Course code: ENGL 360: Project Education – Faculty: Dr. Osman Hassan Osman

College of Arts and Science

Department of Foreign Languages

English Section

ENGL 360: Project Education

Lecture Notes

Fall 2016/2017

Compiled by

Dr. Osman Hassan Osman

Doc. Ref. No. / Issue Version / Date
UoN-STC-T&A / 1 / September 2016

TEACHING & ASSESSMENT PLAN

1. College: CAS

2. Department: Foreign Languages

3. Semester : Fall Semester 2016/2017

4. Course Code: ENGL360

5. Course Name : Project Education

6. Timetable:

DAY / TIME / CLASSROOM
Monday / 03:30-04:45 / Building 4-10
Wednesday / 03:30-04:45 / Building 4-10

7. Faculty Name: Osman Hassan Osman

8. Office No.: 11- G/3

9. Telephone Ext.: 321

10. E-mail:

11. Office hours

DAY / TIME
Sun / 11:00-12:00
Monday / 11:00-12:00
Tuesday / 11:00-12:00
Wednesday / 11:00-12:00
Thursday / 11:00-12:00

12. Text Book & References:

Text Book / References
Hand-outs / Bitchener, John (2010). Writing an Applied Linguistics Thesis and Dissertations: A Guide to presenting empirical research

13. Course Description

This course is planned and designed to prepare students for their Final Year Project. It takes them through the very beginning stages of arriving at a topic all through till they are able present the project orally at the end. During the course, students will formulate a research question and begin research tasks that they will need to undertake for their project. The course emphasizes reading and writing skills as well as practical skills such as locating suitable literature and evaluating the quality of websites. Students will undertake many practical exercises in class and for homework. The two assignments are an important components of student assessment.

14. Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course

1. / Demonstrate the purpose of undertaking research
2 / Employ an appropriate method to research a chosen topic
3. / Construct appropriate literature
4 / Develop appropriate techniques to avoid plagiarism
5 / Employ critical reading and thinking to differentiate between facts and opinions.

15. Assessment Policy

Assessment process takes direct and indirect measurements to ensure that learning outcomes and program objectives have been achieved. The assessment plan is indicated below:

Assessment Details

Assessment / Percentage % / Due
Assignment 1 / 10% / Third week of October 2016
Assignment 2 / 10% / End of October 2016
In-Semester Exam 1 / 20%* / First week of November
In-Semester Exam 2 / 20%* / Week 12
Final Exam / 40%* / Week 17 & or 18

*Note that students will do their study in semester one, but they will learn the techniques to write it. In the second semester, students will be conducting an educational study. This will be done all by the student him/herself without the help of a teacher and the student will submit their project to Research Committee for judgment. Then s/he will be asked to do oral presentation about the findings and s/he needs to discuss a recommendation to their research question/s.

16. Plagiarism Policy:

As per the University Policy UoN-STC-CR-1-2009, the following actions (not limited to), without proper attribution (quoting and/or referencing), will attract stringent penalties:
  1. To copy the work of another student;
  2. To directly copy any part of another person’s work;
  3. To summarize another person’s work;
  4. To use or develop an idea or thesis derived from another person’s work;
  5. To use experimental results or data obtained or gathered by another person;
  6. To demonstrate academic misconduct during an exam.

17. Attendance Policy

As per the University Absentee Regulations Uon-RR-AP-1-2009, Absentee warning notice will be issued to the student according to:
  1. “Absentee Warning 1” has to be issued to a student who has missed 5% of course contact hours.
  2. “Absentee Warning 2” has to be issued to a student who has missed 10% of course contact hours.
  3. “Drop one Grade” has to be issued to a student who has missed 15% of course contact hours.
  4. “Barred from Examination” has to be issued to a student who has missed 25% of course contact hours.
  5. “If a student’s unexcused absence is below 25% but his/her totalabsence reaches 25% or more of all contact hours of the course, he/she shall be required to withdraw from the course with a “W” grade.”

18. Weekly Teaching & Assessment Plan

Week No / Topic / Course Outcome / Assessment of Outcomes
Week 1 & 2 / Introduction- Why do research? Different steps of doing your research project. Choosing a topic
Choosing & writing with your supervisor / Demonstrate:
What research is
How to arrive at a research question
How to make your question more focused / Discussions
Week 3 & 4 / Finding literature
How to read / Demonstrate:
How to find literature
Strategies to deal with the amount of information / Discussions and exercises
Week 5 & 6 / Incorporating sources: quoting and paraphrasing / Employ quoting and paraphrasing techniques / Exercises
Week 7 / Collecting data / Show familiarities with a few of the different methods available / Discussions and exercises
Week 8-10 / Describing methods
Presenting data
Analyzing data / Be able to select an appropriate technique to compile data
Demonstrate the procedure involved in using the technique
Be able to present and discuss compiled data / Discussion, exercises and assignment
Week 11 & 12 / Writing the Introduction
Writing Literature Review
Discussing the results
Writing the Conclusion / Demonstrate how to write these sections / Discussion
Exercises
Week 12 & 13 / Panning the research project
Managing time and getting help. / Demonstrating:
How to organize a project
How to manage time when doing research / Discussion
Exercises
Week 14 & 15 / Features of Academic Writing
Extra exercises in incorporating sources
Plagiarism
Using language of the discipline / Develop:
How to formulate ideas
How to manage in an appropriate academic style
How to avoid plagiarism / Discussion
Exercises
Assignments
Week 16 / Editing the work
Submitting the proposal / Construct the final proposal / Moodle work,
Classroom activities, Individual and pair work, Discussion
17 / Final Exam week 1
18 / Final Exam week 2

Appendix to be added to T&A plan

Template for Learning Outcomes and Assessment Spring 2016

Name of Course: English1

Course Code: ENGL / 150

Course Coordinator: Dr. Osman Hassan Osman Fadul

LO1 / LO2 / LO3 / LO4 / LO5 / Total
In-Term Exam1(15) / 5 / 4 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 20
In-Term Exam2 (15) / 5 / 4 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 20
Quiz (10) / 10 / 10
Moodle (10) / 3 / 4 / 3 / 10
Final Exam (40) / 8 / 6 / 10 / 8 / 8 / 40

Course Notes- Lecture Notes

Introduction

These notes have been written to introduce your final year project which is the last major assessed work you supposed to undertake as an undergraduate student before you are awarded your degree. First the notes introduce you to the type of content that is typically presented in the final year project: the abstract, the introduction, the literature review, the methodology, the results, the discussion and the conclusion. Second, the notes help you acquaint with some of the key linguistic and presentation features of each genre so that your content is presented with clarity, coherence and cohesion. The notes also will help you through the different stages of preparing your research project.

What will you learn from doing your Research Project?

  1. It helps you understand what Research is.
  2. It teaches you the difference between opinions and facts.
  3. It helps you develop critical thinking skills. As you look at all the data that you will be collecting from different sources, you will need to distinguish between useful, reliable, objective information and what is based on opinion and is likely subjective or merely biased.
  4. It teaches you think and approach your work in a logical way.
  5. It teaches you how to organize your work and time. A research project has many steps which have to be undertaken in a certain order over a period of time.
  6. It helps you to develop academic skills that you use to investigate a problem or to find information you may need. It teaches you the methods you may use to collect data about the topic in question. It helps you gain experience using the university library, electronic resources, and looking for information on websites of institutions, organizations or newspapers. You will learn to select through and organize large amount of information.
  7. It helps you to think logically and to develop objective reasoning skills. Usually you may need to make a claim about what you believe to be true, and this claim has to be based on evidence. You will need to convince the reader/s that your claim is correct.
  8. While you are giving your oral presentation of your project. Committee members may question the conclusions you have arrived at and ask you to give evidence. Remember, this is probably, the first time that you have had written something for a wider audience other than your teacher.

If you use methods such as: interviews, questionnaires, and/or observations to collect data, you will gain experience in talking to people you do not normally have a lot of contact with, as well as learn additional things about the beliefs and practices of people in your community. Finally, doing research on a topic of interest gives you the opportunity to learn about something in greater depth.

Writing Your Research Project

Before you start your research, please remember that:

Your research is not a personal essay to write about your opinions and ideas. It is neither a summary of information you find in books and articles. It is not a collection of long quotes or paragraphs you have copied from different sources.

Before you start:

  • Write a project proposal
  • Complete the form as required
  • Your proposal needs to be approved by your supervisor
  • This form is an official agreement between you, your supervisor, and the Department

Getting Started

1. Project Topic

  • You choose a topic depending on your own interest and your previous experience.
  • You choose a topic that means something to you.
  • Think of a problem that is relative to you topic.
  • It is important to find out what other people have said about the topic you are investigating. This will help you find literature for your topic.
  • You can start with a general topic and then go through it a process of narrowing it to make it more specific
  • For literature, you might study one more works by a particular author from a particular period, alternatively, you could compare the works by two authors, or works from different periods..

2. Project Titles

  • The Title for your project, needs to be fairly short.
  • It should give the reader an accurate idea of what your project will be about
  • The title should catch the attention of the readers.

3. Supervisor:

  • S/he is the teacher who has agreed to work with you in this course.

4. Research Question:

  • This is the main question you want to answer in your research.
  • It should be quite narrow.

5. Problem Statement:

  • This shows the reader why it should be worthwhile to study this topic.
  • You have chosen the topic because you have noticed that there is some problem related to this topic in society, in schools etc.

Think of the following questions:

  • Why do you want to study this topic?
  • Why is this topic relevant to society?
  • Why is it relevant to education?
  • Why is it relevant to language learning?
  • Why will your research be useful to others?

Writing an abstract for your Research Project

The Functions of theabstract:

The key aim of the abstract is to introduce the reader to the main considerations of your project so you need to include the functions presented below:

  • The aims of the study
  • The background and context of the study
  • The methodology and methods used in the study
  • The key findings of the study
  • The contribution of the study to the field of knowledge

To some extent, the abstract also has a persuasive function, namely, to convince readers the main text has something new and important to offer.

Planning your research project:

  • Undertaking a project of any length involving original research means you will be working on the different sections that comprise your work at different times or sometimes you may be working on sections simultaneously.
  • All of this means, that you needed to plan all the activities involved in doing your project.
  • This will allow you to estimate the length of time you need to accomplish certain tasks, and the order you should do particular activities.
  • There are different ways to plan your research. Whichever approach you take to planning your work, remember the objective is to have a document that helps you manage your time.

The structure of your project:

  • You must produce a plan of how you intend to structure your project.
  • The following chart is an example of what your plan should look like.
  • The titles of each section is fairly standard and helps the reader to find the information they are looking for.
  • In the content column, use key words or short phrases to describe what you anticipate writing about in each section.
  • In the reference column, write the surname, and the year of publication of any source you have that might be useful for each section.

An Example Plan

Section / Title of section / Content / References used
No number / Table of contents /
  • Dedication
  • Acknowledgement

No
Number / Abstract /
  • Aim of study, significance of the study
  • Statement of the problem
  • Hypothesis
  • Methods of research (qualitative/quantitative)
  • Instrument (interview, questionnaire, and observations)

1 / Introduction /
  • Background of the research area
  • Definition of topic
  • Describe the problem/motivation for the study/statement of the problem/Hypothesis and its importance to your research
  • Describe the organization of the project and include the research method and instrument that you use to conduct your own research project
/
  • Southerland (1996)

1.2 / Literature Review /
  • Write here the different topics you will discuss using the literature.
  • What are the key topics,ideas or examples relating to your topic that other authors discuss in their studies?
/
  • Tylor (2009)

2 / Method/s /
  • Write here the steps you will take to gather data or material for research, or the approach you will take to investigate your topic.
/
  • The same as above

3 / Results/Data /
  • Write here how you will show the findings from your examination/study of material or data.
  • What would you like to use? Percentages or graphs or tables or examples etc.
/
  • Same as abve

3.1 / Discussion/Analysis of results /
  • Here you need to discuss or analyse your findings.
  • What do you think are the reasons for your findings?
  • Is there anything the reader might find surprising about the findings?
/
  • The same as above

3.2 / Recommendations (positional) /
  • If you include this section, be specific about what you recommend, also be realistic about the sort of actions you recommend

4 / Conclusion /
  • What are the main topics and findings that really stand out from your research?
  • Remind your reader how you have collected information or data for this study; what questions did your research findings not answer-where could further research be useful?

No number / Reference list/bibliography /
  • Use an alphabetical list of all the sources you have cited in your work.
  • Do not include authors that you did not cite.
  • Do not number this list.
  • Use APA, or Harvard Style

No number / Appendix or appendices /
  • Include all the documents that show you have collected your data. These may be letters you sent to institutions or participants to request permission to participate in your study, including questionnaires and responses you need.
  • If you translated the questionnaire into Arabic, include the English version (both versions)

No number / University document /
  • Turnit Documents (signed)
  • Photocopy of your approved research Proposal.

Choosing your participants:

  • It is important to think about who you will choose as participants in your study.
  • Be aware that the answers you get depend on who you ask.
  • Decide how many participants you will need for your study.
  • The number of your participants depends on your research question and your data collection instrument.
  • It is easy to use a questionnaire to collect data from a big number, but is not easy to use interviews with a big number.

The University’s electronic resources

  • E-sources
  • Jstor
  • E-library

Visit the library and ask the help of the librarians to access these sources.

Literature Review:

The aim of the literature review is to provide an in-depth account of the background literature relevant to the context that your study is situated in and, in doing so, to provide an ‘argument’, ‘case’ or justification for the study.

Functions of the literature review:

  • A review of non-research literature that summarizes and synthesizes background and contextual information.
  • Review of the research literature that is relevant to your study.
  • An identification of gaps or shortcomings in the area you are researching.
  • A rationale justifying why the gap was important and significant enough to be filled.

Literature review entails critical reading strategies.

What are critical reading strategies?

Reading effectively requires approaching texts with a critical eye, that is to say evaluating what you read. Effective reading is central to both effective research and effective writing. Being an effective reader also means being able to evaluate your own practices, working to develop your critical reading skills.

Knowing why you are reading a given text can help you organize both your reading and how you can use what you read. If you know what you are reading for, you can better distinguish information that can be skimmed from that which should be more closely examined, and make better use of your reading time.

Critical reading strategies:

  • Read with a pen or pencil, highlighting key statements, parts or points. Make notes of words or terms you do not understand so you look them up later.
  • Record your own questions, points of agreement or disagreement, references to related ideas, and points at which ideas match up with each other. In other words, work to enter into a dialogue with the text.

Reporting the published literature:

There are two main reasons for reporting what others have said: