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[Geronimo]

Returning to this thread's topic...

IMHO, it is an encouraging sign that the MOHE has allocated 35% of the total evaluation mark to the production of an Issues Log and an Assignment for the Year One English language students. To my mind, this move represents a modest step away from evaluation of output towards evaluation of process. To a limited extent these students will now be evaluated on their ability to conduct independent research; to paraphrase; to quote; and to reference.

Consequently, one week of the Year One programme was devoted to "Research Skills" training during this semester at Sohar College. A "Research Skills" booklet, produced by a teacher from the English Dept in Salalah College, has been circulated and drawn upon for this purpose.

There has also been some peer-editing in recent semesters during Writing Skills classes, too. I'm wondering if peer-editing might act as an antidote to the urge to copy and paste. Wishful thinking?!

[veiledsentiments]

There is nothing new in these ideas, Geronimo, except perhaps for the Ministry to formalize it. That is the procedure that I was using to teach essay writing in Oman since the 90's. Plagiarism did not just appear with the advent of the internet... which just made it easier for them.

I can tell you right now quite definitively that 'peer editing' will do nothing to slow down the cut and paste plagiarism problem. That can only be stopped by a strong policy of failing any paper that does it and an administration that will stand behind a teacher who enforces it. As long as students can go whinging to an administrator with his paper which still shows the URL on the bottom of the page from the printer and insist that it is his writing... and the administrator goes to the teacher and forces a grade change, little will improve.

Personally I found 'peer editing' to not be terribly helpful. About half of the corrections from their peers created as many new errors as they corrected. Other than helping them to learn the process, I didn't see much of any transfer to their ability to proofread their own work. That only occurs if one is strong enough to enforce it. It seems to require a level of maturity and pride in one's work that isn't often seen in the age group at foundation's level. I am sure that this is a problem here in the US too... but the English level is a bit better...

[kuberkat]

The trouble with peer editing, and even self-editing, is that unless students are truly self-motivated (aka independent learners), they consider the assignment "khalas" as soon as the page is filled. As far as the average student is concerned, the planning and editing phases of the writing process are for the birds. (Yet ask any professional writer, and you are bound to find these are the keys to success.)

I have found it truly revealing to invigilate Foundation Writing students in their exams. Though we spend the first weeks of semester on brainstorming and outlining before writing a paragraph, as soon as nobody's watching, they go straight to the paragraph, write it on the fly and hand it straight in, unedited- only to deliver disappointing results. The group with whom I teach these students has now decided to make the brainstorm and outline a graded part of the assignment- and lo! Suddenly the quality of exam writing has shot through the roof. Coincidence? I think not.

A definite shortcoming of self- and peer editing in L2 students is the fact that they truly are blind to many of the language errors. Add to that cultural perceptions of solidarity and preventing loss of face, and you have yourself a seething dilemma.

Does this mean peer editing has no value? I love the idea of peer editing, but because of these limitations, I've become a little sly. Anonymous editing is one solution to the cultural factors. Grammar errors are difficult to identify this way, but factors like the organization, spelling and content can be evaluated.

To return to the theme of the thread, I have seen that the fire of learner independence- or at least learner ethusiasm- can be stoked with the right questions, the right assignments, the right guidelines. Still the very subject of learner independence and motivation sometimes drops my heart in my boots: this is a theory that is turning many comforting ideas on their head, not least that of the teacher as authority.

Whatever we learn about teaching, about language, about the latest TESOL fad, we can't deny that learning is a mysterious process and there is still an infinity that we do not know. For all our lofty pedagogical efforts, one must occassionally wonder, when it comes to learning, if we are not merely accessories to the crime.

[veiledsentiments]

Accessories to the crime... probably so. I was also using the idea of the brainstorm and outline being graded for a bit of encouragement to use the process. The sad part is that these are ideas that have been used around the Gulf (even by me in Oman) for years and seem to have to be 're-discovered' by every new new university. EFL seems to in constant 're-invention of the wheel' mode.

And BTW, since I also taught content courses, I can tell you that their skill of using this in English almost never transfers to the content courses. Even in the situation where I taught my own ex-writing class students. They have the frustrating habit of having the skills learned in English class stay in English class. Some of them were actually shocked that I thought they should use these ideas to raise their grades in short essay exam questions in their content courses.

So, I still think it is very much a learner maturity issue. But it needs to be impressed on them as younger learners. As long as the system is based on rote memorization of what someone else produced in Arabic rather than actually using their English, this situation will continue.

It is good that the Ministry is looking at these issues and bringing them to the students - and standardizing it across the system. These are their future teachers, right?

VS

[eha]

"The group with whom I teach these students has now decided to make the brainstorm and outline a graded part of the assignment- and lo! Suddenly the quality of exam writing has shot through the roof. Coincidence? I think not. "

My own experience is not as spectacularly successful as this: I've found only a slight improvement when outlines are insisted on. And the contradiction-in-terms of further externalizing motivation (it's-only-real-when-grades-are-involved) to me is counter-productive. I find that consistently 'A' students continue to get 'A' or 'B+'; students who write 'C' papers continue to get 'C'. And even when you do get good overall results in a class, they're likely to be 'doctored' to fit the accursed curve! Education has become an exercise in statistics; it's not what it purports to be. And, as said repeatedly on this thread, that's not a 'Gulf' problem, or even a Tefl problem. The hardest thing about all of this is the attempt to reconcile the 'real world' part (the bureaucratic imperative) with educational values (all the 'workshops', 'conferences' etc on "Learner this" and "Educational that"). It seems to me that a real attempt to put our educational ideals into practice would involve a complete revolution in the management and administration of educational systems--- or maybe I'm talking about 'evolution'.

[kuberkat]

[eha]

'But where to go from here?'

No use asking me, Kuberkat; I'm just hanging in there. Although, come to think of it, that may be the answer: hang in there; hang onto our convictions; don't let ourselves be railroaded; keep the paths of communication open. The way through hard times is not to lose sight of the possibilities ---in this case, of education, REAL education. The occasional exchange of ideas like this thread helps, too!

[kuberkat]

eha wrote:

[veiledsentiments]

What with the attendant frustrations of teaching in the Gulf, I kept my focus on my students. I had been there enough years and tried enough approaches that my expectations had become realistic. If I kept the individual student's improvement as my goal, it helps mitigate the common urge to throttle management.

Change will have to come from within their system, from the much maligned Ministry - starting in Primary school. There are some good people there - a few of them my ex-students from my first teaching years at SQU - and they are aware of the problems. We short term TEFLers can not change the system much ourselves. All we can do is turn out the best students that we can and hope that some of them will go on to be the ones who bring changes to the system suggested by what we taught them.

VS

[Geronimo]

My guess is that work placement training is going to play an important role within the context of the MOHE's degree programs in the not too distant future. A short spell in the world of work will provide our students of tomorrow with a bracing change of scene. It will help to motivate them for their further professional studies. Whereas, in contrast, 5 or 6 years of unremitting biannual "Low Jump" competitions would instill lethargy and somnambulance. I believe that prospective local employers, such as hotel managers, would be happy to support a work placement program. It would allow them to assess potential in advance of any longer term commitments.

Also, as the MOHE's specialist departments, such as Business Administration; Design and Communication, start to grapple with the challenges of presenting their degree level in English (at least officially), the role of the English Departments in the MOHE Colleges is likely to become more supportive, more subsidiary in nature. My guess is that ESP will feature more prominently in future Year One program materials. (I've already found Extra Sensory Perception helps me in my very limited dealings with management here) .

We have referred in the course of this thread to a sizeable number of stakeholders in an educational process, which, of course, is aimed at supporting the Omani government's efforts to diversify the economic base of the Sultanate. It seems to me that more liaison and collaboration between these stakeholders would be beneficial for all concerned.

[kuberkat]

Geronimo, you sound like someone who has been privy to the most entertaining document I have read in this country: The Vision Statement of the Colleges of Applied Sciences. I am one hundred percent behind the intention of creating a document like this, but the lack of realism in this starry-eyed vision was either laughable of lamentable- I'm not sure which. The document is so ambitious that it has failed before it has even been implemented.

The idea of colleges collaborating with business is excellent in theory, but just how many businesses in this country are of the calibre that can actually take on interns? More disturbingly, how many of your average college students are of the calibre a business can dare to take on? True, a taste of the real world may galvanize lukewarm students, but what if it doesn't? Many students did not choose the direction they were streamed into by the state's generosity, and lack both aptitude and interest, and frequently also the good old-fashioned smarts to survive in a competitive environment such as the world of business. How many of our students are suitable for the real world at all?

Some may reiterate here that many Omanis have been successful in business and industry. And so it is: you will see their photographs grinning at you from many a local publication. You will also see their names: the same tribal connections over and over again. Old money and old power. I have good reason to believe that with very few exceptions, the successes we see are successes set up by a long-standing system of tribalism that favours its own. Unlike modern free market systems where any person with a good idea can forge an empire, Oman is built on a network of connectons of the powerful.

Whether education of the (reluctant) masses can change this remains to be seen.

[bje]

[Geronimo]

One of my trainee English teachers gave me a prepaid Omantel/easylearning card the other day. I've just been checking out the course programme listing via:-

http://www.omantel.net.om/easylearning/

The range of courses available looks impressive. Has anyone had much experience with accessing these Courses yet? How far does an OR. 3 prepaid card allow you get?

[kuberkat]

[bje]

(quote) Ah, fortunately for some, 'the real world' is a world one is unlikely to enter into in this country any time soon. (quote)

(quote) Granted, it may just be the end-of-year blues, but I am mighty cynical about this place right now. (quote)

Still, I'd rather be in the 'surreal' world of my public sector college enclave than 'the real world' of private sector business any day...

Good luck making it to the end of the semester relatively intact Kuberkat- the end is in sight!

[/quote]