First-year English Course Research Articles

Diversity and Inclusion in Mental Health: A Collaborative Online International Learning Experience.

Graduate students in a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program in the United States and undergraduate students in a first-year English course, Writing and Rhetoric, at a university in Ecuador participated in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) experience in Fall Semester 2021. The purpose of the COIL experience was to develop global perspectives and cultural competencies regarding diversity and inclusion in mental health. The objectives of the COIL experience were to identify and discuss changes in thinking in four areas: eugenics and cultural bias, cultural bias in research, culture and mental illness, and institutional and care policies. Groups of students created educational posters about diversity and inclusion in mental health that were presented at a virtual mini conference to which other students and faculty at the participating universities were invited.

Learning strategies in action

This paper reports the results of a study which aimed to investigate how an intervention for the development of learning strategies helps students to build self-regulation in learning and to learn English as a foreign language. The intervention was part of a first-year English course in a foreign language program that followed a task-based methodological orientation. The intervention was implemented in four phases: planning, presentation, instruction, and evaluation and engaged students in the development of two tasks, involving contextaware learning with the use of strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, memory, affective, and social. The evaluation of results demonstrated that students develop a positive attitude facing learning and raised awareness about the importance of using strategies. However, the strategies used by students were of direct type, related to linguistic aspects learning. This means that the intervention did not achieve to develop indirect strategies, particularly metacognitive, which demand reflection for making critical learning decisions. This shows that a shortterm intervention is not enough to promote self-regulation in learning and that a long-term intervention would be required.

Attitudes on Skillful 2 and teacher created ancillary material

Selecting course materials is a crucial decision for many language departments, as the textbook is often the guide for any course. However, course material selection rarely takes into account students’ wants and needs (Wright, 1990). This study examines both student and teacher attitudes toward a textbook and online platform used for the first time in a first-year English course at a public university in Costa Rica. This study also addresses whether students and teachers consider a supplemental grammar booklet necessary for the course. A questionnaire and interviews were the sources of data collection that assessed specific impressions of the course materials. The results of the research show that perspectives regarding the books, from both students and teachers, are not as positive as one might expect. Preference for a supplemental grammar booklet was shown, but questions remain as to whether this material is truly necessary for the course. Positive attitudes toward some aspects of the new books were present, yet various issues with the material were voiced throughout the entire study. Following a thorough analysis and discussion of results, we provide recommendations that the English department and its professors can consider in response to the main findings of this study.

Piloting a blended model for sustainable IL programming

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the MacEwan University Library’s successful pilot of a fully blended information literacy (IL) instruction program for first-year English courses. Development, implementation and assessment of the pilot prior to full implementation are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The new sustainable blended model for the English Library Instruction Program reduced duplication of content and effort, incorporated online and in-person instruction and promoted self-directed learning opportunities through a new Learning Commons. This model places essential instruction online while maintaining personal relationships for students with the English Librarian and the Library through multiple points of interaction. Face-to-face instruction efforts were concentrated on developing critical thinking skills through a hands-on source evaluation activity and on providing point-of-need support. Librarians worked closely with English faculty to encourage early voluntary adoption of the new model for the Fall 2013 pilot. Findings – The voluntary early-adopter model worked well for garnering and maintaining support from the English department: the authors had 42 per cent of English sessions piloting the new model for Fall 2013, surpassing the initial target of 25 per cent. Students scored well on an assessment of their ability to identify scholarly sources. Librarian preparation time has been greatly reduced. Originality/value – Many academic libraries are looking to asynchronous online tutorials as a more sustainable model for delivering IL instruction. This case study demonstrates that it is possible to move some instruction online while maintaining the personal relationships librarians have forged with students and faculty.

From Form to Meaning: Freshman Composition and the Long Sixties, 1957–1974 by David Fleming (review)

David Fleming. From Form to Meaning: Freshman Composition and the Long Sixties, 1957-1974. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011. 273 pp. As I started reading From Form to Meaning, a book discussing in great detail the ups and downs of one course at one U.S. university during one decade, I kept asking myself why instructors of first-year English courses at Canadian colleges and universities today would find this text useful. After all, Freshman Composition is widespread in the United States but few Canadian institutions require all their students to take such a course. In addition, the cultural contexts and historical events that have influenced courses offered today at U.S. institutions differ greatly from those that have influenced the creation and development of courses at Canadian institutions. Why, then, should everyone involved in the teaching of writing and literature to postsecondary students read this book? First, because it is a captivating historical account of an era punctuated by momentous events whose effects have spread farther than one state or one country. Second, because learning about what has happened at other institutions may help reformulate and clarify what has happened and is still happening at our own institutions. Third, and most importantly, because the conversations that were taking place at the University of Wisconsin (uw) during the long sixties are still taking place today ... in our own institutions. The discussions presented in From Form to Meaning revolve around a number of topics and questions that are familiar to anyone involved in higher education. For example, is the literacy level of younger generations declining? Are high school teachers responsible for not getting their students ready to meet the demands of higher education? What is the responsibility of the university as a whole and of individual departments in teaching students to think, write, speak, and read well? Should first-year students all take the same universally required course to ensure some homogeneity amongst students at the same institution? Should first-year English courses focus content (for example, literature) or form (for example, grammar and style)? How do we decide who needs remedial help and who does not? How do you support a student population that is increasingly diverse in socio-cultural and educational backgrounds and needs? Who should teach undergraduate courses and how should these people be trained, supervised, and evaluated? How can graduate teaching assistants (tas) juggle with being at the same time instructors and students themselves? How can tenure-track and tenured professors focus the pressures of research and publication while still remaining involved in undergraduate education? These are some of the many critical and often-controversial questions heatedly discussed at the uw in the sixties, but, as Fleming explains, his is a study done on the assumption that the example (the 'case') is in some way typical of a broader phenomenon (21). For his case study, Fleming thoroughly investigated hundreds of documents (such as department meeting minutes, memos, newspaper articles) and other voices (including a number of tas) to tell this story--a truly impressive accomplishment (at times it reads like a mystery novel). These many voices show how the unsteady times in U.S. history (the launch of the Sputnik, the Vietnam war) and the history of the University of Wisconsin itself (riots, bombings, strikes) were the perfect background for a profound pedagogical revolution that ultimately led to the elimination of the Freshman Composition course, English 102, in 1969 and for the next twenty-five years. The book starts with a discussion about the concerns of Harvard faculty regarding the literacy levels of their incoming students and the first Freshman Composition course that was created there in the 1870s in response to these concerns. …

Nexus and Stage: Computer-Assisted Class Discussion and the First-Year English Course

Many people have been experimenting successfully with computer-based discussion programs in their English classes. This article describes one way of conducting computer assisted class discussion (CACD) that worked well for me. I used ENFI in three sections of our university's introductory course in literary analysis, which is the second of a two-semester course in Freshman Composition. I also, to a lesser extent, used CACD in two Shakespeare classes.1 Class size averaged 18 students. The program that I used on our computer network is a multifaceted one, called Daedalus, which has modules dedicated to such things as peer response, invention, and creating bibliographies. But the module devoted to synchronous discussion seemed to generate the most useful results and is, consequently, the focus of the present article. This module, called "Interchange," is a program that, like web-based "chat" programs, allows a number of individuals to send written communication to a communal space, or "board," where those messages are posted in the order that they were sent.

First-Year English Courses for Nursing Students at Mahidol University

First-Year English Courses for Nursing Students at Mahidol University