Department of Language and Linguistics

Student Staff Liaison Committee

Wednesday 29th November 2017 13:00-14:00

Staff present / Dr Karen Roehr-Brackin (Chair – Director of Education)
Prof Nancy Kula (HoD)
Ms Dounia Bissar (Deputy Modern Languages Co-ordinator)
Ms Teresa Torres (Senior Tutor and Progress Officer)
Dr Yuni Kim (Community Cohesion)
Mr. Johnny Marriot (Students Union)
Student representatives / UG
Marcus Stanforth (English Language and Linguistics)
Siana Harris (BA Language and Linguistics)
Yat Yin Chan (BA Linguistics)
Panna-Claudia Cojocaru (BA Linguistics)
Lucrezia Periotto (BA International Relations and Modern Languages)
Hong Nhung Le (BA International Relations and Modern Languages)
Matthew Drake (BA English Language and Linguistics)
PG
Katherine Blinkhorn (MA Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
Phoebe Li (Diploma in Chinese-English Translation and Interpreting)
Georgiana Iote (MA Translation, Interpreting and Subtitling)
Apologies / Jessie Mallinson, Dr Christina Gkonou ,Ms Ignazia Posadinu, Dr Beatriz De Paiva, Miss Harriett Bragg
Secretary / Hannah James – Student Administrator (Undergraduate)
MINUTES / Action
1 / Staring of agenda items
Item 4 was starred
2 / Apologies for absence
Jessie Mallinson, Dr Christina Gkonou ,Ms Ignazia Posadinu, Dr Beatriz De Paiva, Miss Harriett Bragg
3a / Minutes of the previous meeting
N/A
3b / Matters arising
N/A
4 / Student business
  • Feedback:Claudi explained that there are many reading assignments and exercises given out every week and the students would like to receive feedback prior to the next assignment. As the University allows 20 working days for assignments to be marked, this does not always allow feedback to be received before the next assignment is due. Students are only currently aware of one affected module (LG212 Analysing the structure of English) however Claudi will look into any other affected modules and report back. Students were however provided with an answer key but feel personal feedback would be more beneficial.
  • Listen Again: - Lucrezia reported that Listen Again does not currently record the student’s questions to the lecturer as some rooms are large and the system does not pick these up. Students therefore request that lecturers repeat the question before providing an answer so both can clearly be recorded. It was noted that an email out to all teaching staff would be useful to remind them to repeat questions. This relates to lectures only and not seminars. Students taking Chinese Mandarin also felt it would be useful if the brush strokes for characters could be shown on the slides so that the order could be seen as the picture develops. The introduction of interactive whiteboards would enable this application.
  • Employability Module:Lucrezia informed the group that LA099 is not particularly relevant for students who are not planning a career in teaching. Students would like to focus more on a wider range of professions. The tutor did not expand on other careers available. Dounia informed the group that she had met with joint degree International Relations and Modern Languages and the same problem applies as with Politics where students will ultimately aim for careers in this sector. The Department of Government agreed that it would make sense for these students to take the employability module with them and this has been agreed with the director of Employability however it was noted that this would mean an increased workload for colleagues in that department and therefore this is the last hurdle to be addressed. So far, this has only been discussed with the Government department however we will look into other joint degrees.
Students would like to expand and focus on the ways to prepare for certain careers rather than just the benefits of the job.It was also noted that not enough information or focus is given to those wishing to continue their studies through a Masters or PhD rather than heading straight into employment.
Nancy highlighted the PG fortnight which takes place every year where UG students have an opportunity to speak to Masters students across the University which students feel would be a useful addition to advertise this through the module.
Action – Pass on to Employability director.
  • Skills for Linguistics module:Karen explained that this will be changed for next year. Matthew explained that students feel that the content is minimal and stretched out for 2 hours. Nancy noted that similar comments were made last year and so the module will be redesigned.
  • Lack of engagement with representation: Kat explained that on her PG TEFL course everyone seems happy although no one has come through with any comments good or bad. A survey was sent out through Jenny Upton which generated zero responses even though there was only one required question. Kat asked whether a get together or lunch could be arranged to conduct an interactive poll in order to get feedback. Johnny explained this is also an issue for undergraduate students therefore the SU will be organising events but will require departmental support in advertising. Karen asked whether the Moodle page set up last year for course reps had been used however students were not aware of this.
It was also noted that the library use a whiteboard to write a question and then passing students can add an answer. This is very anonymous and simple and could be replicated on a Departmental notice board or in the Social Space.
Karen explained that the mid-term feedback was conducted however students reported not all feedback had been returned or discussed on some modules.
Action – The SU will come up with ideas and circulate these.
5 / Background documentation (reference purposes)
Available on Moodle
6 / Chair’s report
N/A
7 / Annual Review of Courses, External Examiner reports, Satisfaction survey outcomes and Student assessment of modules and teaching.
N/A
8 / New/revised course developments
N/A
9 / Student Handbook
N/A
10 / Employability activities report
Available on Moodle
11 / Any other business
Chinese English Translation and Interpreting: Phoebe reported that during the 8 hours of lectures each week only 5-10 minutes are used to practice interpreting. Other students have more time to practice using the LTB 6. Unfortunately this is mostly due to class size as European language students have smaller groups. Phoebe also noted that there is no research module focusing on writing PhD proposals and students on her module feel this would be useful. Dounia explained that the MA dissertation proposal during the Spring term will provide some one-to-one guidance on this topic.
12 / Date and time of next meeting
13:00 Wednesday 28th February 2017