A TALE OF 2 PARTNERSHIPS: THE CHALLENGES OF SMALL-SCALE AND LARGE-SCALE RESEARCH COMMUNITIES WITHIN ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES (EAP)

Mary DavisOxford Brookes International

RESEARCH COMMUNITIES A Virtual Research Community (VRC) is a

group of researchers, possibly widely dispersed, working together effectively through the use of information and communications technology. Within the community, researchers can collaborate, communicate, share resources, access remote equipment or computers and produce results as effectively as if they, and the resources they require, were physically co-located. (VRC Final Report, 2006)

Collaboration..everyone’s view is taken as a contribution to understanding the situation (Winter, 1996)

PARTNERSHIP 1 WITHIN BALEAP

Meeting at BALEAP conference 2007 Researcher – looking for new ways to teach

phrases in writing, and to raise awareness of distinction between academic phrases and plagiarism

Researcher at University of Manchester (Director of Language Centre, PhD Applied Linguistics, developer of Academic Phrasebank (AP) ) developed 2005, looking for ways to research AP, to collect data on effectiveness and to further develop AP

PARTNERSHIP 2 WITHIN BALEAP Research Officer for BALEAP sent out e-mail

survey to discussion group to start a tracking project, October 2008

BALEAP members from 16 UK universities agreed to be in the tracking group

Separated into 2 groups of 16 (the “North” co-ordinated from Sheffield, the “South” co-ordinated from London)

5 dropped out, now all co-ordinated by Sheffield

Universities currently involved: Glasgow, Reading, University of the Arts, London, Kent, Sheffield Hallam, Southampton, Leeds, Exeter, Durham, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes

FUNDING AND SUPPORT

Hard to get funding and support

No funding Minimal support

Easier to get some funding and support

Funding of transport and accommodation to meet

Support from organisation

Recognised as “working party” on BALEAP website

Support for conference based on WP work

Small-scale Large-scale

OBJECTIVES

Specific, focused To investigate the

impact of teaching academic phrases on postgraduate students’ ability to recognise and re-use them

To examine the perceived role and usefulness of academic phrases, according to students and experts

General, less focused

To evaluate the effectiveness of EAP provision by tracking students through degrees

Small-scale Large-scale

COMMUNICATION

Direct, manageable

E-mail Phone meetings

Not direct, unmanageable

Vast number of e-mails Lots of disagreement Gaps in contact Use of new technology

Facebook, Moodle Lots of sharing of ideas

and contexts 2 face-to-face meetings

(London and Sheffield)

Small-scale Large-scale

METHODOLOGY

Easy to agree and plan

Set up in advance Planned specific

activities with Pre-Master’s students

Collection of assignments

Analysis Follow-up interviews

Not easy to agree or plan

No agreement on methodology because of different contexts and views

Examples of methodology shared but not followed

Only similar in principle

Small-scale Large-scale

OUTPUT AND DISSEMINATION

Easier to put together

5 conferences over 2 year period

1 publication accepted, another planned

Harder to get to the point of output and dissemination

One one-day conference planned after a 2.5 year period

Small-scale Large-scale

BENEFITS

Easier to communicate, establish objectives and methodology

Opportunities for attendance at several conferences

Funding, support, useful comparisons of practice across many universities

Able to set up a conference dedicated to the group

Small-scale Large-scale

DRAWBACKS

No funding, little support, a sense of being on one’s own

Harder to communicate, achieve consensus, establish joint objectives, be productive

Small-scale Large-scale

REFERENCES

Morley, J. (2005). Academic Phrasebank. Available at http:www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk

VRC Final Report (2006). Report of the Working Group on Virtual Research Communities for the OSI e-Infrastructure Steering Group . Retrieved 30/5/10 from http://www.nesc.ac.uk/documents/OSI/vrc.pdf

Winter, R. (1996). Some principles and procedures for the conduct of action research. In O. Zuber-Skerritt (ed.) New Directions in Action Research. London: Falmer.