Article
Teachers’ written feedback: Does the delivery method matter?
Responding to student writing, which is a†widely researched area, is still one of the most challenging parts of the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teacher’s job. Little attention has been given to analyzing the role of systematic feedback on students’ improvement of writing at the university. The†paper reports on the results of a†small-scale action research conducted among fi rst-year undergraduate students, which explored the effect of record sheets, used as a†tool to track student progress in writing argumentative essays. Apart from student portfolios and record sheets, the 8-week study used other methods of data collection that included recorded semi-structured interviews and a†survey. Findings show that providing consistently structured (praise and criticism) selective (global and local) feedback to students has a†positive effect both on the teacher and on student perception of feedback and, generally, their achievements in developing writing skills. The†study may motivate EAP practitioners to change their current classroom practices and seek more effective ways of responding to student writing.
Internationalization of the modern system of education poses multiple challenges for students. Not only does this process provide them with new opportunities, such as continuing education abroad at the master’s level, but it also establishes requirements to be aware of the academic conventions different from those they learn at the bachelor’s level at a Russian university. Awareness of academic conventions implies not simply theoretical knowledge of the Western higher education system but also acquisition of practical tools that will facilitate students’ ability to integrate their knowledge into a new academic environment. One of the most essential tools for students is undoubtedly academic English. However, academic English skills development frequently leads to the situation that can be metaphorically called ‘dual academic personality,’ when students have to be able to quickly switch from one academic style to another depending on the educational context. Firstly, this paper will examine differences between Russian and Western academic writing conventions (focusing on the requirements to a BA research project), Then main difficulties and typical mistakes in academic legal writing in English made by Higher School of Economics students will be analyzed.
The article reports on a study of the role of assessment and feedback in writing extended essays. It first outlines the course and teaching methods, then it looks at the results of the assessment of 131 essays with two sample ones analysed in detail and, finally, it provides students’ perception comments on the criteria specifically developed for the course and subject teachers’ opinions about the results of essay writing in Sociology exam.
The article reports on a study of the role of assessment and feedback in making presentations. It first gives a brief overview of the programme and course outline, then looks at the teaching methods used and theory of assessment and, finally, provides results of assessment of almost 100 presentations with one sample analysed in detail. The criteria specifically developed for the course will also be given.
The collection seeks to address the folloing questions:
- How are teachers, students, researchers and administrators in the region working to further progressive writing pedagogy?
- What ideas about writing and writing instruction - both new and old, foreign and domestic - inform, assist or complicate this work?
- How does writing shape knowledge and practice within specific regional cultures, academic or otherwise? How might writing function as a bridge or barrier?
The audience of thei collection is the international writing studies community. In addressing the above questions within the Russian context, we hope to reveal points of connection between local experiences, and ultimately, help writing professionals all over the world better respond to the demands of globalisation.
This paper is concerned with some issues of English for Occupational Purposes and English for Academic Purposes. The main objective of the paper is to describe possible approaches to integrating EOP and EAP on the basis of the pilot English for Specific Academic Purposes course introduced at National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
Institutions affect investment decisions, including investments in human capital. Hence institutions are relevant for the allocation of talent. Good market-supporting institutions attract talent to productive value-creating activities, whereas poor ones raise the appeal of rent-seeking. We propose a theoretical model that predicts that more talented individuals are particularly sensitive in their career choices to the quality of institutions, and test these predictions on a sample of around 95 countries of the world. We find a strong positive association between the quality of institutions and graduation of college and university students in science, and an even stronger negative correlation with graduation in law. Our findings are robust to various specifications of empirical models, including smaller samples of former colonies and transition countries. The quality of human capital makes the distinction between educational choices under strong and weak institutions particularly sharp. We show that the allocation of talent is an important link between institutions and growth.