Return To Study

A RaW start to campus life

Having completed 3 years teaching experience earlier this year, I have now returned to full-time study at Warwick University.  At the time of writing, the first introductory week of teaching has taken place and I wish to reflect on my initial impressions.  I also want to look at the factors which will affect my well-being over the next 10 months or so, with a view to completing my MA in ELT (English Language Teaching) successfully.  Furthermore, I wish this post to mark a slight change in the nature of my blog.  Up until now, I have referred to the 'personal and political' which is loosely meant to mean writing about both about personal issues, my teaching and the wider context of my travels.  From now on, the 'personal' is going to take a back seat as I push the professional/teaching aspects up front.  I will still write in the first person, and contemplate on how I feel. But it will be, for the next 10 months anyway, more about my course and the context of what I am learning.   This is an attempt to move away from the blog being a personal reflection for family and friends, to let them know how I am doing, and into a more relevant blog for peers (e.g. other MA students) and the wider ELT community.  There is still, of course, Facebook, in which I can be more personal.  This is because it requires you to be my 'friend', in theory anyway.  This blog is accessible, in practice, by anyone with an internet connection.  In the Spring, I will have to create a completely new blog as part of my course and will wish to the two to be linked.

I arrived on Saturday 1 October, via Coventry and a number 12 bus which took me through the University campus, just inside the boundary of the city.   On a record-breaking day for October in the UK, there was a real buzz on campus. The majority of freshers were arriving, collecting their room keys from Rootes Reception, getting bombarded by numerous societies, backed by the sounds of the student union radio station.   I managed to enrol earlier than expected, collected my own keys and Eating at Warwick card and took a necessary taxi to Tachbrook Road, Leamington Spa.  My new home for the next 39 weeks had just had a fresh lick of paint and there were still workmen in the yard.  One fridge needed replacing and there was still a washing machine to be delivered.  Internet access was not available, unless paying over the odds through a dongle - another necessity, despite being signed up to BT Fon.  Room 1 technically didn't exist.  Instead, I moved into Room 4 at the back, near the kitchen, with a Statistics PHD student from California and a War-Studies graduate and Political Economy postgraduate from Dubai in the adjoining rooms.   Over the weekend the rest of the house moved in - 5 others males, 4 females on 3 floors.  Everyone bar myself and the 32-year old Californian, are in their early 20s, but all postgraduates.  Bonding took place very quickly, including trips to the local pub, fish and chip shop and card games on the kitchen table.  Some of us bonded over Hitch Hikers and the finale of Doctor Who - Season 6.    

New student home.  Why not drop in for a cup of tea?

The most  important decision on Sunday was to purchase a yearly Unirider pass for the Stagecoach Unibus.  But I also found ASDA and caught up with England's progress to the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup. 

Induction to the MA programme took place on Monday.  There are a total of 57 students taking the MA, although there are others undertaking an MSc Intercultural Communications. and a handful of research PhDs.   Half of the students (29) are from mainland China, 5 from Taiwan, 5 from Syria, 3 from the UK, 2 from India, 2 from Indonesia plus a representation of 11 other nationalities, including Korean, Ethiopian and Cypriot.  For myself and 11 others taking the specialism in Multimedia and ICT, this meant having an introductory welcome from the course tutors, Russell Stannard and Tilly Harrison.    As I have stated previously, Russell is a prime reason for choosing this particular course, given that he is very much involved in the use of web technology and the language classroom.  His award-winning site is part of a growing trend to write and blog about this area.  I am delighted, though not too surprised, that he is my personal tutor.  Names such as Larry Lerlazzo, James Keddie, Ozge Karaoglu, Scott Thornbury and Nik Peachey - who I met in Riyadh - trawl, test and provide tuition for the latest web 2.0 tools.  This will dominate my second term as I undertake the ICT module and the Professional Practice module.  These incorporate knowledge gleaned from previous teaching experience and assessing the viability of techniques for use in different contexts.    

For now, however, I have to immerse myself in theory.  One core module this term is 'Issues and Research' - which is an essential post-experience focus on methodology, approaches and spotlights our pedagogic practice, with a view to bringing about change.   Another core module, 'SLA and Classroom Language Learning' will focus upon theoretical approaches to Second Language Acquisition.  What are the instructional contexts, learner characteristics and psychological processes involved?    Again, our own experience(s) and professional context(s) plays a part, so I will draw on my time in Buswelu (the orphanage in Tanzania), Changwon, Beijing and Riyadh.  In addition to this, I will be studying Lexis and Gramar, Text and Discourse Analysis and Spoken English.  The latter will involve developing skills in the meticulous collection, transcription and analysis of the way English is spoken in a specific context.  I'm glad I bought my dictation machine from Argos before I came.  It is also proving extremely useful already to tape lectures.  

Orientation - a sign I will pass every day

The quality, experience, knowledge and enthusiasm of lecturers in the Centre for Applied Linguistics is extremely high.  It will be fascinating to engage in seminars lead by the likes of Dr Steve Mann, Dr Keith Richards, Dr Richard Smith, Dr Sue Wharton, Dr Malcolm MacDonald,  Dr Ema Ushioda, Dr Annamaria Pinter and Dr Claudia Harsch.    In addition, the department has just  announced that "Professor Ken Hyland, world-renowned for his work in academic discourse, writing and English for academic purposes, has been appointed as Honorary Professor in our Centre."    

It is going to require some hard work and lots of reading on my part, but I am in an excellent location with all the possible resources at hand.   It probably goes without saying that all the things I need to succeed are here.  Well-stocked library - check.  Good access to filter coffee - check.  Wireless Internet and Printing Facilities using my own laptop - check.  Counselling Service - check.  But above all else I will remember the sign I found in September at the top of Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, close to Warwick Parish, Bermuda.

Gibbs Hill Lighthouse sign - not to be confused with Gibbet Hill, the road which leads to Warwick campus.