2001 Group Second Study Day (23 Jan 2002)Report by VR

2001 Group second Study Day (23 Jan 2002)report by VR

28 January 2002

[key to initials used herein: see end]

1. Advance organisation and outline of the day

Organisation of the SD was done by VW. People arrived punctually and the Common Room of the Research Centre was ideal in size and layout for our numbers. Lunch was in the café at the Sports Centre and all found their way to the sports building without incident. Name badges were given out once the Group had divided into their subject groups to give informal papers on their research areas. People seemed to enjoy themselves and conversation was animated at lunch. The afternoon papers were informative and helpful and a core group chose to stay on to continue discussion at the end.

VW, other Brookes staff and SH were around all day. Some staff giving papers on language teaching in the afternoon arrived at lunch-time.

For next time:

It would be helpful to have made-up labels at the point of registration to facilitate more mingling among students and staff who will not be familiar with each other’s names. At the opening students tended to stay in groups of people from their own institution. Also it is likely that once the website is up and running, marketing of the Study Day will be more vigorous and more members will support the event.

1. Attendance*denotes taking an active role: giving presentation or paper

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

Prof Valerie Worth-Stylianou

Marie Carty, Sian Charnley, Libby Cloneston (Sp?), Marilyn Cox*, Barbara Giraud, Hugh Roberts*, Suzanne Saito*, Morag Young

QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Dr Sue Harris, Dr Leigh Oakes,

Catherine Basoalto-Cachart, Ann Lewis

UNIVERSITY OF READING

No staff attended (NS could not come due to illness)

Susan Hopkins*, Lori Parks*, Victoria Reid*, Helen Roberts

ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Mme Monique L'Huillier*

No students attended

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

Juliet Laxton*

No students attended

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Prof Carol Sanders*, Jacqueline Page* (also research)Benedicte Facques*

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK

No staff attended

Douglas Morrey

Conclusions on attendance/commitment

The assurance of full commitment to the Group from member institutions’ HoDs is belied by low attendance figures.

1. Aspects of the Study Day

a)Welcome: coffeeno problems encountered

b)Research sessionsthese were divided into two and ran as follows:

Group 1 19c/20c lit & culture; 20c hist & society (convenor Nick Hewlett; other staff SH)

This session went well with papers ranging from body borders, fat and thin bodies in Zola to student movements in contemporary France. The mixture of literature and society/hist was refreshing and did not seem to put anybody off.

Group 2 Medieval, Early Modern and Linguistics Group (convenor Valerie Worth; other staff?)

• Staff presence was welcome.

c)Lunch

• this worked well: lunch was tasty and a wide menu was offered with drinks from the bar. The table layout was good for getting people talking.

d)Meeting of all - chaired by VW, this was to alert all to

• the requirement of the Subject Centre for a formalised evaluation of the success of the group, comprising a ‘basic evaluation plan’ to evaluate ‘the main deliverables/ outcomes of our project and how the collaboration fairs’. It was agreed that VW would send out a short questionnaire to all at the SD to find out how effective participants had found it and to take any criticisms/ recommendations on board. The use and effectiveness of the database will also be evaluated, via Steering Committee meetings at the twice a year Study Days.

Conclusions on evaluation

At future Study Days evaluation forms should be handed out and filled in by all participants in order to guage the effectiveness of the event. These forms will be supplied by Reading.

• the forthcoming website for the 2001 Group. This was flagged up by VR and there was general enthusiasm for it. Its potential usefulness was made clear as the afternoon progressed, when those giving talks on ‘Linguistics and Language teaching in French in Higher Education’ wanted to use it to disseminate bibliographies/ teaching tips to all members. This will be done by having a Blackboard software link on the website, which will allow us to download and provide documents.
• the advent of the Teaching Database, which will be launched soon. Forms to be e-mailed out this month are to be completed by all RSs and staff of our member institutions. The under-resourcing of French linguistics in the UK was mentioned by CS, and it is hoped that the database will provide one way of papering over some of the cracks in teaching provision.
• Expenses Claim Forms were made available.

e)Carol Sanders talk

• The ‘poor cousin’ status of French Language and Linguistics in undergraduate courses was bemoaned. Ideas were offered about how to vary the teaching of written and oral French. It was recommended that RSs (in particular those with a literature focus) make themselves more aware of linguistics and the Group was told of workshops for teaching grammar offered by the Association for French Language Studies and of bursaries offered for summer courses by the French Embassy.

f)Juliet Laxton talk

• The main topic was Technology Enhanced Language Learning - an eye-opener to many.

g)Bénédicte Facques Foureau

• We were given a whirlwind tour of the Second Year language classes Bénédicte gives in written French and by the end some felt they would have benefited from attending these classes themselves.

h)Unfortunately time constraints prevented us from hearing contributions from Monique L’Huillier (RHUL) and Liegh Oakes (QMUL). Leigh has agreed to give his presentation at the SD to be held in June at QMUL and it is hoped that Monique will be able to attend this event also. She was to contribute to the discussion on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and tell us about software for French grammar.

For next time:

Better time-keeping is required in order that the programme is covered, perhaps by leaving the afternoon coffee break to the end (?)

1. Follow-up

• SH to confirm date for next SD to be held at QMUL in June
• VW to send out evaluation questionnaires to all participants
• VR to continue research for database and will alert members as soon as website has lift-off.

Key to initials

CS Carol Sanders

NSNaomi Segal

QMULQueen Mary, University of London

RHULRoyal Holloway, University of London

RSResearch Student

SDStudy Day

SHSue Harris

VWValerie Worth-Stylianou

VRVictoria Reid (Reading Adminstrator)