐ happy with marks; two candidate with Grade A, all others B’s and C’s;  Final exam produced higher marks; Oral exam produced overall lower marks. Course Units Board of Examiners Meeting 2007‐06‐06 ‐ Minutes 5.
Comments and Observations were also given by Language Coordinators: 4.8 Mireille Michel (French):  Thanks to Marion Engrand O’Hara who has expressed her wish to continue next year as our Visiting Examiner; inspiring to work with and she made some interesting observations such as exercises to avoid using for dyslexic students;  Thanks to the French team and the quality of their work, initiative and support;  We faced shorter deadlines this year as some exams were late into the exam timetable. 4.9 Fernando Gracia Garcia (Spanish):  Thanks to Mercedes, especially for help with the oral examinations – proved very helpful to have a different person’s perspective;  Huge thanks to the Spanish team for their hard work; it has been a challenging year especially with moving premises and having difficulties with our database. 4.10 Roberto D’Onofrio (Italian):  Thanks to the Italian team for another productive and successful year and to Alessia Cogo;  It has been the first year that Italian for Professional Purposes has run which was successful; 4.11 Dr So Hiranuma (Japanese):  Thanks to the Japanese team who had a good mutual cooperation;  Chizuko wrote two Reading and Writing exam papers this year for the first time which were excellent and very successful;  The team had some problems with cassette players during oral examinations and feel digital recording may work well;  There were quite a few fails at Level A this year – we feel this is because some struggle to write the alphabet – we would like to change the way we teach Chinese characters next year. 4.12 Anja Boeing (German):  Thanks to the German team and to the Visiting Examiner, Claudia who gave excellent and detailed comments on the examinations drafts;  It has been a good year for German with all seven levels running. CONFIRMATION OF COURSE UNITS RESULTS 5.1 AS explained Referred Assessment to all, whereby continuing students on the new harmonised scheme, where they have gained a mark between 35% and 39% will be given an additional (supplementary) assessment over the summer in order to give the Board of Examiners the information it needs to make a pass/fail judgement on the student’s overall performance in that module. Should the student choose to take the referred assessment and pass, they will be awarded a mark of 40; or they can refuse the offer of referred assessment and re‐enter at the next normal opportunity, if all re‐sit attempts have not already been used, and gain the actual mark gained. 5.2 AS also explained the procedures for categorising Extenuating Circumstances using the following codes: Category 3 – Severe physical or psychological distress that would be expected to be highly detrimental to a student’s academic performance (e.g. diagnosis of cancer; severe asthma; severe depression; death of a close relative). Category 2 – Medical circumstances or other circumstances where substantial impairment of a student’s performance would be expected. Category 1 – Less serious but still sufficient to impair a student’s academic performance (e.g. death of a distant relative; severe upper respiratory tract infection; hay fever; problems with personal relationships) Category 0 – Problems that are reasonably considered to be insignificant to the student’s academic performance. Course Units Board of Examiners Meeting 2007‐06‐06 ‐ Minutes 5.3 SYLLABUS A: French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish 0.5 Course Units LCFR6001 Results approved; LCGE6001 Candidate CSKD6 was granted extenuating circumstances for reasons which affected their Reading and Writing examination – it was agreed that their circumstance was Category 1. Results approved; LCIT6001 Candidate FCKF7 has applied for Deferred Assessment; Candidate DXSG9 was granted extenuating circumstances – it was agreed they are Category 0. Candidate CCGF4 was granted extenuating circumstances – it was agreed they are Category 1; Results approved; LCJA6001 Results approved; LCSP6001 Candidate DQFS7 was granted extenuating circumstances – it was agreed they are Category 0; Results approved. 5.4 SYLLABUS B French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish 0.5 and 1.0 Course Units LCFR6002 Candidate CWGW7 has result LA – result to follow – they will take Reading and Writing exam at a later date (deferred assessment) due to extenuating circumstances; Results approved; LCGE6002 Results approved; LCIT6002 Results approved; LCJA6002 Results approved; LCSP6002 Candidate BSHX0 was granted extenuating circumstances – it was agreed that they are a category 3 and that their mark should be raised from 33% to 40%. Candidate BMTF2: the tutor questioned why they were classed as NC (Not complete) – they missed the Reading and Writing examination and have chosen to re‐sit the course next year; Haruyo Baeitti questioned why a student who failed the Grammar & Vocabulary coursework (worth 5% overall) gained a mark of 57; students need to complete 50% of coursework to pass the course. Results approved. LCFR6012 Results approved; LCGE6012 Results approved; LCIT6012 Candidate DCBR6 was granted extenuating circumstances – it was agreed that they are category 1; Candidate DGSW0 was granted extenuating circumstances for reasons which affected their Oral and Reading & Writing examinations – it was agreed that their circumstance was a category 3 and that their mark should be raised from 42 to 50%; Results approved; LCJA6012 Results approved; LCSP6012 Results approved 5.5 SYLLABUS C French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish 0.5 and 1.0 Course Units LCFR6003 Results approved; LCGE6003 Results approved; LCIT6003 Results approved; LCJA6003 Results approved; LCSP6003 Results approved; LCFR6023 Candidate DJXR7 was withdrawn from the course due to very low attendance; LCGE6023 Results approved; LCIT6023 Candidate FCZK7 was granted extenuating circumstances – it was agreed that they are a category 3; although their mark was NC (incomplete) and so will need to re‐sit the course. Results approved; LCJA6023 Results approved; LCSP6023 Results approved. Course Units Board of Examiners Meeting 2007‐06‐06 ‐ Minutes 5.6 Academic Purposes – Introduction French 0.5 Course Unit LCFR6803 Results approved 5.7 SYLLABUS D French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish 0.5 and 1.0 Course Units LCFR6004 Candidate DQBB8 was granted extenuating circumstances for reasons which affected their Reading and Writing examination – it was agreed that they are a category 2; it was also agreed not to raise the mark for their exam as it is consistent with all other marks. Results approved; LCGE6004 Results approved; LCIT6004 Results approved; LCJA6004 Results approved; LCSP6004 Results approved; LCFR6034 Results approved; LCGE6034 Results approved; LCIT6034 Results approved; LCJA6034 Results approved; LCSP6034 Candidate DDQV6 was granted extenuating circumstances ‐ it was agreed that they are a category 1 and that their mark should not be raised to 50. Results approved. 5.8 BUSINESS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS French, German and Spanish 0.5 Course Units French, German, Italian and Spanish 1.0 Course Units LCFR6005 Results approved; LCGE6005 Candidate DMTG9 (result LA) did not take either examination and will take Deferred Assessment for both; Results approved; LCSP6005 Results approved; LCFR6045 Results approved; LCGE6045 Candidate CDRV6 gained overall mark of 56%; this is a late result as office received exam paper only this week due to suspected exam irregularities; Results approved; LCIT6045 Results approved; LCSP6045 Results approved. 5.9 CURRENT AFFAIRS AND CULTURE French, German, Japanese and Spanish 0.5 Course Units French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish 1.0 Course Units LCFR6006 Results approved; LCGE6006 Results approved; LCJA6006 Results approved; LCSP6006 Candidate FCQD3 candidate’s tutor, Fernando Gracia‐Garcia asked if the mark of 69 could be raised, but their work has already been seen and approved by the Visiting Examiner; Results approved; LCFR6056 Results approved; LCGE6056 Results approved; LCIT6056 Results approved; LCJA6056 Results approved; LCSP6056 Results approved. 5.10 PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES II French, German, Japanese and Spanish 0.5 Course Units French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish 1.0 Course Units LCFR6007 Results approved; LCGE6007 Results approved; LCJA6007 Results approved; LCSP6007 Results approved; LCFR6067 Results approved; LCGE6067 Results approved; LCIT6067 Results approved; LCJA6067 Course Units Board of Examiners Meeting 2007‐06‐06 ‐ Minutes Results approved; LCSP6067 Results approved. 5.11 ACADEMIC PURPOSES II French and Japanese 0.5 Course Units German, Japanese and Spanish 1.0 Course Units LCFR6807 Results approved; LCJA6807 Results approved; LCGE6867 Results approved; LCJA6867 Results approved; LCSP6867 Results approved. 5.12 FRENCH FOR ART HISTORIANS 0.5 COURSE UNIT LCFA6801 Results approved 5.13 ACADEMIC WRITING IN ENGLISH FOR NON‐NATIVE SPEAKER’S 0.5 COURSE UNIT LCEN6801 Some amendments to marks were made by the Visiting Examiner as follows: Candidate CHNT8 ‐ Reading and Writing examination mark reduced to 73%; Candidate CQBB9 ‐ Reading and Writing examination mark reduced to 59%; Candidate DDKR6 ‐ Take Home assessment mark raised to 67% Results approved 5.14 TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUGE 1.0 COURSE UNIT LCTE7900 Results approved 6.
CONFIRMATION OF SSC RESULTS 6.1 SYLLABUS A German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish SSC’s All results approved 6.2 SYLLABUS B French and Spanish SSC’s All results approved 6.3 SYLLABUS C French, German and Spanish SSC’s All results approved 6.4 SYLLABUS D French, Italian and Spanish SSC’s All results approved 6.5 BUSINESS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS French and Spanish SSC’s All results approved 7. DATES FOR 2007‐2008 7.1 Board of Examiners meeting – Wednesday 04 June 2008 (Provisional). 8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 8.1 Plagiarism detection software, Turnatin™ has been introduced on Course Units this year; if a student who is suspected of plagiarism when approached denies it, we will use Turnatin™; if they admit to it then they will be asked to write a new piece of assessment under examination conditions (the software is not compatible with Japanese); there has been once such case on the Academic Writing in English course for which we will use Turnatin™. Meeting closed at 12:20. Course Unit Administrative Assistant +44 (0)20 7679 5481 20 June 2007 Course Units Board of Examiners Meeting 2007‐06‐06 ‐ Minutes