Diane Slaouti

Opportunities for Practice and Development: Newly Qualified Teachers and the Use of Information and Communications Technologies in Teaching Foreign Languages in English Secondary School Contexts

This study explores the experiences of newly qualified teachers of foreign languages in English secondary school contexts as they both seek opportunities and develop their abilities to use information and communications technologies (ICT) as a tool to support foreign language learning. A cohort of newly qualified foreign language teachers from the University of Manchester was first surveyed to establish a picture of teacher experience and confidence in the use of ICT after their initial training year. Based on self‐declared interest in ICT as a development area, indicated in career entry profiles, six case‐study teachers were subsequently identified and their experiences in specific school environments were explored. Cross‐case analysis determined not only the impact of specific factors on opportunities for ICT use and personal development, but also an ecological dimension to the school contexts resulting in an interplay between factors with varying effects on newly qualified teachers.

The World Wide Web for academic purposes: old study skills for new?

Abstract This paper argues for a specific need to explore critical information processing skills of the World Wide Web (WWW) as part of an English for Academic Purposes teaching and learning context. It recognises the potential of the WWW to bring relevant and not so relevant authentic content to academic study in a way never before possible, but also presents pilot data about the extent to which such resources are being referred to in academic courses at one UK university. It considers the specific literacies of the WWW in terms of its tools and its texts and suggests that, if learners are to become effectively autonomous in these literacies, then the WWW deserves specific study skills attention. It argues for a specific focus on the role of evaluation of both product and process as a study skill in order to ensure that teachers and learners alike keep pace with a medium that, at present, is characterised by on-going fluidity and few recognisably common standards.

Going the distance : students' experiences of induction to distance learning in higher education

Embarking upon a programme of distance study can be bewildering for students and the experience compounded by apprehension and uncertainties. Induction is a way of easing the transition and helping students to become effective distance learners so that they can progress successfully through their studies. The purpose of this research was to enable tutors to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the induction experiences of their distance students in order to improve and make more appropriate the levels of support provided to students commencing distance study. The research investigated the induction provision of five distance programmes offered by a traditional UK university and identified specific areas where developments could be made. The research also identified generic components of induction, represented in ‘START‐OUT’, and which can be utilized as a comprehensive checklist for induction.