ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTIONTECHNOLOGY 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).

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 university-level education outside their home country.

Percentage of a country’s student population from another country

IN THE UK ALONE THIS IS WORTH:

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:

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? You need to “speculate to accumulate”

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:

PLAN!(Remember the old sporting adage: Poor Planning = Poor Performance) Strategically plan your recruitment:

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: 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:

Maritime industries Agriculture Tourism Construction History

MATCH – 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)?

A KEY POINT TO REMEMBER:

If you get the marketing right but you get the support wrong, you’ll have short-term success and long-term failure.

ON THE OTHER HAND....

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:

a.shaw@hull.ac.uk

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: 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

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”

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:

Bernstein defined two different codes in English: The elaborated code The restricted code

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.........

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);

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.

SO FOR SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

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? Introduce English as early as possible

Use your knowledge of their preferred learning style to facilitate access: Lots of physical activities, music, games to appeal to

all their senses

AND FOR OLDER STUDENTS – THOSE AT COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY? Make extensive use of the huge range of television and

radio programmes and, most especially, web-based resources.

Some examples: https://twitter.com/BCseminars   http://www.esolcourses.com/   http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/britpop/beatles/the

-beatles-story-listening-quiz.html   http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/citizenship/multipl

e-choice/culture-and-people.html   http://vanessareillytelt.wordpress.com/   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.springz.easyen

glish   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:

a.shaw@hull.ac.uk

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.........

Why me? 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...

Dr Kevin Burden and Mr Paul Hopkins (who will join us by Skype after the presentation to answer your questions