Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of the Middle East and North Africa [1st ed.] 978-3-030-13412-9;978-3-030-13413-6

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xxv
Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of the MENA (Christine Coombe, Hayo Reinders, Andrew Littlejohn, Dara Tafazoli)....Pages 1-18
Refugees from MENA Learning Languages: Progress, Principles and Proposals (John Traxler, Elena Barcena, Timothy Read)....Pages 19-38
Plugging the Gap: Supporting Primary School Teachers to Create Culturally Appropriate English Language Teaching (ELT) Materials (Sarah Rich, Samantha Weekes, Maryam al Jardani, Salima al Sinani)....Pages 39-59
Task-Based Learning and Teaching in Egypt (Deena Boraie, Ebtihal El Badry, Maged Habashy)....Pages 61-83
Innovation in Writing Instruction: Towards Nurturing Confident, Motivated and Academically Honest L2 Writers (Fatima Esseili)....Pages 85-107
Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates (Melanie Gobert, Helene Demirci)....Pages 109-131
Reading for Science: Anatomy as a Metaphor for a Holistic College-Wide Innovation (Roger Nunn, Caroline Brandt, Asli Hassan, Curtis Bradley)....Pages 133-151
Towards English for Academic Purposes Curriculum Reform: Linguistic, Educational or Political Considerations? (Elana Spector-Cohen, Lisa Amdur, Ingrid Barth, Rosalie Sitman, Linda Weinberg)....Pages 153-176
The Evolution of a Research Paper Course (Andrew Littlejohn, Sandhya R. Mehta)....Pages 177-201
Developing Communication Skills Through Participation in Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (Robert Craig, Brian Bielenberg)....Pages 203-222
Preparing for a Digital Future: CALL Teacher Education in Iran (S. Susan Marandi)....Pages 223-240
Online Language Teacher Education for a Challenging Innovation: Towards Critical Language Pedagogy for Iran (Arman Abednia, Graham V. Crookes)....Pages 241-261
Telecollaboration Among Qatari and US Undergraduates in a Multicultural Course: Opportunities and Obstacles (Zohreh R. Eslami, Valerie Hill-Jackson, Svetlana Kurteš, Lobat Asadi)....Pages 263-282
Back Matter ....Pages 283-285

Citation preview

NEW LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING ENVIRONMENTS

Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching

The Case of the Middle East and North Africa Edited by Hayo Reinders · Christine Coombe Andrew Littlejohn · Dara Tafazoli

New Language Learning and Teaching Environments

Series Editor Hayo Reinders Department of Education Anaheim University Anaheim, CA, USA Department of Languages King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand

New Language Learning and Teaching Environments is an exciting new book series edited by Hayo Reinders, dedicated to recent developments in learner-centred approaches and the impact of technology on learning and teaching inside and outside the language classroom. The series aims to: • Publish cutting-edge research into current developments and innovation in language learning and teaching practice. • Publish applied accounts of the ways in which these developments impact on current and future language education. • Encourage dissemination and cross-fertilisation of policies and practice relating to learner-centred pedagogies for language learning and teaching in new learning environments. • Disseminate research and best practice in out-of-class and informal language learning. The series is a multidisciplinary forum for the very latest developments in language education, taking a pedagogic approach with a clear focus on the learner, and with clear implications for both researchers and language practitioners. It is the first such series to provide an outlet for researchers to publish their work, and the first stop for teachers interested in this area. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14736

Hayo Reinders · Christine Coombe · Andrew Littlejohn · Dara Tafazoli Editors

Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching The Case of the Middle East and North Africa

Editors Hayo Reinders Department of Education Anaheim University Anaheim, CA, USA King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand Andrew Littlejohn Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education Universiti Brunei Darussalam Brunei, Brunei Darussalam

Christine Coombe General Studies Dubai Men’s College Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dara Tafazoli Department of English and German Philology University of Córdoba Córdoba, Spain

New Language Learning and Teaching Environments ISBN 978-3-030-13412-9 ISBN 978-3-030-13413-6  (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019932119 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Photo ©: Feng Wei Photography This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Praise for Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching

“The Middle East and North Africa, torn though it remains by political problems, and made of nations that generally support a national language (Arabic, Turkish, Persian or Hebrew) has responded to globalization by innovative programs in teaching English. This pioneering collection provides a fine picture of this important development and offers many lessons to other regions.” —Bernard Spolsky, Professor Emeritus, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

v

Contents

1

Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of the MENA 1 Christine Coombe, Hayo Reinders, Andrew Littlejohn and Dara Tafazoli

2

Refugees from MENA Learning Languages: Progress, Principles and Proposals 19 John Traxler, Elena Barcena and Timothy Read

3

Plugging the Gap: Supporting Primary School Teachers to Create Culturally Appropriate English Language Teaching (ELT) Materials 39 Sarah Rich, Samantha Weekes, Maryam al Jardani and Salima al Sinani

4

Task-Based Learning and Teaching in Egypt 61 Deena Boraie, Ebtihal El Badry and Maged Habashy

vii

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5

Innovation in Writing Instruction: Towards Nurturing Confident, Motivated and Academically Honest L2 Writers 85 Fatima Esseili

6

Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates 109 Melanie Gobert and Helene Demirci

7

Reading for Science: Anatomy as a Metaphor for a Holistic College-Wide Innovation 133 Roger Nunn, Caroline Brandt, Asli Hassan and Curtis Bradley

8

Towards English for Academic Purposes Curriculum Reform: Linguistic, Educational or Political Considerations? 153 Elana Spector-Cohen, Lisa Amdur, Ingrid Barth, Rosalie Sitman and Linda Weinberg

9

The Evolution of a Research Paper Course 177 Andrew Littlejohn and Sandhya R. Mehta

10 Developing Communication Skills Through Participation in Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences 203 Robert Craig and Brian Bielenberg 11 Preparing for a Digital Future: CALL Teacher Education in Iran 223 S. Susan Marandi 12 Online Language Teacher Education for a Challenging Innovation: Towards Critical Language Pedagogy for Iran 241 Arman Abednia and Graham V. Crookes

Contents     ix

13 Telecollaboration Among Qatari and US Undergraduates in a Multicultural Course: Opportunities and Obstacles 263 Zohreh R. Eslami, Valerie Hill-Jackson, Svetlana Kurteš and Lobat Asadi Index 283

Notes on Contributors

Arman Abednia holds a Ph.D. in TEFL from Allameh Tabataba’i University, Iran, and a Ph.D. in Education from Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. His research interests include critical pedagogy and literacy, teacher education, and teacher identity. His research has appeared in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, System, and Language Awareness. Arman has conducted workshops on critical pedagogy and literacy for second language teachers in Iran, Australia, and New Zealand. Currently, he is teaching literacy in the teacher education program at Murdoch University, Australia. Maryam al Jardani has been a teacher trainer at the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman since 2007. Prior to this, she worked as an English teacher and then as a senior English teacher for 11 years. She holds an M.A. in teacher education from the University of Leeds. She is interested in researching her professional practice, and has published a number of papers and given talks at international conferences. Salima al Sinani  holds an M.A. degree from the University of Leeds. She worked as a teacher and then as a senior English teacher before xi

xii     Notes on Contributors

taking up her current post as a teacher trainer in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman. Salima has published in the area of language teacher education and presented at a number of international conferences. Lisa Amdur holds a doctorate from the School of Education at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Lisa has worked for the Ministry of Education as a teacher, teacher trainer, and materials and test developer, and in various teacher training colleges. She currently teaches EAP and language assessment at Tel Aviv University. Lobat Asadi is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M University, USA. Lobat has instructed culturally and linguistically diverse populations of students and teachers for over a decade as a TESOL instructor. Her research is at the crossroads of teacher education for K-12+ and TESOL teachers, and curriculum development in multicultural education, STEAM and arts-based pedagogies. Lobat studies identity and sociocultural issues using narrative inquiry and other qualitative methods while engaging critical theories to address pedagogy and policy issues in racialized populations. Lobat’s dedication to diversity and post-colonial methodologies is evidenced by publications about LGBTIQ+, teacher and student identities, translanguaging, educational inequity and performance-based narrative inquiry. Ebtihal El Badry  worked as a teacher for over 25 years in higher education and teaching adults at the School of Continuing Education (SCE) of the American University in Cairo, Egypt before starting an administrative career in 2007 as the principal of an American school in Cairo. In 2009, she joined SCE as an administrator. She was promoted several times and is now Director of the Languages Department. She has presented at various conferences locally and internationally including TESOL International, NileTESOL and TESOL Arabia. Elena Barcena  is a professor in the Department of Modern Languages at UNED, Spain. She has co-directed the ATLAS (Applying Technologies to LAnguageS) research group since 1997, working on technological and methodological innovation in applied linguistics. She has been the director of several national and European-funded research

Notes on Contributors     xiii

projects. She is also an expert adviser for national and international research institutions and a member of the editorial board of several specialized journals. She is currently working on the boundaries between non-formal and formal language teaching/learning in blended and online contexts, particularly on MALL and Language MOOCs. Ingrid Barth is head of research projects in the Division of Foreign Languages at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She has an M.A. in curriculum design and a Ph.D. in education from Bar Ilan University. She specializes in designing instructional technology, and her main areas of interest are effective design of video-based learning and English-medium instruction. Brian Bielenberg  is an educational linguist with over 20 years of teaching experience. Holding degrees in engineering and education, he currently serves as Academic Effectiveness Specialist at Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he is engaged in engineering curriculum assessment and enhancement. He has taught freshman introduction to engineering and sophomore cornerstone design courses, as well as courses in linguistics and English as an additional language. His research interests include academic language and literacy needs in engineering design and entrepreneurship courses, and engineering education reform. Deena Boraie  is the Dean and professor of practice of the School of Continuing Education at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She leads a school that offers a wide range of continuing education programmes in English language, IT, business studies, Arabic language, translation and teacher development. She is a past president (2013– 2014) of the TESOL International Association. She is also a language testing expert, and an assessment and evaluation consultant and trainer. She teaches research methods in the M.A./Ph.D. Applied Linguistics programme at the Faculty of Arts, English Department of Cairo University. Curtis Bradley is an associate professor of physics at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. His research areas include atomic and optical physics, and physics education. Most recently, he has worked

xiv     Notes on Contributors

on the connections between language and science learning and on programme-level academic continuous improvement and quality assurance. As head of the Physics Department, he led an effort to transform the department’s core courses using a ‘Studio Physics’ approach—involving the introduction and development of new pedagogies, revised curricula, cognitive tutoring software and redesigned laboratory spaces to create student-centred environments for the active learning of introductory physics. Caroline Brandt is an associate professor of communication and Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Her research interests include the development of academic literacy, academic acculturation, reflexivity in curriculum design, transfer of learning and qualitative research methods. She has published widely in these areas, including Read, Research and Write: Academic skills for ESL Students in Higher Education (2008, SAGE Publications Ltd), currently on required reading lists in several universities. Christine Coombe  has a Ph.D. in foreign/second language education from Ohio State University. She is currently associate professor in general studies at Dubai Men’s College in the UAE. She has authored and/ or edited numerous volumes on assessment, leadership, teacher effectiveness, research and task-based teaching and learning. Her most recent publications are: The Role of Language Teacher Associations on Professional Development (2018, Springer) and An A to Z of Second Language Assessment (2018, British Council). She served as TESOL President (2011–2012) and was a member of the TESOL Board of Directors (2010–2013). Christine received the British Council’s International Assessment Award for 2013. Her most recent honour was being named TESOL’s 50@50 which “recognizes professionals who have made significant contributions to the TESOL profession within the past 50 years”. Dr. Coombe is the 2018 recipient of the James E. Alatis Award which recognizes exemplary service to TESOL. Robert Craig was raised in Britain and attended the universities of Sheffield, London and Essex. He has been involved in education for 40 years and has worked in the UK, Oman, Angola, Brunei, Morocco and

Notes on Contributors     xv

the UAE. He has spent the last 15 years at the Petroleum Institute (now part of Khalifa University of Science and Technology) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. His main research interests include the integration of content and language, effective communication, outcomes-based curriculum design and assessment. He believes strongly in the potential of collaborative learning and undergraduate research which he has been employing in his teaching for over 20 years. Graham V. Crookes  is a professor (and Chair) in the Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawai’i. His main research interests are critical language pedagogy and development of language teachers’ philosophies of teaching. His recent books are Critical ELT in Action (Routledge) and Values, Beliefs, and Philosophies of Teaching (Cambridge University Press). Helene Demirci is a member of the English Foundations faculty at Abu Dhabi Men’s College, UAE. She has taught EFL at primary, secondary and tertiary levels over the last 22 years in England, Turkey and the UAE. Her interests lie in engaging students in extensive reading and technology integration. She has served as the SIG Coordinator for an ESL professional development organization and is a member of the Applied Linguistics and Language Learning conference organizing team. She is currently serving as a board member of the Extensive Reading Foundation and an Associate Editor for the Algerian Scientific Journal Platform. Zohreh R. Eslami  is a professor at Texas A&M University, USA and is currently serving as the Program Chair of the Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, Qatar. She has published more than 100 articles in journals such as Intercultural Pragmatics, System, ELT Journal, Modern Language Journal, System, Journal of Pragmatics, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication and Bilingual Education Journal. Her research interests include intercultural communication, instructional and intercultural pragmatics, cyber-pragmatics, L2 literacy development, L2 literacy in content areas, and task-based language teaching and technology.

xvi     Notes on Contributors

Fatima Esseili is an associate professor of applied linguistics and TESOL in the Department of English at the University of Dayton, Ohio, USA. Her research interests include second language writing, world Englishes, language testing and assessment, language policy, intercultural rhetoric and teacher preparation. Melanie Gobert is on the faculty of Abu Dhabi Men’s College at the Higher Colleges of Technology. She was a featured speaker at the Third World Congress on Extensive Reading, the Australian College of Kuwait’s Annual Conference and the International Academic Forum. She publishes and presents regularly on reading, assessment, vocabulary, writing and online learning. She is a past president of TESOL Arabia, and editor of Perspectives, a peer-reviewed ELT Journal. Maged Habashy  holds an M.A. in international and comparative education. He has more than 16 years’ experience teaching English as a second language for K-12 and adult learners as well as teaching English for academic purposes for both undergraduate and graduate learners. He has five years of administrative experience in higher education. His current post is assistant director of the Languages Department in the School of Continuing Education at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Internationally, he is a frequent participant in educational conferences including that of the Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE). Asli Hassan is an assistant professor of communication and head of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She is a multilingual educator devoted to research that impacts student learning and innovative professional development programmes. She has over 20 years of teaching and teacher training experience in the USA and UAE. Valerie Hill-Jackson  is the Director of Educator Preparation Programs and Partnerships in the College of Education and Human Development and a Clinical Professor of Educator Preparation in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University, USA. She is an American Educational Research Association/Spencer Fellow and received the Lead Star Award for her research in childhood

Notes on Contributors     xvii

lead poisoning and community education. Dr. Hill-Jackson won a 2013 Upton Sinclair Award, a 2013 Fulbright Fellowship to Cardiff University and a 2018/2019 Melbern G. Glasscock Non-Tenure Track Faculty Research Fellowship. Her books include: Transforming Teacher Education: What Went Wrong with Teacher Training and How We Can Fix It; Better Principals, Better Schools: What Star Principals Know, Believe, and Do; Better Teachers, Better Schools: What Star Teachers Know, Believe, and Do; Teacher Confidential: Personal Stories of Stress, Self-Care, and Resilience; and What Makes a Star Teacher: 7 Dispositions That Support Student Learning (forthcoming). Svetlana Kurteš is a UK-based scholar with extensive international experience in the area of linguistic and intercultural education spanning well over two decades, having held academic positions at a number of universities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The focus of her research interests clusters around interdisciplinary approaches to communication, culture and society, and issues surrounding their pedagogical implications and applications. Since 2010 she has been Vice President of the European Network for Intercultural Education Activities (ENIEDA), having initiated, coordinated and convened a significant number of its activities. A member of several professional and scholarly associations and editorial boards of academic journals, Svetlana is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, and a member of the Research Centre for Local and Regional Studies, University of Madeira, Portugal. She regularly presents as an invited speaker and publishes internationally. Andrew Littlejohn is associate professor of language education in the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. He previously taught in the Department of English Language and Literature at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, where he was coordinator of the Research Project course, and at the Institute of Education, University College London and Lancaster University. He has published widely on English language teaching, and is the author of numerous courses for primary, secondary and adult education, mainly published by Cambridge University Press.

xviii     Notes on Contributors

S. Susan Marandi  is currently an associate professor and head of the English Department at Alzahra University, Iran. Her major interests are CALL, language assessment and indigenizing teaching practices, and she has supervised a range of theses and dissertations on these topics, and published numerous articles. She has also presented at various national and international conferences, and was awarded a scholarship to WorldCALL 2008 in Japan for her CALL-related activities in Iran, which include co-authoring an award-winning educational CD, English at Home, and establishing and teaching CALL teacher education courses. She has published in journals such as ReCALL, Computer Assisted Language Learning, CALL-EJ, Computers and Education, Interactive Learning Environments, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, Educational Technology Research & Development, and Computers in Human Behavior. Sandhya R. Mehta  works in the Department of English Language and Literature, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. She has published widely in language studies and is the editor of Language and Literature in a Glocal World (Springer) and co-editor of Language Studies: Stretching the Boundaries (CSP). She is the current coordinator of the Research Project course at the university. Roger Nunn is head of the Department of Writing Studies at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. He is interested in holistic learning and the development of academic literacy. He is chief editor of the Asian ESP Journal and believes strongly in multi-centricity in international scholarship, in particular in the field of competence in English as an international academic language. He is a founding member of English Scholars Beyond Borders, a circle of international scholars that promotes multi-centricity and the intercultural translatability of learning across cultures and disciplines. Timothy Read is a senior lecturer at UNED, Spain. He has held several positions in the government of the university and is currently the Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Methodology and Innovative Technology. He is the cofounder of the ATLAS (Applying Technologies to LAnguageS) research group and has directed national

Notes on Contributors     xix

and international funded projects on applying ICT to LSP and sub-languages. He is currently working in the area of MALL, language MOOCs and their applications for social inclusion. He has also been a member of diverse scientific committees and has collaborated as an evaluator of national and international research project proposals. Hayo Reinders is professor of applied linguistics at KMUTT in Thailand and TESOL professor and director of the doctoral programme at Anaheim University in the USA. He is the founder of the global Institute for Teacher Leadership (www.teacherleadership.ac). Hayo has published over 25 books and 100 articles in the areas of autonomy, technology, teacher education and out-of-class learning. He edits a book series for Palgrave Macmillan and is editor of the journal Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching. Sarah Rich  has been involved in language teacher education for more than 30 years. She directed the Masters in TESOL programme at the University of Exeter in the UK from 1999–2010 and the Professional Doctorate in TESOL from 2010–2012. She worked as an adviser on language teacher education for the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman from 2012–2016 and is now working to support the development of a new primary curriculum in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Rosalie Sitman holds a doctorate in Latin American History from Tel Aviv University and an M.A. in Modern Languages from Oxford University. She is the head of the Division of Foreign Languages and a researcher in Latin American cultural and intellectual history at the Sverdlin Institute for Latin American History and Culture, both at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She has published extensively on the application of new technologies to language teaching, as well as on Latin American cultural history. Elana Spector-Cohen is the head of English programmes in the Division of Foreign Languages and director of the International M.A. TESOL programme at Tel Aviv University, where she teaches courses in curriculum development, materials design and EAP. Elana has worked on various projects for the Israeli Ministry of Education in the areas

xx     Notes on Contributors

of testing, teacher training, curriculum development and professional standards for English teachers. Her main areas of interest are virtual exchange, internationalization in higher education, curriculum and materials design, and educational technology. Dara Tafazoli taught English at several universities and language institutes in Iran for eight years before starting his Ph.D. in language and culture at the University of Cordoba, Spain. His research interests are educational technology and cross-cultural studies related to language learning and teaching. Dara has published nine books, including Language and Technology: Computer Assisted Language Learning (edited with S. Chirimbu, 2013), Game-Assisted Language Learning (with P. Aqaee, 2014), Multiculturalism and Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (edited with M. Romero, 2017), and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (edited with M. E. Gomez Parra and C. Huertas Abril, 2018). John Traxler  was the world’s first Professor of Mobile Learning and is now professor of digital learning in the Institute of Education at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is a pioneer of mobile learning and has been associated with mobile learning projects since 2001 when he was evaluator for m-learning. He is a founding director of the International Association for Mobile Learning. He is co-editor of Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers; Mobile Learning: the Next Generation; Mobile Learning and Mathematics; Mobile Learning and STEM: Case Studies in Practice; and Mobile Learning in Higher Education: Challenges in Context. Samantha Weekes has been a materials writer at the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman since 2013. Prior to this, she worked as a materials writer in Thailand and has taught English as a second language in several European and Asian countries. She holds an M.Sc. in TESOL from the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is interested in researching and developing teaching and learning materials related to phonics, reading skills and literacy development.

Notes on Contributors     xxi

Linda Weinberg  heads the English Studies Unit at Braude College of Engineering, Israel. She has experience in multicultural and anti-racist curriculum design and has been involved in several European projects for promoting language development. Her Ph.D. in applied linguistics is from the University of Reading, UK. Her research interests include English-medium instruction and language learning motivation.

List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 An example of a pre-task, task, and post-task sequence on Google Maps Fig. 4.2 The key components of the curriculum innovation Fig. 9.1 Brief descriptions of the four language development courses Fig. 9.2 Flowchart for the refinement of a research question Fig. 10.1 Learning to research across the curriculum Fig. 13.1 Intercultural communications: progression from theoretical knowledge to heightened self-efficacy

65 67 179 185 211 265

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List of Tables

Table 3.1 Checklist for designing shared reading texts 57 Table 4.1 Learners’ and instructors’ views on how the new approach enhances learning 73 Table 4.2 Learners’ and instructors’ views on how the new approach helps achieve learning goals 73 Table 4.3 Qualitative analysis of questionnaire data 75 Table 4.4 Assessment blueprint of A2B course 81 Table 5.1 Success rate in official examinations in languages 88 Table 5.2 In-class writing by preference 93 Table 5.3 Self-reports on plagiarism and cheating 95 Table 5.4 Comparing pre- and post-semester responses 99 Table 6.1 Mean reading bands for the IELTS Academic Module for L1 Arabic test takers, UAE test takers, and rest of the world 114 Table 6.2 Summary of the results of the Reading Challenge questionnaire 119 Table 6.3 What skill did the Reading Challenge help to improve? 121 Table 10.1 Sample of recent research topics from COMM 101 and 151 211 Table 11.1 World Internet usage and population statistics, 30 June 2018 226 xxv

1 Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of the MENA Christine Coombe, Hayo Reinders, Andrew Littlejohn and Dara Tafazoli

Introduction The focus of this volume is the study of innovation in English language teaching (ELT) and learning environments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The chapters draw on classroom, administrative and learning experiences from seven of the countries in the region. This chapter begins with the establishment of a definition of innovation and what it means to be innovative in education and ELT. What follows is a description of the current status of English language education in the region and a look at next steps and innovations that are currently being C. Coombe (*)  General Studies, Dubai Men’s College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates e-mail: [email protected] H. Reinders  Department of Education, Anaheim University, Anaheim, CA, USA School of Liberal Arts, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thonburi, Thailand © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_1

1

2     C. Coombe et al.

implemented. A brief introduction to the other 12 chapters in this volume rounds out this chapter.

Defining Innovation in Education In educational contexts worldwide, everyone these days is striving to be innovative in their classrooms as they want their students to be engaged in their own learning. Innovation for many simply means doing what is best for all students, piquing their curiosity about learning and finding ways to keep students interested. For others it means providing them with the tools and knowledge they need to be effective and efficient twenty-first-century learners. A more traditional definition of innovation and how it applies to education has been put forward by the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2018, p. 1): The practice of effective and meaningful teaching can benefit immensely when educators thoughtfully experiment and apply new or different pedagogical approaches, technologies, curricular enhancements, course design and organization and assessments.

In more simplistic terms, innovation can also be defined as “the p ­ rocess of making changes to something established by introducing something new” (O’Sullivan & Dooley, 2009, p. 3). Innovation is about helping organizations grow. In business terms, growth is often measured in terms of turnover and profit, but it can also occur in knowledge, in human experience, and in efficiency and quality. It is these latter concepts that relate innovation to education. A. Littlejohn  Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, Brunei Darussalam e-mail: [email protected] D. Tafazoli  Department of English and German Philology, University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain

1  Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching …     3

In education today, experts opine that the term ‘innovation’ is an overused one (Alexander, 2017; Darasawang, Reinders, & Waters, 2015; O’Brien, 2013) or a buzzword that implies a big breakthrough. At its core, however, is that innovation is the pairing of tried and tested ideas to yield new results. Two well-known non-educational examples of this premise include the car and Apple technology. In the former, factory assembly lines and cars already existed, but Henry Ford was the person who had the insight to combine the two. In the latter, Steve Jobs sparked a technological revolution by combining easy-to-use mobile technology interfaces with intuitive software (Alexander, 2017). So, to innovate is to look beyond what we are currently doing and develop a novel idea that helps us to do our job in a new way. Whatever your definition of innovation, it is most probably associated with terms like change, something new and/or something beneficial or successful.

Innovations in Education For an individual, a nation and mankind to survive and progress in life, innovation is essential. Innovation in education is particularly important because education plays a crucial role in creating a sustainable future (Serdyukov, 2017). The need for educational innovation has become acute as “it is widely believed that countries’ social and economic wellbeing will depend to an ever-greater extent on the quality of their citizens’ education and the emergence of a so called ‘knowledge society’” (p. 5). According to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, “the pressure to increase equity and improve educational outcomes for students is growing around the world” (Vieluf, Kaplan, Klieme, & Bayer, 2012, p. 3), which in turn increases the pressure on institutions to innovate. Innovation in education is generally understood as “the successful introduction of a new thing or method” (Brewer & Tierney, 2012, p. 5). Brewer and Tierney set out a three-phase innovation plan for education which they feel requires three things: an idea, its implementation, and the outcome that results from the execution of the idea and produces a change.

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Key Areas for the Promotion of Educational Innovation Paniagua (2018) has identified three key areas in the promotion of teaching innovation. The first is the belief that the social and caring nature of learning is the common principle underpinning innovative practice. This means that teachers should allocate the time and resources necessary to allow learners to interact and experiment. The role of the teacher is at the forefront, as is the stakeholders’ need to regard teachers as champions in the promotion of more interactive and caring relationships with students. The second key area put forward by Paniagua (2018) concerns teachers and their practices. It is critical that teachers review their own practices in order to identify and better align their creative, intuitive and personal capacities with innovative pedagogies. Having the necessary scaffolding structures in place to make teachers integrate, rather than assimilate, new practices into their repertoire of teaching tools and designs is the third key area. Yet another area that can be used to promote educational innovation is that of technology. With the emergence of accessible smartphone technology, the Internet and low-cost computers and laptops, there is the possibility of delivering student-centred learning to underserved individuals and communities in a systematic and innovative way. Innovation through the use of technology is a key element of innovation in the MENA, most particularly in the Gulf countries. These four key factors show how important it is to have the requisite continuous professional development programmes to assist teachers in fostering the skills needed to be innovative as well as the confidence to promote innovation in their classrooms.

Innovation in English Language Teaching Over the years there have been many changes in the way English language education is designed and delivered in different parts of the world. In ELT, innovation can appear as a new teaching methodology,

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pedagogical theory, methodological approach, teaching or assessment technique, or learning or instructional tool, and when implemented can lead to better student learning and engagement.

The MENA Context The MENA is a vast region spanning from the Atlantic coasts of Morocco in the west all the way through the Mediterranean ports of Africa in the Levant into the Red Sea inlets of the Arabian Peninsula and further into the Gulf region (Or, 2017, p. 1). The three most populated countries in the MENA region are Egypt (91 million inhabitants), Algeria (40 million) and Iraq (36 million). Arabic is the official and majority language of all but three of the MENA countries (Israel, Iran and Turkey, which are not always classified as part of the MENA). Language education policy in the MENA is a complex set of norms, beliefs and practices deeply rooted in the history of the region. Despite the appearance of uniformity, however, the MENA region is marked by economic, religious and linguistic differences (Or, 2017, p. 1). As far as economic differences are concerned, the oil-producing Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are among the richest countries in the world, while other MENA countries are some of the poorest with limited resources available for education. While the majority of the MENA countries are Muslim, different religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities contribute to the complexity of the region (Or, 2017, p. 2). From the linguistic perspective, countless Arabic dialects are spoken in different parts of the region. Despite these differences, the MENA region has taken great strides in education. According to the World Bank Group (WBG, 2014), who have been heavily engaged in education reform for the past decade, the region has quadrupled the average level of schooling since 1960, halved illiteracy rates since 1980 and achieved almost complete gender parity for primary education.

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Innovation in English Language Teaching in the MENA A great many innovative teaching, learning and assessment practices have emerged over the last two decades in the MENA. The following sub-sections describe a small sampling of the many innovations in the Gulf region and the rest of the MENA.

The Gulf Region The Arabian Peninsula, and especially the Gulf area, consists of countries whose economies have relied on oil production for the last 50 years. These countries are Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. All are ex-colonies of the British Empire, except for KSA, and English has therefore played an important role in their educational systems. These countries have invested a lot in education and sent many of their citizens abroad to study at well-known universities in various English-speaking countries. They have also invested in the domestic development of education, especially English language education, as English is both a lingua franca and the language of business. Many expatriate teachers from different countries have been teaching EFL in the Gulf countries for many years, as there are a great number of universities that are English medium only and few of the local population go into tertiary teaching as a career. Most tertiary-level education in the Gulf is government funded and free for all nationals of those countries. Education is also predominantly segregated. Classroom sizes are relatively small and range from 15 to 30 students. Classrooms at university level are highly technological environments, with most campuses wireless, and English language teachers are encouraged to use as much technology in the classroom as possible. Classrooms are equipped with projectors and/or smartboards and in many tertiary-level institutions both teachers and students are provided with laptops or iPads to use in class throughout their education. In an attempt to further the use of technology in the classroom, universities are moving away from traditional textbooks to a greater use of e-books,

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with courses now fully accessed on learning management systems such as Moodle and Blackboard, among others. The use of educational technology is prevalent in all the educational vision statements of the Gulf countries (Bahrain 2030, KSA Vision 2030, Kuwait Vision 2035, Oman Vision 2040 and UAE 2020), as is the concept of being more innovative in instruction. Among the many innovations in ELT in recent years, the most frequently cited are in the areas of technology, assessment and pedagogy. Alshahrani and Ally’s (2017) co-edited volume on transforming education in the Gulf region focuses on emerging learning technologies and innovations in pedagogy for the twenty-first century, including mobile-enhanced learning, blended learning, the flipped classroom, the use of social media in teaching, smart classrooms and MOOCs in education. Assessment is another area of innovation in the region. This, we believe, is largely due to the number of assessment specialists based in the Gulf. Before its closure in 2017, the TESOL Arabia Testing, Assessment and Evaluation Special Interest Group (TAE SIG) encouraged discussion about innovation in the area of assessment as well as organizing the annual CTELT conference (Current Trends in English Language Testing) for 16 years, offering Gulf-based professionals a venue for sharing their work in the field of assessment. The TAE SIG also published eight volumes on assessment and assessment-related topics throughout its 21-year tenure (Davidson & Coombe, 2018). Test development, implementation and benchmarking the performance levels of the educational system at various levels is also indicative of what has been happening on the assessment landscape in the Gulf, particularly in the UAE. Since 2008, the UAE has participated in many international tests to examine and benchmark the performance levels of its education system. These tests include Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). It should be noted that as a result, the UAE received top ranking in the Arab world in line with its National Agenda which calls for the country to rank among the top 20 in PISA by 2021 (Raising the Standard of Education, 2018).

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Another area of innovation in the UAE over the last two decades is tailor-made test development. In the late 1990s the Common Educational Proficiency Assessment (CEPA) was conceptualized by members of the three government tertiary-level institutions. The CEPA was designed as a large-scale, high-stakes English language proficiency/ placement test to be administered in the United Arab Emirates to Emirati nationals in their final year of secondary education or grade 12. The purpose of the CEPA was to place students in English classes at the appropriate government institution. Administration of the CEPA began in 2002 as a joint venture between the National Admissions and Placement Office (NAPO) in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the three federal higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UAE, namely the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) and Zayed University (ZU) (Coombe & Davidson, 2014). In 2017, the Ministry of Education (MoE) replaced the CEPA with the national-level Emirates Standardized Test (EmSAT) to measure students’ knowledge of Arabic, English, maths and science. EmSAT includes three types of test:  1. Baseline test: measures skills and knowledge required for grade 1. 2. Advantage test: tracks the development of students in grades 4, 6, 8 and 10 during their general education. 3. Achieve test: measures the knowledge and skills of students in grade 12 as they finish their general education and move on to higher education. This test is vital for college admission and placement (Raising the Standard of Education, 2018).

The MENA Region The rise of English as a lingua franca all over the world has reached an unprecedented level in recent decades and remains a topic on the educational agendas in most MENA countries. Kirkpatrick’s (2017) volume, English Language Education Policy in the Middle East and North Africa, offers a vast number of English language policy-related innovations representing 15 of the MENA countries.

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Other great sources of language teaching and learning innovations that are taking place in the MENA can be found in the British Council’s (2013) publication entitled Perspectives on English in the Middle East and North Africa, the TESOL Arabia TAE SIG’s Language Assessment in the Middle East and North Africa: Theory, Practice and Future Trends (Coombe, Davidson, Gebril, Boraie, & Hidri, 2017), Motteram’s (2013) Innovation in Learning Technologies for English Language Teaching and Innovation in English Language Teaching and Learning: The Turkish Perspective (Simpson, 2014). From the Kirkpatrick volume (2017) we learn that the English language is generally introduced early for students at the primary level, in grade 1 for most MENA and GCC countries, with the exceptions of KSA and Turkey’s state schools which introduce English in grade 4 and grade 2 respectively. A common concern cited by the chapter authors of the Kirkpatrick volume is the future of their native languages. Some innovations that have been recommended to mitigate these concerns are to adopt common language teaching policies across the region as well as offering technical and scientific courses in English and more traditional courses in the countries’ native languages. A very different innovation described by Minkara (2013) is the centrality of English to the lives of many Lebanese people: “not only a means of communicating and accessing information”, but also a “tool that people use to elevate themselves to a higher social and economic status” (p. 93). After a very informative history of ELT in Lebanon, Minkara provides statistics about the rise of English in Lebanon and puts forward case studies of five successful English-educated individuals who were able to achieve using their linguistic capital, English. The innovation in this chapter is his overarching view of the ways that individuals can use their English education as a springboard to acquiring various skills that led to their ultimate success. The author very succinctly espouses a belief in the empowerment that learning English has brought to the participants in his study and directly implies that this is due to the shift that the English language has made in Lebanon. A recurrent innovation theme in the MENA is similar to the most popular one in the Gulf countries, that of technology and its use in ELT and learning. In most of the volumes cited earlier, many chapter authors

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describe innovations that concerned the use of technology in some way or another. Key chapters in Simpson’s (2014) volume on innovations in Turkey focus on e-learning and transitioning from pen-and-paper learning to online alternatives. In the Motteram (2013) volume, the focus of technology is not on the types of hardware, software or apps used but on the types of context in which technology is being used. More specifically, the chapter by Slaouti, Onat-Stelma, and Motteram (2013) situates its discussion in adult language learner settings and draws on the experiences and beliefs of three classroom practitioners who represent some of the contexts in which adult language learning takes place. Kern (2013) examines the role that technological innovations play in the context of English for specific purposes (ESP) and Business English. What is stressed by the author is the specialist nature of ESP and the teachers’ need to create their own materials that best complement the digital technologies they would like to integrate into their classrooms. Assessment has been identified as another key area of innovation in the MENA. The last publication of the TESOL Arabia TAE SIG was an edited volume entitled Language Assessment in the Middle East and North Africa: Theory, Practice and Future Trends (Coombe et al., 2017). Over the course of 16 chapters, authors from 11 MENA countries tap into a number of critical issues that span a wide range of assessment topics and report on a number of innovations occurring across the region.

In This Volume A glance at the Contents in this volume shows that innovations are going on in virtually every area of ELT and learning, and in most of the MENA region. Chapter 2 by Traxler, Barcena and Read centres around the promise of autonomous online language learning, undertaken in a non-­formal educational context, as a general solution for all student needs. The authors argue that the adoption and application of online learning varies from region to region, culture to culture and language to language. This is particularly true of the Middle East and the refugee communities that reside there. The issue is arguably more sociocultural than

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technological: a broader definition of the digital literacy needed to learn online would need to be both culturally and contextually specific. The chapter explores the nature of such literacy for this social group and how it needs to be defined to potentiate their online language learning. Chapter 3, ‘Plugging the Gap: Supporting Primary School Teachers to Create Culturally Appropriate English Language Teaching (ELT) Materials’, reports on an innovative approach with primary school English language learners in the Sultanate of Oman to the lack of culturally appropriate materials to support the development of shared reading, an important component of effective early-years literacy instruction. The authors, Rich, Weekes, al Jardani and al Sinani, describe the development of a training workshop for senior English teachers, the purpose of which was to emphasize the importance of promoting shared reading and to lead to the production of culturally appropriate ‘big books’ (very large format books) which were needed for shared reading instruction but were in short supply. Twenty-six of the big books and associated lesson plans that were developed in the workshop were subsequently made available online. Drawing upon interview data from workshop participants and teachers who had made use of the material, the authors demonstrate the positive impact of the innovation both in addressing the need for more big books and in extending interest in promoting shared reading. The chapter ends with a reflection on the success of the innovation as well as lessons learned throughout the process. The fourth chapter, authored by Boraie, El Badry and Habashy, describes the processes, experience and evaluation of a curriculum innovation that was designed and implemented in the continuing education English language programme at the American University in Cairo. The innovation involved introducing a task-based learning and teaching (TBLT) approach, eliminating textbooks and replacing them with digital learning materials, and moving away from tests to performance assessment tools. The evaluation study analyzed the views of instructors and learners obtained from both quantitative and qualitative data collected after almost a year of implementing the TBLT approach. The findings showed that while there are positive attitudes towards TBLT, it will take time for learners to overcome their preferred language learning approach of a traditional book-driven curriculum with a focus on

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grammar. The results also highlighted the successful components of the system and strategies used to implement and sustain the innovation. In Chapter 5, Esseili describes an innovative approach to the teaching of freshman writing at a private university in Lebanon. Her approach is an adaptation of Leki’s sequenced writing project where students build expertise and develop as writers by composing different genre-based essays on a single topic of their choice. The impetus for this approach stems from a multifaceted problem that is not unique to this university or to Lebanon. Many students are not engaged in the readings, they are unmotivated to write, and many are not proficient enough to write in their second (or third) language. To combat this problem, a number of policies were enforced and a mixed-methods research design was used to evaluate their efficacy. Findings revealed that such policies had negative effects on the development of students. The next two chapters originate from the UAE and explore aspects of a nationwide reading initiative based on the United Nations Building a Knowledge Society report (2003), which revealed how little reading is done in the Arab region when compared to developed countries. In Chapter 6, Gobert and Demirci discuss an extensive reading intervention innovation in the form of a reading competition which encouraged students at a government tertiary vocational institution to read using the MReader programme. This innovation was designed to encourage Emirati students to read books of their choice at their level. The MReader is an online cloud-based tracking programme, which is completely free for all students and educational institutions to use, created and funded by the Extensive Reading Foundation. Post-intervention data was collected from 83 of 179 participating students by survey and focus groups. Six teachers were also interviewed to determine whether the reading competition succeeded in encouraging students to read. 87% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the competition motivated them to read. A further 82% felt that vocabulary acquisition was the skill most enhanced by extensive reading. The authors share aspects of the competition that worked and those that did not. The innovation outlined in Chapter 7 by Nunn, Brandt, Hassan and Bradley took place within the College of Arts and Sciences in an engineering university in Abu Dhabi and was in response to a college-wide

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perception that students needed to improve their reading ability, in particular their reading for science. The nature of the multiple skills involved meant that no single group in the university had all the knowledge needed to innovate successfully. This chapter provides a combination of different narratives, providing different perspectives from different areas of college management to address the complex issue the authors had identified. A holistic or systems-thinking approach considering different parts of the system in relation to each other from the perspective of innovation management frame the chapter. The authors explore and illustrate an inclusive, interdisciplinary view of a community of practice engaged in innovation that goes beyond narrow departmental specialization, concluding that innovation is not a limited intervention by leadership alone. Instead the mutual engagement and social learning of all involved was found to empower members of the whole institution to contribute to improvements. Chapter 8 reports from Israel’s HEIs on reforms to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the form of the innovative CEFR-Aligned Framework for English in Higher Education. Prior to this grassroots initiative, developed through the TEMPUS ECOSTAR project, many EAP programmes adopted an outdated approach that focused solely on reading comprehension of academic texts. The impetus for this bottomup curriculum reform was the disconnect between this narrow focus on reading comprehension and the need to prepare students to meet the language, academic and professional demands of the global twenty-first-century market. A comprehensive needs survey conducted by ECOSTAR clearly indicated the need and demand for a new integrated four-skills approach to EAP. Additional impetus for innovation came from the current push towards internationalization in HEIs, which (a) requires English-medium instruction (EMI) skills and (b) allows for standardization and mutual recognition, nationally and internationally, to promote mobility. The innovation was met by the sudden emergence of a government-sponsored initiative which seriously undermined the prospects for implementing the curriculum reform and underscored the subjugation of educational and linguistic needs to political ones. The proactive response of the innovators turned the tide in the direction of curriculum reform and at the same time galvanized

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the EAP professional community in more ways than one. Authors Spector-Cohen, Amdur, Barth, Sitman and Weinberg address the interplay among linguistic, educational and political considerations that accompanied the process of developing and implementing the new framework and suggest practical recommendations for innovators based on their experience. Chapter 9 by Littlejohn and Mehta details the evolution of a large, multi-section university undergraduate writing and academic skills course in the Department of English at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. More specifically, the authors describe the twists and turns of negotiation and accommodation with students, teaching staff and administrators, and the adjustments that were made to the course design to resolve problems and improve the running of what has now become a relatively ambitious undertaking: the eventual production by students of a full research paper, including all the typical stages of question identification, proposal writing, literature survey, instrument design and data collection, analysis and findings, through to presentation at a conference. In Chapter 10, Craig and Bielenberg explore the development of communicative skills through students’ participation in research experiences. The authors describe a programme of study designed to promote the acquisition of language skills through a communication course for engineering students based on the pedagogy of course-based undergraduate research experiences. The approach adopts a GOAL protocol framework (gathering information, organizing a process, analyzing a phenomenon and learning from their efforts) that offers students an opportunity to develop communicative competence, thinking, information literacy, teamwork and lifelong learning skills. The research process motivates the learners as they explore topics of personal interest and leads to demonstrable improvement in their reading, writing and speaking skills as well as information literacy and lifelong learning attributes. As ‘apprentice researchers’ students receive instruction, guidance and support while engaging in team-based, real-world research which serves as a platform for further development and the application of language and research methods during engineering design courses and in their future participation in a knowledge-based society.

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Marandi’s chapter ‘Preparing for a Digital Future: CALL Teacher Education in Iran’ (Chapter 11) explores the literature on why digital technologies are increasingly becoming an inseparable part of people’s lives all over the globe but are still not playing a more serious role in the education system of many countries. In her review of the literature she cites many reasons for this apparent neglect: the universally acknowledged economic strain imposed by investing in modern technologies, the ineptness of educators in using them, the inflexibility of school syllabi and cultural conflicts, among others. However, most people now acknowledge that whether we like it or not, digital technologies are here to stay, and we can no longer afford to ignore their potential in education. The author describes her decade-long efforts to introduce computer assisted language learning (CALL) in Iran. She recounts the steps taken, the blunders made, the lessons learned, the challenges and opportunities she has faced, and the successes and failures that have shaped this venture. She hopes that sharing her experiences will encourage people in similar circumstances and assist them in implementing their future CALL plans. In Chapter 12, Abednia and Crookes briefly describe the challenging innovation that is critical language pedagogy, and review one effort to diffuse it through a small group of English language teachers in Iran participating in a volunteer-led online teacher development course (delivered by the authors). Insights arrived at by reflecting on the course are presented in terms of aspects of the course itself as well as its potential to enable the innovation to be adopted by participants through network development. In the final chapter of this volume, authors Eslami, Hill-Jackson, Kortes and Asadi describe how globalization has served as the impetus to improve engineering students’ intercultural communication skills and cross-cultural competence. They stress the critical need to prepare university students for cultural issues and subtle cultural differences that occur in twenty-first-century workplaces, organizations and communities. In this telecollaboration project, engineering students (n = 23) enrolled in a semester-long multicultural education course at a HEI in Qatar through an online learning management system and engaged with American pre-service teachers (n = 35) who were simultaneously

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enrolled in the same course in the USA. Learning community dyads, which included students from both institutions, were formed. Students were prompted to write reflective journals on four current cultural issues and respond to each other’s reflections. Issues related to cultural values, race, diversity, gender, pedagogy and intercultural communication were explored through the joint projects. Qualitative methodology leveraged thematic analysis to find convergence and divergence of the students’ voices. The authors also examined how students’ cross-cultural competencies were developed as indicated in their journal entries. The chapter concludes with lessons learned for implementing a post-secondary telecollaborative curriculum that fosters intercultural communication skills and cross-cultural competence among engineering students in the Middle East.

Conclusion It is clear not only from the chapters in this book but also from the literature cited in this chapter that innovation in ELT and learning is not a new topic. Innovative teaching, learning and assessment practices are alive and well in the MENA and are happening at virtually all levels of ELT and learning from primary school to university to adult education sectors. The 13 chapters in this volume highlight the diversity of the innovations and look at possible ways forward for innovation in the field of TESOL and ELT in the MENA.

References Alexander, C. (2017). What innovation really means (And what it doesn’t). Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-mission/changing-the-way-wethink-about-innovation-6c6bb5eb4c0d. Alshahrani, K., & Ally, M. (2017). Transforming education in the Gulf region: Emerging learning technologies and innovative pedagogy for the 21st century. London and New York: Routledge and Taylor and Francis.

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Brewer, D., & Tierney, W. (2012). Barriers to innovation in US education. In R. Wildavsky, A. Kelly, & K. Carey (Eds.), Reinventing higher education: The promise of innovation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Coombe, C., & Davidson, P. (2014). Common educational proficiency assessment. Test review in Language Testing, 31(2), 269–276. Coombe, C., Davidson, P., Gebril, A., Boraie, D., & Hidri, S. (2017). Language assessment in the Middle East and North Africa: Theory, practice and future trends. Dubai, UAE: TESOL Arabia Publications. Darasawang, P., Reinders, H., & Waters, A. (2015). Innovation in language teaching and learning: The Thai context. In P. Darasawant & H. Reinders (Eds.), Innovation in language learning and teaching: The case of Thailand. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Davidson, P., & Coombe, C. (2018). The impact of a special interest group on assessment literacy. In A. Elsheikh, C. Coombe, & O. Effiong (Eds.), The role of language teacher associations in professional development (pp. 110– 120). Switzerland: Springer. Education in the Middle East and North Africa. (2014, January 27). Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/mena/brief/education-in-mena. Kern, N. (2013). Technology-integrated English for specific purposes lessons: Real-life language, tasks, and tools for professionals. In G. Motteram (Ed.), Innovation in learning technologies for English language teaching (pp. 87–107). London, UK: British Council. Kirkpatrick, R. (2017). English language education policy in the Middle East and North Africa. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Minkara, H. (2013). English in our lives: A Lebanon perspective. In H. Mcllwraith (Ed.), Perspectives on English in the Middle East and North Africa: A research initiative. London, UK: British Council. Motteram, G. (2013). Innovation in learning technologies for English language teaching. London, UK: British Council. O’Brien, M. (2013). Innovation: The most important and overused word in America. Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://www.wired.com/ insights/2013/11/innovation-the-most-important-and-overused-word-inamerica/. Or, I. G. (2017). Language policy and education in the Middle East and North Africa. In T. McCarthy & S. May (Eds.), Language policies and political issues, encyclopedia of language and education (pp. 1–13). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-02320-5. O’Sullivan, D., & Dooley, L. (2009). Applying innovation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Paniagua, A. (2018, February 8). Innovation in everyday teaching: No more waiting for Superman. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/ education-plus-development/2018/02/08/innovation-in-everyday-teachingno-more-waiting-for-superman/. Raising the Standard of Education. (2018). Government.ae: The official portal of the UAE government. Retrieved from https://government.ae/en/ about-the-uae/leaving-no-one-behind/4qualityeducation/raising-thestandard-of-education. Serdyukov, P. (2017). Innovation in education: What works, what doesn’t, and what to do about it? Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching and Learning, 10(1), 4–33. Simpson, C. S. (2014). Innovation in English language teaching and learning: The Turkish perspective. Istanbul, Turkey: CrowdSource ELT. Slaouti, D., Onat-Stelma, Z., & Motteram, G. (2013). Technology and adult language teaching. In G. Motteram (Ed.), Innovation in learning technologies for English language teaching (pp. 67–86). London, UK: British Council. Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE). (2018). Ottawa, CA: STLHE. Retrieved from https://www.stlhe.ca/awards/ d2l-innovation-award/innovation-in-teaching-and-learning/. Vieluf, S., Kaplan, D., Klieme, E., & Bayer, S. (2012). Teaching practices and pedagogical innovation: Evidence from TALIS. Paris, France: OECD.

2 Refugees from MENA Learning Languages: Progress, Principles and Proposals John Traxler, Elena Barcena and Timothy Read

Introduction Languages and the learning of languages are evolving rapidly under the impact of near-universal mobile, personal and social digital ­technologies. This evolution is haphazard and varies from region to region, culture to culture and language to language. This is true of the Middle East and of the refugee communities leaving the region for safety and security in Western Europe.

J. Traxler (*)  University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK e-mail: [email protected] E. Barcena · T. Read  National Distance Education University, Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected] T. Read e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_2

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This chapter makes the case that the successful autonomous a­ cquisition in a non-formal educational environment by these refugees of necessary language skills for living and prospering in Western Europe is currently problematic and not necessarily amenable to the solutions proposed for other communities of learners. Whilst digital technologies have a good record with language learning, the current pre-occupation and focus on a very specific understanding of Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) is not necessarily helpful and risks creating a monoculture or monopoly of technological and pedagogical formats. Our analysis suggests that, furthermore, digital literacy is an essential prerequisite for any digital learning, however apparently inappropriate. Digital literacy is both culturally and contextually specific, and in the countries and organizations of the Arabic and Muslim Middle East, from which many refugees originate, any ideas of digital literacy are inadequate, inappropriate and impoverished, especially in the face of the global hegemony of Anglophone pedagogies running on American platforms, systems and technologies accessed through the institutions of mainstream formal learning. Consequently, we explore the constraints and characteristics of a regionally more appropriate digital literacy and point towards the outline of flexible and appropriate community LMOOCs that exploit and combine popular free and open-source software and a set of design principles and processes that ensure the necessary empowerment and ownership for meaningful language learning.

An Area of Innovation: Digital Literacy in Online Learning Online learning, making use of the large number of open educational resources, courses and related communities of practice, may appear to be an attractive option for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) refugees entering Europe, since their basic educational needs, such as learning the language of the countries to which they are travelling (German, English, Dutch, etc.) do appear to be targeted. However, any

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application of online education to support learning must be appropriate to the technological and sociocultural characteristics of those who are taking part, as well as being pedagogically robust. It is argued here that the most effective way to discuss these characteristics is in terms of the concept of digital literacy, and how it must be extended to the specifics of the refugees from the MENA region and the difficulties that people from there have when undertaking learning online. Two questions arise here: what is digital literacy?; and is it the same for everyone, independent of race and culture? Regarding the first question, the literature contains a wealth of research that defines the concept in one way or another. An information-centric view gives rise to a definition in terms of the set of cognitive, sociological and technical skills needed to interact with digital technology in an effective way in order to undertake tasks and solve problems (Gilster, 1997; Lenham, 1995). Related concepts such as e-literacy have also been defined (Martin, 2003, p. 18), mainly in terms of five skills: ICT awareness; confidence in using generic ICT tools; evaluation of information-­ handling processes and results; self-reflection on relevant skills being developed; and adaptability and willingness for new challenges. Eshet-Alkalai (2004) argues that digital literacy refers to a fundamental set of survival skills and strategies for the twenty-first century for most people. Similarly, Newrly and Veugeleus (2009) note that digital literacy is one of the main competences for current times. The importance of this concept for the modern age has also been claimed by the European Commission (2003, p. 3) to be: The ability to use ICT and the Internet becomes a new form of literacy – ‘digital literacy’. Digital literacy is fast becoming a prerequisite for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and without it citizens can neither participate fully in society nor acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to live in the 21st century.

Martin (2005) goes on to refine this definition for digital literacy: Digital literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage,

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integrate, evaluate, analyse, synthesize digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions and communicate with others in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process.

This definition comes from the work undertaken in the DigEuLit project (Martin, 2005), which goes beyond purely theoretical considerations and develops a model of digital literacy acquisition in terms of the set of situations, processes and tools that allow educators to include elements of it in the curriculum. The framework produced in the project identifies processes underlying key components, each of which are mapped to an online tool: a digital competence content reservoir (the set of digital competence elements recognized by other tools); the digital literacy provision profile (a map of appropriate digital competences to student exercises); a digital competence needs analysis (an assessment of student progress); and a digital literacy development profile (including a learning log, an e-portfolio and a personal development plan for each student). A broader definition of digital literacy is argued by Buckingham (2010) to refer to an extension of media literacy taken online, in terms of a four-dimensional conceptual framework that contains the set of competences that a digitally literate person must have: (1) representation, as the ability to interpret and evaluate online content, and not just merely reflect it; (2) language, as an understanding of how it is used online to convey a given message and what that implies about its creator; (3) production, as an understanding of who is communicating what and why (this reflects a broader dimension of the role of advertising and sponsorship in influencing the information being presented); and (4) audience, as the position of the person with respect to the community for whom given information is intended. The second question posed above, about the nature and independence of digital literacy for people of different races and cultures will be answered throughout this chapter. For now, it can be noted that the authors argue that the skills and strategies that underlie such literacy are culturally and linguistically specific and Eurocentric. Hence, refugees and migrants from the MENA area, who are unfamiliar with the digital

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environments of European higher education, are at a disadvantage when trying to gain the knowledge and skills that they require to integrate both professionally and socially (Read & Traxler, 2017).

An Impetus for Innovation: MENA Adoption of ICT for Education A general understanding of what level of digital literacy MENA refugees will have can be obtained by considering how information and communication technology (henceforth, ICT) was already being used in their own country before they left. The UNESCO UIS report on education in five Arab states (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2013, p. 5), after general remarks about the increasing improvement, capability and availability of ICT across the region, within the context of vastly different levels of per-capita income, makes a valuable point: The social movements that arose in 2011 in the Arab states have demonstrated the potential of ICT to play a catalytic role. Arguably, the Arab Spring ranks among the most significant informal ICT-assisted ‘learning’ phenomena in 2011, whereby thousands of youth used social media— accessed via their mobile phones—as a space for self-identification, self-assertion, contestation and mobilization around democracy, human rights and civil liberties.

The phrase ‘Arab Spring’ may now seem increasingly problematic but the point being made is about the comprehensive nature of digital penetration in Arab societies, and the capacity of digital technologies to create and sustain communities in hitherto inconceivable ways. This point is echoed in accounts of specific uprisings, for example, the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia (Wagner, 2011). The Arab Spring is, however, only one of the most recent manifestations of mobile social technologies to mobilize [sic] popular political discontent (Aouragh & Alexander, 2011). Another report by Sabbagh et al. (2012), surveying more than 3000 digital users in nine countries including Lebanon and Jordan, defined

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an ‘Arab digital generation’ (henceforth, ADG) as people aged 15–35 who are consistent users of technology. This survey suggested that these young Arab Internet users in 2012, numbering 10 million, would rise to 13 million by 2014, a rise of 11% annually, compared to only 7% for the rest of the world. Whilst the survey defines and represents the views and preferences of the region’s digital elite, these views are nonetheless significant because they represent a growing segment of potential employers and employment and because they present a demographic in the ascendant. In discussing the various social and cultural attributes and practices around ICT, the ADG report asserts that: What is particularly striking is that although the ADG is the best educated and most ambitious generation the region has yet produced, it rarely uses the Internet for education purposes. This is not for lack of desire or interest from the ADG’s side. We know that youth in the region are seeking more technologically enhanced forms of education that will help them obtain employment and fulfil their goals. Rather, the fault lies with the education sector, which thus far has not provided the access or the Arabic digital content that this demographic craves.

The rest of the ADG statistics, findings and observations are broadly in line with global expectations filtered slightly through local and regional cultural sensibilities and practices. The survey reports widespread dissatisfaction from respondents on education across the region and its current use of ICT, noting, for example: • 29% believe the curriculum and teaching methods are poor. • 23% believe the quality of teaching staff is below par. • 29% believe the quality of education infrastructure (such as buildings, environment, classrooms and equipment) is poor. • 40% believe that schools insufficiently prepare people for the job market. The survey concludes with the recommendations that legislation and regulations are required by governments to promote the use of ICT in education, and that such an approach requires economic investment

2  Refugees from MENA Learning Languages …     25

to improve the general networked infrastructure. Classrooms must be equipped with modern digitally driven learning tools and software, and associated high-speed network connections. Furthermore, it is recognized that technology is not enough to guarantee results. Teachers need to be trained in the fundamental pedagogical skills required to maximize its usage. These recommendations do not come from education specialists. They are quoted here to illustrate the somewhat simplistic expectations of, and pressures and prescriptions on policy makers in the countries of the MENA region. The ADG report’s remarks about the nature of teaching are complicated by UNESCO statistics on teacher supply, which observe that across Arab countries there are ongoing teacher shortages: specifically, for example, “Palestine will continue to face a teacher shortage until 2023, primarily due to the growing school-age population” (UNESCO UIS, 2013). The World Summit on the Information Society 2011 metrics on education and other related indicators1 provide useful but not wholly straightforward and possibly quite naïve benchmarks for measuring and monitoring, namely the need to connect all primary and secondary schools with ICT and to adapt their curricula to meet the challenges of the information society, taking into account national circumstances: • • • • • • • •

Proportion of schools with a radio used for educational purposes Proportion of schools with a television used for educational purposes Learner-to-computer ratio Proportion of schools with Internet access, by type of access Proportion of ICT-qualified teachers in schools Proportion of teachers trained to teach subjects using ICT Proportion of schools with computer-assisted instruction (CAI) Proportion of schools with Internet-assisted instruction (IAI).

1The indicators are presented in four documents available at https://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/ events/geneva11/index.html.

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These benchmarks are backward looking and not necessarily meaningful as personal, mobile and portable devices replace and displace computers as the global ICTs par excellence, and as digital literacy and global online resources replace dedicated instructional packages. They do, however, underline the discrepancy between national policies and digital literacy. Practical experience gained by the authors of MENA refugees already in Europe show that they are, to some extent, far ahead of these levels of ICT adoption, since most (if not all) have already adopted mobile technology as a way to stay in contact with their families and obtain information relevant to the circumstances in which they live, if not as a tool for their educational needs. Furthermore, it can be argued that mobile technology scaffolds refugees with language problems in their new environments. One example is language translation. This is rapidly improving, allowing almost realtime conversations between speakers in their respective different languages. Whilst we fully acknowledge that language is more than merely words going backwards and forwards, this increasingly powerful phenomenon does pose a challenge for language learning. Why learn languages if machines can roughly do the job? What are the communicative consequences of this phenomenon? While these questions are beyond the scope of this chapter, it can be appreciated that such a technological dependence is neither desirable nor well viewed in the majority of societies for what it subtracts from authentic interpersonal interaction. Stepping back from the immediate pedagogic challenge for language learning, the response from a critical digital literacy perspective should be to equip learners to make informed judgements about the principles, the context and the practicalities of digital translation—when to use it, when to trust it and when to chance it.

Context: The Relevance of Digital Literacy for Language MOOCs The mobile deployment of open educational resources and practices can be seen as a real alternative for MENA refugees who cannot attend standard face-to-face language classes. As the concept of MOOC was

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established and grew, it became apparent that it did not refer to just one kind of course, methodologically speaking, but a whole range of them (e.g., Clark, 2013). The most common distinction is still that between cMOOCs and xMOOCs, where, as Yuan and Powell (2013) note, the former are methodologically more flexible and place the emphasis on connecting participants and collaborative learning, while the latter represent standard e-learning courses but are made open to include potentially any participant. While most MOOCs are xMOOCs, because they are easier to develop and reflect current institutional practice (run on dedicated in-house or commercial e-learning platforms), the distributed nature of cMOOCs, split across different platforms and online tools, offers a wider diversity of learning activities and (typically open) resources that can motivate and support a wider range of educational purposes. A range of knowledge-related skills are important for successful learning to take place in cMOOCs. Such skills include, as noted by Yeager, Hurley-Dasgupta, and Bliss (2013), the aggregation or curation of existing online content and links, remixing them into new formats, such as notes, reports, blog entries, and so on, repurposing them to meet new objectives, and sharing or feeding them forward into relevant peer groups. This process, by its very nature, must be selective, since cMOOCs typically have large numbers of learning resources and the course structure is constantly changing. Language learning is generally accepted to require the development of four different types of language processes: reception (listening and reading); production (spoken and written); interaction (spoken and written); and mediation (translating and interpreting) (Council of Europe, 2001). In standard face-to-face language classes, with small groups of students, an experienced teacher can structure a range of different activities and resources to potentiate learning and the development of these competences. This ideally integrates individual and collaborative strategies, based upon a social-constructivist perspective, which enables people to potentiate their communicative language skills as individuals and social members. However, this is not the case for closed (with restricted access) online courses, where a potentially larger number of people, distributed geographically, combined with limited tools and resources, can hinder interaction, learning and, inevitably,

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competence development. The open nature of LMOOCs means that not only will there be many more people participating in a given course (than in an equivalent closed version), but typically the student profile is more heterogeneous, making interaction and collaboration in the target language harder to manage. Furthermore, since the majority of LMOOCs do not have a teaching team to help the participants as they go along, provide feedback on their work and answer questions that arise, frustration can be a problem leading to poor performance or dropout from the course. Even with these potential problems for language learners, MOOCs still represent an important tool. Research on LMOOCs undertaken with an essentially European audience (Martín-Monje & Barcena, 2014) focuses on the way in which courses can be designed and developed to carefully select tools and resources that facilitate the types of interactions that will compensate, to some extent, for inherent difficulties present in MOOCs, specifically xMOOCs. As well as providing students with open access to resources and activities designed to help them develop second-language competences, the potential of these courses for language learning comes from the possibilities that they provide for interaction in the target language. Arguably, having a large number of second-language speakers participating in discussions and online conversations provides significant opportunities to practise and learn. However, for this to happen, control needs to be present to help students make the most of the experience, and they need to view their interactions as a natural and normal part of their evolving communicative process. It is necessary at this point to consider how this generalized discussion of MOOCs applies to the acquisition of language by refugees from MENA, in the particular context of their other needs and aspirations. This does, however, raise issues about the tensions between assimilation and integration on one hand, and the preservation of language and cultural and political identity on the other. People coming from the MENA community, with different social norms and experiences from those in conventional Anglophone pedagogy and related Western cultural parameters, might encounter problems which require flexible and adaptive procedures when possible and additional sociocultural

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scaffolding. This support needs to be recognized as separate from the sort that is needed by learners as they participate in new and increasingly more complex didactic activities (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994; Chapelle, 2001). The authors argue that its nature depends upon the state of digital literacy of the participants, as well as their former learning cultures. cMOOCs are arguably superior here for such an audience, given their open pedagogical nature that more readily adapts to different digital, learning and sociocultural styles.

Findings: The Importance of Digital Literacy for Online Language Learning In order to support MENA refugees in LMOOCs, it is necessary to build upon what we have already learnt about their digital literacy in general. We can use the work undertaken on the digital literacy agenda within UK higher education as a proxy for the wider European context. Several sources (Beetham, 2010; Belshaw, 2011) review other European and international initiatives, programmes and endeavours that have run parallel to the UK discourses on this topic. Within British higher education, this agenda has over the last five years been driven and articulated by the e-learning programme within previously the Joint Information Services Committee (JISC).2 This has been an ambitious and coherent campaign to engage UK higher education, from grassroots teaching staff to university managements, in discussion, development and publication, in order to formulate a consensus about the kinds of attitudes, skills and capabilities that students will need to have to get the full benefit of the technology and resources available to support their learning, both initial and lifelong. Digital literacy has been defined above. However, a more pragmatic approach to its definition might identify what we expect of its constituent capabilities, as for example Beetham (2010, p. 1) suggests: 2For example: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/projects/elearningllida.aspx, http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/46421608/Developing%20digital%20literacies, http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ whatwedo/programmes/elearning/developingdigitalliteracies/developingdigitalliteraciesprog.aspx.

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• they are a prerequisite or foundation for other capabilities; • they are critical to an individual’s life chances; • they are essential to the making and sharing of culturally significant meanings; and • as a result, there is or should be a society-wide entitlement to these capabilities at some level. The programme has also documented the differing ways in which higher education institutions have defined and supported the acquisition of these skills and capabilities within their own mission and demographics, and has sponsored projects to promote further development and dissemination. An analysis of the results of the programme leads to four observations that are relevant here. First, the skills and capabilities related to the use, exploitation and potential of popular mobile devices are obviously only a subset of this larger agenda. It is, however, recognized that they represent an increasingly significant part of a diverse and changeable ecology of the various digital technologies that might support learning, but importantly a part where the loci of control and confidence has shifted away from lecturers within the temporal and spatial bounds of their institutions and towards their students, often outside the scope of the institutions. This shift means that supporting an institutional and formal digital literacy agenda will transform the roles and responsibilities of teachers and lecturers, expanding them from just being authoritative subject experts facilitating transmissive and discursive learning to being included in future learning processes. The capacity of these technologies inside the broader Web 2.0 ideology means that digital literacy embraces the ends as well as the means of learning—the what as well as the how. Second, the larger agenda represents an attempt to formulate a ­portfolio of comprehensive and generic attributes that might characterize graduates leaving colleges and universities in the coming years. The discussions within this emergent European digital literacy community have resonated with other older discussions across the higher education sector about the nature of so-called graduate attributes or even ‘graduate-ness’, as part of an attempt to pin down the broad but

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defining features of the European university experience and the nature of its added value. All of these various discussions have managed to define quite succinctly those attributes that relate to employment and employability, but have struggled to be quite so precise about those other attributes that could characterize the digitally literate graduate in varied social, civic, cultural, political and community settings. Third, digital literacy discussions have also been informed and influenced by earlier discussions about digital safety and digital rights. The implication is that being digitally literate implies making ethically informed choices and decisions about digital behaviour, for example, about digital property, digital identity and digital privacy. Digital literacy discussions have been further skewed or confused by the exact role and significance of basic ICT skills. These are clearly important attributes but because of their concrete and utilitarian nature, they are easy to define, perhaps at the expense of attributes that are more abstract, more fluid or more contentious. Other attributes can be grouped under the headings attributes and practices, and depend on access, creating a hierarchy of abstraction or dependencies (Beetham & Sharpe, 2011), such as: attributes (‘I am…’), practices (‘I do….’), skills (‘I can …’) and access (‘I have…’). Fourth and finally, digital literacy discussions have also, however inappropriately, drawn on the terminology and literature of digital natives and digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001), implying that digital literacy may be a generational attribute. A rather more evidence-based classification, in fact a spectrum, runs between digital visitors and digital residents (White & Le Cornu, 2011), attempting to use digital habits and attitudes as a way of understanding the extent to which digital technologies can underpin education and training. Whilst these categories might be loosely generational, they are also a function of local infrastructure, local culture and local history. We should add that much of this digital literacy debate has focused on the idea of digital identity (and, consequently, on digital community and digital culture). These notions apply differently in the cultures of the Middle East, specifically in relation to Islamic and Arab ideas about proprietary and decorum. For example, the capacity of digital technology to preserve the Palestinian culture amongst beleaguered and dispersed physical

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communities (cf. Al-Amleh, 2014; Alkailani, Azzam, & Athamneh, 2012; Hamdoun Al-Soufi, 2005; Mustafa, 2011; Traxler, 2018) or the consensus depicting Arab culture as more hierarchic, static and conservative, more risk averse and collectivist than many Western European societies.

Implications: Digital Literacy for Online Language Learning The present authors argue that a community MOOC approach to language learning offers the most flexible, empowering and culturally sensitive response to the needs of refugees from MENA based on the most comprehensive and cautious understanding of their digital literacy, and that furthermore this approach facilitates an evolving and increasingly precise understanding of their digital literacy (Read, Sedano, & Barcena, 2018). Attitudes to digital literacy framed in the way we are describing, including criticality, originality, creativity and expression, derived from Western values of individual self-expression, clearly confront attitudes to criticality, originality, creativity and expression that pervade MENA culture and its institutions. A recent article in Times Higher Education (THE, 2015) reported on other aspects of this, in the universities and in intellectual life: Muslims need to steer a path between two opposing dangers when it comes to higher education and science. One is the ‘lame duck’ mentality, which frames answers to questions only in terms of ‘catching up’ with Western models of knowledge production, professionalism, quality assurance, critical thinking, research, liberal arts, and so on. The opposite trap is the ‘cosy corner’ mentality, which prefers to occupy a parochial corner in which everything which is not explicitly ‘Islamicised’ is seen as threatening or deviant.

A specifically MENA digital literacy curriculum, acting as the prerequisite for effective digital language learning, must recognize the concrete

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specifics of the learner’s environment; a visiting British academic working at Birzeit observed of students (THE, 2015): Those who failed to do their course reading were usually not apathetic, but had had their lives profoundly disrupted by checkpoints, arrests in the family, demonstrations dispersed by tear gas or even the violent deaths of friends.

Other research (Buckner & Kim, 2012) identifies similar stresses and their educational impact but sees gaming as a means of improving the ‘executive functions’ that are undermined by the environmental stress. This implies that one element of a ‘MENA concept’ of digital literacy might be the contribution of digital technology to psychological well-being.3 Within this concept, it has been argued above that there are many design and infrastructural decisions to be made by both authorities and practitioners, such as the typology of LMOOCs and the support channels provided to reflect the participants’ cultural diversity. The networked nature of cMOOCs, furthermore, offers an open community where social divergence can be integrated to the benefit of all. If the case of the Palestinians is considered as an illustrative example, a study by Aouragh (2008) offers an insight into the increasing role of the Internet for them in the diaspora, examining the effects of these practices within the context of occupation and exile. Online political activism fills an important gap for what is absent offline. Through multi-sited fieldwork (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan), this research demonstrated how the Internet gave birth to a Palestine in cyberspace and has altered the traditional tactics of activists. Online communication has strengthened social and political agency. It clearly evoked a new type of media activism and gave permission to narrate: an important development considering the stereotyped portrayals in which Palestinians are trapped as either terrorists or victims.

3There

is, however, a body of literature that treats ICT as globally standardized, apolitical and culturally neutral (e.g., Crompton, 2014).

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In the course of developing the UNRWA ICT strategy, there were a range of consultations and workshops, many attended by teachers and advisers from across the five fields and intended to collaboratively develop a strategy built on a shared understanding of basic contextual factors. At an early stage of a two-day workshop organized by the first author for UNRWA in Amman in December 2013, the 50 or so participants working in groups of five addressed questions like: ‘What is Palestinian digital culture?’, ‘What is digital identity for Palestinians?’ and ‘What is the digital world that Palestinians inhabit?’ A complex and emotional plenary discussion followed with questions from participants that ranged from ‘Did digital media represent an arena to consolidate, preserve, disseminate and promote Palestinian identities and culture?’ to ‘Was the idea of a Palestinian digital culture and identity merely a second-rate substitute and palliative for a physical culture and identity (in the absence of a real Palestinian state)?’ This represents only one dimension of the complex relationship Palestinians have with the Internet; others have formed part of the ‘cyber intifada’ (Aouragh, 2003, p. 43): “It cannot be overstated how important the social impact of the Internet is when physical contact is impossible.” In terms of a regional, Arab and Muslim culture, efforts to develop and enhance ideas and practices around digital literacy and digital culture confront traditional or perhaps conservative views of behaviour, etiquette and decorum, for example, in relation to images of women and girls, though there is a considerable breadth of attitudes visible as one traverses from Saudi Arabia to the West Bank. If, as noted above, language learning is more than just the interchange of words, for effective learning to take place in LMOOCs, the authors argue that the nature of digital literacy must be taken into consideration when structuring the course and providing support mechanisms. Hence, MENA refugees and other (typically) European students can interact as equals, while respecting sociocultural differences. Such interaction arguably potentiates the communicative and collaborative mechanisms present in these courses to facilitate the development of the necessary target language competences. LMOOCs, and more specifically cLMOOCs that explicitly target MENA refugees, follow these indications and explore the ideas presented in this chapter, are currently being developed by the authors

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(Read et al., 2018). These have been rolled out since mid-2018 and the results will be published as and when they are available.

Discussion Questions 1. Imagine that you work somewhere in Europe and are designing an LMOOC for refugees from the MENA regions. What assumptions can you make about them, their educational and linguistic abilities and experiences, and their digital competence and the technology they will have available to connect to the course? 2. How would you work with the differing experiences and expectations of learning and education amongst such a diverse group of refugees? 3. What kinds of patterns of engagement and attention do you think that the refugees would have and how would you reflect them in the design of your LMOOC? 4. You are tasked with supporting refugees using an existing MOOC targeted at refugees wanting access to European higher education. How would you support them? What are the biggest barriers to their success and progression? 5. How in practice would you assess the digital literacy of refugees that you were supporting? What difference would it make to the support you give?

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Aouragh, M. (2003). Cyber intifada and Palestinian identity. ISIM Newsletter, 12(2), 42–43. Aouragh, M. (2008). Everyday resistance on the Internet: The Palestinian context. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 1(2), 109–130. Aouragh, M., & Alexander, A. (2011). The Arab spring, the Egyptian experience: Sense and nonsense of the internet revolution. International Journal of Communication, 5(15), 1344–1358. Beetham, H. (2010). Review and scoping study for a cross-JISC learning and digital literacies programme. Bristol: JISC. Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2011). Digital literacies workshop. Paper presented at the JISC Learning Literacies Workshop, Birmingham. Retrieved from http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/40474566/JISC. Belshaw, D. (2011). What is ‘digital literacy’? EdD thesis, University of Durham. Retrieved from http://dougbelshaw.com/thesis. Buckingham, D. (2010). Defining digital literacy. In B. Bachmair (Ed.), Medienbildung in neuen Kulturräumen. Die deutschsprachige und britische Diskussion (pp. 59–71). Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Buckner, L., & Kim, P. (2012). Mobile innovations, executive functions, and educational developments in conflict zones: A case study from Palestine. Education Tech Research Development, 60, 175–192. Chapelle, C. (2001). Computer applications in second language acquisition: Foundations for teaching, testing and research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Clark, D. (2013). MOOCs: Taxonomy of 8 types of MOOC. Retrieved from http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/moocs-taxonomy-of-8types-of-mooc.html. Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crompton, H. (2014). A diachronic overview of mobile learning: A shift toward student-centered pedagogies. In M. Ali & A. Tsinakos (Eds.), Increasing access through mobile learning (pp. 7–16). British Columbia: Commonwealth of Learning Press. Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93–106. European Commission. (2003). eLearning: Better eLearning for Europe directorate general for education and culture. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

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Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. New York: Wiley. Hamdoun Al-Soufi, A. (2005). Cultural differences between Arabs and Danes. MA thesis in EU business and law, Aarhus University, Denmark. Lenham, R. (1995). Digital literacy. Scientific American, 273, 253–255. Martin, A. (2003). Towards e-literacy. In A. Martin & R. Rader (Eds.), Information and IT literacy: Enabling learning in the 21st century (pp. 3–23). London: Face. Martin, A. (2005). DigEuLit—A European framework for digital literacy: A progress report. Journal of eLiteracy, 2(2), 130–136. Martín-Monje, E., & Barcena, E. (Eds.). (2014). Language MOOCs: Providing learning, transcending boundaries. Berlin: De Gruyter Open. Mustafa. (2011). The Arab World’s Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Retrieved from http://mustafa-aroundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/arab-worlds-hofstedes-cultural.html. Accessed 2 October 2017. Newrly, P., & Veugeleus, M. (2009). How to strengthen digital literacy. Retrieved from www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media18513.pdf. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–6. Read, T., & Traxler, J. (2017). Digital literacy—Empowering refugee learners. ALT Annual Conference. Retrieved from https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2017/ sessions/digital-literacy-empowering-refugee-learners-1704/#gref. Read, T., Sedano, S., & Barcena, E. (2018). Tailoring Language MOOC design for migrants and refugees. In B. Sedano & J. García Laborda (Eds.), Proceedings of TISLID 18. Third international workshop on technological innovation for specialized linguistic domains: Languages for digital lives and cultures. Madrid: University of Ghent, UNED. Sabbagh, K., Mourad, M., Kabbara, W., Shehadi, R., Samman, H., & Insight, I. C. (2012). Understanding the Arab digital generation. Beirut: Booz & Company. THE. (2015, July 2). From fair Verona to the wall beyond Ramallah. Times Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/ from-fair-verona-to-the-wall-beyond-ramallah. Traxler, J. (2018). Digital literacy: A Palestinian refugee perspective. Research in Learning Technology, 26, 1–21. Retrieved from https://journal.alt.ac.uk/ index.php/rlt/article/view/1983/pdf_1. UNESCO UIS. (2013). Information and communication technology (ICT) in education in five Arab states: A comparative analysis of ICT integration and e-readiness in schools in Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Qatar. Montreal:

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3 Plugging the Gap: Supporting Primary School Teachers to Create Culturally Appropriate English Language Teaching (ELT) Materials Sarah Rich, Samantha Weekes, Maryam al Jardani and Salima al Sinani

Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to describe our innovation to address an identified shortfall in the provision of resources for the teaching of literacy in English classes for primary school children in the Sultanate of Oman. This shortfall was the lack of culturally appropriate reading materials, the content of which would reflect children’s immediate lived local cultural realities outside the classroom. The specific focus S. Rich (*)  University of Exeter, Exeter, UK e-mail: [email protected] S. Weekes · M. al Jardani · S. al Sinani  Ministry of Education, Muscat, Oman M. al Jardani e-mail: [email protected] S. al Sinani e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_3

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of our innovation was the development of a workshop, delivered to senior English teachers in all 11 governorates in Oman, which aimed to emphasize the importance of shared reading and which resulted in the creation of ‘big books’ (i.e., large-sized versions of children’s literature for whole-class instructional purposes) and accompanying lessons plans to be used in shared reading instruction. Shared reading is an important component of an early-grade reading programme. This is because it introduces and familiarizes children with the reading process and highlights the key features of text. It also helps children develop higherorder comprehension skills, such as drawing upon children’s knowledge schema, prediction and inferring meaning of text from illustrations. Shared reading therefore provides an important scaffold for independent reading in later grades. In the shared reading lesson, the teacher provides a whole-class interactive reading experience through the use of big books. Typically, children sit in a semi-circle around the teacher and explore the big book over three or four lessons (Ezell & Justice, 2005). Given the shortage of big books and their centrality for effective shared reading instruction, it was important that we identified ways to distribute the books which were produced in the workshop to teachers spread across a very large geographical area. To address this challenge, once the big books and instructional material had been produced and edited, they were uploaded to an online platform to ensure they were available for download by primary English teachers across the length and breadth of Oman. This innovative approach, conceived and implemented at a national level, represented a close collaboration between the departments of English teacher training and English curriculum in the Ministry of Education. As we shall see, the issue of what constitutes an appropriate model of culture in TESOL materials has attracted a great deal of attention in the MENA region and the prevailing view regarding the importance of ensuring local cultural representation in instructional materials is well documented (e.g., Adaskou, Britten, & Fahsi, 1990; Al Fahadi, 2012; Hyde, 1994). Yet, there is little written about the concrete steps that can be taken to generate and disseminate locally produced teaching resources. We therefore hope that this account of how we sought to develop literacy materials with teachers will provide some useful food

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for thought for educators across the MENA region who are interested in undertaking similar initiatives to ours or in helping teachers develop culturally appropriate materials for other areas of TESOL provision, whether in the region or beyond.

Impetus for the Innovation The impetus for the innovation we report on in this chapter was twofold. It reflected, first, a response to a shortage of suitable material for teaching shared reading to young learners in our own working context and, second, a desire to address concerns about the cultural appropriacy of those materials that were available. The shortage of material for promoting literacy with young English language learners in our own working context can be seen as part of a broader problem regarding the location of suitable material for teaching English to young learners (TEYL) in general. The reasons for these shortages are closely linked to the relatively recent emergence of TEYL as a discrete area of practice within the field of TESOL (Rich, 2014). In the past two decades, TEYL has witnessed rapid and exponential growth as one of the responses of governments addressing the pressing need for a workforce proficient in English, which for a variety of historical and economic reasons has become a key lingua franca in an era of increasing globalization. However, the decision to lower the age of instruction in many contexts has taken place without sufficient attention to the time needed to prepare for this, including the provision of suitable material (Copland, Garton, & Burns, 2014). The shortage of appropriate materials to promote literacy with young learners is particularly acute. This is because until recently, there has been very limited awareness and understanding of the ways in which reading and writing need to be promoted and developed in TEYL. This means that in both the growing number of global TEYL course books, as well as in those that are produced locally, as Al Majthoob (2014, p. 57) notes, “a systematic approach to teaching reading and writing is typically missing”.

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One obvious solution to the problem is for countries to set about developing their own TEYL literacy materials and there is evidence of growing recognition of the need to do this. In Bahrain, for example, Al Majthoob (2014) describes efforts being made to adapt a global textbook to include more appropriate literacy material. However, with one or two notable exceptions (see, for example, Prastiwi, 2013, writing about Indonesia) to the best of our knowledge, the local production of supplementary reading materials (such as big books) to complement TEYL course books is rare. Given the growing awareness of the importance of resources for literacy development in TEYL, it is anticipated that this situation will change over time. However, in the short term for educators and educational policymakers alike, where finances allow, the most common option is to purchase ready-made materials. Since ones specifically targeted at TEYL are virtually non-existent (Claridge, 2012), purchasing materials from English-speaking countries such as the USA and UK targeted at developing literacy with children who speak English as a first language is often the only realistic way to address this problem. Nevertheless, while under current conditions the decision to employ materials produced for first-language literacy development is understandable, it is also far from an ideal solution. This is because, first, as Arnold and Rixon (2014) note, one of the challenges is that stories that are at the right linguistic level for school-age children at the beginner stage of learning English as a foreign language will often target preschool children in English-speaking countries, meaning that storylines are often at too low a cognitive level. In contrast, those that match children’s cognitive maturity are often too linguistically demanding for learners. Arnold and Rixon (2014) also point out that the cultural load of many storylines in imported reading material means that these are both puzzling and unfamiliar to young learners. In areas such as the MENA region, where English is taught as a foreign language, older learners who have a clearer understanding of the potential value of English to their studies or work opportunities may be more tolerant of culturally ambiguous content, but typically young learners will not bring a clearly formed external motivation for learning English to the classroom and will be less able to appreciate unfamiliar cultural content. This may impact on

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their interest and enjoyment of English and militate against the development of positive attitudes to English learning that are seen as important outcomes for TEYL (Rich, 2014). As Tomlinson (2015, p. 267) argues, in order for English lessons to be meaningful to children learning English in the early stages of schooling, it is important that materials “help promote connections with the immediate world outside of school where children live”. Our own beliefs echo these views and were central to our decision to find a way to generate locally produced big books better suited to the needs and experiences of young learners in the MENA region. Our decision was also informed by an emerging body of research literature on the significant impact of knowledge schema on the process of successful reading (see, for example, Liu, 2015; Shirzad, 2015; Yousef, Karimi, & Janfeshan, 2014). Research consistently demonstrates the marked difference in reading scores when texts present familiar cultural practices and norms compared to when these present very different cultural norms and values. While this does not necessarily mean that reading materials which seek to introduce new knowledge and ideas exposing learners to different cultural values and norms are without value, it does suggest that the cultural load of instructional literacy materials aiming to provide targeted practice in discrete reading skills and strategies should generally be low. We argue that this is particularly important for younger children. We are also mindful of the tensions that the global spread of English creates for national and regional identity in many parts of the world (Tsui, 2007). In the MENA region in particular, the increasing promotion of English at all stages of education is often seen as posing a threat to Arabic and as a vehicle for the spread of very different cultural norms and values from those that are seen as central to Arab identity (Badry, 2011). In the Gulf states (of which the Sultanate of Oman is one), the large influx of expatriate workers and the use of English as a common means of communication adds to a feeling of “cultural fragility” (Hopkyns, 2014, p. 2) and the need to preserve cultural heritage is keenly felt. With respect to primary schooling in particular, the use of local cultural content is seen as important in ensuring that the acquisition of English is not achieved at the

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expense of children developing regional and national identities and an appreciation of their cultural heritage (Hopkyns, 2014). Our emphasis on generating locally produced literacy resources also bore this important point in mind.

The Context As highlighted above, the innovation we developed was undertaken with primary school teachers in the Sultanate of Oman. As elsewhere in the MENA region and beyond, the government of the Sultanate of Oman attaches great importance to the learning of English, and English has formed part of the basic education provision since the 1970s when it was introduced from grade 4 of primary schooling. In line with a reform to the basic education system, in 1998 the government lowered the starting age of instruction from grade 4 to grade 1, making Oman one of the first countries in the MENA region to introduce English from the very start of schooling. Oman is firmly committed to developing a robust primary English literacy strategy for the early years, and in line with the emerging appreciation of the importance of shared reading lessons in the early years, in 2006 this was introduced for grades 1–2 to complement the existing phonics and whole-word-recognition approach to teaching literacy. To support shared reading, a set of 15 big books were purchased from the UK and together with shared reading lesson plans, these were distributed to all primary schools across the country. However, despite the promising start to introducing shared reading, the results of a recent fact-finding mission into literacy teaching in the early grades in primary schools in Oman has shown that the practice of shared reading has declined. One of the reasons for this decline is that many newly recruited teachers were found to be in need of training in how to conduct shared reading lessons. However, it was also found that in many schools the original materials have been lost or damaged, with many schools having only two or three of the original books purchased. In addition, it

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was noted that the cultural content as well as the linguistic demands of much of the original material that had been purchased were unsuitable. Recently, the Ministry of Education has placed renewed emphasis on shared reading which requires teachers to undertake three shared reading lessons per unit of their course book during grades 1 and 2. However, it has become clear that without attention to further training and the provision of sufficient amounts of shared reading material at an appropriate linguistic and cultural level, it is difficult for teachers to meet the target set.

The Design of the Innovation To address the challenges outlined above, we reasoned that primary English teachers, many of whom are also parents of young children, would be well placed to identify and develop stories that would be culturally appropriate to primary school-age children in Oman. However, we were also aware that they would need support and guidance. As a number of writers have observed (e.g., Harwood, 2010; Samuda, 2005), materials development utilizes a number of skills that teachers do not typically have unless they have received explicit relevant training, which is rare in most pre-service training programmes, including in Oman. We therefore decided it was important to develop these materials within a four-day workshop which would highlight the importance of shared reading, help teachers develop an awareness of a quality shared reading process and also provide time for them to produce big books and lesson plans. We also decided to target senior English teachers who act as heads of the English teaching departments in their schools. We felt that as experienced teachers they would find a workshop on the development of big books professionally rewarding. We also felt they could cascade information about the importance of shared reading and ways of conducting it to new teachers in their schools as well as to others who would benefit from refamiliarization with shared reading principles and practices.

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Preparing for the Workshop Before the workshops were delivered we developed a clear set of criteria and guidelines to ensure that the stories teachers produced would include important features of big books such as following book conventions (title, cover, author, page numbers), repeating basic sentence or question/answer patterns, providing opportunities for children to make predictions and join in with the story, focusing on age-appropriate themes that relate to children’s lives, including artwork that supports comprehension and facilitates discussion, and ensuring that stories are linguistically and cognitively appropriate. In order to provide this guidance, the following documents were produced: • Grade 1 and grade 2 word lists were produced based on vocabulary students encounter in their coursebook and the locally adapted phonics programme. They were also cross-referenced against the 100 most frequently used words developed from the British National Corpus of English words (Leech, Rayson, & Wilson, 2001). There were 300 words in the grade 1 word list and 600 in the grade 2 word list. Criteria regarding vocabulary selection were also provided. For grade 1 stories, teachers could use up to 40 words from the word list and up to eight additional words not included in the word list. For grade 2 stories, this was increased to 60 words from the wordlist with an additional 12 words. • Structure lists of suitable grade 1 and grade 2 grammatical structures were also provided. These structure lists corresponded to language students encounter in their coursebooks. • Two sample big book stories, ‘The Dirty Dishdasha’ and ‘Stop, Look and Listen’ were written and illustrated for the workshop to provide models for analysis tasks and demonstration lessons. • A checklist with criteria for assessing shared reading books was also developed. It focused on three key areas: story features, language features and design features. During the workshop it was used to provide a systematic method of analyzing the sample shared reading stories. It also provided a set of criteria to guide participants during

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the writing process and a means to evaluate their colleagues’ stories during micro-teaching and peer feedback sessions. It was also used by the Curriculum Department to guide the selection of stories for the shared reading programme. A copy of the checklist can be found in the appendix at the end of this chapter.

Organization of the Workshop To prepare the participants to write their materials, the workshop explored several areas including the role of shared reading in literacy development, procedures for teaching shared reading, analysis and evaluation of the sample big books, and important design and illustration considerations. On days 1 and 2, the participants used the checklist, word and structure lists to analyse the storyline, the language and the design features of the two sample big book stories. Each day, demonstration lessons using ‘The Dirty Dishdasha’ were delivered by trainers to support participants in understanding shared reading lesson steps and procedures. The first day also included a session on simple methods of creating illustration such as line drawings and collage, as well as a ten-minute challenge in which participants had to illustrate the caption ‘A boy and a camel in the desert’. On Day 2, participants started planning and writing their stories, which they spent most of Day 3 writing and illustrating. They worked in groups of four and each group produced a big book story, three lesson plans and mock-ups of additional resources such as flashcards and worksheets. The big books were created on A3 paper and were fully illustrated by the participants, using methods from Day 1. At the start of Day 4, the participants undertook micro-teaching sessions to try out their big books and gave each other feedback using the checklist criteria. Following this, participants made amendments to their stories based on their feedback. At the end of the workshops, the materials were collected and sent to the Curriculum Department. A total of 60 stories were submitted.

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Evaluating the Materials Members of the Curriculum Department evaluated the stories using the checklist criteria. Through this process, 26 stories were identified as successfully fulfilling the criteria and were selected for the shared reading programme. Overall, the quality of these stories and their accompanying artwork exceeded expectations. This highlights teachers’ creativity and potential as material writers. There were two main reasons that stories were not selected for the programme. Some stories did not have sufficient plotlines, i.e., they tended to be a description of an event or they focused too much on teaching a specific language point at the expense of the story. Other stories were well written but not well illustrated, and unfortunately the artwork was not good enough to facilitate discussion or support comprehension. While it was disappointing that not all the big books successfully fulfilled the criteria, it is important to remember that for many of the participants this was their first attempt at writing these kinds of stories and they had a fairly short time frame in which to produce their materials. It also points to areas for improvement in the workshop such as additional sessions about story writing or more guidance during the writing process. Despite not being selected for the shared reading programme, many of the materials still had value as teaching resources because the language they practised corresponded to themes and vocabulary in the coursebook. It was therefore decided that they would still be made available to teachers as additional teaching resources.

Editing the Materials The Curriculum Department worked to edit and digitize the stories, and develop the lesson plans and additional teaching resources. In some cases, the editing process only involved correcting minor spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors. In other cases, slightly larger amendments related to the flow and cohesion of stories, or the consistency of vocabulary or structures, were necessary. The flow of stories was easily remedied by adding linking words and phrases, or additional

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details to make plotlines more transparent. Inconsistency in vocabulary or structures usually occurred when participants had chosen a repetitive structure or pattern but had written it slightly differently, or opportunities for repetition had been missed. During the editing stage, teachers were contacted to liaise on any changes. However, this was time intensive and the response rate was fairly low. Next, the stories were digitized. Illustrations were scanned using a colour photocopier (an A3 scanner could also be used). Text, which had previously been handwritten, was added in typed format. Many of the lesson plans written by teachers were fairly brief and did not always include sufficient explanation (from the feedback we learnt participants felt they did not have enough time to write their lesson plans because they were focusing on completing their big books). Lesson plans were therefore expanded to include more detail and edited for format consistency. Word cards, picture cards and worksheets were also produced for each big book.

Distributing the Materials The finished stories were uploaded in PDF format to an online drive that teachers could access via a shared link. A shared reading guide, which included information on teaching shared reading, the new resources and a suggested scheme of work, was also produced. In the guide, we recommended two options for using the books in lessons. One option was to print the books and enlarge them to A3 size on a photocopier. The other option was to display them using a smart board or projector. Printing the books was the preferable option as a printed version could be used more like a real book. However, the decision to include an alternative option was taken because we were aware that many teachers might not be able to print the books due to the cost and time implications. Although the digital option is not ideal, our aim was to ‘plug the gap’ and making the books available in this way was a means to do this until a more permanent solution became possible.

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Findings In order to assess the success of the innovation and identify areas for improvement, 14 teachers who participated in the workshops were interviewed to gather feedback about the perceived advantages of teachers creating shared reading materials, the most enjoyable parts of the workshop, what they learnt, what student needs they considered when designing the materials, how the workshop influenced their teaching and suggestions to improve the workshop. Once the new materials were available to use, we asked six teachers who did not participate in the workshop to provide feedback on their experiences of using the materials. The main findings are discussed below.

Participants’ Experience of the Workshop Participants responded very positively to the workshop and reported that they found it enjoyable and informative. They enjoyed “sharing their ideas and having the opportunity to work creatively” and “loved working in a team of diverse talents”. There was a strong a sense of achievement and ownership amongst the teachers regarding the materials they produced. Producing an actual ‘product’ was also seen as a positive aspect, with both teachers and trainers commenting that this helped put learning into practice in an authentic way. When we planned the workshop, we felt that providing clear guidance in the form of word lists, structure lists and criteria would be important to ensure that the intended pedagogic and linguistic goals of the stories were realized. The usefulness of these documents was echoed in the participants’ feedback, with one participant commenting: “I like that the schemes were given to us – I mean everything was clear and easy to follow.” Although the guidance was quite structured, the feedback suggests that there was still enough “freedom to choose the topic, learning goals, key words and the content” to allow teachers to be creative with their stories. Teachers creating their own shared reading materials was perceived as advantageous by all participants. They felt that teachers are best placed

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to ensure materials match their students’ level, interests and needs because “teachers know better than others what their students really need” and they are “the ones who know students’ favourite interests and topics”. While we agree that the participants had a solid understanding of their students’ level, interests and needs, the need to edit and amend the stories indicates that they were not completely successful in translating this into their materials. However, we would argue that this is due more to a lack of experience in materials writing than to a lack of understanding of their students, and the need to edit the materials before wide-scale distribution was anticipated during the planning stage. Another significant advantage of teachers writing shared reading materials, mentioned by almost every participant, was “the opportunity to produce culturally appropriate materials that incorporated places, characters and ideas from an Omani context”. This was encouraging as it was a key aim of the innovation. Many of the big books successfully integrated fairly universal themes with Omani contexts. For example, a story entitled ‘My Blue Cap’ was about a boy named Ahmed who lost his favourite blue kummar (Omani cap) which he always wore to the mosque. In the story, it is a Friday and Ahmed’s father is calling him to go to the mosque to pray but Ahmed refuses to go without his cap. His father keeps telling him to hurry up, and his mother offers him different coloured caps but Ahmed insists on finding his favourite cap. The relationship between Ahmed and his parents represents a fairly universal theme, especially in stories for young children, whereas the lost cap and going to the mosque reflect Omani culture. This story also closely followed the word and structure lists we provided, and was told using repetitive sentence structures and question/answer patterns. Consequently, we felt that the teachers who wrote it successfully understood and achieved the literacy purposes of a big book, whilst at the same time creating materials that were culturally appropriate. This was true of all the books selected for the shared reading programme. In addition to ensuring that materials were culturally appropriate, it was considered beneficial to integrate a moral dimension into the stories. Participants said that they “thought about moral lessons because this is very important for children”. Common moral themes included

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listening to your parents, thanking Allah, being kind and helping others. While moral guidance may be seen as a separate issue to cultural appropriateness, Islamic values are an integral part of Oman’s national identity. Their inclusion in the stories might reflect the desire, discussed earlier in the chapter, to ensure that English acquisition is not achieved at the expense of national identity. Cultivating Islamic values is also a key outcome of the Omani curriculum, which might be another reason why teachers felt it was important to include them in their stories. In relation to the learning outcomes of the workshop, participants all reported that they had learnt a lot about writing materials. In particular, they felt that they had acquired a greater understanding of the key features of big books for shared reading and how to select suitable vocabulary and appropriate grammatical structures. Design-related issues, such as the importance of illustrations, page layouts and illustration-to-text ratios, were also highlighted as areas of learning for many participants. In addition to developing their materials writing skills, some participants also mentioned gaining a better understanding of teaching literacy skills in areas such as “how to help students become fluent readers” and “strategies for teaching shared reading”. In terms of the wider impact of the workshop, participants reported that it had a positive influence on the way they teach shared reading. In particular, they felt they were able to teach shared reading more effectively and were able to tell stories in a more interesting and engaging way. As one participant commented, “I am more experienced, especially in relation to achieving the learning objectives of shared reading. I know more about the lesson steps and adapting materials to help students understand the meaning of and main ideas in a story.” In addition, participants said that the workshop helped them focus more on student needs and develop a greater understanding of how to support students in comprehending stories and participating in the reading of stories. In one case, the workshop had completely changed a participant’s perception of shared reading: “I didn’t care about shared reading because I thought it was useless and unimportant. But in the workshop I learned how it important it is for students.” This feedback suggests that in addition to gaining knowledge about materials writing, teachers acquired

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a better understanding of the role of big books in supporting literacy development. While most of the feedback was positive, there was one area in which participants felt the workshop could be improved, and this was its length. Participants felt they needed more time to produce their big books and to make amendments based on peer feedback. In hindsight, adding an extra day to the workshop was probably necessary.

Teachers’ Experiences of Using the New Materials The new materials were made available to teachers nationwide at the start of the following school year. Initial feedback has been very encouraging, with teachers reporting that they enjoy teaching the stories and that students have responded well to them. They also reported that the lesson plans “made it crystal clear how to teach the stories easily and effectively”. Cultural themes in the stories were also perceived as a positive feature. One teacher commented that “it was great to see the smiles on students’ faces as they came across a scene in the story that reflected their daily life”. Another teacher said that “since the stories reflect Omani culture, my students found the lesson fun, exciting and stimulating”. While the opposite could also be true, it is possible that teachers perceive stories that reflect Omani culture as more engaging, with students better able to comprehend and participate in them because the cultural load is not too overwhelming. When choosing stories to teach, teachers said they consider a range of criteria, such as meeting their students’ needs, matching their language level, capturing their attention, reinforcing a particular aspect of their social values and developing the way they see the world around them. The most important criteria given by teachers were learner needs and language level, but social and moral values are also an important consideration. Teachers did not explicitly mention literacy development; however, this is possibly because it is implicitly understood to be the purpose of shared reading lessons. Unfortunately, teachers have had mixed experiences accessing the materials. Where Internet connections are reliable, they reported that

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it is easy and materials can be downloaded “with just one click”. In areas where Internet connections are less reliable, teachers have found accessing the materials more challenging. However, now we are aware of this problem, we can look into alternative methods for distributing the materials such as flash drives or CDs. Teachers are generally using projectors to show the big books in class. This is partly due to the cost and time involved in printing the books. However, it is also probably a result of our decision to include the option to use the books in this way. During the planning stage of the innovation, this was seen as a necessary compromise in our drive to ‘plug the gap’. It is a limitation of the innovation because students are not experiencing the features of a ‘real book’, which are important for literacy development. One practical suggestion to overcome this limitation is for clusters of nearby schools to take responsibility for printing different books, which can then be rotated between schools once they have been used. This solution has already been implemented in some regions. Finally, when teachers were asked if they would continue using the new shared reading materials, they all replied that they would because they felt the materials were appealing to students and effectively met their needs, and also because they felt that “local talent should be encouraged and supported”.

Implications As previously mentioned, the innovation generated a substantial resource for the practice of shared reading in TEYL in Oman. New big books and accompanying lesson plans and materials are now available for all teachers to use. The final big books are creative and attractive, and contain language that is at an appropriate level for students and is thematically related to topics in the main coursebook. They are also culturally appropriate and promote important Omani values. In terms of addressing the lack of suitable materials for shared reading, the innovation can be considered a success. While it is still early days, it is also encouraging that teachers are using the stories and finding them an effective resource which they and children are enjoying using.

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It is also apparent that the careful scaffolding of the materials writing through the structured support provided in the workshop has been important to the success of the innovation. We would recommend that anyone thinking of undertaking a similar project provides the same kind of guidance. The planning we undertook in advance of the workshop and careful editing and proofing of materials was time-consuming but was also critical to the success of the innovation and we would therefore also advise that these stages are considered by anyone who is interested in pursuing a similar approach to creating resources for use with a wider audience. While we had access to computer programs (such as Design and Quark) dedicated to the development of high quality materials, we do not think that it is strictly necessary to use these. In contexts where access to these is not readily available, we would suggest the use of PowerPoint or a similar program which has sufficient graphic capabilities to create professional-quality digital books. A commitment to developing a mechanism to find out how well materials are received is also important. In our project, feedback from teachers has highlighted how some teachers have adapted the lesson plans and activities slightly to better meet the needs of their own students. This sort of information demonstrates the ways in which teachers have taken personal ownership of the materials but is also providing useful information on how materials can be further improved and it is our intention to draw upon these insights to refine the innovation going forward. Other ways to improve similar innovations in the future include extending the workshop by an additional day to ensure that teachers have time to adjust their material following feedback on their demonstrations to their colleagues. To address the distribution challenges we have identified, we propose to send additional copies of materials on CDs or flash drives to regional supervisors who can share them with senior English teachers at a local level. This may also prove to be a good solution to distribution challenges in other settings where the Internet is unreliable or not a distribution option. To conclude, we have found undertaking this project very rewarding and believe that it provides a good blueprint for the development of further initiatives in Oman. We hope that detailing our innovation will encourage other educators in the MENA region to consider this

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approach to addressing a shortage of culturally appropriate material. Our initial impetus for undertaking the innovation described in this chapter was to plug a gap in the current provision of shared reading resources. While considerable effort was expended to ensure that the materials produced were of high quality, we acknowledge that attempting to disseminate these electronically was not ideal. In light of this, a decision by the Ministry of Education to secure funding to make hard copies of big books available to teachers in subsequent school years is very encouraging and strongly validates our innovative approach.

Discussion Questions 1. The success of the innovation described in this chapter was based on careful planning of the support and guidance needed to ensure that teachers could produce quality materials in Oman. What types of support would be needed to enable teachers to write material in your own working context? How could you identify their support needs if you were not familiar with these? 2. The definition of culturally appropriate materials used by the authors reflected their belief that young children needed material which reflected local norms and values. What would be the nature of culturally appropriate materials for the teaching of English to young learners in your context? 3. While the authors judge their innovation to be a success in many ways, they also faced some challenges. How could these challenges be overcome in your own working context? How might you address other challenges you might face in adopting a similar approach? 4. One of the benefits highlighted by teachers in the project was learning about shared reading culminating in the production of new material that was in short supply. What other applications of this combined focus on new learning and materials production with teachers can you identify?

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Appendix See Table 3.1. Table 3.1  Checklist for designing shared reading texts Yes No Story features Is the topic of the story interesting for grade 1/grade 2 students? Does the story relate to students’ lives and experiences? Are the characters appropriate? (e.g. no more than 4 main characters, simple characters, characters that have a purpose in the story) Does the story connect to a theme in the English curriculum? Does the story have a clear beginning, middle and end? Does the story have a logical plot? (e.g. problem–solution–change) Does the story move at a good pace? Can students make predictions about the story? Is the story an appropriate length? (e.g. 12–16 pages) Is the story culturally appropriate? Language features Does the story contain an appropriate number of vocabulary items? (Grade 1—up to 40 vocabulary items, grade 2—up to 60 vocabulary items) Does the story contain an appropriate balance of additional words and words from the wordlist? (Grade 1—up to 8 additional words, grade 2—up to 12 additional words) Can the meaning of new words be understood from the context or illustrations? Are key vocabulary items repeated through the story? Does the story contain only structures taken from the structure list? Are key structures repeated through the story? Is this language used efficiently (e.g. without unnecessary words and details)? Does the story contain language that can be used to practise phonics? Design features Is the text size large enough for a class of 30 children to read? Is the amount of text per page appropriate? Are illustrations interesting, colourful and engaging? Do the illustrations support the meaning of the text? Do the illustrations provide an opportunity to talk before, during and after reading the text? Is the layout of the page well designed? (e.g. is the text clear and easy to identify)

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References Adaskou, K., Britten, D., & Fahsi, B. (1990). Design decisions on the cultural content of a secondary English course for Morocco. ELT Journal, 44(1), 3–10. Al Fahadi, A. (2012). Saudi teachers’ views on appropriate cultural models for EFL textbooks: Insights into TESOL teachers’ management of global cultural flows and local realities in their teaching worlds. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Exeter. Al Majthoob, S. (2014). Adapting materials to meet the literacy needs of young Bahraini learners. In S. Garton & K. Graves (Eds.), International perspectives on materials in ELT (pp. 53–58). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Arnold, W., & Rixon, S. (2014). Making the moves from decoding to extensive reading with young learners: Insights from research and practice around the world. In S. Rich (Ed.), International perspectives in teaching English to young learners (pp. 23–44). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Badry, F. (2011). Appropriating English: Language in identity construction in the United Arab Emirates. In A. Al-Issa & L. S. Dahan (Eds.), Global English and Arabic (pp. 81–122). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Claridge, G. (2012). Graded readers: How the publishers make the grade. Reading in a Foreign Language, 24(1), 106–119. Copland, F., Garton, S., & Burns, A. (2014). Challenges in teaching English to young learners: Global perspectives and local realities. TESOL Quarterly, 48(4), 738–762. Ezell, H., & Justice, L. (2005). Shared storybook reading: Building young children’s language and emergent literacy skills. Baltimore, MA: Brookes Publishing. Harwood, N. (2010). English language teaching materials: Theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hopkyns, S. (2014). The effects of global English on culture and identity in the UAE: A double-edged sword. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 11(2). Retrieved from https://www. researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Hopkyns/publication/289097704_The_ Effects_of_Global_English_on_Culture_and_Identity_in_the_UAE_a_ Double-edged_Sword/links/5688fd6508ae1975839a6cb1/The-Effects-ofGlobal-English-on-Culture-and-Identity-in-the-UAE-a-Double-edgedSword.pdf.

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Hyde, M. (1994). The teaching of English in Morocco: The place of culture. ELT Journal, 48(4), 295–305. Leech, G., Rayson, P., & Wilson, A. (2001). Word frequencies in written and spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. London: Longman. Liu, Y. (2015). The perception of cultural familiarity and background knowledge on reading comprehension for intermediate EFL students. International Journal of Language and Literature, 3(1), 71–75. Prastiwi, Y. (2013). Transmitting local cultural knowledge through English as foreign language (EFL) learning as a means of fostering “unity in diversity”. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(3), 507–513. Rich, S. (2014). Taking stock: Where are we now with TEYL? In S. Rich (Ed.), International perspectives in teaching English to young learners (pp. 1–19). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Samuda, V. (2005). Expertise in pedagogic task design. In K. Johnson (Ed.), Expertise in second language learning and teaching (pp. 230–254). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Shirzad, D. (2015). The effects of cultural knowledge on Iranian EFL students’ reading comprehension across male and female learners. Journal of Languages and Culture, 6(4), 24–29. Tomlinson, B. (2015). Developing principled materials for young learners of English as a foreign language. In J. Bland (Ed.), Teaching English to young learners: Critical issues in language teaching with 3-12 year-olds. London: Bloomsbury. Tsui, A. B. M. (2007). Linguistic paradoxes and cultural domination. International Multilingual Research Journal, 1(2), 135–143. Yousef, H., Karimi, L., & Janfeshan, K. (2014). The relationship between cultural background and reading comprehension. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(4), 707–714.

4 Task-Based Learning and Teaching in Egypt Deena Boraie, Ebtihal El Badry and Maged Habashy

Introduction English language education is mandatory from grade one for all learners in Egypt in both public and private schools. Yet, after 12 years of studying English, the language proficiency of the majority of learners is low. According to Education First’s 2016 English Proficiency Index (EPI), which ranked 72 countries based on data collected from adults using a free online English test, Egypt was ranked in the lowest category of ‘very low language proficiency’. Although this is not a statistically controlled test, and there are variations in English language proficiency D. Boraie · E. E. Badry (*) · M. Habashy  The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt e-mail: [email protected] D. Boraie e-mail: [email protected] M. Habashy e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_4

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within a country, there are interesting implications for the quality of education in Egypt (Boraie, 2017). This is a reflection of the poor quality of English language education in the country, with weak and outdated curricula and teaching methods in both schools and universities. One result is a high demand for further education English courses, such as those offered by the American University in Cairo’s School of Continuing Education (SCE). The SCE enrols approximately 15,000 learners a year who are keen to continue to learn English, and offers them better opportunities in higher education and improved employment prospects in Egypt and the wider region.

Area of Innovation This chapter describes a curriculum innovation designed and implemented by the Languages Department (LD) of SCE that transformed the teaching approach, content, learning materials and assessment tools. SCE learners come from a traditional education system that emphasizes rote learning and memorization of set textbooks, and is based on a grammar-translation approach to language learning. In contrast, the innovative curriculum placed emphasis on the language-use needs of Egyptian learners and on engaging students in relevant and interesting language tasks in the classroom. The aim of the innovation was to move away from a textbook-based curriculum with a focus on grammar to a task-based curriculum that depended only on digital learning materials, and where the grammar and vocabulary learning needs of learners were dealt with as they emerged in the classroom.

Impetus for the Innovation The Languages Department offers a variety of English preparation courses and this innovation focused on the general English and oral communication programmes. The curriculum of the English programme offered in SCE is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) of the Council of Europe (2001) and the materials used were, prior to this innovation, commercial course textbooks selected

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     63

to match most but not all of the set learning outcomes. Although the instructors had been required to teach to the set outcomes and to use the assigned textbooks as a reference rather than to adhere to them closely, in practice this proved to be impossible. Learners pressured instructors to cover the textbooks from cover to cover and thus the default was that the textbooks became the curriculum and the selected CEFR-based outcomes in the SCE curriculum were not the drivers of the actual curriculum in practice. This focus on textbooks instead of learning outcomes was the impetus for the innovation. One problem with commercially published textbooks is that the classroom tasks they contain are frequently simply activities and exercises, and not real-world tasks at all (in the sense of being meaning- and messagefocused work). Long (2015) calls them counterfeit tasks designed to practice grammatical structures or functions focusing on forms. For example, a real-world task such as a role play or a job interview may be included in a textbook. However, when the task is examined closely, it is usually discovered that it simply targets a specific structure, such as practising question forms. The result is an overt or covert grammatical syllabus and when students leave the classroom, they are not able to use English effectively. Research has shown that learners do not necessarily learn what is taught and that it is difficult to plan the order in which they acquire language forms (Robinson, 2011). Several second-language acquisition (SLA) researchers have thus challenged the premise that learners acquire L2 grammatical structures in line with a language syllabus (Ellis, 2015). There is a global movement based on a significant body of research that calls for a new model to transform what learners are taught and the methods used for the teaching and learning of English (Barrot, 2014). As Kramsch (2014) noted, the language needed by learners in the real world after they leave the classroom may be different from what they have learned and “language teachers are no longer sure of what they are supposed to teach nor what real-world situations they are supposed to prepare their students for” (p. 296). In the workplace, learners need to possess a combination of critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative and communicative skills in order to succeed. Language learning in the classroom should thus be related to learners’ needs, contexts and social purposes, with instructors as facilitators of learning. The new paradigm for teaching English is based on adopting context- and interaction-specific

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communicative practices where “learners would shape grammar according to their own needs and context, without a mechanical conformity to purported norms imposed by others” (Canagarajah, 2016, p. 16). To move both instructors and learners away from a grammar-focused and textbook-based approach, it was decided to adopt a task-based learning (TBL) approach and replace textbooks with digital learning materials. The key impetus for the innovation is that TBL is an innovative language teaching method that has now become a broad area of enquiry. This is reflected in the numerous articles and edited volumes published in leading TESOL and SLA journals and publications (Ahmadian, 2016). TBL has been gaining momentum since the 1980s and it represents “a radical departure from more conventional CLT approaches” (East, 2014, p. 262). TBL fits very well with the current interest in sociocultural theory (see, for example, Vygotsky, 1962), and with the CEFR. Learners integrate new knowledge with existing knowledge in a context of social interactions through reflection, negotiation, collaboration and dialogue. The instructor observes, assesses and engages learners while they are completing tasks, primarily by posing questions. In task-based learning (TBL), the central focus of the lesson is the task itself, not a grammar point or a lexical area, and the objective is not to learn specific language features but to complete the task. The operational definition of a task provided by Ellis (2009, p. 223) was the one adopted in this curriculum innovation: 1. The primary focus should be on ‘meaning’ (by which is meant that learners should be mainly concerned with processing the semantic and pragmatic meaning of utterances). 2. There should be some kind of ‘gap’ (i.e., a need to convey information, to express an opinion or to infer meaning). 3. Learners should largely have to rely on their own resources (linguistic and non-linguistic) in order to complete the activity. 4. There is a clearly defined outcome other than the use of language (i.e., the language serves as the means for achieving the outcome, not as an end in its own right). To complete the task successfully, learners have to use appropriate language and communicate their ideas. The learners can use any

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     65

language they need to reach their objective. Tasks are designed to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and there is no preset ‘correct answer’ for a task outcome. Learners decide on their own way of completing it, using the language they see fit. TBL often follows three stages: the pre-task, the completion of the task and the post-task. In the innovation we describe here, in the pretask, the instructor introduces the theme and assigns reading and listening materials to prepare learners for the task itself. The instructor explains the task and what is expected. In this stage, instructors use the flipped classroom approach, integrating technology and assigning online readings and videos to prepare the learners beforehand and so that they come to class ready to discuss them. In stage 2, the learners complete the task in groups and then present their work to the rest of the class. In this stage, the instructor provides support and monitoring while learners focus on communication and production. Learners are not expected to produce identical language products or outputs and errors are not dealt with at this stage. In stage 3, the instructor and learners work on the specific language points that came up. Learners review the language they produced and how well they did (Bygate, 2016). Figure 4.1 shows an example of a session taken from the syllabus of a course at the CEFR A1 level showing the pre-task, task and post-task of a lesson on Google Maps. ^ĞƐƐŝŽŶϴ 'ŽŽŐůĞDĂƉƐ

dĂƐŬDĞŶƵ͗ >ĞĂƌŶĞƌƐĐŽŵĞƚŽĐůĂƐƐĂŌĞƌůŝƐƚĞŶŝŶŐĂŶĚƌĞĂĚŝŶŐ ĂďŽƵƚ'ŽŽŐůĞDĂƉƐ͘ /ŶƉĂŝƌƐ͗ hƐŝŶŐ'ŽŽŐůĞDĂƉƐ͕ĚĞĐŝĚĞŚŽǁƚŽŐŽ͗ 'ƌŽƵƉϭ͗&ƌŽŵ&ĂůĂŬŝƵŝůĚŝŶŐƚŽƚŚĞnjŽŽ 'ƌŽƵƉϮ͗&ƌŽŵEĂŵƉƵƐƚŽůͲZĞŚĂďŝƚLJ 'ƌŽƵƉϯ͗&ƌŽŵEƚŽŝƚLJ^ƚĂƌƐ 'ƌŽƵƉϰ͗&ƌŽŵůdĂŚƌŝƌƚŽƩĂďĂ^ƋƵĂƌĞ hƐĞ'ŽŽŐůĞDĂƉƐƚŽĮŶĚƐĞǀĞƌĂůƌŽƵƚĞƐ tƌŝƚĞƚŚĞǀĂƌŝŽƵƐƌŽƵƚĞƐ ĞĐŝĚĞŽŶƚŚĞƐŚŽƌƚĞƐƚƌŽƵƚĞŐŝǀŝŶŐƌĞĂƐŽŶƐǁŚLJ LJŽƵĐŚŽƐĞŝƚ tƌŝƚĞĚŝƌĞĐƟŽŶƐ WƌĞƐĞŶƚ &ĞĞĚďĂĐŬ ĚŝƚLJŽƵƌǁŽƌŬŽŶĂĚŽĐƵŵĞŶƚĐĂŵĞƌĂ͘

ZĞĂĚŝŶŐ͗ ŚƩƉƐ͗ͬͬƐƵƉƉŽƌƚ͘ŐŽŽŐůĞ͘ĐŽŵͬ ŵĂƉƐͬĂŶƐǁĞƌͬϭϰϰϯϰϵ͍ŚůсĞŶ ;ŚŽǁƚŽƵƐĞ'ŽŽŐůĞDĂƉƐͿ >ŝƐƚĞŶŝŶŐ͗ ŚƩƉ͗ͬͬůĞĂƌŶĞŶŐůŝƐŚƚĞĞŶƐ͘ďƌŝƟ ƐŚĐŽƵŶĐŝů͘ŽƌŐͬƐŬŝůůƐͬůŝƐƚĞŶŝŶŐͲ ƐŬŝůůƐͲƉƌĂĐƟĐĞͬŐŝǀŝŶŐͲ ĚŝƌĞĐƟŽŶƐ ;ŐŝǀŝŶŐĚŝƌĞĐƟŽŶƐͿ

Fig. 4.1  An example of a pre-task, task, and post-task sequence on Google Maps

66     D. Boraie et al.

The Context This section describes the context and the overall profile of the learners and instructors with whom the curriculum innovation was implemented. The implementation of the innovation is briefly described, as well as the challenges encountered.

Background on the SCE The SCE enables the American University in Cairo to play an active role in Egypt’s development by providing undergraduates and graduates with the English language skills they need for the job market. The SCE has approximately 250 part-time qualified TESOL instructors. The SCE student body consists of 23% high school and undergraduate students and 77% graduates, which means that approximately a quarter of SCE students are already students in other institutions and are taking continuing education courses at the same time as their school or university studies. The average age of SCE students is around 28 and they come from all walks of life.

Implementation of the Innovation The LD of the SCE decided to change its curriculum approach to better prepare learners. The six key features of the new approach were: (1) abandoning textbooks and moving towards digital learning materials; (2) adopting a task-based curriculum aligned with the CEFR; (3) encouraging student autonomy whereby students are required to depend on themselves and prepare before coming to the classroom; (4) using tasks that develop students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills; (5) using tasks which require students to work collaboratively; and (6) moving away from tests towards using performance assessments. Figure 4.2 depicts the key components of the SCE curriculum innovation. Work on the curriculum innovation was introduced gradually, one course at a time, until the full programme in general English and oral communication was launched about a year and a half after the start.

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     67

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ƌŝƟĐĂůdŚŝŶŬŝŶŐΘWƌŽďůĞŵ ^ŽůǀŝŶŐ

ŝŐŝƚĂůůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐŵĂƚĞƌŝĂůƐ

dĂƐŬͲďĂƐĞĚĂŶĚ&Z ͲďĂƐĞĚůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ WŝůůĂƌϭ

WŝůůĂƌϮ

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Fig. 4.2  The key components of the curriculum innovation

An implementation plan and development teams were established, each consisting of four instructors who were familiar with the English language needs of the learners in the Egyptian context. To design the TBL syllabus for each course in the four CEFR stages (A1, A2, B1 and B2), the following steps were followed, integrating the six key features mentioned above: (1) different themes for all the courses were chosen and carefully organized to avoid redundancy; (2) for each course, under each theme, tasks were identified, aligned to meet the set CEFR-based written or oral language learning outcomes; (3) tasks were then designed for learners to work on collaboratively in class, in pairs or in groups, which included critical thinking/problem-solving skills related to real-life contexts; (4) each complete task was designed to include a pre-task, the task itself and the post-task; and (5) for each task, relevant digital pre-reading or pre-listening material was selected from available free sources to be prepared by students beforehand. The following is an example of a task at B1 level designed to meet particular CEFR learning outcomes.

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CEFR Learning Outcomes • scan longer texts in order to locate desired information, and gather information from different parts of a text, or from different texts in order to fulfil a specific task; and • give a prepared straightforward presentation on a familiar topic within his/her field which is clear enough to be followed without difficulty most of the time, and in which the main points are explained with reasonable precision.

Task • Learners come to class after listening and reading two digital articles: ‘Top tips for starting your own business’ and ‘What is an organo-gram?’ • Learners in pairs/groups fill out the ‘organo-gram’ of their dream company, its product and target audience. • They then search the following online: “What is a logo?”, “What is a slogan?” and “What is a mission statement?” • In groups, learners create a logo, slogan and a 100–150-word mission statement for their dream company. Each group gives a presentation and teachers and colleagues provide feedback to each group. Once the TBL syllabi had been designed, the SCE Testing Manager worked with the four teams to design and document the performance assessments and the accompanying rubrics. Appendix Table 4.4 shows the assessment blueprint for the second course in the A2 stage. As part of the development process, a series of four professional development workshops were designed and instructors were required to attend them to prepare them for the new curriculum approach. Moreover, newly recruited instructors had to follow an induction programme in which they observed at least four TBL classes before starting to teach at SCE. LD administrators worked with the university’s IT department to design the platform to host and manage all the digital learning materials of the new curriculum (Moodle).

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Learners had to be prepared for the radical change in curricula and teaching methodology before enrolling in the programme. Part of the regular orientation conducted before the beginning of each term was dedicated to the new curriculum and teaching methodology, explaining the rationale for the change and that computer literacy skills were now required to enroll in the programme. IT orientations showed learners how to access the digital materials.

Challenges Faced in the Implementation It was not easy to manage this innovative change in a traditional educational setting where learners come from a system that emphasizes rote learning and memorization, and which is highly textbook based. We faced several challenges in the first year of implementation with both learners and instructors. At the outset, some learners, although not the majority, were so resistant to the idea of not having textbooks that they decided not to register for a course or requested a refund. This phenomenon has almost disappeared over time and interestingly, our student enrolment has since boomed, growing by 46% in the first year. Learners frequently come to class with very teacher-centred and grammar-focused expectations. Many believe that it is the teacher’s job to correct all language errors and peer or self-correction is largely resisted. Some insist on receiving instructor feedback as they believe they come to learn from the instructor and not their colleagues. These students want feedback on every error even though this may disrupt their fluency. They are very book centred and continually ask for printed materials and texts. Another challenge we have faced is learners’ resistance to preparing beforehand and coming to class ready to discuss the readings and videos they were assigned to work on. Once again, this comes from the learners’ educational background which makes them dependent on instructors and does not encourage student autonomy and taking responsibility for their own learning. For many learners, teaching and learning grammar is an indispensable part of the lesson and they believe that language learning cannot take place without it.

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We also had some initial problems with instructors who were unable or unwilling to adapt to the new task-based approach, and after six months, we had to ask some of them to leave because they could not accept the change. Other instructors faced several challenges implementing TBL in the first year, including managing feedback in TBL classrooms, handling technology and creating a digital classroom community. A series of professional development workshops were offered by the full-time university TESOL faculty to support instructors to overcome the problems they faced. Another group of instructors had difficulty adjusting the tasks to various needs of their learners. This problem was overcome by asking instructors identified by the LD administration to design a workshop that focused on sharing the multiple solutions they had used withtheir own classes.

Evaluation of the Innovation Towards the end of the first year, the researchers decided to conduct an empirical evaluation study of the innovation in the general English programme by collecting data from instructors and learners. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the key features of the new curriculum and methodology from the point of view of instructors and learners, as well as to identify what worked and what did not, and the lessons learned.

Study Design and Sampling The study used a mixed-method design, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, and was conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, which used two-stage sampling, data was collected by administering a questionnaire to learners and instructors; in Phase 2, instructors and learners were interviewed. The sample consisted of a proportional random stratified sample of 16 classes (209 learners) in the LD English language programme. A random sample of 33 instructors responded to the questionnaire. In the second phase of the study, a different sample of

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45 learners and 14 instructors were interviewed. The sample was representative of the SCE English language instructor and language learner population.

Data Collection The researchers developed a questionnaire for instructors and learners. The questionnaire measured their perceptions of the extent to which the six key features (see Fig. 4.1) of the innovative curriculum approach and methodology had enhanced students’ learning and helped them achieve their language goals. The participants were required to respond using a 4-point Likert scale with the following options: 4 great extent, 3 some extent, 2 slight extent and 1 no extent. There was also a fifth option for “0 no opinion”. Two questions then sought their opinion about the overall effectiveness and their level of satisfaction with the innovative curriculum approach and methodology. For the effectiveness question, the participants were required to respond using a similar 4-point Likert scale with the following options: very effective, moderately effective, minimally effective and not effective at all. For the satisfaction question, the options were: very satisfied, moderately satisfied, minimally satisfied and not satisfied at all. Finally, three open-ended questions asked what they thought worked well, what did not work well and what suggestions they had, if any, for programme improvement. The questionnaires were administered in English to instructors and in Arabic to learners. An initial analysis of the questionnaire data was conducted to identify key areas that needed further probing in interviews with both instructors and learners. Instructors were asked what strategies they used to motivate learners to prepare before class, how they handled students’ problems understanding the digital pre-task materials and what suggestions they could make for professional development workshops. Students were asked how task-based learning, compared to traditional grammar teaching, impacted their language proficiency, and about the impact of integrating technology in the classroom.

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Data Analysis Data were analyzed following a mixed-method approach, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. For the quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics were used to provide information about the mean, standard deviation and frequency counts of the questionnaire items. Using qualitative analysis, emerging patterns and themes were identified from the open-ended questions on the questionnaire and from the interview data. The researchers also checked the reliability of the questionnaire data and Chronbach Alpha coefficients of 0.68 and 0.7 were obtained for learners and instructors respectively.

Findings This section describes the findings of the evaluation study conducted on the curriculum innovation to identify what worked, what did not work and possible areas for improvement of the programme. The findings also helped to identify teachers’ further professional development needs and to engage them more effectively.

Effectiveness of and Satisfaction with the Innovation Table 4.1 shows the views of learners (N =  209) and instructors (N = 33) on the effectiveness of the six key curriculum features in enhancing their learning of English. All six features were rated positively by both groups, learners and instructors agreeing to a great extent and to some extent that they were effective, with means ranging from the 3.88 to 3.30. Learners found that collaboration (mean (M) = 3.61, standard deviation (SD) = 0.60), performance assessment (M = 3.51, SD =  0.63) and critical thinking and problem solving (M  = 3.47, SD = 0.63) were effective to a great extent in enhancing their learning. Preparation at home was seen as the least effective feature with a mean of 3.30 (SD = 0.75). Instructors found that all features except digital learning materials were effective to a great extent (M = 3.30,

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     73 Table 4.1  Learners’ and instructors’ views on how the new approach enhances learning Features Task-based approach Preparation at home Digital learning materials Collaboration Critical thinking and problem solving Performance assessment

Learners N

M

SD

Instructors N M

SD

209 208 206

3.36 3.30 3.39

0.60 0.75 0.73

33 33 33

3.82 3.52 3.30

0.39 0.67 0.73

209 206

3.61 3.47

0.60 0.63

32 33

3.88 3.64

0.34 0.60

207

3.51

0.63

33

3.70

0.47

Table 4.2  Learners’ and instructors’ views on how the new approach helps achieve learning goals Features Task-based approach Preparation at home Digital learning materials Collaboration Critical thinking and problem solving Performance assessment

Learners N

M

SD

Instructors N M

SD

208 206 207

3.25 3.26 3.35

0.66 0.79 0.73

33 33 33

3.72 3.47 3.24

0.46 0.62 0.71

208 206

3.51 3.40

0.67 0.68

32 33

3.75 3.50

0.44 0.72

207

3.50

0.65

33

3.60

0.50

SD = 0.73). Both learners and instructors perceived collaboration as the feature that most enhanced the learning of English. Learners’ and instructors’ views on the effectiveness of the same six key features in helping learners achieve their language goals are illustrated in Table 4.2. Both learners and instructors rated the six features positively as helping learners achieve their language goals to a great extent or to some extent, with means ranging from 3.75 to 3.24. Collaboration and performance assessment were rated highest by both learners and instructors, helping learners to achieve their language goals to a great extent. The main difference between learners and instructors was their view of the task-based approach. Instructors rated it the

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second highest (M = 3.72, SD = 0.46), while learners rated it the lowest (M = 3.25, SD = 0.66). The curriculum feature that received the lowest rating from instructors was digital learning materials and from learners it was preparation at home. The findings are encouraging and indicate that the innovation was viewed positively by learners and instructors. Learners’ responses indicate positive attitudes towards collaboration as an approach towards learning that was very different from their traditional background. It is also interesting to note that performance assessment was another feature that learners welcomed and viewed as beneficial although they were used to summative assessments and tests where most of the grade depended on the final assessment. It is also significant that critical thinking and problem solving were seen as effective to a great extent, in spite of the learners’ traditional learning background which did not encourage them to acquire or develop the critical thinking skills they need in a competitive job market or even to improve their current jobs. The findings show that the instructors who responded have embraced the TBL approach, giving learners the opportunity to focus on task completion and language production. TBL gives learners the chance to produce multiple versions of the task, freely collaborating with others. This tolerance of variation and creativity encourages the development of critical thinking skills away from reiterating and drilling the one correct answer. Thus, the focus has shifted away from limited activities to tasks requiring longer production time. Instructors have come to appreciate performance assessment because it helps their learners move away from a traditional focus on the final grade to a focus on the learning experience that extends throughout the course, helping them improve their language proficiency. Digital learning material was seen as the feature which least helped learners achieve their language goals and the SCE will need to conduct more professional development workshops addressing the effectiveness of digital material. Learners and instructors did not have the same views on TBL. Professional development workshops for instructors have helped them appreciate the approach; however, more needs to be done for learners. Another difference is in their views concerning preparing at home, as learners regarded it as the least important. Learners need to be better

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     75

informed on the importance of flipped classrooms which enable them to use the language after having prepared at home. Learners and instructors rated the overall effectiveness and their overall satisfaction with the new curriculum approach, where a rating of 1 was very effective or very satisfied and a rating of 2 was moderately effective or moderately satisfied. The results showed that instructors perceive the approach to be very effective (M = 1.33, SD = 0.48) while learners found it to be moderately effective (M = 1.65, SD = 0.66). In terms of satisfaction, instructors indicated they are very satisfied (M = 1.3, SD = 0.47) and learners are moderately satisfied (M = 1.7, SD = 0.65). Instructors were most likely to have been more enthusiastic because of the professional development workshops. Learners were moderately satisfied with the effectiveness of the change and this indicates that more work needs to be done with them.

What Worked Well and What Did not Table 4.3 shows the results of the analysis of learners’ and instructors’ responses to the three open-ended questions in the questionnaire, focusing on what worked well and what did not, and their suggestions for improvement. The table shows the most frequently occurring themes. Table 4.3  Qualitative analysis of questionnaire data (Learners) N = 209

(Instructors) N = 33

What do you like about/ think is working well in the current LD curriculum and approach?

Collaboration/ teamwork (55) Digital material (32) Flipped classroom (22)

What do you not like about/think is not working well in the current LD curriculum and approach? What are your suggestions for improving the programme?

There is no grammar explanation (22) There is no course book (23)

Task-based learning (14) Collaboration (team/ group work) (8) Flipped classroom (5) Authentic material/ situation (4) Digital material (broken links) (11) Learners’ preparation (9)

Using course books (29) Teaching grammar (23)

Revising material on MOODLE (10) Motivating learners to prepare (8)

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Learners mentioned three of the key features they thought worked well: collaboration/team work, digital material and flipped classrooms. Some of the learners’ responses were: “collaboration provides us with good knowledge, experience and new ideas” and “collaboration with other learners boosts my self-esteem”. Learners mentioned improvement in their language proficiency as a result of the collaborative approach. One learner wrote “our language improved through collaboration and communication” and another stated “it improved too much [sic] as I learned the English language in a sufficient way. The interaction with the teacher was very good. My English became better.” Two learners’ responses on digital material were: “digital material is much better than books which were bad” and “digital material is available online all the time”. One of the learners’ responses on flipped classrooms was “I like preparing at home”. This indicates that there was support for collaboration among learners who believe in the benefit of scaffolding and who are willing to learn from their peers. Although the quantitative data showed that digital materials and preparation at home were less appealing, these emerged as factors in the curriculum that worked well. This is positive; however, more work is needed to get learners to buy into doing more work outside the classroom. Instructors identified TBL, collaboration, flipped classrooms and authentic materials as features they liked and that worked well. The following are some of the instructors’ comments: “task-based approach is very effective, students learn a lot from authentic presentations and role play”; “during class discussions, students exchange ideas and opinions”; “flipped classroom helps learners master and develop skills”; and “although some students are reluctant to prepare, yet some students admitted that if they had prepared well, they would have benefited more”. From the learners’ point of view, what did not work well was the lack of books and the digital materials as well as the lack of grammar explanations. Some learners’ comments on books are: “course books will help learners remember what they have studied” and “need course book along with the digital material”. Although they studied grammar for years throughout their school and university education, they still want grammar. Some learners’ comments are: “I want more grammar

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     77

explanation as this facilitates my learning”, “lack of grammar explanation hinders constructing English sentences” and “teaching grammar rules in class is important, especially explaining common mistakes”. Books and teaching grammar are two features that learners believed were indispensable in their learning process. Instructors mentioned two aspects of the new curriculum approach that did not work well: digital materials and learners’ preparation. Some of the instructors’ comments were: “some links are broken”; “students still have problems with the digital learning material and this hinders their progress”; “the main challenge is having learners unprepared for the session”; and “since the approach depends on student prior preparation, I find a lot of students coming to class unprepared which has a negative impact on the class performance”.

Suggestions The most frequently occurring learner suggestions were using course books and teaching grammar, which align with the two factors they believed did not work well in the new curriculum. They asked for course books and suggested that “part of the session has to be allocated to teaching verbs and sentence structure”. Instructors suggested that the digital materials should be reviewed and filtered regularly and ways are needed to motivate learners to prepare. These suggestions were linked to the curriculum features that did not work well. No new additional themes or attitudes emerged from the analysis of learners’ responses to the open-ended interview questions. They reported positive attitudes towards collaboration and the integration of technology in the classroom. They acknowledged during the interviews that a focus on grammar did have some negative impact on their English language proficiency and that it did not necessarily improve their language. In response to the open-ended interview questions, some of the instructors’ suggestions for motivating students to prepare beforehand and to check for preparation were as follows: “I divide students

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into groups and assign each group a portion of the material”, “if students cannot prepare everything, each student will be responsible for a small segment” and “I always demonstrate the benefits of preparation in advance as this will help them participate effectively”. To check learners’ preparation teachers suggested the following: “I usually start by asking them about what they prepared and ask them to summarize the ideas and state their opinion” and “I ask questions about the listening and reading before discussing them”. On handling digital learning materials, instructors stated that “I ask other learners to help him/her”, “open discussion on the class Facebook group” and “I always have my students on a WhatsApp group and we always communicate through messages”. Instructors proposed professional development workshops on assessment and classroom management.

Implications The traditional context of a book-driven curriculum with a focus on grammar in language teaching is deeply rooted in learners’ views of language learning and their preferred instructional practices. It will take some time to overcome this prevailing perception by orienting both learners and instructors. Evaluation of the innovation has shown that there were positive attitudes towards the approach and over time a change in mindset may occur. Peer influence has a strong impact on learners and through collaborative learning change can occur. Effective leadership is key to the success of an innovation. An important aspect of leadership is the visibility of administrators among the teachers and learners. Regular administrative class visits should be conducted to ensure that instructors are on the right track and that change occurs not only in their performance but also in their mindset. SCE administrators making regular visits to classes during the first week of term can also help explain the benefits of the new approach to new learners by opening discussions and attending to learners’ enquiries. These discussions help learners adopt and adapt to new ideas about language teaching and learning, and create consistency in the learning environment.

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     79

Establishing a system and process to sustain the innovation is key. An example in this innovation case study is the system for regular revision of the digital material. It is essential for digital material to be subject to continuing revision, especially with open sources, links that break and others that need updating. Instructors play a major role in curriculum innovation and therefore continuous professional development is very important. Asking instructors to conduct professional development for their colleagues, in which they demonstrated classroom strategies that effectively resolved issues, was another strategy tried by SCE that proved effective, as was requiring newly hired instructors to go through an induction programme and to attend professional development events. Another important implication of this study is that more practical research is needed on TBL in classrooms in different contexts. Foster (2009) cautioned against the misconceptions of how far educational research can explain “what might or might not work in a classroom” (p. 261) and that researchers can no longer make “sweeping claims for how SLA works” (p. 260). Therefore, what is needed is a more balanced approach to TBL research. For TBL to achieve “full professional respect” (p. 397), research and practice need to meet. There is also a need for more empirical research into the classroom dynamics of TBL so that practitioners and administrators can gain a better understanding of how to develop TBL programmes and deal with the challenges involved (Bygate, 2016). Practice-focused research is required to inform and develop the theory and implementation of TBL if it is to succeed as an innovation.

Discussion Questions 1. The authors argue that a task-based curriculum design based on real-life contexts and the specific grammar and vocabulary that their students need is far more effective than using commercially available textbooks. Do you support this view? What risks, if any, do ‘home-developed’ curricula pose?

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2. The authors assert that a key principle of their innovation is the complete abandonment of textbooks in favour of digital learning materials. Would this be feasible in your context? Do you feel that textbooks help or hinder your teaching? 3. This chapter describes the challenge of working with students who have very different expectations of language learning, often more ‘traditional’ than those of the teachers. What are the dangers inherent in a situation such as this? What can teachers and administrators do about it? 4. The curriculum innovation described in the chapter intended to ‘go beyond’ just language learning and included aims relating to critical thinking, problem solving, and so on. Do you think it is appropriate to include these broader goals in language teaching? What are the risks involved? What are the benefits? 5. Another challenge identified by the authors was that of using a flipped classroom in which students are expected to prepare outside class time and take responsibility for their own learning. From your experience, how should teachers meet this challenge? What other challenges does ‘flipping the classroom’ present?

Sessions ()

Sessions ()

Monologue (1 minute) √ Based on cards about sightseeing or a product, learners are asked to give a one-minute sales pitch to the class

[Production] Can describe everyday aspects of his environment, e.g. people, places, a job or study experience [74] Can give short, basic descriptions of events and activities [75]

[Interaction] Dialogue (2–3 minutes) √ Can discuss everyday practical Based on cards, learners play issues in a simple way when roles to exchange informaaddressed clearly, slowly and tion about pastimes/past directly [39] activities (e.g. a trip, movie Can deal with practical everygoing, sightseeing, celebraday demands: finding out and tions, national days, wedpassing on straightforward dings, birthdays, etc.) and to factual information [57] elicit specific/non-personal Can ask and answer questions information. Each learner is about pastimes and past activrequired to ask and answer ities [59] 5 questions

Content Skill S W

TASK description

CAN-dos

Table 4.4  Assessment blueprint of A2B course

Appendix Assessment criteria

25

25

Scores

(continued)

1st part– Production Session Language Vocabulary 7 Grammar Fluency Pronunciation Integration Understanding and response 1st part– Session 9

Time

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     81

TASK description Independent (25 minutes) Learners write an email of 80–100 words about a personal/educational experience

Integrated (35 minutes) Reading a Facebook post on a personal problem, learners are asked to reply providing advice. The reply should be of 80–100 words NB the reading passage should be of 50–100 words

CAN-dos

[Production] Can write about everyday aspects of his environment, e.g. people, places, a job or study experience in linked sentences [87] Can write very short, basic descriptions of events, past activities and personal experiences [88]

[Interaction] Can write short, simple notes and messages relating to matters in areas of immediate need [71] Can describe everyday aspects of his environment, e.g. people, places, a job or study experience [74]

Table 4.4 (continued)

√

√

Sessions (,)

Sessions (,)

Content Skill S W

Assessment criteria Scores

25 1st part– Language Session Vocabulary (range and 3 control) Grammar (range and control) Mechanics (spelling, capitalization and periods) Coherence 25 1st part– Session 11

Time

82     D. Boraie et al.

4  Task-Based Learning and Teaching …     83

References Ahmadian, M. J. (2016). Task-based language teaching and learning. The Language Learning Journal, 44(4), 377–380. Barrot, J. (2014). A macro perspective on key issues in English as second language (ESL) pedagogy in the postmethod era: Confronting challenges through socio-cognitive-transformative approach. Asia-Pacific Educational Research, 23(3), 435–449. Boraie, D. (2017). Future of English. In J. I. Liontas (Ed.), The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching (1st ed.). Hoboken, USA: Wiley. Bygate, M. (2016). Sources, developments and directions of task-based language teaching. The Language Teaching Journal, 44(4), 381–400. Canagarajah, S. (2016). TESOL as a professional community: A half-century of pedagogy, research and theory. TESOL Quarterly, 50(1), 7–41. Council of Europe. (2001). The common European framework of reference for languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. East, M. (2014). Encouraging innovation in a modern foreign language initial teacher education programme: What do beginning teachers make of taskbased language teaching? The Language Learning Journal, 42(3), 261–274. Education First. (2016). EF English proficiency index. Retrieved from https:// www.ef.com/__/~/media/centralefcom/epi/downloads/full-reports/v6/ ef-epi-2016-english.pdf. Ellis, R. (2009). Task-based language teaching: Sorting out the misunderstandings. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19, 221–246. Ellis, R. (2015). Researching acquisition sequences: Idealization and de-idealization in SLA. Language Learning, 65(1), 181–209. European Commission—Tempus. (2010). Higher education in Egypt. Brussels: Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Retrieved from http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/tempus/participating_countries/overview/ egypt_tempus_country_fiche_final.pdf. Foster, P. (2009). Task-based language learning research: Expecting too much or too little? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19(3), 247–263. Kramsch, C. (2014). Teaching foreign languages in an era of globalization: Introduction. Modern Language Journal, 98, 296–311. Long, M. (2015). Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. Chichester, UK: Wiley. Robinson, P. (2011). Task-based language learning: A review of issues. Language Learning, 61(1), 1–36. Vygotksy, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, USA: MIT Press.

5 Innovation in Writing Instruction: Towards Nurturing Confident, Motivated and Academically Honest L2 Writers Fatima Esseili

Introduction In Lebanon, innovative English language teaching (ELT) practices, or cultures of learning and teaching (Bacha & Bahous, 2013), vary depending on the type of school or university (state vs. private), its funding, geographical location, status and years of operation. The ELT curriculums adopted in schools have undergone significant changes throughout the years, and practices run the whole gamut, from teaching soft and critical thinking skills to learner-centred classrooms, at one end of the continuum, all the way to using new pedagogic approaches, adopting the flipped and blended classroom model, and using new technology such as interactive white boards, mobile learning and various digital platforms, to name a few. This chapter begins by offering a brief description of English teaching in Lebanon, focusing particularly on the teaching and learning of writing. It proceeds to explore the F. Esseili (*)  The University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_5

85

86     F. Esseili

context and impetus for change in first-year writing classes in a private university in Lebanon where a modified version of the sequenced writing project (SWP) was implemented. Drivers for change, or the challenges that inspired adaptation of the SWP, are presented through a description of an exploratory study that examined students’ perceptions of both existing and new practices. The chapter describes the disparity between the principles and guidelines outlined by the administration in the existing curriculum, and the reality of classroom practices. Findings revealed that the existing curriculum is detrimental to students’ self-confidence as writers and to their motivation to learn and write; it did not improve students’ writing skills; and it encouraged academic dishonesty among first-year writing students. In contrast, implementing the SWP as a new pedagogic approach motivated students, boosted their self-confidence, enhanced their writing skills and significantly decreased academic dishonesty.

A Brief Survey of ELT in Lebanon Lebanon’s school system is divided into five cycles, each encompassing three grade levels. At the end of middle and high school, Lebanese students have to sit official examinations, the Brevet for grade 9 and the Lebanese Baccalaureate for grade 12. During these cycles, and in line with Lebanon’s trilingual policy, students learn two foreign languages (French and English) in addition to Arabic. One of these foreign languages is used as a medium of instruction for mathematics and sciences, and the other is learned as a subject. Some schools begin teaching the second foreign language as early as grade 4 or 5. During the academic year 2016–2017, about 47.7% of students in Lebanese schools were educated in English as a medium of instruction, compared to 52.3% who were French educated (CRDP, 2017, p. 18). With respect to schools’ primary language of instruction, 46.9% offered instruction in Arabic–French (compared to 56.5% ten years earlier), 30.4% in Arabic–English, and 22.7% offered instruction in either Arabic–French or Arabic–English (p. 50). Until the end of the civil war (1975–1991), schools in Lebanon mostly followed the grammar-translation and audio-lingual approaches

5  Innovation in Writing Instruction: Towards Nurturing …     87

to language teaching. In the mid-to-late 1990s, curriculum reforms were initiated whereby “thematic, integrated, content-based” and communicative student-centred approaches were introduced, with the emphasis on developing “native-like proficiency”, autonomous learners, critical thinking skills, and cultural awareness of “English-speaking people” (ELT Curriculum, p. 2). Relying on the cooperative learning model, the new competency-based evaluation system was believed to represent a shift from assessing rote memorization of information to a focus on critical thinking and higher-level skills that were rooted in alternative assessment techniques (e.g., conferences, peer review, journals and portfolios). As far as the teaching of writing was concerned, a process approach to writing was mandated whereby students would write multiple drafts before they submitted a final paper. English language teachers were supposed to guide students through the different pre-writing, writing, revising and publishing stages. In advanced grade levels, students composed drafts in different genres including reports and research papers (Shaaban & Ghaith, 1997). Students were expected to write “correctly, coherently, and fluently” (ELT curriculum, p. 20). They were supposed to engage in authentic, meaningful writing contexts, to reflect on their own writing practices and to participate in peer evaluation. The extent to which these curricular reforms have been applied or have been effective and successful, however, is arguable. Recent test results for foreign languages in grades 9 and 12 reveal that the average score for all 9th graders was 19.6 out of 40 for the academic year 2016–2017 (CRDP, 2017, p. 60). Looking at the average score for 12th graders, irrespective of track, reveals similar, unsatisfactory results (Table 5.1). Students fared slightly better in their native language. A score on a test conducted within a limited timeframe and under pressure is not a comprehensive measure of proficiency level, but these results do indicate that there is a problem. While 9th and 12th graders constituted only about 10% of the entire student population for the academic year 2016/2017, these grade levels mark the end of two crucial school cycles, middle and high school. As such, one would expect these students to fare much better on foreign languages after having studied them as subjects and having used them to learn content-area subjects for years. Such results might be attributed to unsuitable

88     F. Esseili Table 5.1  Success rate in official examinations in languages Grade 9

Arabic language Foreign language

Grade 12 Sociology and economics

Humanities General sciences

Life sciences

33.2/60

29.3/60

51.9/90

28/50

28.9/50

19.6/40

18.4/40

34/70

22/40

22.2/40

teaching methods, students’ lack of motivation to learn, a discrepancy between classroom teaching and exams, or strict grading methods, among other factors. Low proficiency also affects students at university level, in terms of both their perceived and actual ability to succeed in languages. It is worth noting that in Lebanon, even if students fail one or two subjects in official examinations, they can still pass the entire school cycle and move to the next one, in contrast to other Arab countries like Jordan where if a student fails one subject in grade 12, they have to be retested in that subject before they are allowed to graduate. A contributory factor in the current problem is teachers’ proficiency level or the language(s) of instruction used, as studies have revealed. Shaaban (2005) believed that teachers’ proficiency level was “far from satisfactory” and that “most students who join English departments or TEFL programs are not proficient in English, but they are nonetheless employed by schools as the demand exceeds the supply” (p. 108). Ten years later, proficiency was still found to be an issue. Teachers who were supposed to use a foreign language to teach mathematics and sciences reported using Arabic and/or code switching with English/ French in their classes. Such practices affected their students’ ability to understand test questions and prompts in the target language (Esseili, 2014), and consequently, their success rate in official examinations for grades 9 and 12, which are conducted in either English or French. Another recent study corroborated previous findings that some school teachers used Arabic to teach mathematics and sciences when they should have been using either English or French. The study found a

5  Innovation in Writing Instruction: Towards Nurturing …     89

direct correlation between taking tests in a language spoken by students on a regular basis and improving students’ scores and performance in subject areas (Abdulla & Skaf, 2015, p. 21). At the higher education level, practices differ between state and private universities, with the latter being more progressive in their approaches to teaching English in general and writing in particular. Similarly to schools, however, practices differ from one private university to another, depending on their overall mission and vision, teachers’ qualifications, funding, experience in the education sector, accreditation policies, hiring practices and status. In addition, students’ background and the high school they graduated from are often factors that affect their communication skills in foreign languages and their success at university level. Bacha and Bahous (2013) surveyed L1 Arabic university students’ cultures of learning and found that there were differences in cultures of learning within the same educational system in Lebanon, where schools tended “to emphasize memorization, teacher centeredness, and lecture methods” (p. 117), in contrast to universities where Western educational cultures prevailed and an emphasis on critical thinking and learner-centred classrooms was the norm. The authors caution that “while English proficiency levels can be expected to be high in Lebanese universities, it is nearly always an L2 or L3 for students” due to the “traditional ways” of teaching in schools (p. 119). Such findings are in direct contrast with the curricular reform supposedly implemented in schools. To complicate the issue further, for the academic year 2014/2015, Syrian refugees constituted 6.3% of the total student population in Lebanese schools (CRDP, 2015, p. 14). At the tertiary level, the percentage of Syrian students aged 18–24 who were eligible to enrol in a university constituted about 4% of the total student population in higher education (CRDP, 2015; El-Ghali, 2017). Syrian refugees struggle as a result of differences in education systems between Lebanon and Syria. Whereas in the Syrian higher education system, instruction is in Arabic, in Lebanon it is in either English or French (El-Ghali, Berjaoui, & McKnight, 2017). Thus, language becomes a major barrier to success. Another barrier is students’ “insufficient academic qualifications

90     F. Esseili

and lack of familiarity with the academic culture and expectations, such as critical thinking skills, level of independence and study habits common in Lebanon versus Syria” (p. 34). In addition to the issues outlined above, other challenges will be addressed in this chapter as they pertain to the specific context under investigation. The next section describes the context, followed by impetus for innovation.

The Context The innovation that this chapter reports on took place at a private English-medium university in Lebanon. The population in this university, as is the case with the majority of universities in Lebanon, comes from diverse learning contexts: some students are English educated, while others are French educated, and they hail from state or private (religious and secular), private-subsidized. While these students could be identified as bilingual or even trilingual, a wide range of proficiency levels exists across a continuum, as indicated in the previous section. To improve language-learning outcomes, universities in Lebanon have implemented systems whereby students are either placed into intensive English programmes or immediately into freshman composition programmes (Esseili, 2016). The Department of English in this university offers a Composition and Rhetoric Sequence course which includes four English communication skills modules: two remedial and two required (first-year writing composition and an advanced theme-based writing course). Students are placed into a level based on their TOEFL, IELTS or SAT scores, or based on their successful completion of a previous level. The first-year writing course, which is the focus of this study, is equivalent to freshman composition courses in the United States, which have become standard in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) universities that follow American models of education. According to the official course description, the course “is designed as a writing workshop that emphasizes writing for particular purposes and particular audiences”. It stresses the “ability to read critically and analyze texts of various types and

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styles”, and it emphasizes the importance of “students’ ability to argue academically and to use references to support their point of view”. In addition, demonstrating linguistic accuracy, and quoting and citing sources correctly are major aims of the course. All sections of this class follow a unified syllabus with the same learning outcomes, assignments (critical analysis, persuasive essay, narrative, and compare and contrast), readings (with slight variations), deadlines and a final exam. Monthly meetings with all instructors take place, as well as frequent email communication. In addition, a norming session usually occurs after the final exams are completed. The course design reflects the administration’s desire to encourage original writing, improve students’ writing skills and combat academic dishonesty.

Impetus for the Innovation Before the author was appointed to her post, and based on the recommendation of the course coordinator at the time, the university agreed to host a US-based Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) expert to evaluate the writing programme and examine the potential of adapting WAC theories and pedagogies to improve teaching and learning in the curriculum. Based on informal conversations with administrators and a number of faculty members and students, the WAC expert concluded that the university seemed “to lack a ‘writing culture’”, that students were “resistant to writing in general” and that “plagiarism [was] a dominant theme”. At the end of her four-day visit, the WAC expert recommended hiring at least one professor to attend to WAC and another to attend to the composition curriculum, stating that “WAC programme development could not successfully go forward without commensurate attention to the composition curriculum”. For reasons beyond the scope of this chapter the WAC initiative did not gain traction, but the need for an expert in rhetoric and composition/second-language writing became obvious, and hence I was appointed. After a year of using the existing curriculum, and gathering formal and informal data about the programme, the writing courses, and the students’ and instructors’ profiles and practices, my findings confirmed the WAC expert’s

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observations, but they revealed additional, deeper problems, which are outlined next. The major problem seemed to be the prevalence of academic dishonesty. As a solution and in order to improve students’ essays, the administration had resorted to a number of practices including having students write their major essays during a 50- or 90-minutes class session, assigning essay topics, and heavily penalizing students for inaccurate in-text citations, and for errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. Additional problems included the lack of logical progression of assignments from familiar genres (e.g., narrative) to the more complex discourse of persuasive essays and critical analysis. Students, for example, had to submit their first critical analysis paper during the third week of class, having attended only five or six sessions, one of which was spent on introducing the syllabus and policies, and two of which were mandatory lectures on “the power of language” and “academic integrity”. Essentially, instructors had two sessions, or three at best, to prepare students to write in such a difficult genre. Another factor that contributed to academic dishonesty was the use of a final exam weighted at 25% of the final grade, constituting a ‘deal breaker’, as the course coordinator explained it. The rationale was that if students managed to get through the loopholes of an instructor’s class, they would still get caught at the end, and if they passed, they would do so with a C+ or B− at best. This approach suggested that the curriculum was designed to catch cheats rather than facilitating students’ learning and helping them develop as writers and critical thinkers. Having observed these challenges firsthand, I designed a new syllabus with new assignments and tasks that meet the mandated learning outcomes. Before implementing the new approach, however, it was imperative to demonstrate that the problems with the existing curriculum were prevalent in all sections and that the new intervention would work. Thus, a study was designed to investigate students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the existing and new curriculums. The next section presents findings related to the existing curriculum. It is followed by a description of the new curriculum, along with major findings related to piloting it.

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Findings: Existing Curriculum The study’s first goal was to investigate whether the existing curriculum was doing what it was supposed to be doing, as the administration believed: encouraging original writing, improving students’ writing skills and combating academic dishonesty. Two questionnaires were designed through Qualtrics and administered to all sections of first-year writing students and to all instructors. This chapter will only report on results from students’ questionnaires. The total number of student participants was 337, with 43.4% female and 56.6% male. Students were asked whether they liked in-class writing or not. Table 5.2 shows the percentage of students who liked in-class writing (49%) and those who did not (51%) and the reasons they selected for their preference. Other reasons for not liking in-class writing included inability to write under pressure, inability to focus on the task at hand and be creative due to distractions and lack of inspiration, and inability to write quickly. A follow-up question asked, ‘if given the choice, would you like Table 5.2  In-class writing by preference Do you like in-class writing?

Why or why not?

Yes

It encourages original writing It decreases plagiarism and cheating It helps them dedicate time to more important courses at home It prepares them for the final exam It does not cater to writers’ different writing styles and preferences It does not provide the flexibility that writers need when they draft their essays in Microsoft Word (e.g., cutting, pasting, looking up words, checking correct spelling, etc.) It does not enable students to spend time on the process of writing Other

No

49%

51%

45% 23% 23% 9% 48% 35%

11% 6%

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to write your essays outside class?’ Seventy-four per cent indicated they would like to do so, compared to 26% who said they would rather not. Such a finding reveals that when allowed to have a say in their writing process, most students opt for writing at their own convenience rather than in the restricted classroom environment, where they are under time pressure. The 26% who still wanted to do in-class writing indicated that they would rather not do any work for English outside class and focus instead on their majors. As for plagiarism, when students were asked whether they had plagiarized or not, only 29% admitted that they had and 71% denied ever plagiarizing. However, when these same students were asked whether they had ever engaged in any type of unauthorized activity during in-class writing, they gave some unexpected answers. The left-hand column of Table 5.3 shows the type of unauthorized activities that students were asked to identify. It shows that of the 71% who denied ever plagiarizing or cheating, a combined total of 56% admitted they had engaged in an unauthorized activity during in-class writing (e.g., memorizing essays, using cell phones, etc.), 36% chose not to answer the question and only 8% denied ever engaging in such activities. Findings thus suggest that the problem with in-class writing runs deeper than originally thought. This does not mean that in-class writing should be abandoned entirely. To be sure, when done appropriately, it is a sound pedagogical strategy that could be used to workshop students’ essays and help them during the drafting process. But its purpose in this particular context was to encourage original writing and combat plagiarism, and it was obviously not achieving that purpose. As for reasons given for plagiarizing and/or cheating, students’ answers ranged from not knowing how to summarize, paraphrase and quote (21%), not knowing how to cite references (14%), not being used to relying on their own original ideas (7%) and not being confident expressing their own ideas (17%) to considering it difficult to write original academic papers (13%). Twenty-eight per cent provided other reasons, including being lazy, fear of failing, not being penalized for the same unauthorized activities in school, difficulty of writing in class, lack of confidence and lack of knowledge on assigned topics. This finding points to a related problem, which is whether the current curriculum

5  Innovation in Writing Instruction: Towards Nurturing …     95 Table 5.3  Self-reports on plagiarism and cheating During in-class writing, have you Have you plagiarized or cheated during ever engaged in one or more in-class writing? of the following unauthorized Yes (29%) No (71%) Total (%) activities? Brought an essay that I purchased from someone and copied it in class without the teacher’s knowledge (%) Brought an essay that I wrote at home and copied it in class without the teacher’s knowledge (%) Memorized an essay that I purchased from someone and wrote it down from memory during class (%) Memorized an essay that I prepared at home, and wrote it down from memory during in-class writing (%) Included sections of a pre-prepared essay inside reference articles with the intention of copying them during in-class writing (%) Used my cell phone to store text with the intention of copying it during in-class writing (%) I choose not to answer (%) None of the above (%) Total (%)

4

1

2

26

15

18

6

2

3

29

28

28

9

8

8

8

2

4

18 0 100

36 8

29 8

is improving students’ writing skills as it purports to do. Students do not seem to be confident when it comes to their writing skills. While the majority reported no to slight improvement in terms of content development, organization, writing grammatical sentences, using proper word choice and punctuating appropriately, students found that the class benefited them the most in terms of working with references, such as quoting properly (69%), paraphrasing (70%), and summarizing (67%). Inadequate preparation in such skills was among the reasons students gave to justify plagiarism. Additional reasons for plagiarism

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and their perceived lack of progress as writers included being French educated, working with unauthentic materials and uninteresting topics, identifying writing courses as a ‘rip-off’ (the cost of credits for the same class differs depending on their major), believing they are average writers, or even bad writers, having to write (and read) in class within a limited time, and believing that there is no connection between their majors and the writing class. According to these findings, the existing curriculum did not seem to be achieving its purpose. It did not encourage original writing and did not succeed in combating plagiarism; rather it was encouraging creative ways of cheating the system. In terms of improvement and development, students reported improvement in working with references rather than in their overall writing skills. The next section introduces the new syllabus and describes how it was successful in addressing these challenges.

Area of Innovation My primary concerns in addressing these challenges were to ensure (1) that students are motivated to be in the class and to write; (2) that they develop confidence and improve their writing skills; and (3) that academic dishonesty is reduced, if not eliminated. Students should be able to enjoy writing and discussing topics that are directly relevant to them, rather than comparing and contrasting two essays, for example, neither of which may appeal to them, as is the case with in the curriculum at present. Such compare/contrast assignments and readings are no doubt important, but they might not be as important or relevant when rounds of armed conflict are taking place as students are sitting in the classroom. In order to engage and motivate students to write, assignments and topics should be carefully selected and sequenced, and students should be encouraged to grow and to think beyond a final red mark. Writing does not have to be a source of aversion and fear. One approach to addressing the above challenges and students’ needs is a modification of the SWP in which students learn to “develop

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expertise and confidence in dealing with subject matter beyond writing based on personal histories, experiences, and tastes” (Leki, 1992, p. 19). In this project, students must select a topic that they are interested in, have had previous experience with, and are motivated to explore and develop during an entire semester. Leki explains: “the topics the students ultimately choose cover a wide range of issues, reflect the students’ individual concerns, and are rooted in their personal experiences” (p. 21). Assignments are linked together and build upon one another in order to enhance students’ knowledge and expertise on a given topic and to improve their writing skills as they explore the topic in different ways. The original sequence proposed by Leki included five writing assignments: current knowledge, summaries, survey, interviews and reports. For the EFL class under investigation, the number and nature of the sequenced assignments were modified from Leki’s original model in order to suit the needs of the local population. Students wrote four assignments instead of five: a personal narrative, summaries, literature review and a proposal on a single topic. In contrast to Leki’s condition that students should have had experience with the topic, they were allowed to choose topics that they would like to explore, particularly ones they were grappling with. For example, some students wanted to explore careers that their parents had chosen for them. They were in majors that they did not like. Topics included running a family business, dealing with depression, civil marriage, perceptions of the self, corruption in Lebanon, war and conflict, trauma, and refugees. Thus, one student wrote about his personal experience of wasta (nepotism), moved to locating articles on the topic, summarized the articles, wrote a literature review based on the summarized articles and finally presented a proposal on the problem. Another wrote about his uncle’s marijuana farm that the government had burned “without offering an alternative source of income for the family”, as the student explained. In addition, he personally had been arrested for smoking marijuana on campus. In contrast to the existing curriculum, assignments were ordered from the familiar (narrative) to the more difficult genres of writing

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literature reviews and proposals. Reading materials were selected from the students’ immediate context: texts written in English by Lebanese and Arab authors with some international pieces written on issues similar to the ones experienced in the students’ country. For example, in ‘Leaving Beirut’, one of the texts that students read, Mai Ghassoub explored her life before and during the Lebanese civil war, addressing themes of conflict and violence, among others. The text spoke not only to Lebanese students, but also to Syrian refugees in the class who were struggling to find their place in a new environment. For each assignment students read model texts written by both former students and L1 writers. Students composed several drafts and got feedback from multiple sources, including their peers, writing tutor and instructor. Students did not receive a grade on their drafts, but feedback on content and organization was given. As for grammar, one or two patterns of errors were identified and the student was asked to pay attention to that pattern in their subsequent drafts. Before students submitted a draft in a new genre, another type of sequencing was followed. The assignments were broken down into a series of steps, or checkpoints, which allowed for the instructor to work with individual students on brainstorming, organizing and refining ideas for the draft. Students also worked in pairs or small groups on these minor assignments (e.g., writing outlines, thesis statements and attention-drawing introductions; showing voice and significance while still using the third person in a literature review, etc.) and they discussed their feedback on each other’s papers. In contrast to the existing curriculum, in which students were forced to write their entire paper in class, students were allowed to write at home. In-class writing tasks were designed to help students think through ideas. In addition, students participated in creating a rubric for the different assignments, which they used to evaluate the sample models and to guide their papers and peer reviews. These were part and parcel of the writing and evaluation process. Finally, students were asked to submit an ungraded reflection journal for every assignment in which they reflected on their learning process, writing skills, progress, feedback received, revisions made and anything else they wished to address.

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Findings: New Curriculum The study’s second goal was two-fold: (1) to demonstrate to administration that the new curriculum was successful in addressing the aforementioned problems, that is, it nurtures motivated and confident students, enhances their writing skills and decreases academic dishonesty; and (2) to dispel the administration’s belief that the new pedagogic approach was too difficult for instructors to implement and show that, in fact, they preferred it to the existing curriculum. In order to address the first goal, pre- and post-semester questionnaires were designed through Qualtrics and administered to 68 students in four sections of the class. As for the second goal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the two instructors who taught both the existing and the new curriculums. The interviews were transcribed and coded for themes. The pre- and post-semester questionnaires asked students a range of questions, including whether they believed themselves to be good writers, whether they were motivated to write, whether they liked in-class writing, and whether they had ever plagiarized and why. Table 5.4 presents a comparison of these responses. Cross-tabulations revealed a strong correlation between students’ major and their attitude towards writing in the pre-semester questionnaire. Students who were English or Education majors were more likely to have a positive attitude towards writing. Follow-up questions uncovered some of the reasons behind the negative attitudes observed in students’ responses. Earning a low grade was a major factor responsible Table 5.4  Comparing pre- and post-semester responses Pre-semester Post-semester Yes (%) No (%) Yes (%) No (%) Do you like to write? Do you like in-class writing? Are you motivated to write? Do you feel confident in your writing skills? Do you believe you are a good writer? Have you ever plagiarized?

4 54 22 29

96 46 74 71

92 86 78 66

8 14 22 34

38

62

72

28

33

67

9

91

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for students’ lack of confidence and motivation, and their overall aversion to writing. When asked why they believed they had earned a low grade, students attributed it to strict grading policy (e.g., students lose 1–3 points for every error depending on its type), to being French educated (English is their third language) and to restrictions associated with in-class writing (limited time, lack of resources). Other factors included lack of time, absence of writing assignments in their disciplines, lack of good proofreading skills, and the mandatory and dull nature of the courses. Examining data from the post-semester questionnaire revealed that students’ attitudes had changed remarkably. Using the SWP was successful in motivating students to write (78%), boosting their self-confidence (66%), and having a favourable attitude towards writing (92%). Eighty-one per cent of students reported that choosing their own topics made them more confident and motivated to write and to work on their projects. They affirmed that the freedom to choose topics was an important aspect of the writing process. When asked why they chose their topics, students indicated that the topics were directly related to their lives, to their major, or to a current issue going on in the country that they wanted to be more knowledgeable about. Students expressed that they had learned a great deal about themselves, their peers and their immediate context. As for plagiarism, Table 5.4 shows that when asked whether they had ever plagiarized in the pre-semester questionnaire, 67% of students denied plagiarizing, while 33% admitted to it. However, similar to students in the existing curriculum, in a follow-up question, 84% of students who denied plagiarizing admitted to being engaged in a type of unauthorized activity. Some of the reasons offered by students included “not knowing how to cite” (28%) and “not being used to rely on their own original ideas” (27%). In the post-semester questionnaire, 91% of students denied plagiarizing or engaging in any unauthorized activity. Students commented that the way the class was designed did not pressure them into resorting to unauthorized activities. They appreciated not having to write their papers in one sitting, not receiving grades on their drafts, and not being heavily penalized for grammar errors. The 9% who admitted to plagiarizing did so in their final proposal paper, blaming it on lack of time and having to focus on tests and reports in their disciplines.

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Finally, students who were taught using the SWP project rated themselves higher on all writing skills than students in the existing curriculum. For example, 65% of students believed that their ability to synthesize information using their own voice had improved, compared with only 15% in the existing curriculum. In addition, 57% of students believed their content development had improved compared to 36% in the other sections. It seems that allowing students to choose their topics and write at home, choosing reading materials that are relevant to them, and sequencing the assignments and breaking them down into manageable tasks have all enabled students to feel comfortable and confident, to enjoy being in class, and to be motivated to write and to explore their own ideas on topics. While the new curriculum did not eliminate plagiarism altogether, it did succeed in decreasing it. Interviews with the two teachers, both of whom had taught both the existing and the new curriculum, supported the above-mentioned findings. One teacher indicated that in her experience teaching the existing curriculum, students were not engaged with the readings, compared to the new curriculum, where they were highly motivated and engaged “to an extent that it [was] hard to shut them up!” The second instructor agreed that the new curriculum was successful in engaging students both in terms of classroom interaction and being motivated to write. In terms of providing feedback, the two instructors found it challenging to focus on content and organization development rather than marking every single grammatical error as they were used to. At the same time, they loved suspending assigning a grade on a draft because, as one teacher noted, “when you assign a grade, that’s all they see, a number, and they stop paying attention to feedback. I like that separation between the grade and feedback.” Finally, although the two instructors admitted that the new curriculum “might be a bit challenging to implement especially for novice teachers”, they agreed that “the benefits outweigh the challenges and the extra time that instructors have to invest”, which should be resolved with proper mentoring and training. Despite these positive findings, the new curriculum was not adopted or adapted on a wider scale. The first obstacle was a lack of institutional support. Change that is not driven by internal beliefs might be

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perceived as personally and professionally threatening to an administrator. Another obstacle was the difficulty of promoting this curriculum to other faculty members, partly because the majority were part-­timers on contracts, and changing the status quo might not have been in their best interest, which is understandable. The lack of motivation to change could also be attributed to the additional workload that might ensue from using a new pedagogic approach. Writing essays in class saves preparation time and effort, and may make it easier to focus on grammatical accuracy and in-text citations. Finally, the high turnover of full-time faculty members in the department made it difficult to gain support. Within two years, four international faculty members resigned, two of whom were trained in rhetoric and composition.

Implications and Conclusion Contrary to the assumptions of some local writing instructors, academic dishonesty, specifically plagiarism and/or using essay mills or banks in freshman composition, is not a Lebanese, MENA or international student problem (cf. Dante, 2010; Howard & Robillard, 2008; Wheeler, 2009). It is a worldwide phenomenon that is often rooted in the type of instruction and curriculum used in a given programme, the overall culture of an education system, the mismatch between students’ views on dishonesty and those of the administration, and the business-driven societal expectations that are making individuals race against time and financial obligations, among other factors. In this chapter, I focused on the type of instruction and curriculum found in the Lebanese context. Students in the existing writing course identified a number of challenges that hindered their progress as writers and that encouraged them to plagiarize, including being French educated, having to write in class and not knowing how to cite, among other factors. To address these issues, insights from research on world Englishes and the teaching of writing should inform writing courses. Administrators and instructors should keep in mind their students’ needs and goals. Grammatical accuracy is important, but it should not take precedence over communicative effectiveness. In addition, writing program administrators (WPAs) and

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instructors should keep in mind that it is not easy to write well-documented essays using different genres and that “to produce such advanced writing is a complex and long-term process, requiring a period of practice and apprenticeship not of semesters but years” (Pennington, 2010, p. 148). Another factor to keep in mind is the importance of allowing students to choose their own topics and its role in motivating them to write. While keeping in mind that a variety of educational experiences and learning cultures exists within individual countries, the challenges identified in this chapter do not seem to be specific to this particular university or to Lebanon. A number of studies conducted in various universities across the MENA region (e.g., in Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, to name a few) found that many EFL teachers still follow a product approach to writing or have a narrow understanding of writing as a process, and that learners in writing courses are unable to compose accurate sentences and develop content (cf. Bani Younes & Albalawi, 2015; Ezza, 2010; Nofal, 2011). In addition, similar challenges were outlined in international branch campuses in the Gulf, where in one study it was found that some students tended to memorize texts, lacked background knowledge, struggled with specific genres (e.g., critical analysis and literature review), and needed more time to read and write (Miller & Pessoa, 2017). In another study, Rudd and Telafici (2017) investigated the problem of adopting American-centric textbooks to teach first-year writing and concluded that only when teachers abandon their tendency to rely solely on imported texts will they be able to localize and contextualize their practice, and hence better serve the student population. Understanding students’ background (e.g., the school systems they graduated from, the extent to which they read in their native and target languages, their beliefs about learning and writing), as well as teachers’ beliefs on teaching and learning, are essential for any sound curricular reform in writing classes. To elaborate, EFL students who have not been exposed to analyzing arguments in high schools and to citing sources will find it extremely difficult to write a critical-analysis essay at university level without adequate preparation. Their perceived failure to complete the task within one or two class periods can be seen as a form of negligence on the part of the instructor or WPA who failed to

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understand their students’ needs and prepare them adequately to write following genre conventions. Students need extra time to process readings in a foreign language and more time to write and analyze arguments. Using imported texts that have nothing to do with students’ immediate concerns and their context does not help and is an additional barrier to development (Esseili, 2014). The majority of teachers in this specific context believed that students often used being French educated as an excuse to justify their failure to write. However, it is important to understand the difficulty of navigating and switching between the languages that these students have learned. Being natives of a country where diglossia exists, as is the case across MENA, these students acquire an unwritten colloquial language as a mother tongue, learn Modern Standard Arabic in schools, which they use to read and write, learn mathematics and sciences using either English or French, which are used for instruction across Lebanon, and then are expected to complete a number of tasks in that foreign language, including using academic language, writing timed essays on uninteresting or unfamiliar topics, and adhering to the conventions of a genre they are inexperienced with. When they fail to meet our expectations and standards, the results may be penalties for them rather than a critical reassessment by us of the curriculum and pedagogy that led to these outcomes. Instructors, administrators and institutions need to have the courage to examine their own practices and the impact these have. In order to serve students better and lead them to success, institutions could consider several steps: they could expend efforts in better understanding the context and their students’ needs, trust their instructors, and give them freedom to make the necessary curricular changes. This responsibility does not fall solely on institutions; drivers of change, whether leaders or individual teachers, should keep communication channels with administrators and other faculty open. They should involve them in every step of the process, and make everyone an active, agentive participant in the process. Perhaps one of the failings evident from this project was an inability to garner support and bring people on board. Although the ideas may have been good (and the student and teacher feedback seems to support this interpretation), the process of implementing change was ultimately unsuccessful and more effort may

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have had to be expended on building trust and creating a collaborative journey of development. Finally, ongoing professional development in specific areas of expertise, such as teaching EFL writing, should be encouraged, and in some instances mandated by programme administrators and course coordinators. Using action research would be one way of keeping instructors involved in improving and developing the teaching and learning processes. Data and research coming out of this region would in turn inform international teacher education courses and help them prepare their teachers to be more effective and to be more cognizant of the needs of local contexts.

Discussion Questions 1. What are the key issues identified in this chapter related to teaching freshman composition? What challenges do these present for the students, the instructors, the WPA and the institutions that host them? 2. Analyze your own institution’s curriculum for teaching freshman composition. What are some of the issues you are able to identify? How might they be addressed? 3. Some suggestions for supporting academic honesty have been provided in this chapter. What are some of the other possible ways support might be focused on students and faculty to promote academic honesty? 4. A major reason why the alternative approach described in this chapter did not gain traction is the difficulty of convincing the administration that change is needed even when evidence-based research is available. Reflect on the WPA’s leadership role within their programmes. How should they have responded to the current situation? Why? 5. This chapter touches upon the fact that composition classes may be primarily taught by lecturers or adjuncts who are often overworked and underpaid and who, in the interests of keeping their jobs, may not want to disturb the status quo. How might this situation affect their instruction and their ability to innovate? What is the role of the WPA in supporting this specific population?

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References Abdulla, R., & Skaf, A. (2015). Lubnan fi al dirasaa al duwaliyya TIMSS 2011: Eighth grade. Beirut: Center for Educational Research and Development. Bacha, N. N., & Bahous, R. (2013). Cultures of learning in academia: A Lebanese case study. In M. Cortazzi & L. Jin (Eds.), Researching cultures of learning (pp. 116–135). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Bani Younes, Z., & Albalawi, F. S. (2015). Exploring the most common types of writing problems among English language and translation major sophomore female students at Tabuk University. Asian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 3(2), 7–26. Centre de Recherche et de Développement Pédagogiques. (2015). Statistics bulletin for the academic year 2014–2015. Retrieved from http://www.crdp. org/files/201703140524141.pdf. Centre de Recherche et de Développement Pédagogiques. (2017). Statistics bulletin for the academic year 2016–2017. Retrieved from https://www.crdp. org/files/201712140900311.pdf. Dante, E. (2010). The shadow scholar. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329. El-Ghali, H. A. (2017). Al-Taalim Al aali lilsuryeen haq wa laysa tarafan [Higher education for Syrians is a right not a luxury]. Al Akhbar, 22 May. Retrieved from http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/277545. El-Ghali, H. A., Berjaoui, R., & McKnight, J. (2017). Higher education and Syrian refugee students: The case of Lebanon. Beirut: UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States. Esseili, F. (2014). English language teaching in Lebanon: Trends and challenges. In K. M. Bailey & R. M. Damerow (Eds.), The teaching and learning of English in the Arabic speaking world (pp. 101–114). New York: Routledge. Esseili, F. (2016). The status of ESL/EFL writing in Lebanon. In T. Silva & J. Paiz (Eds.), Writing in the global context: Represented, underrepresented, and unrepresented voices (pp. 142–175). Beijing: The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Ezza, E. (2010). Arab EFL learners’ writing dilemma at tertiary level. English Language Teaching, 3(4), 33–39. Howard, R. M., & Robillard, A. E. (Eds.). (2008). Pluralizing plagiarism: Identities, contexts, and pedagogies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Leki, I. (1992). Building expertise through sequenced writing assignments. TESOL Journal, 1(2), 19–23.

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Miller, R., & Pessoa, S. (2017). Integrating writing assignments at an American branch campus in Qatar: Challenges, adaptations, and recommendations. In L. Arnold, A. Nebel, & L. Ronesi (Eds.), Emerging writing research from the Middle East-North Africa region (pp. 175–200). Fort Collins: The WAC Clearinghouse, Colorado State University Open Press. Mourtaga, K. (2012). Poor writing in English: A case of the Palestinian EFL learners in the Gaza Strip. Gaza: Islamic University of Gaza. http:// site.iugaza.edu.ps/kmortaga/files/2012/04/poor-writing-of-Palestinian-EFL-learners.doc. Nofal, K. (2011). The reasons behind the English major students’ weaknesses in Philadelphia University. Damascus University Journal, 27(1), 101–128. Pennington, M. (2010). Plagiarism in the academy: Towards a proactive pedagogy. Writing and Pedagogy, 2(2), 147–162. Rudd, M., & Telafici, M. (2017). An Arabian Gulf: First-year composition textbooks at an international branch campus in Qatar. In L. Arnold, A. Nebel, & L. Ronesi (Eds.), Emerging writing research from the Middle EastNorth Africa region (pp. 115–132). Fort Collins: The WAC Clearinghouse, Colorado State University Open Press. Shaaban, K. (2005). English language teaching in Lebanon: Challenges for the future. In G. Braine (Ed.), Teaching English to the world: History, curriculum, and practice (pp. 103–113). Abingdon: Routledge. Shaaban, K., & Ghaith, G. (1997). An integrated approach to foreign language learning in Lebanon. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 10(3), 200–207. Wheeler, G. (2009). Plagiarism in the Japanese universities: Truly a cultural matter? Journal of Second Language Writing, 18, 17–29.

6 Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates Melanie Gobert and Helene Demirci

Introduction The United Nations Arab Human Development Report, ‘Building a Knowledge Society’ (UNDP, 2003) first alerted Arab societies to the frightening state of literacy, publishing and reading in the region when compared to other countries. According to the report, the average Arab reads less than one book a year while the average European reads 35, an average Arab 6 minutes a year, and an average European 200 hours per year, although some dispute the interpretation and accuracy of the report. For example, the report counted literature but excluded other forms of reading such as the Internet and magazines. The report also addressed the number of books produced and translated. The entire M. Gobert (*) · H. Demirci  Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE e-mail: [email protected] H. Demirci e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_6

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Arab world (population 422 million) translates one-fifth of the books translated by Greece (population 11 million). These statistics will vary from country to country and there has been an improvement in the past few years, the report already being over 10 years old. However, a recent survey by the government in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of 12,000 Emirati parents, students and teachers found that 73% of parents do not read to their children, and only 7% of the population visits public libraries (versus 500% in Canada). Only 50% of students in schools and universities read routinely, while individuals read only 1.5 books a year. A further 78% of adults do not read regularly. There are 20 books on average per household compared to 203 in UK households, and only four books are read each year by Emirati students (compared to 40 in Korea) (Altaher, 2016). This has caused the government to pass a law on reading to “promote reading as a lifestyle choice and as a means to a brighter future” (Altaher, 2016). This chapter will discuss innovation in reading instruction that used the MReader tracking programme to create a competition to encourage students to read books of their choice at their level at the largest tertiary education provider in the country. The MReader is an online cloud-based tracking programme which is completely free for all students and educational institutions to use, created and funded by the Extensive Reading Foundation. The chapter will discuss what worked and what did not regarding the competition, such as teacher resistance and student cheating. The students read both physical books and online books while participating in the competition.

Area of Innovation The UAE officially declared 2016 “The Year of Reading” (UAE Declares, 2015), citing eradicating illiteracy as one of the Millenium Development Goals. When making the announcement, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, warned of the “reading crisis in the Arab world” and the urgent need to rectify it (ibid.). Sheikh Mohammad was referring to the ‘Building a Knowledge Society’ report, which concluded that Arab children spend on average 6 minutes a year reading in comparison to 12,000 minutes per year

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(200 hours) for children in the West. The report also stated that an Arab individual on average reads a quarter of a page a year compared to the 11 books read by an American and seven books by a British person. This lack of reading and the Gulf Arab student is not new to ESL instructors, who, as Cobb (2007) reports, witnessed the lack of reading and the inadequacy of ESL reading teaching methodology back in the 1980s. This lack of reading severely impacts the knowledge capacity of Emirati society when compared with Western societies. Motivating reluctant readers can be quite challenging in today’s world where reading competes with many technological distractions. Male students can be even more affected than female students when it comes to motivation and reading, especially due to the availability and widespread use of computer video games. To address this, Demirci and Gobert (2015) developed a competition called the Reading Challenge to increase their students’ reading in English as a second language by the extensive reading of graded readers, or ‘language learner literature’ as it is known in the world of ESL publishing. The Reading Challenge is a competition run throughout the semester whereby students read extensively outside class and their reading is tracked by MReader, a tracking platform available at www.mreader.org. MReader contains quizzes for over 7000 graded readers written for English language learners from almost all ESL publishers. Major publishers of graded readers support the website financially by donating to the Extensive Reading Foundation. It also contains a substantial collection of youth and children’s literature written for native speakers. The cloud-based tracking platform MReader currently has over 80,000 users worldwide and is completely free to use. In our competition, students read books from the library, do a quiz, and if they pass the quiz, they get points which equal the number of words read in the book. There are 30 questions per book in the MReader programme, but the student only answers ten randomized questions per quiz. The questions are basically written to determine if the student has read the book or not. The student may look at the book while they take the quiz, and the quizzes have a time limit, so the student does not have enough time to read the book while taking the quiz, but must complete it before attempting a quiz. If the student

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fails a quiz, they cannot retake the quiz unless the teacher resets it. At the end of the semester, medals are given to the top reader in each class, a trophy to the first-place class in each level, and a trophy to the top three readers overall. A weekly leader board is instrumental in keeping the students motivated during the competition. Our weekly leader board showed the number of words read by each class per week at each level and the top three student readers from each class with the number of words each student had read. The leader board was made using PowerPoint and displayed on the plasma screens in the library. It was also sent to the teachers to share with their class on the projector and post in the classroom virtual learning environment. Teachers could also project or download the class reading statistics from MReader, which showed how many words each student in the class had read. This was an ideal way to encourage both teachers and students to engage in the competition as, until the class had read any words, ‘TBA’ was used to show that no words had been read by the class on the library-issued PowerPoint leader board and 0 number of words read would also appear for the student in the class leader board downloaded or projected from MReader.

The Context Extensive reading is defined as reading self-selected books for pleasure (Bamford & Day, 2003). It is contrasted with intensive reading, the reading of short texts with accompanying questions, typical of ESL teaching reading methodology. There has been a great deal of research on the benefits of extensive reading in both first and second languages (Renandya, 2007). These benefits include spelling acquisition (Cho & Kim, 2004; Gobert, 2014; Krashen, 2004; Pellicer-Sanchez & Schmitt, 2010; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006), an increase in reading proficiency (Al-Homoud & Schmitt, 2009; Chen, Chen, Chen, & Wey, 2013; Cho & Kim, 2004; Gobert, 2014; Hafiz & Tudor, 1989; Kargar, 2012; Nakanishi, 2014; Yamashita, 2008), vocabulary acquisition (Al-Homoud & Schmitt, 2009; Cho & Kim, 2004; Gobert, 2014; Kweon, 2008; Rashidi & Piran, 2011) and an increase in overall

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     113

language proficiency (Gobert, 2014; Iwahori, 2008; Lee, 2007; Mason & Krashen, 1995; Nakanishi, 2014), as well as writing proficiency (Cho & Kim, 2004; Hafiz & Tudor, 1989; Mason & Krashen, 1995). In fact, Mustafa (2012) has argued that the reason first-year university Emirati students are poor writers is that they do not read extensively. He argues that extensive reading moves collocations, grammatical patterns and structures, and spelling patterns into long-term memory in addition to giving students some background knowledge about the world to draw upon when writing. Bamford and Day (2003) claim that, “Students who read more will not only become better and more confident readers, but they will also improve their reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities and their vocabularies will get richer” (p. 1). Nakanishi’s (2014, pp. 30–31) meta-analysis of extensive reading research found that extensive reading may be one of the most effective instructional strategies to promote reading proficiency with a medium-size effect on group contrasts (d = 0.46) and pre-posts contrasts (d = 0.71). Students who read extensively score higher on standardized exams such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Ahmed, 2010), Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMMS) (Martin, Mullis, & Foy, 2008), and Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT). For TIMMS and PISA, the tests are taken in the student’s first language, in this case Arabic for Emirati students. Further proof of Emirati students’ poor reading ability in ESL can be found in the results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Table 6.1 shows the performance of candidates from the UAE compared with L1 Arabic candidates in the reading section of the Academic Module of the IELTS exam (IELTS Annual Review 2006–2015). The problem is that Emirati students do not read extensively in Arabic or English (Gobert, 2011; Jazzar, 1991), despite many initiatives to increase the amount of reading in schools such as the launch of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (equivalent to the Man Booker Prize for Arabic writing and established in 2007), annual international book fairs in three cities and reading weeks in public schools. There are various reasons for this lack of widespread success for these initiatives although

aData

5.31

4.96

5.10

2007

5.52

2006

4.80

5.09

2008

4.69

4.96

2009

only available for rest of the world from 2012 to 2014

L1 Arabic Academic Module UAE Academic Module Rest of the world 4.80

n.a.

2010

4.80

5.00

2011

4.70 6.17

6.19

5.00

2013

4.60

4.90

2012

6.30

4.60

5.00

2014

4.70

5.00

2015

Table 6.1  Mean reading bands for the IELTS Academic Module for L1 Arabic test takers, UAE test takers, and rest of the worlda

114     M. Gobert and H. Demirci

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     115

they are making some inroads. In the UAE, “just 22 per cent of people described themselves as regular readers”, according to the Arab Thought Foundation’s Fikr (al-Yacoub, 2012). UAE students’ home literacy backgrounds are a major source of this lack of reading. In 1991, 15 years after the founding of the university, Jazzar did an ethnographic study at United Arab Emirates University, the first and largest national university founded in the country, on the impact of home literacy practices on college reading performance in Arabic and English. He counted the number of books in the homes of three students who performed well on tests of English and Arabic and three students who performed poorly on the same tests. He found that the poorest-performing student had only eight English books in his home (college text books) and 45 Arabic books while the highest-performing student had 40 books in English and 68 books in Arabic. Overall, the strongly performing students had 302 books compared to the weaker students’ total of 191 books and spent 91 hours per week reading compared to 49. Gobert (2011) also found that 41% of 102 female Emirati students surveyed reported that they did not read at all outside college, either in Arabic or English. These statistics are similar to those found in a comparison between high and low socio-economic groups in the USA (Krashen, 2004). However, Jazzar (1991) found that the weaker students in his study had the most luxurious homes, more cars and more servants; and the stronger students had bigger home libraries, with more literature in Arabic and English, and spent more time reading. Two of the participants in Jazzar’s (1991) study were female and the remaining four were male. The lowest-scoring student was male. One of the students in the study with the most books in his home was actually Palestinian, not Emirati, and read because his father encouraged him to. Palestinian refugees living in the UAE have been allowed to attend UAE University with special sanctions granted by the UAE government. Further and more recent evidence of a lack of books in the homes of UAE students comes from the TIMMS report (Sankar, 2009), which found that Dubai pupils had fewer books on average than students across the globe and that the majority of students had fewer than 25 books in the home (ibid.). The TIMMS report has long documented a

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correlation between the number of books in the home and student test performance (ibid.). PISA, another international assessment used for benchmarking students, tested 5620 15-year-old Dubai students from 134 public and private schools and found that Dubai ranked 41st out of 63 countries that participated in the test (ahead of Qatar and Jordan) (Ahmed, 2010). According to Schleicher, the head of the PISA study, “one third of the students in Dubai did not reach the baseline level two in reading literacy, which is considered the minimum level required for success in a ‘knowledge-based economy’” (as cited in Ahmed, 2010). Another reason why students may lack a reading habit in Arabic society is the phenomenon of Arabic diglossia. In fact, Arabic can be considered “triglossic” because there are at least three versions of Arabic that students use. The first is their spoken vernacular Arabic (SVA) according to Maamouri (1998) and Saiegh-Haddad (2004). This can vary even between neighbouring Emirates such as Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi, but there are three main varieties: Levantine Arabic (Israel, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon), Maghreb Arabic (North Africa), and Khaleeji (Gulf ) Arabic. In the UAE and Oman, some students speak another language altogether, Jebali, which is not an Arabic-based language. There are many different colloquial dialects of spoken Arabic and written Arabic has two main varieties: Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic. The second version of Arabic that our students learn to read and write at school is Modern Standard Arabic, MSA, also called fusha Arabic. It is the standard, formal written Arabic dating from when Classical Arabic was modernized at the turn of the last century. Because the dialects are so disparate, Arabs from different geographical locations sometimes use this version of Arabic to communicate. It is similar to the idea of, for example, nuns from Romania and Peru using Latin to communicate. However, Gulf students may not have learned fusha Arabic to the same degree as their counterparts in other Arab countries, such as Syria and Lebanon, where there is a long tradition of education with a higher value placed upon it. Wilfred Thesiger (1959), an intrepid explorer of the Empty Quarter, the large desert between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, writes of a 1400-km ride to meet him that one of his travelling companions, bin Kabina, made by camel, to have a letter that

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     117

Thesiger sent to him read. Not only could bin Kabina not read, but he had to ride 900 km to find someone who could read the letter to him. In addition, according to Maamouri (1998), literacy in the Arab world may not be as high as in other parts of the world because fusha (Modern Standard Arabic) is challenging to master, often taken as a subject throughout college, and akin to learning a second language. The third version of Arabic, referred to as Classical Arabic, is the language of the Quran, which has a high social value, but is very different lexically, phonetically, and grammatically when compared to the spoken vernacular dialects and fusha Arabic (Abu Rabia & Taha, 2006; Maamouri, 1998; Saiegh-Haddad, 2004). Coming from a triglossic linguistic background puts an added burden on UAE students when they learn to read in their own language, and this undoubtedly has an impact on reading for pleasure in Arabic. Mustafa (2012) and Kandil (2001) have both documented that reading for pleasure is not encouraged in Arabic. When students read Arabic literature in school, they read slowly and carefully because the teacher is going to ask them tricky, detailed questions hoping to catch them out (Kandil, 2001). Reading in Arabic has negative connotations associated with grades and punishment for Arabic speakers (ibid.). Developing the habit of reading in students can be a challenge for any teacher, but when faced with students from societies where there is a lack of a reading culture or reading habit because of the prized oral tradition (Shannon, 2003), it can be even more challenging. The oral tradition of the society means that parents, grandparents and teachers tell stories to pass on the cultural norms and expectations to children, rather than reading books. Think of the childhood books native English speakers read and have read to them to pass on English-speaking societies’ cultural norms and values: Pinocchio and The Boy who Cried Wolf, for not lying; The Three Little Pigs and The Ant and the Grasshopper, for idealizing hard work and the perils of idleness. Krashen (2004) claims that the most powerful way to encourage reading is to provide students with access to more books that they are interested in reading. Lack of access to books even affects the reading proficiency of minority communities, who are often members of low socio-economic groups, in the United States. According to Krashen

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(2004), research shows that students who perform better at reading on standardized tests have more books in their school libraries, bigger libraries in their schools, and more bookshops in their neighbourhoods. Krashen (2004) goes on to argue that it is the constant exposure to the written word that enables students to master English spelling. Most children who master the weekly spelling tests in grade school already know how to spell 70–80% of the words on the test because they come from a literacy-rich environment with lots of books in the home and the practice of being regularly read to by their parents, while children coming from lower socio-economic groups with less access to literature in the home know how to spell only 20–30% of the words on the test. Both groups improve their spelling by only 1–2 words in the weekly intensive study of the list of words leading up to the test (ibid.). Birch (2002) also writes that English has a complicated and extensive orthographic sound-to-letter and letter-to-sound system, which includes too many patterns to learn by rules, but which the human brain has a great capacity for figuring out, as long as it has sufficient exposure.

Findings To determine if the competition motivated the students, an electronic survey was collected at the end of the semester with statements about the reading competition using a Likert scale (see Table 6.2). Eightythree student responses were collected from 179 participants in the programme. Fifty-six per cent of the respondents were aged between 17 and 20. Most of the respondents were Common European Framework (CEFR) A2+-level students. The survey questions were given in both Arabic and English and open-ended questions were translated into English for analysis. After the survey was conducted, focus group interviews were held with six participating classes to validate it. The researchers’ own classes did not participate in the focus group interviews. In addition, interviews were held with six of the participating teachers. The survey showed that 81% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that they were motivated to

1. The Reading Challenge encouraged me to read more 2. I read books only when I was with my teacher 3. I read books on my own at home or outside college 4. I love reading 5. Reading books helps me to improve my English language 6. I will continue to read books on my own 7. I took quizzes on books I didn’t read 8. I like reading more now than I did before 9. I read the whole book before doing the quizzes 10. A  ll students should participate in the Reading Challenge 11. Winning the Reading Challenge motivated me to read 8.9% (7) 37.7% (29) 23.1% (18) 12.7% (10) 5.1% (4) 24.4% (19) 33.3% (26) 10.5% (8) 18.2% (14) 15.4% (12) 8.9% (7)

11.7% (9) 11.5% (9) 3.8% (3) 1.3% (1) 3.8% (3) 24.4% (19) 6.6% (5) 5.2% (4) 5.1% (4) 10.1% (8)

Disagree

3.8% (3)

Strongly disagree

Table 6.2  Summary of the results of the Reading Challenge questionnaire

50.6% (40)

41.0% (32)

46.8% (36)

23.1% (18) 56.6% (43)

52.6% (41)

54.4% (43) 30.8% (24)

32.1% (25)

36.4% (28)

43% (34)

Agree

30.4% (24)

38.5% (30)

29.9% (23)

19.2% (15) 26.3% (20)

19.2% (15)

29.1% (23) 62.8% (49)

33.3% (26)

14.3%(11)

44.3% (35)

79

78

77

78 76

78

79 78

78

77

79

Strongly agree Total responses

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     119

120     M. Gobert and H. Demirci

read by winning the competition. 87.3% agreed or strongly agreed that the Reading Challenge encouraged them to read more. Male students in the UAE appear to be motivated by competition, but in countries such as Japan (de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Kitao, Yamamoto, Kitao, & Shimatani, 1990; Robb & Kano, 2013) and Taiwan (Sheu, 2003) competition may not reap the same benefits. Female students the world over are thought to be more intrinsically motivated to read than male students and therefore it is believed that male students should be encouraged to read, much as female students have been encouraged to engage in science subjects (Wigfield, Gladstone, & Turci, 2016). Alsheikh & Elhoweris (2011) suggest that some teaching practices suited to motivating female UAE high-school students to read may decrease motivation in male high-school students. However, in the UAE the Reading Challenge was adopted by Zayed University’s Academic Bridge Program with equal or even more success (Swan, 2016): “The competition part is fun, I like it….It makes you want to read more when there is competition between the girls. It adds a new element” (Shurafa as quoted in Swan, 2016). Another female student said, “Some of the girls are getting quite competitive to see who can read the most….It’s like a game” (Al Mansoori as quoted in Swan, 2016). In the UAE, according to Hurreiz (2002), competition has been used quite effectively by the government to retain interest in cultural heritage activities such as camel racing, dhow racing, traditional dancing (Al Youla) and Nabati poetry (Million’s Poet: Kuwaiti student wins Dh5m poetry prize, 2016). Both male and female students appear to be equally motivated to read by competition in the UAE. In response to the Arab Building a Knowledge Society Report (UNDP, 2003), the government has recently instigated a competition for reading in Arabic across the Arab region called the Arab Reading Challenge for school students with over US$100,000 (550,000 AED) in prize money for the top reader and US$1 million for the top reading school (Achkhanian, 2017). In both the survey and the focus groups, the number one answer for what encouraged the students to read more was “the competition”. The students also recognized that reading improves their English during the competition. An overwhelming majority of male participants in the survey (93.6%) agreed that reading helped improve their

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     121 Table 6.3  What skill did the Reading Challenge help to improve? Skill

Total

Per cent (%)

Vocabulary Spelling Comprehension Reading speed Grammar Writing

65 56 51 49 47 44

82.3 70.9 64.6 62.0 59.5 55.7

English (see Table 6.2). Female students at Zayed University also recognized this: “I’ve improved my vocabulary and speaking and I can really see how reading will help me to improve my English” (Al Mansoori in Swan, 2016); and “It’s improving my English and I really enjoy it” (Shurafa in Swan, 2016). We asked our male students in the survey what skill in English they thought had been improved by the Reading Challenge and their responses are given in Table 6.3. It is interesting to note here that in second place was spelling, which seems to validate Krashen’s (2004) argument that we learn to spell in English by reading. Arabic is a phonetically written language and students can spell words they do not know the meaning of by sounding out the letters (Abu Rabia & Taha, 2006). This strategy does not work in English due to the complex relationship between orthography and phonology which includes double letters, silent letters and multiple letters making the same sound, for example /I/ (ee, ie, ei, ea, y, etc.) or letters, such as ‘e’, that make a number of different sounds (Birch, 2002). If someone is asked to spell a word in English, they bring the image of the word to mind and call out the letters. This is not necessary in Arabic, which works perfectly consistently spelling-wise with any word, a spelling strategy that only gets learners so far in English, for example in spelling a simple three-letter word like b-e-d. When asked during the focus group interviews, ‘What skill in English do you think improved the most during the Reading Challenge?’, several students recounted that their speaking had improved and when asked to elaborate on this they recounted being asked questions or directions by English speakers and said they were able to call to mind responses from their reading. The students

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recounted similar strategies for their writing. They said that their writing had improved because they recalled how something they wanted to express had been written in what they had read. All this seems to validate what is known in respect of L1 English speakers who are readers. L1 English students who read a lot for pleasure typically perform better on standardized tests such as the SAT for reading comprehension, vocabulary and writing (Krashen, 2004). Research from Japan, the birthplace of the MReader tracking platform/website, and a renewed interest in Extensive Reading in EFL, seems to indicate that the threshold level for extensive reading having an impact on English level is 300,000 words (Yamanaka, 2013). At 300,000 words, students seem to hit the B1 level of the CEFR (ibid.). Nation (2013) also believes it is possible for students to acquire the academic vocabulary needed to succeed at university solely by extensive reading, but it will entail a lot of reading if there is no direct study of vocabulary. Quantitative data analysis showed that, depending on their level, students who read extensively gained one CEPA (Common Educational Placement Assessment) point per 20,000 words read (Gobert, Demirci, & Barney, 2015) compared to students who did not read extensively. Yet, the biggest challenge to the reading competition was teacher resistance. Many teachers were reluctant to join the competition and even though it was perceived by the authors as voluntary, several teachers recounted that they had been asked by their direct supervisor if they wanted to participate and did not feel they could refuse. All teachers were asked to do was take their students to the library, first for an orientation session which explained how the competition worked, and then for one period a week during the first few weeks of the competition. The authors surmise that it was this ‘letting go’ or lack of being in control that affected some teachers negatively. However, some teachers readily engaged in the competition, particularly those who came from an educational rather than an ESL background. This is perhaps because intensive reading is the accepted methodology for teaching reading in EFL or ESL, with its assumption that all students have to do when they read in L2 is transfer their good reading habits from L1 (Alderson, 1984; Grabe, 2002). Teachers who come from an educational background may realize the benefits of extensive reading even for

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     123

L1 English-speaking students. The most resistant teachers were those at the highest level who were preparing students for the IELTS standardized exam. They felt that extensive reading would take too much time away from exam preparation. However, it was discovered in subsequent semesters that many students who had done the Reading Challenge in previous levels continued to read on their own when they reached the IELTS preparation level. We also asked teachers and students what the teachers did to encourage them to read. The number one reply from the students was that the teachers glossed words simply when asked. This reminded the author of early teaching experiences when students asked the meaning of a word in a reading activity and were told to look it up in their dictionary. This would be very unkind in an L1 early reading scenario. Imagine if a child asks a parent the meaning of a word in a story and was told to look in their dictionary rather than the parent glossing the word. The students also said that teachers encouraged them to read by asking what they were reading, if they liked the story, or what they got on the quiz. Students also praised the teachers who gave them time to read and took them to the library. But the motivational aspects of the competition were evident too, when teachers told the students about the prizes, showed the leader board (the second-highest answer), encouraged them to be first and told them that five books read was better than none. Teachers also said they took pictures of students reading and posted them on the student website or showed them in class. Most students also recounted that at first they read to win, but after a month (10 respondents) or 2–3 weeks (3 respondents), they noticed that their English was improving. They went on to explain that they could see this because the results on their tests and exams were improving, the test became easier and they could answer the questions. When asked what they liked about the Reading Challenge, almost all students said that it improved their English, but the second most popular answer was the competition. When asked what they would change about the Reading Challenge if they could, most students said to make the prizes more valuable and give them more time to read, take them to the library twice a week for two hours or every day for one class (classes were held 5 hours a day for 5 days).

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Implications Robb (2014) suggests that there are two ways to successfully implement an extensive reading programme in the ESL classroom. One is for teachers to start their own grassroots movement, for other teachers to observe and start doing it too, and then more and more teachers will catch on and start doing it. This is the ideal way, but in reality it is seldom achieved. The other way is for a decision to be made at the top that extensive reading will be implemented, and for all teachers to start doing it and remain firm until it is adopted by all teachers. The teachers and learners begin to see the benefits and it successfully becomes part of the curriculum. This is what happened at Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan (Robb & Kano, 2013). For an extensive reading programme to be successful, it really should be part of the student’s grade in the course. Ten per cent is a good recommendation. The MReader website was originally developed in Japan by the Extensive Reading Foundation in response to the fact that despite students having to obtain a certain TOEIC score as part of the graduation requirements, few students had enough contact hours of taught English to obtain that amount of proficiency (Robb & Kano, 2013). It was invented not for students studying in intensive English or Academic Bridge programmes, but for students studying their content courses in Japanese, and only having a few hours of English courses, such as Technical Report Writing, per week per semester. Thus, extensive reading was conceived of as a way to significantly increase the exposure of the student population to English (Robb, 2014; Robb & Kano, 2013). As can be noted from Table 6.2, 42.3% of the survey respondents admitted that they had taken quizzes on books they had not read and this was also evident at a women’s college that introduced extensive reading. One of the students had taken 76 quizzes, but had only passed about 50% of them for a total of 194,064 words read (Gobert & Bailey, 2014). The presenter recounted that the student was very competitive and really wanted to win the competition, so hosting an extensive reading competition can have the negative drawback of cheating,

6  Innovation in Reading in the United Arab Emirates     125

even though the MReader quality assurance team works hard to prevent cheating, rewriting and reviewing the quizzes available on MReader (Jennings, 2015). We actually discovered students taking quizzes on a football book at our college that was out of print and not available in the college library. So we had to develop a few rules to lessen the effects of cheating (not reading the book, but taking quizzes to get points): (1) quizzes must be taken in class in front of the teacher; (2) books must be available in the college library; (3) students must have the book next to them when they take a quiz; and (4) no books/quizzes allowed on popular movies, celebrities or sports figures. Teachers usually allow students to read graded readers or take quizzes during the first 15 minutes of class. We asked teachers how they encouraged the students to read, and these were some of their replies: I got a student so motivated by showing him that he was in 5th place and could move to 3rd if he read 3,000 more words. He finished 2nd in the end. Listened to them read aloud occasionally one on one. Circulated in the library while they were reading, asking about their book, if they liked it and answering questions about vocab. Leader board, took picture of top reader for the week. Gave them a lot of theory in the beginning about why reading is good for them. Modelling reading – took my own book to read. Took pictures of them reading when they were really into it.

We also asked teachers if the students read because they wanted to win or because they discovered that reading was helping them. The teachers recounted: At first my students didn’t realize it was a competition until the library sent the photos of the prizes in the last two weeks. Before that, they were motivated by a sort of male rivalry.

126     M. Gobert and H. Demirci

Mixture of both, first the competition, then the engagement about half-way through. Both, teacher wanted to win. No one discovered a love of reading, some commented it was helping them.

Teachers said what they liked best about the Reading Challenge was getting the students to read and understand the true sense of a library. It also integrated the students in the intensive English programme across different classes and levels and created a sense of togetherness. When asked what they would change, most teachers said they would show more recognition of weaker/slower students by setting targets and reward students for exceeding the teacher-set goals. The teachers also commented that the leader board got students into the competition but also got them cheating. However, all teachers agreed that “At the end of the day we achieved our aim – the students read!” Setting up an extensive reading competition using the MReader cloud-based tracking platform can be successful in getting UAE students to read.

Discussion Questions 1. One of the biggest barriers to implementing the Reading Challenge was teacher resistance. What do you think are the best ways to overcome teacher resistance? 2. A leader board was used to motivate students. What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of using a leader board to motivate students? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the intensive reading methodology prescribed in ESL/EFL pedagogy? 4. Students felt that their vocabulary was the most affected by extensive reading. Do you think extensive reading alone sufficient for vocabulary acquisition? Why or why not? 5. What can administrators do to encourage the adoption of a new or different strategy for teaching and learning?

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References Abu Rabia, S., & Taha, H. (2006). Phonological errors predominate in Arabic spelling across grades 1–9. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 35(2), 167–188. Achkhanian, M. (2017, October 18). Arab reading challenge winner crowned. Gulf News. http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/society/arab-reading-challengewinner-crowned-1.2107784. Accessed 28 December 2017. Ahmed, A. (2010, December 9). Dubai’s poor PISA report card ‘a portent for whole UAE.’ The National. https://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/ dubai-s-poor-pisa-report-card-a-portent-for-whole-uae-1.526012. Accessed 29 December 2017. Alderson, J. C. (1984). Reading in a foreign language: A reading problem or a language problem? In J. C. Alderson & A. H. Urquhart (Eds.), Reading in a foreign language (pp. 1–27). New York: Longman. Al-Homoud, F., & Schmitt, N. (2009). Extensive reading in a challenging environment: A comparison of extensive reading and intensive reading approaches in Saudi Arabia. Language Teaching Research, 13(4), 383–401. Alsheikh, N. O., & Elhoweris, H. M. (2011). United Arab Emirates (UAE) high school students’ motivation to read English as a foreign language. International Journal of Language Studies, 5(4), 53–68. Altaher, N. (2016, May 3). Policy to ink new chapter in reading in UAE. Gulf News. http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/government/policy-to-ink-new-chapter-in-reading-in-uae-1.1817814. Accessed 9 October 2017. al-Yacoub, I. (2012, July 14). Sum of all fears: Arabs read an average of 6 minutes a year, study reveals. Al Arabiya [online edition]. http://www.alarabiya. net/articles/2012/07/14/226290.html. Accessed 29 December 2017. Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (Eds.). (2003). Extensive reading activities for teaching language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Birch, B. (2002). English L2 reading: Getting to the bottom. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Chen, C., Chen, S., Chen, E., & Wey, S. (2013). The effects of extensive reading via e-books on tertiary level EFL students’ reading attitude, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 12(2), 303–312. Cho, K., & Kim, H. (2004). Recreational reading in English as a foreign language in Korea: Positive effects of a sixteen-week program. Knowledge Quest, 32(4), 36–38.

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Cobb, T. (2007). The old vocabulary, the new vocabulary, and the Arabic learner. In P. Davidson, C. Coombe, D. Lloyd, & D. Palfreyman (Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary in another language (pp. 102–121). Dubai: TESOL Arabia. de Burgh-Hirabe, R., & Feryok, A. (2013). A model of motivation for extensive reading in Japanese as a foreign language. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25(1), 72–93. Demirci, H., & Gobert, M. (2015). Motivating reluctant readers. In P. McLaren et al. (Eds.), The proceedings of the 20th TESOL Arabia conference: Methods and means in ELT (pp. 8–15). Dubai: TESOL Arabia. Gobert, M. (2011). Cultivating phonological and orthographic awareness in Arab learners of English. In C. Gitsaki (Ed.), Teaching and learning in the Arab world (pp. 399–420). Bern: Peter Lang. Gobert, M. (2014). The impact of reading graded readers on language acquisition. In H. Emery & N. Moore (Eds.), Teaching, learning, and researching reading in EFL (pp. 164–175). Dubai: TESOL Arabia. Gobert, M., & Bailey, T. (2014). Extensive reading in the classroom: Reading for pleasure. Paper presented at the 11th Annual TESOL Qatar Conference, College of the North Atlantic, Doha, Qatar. Gobert, M., Demirci, H., & Barney, P. (2015). The reading challenge and CEPA scores. Paper presented at the 3rd World Congress on Extensive Reading, Dubai Men’s College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Grabe, W. (2002). Dilemmas for the development of second language reading abilities. In J. C. Richards & W. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 276–283). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hafiz, F., & Tudor, I. (1989). Extensive reading and the development of language skills. ELT Journal, 43(1), 4–13. Hurreiz, S. (2002). Folklore and folklife in the United Arab Emirates. London: Routledge Curzon. IELTS Test Taker Performance 2006–2015. (2015). https://www.ielts.org/ teaching-and-research/test-taker-performance. Accessed on 26 December 2017. Iwahori, Y. (2008). Developing reading fluency: A study of extensive reading in EFL. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(1), 70–91. Jazzar, M. (1991). A probe into Arab home literacy and its impact on college students’ reading ability in Arabic and English. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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Jennings, F. (2015). The Moodle reader quiz quality assurance project. Paper presented at the 3rd World Congress on Extensive Reading, Dubai Men’s College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Kandil, A. (2001). Reading speed and Arab students: The process of language learning: An EFL perspective. Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Teacherto-Teacher Conference (pp. 211–237). United Arab Emirates: Military Language Institute. Kargar, A. (2012). The efficiency of extensive reading project (ERP) in an Iranian EFL context. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(1), 165–169. Kitao, K., Yamamoto, M., Kitao, S., & Shimatani, H. (1990). Independent reading in English—Use of graded readers in the library English as a second language corner. Reading in a Foreign Language, 6(2), 383–398. Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Kweon, S. (2008). Beyond raw frequency: Incidental vocabulary acquisition in extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(2), 191–215. Lee, S. (2007). Revelations from three consecutive studies on extensive reading. RELC Journal, 38(2), 150–170. Maamouri, M. (1998). Arabic diglossia and its impact on the quality of education in the Arab region. Paper presented at the World Bank Mediterranean Development Forum, Marrakech, Morocco. Retrieved from http://citeseerx. ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.125.606&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Martin, M. O., Mullis, I. V. S., & Foy, P., (with Olson, J. F., Erberber, E., Preuschoff, C., & Galia, J.). (2008). TIMSS 2007 international science report: Findings from IEA’s trends in international mathematics and science study at the fourth and eighth grades. Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (1995). Extensive reading in English as a foreign language. System, 25(1), 91–102. Million’s Poet: Kuwaiti student wins Dh5m poetry prize. (2016, May 24). Khaleej Times. https://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/general/oil-richeshelp-keep-alive-bedouin-poetry. Accessed 29 December 2017. Mustafa, G. (2012). From legendary love of books into TV hooks. Perspectives, 19(1), 28–30. Nakanishi, T. (2014). A meta-analysis of extensive reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 1–37. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.157. Nation, P. (2013). Is it possible to learn enough vocabulary from extensive reading? Paper presented at the 2nd World Congress on Extensive Reading, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.

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7 Reading for Science: Anatomy as a Metaphor for a Holistic College-Wide Innovation Roger Nunn, Caroline Brandt, Asli Hassan and Curtis Bradley

The Area of Innovation and Its Impetus The innovation we outline took place within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in an engineering university in Abu Dhabi, a city and emirate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was in response to a perceived college-wide need to improve our students’ reading ability, R. Nunn (*)  American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE C. Brandt  College of Arts and Sciences (Sas al Nakhl Campus), Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE e-mail: [email protected] A. Hassan · C. Bradley  Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE e-mail: [email protected] C. Bradley e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_7

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in particular reading for science. Science specialists are not typically specialists in teaching and learning reading, and language specialists are not easily aware of the particular reading issues that students may have in science and mathematics classes. Neither do these groups typically work together in teams. It therefore soon became apparent that no one group in the university had all the knowledge needed to innovate successfully in an area that involved knowledge of the interlocking complexities of reading, science and project management. The original impetus for the innovation came from the former Dean of the college who was a mechanical engineer. Reading skills were apparently being fully covered in pre-freshman language classes leading to the IELTS exam and in two credit-bearing freshman courses that focused on academic literacy. However, it was clear to the Dean that there was a gap in students’ knowledge when close reading was needed to solve mathematics, physics or indeed mechanical engineering word problems that depend on knowledge of mathematics and physics. Other issues that needed investigation and action included the difficulty students appeared to have using the reading passages in chemistry textbooks and in referencing texts appropriately in a pre-freshman combined science preparation course. It therefore soon became clear that a large-scale, multidisciplinary response would be needed. At the same time, there had been a national campaign in the UAE to encourage reading and promote a regular reading habit among students. Employees in the UAE are encouraged to spend one hour per day reading and special designated areas for reading can now be found in public places such as the international airport. It was therefore clear that the impetus for a Reading for Science campaign was both a perceived need on the ground and also had strong support at the highest national and institutional levels. The backgrounds of the authors of this paper further reflect the need to provide different perspectives on the scope of the campaign. The chair of the college’s curriculum improvement committee (called the Continuous Improvement Committee) is also a specialist in physics. He therefore recognized both the subject-specific needs and the broader college needs across subject areas. The head of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), who is a specialist in

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applied linguistics, had the role of supporting faculty training efforts across the curriculum. The need to provide close reading skills across the curriculum was therefore very relevant to her role. The Acting Dean and the (former) Associate Dean of the college were communication/ language specialists who also needed to have an overview of the whole curriculum. All the authors agreed that an innovation was needed that was interdisciplinary in nature and had fully integrated active leadership from all relevant entities in the institution as well as broad support from as many faculty as possible. This chapter considers the importance of a holistic approach from the perspective of innovation management. In particular, it outlines an approach that considers all the parts of the system in relation to each other. Dodgson, Hughes, Foster, and Metcalf (2011, p. 1145), working at a national level, underline the need “to emphasize the importance of systemic connectivity, evolving institutions and organizational capabilities”. We believe that this applies equally to educational institutions and to colleges within institutions. In our view, for example, this approach is compatible with views of curriculum innovation that are more specifically focused on particular areas that have relevance across the curriculum such as ELT (see for example White, 1992). This holistic overview is particularly necessary when the innovation is intended to have a college-wide impact and arguably concerns all faculty regardless of their specialization. To better understand the holistic dynamics of an innovation seen as a radical intervention within a system, we will use the metaphor of anatomy from the field of holistic medicine (Waller, 2008). Waller’s approach to anatomy emphasizes the interconnectedness of different parts of the body. An atomistic approach runs the risk of appearing to cure one problem, while unknowingly creating or exacerbating another in another part of the system. One such issue that arose in our innovation was a perception by one or two mathematics faculty that ‘over-emphasizing’ reading (as they saw it) in their classes took valuable time away from developing mathematics literacy. Readings from systems thinking and holistic thinking provide further theoretical support for a holistic perspective, not as theory for its own sake, but as the best way to understand holistic realities. The aim of using this metaphor is to

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provoke more effective action during an innovation within and across a complex organization and, for this chapter, to outline what we believe was quite a novel approach to innovation that may be transferable to other contexts.

The Anatomy of a Holistic Educational System: A Case Study Changes, even small changes, in one part of the anatomy of a complex system can have a ripple effect on all other parts. This discussion focuses on educational management, but systems and holistic thinking can usefully be applied to many other areas of enquiry. Neumann (2004, p. 1), for example, underlines the importance of the relationship between components in any complex system. Holistic approaches are those that consider systems in their entirety rather than just focusing on specific properties or specific components. In each case, enormous culture shifts are required in education, training, business, government, and economic models.

The system as a whole is assumed to operate in support of a superordinate general vision and mission statement. In our case, this was as follows: Vision A College which produces fully equipped freshmen students with the technical, intellectual, soft and social skills in and out of class to succeed in the Engineering Programs and which encourages scholarly research…. Mission The Arts and Sciences College will always support the [university’s] vision by providing optimum support to the students through innovative curriculum, high quality teaching and extra-curricular activities. The college will strive to link research activities with the Engineering programs.…

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The vision and mission can be considered from two angles. First, there is a mission to support the College of Engineering. Second, the college has a semi-independent focus on developing technical, intellectual, soft and social skills that prepare students not only for engineering studies but also for academic literacy in higher education in general, and fosters a view of preparing students as whole people for lifelong learning. Feedback both horizontally within the college and vertically from the engineering disciplines identified inadequate reading ability in support of study in major specializations as an important issue to address. In the summer and fall semesters of 2016 several other activities were initiated to start the campaign rolling. One important feature of the campaign is that most activities were interdisciplinary. At the time of writing, interdisciplinary research teams are engaged in projects that involve science faculty working with communication faculty. Materials writing teams are developing innovative approaches to reading for use in classes. Each team has members from at least four CAS departments. CELT is sponsoring both seminar sessions and research groups. The university’s pre-degree preparatory programme is also fully involved. The CAS Curriculum Improvement Committee is a co-sponsor of the campaign, working closely with the Dean’s office. From January 2017 every CAS syllabus was required to feature some new or recent innovation to improve student ability in reading for science. This component was required to be a graded component.

Implications and Lessons Learned: A Dean’s Narrative Innovation can prompt resistance on the part of those required to adapt to it or implement it, and in the case described in this chapter, the resistance that had first to be overcome was my own. My predecessor as Dean of CAS, a mechanical engineer seconded to the position, took up his appointment with first-hand experience of students who had completed two years of general education subjects that included required courses in communication skills. Despite this preparation, my

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predecessor described his students’ inability to read for detail and his belief that they lacked the necessary capability. This, he said, resonated with the experience of his colleagues throughout the university. At the time, I held the position of chair of the Communication Department, and consequently it was natural that our new Dean should ask me to address the problem he had identified. However, a number of factors made this difficult. First, we differed fundamentally in our understanding of the problem. The Dean believed that his students lacked the capability to read closely. From a personal perspective, knowing my students’ work and abilities from my 10 years as a Communication instructor at the university, I believed that most did not lack the capability. I saw instead two parts to the problem: one related to students’ will to read closely (or lack of it) and the other, its counterpart, related to instructors’ requirement for students to read closely and regularly (or lack thereof ). From the wider perspective of the department, I also resisted the suggestion that our work in preparing the university’s students for their further studies was failing with respect to developing the expected and necessary reading habits and skills. In addition, in relation to the context of the college, I was chair of one of six departments; the other five chairs were my peers and my background of Applied Linguistics and rank of Associate Professor gave me no clear mandate enabling me to attempt to influence their instructors’ pedagogical practices in areas such as physics, mathematics or chemistry teaching, for example, about which I felt I knew little. This perceived lack of empowerment extended to university level, as the CAS existed to fulfil the university’s general education requirements, and, as such, was non-degree awarding. Consequently, the College of Engineering, which graduates students from both undergraduate and graduate programmes, was generally seen as having a higher academic status within the institution. Given my rank and role within this broader context, it was difficult to anticipate success in any attempt made by an Associate Professor and chair of a department in a CAS, with the general education mission described above, to initiate a process that would, ideally, influence the pedagogical practices of engineers and scientists across the institution and therefore of varying ranks,

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backgrounds and specialisms. It was also the case that a number of faculty in other disciplines had voiced their scepticism and disinclination when it was suggested in passing that they might encourage their students to read, justifying their position by explaining that this was not part of their job (it was the job of Communication faculty) and that students ought to arrive in their courses better prepared (so there would be no need for any intentional ongoing development of their reading skills). The complexities of the problem therefore (given the necessary involvement of, and interactions between, the various parts of the system) and solutions envisaged, which in all conceptions appeared likely to “require an enormous culture shift” (Neumann, 2004, p. 1), presented themselves to me as insurmountable deterrents. It has been suggested (Paloş & Gunaru, 2017, p. 4) that resistance to change is a multidimensional construct, explained by four dimensions: …. routine seeking (the person’s preference for those stable and predictable tasks, activities and environments); cognitive rigidity (their inflexibility in thinking and difficulties in accepting alternative ideas, solutions and perspectives); short-term focus (the focusing on the deficiencies and the discomfort brought on by change and not on the long-term benefits that it implies); and emotional reaction (their feeling of stress, anxiety and lack of enthusiasm when change is imposed).

The dimensions of short-term focus and emotional reaction were predominant in my case: the difficulties of addressing the problem dominated, along with some stress and anxiety, whereas I would have been better served by concentrating on the long-term benefits of a solution for the institute’s students and identifying the resources we needed to tackle the problem. Despite many engaging discussions on the subject with the Dean, who was pressing for a solution, in the face of what I perceived to be many significant and insurmountable barriers, I did nothing other than share the problem with the members of my department. Consequently, without the necessary direction, the department’s response was initially weak.

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Recommendation 1: At the outset arrive at a shared and articulated understanding of the problem. Do this by involving various stakeholders, particularly those with similar experiences who have not found a solution, and create a forum enabling them to identify commonalities (Wenger, 1998a) and share the reasons for any resistance they experience, or witness, to addressing the problem. This contributes to identifying the existing culture and climate (Maciejewski et al., 2017), and can enable the long-term benefits of addressing the problem to become the motivation for further collaboration across the organization.

During the above period, however, a new appointment in the college was made, that of Associate Dean. The person appointed to this role, one of the authors of this paper, was an experienced professor in the Communication department, well known and highly regarded throughout the institute and internationally. The Dean raised the problem with his new Associate, and I was invited to participate. The formation of this small team, led by the Associate Dean, was a turning point in the life of the college and represented the beginning of a move towards implementation of a college-wide initiative to address the problem. Recommendation 2: Assign a number of people to work on the problem who have suitable seniority, respect and experience in relation to the problem and the context (Bland et al., 2000, pp. 575–594; Blouin et al., 2009).

The establishment of this team represented the first phase of educational innovation management as conceptualized by Fullan (2001), variously labelled initiation, mobilization or adoption. To proceed, we responded to the complex, dynamic and interdependent context by adopting various holistic and concurrent processes. An extensive review of the literature on curricular innovation (Bland et al., 2000), identified effective leadership and building a cooperative environment with

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willing participants (Bland et al., 2000, pp. 575–594) who work concurrently in different areas of the institution as essential for facilitating innovation. Recommendation 3: Build a shared vision and a cooperative environment by communicating widely and actively involving willing members across the institution (Bland et al., 2000; Kanter, Stein, & Jick, 1992) who work concurrently on different aspects of the problem. Enable “exploring connectedness, defining joint enterprise and negotiating community” (Wenger, 1998a).

The first task undertaken by the team therefore was to try to involve and co-opt others. A message of encouragement to all in the college was sent out by the Dean, reflecting his support for faculty development, and a number of faculty across the disciplines within the college immediately expressed their interest and willingness to participate. A key function of this initial message was to establish the identity of the innovation as the Reading for Science campaign and communicate its work widely in the college with a view to informing, attracting interest and shaping attitudes. Recommendation 4: Develop and communicate a positive identity for any innovation at the start, and ask participants to see themselves as ‘ambassadors’ whose mission includes communicating the innovation and its implementation to their colleagues, particularly those with more negatives attitudes towards it.

The Dean strongly encouraged his team of department chairs to communicate the potential benefits of the campaign to their faculty and students. This encouragement, and the interest and involvement which the Dean himself demonstrated frequently throughout the project, were critical to the campaign’s success, as the example he set through

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his involvement and determination motivated many to participate or at least keep themselves informed of the campaign activities. This support at the level of Dean effectively represented “political sponsorship”, one of the “ten commandments for executing change” (Kanter et al., 1992). Recommendation 5: Those leading innovation should stay closely involved for its duration. “Political sponsorship” (Kanter et al., 1992) can be an effective way to encourage reluctant members of the wider community to take an interest or become involved.

The team initiated several concurrent college-wide activities, most of them interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinary teams were formed to develop innovative approaches and materials for use across the curriculum and carry out research into reading across the disciplines. The institute’s CELT provided workshops on related topics. Department chairs were asked to incorporate into their syllabi a new or recent graded innovation to improve student ability in reading, and the college’s Continuous Improvement Committee extended their work to include a mechanism for evaluating the innovation (Bland et al., 2000, pp. 575–594). Communication faculty were asked to team teach with engineers on an integrated preparatory course which addressed mathematics, physics and chemistry. This was a highly successful initiative that not only provided students with academic literacy support in their mathematics and science classes, but also brought together instructors in different areas of the curriculum, furthering the understanding that each had of the work of their colleague. All of the above represented professional development for those in the college. All were successful in terms of generating interest in and awareness of the issues, by involving Communication faculty in science and mathematics classrooms, and bringing science and mathematics faculty closer to an understanding of the development of students’ reading skills as an ongoing project for which all instructors have some responsibility by, for example, assigning reading tasks in their classrooms and evaluating students’ responses.

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Recommendation 6: Emphasize the professional development opportunities that arise in an innovation and develop enabling structures, including those that recognize faculty efforts and involvement (Bland et al., 2000; Kanter et al., 1992). Create opportunities for “engaging in joint activities, creating artifacts, adapting to changing circumstances, renewing interest, commitment, and relationships” (Wenger, 1998a).

A Professional Development Director’s Narrative Recommendation 6 above was more easily put into effect because of a structure that was already in place. The university’s CELT is committed to developing and supporting professional development activities that strengthen educational practices on campus. To this end, the Centre produces a busy schedule of activities that are of interest to faculty and regularly supports initiatives aimed at impacting the curriculum across all disciplines, such as the Reading for Science campaign. As a campus-wide unit, CELT focuses on enhancing undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Our mission is to promote the professional enhancement of faculty and staff by providing formal and informal forums for exchange of experience and expertise in order to enhance STEM instruction. The Centre organizes seminars and workshops, hosts international distinguished engineering educators, facilitates a number of teaching inquiry groups and provides curriculum enhancement mini-grant funding annually. During the 2016/2017 academic year, the overall theme of CELT was Teaching Innovation. The aim of this series of coordinated events was to enhance group and departmental efforts with regard to assessing outcomes, identifying areas of strength as well as those needing further improvement, supporting the implementation of recommendations and establishing means for evaluating the success of these implementations. Through the time spent with faculty and administrators, CELT was able to formulate and support several projects concurrently. Each teaching innovation project was directed, at least in part, to curricular

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and programmatic enhancement across all of the university. Thus the Reading for Science project was an excellent fit with the Centre’s goals. We became aware, during workshop discussions, that incentives would be important to encourage broad faculty participation in CELT programmes especially in the area of scholarship of teaching and learning. Faculty members carry many professional and institutional responsibilities and were more likely to commit their time and effort to projects they saw as valued. To make time to participate in CELT programmes their participation needed to be recognized. Also, we attempted to accept and provide recognition and logistical support for bottom–up initiatives that arose out of faculty interests and concerns. Reading for Science was one of those bottom–up concepts, but one that fortuitously coincided with a top–down request from the Dean’s office. Numerous times during the workshops, and in individual meetings, the value of fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue was brought up. Since faculty often remain in a so-called ‘silo’, tending to interact only with those in their own or similar disciplines, CELT provided a valuable service to PI by providing more opportunities for faculty to interact across the disciplines. This interaction was facilitated by sponsoring relevant workshops that would draw participants from different disciplines, pairing faculty from different disciplines to collaborate, or providing minigrant opportunities to interdisciplinary faculty teams. One example of the far-reaching impact of a CELT project is illustrative. One of the Centre’s mini-grants was given to a team that developed an interdisciplinary course for freshman students who scored low in the science and mathematics placement exam. Based on the favorable data collected during the pilot project, ‘CAMP’, a semester-long course combining chemistry, mathematics and physics, was developed for all entering students who did not meet the science and mathematics entry requirements. Quite early on, close reading was also identified as an issue in this interdisciplinary course. Beyond this one example, many other large and small positive changes and innovations can be traced to teaching and learning projects supported by the Centre. Reaching out and bringing together faculty in the sciences, humanities and engineering disciplines is one of the enduring goals of the Centre. Also, with its ongoing support and encouragement of various

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interdisciplinary research teams, such as those engaged in the Reading for Science campaign, the Centre will continue to make valuable contributions to teaching and learning on campus and beyond. With its focus on implementing collaborative experiences among faculty, CELT strives to become a hub of intellectual exchange with regard to teaching and learning, sparking interest in and sharing of innovative practices. In this way, college-wide campaigns such as our Reading for Science campaign have institutional support in situ, ready to give faculty and staff an extra boost.

A Curriculum Committee Chair’s Narrative: What Worked and What Did Not? The success or failure of efforts towards academic institutional transformation depend significantly on the nature of the innovations introduced and the context in which they are found. A holistic or systems view of the change process is helpful to identify the range of factors that might support or hinder the sought-after impacts. Too often, these factors are outside the scope or influence of the transformation effort, and these result in diminished or short-lived institutional impacts. Taking the anatomical analogy, in the worst cases, ignorance or neglect of these factors can even result in active resistance by the system (the body or the institution) to the innovations or change efforts. At our university, one mechanism for supporting this process has been a college service committee called the CAS Committee for Continuous Improvement (CCI). This group has the mandate to support the college, departments and faculty in an ongoing process of self-study regarding their academic activities. The committee acts to facilitate a cycle of course-, departmental-, and programme-level data collection, analysis and reflection, followed by documented planning and implementation of curricular and pedagogical improvement. The centrepieces of our collective effort are course portfolios comprised of course files with samples of student work and student feedback, and course evaluations from faculty that include detailed

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comparisons of student academic performance against intended learning outcomes and, most importantly, specific suggestions for course improvement. These suggestions support the development of departmental and course action plans for the subsequent semester and beyond. Additionally, the CCI collects other data from surveys, including surveys of freshman and sophomore students (regarding their views about learning and their educational experiences), engineering faculty (regarding their perceptions of student readiness for junior- and senior-level coursework). Collecting together these various sources and types of data and course-level plans provides the opportunity for a system-wide or holistic view of the college’s academic health. Thus, the CCI played a key role in setting the stage for the college’s Reading for Science campaign. Over the years, a consistent trend in course portfolios showed that many students struggled with their freshman-level mathematics, physics and chemistry courses. Faculty who taught these courses were, of course, aware of this issue and the portfolios show ample evidence of efforts to provide increased learning support mechanisms, improved (or fine-tuned) curriculum, and increasing use of student-centred pedagogies. Still, the problem persisted. In recent years, portfolios of mathematics, physics and chemistry instructors often pointed to a lack of student preparation, and in particular to student difficulties with reading and understanding their college-level science textbooks. This seemed to contradict the ample evidence of satisfactory performance and learning outcome achievement that students demonstrated in many other courses in the college, particularly in their two required communication courses. Our CCI process provided the college’s Dean and department chairs with a body of evidence that there was, in fact, a significant, persistent college-level problem. The Dean’s experience, supported by experiences of other faculty, also highlighted an apparent student difficulty with visualization of what they read—a crucial skill in mathematics, science and engineering. This insight led to the Dean’s commitment and his mobilization of the college to increase and focus efforts towards studying the problem and, as soon as possible, to take corrective actions. As described earlier, the resulting ‘study the problem’ efforts ranged from CELT-sponsored research proposals (for example, to explore student

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difficulty with visualization in physics problems), to efforts by departments and individual course instructors to understand better what was really going on. We were therefore promoting what Corbo, Reinholz, Dancy, Deetz, and Finkelstein (2016, p. 11) refer to as “synergies across levels”. In response to the decision by the Dean for a Reading for Science campaign, the CCI led an effort to provide and share more evidence regarding basic student reading abilities. The committee worked with faculty in several college departments to begin routine Lexile Measurement of student reading ability. Simply stated, separate Lexile Measures can be produced to (1) estimate the relative reading difficulty of a text; and (2) estimate the relative reading ability of an individual reader. Comparisons of reader and text Lexile Measures can be used to estimate a probable percentage of a text that a given, or typical, reader might understand. The first round of measurements started in the summer of 2016 and they have continued every semester since. The results showed a dramatic difference between the typical college text difficulty or reading level and our typical student’s reading ability. The simple and dramatic quantitative results from these measurements provided further support for the need for the college’s campaign. In fact, they were used in a workshop organized by the Dean and given to all college faculty, at the start of the fall 2016 semester, serving as a kick-off for the Reading for Science campaign. During the workshop, faculty views about student reading were interactively polled before they received an explanation of the Lexile Measure, our initial set of students’ results, and likely implications. They then participated in two activities intended to sensitize them to the challenge our students often encountered. The first activity gave faculty the experience of trying to make sense of a text with a large fraction of the key words obscured (to mimic our students’ experience of reading college-level texts). The second activity challenged the visualization skills of faculty by asking them to follow an unfamiliar paper-folding procedure, given only textual instructions and no diagrams or visual aids (ultimately to discover that they had folded a party hat). Feedback from faculty indicated that they felt the workshop was effective in making clear the importance of, and the college’s need for, their participation in the Reading for Science campaign.

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As mentioned earlier, in Fall 2016, the campaign inaugurated several groups of faculty members that worked together to explore possible curricular responses to assist and improve our students’ reading comprehension when dealing with mathematics and science texts and other coursework. For example, one group organized around the theme ‘annotation as a reading skill’. In its first semester, this group reviewed literature concerned with the teaching of annotation and evidence of its impact on improved reading comprehension. Based on this, the group formulated a summary of best practices and shared it with the university community. In spring 2017, this same group further explored literature on reading strategies and worked on strategies for encouraging the teaching of annotation in different college courses. Consequently, in the latter half of the Spring term, one of the group’s members (one of the authors of this chapter) introduced annotation lessons and assignments into his introductory physics course sections (with a total of 21 students participating). Subsequent surveys found that only 5% (1 in 21) of students agreed with the statement: ‘annotation did not help me to understand what I was reading’; 57% (12 of 21) of students agreed with the statement ‘annotation helped me to understand what I was reading’; only 29% (6 of 21) of students agreed with the statement ‘I made an effort but am not sure if annotation helped my reading’; and 10% (2 of 21) selected ‘I did not really make an effort so I am not sure about annotation’. These results served to encourage the participating faculty member and several other faculty in his department, resulting in the incorporation of the specific teaching of reading strategies in their physics courses in subsequent semesters.

Conclusion Although the innovation is far from complete (for example, while its implementation extended throughout the CAS, at the time of writing it had yet not reached the College of Engineering) and has not as yet been fully evaluated, we see its success to date as a result of having approached the problem from the perspective of Wenger’s concept of “community of practice” (1998a, 1998b). This concept represents a holistic perspective with a number of characteristics that were evident in the above context. The following are of particular relevance:

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• It operates in a shared domain which helps to define its identity. • Membership implies commitment. • Collective competence is valued. • Members share information, collaborate, support each other, and build relationships and partnerships enabling them to learn from each other; this is a process of collective learning which may be described as a “social learning system” (Wenger, 2010). • Its members are practitioners whose work develops shared resources, experiences and practices. • It takes time, facilitation and sustained effort and interaction to develop (Wenger, 1998a, 1998b). Our effort also proposes a very broad, interdisciplinary view of a community of practice that goes beyond narrow departmental specializations, and is reflected in the six recommendations proposed above. Educational innovation necessarily takes place within complex and dynamic systems that contain an in-built capability to design and implement innovation. From this standpoint, implementation of innovation is better seen not in terms of an occasional need for surgical intervention by leadership alone. While leadership must provide direction, shared vision and communication, we view innovation from a more holistic anatomy perspective. There is a need for joint enterprise with mutual engagement, empowerment and a shared repertoire of resources, that is, a ‘social learning system’ offering transformative potential to maintain and improve the health of the institution as a whole for the mutual benefit of all its members.

Discussion Questions 1. Why do the authors suggest that a ‘holistic’ approach to innovation is needed? 2. Why did the Dean initially resist the innovation when she was Head of Department? 3. How important was the role of the Committee for Continuous Improvement?

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4. Why was visualization identified as an important aspect of reading in this context? 5. Do you consider the metaphor of ‘anatomy’ relevant to an interdisciplinary innovation?

References Bland, C. J., Starnaman, S., Wersal, L., Moorehead-Rosenberg, L., Zonia, S., & Henry, R. (2000). Curricular change in medical schools: How to succeed. Academic Medicine, 75(6), 575–594. Blouin, R. A., Riffee, W. H., Robinson, E. T., Beck, D. E., Green, C., Joyner, P. U., … Pollack, G. M. (2009). Roles of innovation in education delivery. The American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73(8), 154. Corbo, J. C., Reinholz, D. L., Dancy, M. H., Deetz, S., & Finkelstein, N. (2016). A framework for transforming departmental culture to support educational innovation. Physical Review, Physics Educational Research, 12, 010113. Dodgson, M., Hughes, A., Foster, J., & Metcalf, S. (2011). Systems thinking, market failure, and the development of innovation policy: The case of Australia. Research Policy, 40, 1145–1156. Fullan, M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change. New York, US: Teachers College Press. Kanter, R. M., Stein, B. A., & Jick, T. D. (1992). The challenge of organizational change. New York: Free Press. Maciejewski, A. A., Chen, T. W., Byrne, Z. S., De Miranda M. A., Sample McMeeking, L. B. Notaros, B. M., & Notaros, O. (2017). A holistic approach to transforming undergraduate electrical engineering education. IEEE Access, 5, 8148–8161. Neumann, P. G. (2004). Holistic systems. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fca4/72ef1aaa9379e9a6bdd95de8db4c71b08aa0.pdf. Paloş, R., & Gunaru, S. A. (2017). The relationship between resistance to change and Romanian teachers’ attitude towards continuing education: The moderating role of conscientiousness. Journal of Education for Teaching, 43(4), 458–473. Waller, P. (2008). Holistic anatomy: For healers, heretics & alternative folk: An introduction. Corwen: The Dreaming Butterfly.

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Wenger, E. (1998a). Communities of practice: Learning as a social system. Systems Thinker, 9(5), 2–3. Wenger, E. (1998b). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (2010). Communities of practice and social learning systems: The career of a concept. Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice, 3, 179–198. White, R. (1992). Innovation in curriculum planning and program development. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 3, 244–259.

8 Towards English for Academic Purposes Curriculum Reform: Linguistic, Educational or Political Considerations? Elana Spector-Cohen, Lisa Amdur, Ingrid Barth, Rosalie Sitman and Linda Weinberg

Area of Innovation Higher education is becoming increasingly international and intercultural, and a common language of communication is a precondition to make these possible. The current trend towards internationalization E. Spector-Cohen (*) · L. Amdur · I. Barth · R. Sitman  Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel e-mail: [email protected] L. Amdur e-mail: [email protected] I. Barth e-mail: [email protected] R. Sitman e-mail: [email protected] L. Weinberg  Braude College of Engineering, Karmiel, Israel e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_8

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facilitates mutual recognition of language programmes nationally and internationally and thus requires standardization of foreign language programmes. It also requires English-medium instruction (EMI) skills (Dearden, 2014) and intercultural competence. Thus, the teaching of English in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Israel is undergoing a fundamental change to meet the needs of internationalization in a globalized economy. It is clear that change is essential for ensuring enhanced competence in English and other foreign languages, as well as the ability to interact with other cultures, these being important assets in local and international labour markets. Thus, while traditionally Israeli students may have been considered well served by being taught reading comprehension skills only in order to cope with academic course materials in English, students in the twenty-first century need a much more extensive set of tools and competences for coping with the requirements of current internationalization drives at their institutions and with the demands of globalized job markets. The innovation presented in this chapter addresses a more contemporary approach to English instruction in higher education, driven by an up-to-date conception of what it means to know a language, how language is acquired, state-of-theart methodologies, and by alignment with international standards that ensure a ‘common language’ with regard to proficiency and mutual recognition of foreign language programmes. According to Spolsky (2004), “language policy exists in the wider social, political, economic, cultural, religious and ideological context that makes up human society” (p. 218). Furthermore, as in any reform initiative in language education, multiple forces affecting the success of the reform come into play. The forces that drive language policy within educational institutions will rarely be solely linguistic or educational, but rather reflect the policy and ideological position of the national government (Spolsky, 2007). Shohamy (2006) expands this notion and points out how these ideologies lead to both overt and covert mechanisms that result in both official and de facto language policy. This chapter will discuss an innovation designed to reform English teaching in higher education and describe the forces and mechanisms that emerged in the process.

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Impetus for the Innovation All HEIs in Israel require candidates to achieve a certain level of English proficiency, which is termed ‘exemption level’. Traditionally, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in higher education were geared solely towards reading comprehension of academic texts, as even though the language of instruction and tasks is Hebrew, the majority of course readings are in English, the lingua franca of academia. Thus, the primary goal of these EAP courses was to provide students with the skills and strategies necessary to cope with their content course bibliographies (Spector-Cohen, Kirschner, & Wexler, 2001). Although the study of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)1 is compulsory for all students in the Israeli education system from fourth grade2 through high school, there was and remains a gap between the level of English required by the high school matriculation exams and the requirements of higher education, which involve coping with assigned texts in content courses that are linguistically and conceptually complex, and presuppose content knowledge in the field. This gap is further aggravated by the characteristics of the Israeli higher education system, in which candidates choose their major on applying to a given institution and immediately enter specialized tracks. Also, a large percentage of the undergraduate student population is generally older than their counterparts in other countries because of mandatory military service and the fact that, following their army service, Israelis often take time off to travel abroad “to forge a sense of personal meaning and authenticity that subsequently paves the way to reintegration into long-term life goals” (Scharf & Mayseless, 2010, p. 83). As a result, many Israeli students tend to be very focused and task oriented, expecting academic programmes to be highly relevant to their future careers. However, the relatively late entrance into higher education

1For

the purposes of this chapter we have differentiated between English in higher education and in schools by referring to EAP and EFL, respectively. 2However, many schools across the country begin English instruction of some kind before the fourth grade.

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may contribute to English language attrition. In most institutions candidates’ English language proficiency level is assessed through the Psychometric Entrance Test, a national test developed by the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation (NITE) that determines whether candidates have reached a score that exempts them from additional English studies or a score that determines the level of proficiency at which they begin English studies, which are usually provided by the universities and colleges.3 Presently there are 62 institutions of higher learning in Israel,4 of which eight are universities and the others are colleges and teachers’ colleges. Traditionally, universities required students to successfully reach the exemption level within their first year of studies, whereas colleges required exemption level to be reached by the end of the second year of study or even later. With regard to the EAP programmes within each individual institution, these were basically autonomous, mainly due to the fact that there was no national curriculum or framework for determining goals and standards. Thus it is clear that mutual recognition of English programmes across institutions has been problematic, with most universities refusing to recognize the English courses of students transferring from a majority of colleges until the adoption of mutually determined and agreed upon standards. Contemporary developments in approaches to foreign language teaching (e.g., communicative methodologies, content- and task-based instruction, learning-oriented assessment), alongside globalization and the push for internationalization in Israeli HEIs previously mentioned, emphasize the need for updating EAP programmes to meet twenty-first-century demands. These trends are especially noteworthy when considering the need to promote mobility, particularly following the introduction of exchange programmes such as ERASMUS+ in Israel. Furthermore, an increasing number of institutions are opening EMI study-abroad programmes, as well as full undergraduate and 3These English courses (except for the highest exemption-level course) are not included in the tuition and incur an additional cost for students. 4According to the Council for Higher Education in Israel’s (CHE) website, there are 62 HEIs in Israel, eight of which are universities.

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graduate degree programmes in English to attract international students. Finally, HEIs are increasingly requiring local students to take at least one EMI course during their academic studies. The need for change, specifically regarding the standardization of EAP programmes in Israel, was first addressed by an exploratory committee appointed by the Council for Higher Education in Israel (CHE), the state institution responsible for higher education. While this committee drafted an official document setting minimum acceptance standards in English5 for entry to higher education (1 December 2011), it did not stipulate what should be taught and how. In light of all the above, and recognizing the critical need for change in EAP programmes throughout the country, key leaders in the field from various Israeli HEIs, including the authors of this chapter, submitted a TEMPUS project proposal for curriculum reform that was accepted in 2013. This grassroots initiative, called the ECOSTAR6 project, provided the backbone of the innovation described in this chapter: the CEFR-Aligned Framework for English in Higher Education in Israel, henceforth referred to as the Framework, and the accompanying online professional development programme (PDP).

The Context of the Innovation In this section we will present the goals of the ECOSTAR project, followed by a description of the development of the Framework and the accompanying PDP.

The Goals of the ECOSTAR Project The goals of the ECOSTAR project were to reform EAP programmes at HEIs in Israel by addressing the outdated approaches to EAP as well as 5According

to cut-off scores on the Psychometric Entrance Test. English as the Cornerstone of Sustainable Technology and Research, Project No. 543683-TEMPUS-1 2013-1-IL-TEMPUS-JPCR (2013–2017).

6ECOSTAR:

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the lack of shared standards among the various institutions. The major goal of the project was to align EAP programmes in HEIs with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), since developments from the Bologna Process in Europe had not yet filtered through sufficiently to the Israeli context. It was hoped that, in addition to promoting standardization, the alignment with the CEFR would facilitate physical and virtual mobility and international collaboration, and enable Israeli students and graduates to function effectively in the global economy. Beyond the reform and modernization of EAP programmes, the wider objectives of ECOSTAR included: narrowing socioeconomic gaps through more relevant EAP programmes to better prepare students from all sectors of society to compete equally in labour markets; promotion of collaboration between universities and academic colleges to harmonize EAP programmes; integration of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills; development of multimedia online EAP learning programmes; professionalization of the EAP field in Israel; implementation of bottom-up change in EAP teaching and assessment in HEIs in Israel; enhancement of academic ties between Israel and Europe; internationalization of EAP programmes; provision of training and support to EAP and EMI teachers and students; and the development of a best-practice model with generic support materials for future EMI courses.

The Development of the Innovation The centrepiece of the innovation was the Framework. This Framework adopts an integrative four-skills approach and promotes consistency in expectations for students and teachers, while allowing for academic freedom and creativity in the teaching process. It maps out the proficiency levels as defined by the CHE and encompasses A1 through to B2 levels (as defined in the CEFR), the latter being determined as the exit level of English required in HEIs. Further, the Framework supports mutual recognition across institutions and internationally. The development of the Framework followed an iterative process and was carried out over a period of three years. It was informed by an in-depth

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examination of the CEFR; a comprehensive needs analysis; collaboration with European partners; and a focus-group study among local EAP teachers. The main purpose of the needs analysis survey was to inform the development of the Framework by learning about the English language needs of higher education graduates as perceived by three main groups of stakeholders: students, content lecturers and EAP teachers. These three groups were included as it was believed that each might view a graduate’s language requirements differently. Information was collected during the 2014/15 school year through a questionnaire. Items on the questionnaire were developed based on an extensive familiarity with and knowledge of the local context following an in-depth study of the CEFR. Respondents were asked to rank the relative importance of can-do statements for graduates of higher education. The questionnaires were completed online and participation was anonymous and voluntary. The questionnaire for students was offered in Hebrew, Arabic and English; for content lecturers in Hebrew; and for EAP teachers in English. The final number of respondents was as follows: 2394 students, 175 content lecturers and 89 EAP instructors.7 Findings from this needs survey indicated that students appreciate the importance of studying all four language skills, and the majority believe that EAP courses should not only include the educational domain but also the professional one. These findings were in line with results from a previous survey conducted among Israeli students and graduates through a previous TEMPUS project (Symon & Broido, 2014). Results show that EAP professionals and content lecturers also support a move to a four-skills approach, with content lecturers particularly emphasizing the importance of writing. The preliminary first draft of the Framework, based on the in-depth study of the CEFR and the findings of the needs survey, was then shared with the ECOSTAR European partners, who were asked to provide written comments. These were further discussed at one of the ECOSTAR consortium meetings. The resulting feedback contributed 7Results

of the needs analysis will appear in a separate manuscript in greater detail.

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to the refinement of the Framework and a second draft version. A focus group of EAP teachers in Israel was then asked to examine each can-do statement, again in relation to suitability for the local context, and their feedback was followed up with discussions for clarification. This resulted in the current version of the Framework. In localizing and adapting the CEFR to the Israeli context, some of the actions taken at the different stages included the adaptation of existing can-do statements, the creation of new ones, and addressing the discrepancy between levels of proficiency that are defined by current cut-off scores on the Psychometric Entrance Test and the proficiency levels defined by the CEFR. One way of reconciling this discrepancy was to define can-do statements from different CEFR levels for a given Israeli proficiency level: for example, incorporating a B1 in reading with an A2 in writing for a given level. The Framework, in its current form, was launched at an ECOSTAR symposium at Tel Aviv University on 5 January 2017. It was formally presented to a representative of the CHE and hard copies were distributed to all those attending the symposium, including EAP department heads and EAP instructors from many universities, colleges and teachers’ colleges, as well as teachers and policymakers from the Ministry of Education. The professional development program (PDP) was also presented and participants were encouraged to register for it. As it was clear from the outset that the introduction of the Framework would involve critical and significant changes in the field of EAP at national, institutional and individual levels, the need for teacher professional development was obvious. Besides the need to provide EAP instructors with the opportunity to learn about the Framework and the types of changes its adoption involves, three main principles guided the development of the PDP: sustainability, transferability and scalability (STS). Sustainability refers to the capability of continuing into the future; thus, through professional development, EAP departments will be better able to implement the Framework. Transferability (also known as replicability) refers to application in different contexts; thus the design of the PDP was a modular one, allowing for local adaptation in the different HEIs. Scalability refers to a more widespread impact that could be better achieved through the provision of professional

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development in EAP departments across the country. Taken together, the principles of STS, as applied to the PDP, could and should ensure that the Framework continues into the future, is applied across institutions of higher education, and impacts EAP on a national scale, even though it is “difficult to predict the scalability, sustainability and transferability of an innovation at its start-up phase” (Mioduser, Nachmias, Forkosh-Baruch, & Tubin, 2004, p. 80). The main goals of the PDP were to provide EAP professionals in Israel with an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the CEFR, to promote extensive familiarity with the Framework and to support teachers in aligning their teaching and assessment to the Framework. The development of the PDP involved three major stages. The first stage was to identify the target audience. EAP teachers in higher education are an extremely heterogeneous group in terms of age, teaching experience, professional training and general education. They also teach in a wide variety of contexts—from teachers’ colleges through general and technical colleges to universities—and differ in terms of their familiarity with the CEFR. Therefore, it was decided to adopt a cascading or ‘train-the-trainer’ model, whereby the PDP would first be directed towards EAP department heads and leading teachers. It was important to include the department heads as these would provide the support needed to implement the Framework in their institutions. The leading teachers would take it upon themselves, after participating in the national PDP, to adapt the PDP to their individual context and train their teaching staff. The second stage was to map out the content that would be most relevant for the dissemination and implementation of the Framework within the given time constraints. As many of the skills to be taught were new to EAP teachers, it was important to provide background on instructional approaches, sample activities and assessment relevant to this wider perception of the nature of language. Finally the mode of delivery had to be chosen. As the programme was a national one, with participants residing in distant locations, it was decided that it should be online and asynchronous. Also, as the intention was for leading teachers to adapt the content to their local context, the platform chosen was Moodle, as it is used for course delivery in most, if not all, HEIs in Israel.

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The final stage was to pilot the PDP. The pilot was carried out among the teaching staff of three of ECOSTAR’s Israeli member institutions. All teachers on staff were required to take part in the pilot. As the teachers worked through the programme, data were collected through interviews and informal conversations, the teachers’ contributions to and comments on the online activities, and online feedback questionnaires posted on the PDP Moodle site. A number of changes were made based on this pilot, including clarifying the guide to navigating the site, sharpening the overview and instructions in each unit, and the subdivision of content into shorter, more manageable units. The final version of the PDP comprises three modules, and each module consists of four units. The first module is devoted to learning about the approach to teaching English on which the CEFR is based, initial acquaintance with the CEFR and a study of the Framework. The second module is devoted to an in-depth study of the individual can-do statements and various learning objects that were developed within the context of ECOSTAR. This module includes tasks such as designing a local syllabus, benchmarking activities and integrating technology into language teaching. The third module is devoted to assessment and includes topics such as learning-oriented assessment, performance tasks and rubrics, and the provision of meaningful feedback. The units in each of the three modules include: fora for discussion; activities which mainly serve to create materials for use when implementing the Framework in various courses; sample materials for instruction and assessment; and additional resources, including videos and professional literature. As previously mentioned, the main aim of the PDP was to provide teachers with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to become acquainted with and implement the Framework, ensuring that instructors have the knowledge, abilities and strategies to go beyond reading comprehension and integrate all four language skills in their classroom. The PDP actually provides additional, more generalized outcomes for participants, such as a better understanding of curriculum and materials design, in-depth knowledge of instructional planning, integration of technology, and testing and assessment. The PDP also contributes to the promotion of EAP as a recognized profession on campus, to the

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enhancement of the professionalism of teachers, and to the creation of a common language both at national and global levels.

Findings As the title of this chapter indicates, when formulating and implementing curriculum reform three types of consideration come into play: l­inguistic, educational and political. We have learned that our achievements and obstacles were—and still are—reflections of how successfully we dealt with these considerations and with critical success factors that we now know have to be in place in order for bottom-up movements to succeed. As we will show in this section, these factors necessarily involve the ability to sustain systematic engagement with relevant official decision-making bodies, such as the CHE, who devise and/or implement top-down government programmes, by establishing a regular channel of communication and sharing information on the innovation’s progress from day one. The need for bottom-up movements to evolve into their own political force aimed at engaging official policymakers in the change process is perhaps one of our central findings. In addition to describing what worked in the context of the innovation, we will also comment on what has failed to work so far and why, in terms of its creation, dissemination and implementation. Lastly, we will discuss actions that were taken, and are being taken, to address problematic issues.

What Worked Linguistic, educational and political factors were taken into account in the conceptualization, creation and development of the innovation. The creation of the Framework was informed by multiple sources, rendering it more comprehensive, relevant for the local context and valid. The alignment with the CEFR ensured wide recognition among key stakeholders from both the academic and the administrative echelons. Most importantly, the Framework was localized to suit the particularities of higher education in Israel, bearing in mind the historical background of

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a focus solely on reading comprehension. Securing European funding for the development and implementation of the Framework and accompanying PDP not only conferred international prestige and national recognition, but propitiated collaboration with European partners who contributed valuable insight and input regarding their own experiences of implementing changes aligned with the CEFR in the EFL/EAP curricula in their respective countries. Of equal importance was the inclusion of the National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) as active partners in the ECOSTAR project, and thus in the development and dissemination of the Framework. Their inclusion gave students the opportunity to convey their perceived needs and voice concerns that were very helpful at different stages of the process. At the same time, the developers were able to explain to the student representatives the rationale, aims and considerations informing the creation of the Framework in a continuous and fruitful dialogue. In hindsight, this alliance with the NUIS proved crucial in addressing external political factors that arose during the course of the project, and that will be presented later in this section. Linguistic, educational and political factors were further addressed through the dissemination of the Framework, and many of the channels used were very successful. During the development process, attention was paid both to reaching out to wider audiences and to providing information and progress reports. Regular posts on the ECOSTAR website and newsletters distributed to the CHE kept central decision makers abreast of developments in our grassroots innovation at every stage. Notices were published on the NUIS website and appeared on social media. Four annual symposia on different aspects of the CEFR were held, in which Israeli and international experts in the fields of language and education participated, and to which invitations were sent to key policymakers from the CHE and the Ministry of Education, as well as to leading researchers and teachers in the field of foreign language teaching. Synopses of these symposia were published in print and online. In addition, several national and international workshops, seminars and conferences were organized, which included relevant lectures by key researchers and leaders in the field. One of the more outstanding outcomes of these dissemination activities is that the EFL curriculum for

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Israeli schools is today in the process of being aligned with the CEFR, as are English proficiency standards for pre-service English teachers in teachers’ colleges and EFL teaching certification programmes. Moreover, curricula in additional foreign languages taught in Israel are also aligning with the CEFR, both in schools and in higher education. The main vehicle for the dissemination and implementation of the Framework and adoption of a comprehensive four-skills approach in EAP has been its accompanying PDP. At the time of writing this chapter, the PDP had just been completed by teacher trainers and these, in turn, were beginning to adapt the PDP to suit their particular context and train instructors at their own institutions. As more and more teacher trainers graduate from the PDP and proceed to train their staff, we will no doubt experience increased STS, as these teachers in turn adapt the course contents to their individual teaching contexts. By promoting the alignment of the English programmes in other HEIs in Israel with the Framework, it would certainly appear that the inclusion of professional training in the innovation is impacting curriculum reform by changing the approach to EAP as well as instructional and assessment methods, and, in so doing, is bringing about the de facto standardization of EAP in Israel. The advantages of increasing implementation of the Framework for student and teacher physical and virtual mobility are clear; now that we have an internationally recognized ‘common language’ and, more importantly, common standards for evaluating English proficiency, embarking on exchange programmes and collaboration projects across institutions in Israel and abroad has and will become much easier. Furthermore, we are witnessing significant changes in institutional language policies, such as recognition of test scores in TOEFL, IELTS and Cambridge exams (which have score comparisons with the CEFR levels) as proof of candidates’ English proficiency, in addition to scores on the Psychometric Entrance Test, and recognition of CEFR proficiency levels of students who have studied in accredited HEIs abroad. Fruits of the collaboration between EAP professionals and key academic and administrative stakeholders, these developments facilitate admission processes, promote internationalization and, perhaps most importantly, serve to highlight the fact that bottom-up initiatives can influence top-down policies.

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What Did Not Work There are a number of aspects of the innovation that did not succeed as well as we had hoped. Before introduction of the Framework, there had been no significant changes in EAP programmes in Israel for decades. Thus, notwithstanding the provision of professional development, inevitably there is resistance to the new approach and novel concepts set out in the Framework. Such profound change appears to be a somewhat daunting prospect for many experienced EAP teachers, who may be reluctant to leave the comfort zones of familiar methodologies and practices and to convince their respective administrations of the need to do so. What is therefore most challenging is how to motivate teachers to participate in the PDP to gain the knowledge and skills they need for implementing change. One problem that we are grappling with is the limited number of institutions participating in the PDP, despite the steps that were taken to encourage enrolment. We suggest that possible reasons for the lacklustre response include (a) the fact that the PDP requires at least 20 hours of study and that the timing of the first cycle, at the end of the 2016/17 spring semester, spilled over into the summer vacation; and (b) we have not yet succeeded in getting institutional or governmental policymakers to incentivize participation. Since professional development is an essential condition for change (Fullan, 1993; Guskey, 2002), we are confident that as more teacher trainers train teachers, and as more teachers and institutions enjoy the benefits of tangible initiatives such as the CHE’s incentives for improving the quality of teaching, this problem will be solved. Much more significantly, it soon became apparent that, from the outset, we had underestimated the substantial role that the politics of policy change and reform play in the origins, formulation and implementation of public policies (Cerna, 2013). As EAP professionals, in our zeal to bring about what we perceived as the desired curriculum reform, we had focused more on the linguistic and educational aspects that required attention, neglecting to engage more actively with the political entities and decision makers ultimately responsible for effecting nationwide policy changes. We only began to grapple with these

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political forces when we were well into the development and implementation of the innovation, once these forces manifested themselves as a palpable obstacle that seemed to be antithetical to the essence and goals of our project and the direction in which EAP should be going. Although the initial plan for the needs survey had included interviewing pivotal policymakers in higher education, this did not materialize due to constraints of time and manpower. This initial omission perhaps accounts for the subsequent truculence and recalcitrance that met the innovators’ repeated attempts at communication with government officials. Perhaps the lack of receptiveness on the part of some was a result of unsuccessful attempts to convey the extent of change deemed necessary by the promoters of the innovation; or, possibly, it was due to the fact that they were simultaneously dealing with conflicting political forces. Eventually, the breakdown in communication, exacerbated by the sudden emergence of an alternative government-sponsored initiative, which will be described below, galvanized the representatives of the EAP professionals into seeking legal advice and, abandoning their traditionally somewhat reactive stance to top-down directives in favour of active campaigning, they ultimately morphed into a political force themselves. It was only then that concrete and palpable changes began to take place. The conflicting forces culminated in the creation of an obstacle that could not have been foreseen at the outset of the project: a top-down government-sponsored initiative that stemmed primarily from ideological beliefs about English in higher education, and seemed to be guided more by political than by educational and linguistic considerations. This initiative consisted of online self-access courses, or MOOCs,8 for the independent study of EAP at all levels of proficiency except the (highest) exemption level, as an alternative to the courses offered at the institutions of higher education. These online courses were based on the traditional narrow and now obsolete view of EAP that focused exclusively on reading comprehension and were therefore limited in scope.

8MOOC:

Massive Open Online Course. The question of suitability of MOOCs for interactive foreign language teaching/learning is beyond the scope of this chapter.

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Particularly lamentable was the fact that a wider base of experts was not sought before developing these courses, nor was a comprehensive needs analysis conducted. The courses were offered free of charge to students, as their union, a political force in itself, had been lobbying for years to reduce or abolish tuition fees for EAP courses in HEIs. Simultaneously with the development of the Framework, this initiative was announced and subsequently implemented during the 2016/17 academic year. These online courses threatened to undermine the successful implementation of the ECOSTAR innovation on a national level, and EAP professionals across the country were, understandably, extremely concerned about their implications.

Addressing What Did Not Work A direct and surprisingly positive outcome of the government-­sponsored initiative was that, led by key ECOSTAR members and leading EAP professionals from colleges and universities, the English teaching ­community in HEIs throughout the country joined forces to create a new coalition. This was particularly significant as serious collaboration between the three sectors—universities, colleges and teachers’ colleges— had previously been rare. This coalition led to the establishment of the Higher Education in Israel Network of English Teachers (H-INET), a non-profit professional association representing EAP teachers in all HEIs. By force of circumstances, H-INET became a political entity in its own right and a proactive player in the interactions with official policymakers and academic and administrative authorities. The establishment of H-INET had two main aims: (a) to contribute to professionalization in the field; and (b) to create a professional body—itself a new political force to be reckoned with—to promote the status of EAP in Israel and to represent EAP on all levels, including consultation with policymakers. A large part of the work of H-INET is the continued promotion of the Framework on a number of fronts: among EAP teachers throughout the country and key management in their respective institutions; among critical bodies of policymakers in HEIs (e.g., the Committee of Rectors of Israeli Universities) and members of the

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CHE; and with pivotal policymakers and professionals from the Israeli Ministry of Education. Ironically, it was soon understood that the government-sponsored initiative could actually serve as a springboard and rallying force to encourage reticent EAP professionals to adopt the Framework. Once the government initiative was made public, emergency meetings were called to discuss strategy. These meetings were opportunities to encourage teachers to join H-INET, to disseminate the Framework and to show that aligning with international standards was the only viable alternative to the outdated ‘reading comprehension only’ approach. A H-INET website, mailing list and Facebook group were established as channels of communication for sharing lobbying news and developments, as well as requests for information and assistance, and issues of general interest to the profession. Members of ECOSTAR and H-INET were actively involved in the annual CEFR symposia and conferences at which dissemination of the Framework and the PDP took place. H-INET members were encouraged to meet with the administrations of their respective institutions to lobby against the online courses and at the same time canvass for the adoption of internationally aligned standards. H-INET also became the political vehicle for promoting the Framework to key policymakers in higher education, including the CHE. Implementation of the Framework was presented as the desired alternative to the government initiative. Legal advice was obtained from a lawyer sympathetic to the cause, who agreed to represent H-INET at a minimal cost, covered by H-INET membership fees. Not surprisingly, communication improved when requests for information about the government initiative were submitted to the CHE by the H-INET lawyer under the freedom of information legislation. In addition, a comprehensive policy paper was sent, in which the need to align with the CEFR and the negative consequences of the government-sponsored initiative were discussed in detail. Letters were repeatedly sent to pivotal administrative bodies. Members of H-INET were interviewed in the media and despite the fact that the issue was of limited interest to the general public, they succeeded in getting a number of articles published in print and online newspapers. More importantly, the representatives

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of the NUIS who, as participants in ECOSTAR, were well acquainted with the aims and considerations behind the innovation, played a key role in defusing tensions and acted as mediators between H-INET and their colleagues in the NUIS, conveying to them the potential benefits to be derived from the adoption of the Framework and publishing reliable updates about the innovation on the NUIS website. These intensive and persistent lobbying efforts may have contributed to a very promising development. For the first time, the CHE conducted a comprehensive, nationwide quality assessment (QA) of EAP programmes in HEIs, as well as of the government-sponsored initiative.9 All QAs by the CHE such as this one involve setting up a panel of experts in the field undergoing QA, comprising local specialists as well as experts from abroad. It is to be assumed that these international experts are familiar with international standards; thus, it is difficult to imagine that recommendations for EAP in Israel will not include aligning to them (a) at a time when the CHE has launched a five-year plan to promote internationalization of HEIs; and (b) in light of the fact that the Israeli Ministry of Education is now in the process of aligning the English curriculum for schools to the CEFR.10 In addition, and perhaps most importantly, the QA has led to the opening of a much improved channel of communication with the CHE, in the form of face-to-face meetings, meaningful discussions and their increased participation in symposia and conferences. We are now at a critical juncture where our bottom-up innovation must receive top-down support in order to ensure sustainability, transferability and scalability. At the time of writing this chapter, each HEI will soon be meeting with the QA committee to review their report. The final QA evaluations and recommendations are expected to be published during the 2018/19 academic year and to appear on the CHE’s website, thus ensuring transparency. The authors of this chapter are cautiously optimistic that, despite the rocky start of the innovation, 9All the EAP departments submitted their required reports in the summer of 2017; CHE evaluations and recommendations are expected to be completed in the 2018/19 academic year. 10Some of the authors of this chapter are currently involved in the process, and have been nominated to head and serve on a number of Ministry of Education subcommittees.

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political as well as linguistic and educational forces are coming together to promote its successful implementation: namely, the adoption of the CEFR-Aligned Framework for English in Higher Education in Israel.

Implications Most of the implications of this innovation in language education speak for themselves. At the national level, spurred by research pointing to the need for institutional and government policy for EAP in Israel, we had originally set out to address national priorities of curriculum reform through the development of a framework aligned with international standards for the teaching of English in Israel’s higher education system. In this respect, the innovation’s impact is impressive and includes improved EAP studies, a ‘common language’ across institutions, assisting the Ministry of Education to align the national English curriculum for schools with the CEFR, ensuring, among other things, a smoother transition from school to higher education, ongoing professional training on a national level and a representative association for EAP professionals across all three sectors—universities, colleges and teachers’ colleges. In response to the question posed in the title of this chapter, our experience has shown that when designing and implementing language curriculum reform, all three factors—linguistic, educational and political—should be addressed simultaneously, from the moment of conception and throughout the development, dissemination and implementation stages of the innovation. In our case, when considering the linguistic aspects of the planned reform, we asked ourselves a series of central questions: what it means to know, learn and teach a language; the extent to which the four language skills should be integrated; the appropriateness of an action-oriented approach; and the addressing of the range of linguistic demands of a global economy. When considering the educational aspects of curriculum reform, we focused on: a re-­ evaluation of pedagogical approaches, practices and methodologies, especially those that are most appropriate to the Framework; the need for the professional development of teachers; the benefits of participating in

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international educational projects and learning from the experience of others; and the implications of professional networking and the knowledge and expertise to be gained from organizing symposia and conferences. Finally, when considering the political aspects of reform, we made sure to partner with colleagues from all the different sectors involved in EAP teaching in Israel; we invited representatives of the NUIS to actively participate in every stage (development, implementation, dissemination); we opened channels of communication with key stakeholders at our respective institutions and in the CHE; we worked closely with all our EU partners; we joined forces with the directors of foreign language institutes to organize the CEFR symposia; and we invited language inspectors and officials from the Ministry of Education to participate. Clearly, our greatest shortcoming was that we did not take all the political forces into account, possibly driven by a mistaken belief that it would be more effective to involve national policymakers and other key stakeholders at a later stage, after we had tangible ‘deliverables’ to present. Unfortunately, omitting to engage directly with top government decision makers and national policy designers, from the very moment that we conceived the innovation, contributed to the fractured and fractious communication with, and among, key actors responsible for the formulation and implementation of far-reaching policies and reforms, not to mention the surprising emergence of a controversial government-sponsored initiative. Fortunately, as a result of the open communication channels we had maintained with influential institutional and political stakeholders throughout the developmental process, compounded by our relentless campaigning and lobbying that ultimately led to our own transformation into a political force to be reckoned with, some of these actors became more receptive to the innovation and even mediated with the conflicting ideological and political forces, prompting actions that have led to the cautious optimism we mentioned earlier. There is no denying that instituting these reforms has been an uphill struggle, yet valuable lessons have been learned along the way. We are confident that these lessons could be of value to other educational innovators seeking to promote bottom-up reforms in a variety of fields and contexts, both in Israel and in other countries. Here are some suggestions.

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Practical Recommendations for Innovators • First, upon embarking on such an innovation, it is critical to mobilize institutional and financial support at the outset and, if possible, to partner with colleagues who have already undergone a similar process in order to benefit from their insights and experience. • As soon as the wheels are set in motion, vigorously and vociferously announce the start of the innovation through as many channels as possible; inform as many relevant or potentially interested parties and audiences; encourage their active involvement and forge new partnerships—promoting more active participation encourages a sense of ownership for all parties. • Establish and maintain direct communication with policymakers at all levels from the start and keep them continuously updated on progress and related activities. Do not be discouraged if a response is not forthcoming initially; be proactive, insistent and creative. • Intensive, persistent and ongoing dissemination and lobbying should be an intrinsic component of the innovation process from the outset through, for example, symposia, conferences and workshops, announcements and articles in print and online news media and social media. Create a website that hosts your project and make sure it is updated on a regular basis. Consider live streaming your events; this will afford key policymakers and other stakeholders and interested parties the opportunity to follow the event from afar when unable to attend. • Before embarking on the developmental phases, make sure that extensive needs analyses are performed involving key stakeholders, both from the educational/content domains and among policymakers from the broad spectrum of ideological and political forces that often, unexpectedly, come into play. Irrespective of budget, manpower and time constraints, interpellate these political forces through the initial needs analyses as well as through periodic meetings, if possible. This is important not just for the valuable information gleaned, but also for the opportunities to make useful contacts and to establish new, hopefully open and productive channels of communication.

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• Ensure that you provide a full PDP that has undergone comprehensive piloting and revision, and that is sustainable, such as the ‘trainthe-trainer’ model. • Become a political force to be reckoned with. If you lack a central professional body or association that can lobby for, support and promote your project, create one. You will then have the opportunity to convince other professionals to endorse your innovation as they join the organization. • Seize even the most unlikely opportunities to promote your project, even when all hope seems to be lost; these could, in fact, act as a rallying force in persuading others to come on board and promote your innovation. • Finally, be proactive, improvise when needed and do not wait to act only in response to others’ initiatives or directives. Do not be afraid to take the reins and become a political force in your own right. You have a bigger stake in your innovation than any other stakeholder, policymaker or political force involved. The incongruence between current needs and most existing EAP programmes in Israel prompted leading professionals from various HEIs to propose a CEFR-aligned initiative for curriculum reform, within the framework of the TEMPUS ECOSTAR project. It soon became apparent that, if this bottom-up initiative was to succeed, the innovators needed to actively engage with an array of key top-down actors and political forces and, in so doing, become a political force themselves. This experience has clearly confirmed that (a) educational change is a dynamic process and it may be initiated from a variety of different and combined sources at critical junctures; and (b) given the complex dynamics of policy change, a deep understanding of the conditions and factors behind these interactive processes is required, in tandem with combined bottom-up and top-down approaches, in order for successful policy change and implementation to take place (Cerna, 2013).

Epilogue Since the completion of this chapter, the International Quality Assessment Committee commissioned by the CHE to evaluate all EAP departments in universities and colleges in Israel has completed its work

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and submitted its report. The report includes its recommendations for changes in EAP in higher education. One of the most important recommendations is to align with the CEFR. The committee also suggests abolishing the free online courses. At present, the authors of this chapter are cooperating closely with the CHE on the implementation of the committee’s recommendations. Although it is probable that not all the recommendations will be implemented (for legal, political and/or budgetary reasons), the CHE has acknowledged that English in higher education in Israel will be aligning with the CEFR and thus the innovation described in this chapter will be at the forefront of this transition.

Discussion Questions 1. Think of an innovation in the field of language learning and teaching that you would like to develop and promote. a. What forces (e.g., political, educational, cultural) should you address? b. What steps would you take to prepare the field for adopting the innovation? c. How would you reconcile conflicting top-down considerations and bottom-up interests? d. Which CPD model (e.g., train the trainer, collaborative learning, ‘walking the talk’) best supports implementation of your innovation? e. What measures would you adopt to disseminate your innovation and ensure its sustainability? f. What might you do to leverage your innovation’s success? 2. To what extent should the development and implementation of an innovation be accompanied by formative and/or summative evaluation? 3. Cascade or train-the-trainer CPD models are often a key factor in supporting change. What political, educational and cultural elements would you need to address to prevent the cascade from becoming just a trickle? 4. Describe an innovation that was/was not successful. What forces promoted and/or hindered adoption of the innovation?

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References Cerna, L. (2013). The nature of policy change and implementation: A review of different theoretical approaches. OECD. Retrieved from https://www.oecd. org/edu/ceri/The%20Nature%20of%20Policy%20Change%20and%20 Implementation.pdf. Dearden, J. (2014). EMI: A growing global phenomenon. Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/e484_emi_cover_ option_3_final_web.pdf. Fullan, M. G. (1993). Change forces: Probing the depths of educational reform. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press. Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional development and teacher change. Teachers and Teaching, 8(3), 381–391. Mioduser, D., Nachmias, R., Forkosh-Baruch, A., & Tubin, D. (2004). Sustainability, scalability and transferability of ICT-based pedagogical innovations in Israeli schools. Education, Communication and Information, 4(1), 71–82. Scharf, M., & Mayseless, O. (2010). Finding the authentic self in a communal culture: Developmental goals in emerging adulthood. New Directions for Child and Adolescent, 130, 83–95. Shohamy, E. G. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge. Spector-Cohen, E., Kirschner, M., & Wexler, C. (2001). Designing EAP reading courses at the university level. English for Specific Purposes, 20, 367–386. Spolsky, B. (2004). Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Spolsky, B. (2007). Towards a theory of language policy. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 22(1), 1–14. Symon, M., & Broido, M. (2014). Changing worlds, changing needs: EFL provision. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 18(2), 126–131.

9 The Evolution of a Research Paper Course Andrew Littlejohn and Sandhya R. Mehta

Area of Innovation This chapter is about learning how to write research papers, but that is not the main focus here. Rather, it is about the learning that occurs through trying to innovate—not only learning to understand the nature of innovation itself, but also learning about how others may react to an innovation, whether they are students, other teaching staff or administrative bodies. The chapter details the evolution of a large, multi-section university undergraduate writing and academic skills course in the Department of English at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. This is a sixth-semester A. Littlejohn (*)  Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Darussalam, Brunei e-mail: [email protected] S. R. Mehta  Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_9

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course in an eight-semester degree plan taken by English and Education majors students. Although student numbers vary semester to semester, the course averages around ten sections with 15 or more students in each section, with several thousand students now having completed the course. Covering a 16-year development period, the chapter describes the twists and turns of negotiation and accommodation with students, teaching staff and administration, and the manner in which adjustments were made to the course design to resolve problems and improve the running of what has now become a relatively ambitious undertaking in this particular context: the eventual production of a full research paper, including all the typical stages of question identification, proposal writing, literature survey, instrument design and data collection, analysis and findings, through to presentation at a conference. While this may seem a rather commonplace demand in many undergraduate programmes, in the context described here it represents a significant undertaking, given the educational limitations and background of many of the students. For most of the students involved, the research paper is by far and away the most difficult challenge they encounter in their undergraduate studies, and significant skills in supervising and guiding students are required on the part of teaching faculty.

Impetus for the Innovation Like many innovations in education, the course described here actually began life as something of a rebellion against the established course offerings, perhaps driven more by an emotional reaction than by rational planning. On entering the Department of English from the Language Centre, English students were originally taken through a series of four language courses entitled Language Development I–IV (LDI–LDIV). Although the precise nature of the student experience varied section to section, Fig. 9.1 represents the typical programme of study they met, as set out in the official brief course descriptions. As is commonly the case in many MENA universities, the department consisted of a substantial number of long-term staff who had been working there for ten or more years, and a smaller, but significant

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>ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ/ dŚŝƐ ĐŽƵƌƐĞ ĂŝŵƐ ƚŽ ĐŽŶƐŽůŝĚĂƚĞ ƚŚĞ ůŝŶŐƵŝƐƟĐ ĂŶĚ ƐŬŝůůƐ ďĂƐĞ ĂĐŚŝĞǀĞĚ ďLJ ƐƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ >ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞ ĞŶƚƌĞ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ƚŽ ĐŽŶĮƌŵ ĂŶĚ ĞdžƚĞŶĚ ƚŚŝƐ ďĂƐĞ ǁŝƚŚŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŶƚĞdžƚ ŽĨ ĂŶ ĂĐĂĚĞŵŝĐ ĚĞƉĂƌƚŵĞŶƚ͕ ĞƐƉĞĐŝĂůůLJ ƐƚƵĚĞŶƚƐΖ ŐƌĂŵŵĂƟĐĂů ĐŽŵƉĞƚĞŶĐĞ ďĞLJŽŶĚ ŝŶƚĞƌŵĞĚŝĂƚĞ ůĞǀĞů͘ >ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ// dŚŝƐĐŽƵƌƐĞŝƐĂŝŵĞĚĂƚŝŶĐƌĞĂƐŝŶŐƐƚƵĚĞŶƚƐΖĂďŝůŝƚLJƚŽƌĞĂĚŝŶĚĞƉĞŶĚĞŶƚůLJĂŶĚĐƌŝƟĐĂůůLJĂƌŝĐŚ ǀĂƌŝĞƚLJŽĨƚĞdžƚƐ͘^ƚƵĚĞŶƚƐůĞĂƌŶŚŽǁƚŽĂŶĂůLJƐĞĂƌŐƵŵĞŶƚ͕ ƉŽŝŶƚŽĨ ǀŝĞǁ͕ďŝĂƐ͕ĂƐƐƵŵƉƟŽŶƐ ĂŶĚ ŝŶƚĞŶĚĞĚ ƌĞĂĚĞƌƐŚŝƉ͘ dŚĞLJ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞ ƚŽ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉ ƚŚĞŝƌ ǀŽĐĂďƵůĂƌLJ ĂŶĚ ďĂĐŬŐƌŽƵŶĚ ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ͘ >ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ/// dŚŝƐĐŽƵƌƐĞĨŽĐƵƐĞƐŽŶƌĞĂĚŝŶŐĂŶĚǁƌŝƟŶŐĂŶĂůLJƟĐĂůĞƐƐĂLJƐ͘ƐƐĂLJƚLJƉĞƐƚŽďĞǁƌŝƩĞŶĂƌĞ ĐĂƵƐĞͬĞīĞĐƚ͕ ĐŽŵƉĂƌŝƐŽŶͬĐŽŶƚƌĂƐƚ͕ ĂƌŐƵŵĞŶƚͬƉĞƌƐƵĂƐŝŽŶ ĂŶĚ ĂŶŽƚŚĞƌ ŽƉĞŶͬĐŽŵďŝŶĂƟŽŶ ƚLJƉĞ͘ZĞĂĚŝŶŐƐĂƌĞ ƵƐĞĚĂƐŵŽĚĞůƐ͕ĂƐƚŽƉŝĐŝŶŝƟĂƚŽƌƐ͕ĂŶĚĂƐŵĂƚĞƌŝĂůĨŽƌĂƐƐĞƐƐŵĞŶƚ͘ >ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ/s dŚŝƐ ĐŽƵƌƐĞ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉƐ ƚŚĞ ƐŬŝůůƐ ŶĞĞĚĞĚ ƚŽ ǁƌŝƚĞ Ă ƌĞƐĞĂƌĐŚ ƉĂƉĞƌ͗ ĞdžƚĞŶƐŝǀĞ ƌĞĂĚŝŶŐ͕ ĞǀĂůƵĂƟŶŐ ƐŽƵƌĐĞƐ͕ ŶŽƚĞͲƚĂŬŝŶŐ͕ ƉĂƌĂƉŚƌĂƐŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ƐƵŵŵĂƌŝnjŝŶŐ͕ ƋƵŽƟŶŐ ĂŶĚ ĐŝƟŶŐ ƌĞĨĞƌĞŶĐĞƐ͕ĐŽŵƉŽƐŝŶŐĂďŝďůŝŽŐƌĂƉŚLJ͕ŽƵƚůŝŶŝŶŐĂŶĚĚƌĂŌŝŶŐ͘

Fig. 9.1  Brief descriptions of the four language development courses

number of relative newcomers, who would stay for one, perhaps two, three-year contracts before moving on. For the long-term members, the suite of language development courses was ‘the way things needed to be’, given the rather low level of the majority of students. For some of the newcomers, however, the course structure represented a dated conception of the development of language and writing skills, and they reacted strongly against what they saw as an over-emphasis on formal grammar and an insistence on tight structures for guided writing through the entire suite of four courses, most significantly in the last course in the suite. It was, they argued, as if the students were endlessly rehearsing for some linguistic and conceptual event which never actually materialized, and for which they would therefore never have to take personal responsibility. Risk, they argued, was essentially absent in the course offering. In contrast, the long-term members argued that risk was precisely what they needed to avoid, and that there was plenty of evidence that the students needed more, not less, instruction in accuracy and that they needed clear guidance on how texts should

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be written. Only then would they be ready to write independently— when they had learned what the long-term members termed ‘the basics’. Without this, and without strict control of assignments, students would simply plagiarize, they argued. This note in a syllabus document for LDIV gives an indication of the sensitivity of the issue: Plagiarism … is a serious offence which can lead to failure in this course. In some countries you are expelled from a university if you plagiarize. It has been a recurring problem in this course and will not be tolerated. We can detect it as easily as we can tell the difference between an apple and an orange…You have been warned!

The Context and the Processes of Innovation The account which follows sets out how a group of departmental members departed from the established course description for LDIV, and the manner in which the course subsequently evolved over many years. For ease of presentation, the account has been divided up into four main stages, although, of course, things happened in a much more fluid manner. In retrospect, many of the hiccups encountered along the way could have been anticipated, and the blunders in implementation now seem to be of an elementary nature. Innovation, however, is essentially about stumbling forward, dealing with outcomes as they happen, irrespective of planning, and being prepared to correct resulting errors when recognized.

Stage 1: A Rebellion Frustrated by the seeming immutability of the language development course offerings, some new staff members initially set about trying to persuade other members that things could be different. They argued that the students needed an opportunity to actually use their language skills to produce something original, focusing on a process rather than an end product. Long-term staff members, however, insisted that the

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courses were designed to equip students with accurate language skills and that freer writing and creativity was a luxury that could not be afforded, given the limited time available. With such hard lines drawn between the two sets of opinions (realists v. idealists, pragmatists v. optimists, traditionalists v modernists—depending on one’s position), and with such varying visions of what the students needed, it quickly became clear that any agreement on restructuring the programme would be a distant dream. It was thus perhaps inevitable that some new members took things into their own hands and, taking aim at the final course in the suite, produced a revised course description which reversed the learning–implementation sequence. Driven by a task-based view of learning, the revised course structure required the students to develop their writing abilities not through practice but by actually engaging in research and producing not one, but two research papers within the same course duration. Language Development IV (revised) This is an advanced research methods and writing development course. You will learn to identify and focus a research topic, plan your research and reading, organise your data and analyse your findings. You will develop the ability to write extensively in English and follow academic conventions in writing by writing two research papers, one based on a library review and the other on data you collect. The focus of the course is on research and writing development, but the content is very open. This is for you to decide as you identify research topics that interest you personally.

The immediate effect of this was that, within the same course, some sections were running with the original course description while others ran with the revised description. As the semester got underway, tensions and complaints from students and teaching faculty alike soon began to emerge, and by the following semester numerous problems were evident. Students in ‘revised’ sections found that their workload was far greater than that of their peers in the conventional sections. In addition, they now had to interact with teaching faculty in a completely different way—not as students being taught, but as developing researchers

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seeking guidance and advice. Other students in the ‘conventional’ sections felt aggrieved that they were not given the same degree of ‘freedom’ as their peers in the ‘revised’ sections and that their peers were doing much more ‘interesting’ work. At the same time, faculty members in the ‘revised’ sections, some of whom were not entirely convinced by the new course design but who had agreed to take part in the change, began to point to mounting issues: some students would disappear for weeks on end and not seek out their tutor, work which students submitted often showed clear signs of cut and paste from sources, and other work sometimes suddenly appeared without any previous discussion with the tutor concerned, prompting concerns about its authorship. To cap it all, the tutors in the ‘revised’ sections began to be seen in the department, not entirely jokingly, as having ‘an easy time’, not actually needing to teach at all. Matters came to a head when a faculty member (who had been largely responsible for the original course design) wrote a stinging letter to the Head of Department (HoD), demanding that the instigators of the revised course design be made to toe the line and adhere to the existing course descriptions. With some administrative deftness, the HoD then called a meeting, and in recognizing the argument that experimentation was in principle valuable, asked all parties to set up a development committee to look at the entire suite of four courses. The committee had a few heated and extremely tense meetings, agreed to do more research but never met again, effectively postponing forever a resolution of their differences. In the meantime, the faculty member who had made the complaint left the university for another position.

Stage 2: Bringing Order to Chaos Although a crisis with management had been averted, there still remained substantial, ongoing problems to resolve with the revised course design. It was, for one thing, unclear just how much learning was really happening. Some students undoubtedly made great use of their

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new-found freedom from the strictures of being ‘taught’ and thrived on the opportunities it gave them to be independent and ask their own questions. Yet, with other students, there was substantial evidence that they were not adapting at all well to the responsibilities of devising a research project. Many research ideas that students came up with were simply restatements of tired essay titles that they had been given in earlier stages in the university or quasi-religious topics: The dowry system Polygamy Traditional v. modern medicine in Oman

Corporal punishment The meaning of dreams The seven deadly sins

Other topics sometimes bordered on the bizarre, perhaps misled by the notion that ‘problematic’ meant ‘problem’: Burning car tyres The (dis)advantages of selling babies The effects of Chernobyl

Medical errors Foreign housemaids Western values and Omani culture

There was also a problem that the requirement to produce two research papers, one based on a review of literature and one based on data collection, meant that, for many students, problems with topic choice effectively doubled. Without prior experience in what ‘research’ is, many students also opted for cut-and-paste approaches to a literature review (with a varying commitment to citation) and ill-conceived designs for data collection which mainly resulted in so-called ‘analysis’ sections which simply restated in words the dubious quantitative data gained. It was difficult to see, for example, how a badly-worded survey of Omani students’ views on the effects of the Chernobyl disaster, or a privacy-violating survey about medical errors could be argued to have any real validity. The realization that had to be faced, therefore, was that the students did indeed need more guidance than the new course description offered. Rather than returning to the controlled content and practice model

184     A. Littlejohn and S. R. Mehta

evident in the original course design, however, the problems in the revised course were seen in terms of a need to provide more detail about the process that students should go through. This led to two major revisions to the way the ‘revised’ sections ran. First, the course would now open with two weeks devoted to exploring the question ‘What is research?’ Students were given sample research questions (not topics), some of which were potentially researchable and some of which probably were not, and asked to discuss and decide whether they felt each question met set criteria in order to raise their understanding of what research is and what is researchable: Criteria for a research question • It is based on a question that must be potentially answerable. • It has ‘a literature’—that is, there must be relevant academic sources. • It is possible to ‘localize’ the question, by collecting data here in Oman. • It does not require specialist technical knowledge. • It is not about religion, politics or your personal beliefs. • It is original, or at least original in respect of new data. A second major change was that students would now be required to work on one research paper, not two, with a maximum length of 8000 words and a single consistent research question of their own choosing. For this, students were asked to come up with three potential questions which they were to test against a flow chart, as shown in Fig. 9.2. This flow chart progressively eliminated questions that had little potential to work, or topics which had been covered many times before. Once students had selected three possible questions, they were then required to write a letter to their section tutor, outlining their research ideas. For this, they were given a letter outline, from which they were free to depart if they wished.

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EŽ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊

zĞƐ͘ 'ŽŽĚ͊ŽŶƚŝŶƵĞƚŽ YƵĞƐƚŝŽŶϴ͘

EŽ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊

zĞƐ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊

EŽ͘ ŽŶƚŝŶƵĞƚŽYƵĞƐƚŝŽŶϵ

zĞƐ͘ ŽŶƚŝŶƵĞƚŽ YƵĞƐƚŝŽŶϭϬ͘ zĞƐ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊

EŽ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊

zĞƐ͘ ŽŶƚŝŶƵĞƚŽ YƵĞƐƚŝŽŶϭϮ͘ zĞƐ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊ zĞƐ͘ ŽŶƚŝŶƵĞƚŽ YƵĞƐƚŝŽŶϭϰ͘ zĞƐ͘ ŚŽŽƐĞĂŶŽƚŚĞƌZY͊ zĞƐ͘ 'ŽŽĚ͊dŚŝƐŵĂLJďĞ ĂƉŽƐƐŝďůĞZY͘zŽƵŶĞĞĚ ĂƚŽƚĂůŽĨϯƉŽƐƐŝďůĞ ƋƵĞƐƚŝŽŶƐ͘

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Fig. 9.2  Flowchart for the refinement of a research question

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Dear Dr ——— I have read the various documents that you sent me about the course, and have checked the criteria for suitable research questions. I have three possible questions which I would like to discuss with you. My first possible research question is [state your question]. This question focuses on [explain a lot more what the question is about]. I think this is a problematic, complex question because I think that we can answer it from a number of different points of view. For example, [explain the different ways you can analyse the question]. I have looked for sources and so far I have found articles/papers/books which discuss [explain what]. As for data for this question, I think I could collect it by [explain how you would collect data and what you would be looking for]. I am particularly interested in this question because [explain your personal interest]. Alternatively, a second question I have is [state the question and repeat the outline from above]. A third possible question is [state the question and repeat the outline from above]. I look forward to starting work on one of these questions as soon as possible! Thank you and best wishes [your name].

Tutorial meetings were then set up, so that each student could discuss their letter and potential research questions with their section tutor, aiming to eliminate two of the questions, and giving them a focus for initial literature searches. This then led to the students producing a second letter, which finalized their choice of question and which was discussed in a second tutorial meeting. Dear Dr ——— I have been doing some searching for my research project, and have made some progress. My preferred research question is…. To clarify, this question concerns [lots of detail please!] I am particularly interested in this question because [explain why] From my searches, I have found that the following aspects or themes are relevant:

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- [list and clarify several further points. These points should be detailed enough to require a lot of space in the final paper] I have also identified some sources. For example, [name the sources]. This explains/describes/reports on [explain the content of the source]. Another example is [name the source]. This [provide detail about the content/ideas/concepts in the sources] I also now have a clearer idea of the data I can collect. For example, I could…. [describe HOW you can collect data and from WHOM or WHAT and WHAT you will be looking for and HOW you will analyze it] With thanks Signed Your name

The net result of these improvements was that students began the course with a much more solid idea of what they were supposed to be doing and with a clearer picture of the literature they needed to search for and the data they needed to collect. More importantly, it focused on their interests by providing a platform for them to investigate an area relevant to them and their world. The following is a sample of the types of questions that now emerged, and that fulfilled the specified criteria: Why do some students drop out of high school in Oman? How do male and female students at SQU differ in their perception of each other? How much realism is there in Omani literature in English? How do perceptions of female beauty differ from region to region in Oman? How much do students use school libraries in Oman? When and why do Omani men cry? How does the West see the Middle East, and how does the Middle East see the West, as represented in their newspapers? How do SQU students experience the research paper course? Two further developments established more structure to the first stages of the course: a requirement to submit a 1000-word proposal and a

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1000-word annotated bibliography by a specified date after research question finalization. For the proposal, students were given a document which guided their writing. This helped them structure their ideas, and set up the framework for their final paper. 1. What is the general nature of your topic? How does it link to other subject areas? 2. Why are you personally interested in this topic? 3. What is the precise nature of your research question? 4. Explain further: what you will be looking at? What do you expect to find? How is your question problematic? How will you localize your question? 5. What data will you collect and how? 6. Draft outline: provide an outline of your paper, as bullet-pointed text, section by section. Indicate actual content of subsections, as far as you are able at this point. (a) Introduction (b) Background and literature review (c) Data and data collection (d) Findings (e) Conclusion. 7. What is your schedule? Give precise dates for each stage of your research. 8. References: list all sources you mention in the proposal.

Stage 3: From Control to Support During these early years, ‘traditional’ sections, using the official course description, ran parallel with ‘revised’ sections. This showed an acceptance of differing tutor priorities having been established, even though everyone probably had reservations about what other faculty members were doing. This was not an ideal situation, particularly as students had no choice in which course description they ended up with, meaning there were recurring complaints about fairness in workload. Significant

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problems with the ‘revised’ sections continued, however, even though the definition of the research question was now more firmly determined. There were still the perennial suspicions of widespread plagiarism and students who disappeared for weeks on end, only to suddenly appear at the end of the semester with a complete research paper. There was also considerable variation in how much support students were given, with suggestions that in some cases the final paper was more the work of the tutor than of the student. Any deadlines or any leniency on delivery dates set up by tutors immediately generated complaints of unfairness from students, mainly along the lines of ‘It’s not fair. Students in section x don’t need to/are able to…’. A wide disparity in grades across sections also emerged, with some tutors insisting on their traditional academic freedom to run and grade their section as they felt most appropriate. These inconsistencies meant that pressure to return to the former course description began to gain ground, with the familiar argument that the students ‘weren’t ready for freedom yet’. Rather fortuitously, however, a major decision at university level changed the prospects of the revised course design. A new requirement appeared that all undergraduate students should produce a graduation project of some kind, which was mainly intended to improve and demonstrate the marketability of their skills. Clearly, the original course could not provide this, and the stage was set for a reimagining of the revised course. LDIV was done away with completely, and a new course, built on the foundations of the work of the ‘rebels’ and entitled Research Project, took its place. The focus had now shifted firmly away from teaching students new content towards requiring them to engage in their own learning and produce tangible outcomes against a specified timeline. As the new Research Project course got underway, however, new problems arose—this time from the student body. As the course entered week 4, the course coordinator was presented with a petition, signed by almost every student, protesting against the tight timelines and arguing that this made it impossible for them to produce high-quality work. Given the generally acquiescent nature of the student body, this came as a complete surprise and presented a significant challenge to the manner in which the course development had until then been undertaken.

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The petition proved valuable in a number of ways. First, it helped bring to the surface issues which could seriously have derailed the course later on. Second, and more importantly, it demonstrated the students’ commitment to the goals of the course and their eagerness to benefit from the research process, and the fact that flexibility needed to be built in. From this perspective, the acknowledged presence of substantial plagiarism (evidenced by data from Turnitin.com) began to be seen not as an attempt by some students to cheat the system but more as evidence that they were probably overwhelmed by the demands of the course and were plagiarizing as a coping strategy. Attention thus moved towards providing more hands-on structure to the design of the course, so that the obvious and ongoing problems could be mitigated while still placing responsibility directly in the hands of the students and maintaining the much cherished academic freedom of the tutors concerned. As a result of the shift in perspective and the new-found ‘officially authorized’ confidence in the course, a number of further enhancements were made immediately. These included the following: • a bi-weekly general plan for what would happen in class (looking at examples of a literature review, reviewing different methods of data collection, reviewing examples of data analysis, reviewing examples of data discussion) • the development of source materials for the above, which tutors could (if they wished) use • fixed dates for all sections for the delivery of the proposal and the final complete paper, but flexible ‘guide dates’ for all other elements (the annotated bibliography, introduction and literature review chapters, and data collection instrument) • a requirement that all main stages of the students’ work needed to be seen in draft form before submission • a requirement for students to meet their tutors regularly to review their drafts • central submission on the due date for all students’ completed papers • descriptors for each grade band, covering both the language quality and content of the research paper

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• ‘advisory’ cross-marking meetings to review a random sample of final papers, with the tutor concerned making the final decision about the grade. These changes, and others, marked a significant improvement in the quality of the course outcomes. The incidence of plagiarism dropped dramatically, and with a few exceptions, the course became largely plagiarism free. The quality of the students’ work also improved significantly, with some excellent papers now being produced. Students also clearly developed a greater sense of ownership of their work, with a ‘selfie at the submission box’ becoming a familiar sight. To recognize these achievements, an annual Student Research Conference Day was inaugurated, for which students competitively submitted abstracts to be included in the programme of parallel presentations of their research work. This major event raised the status of the course substantially as it became a fixture in the department’s academic calendar. A journal, Exposition, was published by the department, showcasing some of the best work of these students, an outcome which they could use to support their employment applications. Student satisfaction with the course (as evidenced in the semester evaluation reports) also became consistently positive overall, always averaging over 3.5 on a four-point scale. Written comments (submitted in addition to a Likert-scale questionnaire) showed that many students appeared to value their experience of the course. Responses to the question ‘What did you like best in this course?’ included the following: • It makes you think. The first time I have been asked to do it here! • This course is the toughest course that I have studied ever and until now I am surviving. I am proud of what I have achieved. • It reaches parts of the brain that other courses cannot reach. • I learned a lot from this course—more than I’ve ever had from any other course. It developed my research skills in a way that’s going to help a lot in my future. • This course has helped me to be a more independent thinker. • Freedom to choose the research topic. • We get to do something by ourselves for the first time.

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• The best is how to think critically, to specify my questions, to think about different issues, and how to conduct real research. Other comments, however, pointed to some continuing issues. Recurrent problems were time, course credit and workload. As the significance of the research paper in the students’ perception of their studies increased, it became clear that the course caused many students to experience notable stress, either because they wanted to devote more time to it or because they felt the course packed in too much for the standard three credit points allocated to it. Responses to ‘What difficulties did you encounter in this course?’ included: • I struggle with time. The discussion part of the project is difficult and needs too much time to synthesize it. • I think that this course should be taken with only one or two other courses since it needs a lot of time. • This course should be taken in two semesters instead of one semester because I do really want to conduct a great research project. • It should be divided into two parts and spread over two courses. • I think it is better to increase the credit hours for this course from 3 to 6 because this course takes a lot of time and that decreases our attention in other courses. • Although the course is very useful it causes stress and pressure. • There is not enough time to finish our work therefore this affects the quality of the research we conduct.

Stage 4: A Stable, Evolving Present As the course enters its seventeenth year, it is evident that there is still much work left to do to refine its operation. Problems with time, as frequently cited by students, are an issue course tutors have now been aware of for many years. Despite the coordinators’ best efforts, the university and departmental authorities have been unwilling to allow either more credit hours to be allocated to the course (which would mean another course would need to be dropped) or for it to be spread over two semesters (leading to staffing problems). There is a vicious circle in these arguments

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which opponents of the course (of which there are still some) have used to prevent the course expanding according to student and tutor requests; while the course has the same credit value as other content courses in the department, it can make no claim for more time. And while the course is still limited to one semester, it cannot make a claim for a higher credit value. These remain issues to be resolved. There is obviously a danger of recurrent student complaints of time, pressure and credit value ultimately damaging the reputation of the course and its longevity. There are also continuing concerns about some of the design aspects of the course. One of the strengths of the course is that within an overall structure, a high degree of tutor independence has been preserved, with a limited number of set requirements (overall structure of the research paper, length and main delivery dates) combined with support instruments (teaching ideas, online source materials, grade descriptors, cross-marking groups, guide dates and so on). This mix of freedom and constraint has undoubtedly enabled the course to survive and thrive, and has resulted in a generally harmonious operation. Yet, there are recurrent worries over areas such as students’ topic choice, with students in some sections being allowed to move far from their major (e.g. education students doing social science research) while other students are directed to work strictly within the specialization of a particular tutor. While at coordination meetings faculty agree on encouraging text-based research in areas of students’ majors (literature, linguistics, EFL, education), this rarely translates into practice, and the course has probably reached saturation point in the use of survey instruments, which inevitably mainly get distributed amongst the student body. Similarly, staff members all agree on the importance of maintaining an up-to-date database of previous papers, via Turnitin.com, but not all of them upload their students’ papers regularly, nor can they be required to do so. There is now the real problem that the same few topics ‘do the rounds’, partly because they are of interest to the students themselves, but also because they may have access to earlier papers by friends or family members. This makes the detection of plagiarism difficult. Added to that is the emerging problem of students possibly buying papers online, to which constant close supervision of student work over the semester appears to be the only solution. As section numbers have steadily increased, of course this makes for a very challenging scenario.

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Findings As the preceding narrative of events will have made clear, the evolution of the course was mainly determined by an initially emotional rejection of the nature of the existing courses and a stumbling forward from that, dealing with crises and problems as they arose. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it is also possible to see a number of significant themes in the development of the course, and ways in which, over time, it has developed a specific epistemological standpoint in relation to student learning. Although broad issues of theory were rarely centre stage in the struggles for the development of the course, it is clear now that its development can be seen as largely in harmony with shifts in teaching methodology, and with writing skills development in particular, across the world. This realization has added a clearer sense of purpose and direction to further developments, enabling the identification of basic principles that need to be maintained, and an identification of the many strengths which the course now offers. Here, we would like to focus on five main themes.

A Higher Level of Cognitive Challenge, Right from the Start One of the most telling but simple remarks repeated in much student feedback is that the course ‘makes you think’ and, most succinctly, ‘it reaches parts of the brain that other courses cannot reach’. One of the main problems with the original course description was that it focused almost exclusively on writing form, with little attention to the value and significance of content or ideas. There is a well-trodden path in education which emphasizes this as a preliminary step towards ‘higher-level’ work, arguing (as the protagonists of the original course description had) that students need to first learn ‘the basics’ before they can be required or allowed to take on more intellectually demanding work. This line of thinking has to some extent been underpinned by what we would see as a misreading of Bloom’s well-known taxonomy of learning

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(Anderson, Krathwohl, & Bloom, 2001). Frequently represented by a pyramid of levels, the taxonomy seems to imply that students need to master the lowest levels (remembering, understanding, applying) before they are able to move to higher levels of cognitive engagement (analyzing, evaluating, creating). The development of this course, however, has shown the fallacy in that argument. By immersing students in a scaffolded act of creating (the very top of Bloom’s taxonomy), by stimulating their own ideas and interests in research, the course has shown that Bloom’s lower levels can be incorporated in a much more interesting and purposeful manner, with noticeable gains in commitment and quality of outcomes. The pyramid is upended, and the familiar teacher-led route to knowledge (as exemplified in the original course description) has been usurped.

Learning by Doing One of the most noticeable features in moving from the original course description to the revised course description was the shift from a transmission mode (where students were told how to write) towards an experiential mode (where students were simply required to produce and discover for themselves how). This perspective on education, of course, has a long history, most clearly formulated in the writings of John Dewey (1916) and more recently Kolb (1984), Kolb and Kolb (2006) and others, and is a familiar feature of much Western pedagogy. In the MENA context, however, it is precisely this shift which continues to cause many students considerable disorientation as they move from more conventionally taught courses into the research paper course. This has necessitated reflection on the part of faculty to preserve the experiential nature of the course so as not to revert to transmission modes. The outcome of this, developed over many years, has been the gradual evolution of scaffolded, hands-off guidance in the form of guided strategic questioning, sample documents, provocative feedback and discussion to ensure that the essential core has remained and that the course focuses on learners doing learning, rather than teachers doing teaching.

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Constructivist and Dialogic Teaching One of the first insights that began to emerge with the shift towards the revised course description was that students by and large had very little understanding of what ‘research’ actually meant. This was evidenced, for example, in the kinds of topics they proposed and what they understood as constituting ‘data’. In moving towards an exploratory methodology in which students discussed in groups whether certain questions were researchable, in tracking their own questions through a flowchart of criteria, and in sharing their ideas through guided letter writing, the clear aim was to support the students’ construction of their own understanding of what ‘research’ involves. In this sense, then, the evolution of the course has taken us closer to what Vygotsky and others have posited as a constructivist approach to education, distinct from conventional transmission approaches. Central to this is language, where language functions not as a conduit for knowledge, but as a stimulus for developing higher mental capacities through dialogic teaching and what Mercer (2000) refers to as “exploratory talk”—that is, questioning designed not to test but to challenge to think. Most frequently, this occurs in ­student–tutor supervisory meetings, but a major aim of staff currently teaching the course has been to try to engage students in critiquing each others’ work, to capitalize on the social construction of knowledge in a whole-class setting (Alexander, 2008). Given the traditions of education in MENA contexts, this has not been easy; students are reluctant to challenge or question their peers and most often default to socially more comfortable praise for their colleagues’ efforts. Over time, and particularly through the impact of events such as the annual Student Research Conference Day, we anticipate this changing, but progress has been slow in that regard.

Undergraduate Studies as a Process of Acculturation The research paper is by now, of course, a common feature of many undergraduate programmes around the world. Its significance as a tool for learning has long been recognized, and has for example been

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cogently argued for in publications such as the Boyer Report (1998, 2003) in the USA, and in work published by the Higher Education Academy in the UK (see, for example Healey & Jenkins, 2009; Jenkins & Healey, 2005). In the context of our own research paper course, faculty members have frequently remarked that it is only once students have completed the course that they have truly become undergraduates, definitively leaving behind them the mindset of a school learner, and embarking on an acculturation into what university education actually should be. In common with other writers (see, for example, Douglass & Zhao, 2013), faculty members and students alike have reported impacts such as students’ improved time management, improved emotional management of challenges, a greater sense of confidence in communicating knowledge and a stronger sense of identity as an independent thinker. We remarked earlier that, in the context of this research paper course, we have preferred to see problems with plagiarism as an indication that students are not coping, rather than assume as a knee-jerk reaction that they are deliberately attempting to cheat the system (while recognizing that some may indeed be trying to do this). In this sense, then, plagiarism can be seen as evidence of insufficient acculturation into university work, something which only a greater engagement with dialogic methods of teaching is likely to remedy.

Autonomy, Ownership and Responsibility in Learning The ‘selfie at the submission box’ which we mentioned earlier has become a familiar sight at the end of the semester. For many students, the research paper course presents itself as an impossible challenge, an almost unreasonable demand for what needs to be achieved in the short space of a 15-week semester—a view previously shared by many staff members. Yet, achieve it they do—often impressing themselves, and faculty members, with the quality of their work. As one student put it, “This course is the toughest course that I have studied ever and until now I am surviving. I am proud of what I have achieved.” The extent to which the students surprise themselves in what they achieve can, in no small part, be ascribed to the recognized benefits of

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allowing for personal autonomy, the cultivation of a sense of ownership, and the encouragement of personal responsibility for getting things done. Rotter’s (1954) well-known social learning theory, for example, emphasizes the impact that the learner’s perception of the “locus of control” (that is, where decision making lies) has on motivation, a point underlined by Williams and Burden (1997, p. 128) who argue that where learners feel that the locus of control is internal to them, stimulating a sense of ownership and personal responsibility, this is generally associated with greater levels of sustained motivation (see also Littlejohn, 2012). There is a fine line to be acknowledged here, in that where a challenge appears too great, feelings of helplessness can result, and consequent low levels of self-efficacy. Once again, therefore, we return to the importance of the tutor’s role in maintaining and encouraging a sense of learners’ competence.

Implications for Innovation As the course has evolved over the best part of two decades now, it is clear in retrospect that there are a good number of lessons to be learned about how course innovation can be effectively—and ineffectively—managed. While the course is still far from perfect (with ever-present tensions in faculty–student ratios, standardization v. variability in tutor offerings, time v. workload, to name but a few), the course has certainly developed into a much richer experience for the students than its original version. To conclude this chapter, we would therefore like to offer what we see as some of the lessons we have learned along the way.

Take Risks There is an old adage that you can never really know what you can do until you try to do it. This is certainly true for the students taking the research paper course, but it is equally true for course developers. The significant gamble and risk that the ‘rebels’ took in departing from the already established course design could, indeed, have resulted in

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disaster—and very nearly did—but without that risk it is possible that things would have remained the same. That said, the risk was managed, in that both the original and the revised course designs ran in parallel for a good number of years.

Provide Structure and Extensive Support One significant element ensuring the sustainable nature of the course is that a good deal of support and guidance has been provided throughout to tutors and students, keeping to a minimum the specification of obligatory requirements. This has ensured that the sense of ownership and autonomy which students feel in their work is equally true for the tutors running their own sections.

Recognize and Value Achievements Both the establishment of the annual Student Research Conference Day and the publication of student work have played a very important role in honouring student commitment and in maintaining a sense of purpose and value for the course. The net effect of both these additions is that the course is now an integral feature of the work of the department, thus further ensuring the course’s longevity.

Significant Content and Ownership are Key We believe that the transformation in student commitment and motivation which we have seen relative to student participation in more conventionally taught courses is in no small part due to the fact that the course builds on students’ own questions and own interests, and fosters a sense that they become experts in their own research. There are lessons here—reported by numerous other researchers (see, for example, the edited collection by Breen & Littlejohn, 2000)—in the importance of ensuring that students have a meaningful decision-making role in their classroom work, and in ensuring that the focus of classroom work is perceived to be of value by the learners themselves.

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Discussion Questions 1. The authors suggest that a major cause of student plagiarism is insufficient acculturation into the ways of a university and excessive workload that causes them to look for coping strategies. How far do you agree with this? What are the causes of plagiarism in places where you have worked? 2. The authors argue that the eventual overall success of the innovation they describe was mainly due to the provision of plentiful support and very little compulsion. Do you think this is an effective way to ensure innovation ‘sticks’? Does this mean that successful innovation is always minimal? 3. The authors describe tensions between long-term staff members and new members, and a breakdown in dialogue. How should differences of opinion in course development be resolved in these circumstances? 4. Most of the adjustments made to the design of the innovation described in this chapter came about as problems arose. To what extent should consultation with students and teachers happen before a change is made, rather than in reaction to it? 5. The authors insist that ‘transmission’ teaching is an inappropriate means of developing research writing skills. Do you agree with this? Should students discover or be taught ‘research’?

References Alexander, R. (2008). Culture, dialogue and learning: Notes on an emerging pedagogy. In N. Mercer & S. Hodgkinson (Eds.), Exploring talk in schools: Inspired by the work of Douglas Barnes (pp. 91–114). Los Angeles: Sage. Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., & Bloom, B. S. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York and London: Longman. Breen, M. P., & Littlejohn, A. (2000). Classroom decision-making: Negotiation and process syllabuses in practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University, S. S. Kenny (Chair). (1998). Reinventing undergraduate education: A blueprint for America’s research universities. Stony Brook: State University of New York at Stony Brook. Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University. (2003). Reinventing undergraduate education: Three years after the Boyer report. Stony Brook: State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: Macmillan. Douglass, J. A., & Zhao, C. (2013). Undergraduate research engagement at major US research universities (Research and Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.14.13). Berkeley: University of California. Retrieved from https:// files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED545187.pdf. Healey, M., & Jenkins, A. (2009). Developing undergraduate research and inquiry. York: The Higher Education Academy. Jenkins, A., & Healey, M. (2005). Institutional strategies for linking teaching and research. York: The Higher Education Academy. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs and London: Prentice-Hall. Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2006). Learning styles and learning spaces: A review of the multidisciplinary application of experiential learning theory in higher education. In R. R. Sims & S. J. Sims (Eds.), Learning styles and learning: A key to meeting the accountability demands in education (pp. 45–91). New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers. Littlejohn, A. (2012). The tip of the iceberg: Factors affecting learner motivation. RELC Journal, 39(2), 214–225. Mercer, N. (2000). Words and minds: How we use language to think together. London and New York: Routledge. Rotter, J. B. (1954). Social learning and clinical psychology. New York: Prentice-Hall. Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructivist approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10 Developing Communication Skills Through Participation in Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Robert Craig and Brian Bielenberg

Introduction Numerous reports (American Society for Engineering Education, 2012; Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2011; Honey, Fasca, Gersick, Mandinach, & Sinha, 2005; National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, 1977; OECD, 2004) have highlighted the need for a shift in our approaches to teaching and learning if we are to meet the needs of professionals in a changing world and create opportunities for all to participate in the ever-developing knowledge society. These studies have concluded that the range of skills needed today is much wider than ever before and include the “personal and cognitive capabilities used to carry out a wide range of tasks” (National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, 1977, p. 133). The reports also concur R. Craig (*) · B. Bielenberg  Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE e-mail: [email protected] B. Bielenberg e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_10

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that knowledge alone will be of little benefit to graduates. Rather, graduates need to demonstrate responsibility, collaboration and above all an ability to communicate. The core competencies espoused by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2004) focus on similar areas. These competencies are: (a) using tools (language, symbols, texts, knowledge, information and technology) interactively; (b) being able to interact well in heterogeneous groups and work in teams, including managing and resolving conflict; and (c) acting autonomously, which relates to being able to act within the big picture, form and conduct life plans and personal projects, and defend and assert rights, interests, limits and needs.

Area of Innovation The innovation presented in this chapter addresses the question of how to promote and continue the development of the English language needed for undergraduate studies while simultaneously addressing these broader requirements. We describe an approach to enhancing English language proficiency and communication competencies in university English language learners that also increases their motivation for learning, augments research skills, develops critical and creative thinking, and enhances teamwork skills. The approach adopted is to teach first-year university English courses to learners of an additional language (EAL) through course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). CUREs are experiences that engage a group of students in a research project as part of a formal academic experience (NASEM, 2017). CUREs build on an idea of undergraduate education that combines teaching and research as a means of educating students for and through the conduct of research. This is a concept that goes back to the educational reforms first called for by people such as Wilhelm von Humboldt and George Ticknor in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and later built upon by leading American universities. CUREs have the potential to promote education that is about the ability to articulate critical and ethical judgements. They provide students with an opportunity to move beyond grammar, vocabulary, facts and theories to practical application

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of integrated skills. By engaging in a CURE, the student can see that the boundaries between teaching, learning and research blur, that their own experiences are of value and that they themselves can contribute to the development of new knowledge and ideas (Hamilakis, 2004). In this way, the student becomes motivated to use English in new and relevant ways, moving beyond simple achievement of the required entrylevel TOEFL or IELTS score.

Impetus for the Innovation English has been an important part of the primary and secondary school curriculum in the UAE for considerably more than a decade. Despite this, a large proportion of students continues to require additional English language development prior to matriculating into degree studies at university. In many foundation programmes, the need to achieve a required score in the TOEFL or IELTS exam in order to matriculate often becomes the main language goal for students (and instructors). When that goal has been achieved, the motivation for continued language development may wane, with the assumption that the achieved score indicates that the student has all the necessary language skills and competencies, and that language proficiency development is complete. This assumption is far from the truth; academic English language and literacy development has just begun. Typically, any further formal language development in engineering and science fields at university is ‘front loaded’ in pre-sessional or firstyear courses which provide little opportunity for students to learn and use, in context, the language of the discipline of their chosen majors. Research in language teaching and learning over the past 20 or more years (Biggs, 1999; Coyle, 2002; Gass, 2003; Lasagabaster, 2011; Little, 2007; Scarcella & Oxford, 1992; White, 2003) points towards the benefits of engagement through a more active, experiential and inquirybased paradigm to address concerns in English language programmes. The development of problem and team-based learning has provided opportunities for learners to engage, often in small teams, in realworld problem-solving activities. By their very nature, such approaches

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require that students do more than simply ‘know’ language; it requires that they use their knowledge of language to ‘do’ something with it. The approach promotes the “ability to think critically, analyze and solve complex, real-world problems, to find, evaluate, and use appropriate learning resources; to work cooperatively, to demonstrate effective communication skills, and to use content knowledge and intellectual skills to become continual learners” (Duch, Groh, & Allen, 2001, p. 6). The use of a CURE is particularly applicable as it can promote language development through repeated exposure to the language of content, discussion and decision making, and the employment of higher-order thinking skills. The collective approach of working together, acquiring, synthesizing and communicating information to solve a common goal may develop the desired attitude of ‘ownership’ with individuals participating fully in the learning process and taking responsibility for their learning. One of the most notable findings of research in the learning sciences is that students, and young adults in particular, learn best when working together, sharing their learning, and building on knowledge and understanding (Ewell, 1997; Merriam & Caffarella, 1991). Learners “are active agents involved in constructing knowledge, refining their understanding, and learning socially through sharing with peers and teachers” (Chau & Cheng, 2010, p. 933). Findings also demonstrate that undergraduates are considerably more receptive to approaches that attempt to approximate real-world professional practice (Kinkead, 2003). For excellence in language learning to be achieved, opportunities need to be provided for students to use language authentically and to engage in situations and tasks that require problem solving, analysis and interpretation of data (Major & Palmer, 2001). Embedding an undergraduate research experience (URE) into a language course is a particularly attractive means of doing this. At our university, over a decade and a half ago, it was evident that by the end of the freshman year a significant proportion of students continued to demonstrate low English language proficiency and poor academic literacy, despite having achieved the requisite language proficiency score prior to matriculation. As a result, faculty in science, engineering and mathematics courses were often found to be removing reading and writing from their courses, avoiding the all-important

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‘word problems’ and no longer requiring students to engage in reading texts in the discipline; language was perceived as a hindrance to learning rather than as a means of acquiring and understanding knowledge. This was unfortunate, as students were thus being denied opportunities to practice and develop the very language skills in which they showed weakness. Such concerns, along with a belief among some of our English faculty that the existing freshman composition courses (and the philosophy behind them) were outdated, inappropriate in an engineering school and of little interest to students, led to the development of a new approach to first-year university English language courses.

The Context and the Innovation The university where this innovation has been implemented was established to provide highly trained engineers and geoscientists for the United Arab Emirates oil, gas and broader energy sectors. The first class of male students was admitted in fall 2001 with the first cohort of female students admitted in fall 2006. The annual total enrollment is more than 1500 undergraduate and nearly 400 graduate students. In 2016, 84% of matriculated undergraduate students were UAE nationals; 59% of undergraduate students were female. Almost all students are studying in an additional language, as the medium of instruction is English. Most undergraduates arrive having completed a public school system that focused on the transcription, memorization and repetition of material delivered in the classroom. In common with first-year students all over the world, the transition from high school to university can be daunting as they struggle not only coming to terms with different pedagogies and standards, but also having to study in a second or additional language.

From Freshman Composition to Communication In response to these issues, an integrated-skills approach to language learning, applied through a CURE, was developed to replace the existing two-course freshman composition sequence. The new programme

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aimed to facilitate opportunities for rapid language development and the acquisition of thinking, information literacy, research and teamwork skills. It was also intended to motivate the language learner. One of the first changes was to ‘rebrand’ the programme, particularly for the purpose of drawing the attention of engineering faculty and students to the new purposes—the courses were retitled from English to Communication. The innovation involved focusing on the role of language and thinking in content learning, and on developing higher-order thinking skills. Grounded in social constructivism and based on the pedagogy of inquiry-based learning, the innovation also integrated the regular use of technology. In many respects, the new two-course programme is an extension of the ‘learning to write, writing to learn’ concept of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement, with the notion of ‘learning to research, researching to learn’, added to its rationale. The courses are designed to provide a variety of opportunities for language practice and formative assessment, including ample instructor feedback and student reflection on their own learning, and culminate in a comprehensive research paper and oral presentation. The rationale for the two-course Communication sequence is that language proficiency and the communicative competence required for participation in an English-medium undergraduate curriculum is best developed through the acquisition, internalization and articulation of knowledge.

Communication 101 and 151 The first semester of the undergraduate curriculum at our university includes courses common to most engineering curricula around the world—Chemistry, Calculus 1, an Introduction to Engineering seminar and an English course. What is different about our programme is that the English courses, Communication 101 and 151, are taught through CUREs. Critical reading, critical writing and oral presentation skills are developed through a context of involvement in a research project, which also aims to raise student awareness of quality time-management skills, teamwork and meta-cognition. Communication 151 (COMM 151)

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builds on skills learned in COMM 101, with a greater focus on the application of critical thinking, argumentation and problem-solving skills. The approach follows a standard research process and is carefully scaffolded to provide teams with abundant opportunity for real-world interaction as they work towards negotiating an understanding of their task and its requirements. Student teams choose their own research topics, frequently with reference to a list of known researchable areas of interest. COMM 101 topics tend to be related to the social sciences, and the transition from high school to university has been a popular choice in recent years. Once a general topic has been agreed, teams brainstorm more specific areas of interest, resulting in key words and ideas that can be used as part of a library database search strategy. Students receive initial instruction on how to use a database and how to identify and evaluate academic articles in terms of usefulness to the team project before they delegate literature search areas to team members. The purpose of this task is to determine what researchers have already discovered about the topic. Individual team members contribute source summaries to the team discussion of what they have discovered; the summaries generally include the author’s main ideas, beliefs and purpose, methods used to collect information, main findings, explanations and recommendations. In particular each team member is asked to identify and share the main themes of articles they have read, thereby supplementing knowledge. Through discussion students discover that there are common themes and conflicting findings across the range of articles. A table format is often used to map themes and sources which help team members synthesize information for the next step, the team-written literature review. During this process students use language to present their findings, argue their points and justify decisions. Through the negotiation for meaning, the language use of students becomes more confident, natural and sophisticated. To organize decisions and collaborate on the literature review, teams have used real-time file sharing, such as Google Docs, to draft, proofread and edit this first major assignment, and in doing so learn from each other as they comment and make suggestions. Further opportunity for interaction and language practice follows when, having found out what has been discovered globally, teams seek

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consensus on a local context in order to facilitate primary research. A research question of, for example, ‘Does time management impact student performance?’ requires that team members engage in a discussion of the variables involved, the methodology they will use to collect data, and the data-gathering questions they need to ask. In this case, it would require developing a questionnaire regarding the type and frequency of time-management behaviour of their peers, and of their academic performance, to enable comparison of data. Other instruments may include interviews and observations. This information provides the basis for the team-written research proposal and presentation in which they outline and justify the local issue they intend to investigate, their main research questions and the data-gathering instruments they will use to collect information. The project management plan they are required to submit generates a considerable amount of real language as they consider task responsibility and the order of sub-tasks, and estimate time needed to complete them. Not only does a well thought-out plan increase the probability of success, it is also a significant step in developing an understanding of responsibility, self-regulation and accountability. Team members take individual responsibility for visualizing collated data in tables and charts and describing the findings before embarking on a written team discussion of the most likely causes, effects, implications and impacts. One particularly interesting impact of this approach is how it encourages self-belief and restricts plagiarism; for most of the project, students are describing and explaining their own primary data, and their understanding of it. The project culminates with teams producing relevant and implementable recommendations that address specific findings as part of the final written report and oral presentation. Output, the result of input and interaction, is required at each stage, and describes, explains and justifies the thinking process that team members have engaged in. COMM 151 follows a similar procedure, though with reduced instructor input, and a greater expected output in terms of detail and critical content. At this stage, teams are encouraged to pursue topics related to technology, health, safety and the environment (HSE), and engineering issues. Examples of recent research topics for both COMM 101 and COMM 151 are shown in Table 10.1.

10  Developing Communication Skills Through Participation …     211 Table 10.1  Sample of recent research topics from COMM 101 and 151 COMM 101 • Student-identified high school to university transition issues • Time management and its effect on academic performance • Impacts of social networking on student behaviour • Reading habits among first-year students COMM 151 • Reducing the carbon footprint in student dormitories • Reducing water consumption in student dormitories • An investigation into traditional and modern irrigation methods at local farms • The impact of sick building syndrome on student health

Fig. 10.1  Learning to research across the curriculum

The level of explicit instruction and amount of scaffolding is further reduced in the two-course cornerstone design sequence, STPS 201 and STPS 251, which follows the Communication courses. The courses and skills development are presented in Fig. 10.1.

Findings, Impacts, Challenges and Solutions Evidence regarding the impact of the CURE on motivation, language acquisition, the development of research skills, critical and creative thinking, teamwork skills, and lifelong learning (information literacy)

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is collected through a number of instruments across a variety of assessment venues. These include: (1) measurement of outcome-achievement levels through specific course-based direct assessment tools; (2) student self-assessment of abilities through a survey instrument; and (3) the monitoring of performance levels in subsequent courses and activities through a survey of engineering faculty teaching junior and senior-level courses. The outcome-achievement data reported are the average outcome-achievement levels over the past three academic years. The performance levels are set as Level 4 Exemplary/Mastery, Level 3 Satisfactory/ Proficient, Level 2 Developing/Progressing to the Standard and Level 1 Unsatisfactory/Ineffective. Descriptors are used for assessing the degree to which a given performance indicator is achieved. These are normally presented in the form of a rubric tied to a specific assessment venue, which are shared with students. The self-reported student survey data reflect feedback from a total of 761 students over three years, with a response rate of over 90%. The response rate of faculty teaching junior and senior-level courses, which we refer to as ‘receiving faculty’, has averaged approximately 35% over the two most recent biennial administrations.

Motivation That the integrated-skills CURE approach is motivating for students is evident from the level of student engagement observed. Over the past three years, 63% of students have indicated that they find the approach somewhat or significantly more motivating than other courses they have taken or are currently taking. Only 12% have indicated that the research experience approach is less or significantly less motivating than other teaching/learning approaches they have experienced, the demotivating factor most often identified being challenges of cooperation and commitment within the student team. Higher motivation is likely to lead to greater participation and use of English across all skill areas. The key to successful development of the target language lies in providing opportunity for effective, real-world use of group work to address the common goal of researching and producing written and spoken

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recommendation reports on the teams’ chosen topics. As one student commented, “It’s like being given freedom”. Another stated, “I like having that could choose [sic] what I wanted to research”.

Language Proficiency The vast majority of students on both courses (96 and 100%, respectively) were rated at Level 3 or higher (Proficient to Exemplary) on giving an effective, interactive presentation in which they describe and summarize observations, arguments and/or ideas related to their team project. Presentation assessment also considers the fluency and accuracy of the explanations, the appropriate use of vocabulary and grammar, and clarity of pronunciation and intonation. Assessment data from the same period suggests that students do not demonstrate a similar level of achievement when asked to extract detailed information from dense scientific academic texts and visuals, and, in the case of COMM 151, apply critical thinking to the information in texts. This area of performance is discussed in further detail in the ‘Information literacy’ subsection below. Student survey data from a three-year period indicate that, on average, between two-thirds and three-quarters of students on both courses self-report that their reading, writing, listening and presentation skills have improved either “a lot” or “quite a lot”. Such perceptions have been regularly reported since the initial student feedback instrument (internal course evaluation) was administered in 2006. The achievement level of learning outcomes as measured through various assessment venues confirms a high degree of improvement of language skills. The most recent evaluation of assessment data indicates that 90% of students on the COMM 101 course were rated as having Proficient or better reading, writing, listening and presentation skills.

Research Skills By the end of the third-semester STEPS course (see Fig. 10.1), outcome-achievement levels based on direct assessment tools show that

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85% of students are determined to be Proficient or better at generating research questions, with an average performance level of 3.16 on the fourpoint scale presented above. By the end of the Communication courses, an average of 90% of students demonstrate an ability to choose and develop appropriate research instruments at a Proficient or Mastery level, with slightly lower percentages demonstrating an ability to analyze, evaluate and draw conclusions. Students struggle with selecting and describing relevant data, an indication of the need to provide greater scaffolding for this process during these first two semesters. This finding serves as further impetus for providing students with ample opportunity to develop these skills before they become involved in summer internships or capstone projects, which occur during the junior and senior years. Students themselves report feeling that they have developed important research skills, with 91% agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “My ability to formulate research questions has improved” and 96% agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “My ability to develop and use appropriate data-gathering instruments to undertake research has improved”. As students gain greater confidence in their abilities, they are more likely to feel a sense of self-efficacy (i.e., feeling that one can engage in a particular skill), a strong predictor of academic perseverance (Chemers, Zurbriggen, Syed, Goza, & Bearman, 2011) and essential for the continued development of academic literacy.

Teamwork Skills As noted above, unequal contribution to teamwork can sometimes be demotivating, with effective teamwork hampered by attitudinal problems within teams relating to unequal participation, freeloading or dominance by one or more team members. To address this issue, we have experimented with various means of team formation, including self-selection, shared research interest, random selection or learning style (Kolb & Kolb, 2005). We recently implemented an online peer evaluation system, the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME), which helps to promote more reflective and balanced teamwork. Respondents assess both themselves and team members and comment on scores they award. They are asked to

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respond to five basic aspects of good teamwork: contributing to work, interacting with teammates, keeping team on track, expecting quality and having knowledge/skills (including critical thinking, language and analytical skills). Most importantly, this instrument introduces reflection into the process. The system collects and analyzes data and comments from all team members and generates a score for each individual, along with feedback and recommendations on how to improve teamwork skills in relevant areas. It also provides feedback/comments from teammates anonymously after each assessment. Finally, CATME alerts instructors to specific characteristics of individuals within a team, such as ‘confident’ or ‘under-performer’. Students have responded enthusiastically to this approach, and data collected via the software indicate that it has had positive impacts; the main benefits are that more frequent accountability and positive interdependence appear to have had a positive effect, improving individual contribution to teamwork and reducing freeloading. Equally important is how the approach encourages students to reflect on their contributions, strengths and weaknesses, and facilitates open discussion about concerns. The inquiry-based approach adopted also appears to have a positive impact on the development of teamwork, which is essential for maximizing linguistic input, interaction and the output of language use. Results from a teamwork survey show that by the end of COMM 151 almost all students demonstrate a high degree of awareness and application of the basic requirements of effective teamwork, with nearly 100% rated at a Proficient or Mastery level. Biennial surveys of junior- and senior-year faculty report students’ continued ability and willingness to exchange ideas, collaborate and accept team responsibilities, an indication that the teamwork skills developed in the Communications courses are being internalized and transferred to future courses.

Information Literacy, Thinking Skills and Lifelong Learning An important aspect of developing gains in the target language is to promote learner autonomy, and the two appear to be inextricably linked. Students on the two courses are required to take responsibility

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for their learning in a number of ways. First, they have to form a working team and take the initiative in identifying a suitable research topic. They must plan and manage their research following a standard process, which requires reflection, critical thinking and decision making. In terms of locating and organizing relevant sources of information, 91% of COMM 101 students are measured as Proficient or higher (Level 3 or 4) when provided with support and guidance. As the requirements for doing this more independently increase, as in the COMM 151 course, the percentage of students rated at Level 2 Developing rises from 6% in COMM 101 to 20% in COMM 151, indicating that students struggle as the scaffolding is removed. However, by the STPS 201 course, the engineering design course which follows the Communication courses in the curriculum, the percentage of students performing at a Developing level begins to reduce, to 11%, with a greater percentage now being able to independently locate and organize relevant sources at a Proficient or Mastery level even with reduced instructor scaffolding. A similar pattern is seen across other performance indicators, which shows that exposure to the research process in the first year has helped prepare students for the expectations and required tasks of the subsequent sophomore year cornerstone design courses, and that the developed skills and competencies are transferred. Where students struggle most is in the ability to extract relevant information from sources, with an average performance level across the courses of 2.67/4.00 and over 30% of students performing at an Unsatisfactory level (Level 1), a clear indication of a need to provide additional scaffolding for students in this area. One initiative implemented to try to enhance student development in these areas has been the introduction of individual reading and writing assessments (IRWAs). In this activity, students are given a week to read, annotate and make notes on three short academic texts related to relevant course activities. They are then asked to respond to an essay-type question associated with the text in class. The ability of students to synthesize and use information to support decisions throughout the course sequence sees steady improvement, with 80% achieving at the Proficient level or higher in STPS 201; however nearly 10% still perform at an Unsatisfactory/Ineffective level with

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regard to this performance indicator. Eighty-one per cent of students self-report that their thinking skills have improved significantly.

Implications Receiving engineering faculty, those teaching third and fourth-year courses, are less positive about the skills and competencies of the students than the above findings would predict. Feedback is collected from a survey of their perceptions of student performance on a range of skills related to language proficiency, research, information literacy and thinking skills, and teamwork. The results show that only a third of receiving faculty respondents estimate that more than 70% of students are satisfactorily prepared, and that nearly a third believe that less than 60% of students are satisfactorily prepared in these areas. One possible reason for this is an apparent assumption on the part of engineering faculty that students should have mastered these skills by the time they begin their engineering courses and their capstone projects, rather than understanding that acquisition of language and academic literacy is a developmental process that continues through all four years of undergraduate studies, and beyond. The fact that students have not yet mastered these skills often leads their discipline faculty to maintain a focus on transmitting technical knowledge through lectures rather than establishing a more student-centred, active learning approach focused on developing conceptual understanding and application of knowledge, as such approaches require students to use language. A second, related issue is that limited awareness of what is being taught during the first two years of the curriculum limits the degree to which faculty reinforce, and students transfer, the knowledge, skills and competencies learned in previous courses. It appears that skills gained in the two COMM courses are not maintained throughout the remaining time on the degree programme to the degree expected and desired, supporting the view of Nunn, Brandt, and Deveci (2016) that “skills gained in one context can soon lie dormant if not needed and emphasized in others. They need reinforcing, reapplying and reinventing within a framework that both requires and encourages their use.” An approach that could address such

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issues would include aligning course learning outcomes (CLOs) and performance indicators all of the way up to, and including, the senior capstone design experience. This would require a rethink of curricular design as a set of interconnected parts rather than as separate course offerings. Active and purposeful engagement in the pursuit of a deeper conceptual understanding of the research topic facilitates higher-order thinking. As such, opportunities need to be provided for students to engage in situations and tasks that require knowledge sharing, problem solving, analysis and interpretation of data, and effective communication. As these skills develop over a relatively long time, it is important that they are introduced early and carefully supported across a spine of undergraduate research, both horizontally and vertically. Our evaluation of the implementation of this approach has identified that providing sufficient guidance and scaffolding in the early stages is essential as students shift from a more traditional, rote memorization language-learning environment into the discourse community of engineers, creating a purpose for the transfer of learned knowledge and skills.

Conclusions The innovation we have described in this chapter motivates language learners as they explore topics of personal interest and leads to demonstrable improvement in their reading, writing and speaking skills as well as information literacy and lifelong learning attributes. Development in these areas is a process that takes years, not a single course, and it is thus important to introduce them early in the curriculum through research experiences and other inquiry-based pedagogies. Engagement in research experiences as part of the undergraduate curriculum encourages students to make the shift from being consumers of knowledge to producers (Buckley, 2011). It promotes higher self-confidence, greater analytical development and the creative abilities that are essential to engineering design (Karantzas et al., 2013). A final benefit of incorporating a CURE in the first two years of technical curricula is that students are more likely to persist in engineering studies if they are exposed

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to real-world problems and experience engineering early in their academic career (Gomez, 2013; Kinkead, 2003). The findings of the past 12 years of full implementation of this integrated-skills approach through CUREs demonstrates that such an approach motivates the language learner, moving them beyond the fossilization of skills that can often occur in language learning. In addition, this pedagogical approach enables the development of additional competencies needed by today’s global citizen—teamwork, thinking skills and lifelong learning abilities. However, such skills are often just beginning to develop in the first year. The difficulty is in how to teach for transfer—the ultimate purpose of education. In terms of communicative competence, research and professional skills, an approach to higher education language teaching such as that presented in this chapter is just the beginning. While we have seen positive impacts, the transfer is still limited. But why? Probably most important is that language and academic literacy development are often viewed as the sole responsibility of foundation and first-year English teachers or a university writing centre, and not of discipline teachers. Similarly, learning how to research and think creatively and critically about technical issues is thought of as solely the responsibility of the content area teachers. However, we argue that there must be shared responsibility for both. This begins by bringing together faculty from diverse disciplines to share their knowledge and experiences with one another, helping to create a cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary understanding of the overall content and intended learning outcomes for a sequence of courses taken by all of our engineering students. The ultimate benefit of the approach is that through incorporation of research experiences in first-year courses, we are exposing students to ‘doing science and engineering’ and to developing skills and competencies that will benefit them not only in their academic studies and professional career, but also as contributing members of a knowledge-based society. The requirement today is not only to challenge students “to think like professional scientists and engineers but also to communicate like them” (Poe, Lerner, & Craig, 2010). To do anything less for today’s students would be a disservice.

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Discussion Questions 1. How would you encourage colleagues and academic leadership to implement an innovation such as the one presented in this chapter at your school or university? What resistance might you expect? Why? 2. What role does motivation play in language acquisition? In what ways can approaches such as that described in this chapter motivate students to learn language? 3. To what degree should a language course promote and enhance professional skills such as teamwork, critical and creative thinking, information literacy and research skills in addition to language development? Should these be core learning outcomes of language courses? Why or why not? 4. In many university foundation programmes, the need to achieve a required score in the TOEFL or IELTS exam in order to matriculate often becomes the main language goal for students (and instructors). To what degree is this true where you teach? Is there a problem of washback from this? If so, can innovations such as the one discussed in this chapter help to overcome the issue? 5. What assessment tools and methods could be employed to determine the degree to which clearly defined CLOs are being achieved by the class and by individual students?

References American Society for Engineering Education. (2012). Innovation with impact. Washington, DC: American Society for Engineering Education. Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACandU). (2011). The LEAP vision for learning: Outcomes, practices, impact, and employers’ views. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Biggs, J. (1999). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 18(1), 57–75. Buckley, C. A. (2011). Student and staff perceptions of the research-teaching nexus. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 48(3), 313–322.

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Chau, J., & Cheng, G. (2010). Towards understanding the potential of e-portfolios for independent learning: A qualitative study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(7), 932–950. Chemers, M., Zurbriggen, E., Syed, M., Goza, B., & Bearman, S. (2011). The role of efficacy and identity in science career commitment among underrepresented minority students. Journal of Social Issues, 67(3), 469–491. Coyle, D. (2002). Relevance of CLIL to the European Commission language learning objectives. In D. Marsh (Ed.), CLIL/EMILE European dimension: Actions, trends and foresight potential. European Commission, Public Services Contract DG 3406/001-001. Duch, B. J., Groh, S. E., & Allen, D. E. (2001). The power of problem-based learning: A practical “how to” for teaching undergraduate courses in any discipline (1st ed.). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Ewell, P. T. (1997). Organizing for learning: A point of entry. Discussion paper presented at the 1997 AAHE Summer Academy, Snowbird. Gass, S. M. (2003). Input and interaction. In C. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 224–255). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Gomez, M. (2013). Incorporating undergraduate research methods topics into a content based course: A preliminary case study. Insights to a Changing World Journal, 3, 69–81. Hamilakis, Y. (2004). Archaeology and the politics of pedagogy. World Archaeology, 36(2), 287–309. Honey, M., Fasca, C., Gersick, A., Mandinach, E., & Sinha, S. (2005). Assessment of 21st century skills: The current landscape. New York, NY: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Karantzas, G. C., Avery, M. R., Macfarlane, S., Mussap, A., Tooley, G., Hazelwood, Z., et al. (2013). Enhancing critical analysis and problem-solving skills in undergraduate psychology: An evaluation of a collaborative learning and problem-based learning approach. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 38–45. Kinkead, J. (2003). Learning through inquiry: An overview of undergraduate research. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 93, 5–17. Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4(2), 193–212. Lasagabaster, D. (2011). English achievement and student motivation in CLIL and EFL. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 5(1), 3–18.

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Little, D. (2007). Language learner autonomy: Some fundamental considerations revisited. International Journal of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 14–29. Major, C. H., & Palmer, B. (2001). Assessing the effectiveness of problem-based learning in higher education: Lessons from the literature. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 5(1). Retrieved from http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mop4spr01.htm. Merriam, S. B., & Caffarella, R. S. (1991). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). (2017). Undergraduate research experiences for STEM students: Successes, challenges, and opportunities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education. (1977). The Dearing report: Higher education in the learning society. Retrieved from http://www. educationengland.org.uk/documents/dearing1997/dearing1997.html. Nunn, R., Brandt, C., & Deveci, T. (2016). Project-based learning as a holistic learning framework: Integrating 10 principles of critical reasoning and argumentation. Asian Journal of English for Specific Purposes, 12(2), 9–53. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2004). Knowledge economy: Implications for knowledge and learning. OECD. Retrieved from http://ocw.metu.edu.tr/file.php/118/Week11/oecd2.pdf. Poe, M., Lerner, N., & Craig, J. (2010). Learning to communicate in science and engineering: Case studies from MIT. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Scarcella, R. C., & Oxford, R. L. (1992). The tapestry of language learning: The individual in the communicative classroom. Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle. White, L. (2003). On the nature of interlanguage representation: Universal Grammar in the second language. In C. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 19–42). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

11 Preparing for a Digital Future: CALL Teacher Education in Iran S. Susan Marandi

Introduction While digital technologies are increasingly becoming an inseparable part of people’s lives all over the globe, they are still not being given a serious role in the education system of many countries. Many reasons have been cited for this apparent neglect: the universally acknowledged economic strain imposed by investing in modern technologies, the ineptness of educators in using them, the inflexibility of school syllabi, cultural conflicts, and so on. However, most people now acknowledge that whether we like it or not, digital technologies are here to stay, and we can no longer afford to ignore their potential in education. To do so would be to neglect a considerable part of the ‘literacies’ of today and to impede our learners from fully functioning in society. This is at least equally true in language learning, where digital literacies often play an even more prominent role than elsewhere, especially since much of S. S. Marandi (*)  Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_11

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today’s international interactions take place via the Internet, making digital literacies a prerequisite of our learners’ becoming global citizens in its truest sense, and enabling their voices to be heard. In the current auto-ethnography, therefore, the author describes her efforts of over a decade to introduce computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in Iran; she recounts the steps taken, the blunders made, the lessons learned, as well as the challenges and opportunities she faced, and the successes and failures that shaped this venture. It is hoped that sharing this experience will serve as an encouragement to people in similar circumstances, and assist them in implementing their plans with less effort and higher quality.

Area of Innovation Language teachers are closely involved with the concept of ‘literacy’ and a major part of their efforts are directed toward helping students of foreign languages become literate in a language other than their mother tongue; therefore, recent developments in our understanding of this concept naturally have direct and important ramifications for language teachers: “… the definition of literacy today is more complex. The process of becoming literate today involves more than learning how to use language effectively” (Kasper, 2000, p. 105). In fact, the idea of literacy itself is being superseded by that of literacies and multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; Gee, 2015; New London Group, 1996). Unsurprisingly, considering the major impact that digital technologies have had on all aspects of human life in recent years, quite a few of the newfound literacies which have found their way into the literature make explicit reference to digital skills and competencies, such as computer literacy, digital literacy, electronic literacy, technological literacy, media literacy and silicon literacy (Dakers, 2006; Snyder, 2002; Warschauer, 1999). These new literacies have far-reaching implications, extending beyond the classroom. As Cope and Kalantzis (2009) point out, the new literacies which have come into being as a result of the innovative communication practices of recent years are exemplified in “new social practices—ways of working in new or transformed forms

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of employment, new ways of participating as a citizen in public spaces, and even perhaps new forms of identity and personality” (p. 167). Therefore, it would appear that technology is no longer just a ‘tool’; it is actually an inseparable part of the literacies we are attempting to teach our students (Marandi, 2013). This means that whether we like it or not, our responsibilities as language teachers have increased dramatically, since a student who has learned the language but is unable to communicate via digital technologies may still be considered illiterate by others! Unfortunately, however, many language teachers are still inadequately equipped to deal with such new responsibilities and, in fact, often resist them (Chenoweth, Jones, & Tucker, 2006; Marandi, 2010; Silviyanti & Yusuf, 2015). This is especially true in regions where the Internet penetration rate is still fairly low, such as Africa and Asia (see Table 11.1). Older teachers are notoriously resistant to changing their ways; however, even younger teachers are less likely to introduce digital technologies in the classroom without adequate facilities, support and training (Kessler, 2006). This calls for a person or body taking the initiative to establish CALL teacher education classes, the focus of the current article.

Impetus for the Innovation In the year 2002, having read about the fairly new idea of CALL in the ELT literature, I carried out a small-scale survey of 31 university professors in three major universities in the capital of Iran, Tehran. Using self-completion questionnaires, I investigated the CALL attitudes and practices of these professors, all of whom specialized in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). The results suggested that most Iranian language educators believed in the importance of using digital technologies and the Internet for learning purposes, but did not have sufficient know-how to apply them in the classroom, and thus avoided using them (Marandi, 2002). I was then a Ph.D. candidate in TEFL nearing my graduation and wanted very much to receive CALL teacher education before obtaining my doctorate; however, as CALL classes did not then exist in Iran, I decided to take an online CALL class and share

3.3 4.8 0.6 100.0

254,438,981 363,844,662 41,273,454

7,634,758,428

4,208,571,287

164,037,259 345,660,847 28,439,277

464,923,169 2,062,197,366 705,064,923 438,248,446

Source Taken from internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, 12 October 2018

16.9 55.1 10.8 8.5

1,287,914,329 4,207,588,157 827,650,849 652,047,996

Africa Asia Europe Latin America/ Caribbean Middle East North America Oceania/ Australia World Total

Population % of Internet users (30 world June 2018)

Population (2018 est.)

World regions

Table 11.1  World Internet usage and population statistics, 30 June 2018

55.1

64.5 95.0 68.9

36.1 49.0 85.2 67.2

Penetration rate (% pop.)

1066

4894 219 273

10,199 1704 570 2325

Growth 2000–2018 (%)

100.0

3.9 8.2 0.7

11.0 49.0 16.8 10.4

Internet users %

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11  Preparing for a Digital Future: CALL Teacher Education in Iran     227

whatever I learned with my colleagues and students. I did an Internet search and came across an online CALL class at an American college. Finding the course description to be interesting and close to what I had in mind, I emailed the instructor, who initially discouraged me from participating, since I was on a dial-up connection which was extremely slow and disconnected frequently, and she was worried that I might find the experience too frustrating, particularly in the synchronous sessions. Therefore, I did not register that year; however, the next year (2003) I realized that I might have to wait a long time for a change in my situation, and decided to give the online course a try despite the difficulties. This simple decision ultimately led to major changes in my own professional development and in the status (or lack thereof!) of CALL in Iran within the short space of a decade.

The Context In 2003, while finishing my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Tehran, I had started my career in the English department of Alzahra University, a comprehensive all-women’s university also located in Tehran. Both universities are currently equipped with computers and make extensive use of digital technologies; in 2003, however, I did not have access to a computer in either university, nor had e-learning been established in either. Those relatively few professors who were computer literate used PCs at home, but the majority were still unaware of the potential of computers and often considered them to be an extravagance with little or no applications for the language teacher. Most of my colleagues and students were computer illiterate, and some suffered from computer phobia. Digital “natives” (Prensky, 2001) were still an unknown species, and since Iranian schools and the public in general were even less accustomed to using computers than university academics, most entering students had no or little previous experience with computers. At the time Alzahra University had just one poorly equipped computer lab for the whole university (several thousand students back then), and the concept of a helpdesk was non-existent. I therefore attended the online CALL class from home, paying for an

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expensive dial-up connection I could ill afford and which was likely to disconnect at any given moment (and very frequently did), and struggling through the technology difficulties as best I could (and shedding a few tears when I could not). Almost all my CALL classmates lived on campus at the college and in fact I later learned that they were sitting beside one another in the college lab during our synchronous online sessions—in the same room, in fact, as our instructor. Most were taking this course as part of their master’s degree in TESL at the college; thus they also shared other courses. I was in every way the odd one out, and would have definitely remained so were it not for the steady encouragement and feedback of the course teacher. In fact, one of my most vivid memories of those days is my computer crashing two days before a deadline: I had no back-up of my work, no technology savoir-faire, and no one to turn to for help, and in fact, for a few days, no way to even let my professor know what had happened. I finally managed to get a message through to her, but didn’t have access to the Internet to receive any reply, so as I waited for my computer to be repaired, I decided the only thing I could do was to panic, and accordingly did so.

Findings To my great surprise my professor called me long distance to reassure and comfort me, teaching me the importance of the human factor in CALL and demonstrating the all-important lesson that computers can never fully replace teachers. This incident was far from being the last, as will be seen below, but I gradually learned that CALL requires a great deal of patience and persistence, and that a successful CALL teacher needs to become used to dealing with mini-crises and be prepared to undergo a lot of trial and error. In fact, one of my mantras in my future CALL teacher development classes became ‘Always have a Plan B …, Plan C … and Plan D!’ After finishing the course, I stayed on for a term as teacher assistant at my professor’s kind invitation. The learners in this new class were not as friendly or active as those in the previous one, and I remember

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that my efforts to maintain an interesting dialogue were often futile. My comments and questions were often ignored by the learners, and one of them occasionally directed racist remarks toward me, making me feel lonelier and more ostracized than when I was merely a newbie learner on a bad dial-up connection. I could almost hear the silence in the forums as my virtual ‘Hello?’ echoed throughout cyberspace without receiving any reply, frequently bringing the words ‘haunted house’ to mind. This led me to understand how much of the success of online courses was dependent on factors such as interaction, the sense of online presence, intercultural competence, giving and receiving encouragement and feedback, and in brief, the sense of belonging to a community (Lehman & Conceição, 2010; Palloff & Pratt, 2005). When the college’s online CALL classes were over, and through the encouragement of my CALL teacher and one of her friends and guest speakers in the CALL class, I continued to learn about CALL through the annual Electronic Village Online (EVO) sessions, free online courses about TEFL/TESL (usually but not always focused on various aspects of CALL and new technologies) which were held each year for six weeks by volunteer teachers, as an extension of the yearly TESOL conference. I participated in the EVO for several years, first as a learner and later for four or five years as one of the coordinators of this worldwide project. The first year (2005) I participated in two online sessions, ‘Becoming a Webhead’ and ‘Using Weblogs in ESL/EFL Classes’. Formerly, the EVO asynchronous discussions were conducted largely through Yahoo! groups, and while my personal evaluation is that these sessions were generally extremely successful, the overwhelmingly large number of participants sending messages at the same time often led to chaos, making it difficult to follow the discussions. The large number of participants in each session (often several hundred) made it virtually impossible for the moderators to teach everything themselves, and a great deal of emphasis was naturally placed on discovery learning and autonomy, as well as peer collaborative dialogue and scaffolding (Healey, 2007; Zeng, 2017). At the time, I was very much accustomed to a learning system in which the learners looked to their teachers for the final word on all academic questions, and I always had plenty of questions. Until once when

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I asked a question in the weblog session, and one of the moderators responded, “That’s a very good question, but you don’t want me to take away all the excitement of discovering the answer, do you? Why don’t you explore it yourself and share the answer with us when you find it?” I remember the initial disappointment (and stress) I experienced, before spending ten straight hours on my terrible dial-up connection exploring the Internet and ignoring other pressing issues (including meals and using the bathroom!) while I tried to find the answer so as not to disappoint the moderator. I also remember the thrill of triumph I felt when I succeeded. In some ways, this was an important turning point for me, both as a learner and as a teacher, as it encouraged me to be more self-reliant. As a person who was by nature somewhat computer/technology phobic, it also helped me overcome my fears and avoid giving up as soon as I reached a stumbling block or experienced a failure with technology. In light of the innumerable problems which arise on a daily basis in our use of digital technologies, such transformations are vital for anyone interested in their CALL professional development, particularly those from countries where digital technologies are still making their way into people’s lives. This was by no means the end of my difficulties, however, and I remember in particular the frustration I felt when I also realized through such explorations exactly how time-consuming learning about CALL can be, and when I further noted that it was literally impossible to keep up with technology developments despite spending so much time. Being a perfectionist, I found this absolutely exasperating, but I ultimately taught myself to change my attitude, convincing myself that the point is not to always be at the cutting edge of technology, but instead to learn how to put it to good pedagogical use. This is what good CALL practice is truly about, and it is also a more realistic and, in my opinion, a more useful goal. The acquisition of this valuable insight was facilitated through another e-learning experience I had about the same time. Having experienced how very useful and interesting both the online CALL classes and the EVO sessions were and on comparing these with some of my face-to-face classes, I had naturally concluded that online classes are necessarily more interesting and motivating than ‘regular’ classes, and

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I remained convinced of this for the first few years of my e-learning experiences. In brief, I had mistaken CALL for a language teaching approach in its own right, with its own principles and methods. I had come to believe that an online class would necessarily be more fruitful than a face-to-face one, and I took CALL to be the panacea we are so often warned against believing in. Around the same time, however, I had the opportunity of taking part in some other online classes, and found them exceedingly ‘traditional’ pedagogy-wise, despite using the latest technologies. Instead of the collaborative, interactive classes I had become accustomed to, these classes consisted almost wholly of a series of video clips, audio files and text files to be downloaded and used. The learners learned in isolation, without any meaningful exchange of ideas with one another or with the instructors (who were indeed instructors, with all the connotations of one-way instruction). From this experience I gained the invaluable insight that although digital technologies offer new and exciting affordances to the learning situation, yet like any other teaching mode, the success or failure of CALL depends wholly on how such technologies are used. In short, I came to recognize the important role that pedagogy plays in successful e-learning (Healey, 1999; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). On being invited to join the EVO coordinating team, I had the good fortune to work closely with some of the top CALL teacher educators, and gain first-hand experience from them. This team had the responsibility of planning each round of EVO sessions, sending out calls for proposals for the annual sessions, reviewing the proposals and deciding which should be accepted. Once the proposals were accepted, the moderators of the upcoming sessions were invited to several weeks of online sessions, in which the coordinators worked together with the moderators to ensure that they were all fully prepared for the challenges of presenting online to large numbers of language teachers from all over the world, coming from different countries, educational backgrounds, time zones, and so on. The initial course proposals were gradually developed into complete online courses and the session moderators, who were often experiencing their first online courses, became accustomed to dealing with the various challenges and to using the customary venues and tools necessary for both synchronous and asynchronous sessions.

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Through these coordinating sessions I became acquainted with many wonderful CALL teachers and teacher educators—the ‘Webheads’. I also learned many valuable lessons about CALL teacher education. For example, I realized that many of the moderators (session teachers) experienced technology difficulties and even various degrees of stress and phobia (ironically similar to those of their future learners) during the coordinating sessions which preceded their own sessions. This indicated to me the absolute necessity of CALL teacher education and planning, and rather surprisingly, proved to me that not even all teachers from technologically advantaged countries who were entirely accustomed to using all kinds of cutting-edge technologies necessarily knew how to use them with success for online teaching. That is, one’s personal Internet skills will not necessarily ensure success in one’s pedagogic use of the Internet. (In an interesting analogy, Kessler [2006, p. 26] compares such a false expectation to the “long held fallacy that any native speaker can teach grammar without explicitly studying grammar”.) Similarly, I noted how very important it was for teachers of online courses to become completely conversant with the venues and tools they intended to use. I also appreciated more than previously how imperative careful planning, time management and team work could be in online classes, especially when dealing with large numbers of learners. I also learned to appreciate the different roles of synchronous and asynchronous online education. For example, I realized that handling synchronous sessions with very large numbers of participants was not always easy or recommended, due to both the chaos which sometimes ensued and the limitations of the technology which made it impossible for all the learners to participate actively at the same time. This highlighted the importance of the asynchronous course components. On the other hand, I often found the synchronous sessions were very comforting to those learners who were less comfortable with online education or who were accustomed to more traditional forms of teaching and learning. Based on this experience and for the online CALL teacher education classes that I occasionally held in the following years for Iranian language teachers, I ultimately came up with a compromise very similar in some ways to what is nowadays referred to as ‘flipped classrooms’ (e.g. Razak, Kaur, Halili, & Ramlan, 2016), with the main learning

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taking place before the synchronous sessions through the materials provided online as well as through the asynchronous forum discussions and activities, and then being consolidated through the more direct teaching that took place during the synchronous sessions. I also took care to have a co-teacher or teacher assistant at hand, both to encourage interaction and to provide constructive feedback, and more especially to deal with unexpected technology problems which arose during the synchronous sessions and which could otherwise have interrupted the flow of the class. As I gradually gained confidence in using various technologies for educational purposes, I decided to put my newly acquired CALL knowledge into practice in my own classes at Alzahra University and to embark on my mission to introduce CALL into language teaching in Iran. This was, of course, much easier said than done, and at first I experienced nearly every possible hardship under the sun! The first difficulty was obtaining permission to use the computer lab for my classes, since the number of people who had started using the lab to check their emails and so on was rapidly increasing, and they were always displeased with the fact that I would monopolize it for my classes. In fact, a few people were usually outside the door waiting for us to vacate the lab. However, even when people had become used to the strange language teacher who unaccountably persisted in occupying the sole computer lab of the university for her classes, many difficulties remained. Our Internet connection had many problems and would occasionally disconnect in the middle of an interesting activity. In those days we also occasionally experienced power cuts, and although later the university was equipped with a generator, at that time it was not uncommon for us to lose power in the middle of class. Furthermore, I was not given a key to the all-important lab, so once when the person in charge of the lab became ill and failed to show up, we were left in the corridor behind a locked door! And of course, so many websites were being filtered by both the Iranian and American governments that I was never sure that I would be able to use the website or web tool I had in mind, even if I had been able to access it from home the day before. All in all, there were whole sessions during which we had to work without the computers altogether and, in fact, I was obliged to prepare so many alternative

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plans that I never knew what my class would ultimately look like by the end of the day! This was exacerbated by the fact that I didn’t know enough about technology myself, and in those early days, no one was assigned to the lab to help out with the technology problems arising in class. At that time, most of my students didn’t have access to computers outside class either, and I had to be careful not to expect more of them than I could myself deliver in class, especially as I did not want the economically challenged ones to feel pressured to purchase a (then expensive) computer. I persisted notwithstanding: I started using student blogs and class wikis for my writing classes, podcasts for my oral skills classes, WebQuests for my reading classes, concordancing for teaching vocabulary and grammar, and so on. However, not a few complications also persisted. For example, especially in the early years, I had to devote so much time to teaching my students the absolute basics of using computers and the Internet that I constantly worried that they would not be learning enough about language itself, especially as I further noted how often they were distracted from what they were supposed to be doing by the bells and whistles of the Internet. However, even before the general level of computer and technology literacies in Iran began to rise (and I started meeting students who knew more about technology than I did), I was comforted by the greatly increased motivation of my students and by seeing that most of them were spending much more time than formerly on their class assignments. I was convinced that in the long run they would learn more about English than the others through their increased use of the Internet outside class—a kind of indirect, inductive and lifelong learning. At the same time, I started creating/downloading PowerPoint slides and video clip tutorials for my students to use outside class. I also gradually learned to make use of the faster or more technology-savvy learners as teacher assistants in class. Furthermore, I learned that the success of my endeavours depended largely on the students receiving immediate feedback on their efforts, and I would occasionally email the URLs of their weblogs or podcasts to my foreign friends and ask them to leave comments on a couple of them. I found having an authentic audience as well as experiencing real-life tasks encouraged my students to take their work seriously; several of them continued their

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weblogs and other online activities well beyond the school year and even had regular readers and contributors from other countries. Not all the problems of persevering in a CALL career were as easily resolved as this, even when the university started building multiple computer labs and paying for technology support inside the classrooms. One enduring difficulty was that in addition to learning opportunities, there were all kinds of culturally and ethically inappropriate content on the Internet; and I often worried about being the person to introduce my young students to the mélange that was the World Wide Web, especially as it would also expose them to all the common but less acknowledged threats of cyber citizenship, such as phishing, being hacked, and so on. To deal with the first concern, I tried to raise cultural awareness in my students and to encourage critical CALL; in addition, I encouraged them to make the effort to be producers instead of mere consumers of Internet content. In order to address the second concern, I started each new class by teaching my students what I knew about how to protect their online safety and privacy. I eventually wrote a number of articles about this in a popular multilingual journal widely circulated among Iranian language teachers, Roshd FLT. At the same time, I comforted myself with the thought that some day they would need to learn how to become successful cyber citizens to function in the global society, and that I was therefore doing them a service which they could not easily receive elsewhere. I also told myself (and others who occasionally raised similar concerns) that by introducing them to useful websites and teaching them how to put the Internet to good use, I hoped to prevent their browsing through destructive websites and putting themselves in harm’s way. Nonetheless, I confess that although events confirmed my prediction that learning how to use digital technologies and the Internet would become necessary for all, my worries about the cultural and personal evils of the Internet have still not been appeased (nor do they seem likely to be in the near future). In any case, I gradually became accustomed to using various technologies for my language classes, and imperceptibly, dealing with the ups and downs of it became easier for me. My spirit and ambition began to reassert themselves, and I embarked on the next phase of my plans for CALL in Iran. As a language teacher educator who was interested

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in CALL, I felt I needed to share my hard-earned CALL experiences with my MA and Ph.D. students at Alzahra University and elsewhere, as these would otherwise ultimately be wasted. As a first step, I began supervising CALL theses and dissertations; and gradually I began murmuring about the necessity of adding a CALL course to our M.A. and Ph.D. TEFL curricula. For the first few years, however, I had to deal with a colleague who strenuously opposed my efforts to introduce CALL into the TEFL programme. More than once, she reproached me for encouraging an ‘unrealistic’ view of their future profession in our students. “You are doing them a great disservice by encouraging them to be dreamers instead of teaching them to deal with the realities of life,” she would tell me. The majority of my colleagues were supportive, however, and in 2007, I ultimately succeeded in adding an elective twocredit CALL course to Alzahra University’s Ph.D. in TEFL. Following the success of this course, a similar one was added to our MA programme in 2012. These additions remained specific to Alzahra University’s English department for some years. Gradually, however, national interest in CALL increased (although Alzahra University is still widely known as leading the Iranian universities in work on CALL, especially with the gradual addition of like-minded people to our English department over the years). Recently, I was also fortunate enough to play a role in adding CALL courses to the national TEFL curricula offered by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, and lately some of the other Iranian universities have also begun offering CALL courses to their TEFL students, some of them taught by Alzahra University alumni. Most recently, with the help of colleagues, I have developed a master’s degree programme in CALL which has already been approved at Alzahra University, although it still has to receive the approval of the Ministry and is currently undergoing scrutiny there. If such a major step does indeed take place, we can hope for a dramatic growth of CALL awareness and practice, and CALL teacher education throughout the country. Not all CALL problems can be solved through national awareness and support, however; sometimes collective international efforts are required. A problem I had noted with the EVO sessions was that

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the tools and venues introduced were not always equally accessible to all nationalities; yet little attention was paid to this, nor were attempts necessarily made to compensate for it in the sessions. Connecting from Iran, for example, access to some of the venues was occasionally denied me (some by the Iranian and some by the American governments), but there were no suggestions of alternatives which all could equally benefit from. I was (implicitly) expected to solve my problem and catch up. This was when it gradually dawned on me that the Internet was not as democratic and egalitarian as everyone seemed to believe it was, and that inequality, elitism and gatekeeping existed on the Internet as well (Krotoski, 2013). In many ways this discrimination was understated, making it sometimes even more threatening than more blatant discriminatory practices, since it was more difficult to verbalize, expose or combat. This problem is still unresolved; as a first step, however, I have begun to share my concerns with other practitioners (Marandi, 2017; Marandi, Karimi, & Nami, 2015), since I believe that part of the solution lies in creating awareness. In addition, I am firmly convinced that people living in the region need to begin creating their own learning materials and applications, so as to both lessen their dependence on hegemonic gatekeepers and ensure that their learning materials are suited to the needs and demands of their own contexts, cultures and learning situations.

Implications This chapter has outlined many useful CALL lessons for a person who simply wants to get started on CALL, particularly for those in regions where e-learning is still unpopular and digital technologies have still not been fully integrated into the education system. And while many of these lessons may already be found dispersed throughout the literature on e-learning and CALL, what hopefully makes the present auto-­ ethnography of more immediate interest, particularly for the local reader, is the evidence that even with very limited means, encouragement and help, great changes may be effected in a relatively short space of time if one doesn’t lose hope or give up. Many parts of the Middle East and

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North African region are currently struggling with various economic, political or security challenges which often overshadow educational concerns. In such situations, bringing about major changes at a national level in particular is not always easy. In addition to having a well-­ defined vision with short-term and long-term plans, such an ambition requires creativity, perseverance, and patience (and sometimes just plain stubbornness!). However, it is indeed feasible, and in fact, all the more rewarding for being difficult.

Discussion Questions 1. Considering all that you have read and also drawing on your own personal experiences, what roles do technology, pedagogy and the human factor have to play in the success of a CALL experience? Which has more weight? 2. What do you perceive to be the affordances and limitations of CALL in your own context? 3. How do you visualize the necessary steps for bringing about a major change in your own educational context? Can you relate them to the above experiences? 4. Have you experienced any instances of inequality and gatekeeping on the Internet? How have you dealt with such experiences? How can they affect a CALL experience? 5. Do you consider yourself a mere consumer of already existing online materials, or have you made any concerted effort to produce new materials? How can producing new online materials affect your own and your students’ CALL experience?

References Chenoweth, N. A., Jones, C. M., & Tucker, G. R. (2006). Language online: Principles of design and methods of assessment. In R. P. Donaldson & M. A. Haggstrom (Eds.), Changing language education through CALL (pp. 147– 168). New York: Routledge.

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Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164–195. Dakers, J. R. (Ed.). (2006). Defining technological literacy: Towards an epistemological framework. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Gee, J. P. (2015). The new literacy studies. In J. Rowsell & K. Pahl (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of literacy studies (pp. 35–48). London/New York: Routledge. Healey, D. (1999). Classroom practice: Communicative skill-building tasks in CALL environments. In J. Egbert & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 116–136). Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Healey, D. (2007). Theory and research: Autonomy and language learning. In J. Egbert & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (2nd ed., pp. 377–388). Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Kasper, L. F. (2000). New technologies, new literacies: Focus discipline research and ESL learning communities. Language Learning and Technology, 4(2), 105–128. Kessler, G. (2006). Assessing CALL teacher training: What are we doing and what could we do better? In P. Hubbard & M. Levy (Eds.), Teacher education in CALL (pp. 23–42). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Krotoski, A. (2013). Untangling the Web: What the internet is doing to you. London: Faber and Faber/Guardian Books. Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching: How to “be there” for distance learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Marandi, S. S. (2002). Teaching English in the new millennium: CALL in Iran. In A. A. Rezaei (Ed.), Proceedings of the First Conference on Issues in English Language Teaching in Iran (pp. 205–220). Tehran, Iran: University of Tehran Press. Marandi, S. S. (2010). Bravely stepping forward: Creating CALL communities to support teachers and learners in Iran. In J. Egbert (Ed.), CALICO monograph series 9: CALL in limited technology contexts (pp. 179–188). San Marcos, TX: CALICO. Marandi, S. S. (2013). Computer-assisted language learning. In R. Akbari & C. Coombe (Eds.), Middle East handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 185– 208). Dubai, United Arab Emirates: TESOL Arabia. Marandi, S. S. (2017). Virtual walls and bans: e-Learning/CALL hegemonies in the Iranian context. In J. Colpaert, A. Aerts, R. Kern, & M. Kaiser (Eds.), CALL in context: Proceedings (pp. 488–495). Berkeley: University of California.

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Marandi, S. S., Karimi Alavijeh, K., & Nami, F. (2015). Layers of CALL hegemonies: An Iranian experience. In F. Helm, L. Bradley, M. Guarda, & S. Thouësny (Eds.), Critical CALL—Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference, Padova, Italy (pp. 386–391). Dublin: Research-publishing.net. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teacher College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. Retrieved September 29, 2017, from http://newarcproject.pbworks.com/f/Pedagogy%2Bof% 2BMultiliteracies_New%2BLondon%2BGroup.pdf. Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in society. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved September 29, 2017, from http://www.albertomattiacci.it/docs/did/Digital_Natives_ Digital_Immigrants.pdf. Razak, R. A., Kaur, D., Halili, S. H., & Ramlan, Z. (2016). Flipped ESL teacher professional development: Embracing change to remain relevant. Teaching English with Technology, 16(3), 85–102. Silviyanti, T. M., & Yusuf, Y. Q. (2015). EFL teachers’ perceptions on using ICT in their teaching: To use or to reject? Teaching English with Technology, 15(4), 29–43. Snyder, I. (2002). Silicon literacies. In I. Snyder (Ed.), Silicon literacies: Communication, innovation and education in the Electronic Age (pp. 3–12). London: Routledge. Warschauer, M. (1999). Electronic literacies: Language, culture, and power in online education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Zeng, G. (2017). Collaborative dialogue in synchronous computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication. ReCALL, 29(3), 257–275.

12 Online Language Teacher Education for a Challenging Innovation: Towards Critical Language Pedagogy for Iran Arman Abednia and Graham V. Crookes

Introduction The innovations least likely to be instigated through language teacher development—whether in conventional state education systems or private-­ sector language schools—are the more demanding ones. They may develop through word of mouth, or perhaps more likely, if unfamiliar and challenging to established practice or authorities, they may need teacher-to-teacher or grassroots-based professional development processes and structures. In this chapter, we report on a case in which two language teacher development volunteers delivered an online course for developing critical language pedagogy that was sensitive to the Iranian ELT context. The teacher participants on the A. Abednia (*)  Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia e-mail: [email protected] G. V. Crookes  University of Hawai‘I at Mânoa, Honolulu, HI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_12

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course worked in a variety of teaching institutions. They reported benefiting from this online collaborative reflection about critical language pedagogy. The chapter is organized as follows. First, we briefly describe critical language pedagogy and consider how to characterize it as an innovation. We then present the impetus for the innovation in terms of values and also with regard to two aspects of effective innovation: diffusion and teacher networks. We then discuss the findings from running the course and conclude with reflections on the course and the consequent implications, again with a particular focus on teacher networks.

Area of Innovation Critical language pedagogy is an approach to second language teaching in which social justice is a central concept and which aims at the active, democratic engagement of students, both within the process of instruction and, ideally, beyond it. In this area, the word ‘critical’ signals a concern with power, and with theories of society, language and the person in which democracy and equity are fundamental. Proponents of this approach (such as ourselves) advocate participatory classrooms in which students contribute to negotiating syllabi and course content and are encouraged to raise personal or social issues for discussion, readings and exploration through dialogue. The long-term objective is the development of citizens capable of contributing to societal improvement through democratic participation in whatever opportunities are present. Out-of-class participation, whether concurrently with the class or later, as opportunities arise, is considered an important goal. How it manifests in practice varies considerably from one context to another; obviously some countries and sociocultural and political contexts may be much more hospitable to the basic idea and to the out-of-class implications than others. It would thus be generally recognized that this is quite challenging. The application of the ideas of critical pedagogy to second, foreign or world language teaching has been in existence for almost 50 years (cf. Crookes, 2013). Terms such as ‘critical language pedagogy’ and ‘critical literacy’ are increasingly used in our field and at least one journal (Critical Inquiry in Language Studies ) is entirely devoted to work in applied linguistics with this kind of inspiration and orientation.

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In a discussion of innovations in language teaching, it is important to address the issue of whether a possible or proposed initiative really is an innovation (cf. DeLano, Riley, & Crookes, 1994). The period of 50 years just referred to suggests that critical pedagogy is not new. However, in the main applied linguistics journal dedicated to innovations—Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching—the phrase has appeared only three times, and then merely in passing. Critical pedagogy is thus, by virtue of its non-appearance in an authoritative source of innovations in our field, apparently not a conventional innovation. Whatever the reasons, it has not been widely taken up, so we believe we are justified in referring to it as a challenging innovation. Because of its challenging nature, we cannot expect mainstream institutions to be supportive of critical pedagogy. In the specific context considered here (Iranian ELT), it is highly unlikely that established entities would support the delivery of language teacher education from this perspective, with all the official, administrative, financial and curricular approval actions it would entail. With our strong personal commitment to the approach and its values, we, the authors of this chapter, therefore decided that independently proposing and delivering a course in critical pedagogy was probably one of the few ways such a perspective could be promoted in the Iranian context. Through our personal networks of professional contacts, we encouraged teachers to take the online course, which we ran as volunteers.

Impetus for the Innovation Why move towards critical language pedagogy in a Middle East context, and why focus on teacher development for it?

Values Impetus As an Iranian language teaching specialist with quite a lot of experience in teacher development in Iranian applied linguistics (as well as recent experience in Australia), the first author became aware, early in his career, that there was a values-based perspective available within applied

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linguistics that spoke to his personal need to unify professional and personal values, and make his work as a language teacher meaningful in a country that was struggling to make more visible its actual (and neglected) progressive and democratic inheritances. From a domestic point of view, these values were to be found in the goals of early Iranian educational reformers such as Roshdieh (Madani, 2015), Bahman Beigi and Mojtahedi (Milani, 2008). These are consistent with longstanding radical reform traditions to be found in many other areas and contexts (e.g., Godwin, 1796), the goals of the French and American Revolutions (especially Jefferson), and the educational work of Dewey (1938) and Freire (1970, inter alia). All of these favour equality, solidarity, freedom and education for democracy. Given the histories of alternative, progressive and/or radical education from the late eighteenth century to the present, it is not an innovation to run schools and teach in ways that orient to such goals. However, in certain parts of the Middle Eastern world, it is rare. It is also important to consider the perspectives and views that the international mainstream is likely to have on Iran and Iranian teachers. A desire to dispel negative views and also be of assistance to Iranian colleagues was part of the impetus for the work reported here. Supporting this is the author’s own personal experience of Iranian teacher professionalism and knowledge of the capabilities and aspirations of many Iranian teachers of English. Though they may not have been explicitly aware of the kind of innovative approach presented here, it seemed there were many who would seriously consider the possibility of implementing it once they had access to relevant resources and opportunities for reflection and dialogue, which would help them examine its feasibility and potential contribution. And so it proved.

Resistance to Impetus: Innovation Diffusion and Values Within theories of innovation, the work of Rogers (1962, 2003; Rogers & Kincaid, 1981) has been very influential and is regularly referred to in ELT studies of innovation. Rogers has been consistently concerned with the diffusion of innovations, and in this regard, critical language

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pedagogy has certainly not diffused widely. Values play a role in likely diffusion, as Rogers’ ideas explain. Rogers was sufficiently cognizant of the heterogeneity of values in institutions and societies to refer to them under the heading of compatibility, partly defined as “the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values” (2003, p. 15). In our field, not much consideration is generally given to values (but cf. Crookes, 2009; Wong & Canagarajah, 2009). Thus, it is not surprising that values are not explicitly considered in an otherwise comprehensive and up-to-date review of innovations in language teaching, such as Waters (2009). Despite Waters’ emphasis on the managing of innovation through educational management systems, the failure of numerous innovations he mentions are quite likely to have been the result of values conflicts, as detailed inspection of the reports that he draws upon suggests. Critical language pedagogy, ideally, in its fullest conception, has values which ought to be opposed to those of the mainstream, when that mainstream is characterized by inequity, shortsightedness, ignorance, intolerance, religious fundamentalism, racism, classism, xenophobia, homophobia or gynophobia—unfortunately visible in all quarters of the globe at the present time. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that this perspective has not been diffused broadly.

Supporting Impetus: Community and Networks in Innovation Diffusion Are there some features of innovation diffusion that might counterbalance the effects of imbalances in values? Rogers’ work (1962, 2003, pp. 15–16) is also relevant to this question: COMPLEXITY: the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use… TRIALABILITY: the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis... OBSERVABILITY: the degree to which the [positive] results of an ­innovation are visible to others).

In order to diffuse, critical language pedagogy needs to be understood by teachers and seen as feasible. We need trialability, in the form of sample

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materials, possibly in textbook form or at least well-developed lesson plans which are easily shareable, as well as the support of like-minded teachers who are also engaged on the same path. We need roadmaps and guides by which to gradually transition away from our ingrained, automatized teaching practice. We need the ground, the context, for reflection and the gradual change of ideas or of practices. We need to foster observability which can be obtained through shared discussion and reflection on teachers’ practice. We need space to dialogue to achieve or develop critical consciousness, without having our consciousness otherwise constrained. Underpinning these requirements is the need for teacher groups and networks (cf. Adams, 2000). While TESOL teacher development groups have been discussed in our literature for many years (e.g., Sithamparam & Dhamotharan, 1992), the idea of a teacher network for critical language pedagogy seems even more necessary, given the fact that interested teachers are usually widely scattered, and that it is rare for them to find many like-minded individuals in the same school. The literature offers some analysis of large-scale, well-financed teacher networks (e.g., McDonald & Klein, 2003; for general teacher-centred overviews emphasizing networks see Baker-Doyle, 2011; McCormick, Fox, Carmichael, & Procter, 2011), but there is comparatively little guidance on this point in the TESOL literature. Zappa-Hollman and Duff (2014) discuss networks for learner socialization, and the term has also been used for at least one case of particularly oppositional teachers when some members of the outlawed teachers’ union of South Korea reconfigured themselves as a teacher development group during the years the union was illegal (Ahn, 1996; Cho, 2005). There are also a few studies of support groups of non-mainstream students (e.g., GrierReed, 2013) and resistant teachers (e.g., Picower, 2011). In discussing teacher networks, Adams (2000, p. 25) notes that “one can view teachers as embedded within two systems: a local policy system… and a professional one. The professional system, operating as a teacher network, provides an alternative source of perceptions, beliefs, and actions for its members.” Adams was not thinking in terms of a radical or critical alternative, but the idea of networks of teachers who may be attempting professional development in opposition to dominant trends and patterns in education seems to apply.

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Schools are often written about as though they are unitary, and reference is made to ‘the’ school community, which suggests some degree of homogeneity concerning purpose and values. In reality, however, conflict may be prevalent, or attempts to avoid it (cf. Achinstein, 2002). We hear about the isolating or isolated nature of teacher life as “a fundamental social reality of teaching” (Adams, 2000, p. 22), and the term ‘privatized’ is used, meaning that teachers consider their work private to themselves, not to be shared or discussed. Teachers are often the only adult in their classroom, are often reluctant to share problems, rarely team-teach, do not observe each other and are not usually provided with opportunities for shared professional development. On the other hand, in some parts of the educational world, with increased availability of technology, both central government and local administrative control has increased, to the extent that surveillance now characterizes some schools (Taylor, 2013). Schools are often characterized by dissension and potential conflict, and teacher values may differ greatly either among teachers or across the teacher–administrator divide. Yet we want like-minded teachers to communicate with each other, or share and solve problems together. We therefore need to try to establish a degree of community among teachers when they are learning together (see Rasulo, 2008) and foster a form of community that is overarching and reaches beyond individual institutions, after any short-term form of professional development. If a sense of community, through membership in a network that goes beyond any one individual school, can develop, that may support an educational innovation in taking root. In the case of the course reported here, the teachers involved may not find like-minded colleagues in the educational institutions where they work; they probably need to draw support from like-minded colleagues scattered across their area, if the innovation we are concerned with here is to disperse or put down any roots. The ideas sketched in the preceding sections were in our minds, to some extent, as we constructed and engaged in the volunteer programme reported here, and remain with us now as we have both reflected on our efforts and recently reached out to the course members to ask them to similarly reflect on the programme. We now turn to a description of the programme itself.

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The Context Participants Seven teacher-students from Iran (six female and one male) participated in the course, all of whom had been teaching EFL in language centres and schools for several years. Most of them were MA TESOL students or graduates and one was a Ph.D. student. They had participated in several teacher training courses and workshops, and a number of them had also taken part in several online courses. They reported that these courses were mostly on conventional topics, such as error correction and learner engagement, and innovative, yet non-critical topics like use of technology in language instruction. The major reasons for their participation in our course were their interest in learning (more) about critical pedagogy, their familiarity with our professional background and, for some, awareness of their friends’ intention to enrol. The present authors co-facilitated the course remotely.

The Course The critical language pedagogy course was created and made available through Google Sites. In addition to an introduction and a closing session, the course had eight modules which focused on critical perspectives and practices related to several aspects of ELT: classroom content, classroom management, the four language skills, grammar, pronunciation and assessment (vocabulary was addressed in the reading module). Each module had two sections—content and activities.

Course Content The content consisted of selected readings and videos which formed the basis of participants’ discussions in a text-based forum. The readings/ videos were selected by us; however, we encouraged the teacher-students to contribute to the content. Students did upload a few readings and videos themselves.

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Most of the readings were short papers published in practitioner-oriented journals (e.g., English Teaching Forum, ELT Journal and TESOL Journal ) and a few came from more research-focused journals (e.g., TESOL Quarterly and Language Testing ). We also included some of our own publications on critical ELT, such as Abednia (2015) and sections from Crookes (2013). While a few of these readings were conceptual, most were teacher-researchers’ accounts of their experiences of adopting a critical approach to ELT. To give the course a multidisciplinary flavour, we incorporated a few papers from journals in other disciplines (e.g., Teaching Psychology and International Journal of Listening ). The readings also included other types of materials published online, such as learning resources provided in university websites and readings from educational websites like www.edutopia.org and www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org. The videos were mostly taken from YouTube. Some were of a mainly informational nature (e.g., introducing critical writing or giving a historical background on critical pedagogy). The rest included teachers’ voices, where teachers shared their experiences and ideas related to critical practice in ELT and mainstream education. We also incorporated a few videos on relevant practices from other fields (e.g., active listening in counselling). We made a deliberate attempt to include readings and/or videos on practising critical pedagogy with young learners and low-proficiency students, areas on which the literature does not offer much. In addition, throughout the course, the forum discussions incorporated a focus on challenges in teaching with a critical approach and possible solutions.

Course Activities In each module, discussions based on the readings and videos were followed by activities intended to engage teacher-students in different types of experience relevant to developing an initial understanding of critical language pedagogy. Early in the course, the activities were mostly questions and scenarios which encouraged participants to reflect on the aspects of teaching focused on in the related module, exchange ideas and share any relevant experiences with critical

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pedagogy, including their achievements, challenges and solutions that they adopted or thought of adopting. The activities moved progressively towards those asking teacher-students to modify sample lessons taken from ELT textbooks to give them a critical dimension. For example, an activity in the writing module from Four Corners 2 (Richards & Bohlke, 2011, p. 43) simply asked students to imagine a dream home, with the stimulus being pictures of luxurious houses. One of our students modified this simply by adding text to the question, so that it became “how do you feel about living in your ‘dream home’ when there are many homeless people in our society?” Another added “would you be able to be happy living in it when others are envious of you?” Later modules asked participants to develop critical tasks from scratch. The task in the listening module, for example, asked them to choose an audio/video file and develop a 20-minute critical listening task, taking into account the target group’s proficiency level and age. Another type of activity engaged participants in evaluating other teachers’ attitudes or practices. In the pronunciation module, for example, they were asked to critically read an online post by a teacher entitled ‘Good pronunciation: intelligibility or impact?’ and share their reflections. The module also included a video which showed a teacher teaching the American pronunciation of ‘Goodnight’. Participants were to analyze the teacher’s style from a critical perspective. The course lasted two months and had a predominantly asynchronous mode with one synchronous discussion held towards the end of the course.

Findings Our findings are organized, first, in reference to what the students said about the innovation that is critical language pedagogy. Second, we note aspects of the potential of the course to foster that innovation, given the questions we raised earlier about community and networks. To get detailed feedback on the course, we approached the teacher-students, all of whom agreed to be interviewed about their perceptions of the course.

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We sent them interview questions by email. Initial analysis of their written responses led us to send them a few probing questions for further data. In some cases, this meant multiple email exchanges.

General Feedback on the Course The teacher-students commented positively on different aspects of the course. They believed that the content and the activities were “insightful”, “engaging” and “useful”, and the discussions and interactions were “motivating” and increasingly “meaningful”. They also reported that the structure of the course was “clear” and talked positively about the time and location flexibility afforded by the online and mostly asynchronous nature of the course. However, slow Internet connections had limited some participants’ course engagement.

Uptake: From Learning About and Experimenting with Critical Pedagogy on the Course to a Refined Teaching Practice Most participants reported their engagement in the online course as likely to inform their classroom teaching practice. The course had helped one become a “critic of [her] own instruction as well as the status quo of institutes”, had “opened up new lines of pedagogy” for her and had given her “voice to implement her method of teaching”. It had helped another participant “learn about the challenges of practicing critical pedagogy (CP) and the ways of minimizing them”. Recalling the emphasis on taking ‘baby steps’ in practising critical pedagogy, he said that he had “learnt to have a more reasonable and cautious view about incorporating CP in [his] classes”. Another teacher-student explained, at considerable length, several aspects of her teaching in which she incorporated what she had learned in the course. (The quote has been shortened and slightly edited for clarity.) One aspect is classroom management, which I practice a bit more realistically when I create a democratic condition in the class and

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give students voice… Another aspect is how to raise questions which I learned from the assignments in this course. In addition to reconsidering the way I develop questions about content, I usually ask students to raise questions from the texts… Another aspect is materials. Although even at university General English classes the materials are determined by the departments, I usually take some texts to the class that are related to the students’ age, social concerns and major. Although sometimes discussions turn into Persian… the vocabulary I introduce, the structures I use, etc. become part of the students’ conversations and writings, either seriously or as jokes.

Another participant explained in detail a few examples of critical topics and tasks she had included in her teaching and their learning outcomes, concluding: “I think all aspects of critical pedagogy are doable in the classroom environment and if we as teachers know the concept of critical pedagogy and how to employ it, it could be so helpful and interesting.” Two teacher-students, however, were explicit that they were not going to incorporate critical pedagogy into their teaching practice. One explained her position on the grounds of contextual limitations. The top-down educational system, class size, limited class time and insufficient information about the learners’ background are the main barriers which prevent me from applying the principles of critical pedagogy in my teaching. I must teach the materials already determined by institutes and follow the teaching procedures, techniques, and even steps dictated to me. If I have an institute, I will use some tenets of CP, because I will be the manager.

Sharing similar concerns, the other participant additionally stated that critical pedagogy is “too good to be true”, it is “primarily ideology-oriented”, it has “theoretical problems” and “when put into practice it is replete with problems”. She said there is a “lack of outstanding examples of CP being put into practice”, and “most of the examples that I have read about CP in my own context are more like scattered flashes”.

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Developing a Sense of Membership in the Course The teacher-students’ development of a sense of membership in the course was informed by their past experiences and aspirations as well as their interactions with us and each other during the course. They reported seeing themselves as members of a community evolving in the online course, because of their shared interest in critical language pedagogy, their similar background knowledge about the topic, their shared concerns about how to practise critical pedagogy, their experiences of the challenges involved and the prior acquaintance between some of them. A relevant excerpt is as follows. We were all Iranian language teachers who wanted to learn about critical pedagogy and probably become critical educators. And since the practices of a critical course can be very much context-specific, the topics we worked on and the challenges we faced had a lot in common. Therefore, I think we can call ourselves a community that has the same goal and faces similar challenges.

In the case of one teacher-student, knowing no other participants, coupled with lack of prior experience with online courses, had led her to feel “like a stranger in a group”. “After some sessions”, however, “I saw myself as a member of that group”, she said. Lack of familiarity with the concept of critical pedagogy had made the course initially feel “strange” to another teacher-student, who believed that, unlike her, some of the other participants “had already internalized different aspects of CLP and applied them in their courses”. This had led to her limited engagement in discussions. However, she stated that she was later able to overcome these challenges through our “support and understanding”.

Community-Building Potential of the Interactions in the Course The participants believed that the course “created a friendly atmosphere for exchanging ideas”; interactions were “usually motivating and

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helpful”; and “we were all helpful, supportive” and “felt at home around the course”. They also believed that the online nature of the course contributed to their engagement. Some attributed this impact to the inherently attractive nature of online courses. For tech fans, like me, the online courses are always very fascinating. Online classes are a new thing and for us, who are sort of digital immigrants, attending these types of classes is so interesting and different.

They further focused on how the online nature of the course may have enhanced its interactive and supportive atmosphere. A teacher-student said that in online courses, participants are “more flexible” and “friendly” and characterized these courses with the “availability of mentors and other participants anytime anywhere”. Another participant reflected on the benefits of the online mode of the course as follows. It let us have time to think and take our time in doing its every single activity. This cannot happen in normal courses held in classrooms as the time is limited and conversations are real time. A second advantage was that every single exchange of ideas between all members was ready and available to all members to read, save, or comment on, and this almost never happens in regular courses because the time of sessions are limited and if out-of-class assignments and feedback are provided, usually it is just the teacher who sees each student’s work and comments on it.

The above excerpt implies a focus on the largely asynchronous mode of the course. Yet, another interviewee specifically acknowledged the flexibility and positive impacts of this mode on her engagement in the discussions. In this online course I felt relieved and concentrated while communicating with other participants… this might be due to its asynchronous nature that made me feel connected 24/7… it was possible to read the others’ comments at our speed, think about them, focus on our answers… I did not feel in rush for sharing my comments… sometimes I wouldn’t come up with a clear idea, then when people added their comments, ideas popped up in my mind and I could share a comment.

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This participant went on to make a positive comment about the textbased environment of the course discussions. Although a video or audio interaction would be more helpful at times, I liked that I would not need to be fussy about my hijab, clothing, appearance, accent, etc. I was just a relaxed version of [her first name].

Teacher-Students’ Contributions to Each Other’s Engagement and Learning The participants spoke positively about their peers’ contributions, including their comments relating to the readings and the activities, their responses to each others’ questions and comments, the teaching experiences they shared and the lessons/tasks they designed. In addition to generally acknowledging their peers’ input as having “inspired” and “motivated” them, they believed that it had also “flare[d] up the discussions”, helped them come up with ideas to share and, thus, participate in discussions more actively, and “encouraged [them] to read and think more about the content of the course and look at them more critically”. The teacher-students further reported the positive impact of their peers’ posts on their learning. Their classmates’ contributions, they believed, helped them “look at issues in language teaching from different angles”, “revisit and reconsider [their] standpoints”, and learn about “some practical ways for conducting critical pedagogy in [their] own classes” and “materials for incorporating CP”. They felt encouraged “to experience what others have done”. And they learned about the challenges their peers experienced in practising critical pedagogy.

Taking It Beyond the Course: Towards a Dispersed Network While some participants were previously acquainted, the rest got to know their classmates as they took part in the course. Although initially limited to the discussions within the online forum, they reported that their interactions later expanded beyond the course and cyberspace,

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as they met at academic events such as conferences and workshops. In the two excerpts below, two participants explain how they met for the first time at a research workshop and then again at a conference in Iran. At the research workshop at [a university’s name], I and 2/3 other students of the CLP course somehow got the chance to get to know each other in person and discuss the course and our reasons for participating in it. I also got to know that [a teacher-student’s name] had worked on CP in her thesis as well, and asked her about her research and the method and the sources she had used. She later sent me some of the materials that she had used in her own work on CP. I saw him in the workshop… He said that he had become interested in CP and would like to conduct his MA thesis on CP. Then he asked me for some papers on critical pedagogy. The next time I saw him at the conference held by [a university’s name], he had a presentation on CP.

The first of these teacher-students also talked about discussions he had with another course participant at the workshop about his thesis and the difficulties involved in practising CP. I remember that I talked to [a teacher-student’s name] about my thesis on CP and she seemed interested in my work and gave some helpful comments on it. We also discussed incorporating CP in our classes and the challenges and possibilities of doing it in our specific teaching contexts. I specifically remember talking (somehow complaining) about the extra time that we had to spend on our classes for having a more critical attitude in it.

The following two excerpts show how two other teacher-students met on a different occasion. Right before the end of the course, there was the conference [name of the conference] in [name of the city in Iran]. As she saw my name in the schedule, she emailed me and we arranged to meet there. I think you [Arman] introduced us after my presentation. So far we have been in touch, and she has asked me questions about [the] PhD exam. Now that she comes to Tehran to do her PhD, we will most probably see each other frequently.

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[teacher-student’s name] is one of my best colleagues interacting with me during the course. We went through our experience as language teachers to find a common point by reviewing what we had learnt in that course.

While the first excerpt shows that these participants’ exchanges at the conference had a non-critical focus (the Ph.D. entrance examination), it was the online course that had initiated these exchanges. Furthermore, as understood from the second excerpt, these two teacher-students’ conversations were at some stage, and may continue to be, about their teaching practice and were informed by their learning about critical language pedagogy on the course.

Implications The findings reported above show that the online course we co-facilitated afforded us a reasonably rich opportunity to contribute to the diffusion of the innovation that is critical language pedagogy. Based on what our teacher-students said, we could argue that the content and dynamics of the online course met, to varying degrees, most of the attributes Rogers (2003) proposed for successful diffusion of innovations. Regarding Rogers’ complexity, there was no evidence to suggest that the participants considered the course readings and videos difficult to understand or the activities difficult to fulfil. Rather, they characterized them as “insightful”, “engaging” and “useful”. The course, therefore, provided them with an accessible understanding of critical language pedagogy. There was an adequate focus on and acknowledgement of the trialability of critical pedagogy in the language classroom. Instead of presenting a view of critical language pedagogy where teachers are to shoulder all stakeholders’ responsibilities, we emphasized taking small steps towards developing this approach in practice. The activities, which the participants found engaging, facilitated small-scale experimentation. Several readings and videos, similarly considered engaging by the

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participants, were accounts of teacher-researchers’ experimentation with techniques and activities that could be used with critical language pedagogy in the classroom. The teacher-students’ engagement with these readings, the reflective discussions, the activities, the positive and constructive feedback they received from their peers and us on their thoughts on critical pedagogy and the lessons they designed all helped them observe the outcomes of practising this approach. Their reported investment in continued experimentation with critical pedagogy during the course suggests they found critical language pedagogy “doable” and “helpful”, as one p ­ articipant put it. (This was not an absolutely uniform position: one teacher-­ student disagreed with the former descriptor and one with the latter.) A reason why we consistently focused on a baby-steps approach to practising critical pedagogy was our shared awareness of its inability to meet one of Rogers’ criteria, namely compatibility with dominant values and beliefs, and market demands. The bottom line, however, is that limited compatibility is what makes critical pedagogy critical. Otherwise, this concept must be redefined in critical terms: compatibility with human agency and values like social justice, human emancipation and social transformation. Values concerns, indeed values incompatibility, is one obvious reason why courses like the one reported above are rare. But this is also what inspired us to offer this course and contribute to the diffusion of critical language pedagogy as an innovation by facilitating the development of a dispersed network of teachers who share our critical aspirations. And they now lead us to conclude that, given all the encouraging findings, we would perhaps have better fostered diffusion of critical pedagogy if we had somehow or another facilitated these teachers’ continued engagement with each other beyond the course or the expansion of this network beyond their immediate cohort. One way to do this would be to keep the doors of the course forum open for any of us to share their achievements, reflections and concerns with the rest, and encourage the rest to acknowledge their peers’ input and engage in dialogue with them. In any future offering of the course, we will emphasize course members’ own improvement of network-developing skills beyond the course itself. We will also encourage the teacher-students to go beyond

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their conventional responsibilities and share the role of co-facilitation with us, itself an exercise in critical pedagogy.

Discussion Questions 1. The authors argue in favour of a critical element in language teaching in which “students contribute to negotiating syllabi and course content and are encouraged to raise personal or social issues for discussion, readings, and exploration”. How far do you agree that the language classroom is an appropriate venue for this? Should the language classroom have as its aim the “development of citizens capable of contributing to societal improvement, through democratic participation”? 2. Is it appropriate for language teaching to promote or challenge particular values? 3. One participant on the course said that she would not be implementing ideas from the course, because of “the top-down educational system, class size, limited class time and insufficient information about the learners’ background”. How far should teachers feel constrained by their context? Are constraints sometimes more imagined than real? 4. The authors emphasize the importance of three major factors in successfully introducing an innovation: complexity, trialability and compatiblity. Thinking of innovations you have been involved in, how far do these factors explain their success or failure? 5. The authors acknowledge that they did not focus on establishing a teacher network to continue the work of the course. Have you ever participated in or attempted to develop such a network? If yes, how did it work? If not, how do you think such networks can function? Acknowledgements   We would like to thank the teachers for participating in the interviews and for the invaluable feedback on the course they provided us with.

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References Abednia, A. (2015). Practicing critical literacy in second language reading. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 6(2), 77–94. Achinstein, B. (2002). Conflict amid community: The micropolitics of teacher collaboration. Teachers College Record, 104(3), 421–455. Adams, J. E., Jr. (2000). Taking charge of curriculum: Teacher networks and curriculum implementation. New York: Teachers College Press. Ahn, M. (1996). Korean teachers’ labor union movement: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Unpublished term paper. SLS 600, Department of ESL, University of Hawaii. Baker-Doyle, K. J. (2011). The networked teacher: How new teachers build social networks for professional support. New York: Teachers College Press. Cho, H. (2005). “Although we still have a long way to go, I don’t think we will ever stop:” A grassroots EFL teacher development group in South Korea. Second Language Studies, 23(2): 70–101. Crookes, G. V. (2009). Values, beliefs, and philosophies in TESOL: Making a statement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crookes, G. V. (2013). Critical ELT in action: Foundations, promises, praxis. New York: Routledge. DeLano, L., Riley, L., & Crookes, G. (1994). The meaning of innovation for ESL teachers. System, 22(4), 487–496. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Kappa Delta Pi Publications. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Godwin, W. (1796). Enquiry concerning political justice, and its influence on morals and happiness. Philadelphia, PA: Bioren and Madan. Grier-Reed, T. (2013). The African-American student network: An informal networking igroup as a therapeutic intervention for Black college students on a predominantly White campus. Journal of Black Psychology, 39(2), 169–184. Madani, M. (2015). Educational modernization in Iran and the Ottoman Empire. In M. A. George & S. S. Scatolini (Eds.), Language, culture, and education (pp. 45–70). Oman: Euro-Khaleeji Research and Publishing House. McDonald, J. P., & Klein, E. J. (2003). Networking for teacher learning: Toward a theory of effective design. Teachers College Record, 105(8), 1606–1621.

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McCormick, R., Fox, A., Carmichael, P., & Procter, R. (2011). Researching and understanding educational networks. New York: Routledge. Milani, A. (2008). Eminent Persians. New York: Syracuse University Press. Picower, B. (2011). Learning to teach and teaching to learn: Supporting the development of new social justice educators. Teacher Education Quarterly, 38(4), 7–24. Rasulo, M. (2008). The role of community formation in learning processes. In M. Thomas (Ed.), Handbook of research on Web 2.0 and second language learning (pp. 80–100). New York: Information Science Reference. Richards, J. C., & Bohlke, D. (2011). Four corners 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rogers, E. M. (1962). Diffusion of innovations (1st ed.). New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Rogers, E. M., & Kincaid, D. L. (1981). Communication networks: Towards a new paradigm of research. New York: The Free Press. Sithamparam, S., & Dhamotharan, M. (1992). Peer networking: Towards self-direction in teacher development. English Teaching Forum, 30(1), 12–15. Taylor, E. (2013). Surveillance schools: Security, discipline and control in contemporary education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Waters, A. (2009). Managing innovation in English language education. Language Teaching, 42(4), 421–458. Wong, M. S., & Canagarajah, S. (Eds.). (2009). Christian and critical English language educators in dialogue: Pedagogical and ethical dilemmas. New York: Routledge. Zappa-Hollman, S., & Duff, P. A. (2014). Academic English socialization through individual networks of practice. TESOL Quarterly, 49(2), 333–368.

13 Telecollaboration Among Qatari and US Undergraduates in a Multicultural Course: Opportunities and Obstacles Zohreh R. Eslami, Valerie Hill-Jackson, Svetlana Kurteš and Lobat Asadi

Introduction Telecollaboration offers opportunities for higher education institutions to support their internationalization initiatives by engaging learners in Z. R. Eslami (*) · V. Hill-Jackson · L. Asadi  Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA e-mail: [email protected] V. Hill-Jackson e-mail: [email protected] L. Asadi e-mail: [email protected] Z. R. Eslami  Texas A&M University, Doha, Qatar S. Kurteš  The European Network for Intercultural Education Activities, Funchal, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6_13

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dialogue with peers in distant parts of the world. However, this potential has yet to materialize very often, as telecollaboration projects have not been mainstreamed into higher education—especially in the Middle Eastern countries. Furthermore, most of the existing telecollaboration projects have focused more on participants’ language development, and less on development of their intercultural communication competencies (Helm, 2015). In this chapter, the authors describe telecollaboration curriculum activities between engineering students at Texas A&M University-Qatar (TAMUQ) and pre-service teachers at Texas A&M University, Main Campus (TAMU) in a compulsory multicultural course. While pairing engineering with education students was exploratory, the results of this transnational collaboration show promising results, with several participants reporting developing intercultural awareness. First, we describe telecollaboration as a worthwhile innovation and teaching strategy. Next, we describe the rationale for infusing telecollaboration into a required multicultural course for TAMUQ engineering and TAMU education students. Third, the context is explored, and course participation and activities examined. Fourth, the authors explain two overarching ideas that developed from this international telecollaboration project. Finally, two major hurdles to implementing the telecollaboration are examined. It is our hope that sharing our experience will support other educators in using telecollaboration to enhance the ability of students from two different cultural backgrounds to constructively participate in difficult dialogues.

Telecollaboration as Innovation Telecollaboration is a form of intercultural exchange that uses online communication tools for the development of language and/or intercultural competence (Helm, 2015). Telecollaboration, a form of experiential education, is a collaborative teaching and learning strategy emerging from the fields of intercultural communication, foreign language and multicultural education; it is designed to promote intercultural communication (see Fig. 13.1). Internationally dispersed learners in parallel

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Intercultural Communication, Foreign Language, and Multicultural Education Courses

Disciplines Theoretical premises for subject Historical and documented knowledge

Telecollaboration

Experiential teaching strategy Application and integration of knowledge to specified goal (STEM/STEAM project) Application of knowledge to personal skill development through practice, reflection, and feedback

Intercultural Communication

increased Skill levels in defined subject matter (goal) and communication process Increased self-confidence and self-efficacy

Fig. 13.1  Intercultural communications: progression from theoretical knowledge to heightened self-efficacy

language classes who use Internet communication tools such as email, synchronous chat and threaded discussion (as well as other forms of electronically mediated communication) in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate and intercultural exchanges are defined as telecollaborators (Belz, 2003, 2007). Research substantiates that telecollaboration is a powerful teaching strategy to engender the skill of intercultural competence (Schenker, 2012). Mason (2016) confirms that telecollaboration, while improving intercultural communication, can also encourage difficult dialogues by providing safe, technology-rich spaces for communications between different cultural groups (Western and Middle Eastern, in this case study). Intercultural communication is a “process in which messages created in one culture must be processed and interpreted in another culture” (Bucher, 2015, p. 127). Intercultural communication is a longstanding key concept and skill in foreign language education, multicultural education and intercultural communication courses, though it is often difficult to practise. In fact, some would assert that it is essentialist and reduces people to categories for the commodification of culture

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(Holliday, 2011). Furthermore, Dervin (2010) argues that the entire field needs immediate development because it emerged out of anthropology, thus only serves neoliberal aims and so needs perspectives that are not divisive.

Impetus for Utilizing Telecollaboration Recently, intercultural communication, as a learning outcome, has been incorporated and given prominence in the missions of higher education institutions. This shift has come about in response to a changing global workforce. Higher education institutions are under pressure to adequately prepare students who aspire to be global citizens to have the skills and knowledge necessary to actively engage in a multicultural world (Byram & Golubeva, 2016; Paige & Goode, 2009). Part of the pressure on academia to teach cultural competencies comes from professional organizations that struggle to be competitive in a globalized market, such as engineering. Many practitioners and scholars in the engineering community have been involved in critical conversations on the importance of preparing prospective engineers for worldwide engagement and competition in a global marketplace (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, 2015). Integrating intercultural communication learning objectives into engineering programmes is a challenge “due largely to the highly sequenced and content-demanding nature of the curriculum” (Lohmann, Rollins, & Hoey, 2006, p. 121). Engineering students require a balanced curriculum in which they can develop effective skills that will help them become valuable team players and effective communicators to successfully compete in a changing world (Andersen, 2005; Sheppard, Dominick, & Aronson, 2004). By contrast, the field of teacher education, which is not as highly sequenced or content driven, but seminally rests on effective communication techniques, has wrestled with intercultural competence for decades, but not always successfully (Darling-Hammond, 2015). In the United States, nearly 90% of teachers are primarily white, female, middle class, monolingual and Christian (US Department of Education, 2016). However, nearly 50% of classroom students are students of

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colour, speak English as a second language or come from homes in which Christianity is not the dominant faith (Gorski, 2016). The teaching profession, in which relationships and communication are paramount for connecting with learners (Haberman, 2017), has struggled to reimagine a curriculum that gives prospective teachers the opportunity to become more culturally competent in increasingly diverse classrooms. The course activities presented here could be used as a model for addressing educational shortcomings in a globalizing world without compromising subject-matter content or sequential learning curricula in diverse fields. The goal of this innovative educational experience was to take advantage of telecollaboration’s potential to promote the intercultural communication skills of engineering students at TAMUQ and pre-service teachers at TAMU.

The Context The participants taking part in the telecollaboration project were based in two campuses of Texas A&M University: the main one in College Station, Texas, USA (TAMU) and a satellite campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar (TAMUQ). The Qatar-based group consisted of 23 undergraduate engineering students (17 of whom were female). All the students based in Qatar were taking the course Foundations of Education in a Multicultural Society course to satisfy their cultural foundations requirement (a core course requirement). The Qatarbased students were predominantly Qatari nationals, but there were also a few representatives from other countries in the region. By way of an online learning management system, the engineering students in Qatar engaged with American pre-service teachers (n = 35) who were simultaneously enrolled in the same course in the USA. Thirty of the pre-service teachers identified as white, female and Christian; the others were female and Hispanic or African–American. Learning community dyads, which included students from both institutions, were formed. Students were prompted to write reflective journals on four current cultural issues and respond to each other’s reflections. Students from both campuses took the course during the first three years in the programme

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(freshman, sophomore, junior) and their ages ranged from 19 to 23. The course was designed to raise the students’ awareness of current diversity issues in society and their impact on modern educational needs and requirements.

Learning Communities A learning community is a group organized by a variety of approaches that link or cluster classes, during a given term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, and enrols a common cohort of students. This represents an intentional restructuring of students’ time, credits and learning experiences to build community, and to foster more explicit connections among themselves, their instructors and associated disciplines (Smith, MacGregor, Matthews, & Gabelnick, 2004). Telecollaboration can be used to create online learning communities; a phenomenon in which ‘virtual communities’ form through the cultural aggregation that emerges when enough people “bump-up” against each other in cyberspace (Rheingold, 1993, p. 57). It is logical that the connections and friendships developed through this experience also serve to widen and enrich the students’ personal networks. The TAMUQ and TAMU students were simultaneously enrolled in the same course (Multicultural Education), but with different instructors. The first and last authors designed the activities and they were the instructors of record in Qatar and the United States, respectively. The first author focused on the language and communication dimensions of the project while the fourth author concentrated on the cultural aspects. Qatari students teamed up with a cohort of 35 pre-service students from the main campus in College Station. TAMUQ and TAMU students were randomly assigned to learning communities (LCs) within the cohort for their home institution. Each learning community consisted of four to six students from each campus, creating eight to ten LCs for each cohort. The LCs were then given an alpha-numerical identifier on each campus and matched with their corresponding group in the other cohort. For example, the engineering students in LC1 of TAMUQ were connected with student-teachers in LC1 of TAMU. A total of seven LC dyads were created.

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These two international cohorts collaborated using asynchronous online discussions and emails, and synchronous online chats through an online learning management system—eCampus—used by Texas A&M University. This platform provided the undergraduate cohorts based in Qatar and Texas with the opportunity to participate in discussion forums, post their comments, upload individual and group assignments and interact with peers, despite being geographically separated. The engineering students shared ideas and science expertise for pre-service teachers’ STEM lesson plans, and the pre-service teachers introduced educational and teaching/learning perspectives to the engineering students that supported them in pedagogical aspects of their profession.

Course Activities: Lesson Planning and Reflection Lesson planning and reflection were the two main telecollaboration tasks that guided the course activities. Throughout the course, TAMUQ engineering students and TAMU pre-service teachers participated in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) lesson planning for K-12 learners.1 We chose lesson plans as a main telecollaboration task because they are considered more advanced forms of interaction as collaborative product creation tasks. Helm (2015) postulates that tasks which require collaboration in product creation are less commonly used in educational contexts than those requiring only information exchange and/or cultural comparison. These tasks usually take more time for the coordination of collaborative activities, but facilitate higher-level thinking and interaction and offer participants the many benefits that accrue from having to understand and incorporate procedures and perspectives which are different from their own (Harris, 2002). Additionally, since lesson planning that requires integration of cultural and social competencies with maths and science context expectation entails active student collaboration, we assumed it would provide more opportunity for

1STEM

is an interdisciplinary curriculum approach that utilizes high engagement and application of knowledge. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications.

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interaction and exchange of ideas conducive to critical thinking about intercultural experiences. Reflections were utilized because they allow for self-study and help learners develop cultural and global consciousness (Craig, 2015). Through guided reflection, TAMUQ and TAMU students enhanced the quality of both their learning and their intercultural competencies. Helm (2015) classifies reflection activities as information exchange, but the teaching method presented here surpasses that level of knowledge creation because of its applied and integrated approach. While there are many approaches to reflection, an approach adapted from Ash and Clayton’s (2009) description, examination and articulate language (DEAL) model was the one chosen for the class. However, reflection continues to be a challenging concept for educators to apply in faceto-face classroom interactions (Toom, Husu, & Patrikainen, 2015), as well as in online environments (Gelfuso & Dennis, 2014). This form of guided reflection allows students to show their instructors that “they have attained greater understanding, ability to apply their knowledge, problem-solving skills and cognitive development” (Eyler, 2000, p. 11). Students in both Qatar and the United States completed their reflections and posted them online to share with peers in their respective LC dyad. Next, each student was required to select and respond to one home peer and one international peer in their assigned LC dyad. As a requirement of the course, students were asked to respond to four reflection questions over the first six weeks of the semester. Through these reflection assignments, students explored issues related to cultural values, ethnicity, diversity, gender, pedagogy and intercultural communication. For example, the first of the four reflection questions was devoted to exploring the idea of stumbling blocks to productive intercultural communication. Instructors developed and shared prompts via eCampus. The first question asked ‘What are your assumptions or fears about working in groups or LCs with peers from a different discipline and another country this semester?’ Other topics included discussions of different viewpoints on controversial topics (e.g., politics, gender and President Trump’s travel ban). As part of each reflection prompt, students in both countries were given an article to read. In addition,

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a video was provided to students on cross-cultural expertise and how different cultures can successfully coexist. A 900-word essay (with complete citations) encapsulating their reflections on the article and the video was required as part of their final grade. Each student in the LC dyads was instructed to cite a required reading and adhere to a four-step critical reflection process in their writing guidelines: 1. Before engaging with the material, share your assumptions about the reflection question. 2. Describe the content of the reading and accompanying video by the cross-cultural expert. 3. Examine what you learned—relative to personal, civic and/or academic learning. 4. Revisit your assumptions to articulate learning in order to determine whether your assumptions changed, shifted or remained the same.

Discoveries Students’ online reflection journals were thematically analyzed. In order to identify emerging themes and patterns, the initial thematic coding looked for key recurring words and/or phrases. While Texas A&M has campuses in both the United States and Qatar, the timing of the telecollaboration was ripe with concerns about cultural conflicts between Muslims and Christians. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, attempted several travel bans and made immigration a platform for his 2016 campaign. Thus, when asked to write a response to the question: ‘How does a TAMU USA–Qatar higher education telecollaboration project impact the intercultural competence of undergraduate students in teacher education and engineering?’, it was not surprising that students expressed concerns. Students from both TAMUQ and TAMU initially expressed curiosity coupled with concerns regarding the exchange of ideas between education and engineering students. Students often comforted each other philosophically by logically rationalizing their fears and misconceptions. The initial thematic coding of TAMUQ students revealed two major disposition orientations: apprehension and shifts in perspective.

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Apprehension First, the overwhelming majority of the Qatar-based students expressed apprehension, as their dominant disposition, when first considering the prospect of collaborating with their peers from the main campus. Their concerns related to issues such as linguistic competence, cultural and religious differences, cross-cultural misunderstanding and collaborating across distinct academic traditions. However, the initial thematic coding also identified a proportion of students (30%) expressing a neutral or positive disposition, citing the possible benefits (including academic, social, cultural) of teaming up with peers from the main campus in College Station. Those respondents expressing a neutral or positive disposition had previously reported some prior inter- and cross-cultural encounters (either through living abroad for a prolonged period and/or otherwise being exposed to culture(s) other than their own). These experiences had made them aware of the opportunity of interactions with others to increase intercultural skills and competences. Importantly, over two-thirds of the students did not seem comfortable with the idea of having to interact with students from a different culture, and this underscores the dire need to increase students’ opportunities to constructively engage with diverse fields, mindsets and cultures. Since students in Qatar are living in a highly multicultural setting, the discomfort and anxiety could be related to interacting with white female (mostly Anglo-American) students at TAMU, differences in language and cultural background, and possible power differences related to race and nationality. The lack of self-efficacy in intercultural communications was expressed differently by the two groups of students. Students at the Qatar campus expressed concerns primarily of performance inadequacy (language, traditions, etc.). Their fears attest to a cultural value that emphasizes collectivity and the need to conform (Hofstede, 1994; Triandis, 1990). Students at the Texas campus, however, tried to find ways to change or manipulate the assignment so that they could have more control, as would be expected from a culture with an individualist bias, like the United States (Hofstede, 1994; Triandis, 1990). These

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students experienced greater difficulty focusing on the tasks presented, staying curious and confronting stereotypes in order to forge ahead with the telecollaboration. On one level, they expressed fears of offending their Qatari counterparts, who were Muslims, by giving voice to negative depictions of Middle Eastern stereotypes by the popular press. Many of the stereotypes expressed by the American students seemed propagated by the media and concerns over national safety. A lack of knowledge about Muslims seemed to create fears of the unknown, of the ‘other’. Said (1995) explains that “otherization” of Arabic-speaking and Muslim people is an arm of Orientalism, a theory in political discourse in which the ‘other’ is portrayed in media, and perpetuated by propaganda within the sociopolitical sphere of the globally dominant Western nations, as weak, passive or subversive. Contrary to this, some students opted to approach the telecollaboration just like communication with any other individual, not acknowledging white and native speaker supremacy and existing stereotypes that might impede intercultural communication. Ironically, these students were prone to downplay the feelings of their Qatari counterparts by transposing their own sense of self-efficacy, derived from their individualistic cultural bias. While American students comforted each other about the unusual, international communication circumstances they were under, none identified the subconscious cultural frameworks within which they operated and engaged with their environments. Hofstede (1980), who first theorized about the five dimensions of culture, explains that ‘individualistic’ cultures emphasize that the relationship one has with the environment is controllable. Hence, if one is in an uncomfortable situation, one should change the situation (not one’s interpretation or actions). This outward-looking sense of efficacy manifested itself in different ways, and highlighted planning issues for future collaborations. Some of the students began with soft concerns in their reflections about the most obvious of issues, such as time differences. This led to more emphatic concerns, such as examinations of the potential for technology to fail and therefore hinder their international communications. Several American students, while expressing discomfort over the concept of simply speaking to another student in Qatar, would focus on the possibility that their ability to communicate across

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difference would be exacerbated by technological failure. A perceived need to modify one’s own behaviour and appear politically correct was also expressed, indicating that the learners were engaged in the deep understanding of learning and learning differences vital for learners in the twenty-first century (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Other students took a sociological “color-blindness” approach (Wolsko, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2000), in which people from non-marginalized groups in Western countries claim they perceive everyone as equal, and do not notice the racial groups that people belong to. This approach projects a value, or principle, of equity, and can be interpreted as a neoliberal behaviour presenting oneself, and Western culture, as well-intentioned and neutral (Holliday, 2011). However, the predominance of religious and cultural norms in the classroom can be overlooked and belittled through this principle of “color-blindness”. Such principles of equity, which avoid power-laden interactions, can potentially cause animosity and very real harm in intercultural communications. But, more importantly, they ignore the social structures, subconscious cultural biases and individual differences that regulate how people engage, interpret and adjust to life. These are some of the most difficult concepts to grasp in intercultural communications. Despite all the aforementioned reflections about time difference and technological failure, many of the reflections of TAMU-based students culminated in elaborate concerns about how they would cope with dramatic cultural differences respecting culture, religion and ethnic issues.

Perspective Shifts The second theme that emerged was the students’ own sense of self-­ efficacy when confronting unknown cultures and their increased curiosity about the world. Scholars (Phipps & Levine, 2010; Schneider & von der Emde, 2006; Ware & Kramsch, 2005) have recently recognized that if more in-depth intercultural understanding is to be achieved in educational contexts, then a more dialectic approach needs to be adopted. This would allow potentially sensitive issues to be addressed and tensions

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to be recognized as an inevitable part of intercultural dialogue. In this way, tensions can be seen as transformative agents, rather than as something to be avoided. Meaningful dialogue cannot take place by avoiding uncomfortable issues or ignoring power inequalities. Students reported that engaging with the relevant material provided in the prompts, the self-reflective thought process and cohort feedback provided the space for meaningful dialogue. The topics they chose to explore pushed students to confront controversial events leading to a dialectic understanding of those events. Student comments suggested a rather streamlined tendency; without exception, they reported progress in their cultural fluency and cross-cultural awareness, citing the benefits of the collaborative initiative with their peers from the other campus. By critically reflecting on their initial apprehensive disposition, they were able to recognize their insufficient level (or complete lack) of cultural and factual knowledge as a possible cause of their initial concerns and the reserved attitude experienced at the beginning of the exercise. Additionally, the students who initially reported a neutral disposition demonstrated further sophistication in the development of their intercultural awareness. Several said that the course materials had a powerful impact, changing their perspective towards the course because they began to perceive the global implications of their future careers as engineers or teachers who would be exposed to various cultures, languages and traditions.

Challenges and Issues This innovative educational experience also produced several challenges and issues. One major challenge was the different institutional timetables. Even though TAMUQ and TAMU are part of the same university, each institution has distinct semester schedules. For instance, the semesters at TAMU and TAMU start and end at different times (with about a one-week difference) and the semester breaks are not coordinated. This caused some disruptions in the flow of communications and grading of different assignments and deadlines. Participants in our project used a variety of online tools: asynchronous communication tools such as email and online discussion forums; and synchronous communication

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tools such as Google Hangouts or chat tools on eCampus. Having both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools facilitated communication and flexibility. However, lack of sufficient engagement by some students was a challenge. Some students did not engage in activities in a timely fashion, or did not put much effort or depth into their online discussions and reflection journals. It is very important for instructors both to provide activities/topics likely to promote intense engagement by the students, especially at the beginning, to help them get involved, and to be aware of culturally bonding coping mechanisms, so they can be highlighted and made conscious. It is often our own subconscious cultural framework and the biases colouring our reactions to and interpretations of events that are hardest to recognize. While working with students to increase their cultural fluency, instructors were also challenged to examine their own reactions to students from different cultural frameworks and define culturally derived behaviours and attitudes. This additional level of cultural education came through the dialectic process between teachers and assistants in the two campuses as they reviewed students’ progress. In fact, tellecollaboration offers a unique opportunity for students and educators alike, in that it may be more phenomenological and certainly more challenging than a prescriptive classroom (Helm, 2015) which, as we noted, allowed for growth for both educators and students. Another challenge faced in this project was the amount of time needed to organize the activities, keep track of students’ engagement, and facilitate both face-to-face and online activities. Telecollaborating with partner teachers has been reported to be a challenge (Helm, 2015). Fortunately, in this project, the two faculty members and their research assistants worked well with each other, and agreed on classroom activities and reflection journal topics in advance.

Conclusion and Implications Based on our observations and students’ comments, we strongly believe that students had overwhelmingly positive experiences through this intercultural telecollaboration project. They expressed that the reflection

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topics were relevant and important in fostering constructive dialogue around critical issues, improving their ability to communicate effectively and developing their intercultural awareness. This innovative educational experience shows that there are alternatives to studying abroad which is expensive and often perpetuates societal inequalities by providing essential (but not mandated) opportunities to those most able to afford them. Moreover, students at both TAMUQ and TAMU mentioned that their experience with the telecollaboration project made them more interested in visiting another country and meeting the people with whom they had interacted. This intercultural telecollaboration experience contributes to a broader understanding of telecollaboration practices in higher education. It highlighted cultural phenomena from the Middle East and the USA, the importance of types of activities and topics included in the curriculum, and the perceived value of the educational experience. Future researchers need to measure the outcome and impact of telecollaboration to evaluate its effectiveness. Our telecollaboration project, similar to other telecollaboration projects, was conducted using English as the medium of communication. It is important to examine whether using English as the sole medium of communication would lead to greater hegemony of English and a move away from the promotion of plurilingualism (Jenkins, 2006; Pennycook, 2007). To minimize the time commitment needed to design exchange projects, it would be possible to design pre-packaged telecollaboration projects with a more or less fixed curriculum, assessment tools and duration (Helm, 2015). These transatlantic and trans-Pacific projects could be planned and implemented by consortia of educational institutions across geographic borders. Educators could also be provided with a well-established syllabus and project to relieve them of some of the time burden that the organization of telecollaboration projects imposes, and possibly continuing education units in diversity education. We suggest instructors dedicate a set amount of time before the project starts for scenario development (the ‘what ifs’) and discuss coordinated approaches on how to prevent issues that may arise during the course (e.g., grading, lack of sufficient engagement by all the students in LC).

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The development of intercultural awareness (Council of Europe, 2001; Kurteš, 2012), cultural literacy (Hirsch, 1988) and democratic citizenship (Starkey, 2002) have long been cited as critically important skills and competences required for newly qualified graduates, enabling them to function successfully, confidently and autonomously in an ever-evolving, globalized, professional arena. Being among the staple items of the wider internationalization of higher education agenda (De Wit, Hunter, Howard, & Ergon-Polak, 2015), their effective development requires a joint transnational–educational effort and a cross-­ curricular presence (Kurteš & Kopytowska, 2014). This telecollaboration project intended to contribute to this effort by highlighting a possible example of best practice in intercultural education. It specifically addressed the needs of ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001) and makes ample use of digital technologies, encouraging students to explore the world in a manner more attuned to their cognitive processing, while facilitating their intercultural, professional, academic and personal journeys.

Discussion Questions 1. Why do the authors consider telecollaboration to be useful for promoting intercultural competencies in classrooms? Consider three of the main reasons given, particularly in relation to the internationalization of universities. 2. What specific activities did the instructors choose to integrate into their course to build intercultural digital learning communities? Why did they choose these two primary activities? 3. What other possible activities could be incorporated into telecollaboration in order to promote intercultural awareness and competencies? 4. What principle of equity do the authors consider to be a distraction from productive engagements across difference? Why do they consider this principle of equity to be a barrier to developing intercultural awareness in the classroom? What approach do they promote? 5. The authors argue that telecollaboration benefits instructors as well as students. In your opinion, how does telecollaboration benefit instructors?

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Index

A

Blended classroom 85

Communication 101 (COMM 101) 208–211, 213, 216 Communication 151 (COMM 151) 208, 210, 213, 215, 216 Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) 25 Constructivism 208 Constructivist 196

C

D

Arab digital generation (ADG) 24, 25 Arab Spring 23 B

cMOOCs 27, 29, 33 Common Educational Proficiency Assessment (CEPA) 8, 122 Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) 13, 62–64, 66–68, 118, 122, 157–165, 169–172, 174, 175

DigEuLit project 22 Digital immigrants 31, 254 Digital literacy 11, 20–23, 26, 29–35, 224 Digital natives 31, 278 Digital technologies 10, 15, 19, 20, 23, 30, 31, 223–225, 227, 230, 231, 235, 237, 278

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019 H. Reinders et al. (eds.), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, New Language Learning and Teaching Environments, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13413-6

283

284     Index E

I

e-learning 10, 27, 29, 90, 218, 227, 230, 231, 237 Electronic Village Online (EVO) 229–231, 236 e-literacy 21 English for academic purposes (EAP) 13, 155–162, 164–172, 174 English language teaching (ELT) 1, 4, 6, 7, 9–11, 16, 39, 85–87, 135, 225, 241, 244, 248–250 English-medium instruction (EMI) 13, 154, 157, 158 English Proficiency Index (EPI) 61 ERASMUS+ 156 Extensive Reading Foundation 12, 110, 111, 124

Information and communication technology (ICT) 21, 23–26, 31, 33 Innovation diffusion 244, 245 Intercultural communication 15, 16, 264–267, 270, 272–274 Internal course evaluation (ICE) 213 International English Language Testing System (IELTS) 90, 113, 114, 123, 134, 165, 205, 220 Internet-assisted instruction (IAI) 25

F

Flipped classroom 7, 65, 75, 76, 80, 232 G

Google Docs 209 Google Maps 65

J

Jasmine Revolution 23 L

Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) 20, 28, 29, 33–35 Learning communities (LCs) 268, 270, 271, 277 Lexile Measurement 147 Lingua franca 6, 8, 41, 155 Literacy 11, 14, 21, 22, 39–44, 47, 51–54, 69, 109, 115–117, 134, 135, 137, 142, 205, 206, 208, 211, 214, 217–220, 224, 242, 278

H

Higher education institutions (HEIs) 8, 13, 15, 30, 154–158, 160, 161, 165, 168, 170, 174, 263, 266

M

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) 7, 26–28, 32, 167

Index     285

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 1, 4–6, 8–10, 16, 20–23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32–35, 40–44, 55, 90, 102–104, 178, 195, 196 Mixed-method approach 72 Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) 104, 116 Moodle 7, 68, 75, 161, 162 MReader 12, 110–112, 122, 124–126 P

Professional development programme (PDP) 4, 157, 160–162, 164–166, 169, 174 Psychometric Entrance Test 156, 157, 160, 165

Sequenced writing project (SWP) 12, 86, 96, 100, 101 Sociocultural 10, 21, 28, 29, 34, 64, 242 Spoken vernacular Arabic (SVA) 116 T

Task-based learning (TBL) 11, 64, 65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 74–76, 79 Teaching English to young learners (TEYL) 41–43, 54 Telecollaboration 15, 263–265, 267–269, 271, 273, 276–278 TESOL 7, 9, 10, 16, 40, 41, 64, 66, 70, 229, 246, 248, 249 TOEFL 90, 165, 205, 220 U

UNESCO 23, 25 Q

Quality assessment (QA) 170 W R

Refugee 10, 19–23, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 35, 89, 97, 98, 115

WebQuests 234 Wikis 234 World Englishes 102 Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) 91, 208

S

Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) 90, 113, 122 Second language acquisition (SLA) 63, 64, 79

X

xMOOCs 27, 28