MA Update

My Lexis and Grammar essay. Looks like an elongated brain, right?

It's 2 February 2012.  It's 3 months since my last entry on this blog and it's high time I wrote another post.  Much of this has to do with starting another blog, ICT in ELT, as part of my MA course, and generally not teaching at the moment.  So a lot of my time and energy has been going into studying and starting the other blog, in the last few weeks.

It is a good time to finally draw the line under Term One, having now received all my marks and feedback from the five modules - 3 x Language Analysis, Issues and Research, Second Language Acquisition.  I am currently coming to the end of week 4 in Term Two.  6 more weeks of teaching, then I am off to Glasgow for the iatefl conference, having joined.

I have been studying previous research on autonomy and motivation within language learning as well as plenty of functional grammar analysis, text analysis and corpus linguistics - which is less scary than it sounds at first.  I have come out fairly unscathed and with decent marks, although I have had to come to terms with the way I use quotes and footnotes - i.e. they are too long and KI am too reliant on them.   Serious changes needed to maintain good marks as I am putting the 'reader' under uneccessary strain by making them look away from the body of the paper.

Having covered a lot of theoretical stuff in the Term One, there is far more practical and purposeful stuff in Term Two.  The ICT in ELT module is a hands-on introduction to technology that can be used within the language classroom. For me this means reviewing free tools I've already used before (e.g. Breaking News English, Today's Meet, Audioboo) and other less-familiar tools.  I have already written the minimum number of 10 entries for my blog.

A major part of this module is to try out the tools, review them and write about them in a blog.  It just so happens that Blogger is the blog tool chosen.  Having maintained a blogger site for the last 2 years, I am already familiar with the construction, although I am now using the new interface and my tutor, who otherwise is totally up-to-date with tech, still works with the old one.   I am also to write about 'blogging' (1500 word essay) which shouldn't tax me too much.  This module will lead onto the Professional Practice in ICT and Multimedia, which will explore on both a practical and theoretical level the issues that are raised.  This in turn will lead nicely (I hope) into my dissertation, for which the research will be carried out over the summer.

I am also taking a Teacher Education and Development module, which will explore the theories and research into the range of challenges presented by the profession, skills needed to work within it, carrying out training sessions for others and how to be reflective - not something I am unfamiliar with, either.    I will continue to part of a small Cooperative Development Group, recording sessions about my own personal reflections and hopes for myself as teacher.  This may lead into my essay, although I could use the partnered micro-training sessions as this has an element of  video-recording, transcription work and draws on situational response.  


One thing I have never done with this blog is to add labels, a vital element to attract readers and to help navigation around the site.  These key words have therefore been ignored up until and I really should add them, back-referenced.  Except I am taken up with current blog entries and am not in the mood for going back just yet.  I have, however, dipped into my photo and video archive recently and have just been doing a photo remix of 'Phili Does Kili' using a combination of Bubblr and Jing.  But the main tool which has taken off so far is one that came highly recommended by my tutor - MyBrainshark.  It's getting more than twice the views than the rest of the blog put together and I've even been entered into a $250 prize draw for writing about it.  Eventually, I think my new blog will overtake this older one, especially if I maintain it, by updating it more regularly - once a week, for example.


For long-term readers of this blog, you know that it is has been a personal reflection on my experiences travelling and teaching around the world.  It has, however, deliberately got less personal as I develop my professional outlook.  It will still be a place for more personal comments compared with the ICT blog, which will be more focused on the actual tools for the classroom.  


This month sees my tentative steps towards my dissertation proposal, including necessary introductory courses to software like SPSS and N*VIVO, so that I can properly analyse data sets and interview data.  As usual I will put myself until that little bit of extra pressure, anticipating the lack of time there will be when the middle of March comes and I go off to Glasgow.  I hope to just have one piece of work to hand in after that, before starting the dissertation proper.


- TP

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.

Stress-Free Summer

My last blog was at the end of June, when I signed out of Saudi, with a second trip to Jeddah and  a couple of trips to Obeikan Research and Development in order to guarantee my final exit visa.  I am glad to be out of the country and the KSU programme, especially since both Obeikan and Bell are no longer involved in the operation.  I always felt 5/6 months was long enough.  The money is tempting, but conditions are testing.  Life goes on and I am committed to undertaking an MA in English Language Teaching at Warwick University, starting 3 October.  

While some of my colleagues disappear into other jobs in other worlds,  a few have remained very much in view.   I feel certain that there are a small handful of teachers I will stay in contact with, even if the daily KSU exchange of bitterness and despondency  has ebbed away.  It's impractical to keep in touch with everyone, even those that I got on with, but folk are only ever an email or a 'poke' away.   As ever, those VIP(eople) know who they are. 

I feel somewhat lucky to have had an enjoyable, stress-free summer.  This comes after leaving The Leys after just 4 days this year.  I felt overwhelmed and panicked about what I was going to teach.  It was not unlike what happened in January, in Bedgebury.  However, this time it was a strange kind of reaction, post-Saudi, to dealing with the requirements of the summer school.  It felt so similar, yet so different.  I couldn't really explain why I had a panic attack on the Thursday morning, but it had been building for 48 hours.  I coped admirably with a coach run to London to pick up 40 kids but it was my only contribution.  In hindsight, I know I overdid it and forgot to breathe.  There was also very little time between returning home and going straight into the intensive summer job.  Add in the 'perfectionist' factor and my previous relationship coming to a predictable end,  I was unable to focus.  I was treated well, cared for and even head office offered me some free counselling, which I accepted.  But again, I found it embarrassing and although Bell believe I am a future employee, I now have my doubts if I will ever do it again.   Did I pick something up from the Chinese/Koreans about 'loss of face'?  The counselling sessions have been straightforward and useful.  They are simply a chance to air my issues relating to panic attacks and anxiety.  I have little patience for reading and re-reading old cognitive behavioural theory because I think I know the answer.  But I have to force myself to take the wisdom on board once more.  I don't want to keep finding myself in a position of work where I can't perform, like has happened twice this year now.

Consequently, I earned no money over the summer and relied upon the susbtantial reserves from the KSU job.  Furthermore, I will not be accessing another student loan, as I still owe a five-figure sum on the last degree from 10 years ago.  They keep asking for more information and I'm being honest when I tell them about my situation and how I paying for further study.  Instead, I will use money set aside for future accommodation downpayment.  Well, a lot of the cost for the year will be renting a room in a house in Leamington Spa.  I didn't land a place on campus, but that is probably a blessing in disguise. 


So I have been free to enjoy the delights of Wells, the summer days and the necessary opportunity to read some of the extensive material I am going to have to study come the autumn.   I've visited the Warwick campus to get a feel for the place and I received my Student Union information pack today, which is lavishly put together.  This is not surprising for the biggest SU in the UK.  It seems a little heavy on politics, i.e. Student Union Elections etc... been there, done that! Too old for all that malarky now. 

I'm probably more serious about the study this time than 10 years ago and I was pretty serious then.  This is a career enhancing MA which hopefully leads me to a better job within teaching.  Eventually I want to move away from teaching English directly and train teachers, but I still need to build up significant experience first.    I will have 5 essays to write in the first term.  It may not seem like much but I have to adapt again to the constraints of academic writing.  Having taught others how to do this, especially in Saudi recently, should mean that I am not really that rusty.