UCL LANGUAGE CENTRE
Course Units 2006-2007
Teaching Committee Meeting - Minutes
Tuesday 13 February 2007
11:15 – 13:15
Language Centre, Room 131
Chaired by Dr Christine Hoffmann
Present:
Yoko Aldous
Sylvie Batlle
Anja Boeing
Sara Bragadina
Roberto D’Onofrio
Juan Fernandez
Diego Flores-Jaime
María-Teresa Forteza-Rey
Claudia Geithner
Fernando Gracia Garcia
Dr. So Hiranuma
Dr. Christine Hoffmann
Mireille Michel
Petra Millard
Marc-Georges Nowicki
Catherine Plant
Jenny Rodgers
Marion Sadoux
Chizuko Seki Zdrzalka
Ariane Smart
Cristina Testi.
Apologies:
Adam Salisbury
1 . Welcome
Dr. Christine Hoffmann welcomed all and raised the following points:
1.1
The Meeting Schedule for the coming week which includes an “Introduction to new IT
and multimedia facilities of the Languages of the Wider World”, at the Centre for Excellence in
Teaching and Learning and a Staff Development session;
1.2
Internal Quality Review (Audit) – this may now be delayed later than 07 March – will
keep all informed;
1.3
Language Centre move: we need to decide on when would be an appropriate time for
us to move and then we must all sort through our things and have a clear out; CH also
explained the layout of the new premises in Bedford Way.
2 . Feedback from Team Meetings
All language teams met on previous day and gave the following feedback:
French team:
 Coursebook (“Rond Point”) is good and all wish to continue using it;
 Marker sheets for Projects: it is important to show students their marker sheet to give
more in-depth feedback;
 Project Guidelines: we should suggest examples for Project topics in the guidelines and
to allow the same website, with two different articles, as a source of reference;
 Listening Comprehension: we could offer the Listening assessment also to high level
students (Professional Purposes and Academic Purposes) otherwise they have only
Project and exams; however Grammar assessment would not be appropriate at such
high levels;
 class dynamics: if there is a disruptive student in class it should be addressed with the
class so all are involved then should talk with disruptive student individually.
German team:
 We have found some students find it easy to copy each other in class assessments – we
Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting
13 February 2007
now sit them back to back etc so this will not be possible;
Tutors would like to show students examples of projects from previous years;
We need permission from previous students to do this, otherwise we can copy
an old Project anonymously by blanking out all occurrences of possible
identification. However tutors must give notice of this to allow the office time
to do this.
 Use of Project in Oral: we should not be specific on which element of the Project
students will be questioned on, otherwise they will rehearse;
We are not specific in Project Guidelines, the Course Unit student Guidelines
are clear on this.
Italian team:
 Use of Project for high level (Professional Purposes) Oral examination: we had said that
students should try to incorporate listening elements into their Project research, e.g. as
sources, as they don’t have Listening assessment in class;
This needs to be re-discussed; class discussions could be classed as listening
practice.
Japanese team:
 Team have reviewed material for Oral examinations;
 Problem with low level Projects: some students cannot use or read certain Japanese
characters and may find a free website and copy/paste the text into that, but we are
aware of this;
Plagiarism Detection Software (Turnatin) does not work with Japanese;
 Good feedback on new software in the Self-Access centre (new T.V channels, and
language software).
Spanish team:
 Preparation for workshops underway;
 We also feel students sit too close to and copy each other in class assessment, so we
space them out more;
 We feel we have had to wait too long for some material to be ready and usable in the
Self Access Centre.

3 . Examinations (Progress, topics etc.)
3.1
Reading & Writing exams: almost all of the exam drafts have now been sent to Visiting
Examiners and we have received feedback; the tutor must be responsible for making final
checks to the paper that they have written before it is published;
3.2
Oral examination slots will be available to book online from 01 March; Coordinators
must confirm time slots to the office as soon as possible.
4 . Projects
4.1
4.2
CH went over procedures for the week of Project submission;
Project coversheets are now in tutor’s pigeonholes for distribution in class.
5. Any other business
5.1
Late Registration / Change of course: we have received a registration form and change
of level forms this week, some for students who have been attending new level for some time.
This reflects badly on us as Registry must then be informed of these changes at this late stage.
We need to know as soon as possible of any changes and forms must be completed
so that we have a record of it;
5.2
Assessments: it has been noted that some students with poor attendance have received
very good coursework/assessment marks; we need to be alerted to this; we may have to
change the way we assess students at the start of the year, e.g. include a written
task;
Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting
13 February 2007
5.3 Student Progress Reports: tutors must complete and return these to the office within
deadlines given;
5.4 Registers: these must be submitted to the office weekly so that we can assess absence
across all classes. We could withdraw any students with very low attendance from the
final examination.
Meeting closed at 13.15.
Course Units Administrative Assistant
+44 (0) 20 7679 5481
19 February 2007
Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting
13 February 2007