A Proposal for a PET project in Insubria
Huw Williams PhD
Introduction. The PET project will be a project that differs from many standard university language projects in that
1) it trains for everyday language rather than the specialised language of the subject that the student is studying and
2) 25% of the marks are given for speaking and 25% for listening.
In my experience, these skills are usually lacking in the majority of Italian university students, who are strongest in reading and fairly mechanical grammatical exercises. Those who call the PET too easy usually fail to realise this. The reading may be easy, the writing, listening and conversation are not.
The above implies a different approach to the current one to teaching which, because of large classes and limited time tends to concentrate on helping students with reading skills in their specialised subject. An exam that concentrates much more on conversational skills and writing necessarily involves at some stage smaller classes, although listening can be practised with larger groups and in a self access centre with a degree of supervision. Regular essay writing is also impossible in large classes.
It is worth noting that at the University of Siena, where PET was introduced prior to the Campus project, there are classes of 25 and closer to the time emphasis is given to specific examination training. Siena divides their courses up into four types depending on a diagnostic test at the beginning of the course and the number of hours they get taught depends on their level in the following way: he majority of students belong to level 2 or 3..
Beginners 216 hours .
Pre-intermediate students 144 hours
Intermediate students 60 hours .
Upper Intermediate 30 hours
The proposal outlined below suggests a similar number of groups but with a different overall structure.
The outline of the evaluation process.
So far I have only been able to test the students in Communication Science and the outline project below obviously refers to them only. Here the diagnostic test revealed the following.
Group 1 Upper intermediate 23 (plus 5) = 28 students
Group 2 Intermediate 32 (plus 7) = 39students
Group 3 Lower Intermediate 9 (plus 2) = 11 students
Group 4 Beginners 9 (plus 2) = 11 students
(dealt with at the end of the proposal)
(17 students did not attend the test but for statistical purposes I have added them proportionally to the above group)
The proposal
For everyone except Group 1 there would be two phases
Phase 1 would consist of the regular course of 42 hours, which would take in groups 2 and 3 for the first 7 weeks ( approximately 50 students) and group 1 for the second 7 weeks. The course book has already been chosen and ordered from the University bookshop and is highly oriented towards the exam. The supervisor would give a mock PET test at the end of the course and those who showed that they should pass the test would be entered for the exam in December. I assume no Campus costs
Phase 2. Prior to the exam, extra classes concentrating on speaking and writing skills would be given to the group ready to take the exam . These classes would preferably be small with not more than 16-18 students in a class as the students would at this stage need to be monitored individually. These classes should be for a minimum of 10 hours in October 2002. As I am anticipating that between 60 and 70 would fall into this group we are talking about 64 hours in all. However, as the classes would be similar to language school classes, the teachers could be paid at language school rates and a good teacher accustomed to the level from a private school, either by contracting them directly or by contracting them through a language school. Such teachers would certainly be available at around 35 euros per hour, so that the total cost of this stage would be 2240 euros (Cost 1) .
Phase 3 . Assuming (as I do) that about 75% would pass the PET at the first attempt, at this stage of the project we are still left with four groups, but 3 of which are now of a different nature, which will be identified at different times:
Group 1athose who pass the PET exam in December -identified in February 2003..
Group 2bthose who fail the PET exam in December - identified in February 2003
Group 3cthose advised not to do the exam in December - identified in June 2002
Group 4the beginners
(Note that the above groups will have to be coordinated into the general time-table for the class).
Group 1a would be encouraged to move on to FCE in December 2003 with special classes prior to the exam like PET in Phase 1 to teach them the special oral and other skills for the exam, e.g. 2 classes X 10 hours X 35 euros = 700 euros (Cost 2).
Group 2b - those who failed the PET (another 20 or so) would attend the multimedia centre when the results of the examination came back in February 2003. If a full multi media centre is not available a room with self access books and cassettes provided would be adequate. The students would be encouraged to study in their spare time but the supervisor would be present at set times to monitor their progress and decide when they should do the exam. They would have a further chance to do the examination in March or June 2003 if, in the view of the supervisor, they had a good chance of passing it.
Group 3c (20 or so) would be asked to attend the multi-media self-access classes from October and try the PET exam in March or June according to the discretion of the supervisor
Beginners
As illustrated above Group 4 - the beginners - are given special attention in Siena and this seems right in the sense that they are not to blame for doing French in secondary school. From as early possible I propose that they should do a special course of 4 hours a week by a trained teacher or teachers in the second semester of 2001-2002 and the first semester of 2002 – 2003, this will mainly be to concentrate on their oral skills. The aim should be that they should reach a level to attend the main 42 hour course in the second semester 2002 – 2003 and are thus included in the project a year after the others. This will be difficult but not impossible if the benefits of a Cambridge certificate are explained to motivate them. and particularly if they supplement this with the use of self access materials and even attend private language schools.
The cost of this course would be 4 hours a week X 25 weeks X 35 euros an hour = 3,500 euros(Cost 3) .
The administration and cost of the exam. Although Cambridge would probably allow the university to run its own exams, it would be advisable to have some contact with a language school in Varese, as the administration of the examination is a lot of hard work
The cost of the PET exam and the FCE exam are 70 euros and 130 euros respectively. Therefore, a very rough costing for the two exams would be as follows:
90 students doing the PET exam once 6,300 euros
?40 needing to repeat the exam 2,800 euros
?30 students doing the FCE 3,900 euros
Total 13,000 euros(Cost 4)
Thus, the total personnel and exam costs needed for the project –in summary form – for the project in Scienza della Comunicazione (excluding the costs for multi-media and the supervisor, yet to be established) are as follows:
Cost 1. (special oral training before PET exam) 2,240 euros
Cost 2. (oral classes before FCE) 700 euros
Cost 3. (beginners course) 3,500 euros
Cost 4 (exam costs) 13,000 euros
The role of the supervisor, in addition to teaching the main course, would be the following:
- to determine the level of the students and allocate them to the correct classes.
- to supervise and, perhaps teach some of the smaller preparation classes.
- to monitor the progress of the students at all levels and advise on what exams they should take and when.
- to help in the creation and eventual supervision of the multi-media centre.
- to liase with the language school in the organisation of the exams.