Transcript Best Practice in Higher Education

ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING
Dr Angela Shaw
Centre for Educational Studies
University of Hull
WHY ME?
Not an expert in all these areas but I work in a
department where these three issues are addressed
every day
 Personally involved in international recruitment in
Further Education and Higher Education for 30 years
 Personally involved in supporting overseas students
with English for same amount of time
 I use technology every day in my teaching – and have
colleagues who are internationally renowned experts
(and they’ll be joining us via Skype later in the
morning).
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SO ...WE’LL
BEGIN WITH ATTRACTING
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS.....
First
question:
Why
take the trouble?
AND THE ANSWER IS..........
Nearly 4.3 million students are enrolled in universitylevel education outside their home country.
Percentage of a country’s student
population from another country
IN THE UK ALONE THIS IS WORTH:
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International students in the HE sector (excluding
transnational education) – over £5.6 billion
Transnational HE – nearly £200 million
International students in the HE sector (including
transnational education) – nearly £6 billion
International students in the FE sector (excluding ELT) – over
£1.2 billion
International students in the ELT sector – over £1 billion
International students in the independent schools sector –
nearly £315 million
(British Council 2011)
IN ADDITION TO THE DIRECT FINANCIAL
BENEFITS, THERE ARE ADDITIONAL GAINS:
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Whilst studying, students spend money on housing, food and
entertainment – more economic benefits
International students learn about your country and its culture
and society – they are more likely therefore, after graduation, to
be kindly disposed to it – with further economic benefits into the
future
Home students gain from having different perspectives brought to
their learning
The country benefits from gaining a pluralist view of the world
SO HOW CAN CYPRUS ATTRACT MORE OF
THESE STUDENTS?
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You need to “speculate to accumulate”
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It can only happen with ‘up-front’ investment
You need a presence at international recruitment fairs
You need a network of good agents
You need excellent marketing experts
You need to invest in the right infrastructure for international students
You need to create partnerships with other institutions in the UK or USA to
make joint programme offers
You need to invest in technology – video-conferencing, skype, mobile
technologies – so that students can keep in touch between home and Cyprus.
You need to make your presence felt on the internet and exploit areas such as
social media.
You need to think about offering loss-leader scholarships/ bursaries/ incentives
You need to remember that parents are as important as potential students
when you market your provision (especially for undergraduates)
THE FIRST STEPS:
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PLAN!
(Remember the old sporting adage: Poor Planning = Poor
Performance)
 Strategically plan your recruitment:
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Where is your best market to target? Why?
What can you offer them?
How much can you afford to invest up-front?
What can you offer that others cannot? How can you make this clear to
potential applicants?
Which UK/US institutions would like to become your partner? How can
this be facilitated?
What other measures can you create to foster access – e.g. Negotiation
with airlines for budget flights from certain countries?
THE STRENGTHS THAT CYPRUS HAS TO
OFFER:
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A robust education system, free of corruption (very
attractive to some markets where educational corruption is
endemic).
Much teaching is in English – a strong point as many
overseas students want an “English” qualification that is
transferable across the English speaking world. (In
addition, if you get partnership programmes you can offer
students the best of all worlds)
Ease of access – you are closer to the Middle East and
Africa than your rivals in the UK, the USA and Australasia
Your weather! One of the only places in the world where
you can ski in the morning and sunbathe on the beach in
the afternoon.
YOU ALSO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
WITH EXPERTISE IN CERTAIN AREAS:
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Maritime industries
Agriculture
Tourism
Construction
History
– Could this be your strap-line for excellence in your offer?
Your ongoing long relationship with the UK means that you can
more easily create relationships with joint degrees/ progression
agreements/ staff and student exchanges – all of which can be
strengths to promote international recruitment.
SO YOUR STRATEGIC PLANS, BOTH AT
NATIONAL LEVEL AND AT
INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL, NEED TO
FOCUS ON:
WHERE will we be best to target our recruitment?
 WHAT subjects can we best offer? (i.e., Capitalise on
our natural brand)
 WHY will we be able to sell ourselves as better than
our competitors?
 HOW will we create a good experience for incoming
students (accommodation, support, mentoring,
pastoral care)?
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A KEY POINT TO REMEMBER:
 If
you get the marketing right but you
get the support wrong, you’ll have shortterm success and long-term failure.
ON THE OTHER HAND....
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If you get the marketing right and the support right
you’ll reach a stage where the provision will grow and
begin to market itself, because if you do a good job,
your student will tell someone else about you.
Unfortunately, however, if you do a bad job of the
support, they’ll tell ten people (or, in these days of
internet blogs and social media, maybe thousands!)
THANK YOU
If anyone wishes to follow up any of these issues please
feel free to email me on:
[email protected]
References:
 Education at a Glance 2013, Chart C4.3, OECD (2013),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932847583
 Making it happen, The Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (2011)
www.britishcouncil.org/eumd-pmi
ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
Why me?
•I have worked as a teacher and lecturer in
schools, colleges of Further Education and
Universities for over 40 years
•I have taught in schools and colleges where
80%+ of the pupils/students had English as a
second language
•In the last ten years I have supervised many
postgraduate students (some from Cyprus) for
whom English is a second language
FIRST OF ALL LET US GET TO GRIPS WITH
THE TERMINOLOGY!
EAL, TEFL, ESOL, TESOL, ESL....what do they
all mean and why does it matter that we know?
 Essentially they are all talking about the same
thing:
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English for speakers of mother tongues which are not
English (and we’ll ignore the debate about whether
Americans speak English or not!)
It only matters because we need to recognise all the
terms in order to access all the resources.
STARTING AT THE BEGINNING....
In general, the earlier you begin to teach English
as a medium for instruction, the better your
success will be.
There is a fund of research and knowledge which
shows that children learn an additional language
much more easily and fluently than those who
are older.
We’ll take just one example to expand upon......
NOAM CHOMSKY
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Chomsky theorised that language acquisition was innate, via an
internal structure called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
in the brain.
This was a contrast to all previous research-led thinking which
assumed that learning a language was a skill which developed
by children listening and copying what they heard.
This is certainly true of VOCABULARY (hence all the different
languages of the world) but Chomsky showed that it was only in
relation to this more superficial element of language.
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT CHOMSKY IS
RIGHT?
Look at what my granddaughter said to me last week:
“Grandma, I’ve winned the dinner prize at nursery! My friend
winned it last week but I’ve winned it today”.
See how brilliant my granddaughter is – she can conjugate
verbs PERFECTLY at the age of 2! Unfortunately she
conjugates them all perfectly – even when they are irregular
verbs......
“I goed to the shop”, “I catched the bus”.....
SHE CAN DO IT WITH NOUNS AS WELL......
“I’ve got two mouses in a cage”
 “There are a lot of sheeps in that field”
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No-one has ever taught English children to say
these things and they’ve never heard an adult
say them. What they are doing is regularising the
grammar. This means that Chomsky was right –
linguistic structures must be innate.
SO HOW DOES THIS HELP US TO USE
ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION?
Because we know that language structures are
innate and accessing a second language is easier
when we are very young – so, a key message is
that it is never too early to begin to use English.
HAVING STARTED EARLY HOW DO WE
PROCEED?
The research tells us that starting early is best, but
what barriers might we encounter as children
progress through school?
Seminal work by Bernstein suggests that there is a
problem with learning two different kinds of
English – the English of the streets and homes, and
the English of textbooks and examinations. The
latter is what we need for English as a medium of
instruction.
BASIL BERNSTEIN:
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Bernstein defined two different
codes in English:
The elaborated code
 The restricted code
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All native English speakers can use and understand the
restricted code, but academic texts, teachers, books and
writers use both codes – and for formal texts it is
always an elaborated code.
BERNSTEIN’S VIEWS HAVE BEEN CONTESTED.........
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But they have also been expanded and supported.
Recent expansion has been provided by Cummins
who suggests that English has three layers:
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS);
 Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP)
 Cognitive Academic language Proficiency (CALPS);
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WHY DOES IT MATTER WHEN USING
ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION?
It matters because a child’s ability to use their
mother-tongue will have a direct impact on their
ability to use English as a second or additional
language.
 The Cypriot child who uses a restricted code in their
native language will be unable to access English for
academic purposes – even if they can use reasonably
good colloquial English to communicate with other
English speakers.
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SO FOR SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN WHAT IS
THE ANSWER?
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Assess your children!
What is their level of native language competency?
 How can we help to support them to raise the level if
they are using a restricted code?
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Introduce English as early as possible
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Use your knowledge of their preferred learning style
to facilitate access:
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Lots of physical activities, music, games to appeal to all
their senses
AND FOR OLDER STUDENTS – THOSE AT COLLEGE
OR UNIVERSITY?
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Make extensive use of the huge range of television and
radio programmes and, most especially, web-based
resources.
Some examples:
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https://twitter.com/BCseminars
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http://www.esolcourses.com/
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http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/britpop/beatles/thebeatles-story-listening-quiz.html
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http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/citizenship/multiplechoice/culture-and-people.html
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http://vanessareillytelt.wordpress.com/
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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.springz.easyenglish
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
WHICH LEADS US ON NICELY TO THE
FINAL PRESENTATION........
....but first, if anyone has any questions or issues
which they want to follow up, please feel free to
contact me on:
[email protected]
References:
Bernstein B. (1971) Class Codes and Control Theoretical Studies Towards a
Sociology of Language London Routledge Kegan Paul
Chomsky N (1965) Aspects of the theory of Syntax Cambridge MA MIT Press
Cummins J (2000) Language Power and Pedagogy Bilingual Children in the
Crossfire Clevedon Multilingual Matters
TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING.........
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Why me?
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There is no good reason! So I am going to pass you to
some of my colleagues who are currently engaged in an
international project to show how mobile technologies
can be used to promote and enhance teaching to all ages
and stages...
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Dr Kevin Burden and Mr Paul Hopkins (who will join us
by Skype after the presentation to answer your
questions