Director s Introduction

Introduction to the Annual Report 2019-20

The year started well, with higher than usual enrolments for CULP courses, and the introduction of British Sign Language for the first time.

Then COVID-19 resulted in lockdown in March. All staff immediately started working from home. CULP courses had just finished, and ADTIS moved its In-Sessional programme online, while the John Trim Centre had to close. A fast learning curve in the use of Zoom and MS Teams as well as a very great deal of preparation and repurposing of teaching materials meant that teaching continued almost seamlessly, Easter Term and Long Vacation CULP courses ran remotely with record numbers, perhaps reflecting the time people had to learn languages with greater flexibility of access, and an analysis of feedback showed equal or higher rating of most aspects of the courses than for standard face to face teaching. The Pre-Sessional was delivered remotely in August/September across the widest possible global time-zones which was challenging for synchronous sessions, with excellent outcomes and feedback. The advising team also continued to provide remote sessions to support independent language learning through online sites, without the benefit of access to the John Trim Centre’s wealth of shelved resources.

The Centre's support for international graduate student admissions saw a considerable increase in demand for assessments, not least due to the widespread COVID-related closure of testing centres for IELTS and other eligible language tests. Additional assessments were also provided for some undergraduates too. The ADTIS team were closely involved in working with and advising the admissions offices on new approaches to take.

We were delighted to appoint Pedram Badakhchani as our new Head of ELearning from November 2019. Congratulations to him and his team for their successful bid to the University’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund to support a project to develop an augmented reality learning resource for British Sign Language and they will be working closely with the Cambridgeshire Deaf Association in the development during 2020-21.

Looking after our building in Downing Place during lockdown in order to ensure essential access as necessary, and preparing for it to reopen safely for Michaelmas Term 2020 has been a huge undertaking for the Centre’s Administrator and Departmental Safety Officer, supported by our Fire Manager and custodian.

The Centre had a good year financially, which will enable new strategic investments to go ahead in 2020-21, not least in improving the John Trim Centre’s learning facilities and staff accommodation. These projects may be delayed due to ongoing COVID-10 restrictions, however.

Congratulations and heartfelt thanks are due to all Language Centre staff for not only coping well, but actually stepping up and delivering so superbly.

Jocelyn Wyburd

Move to online provision

In light of this year’s unprecedented circumstances, ADTIS provision moved fully online from the end of March. Over the past 3-4 years, ADTIS has been drawing on the benefits of voiceover recordings of ppts and also delivering workshops at lunchtimes using Adobe Connect so that students did not have to travel into the centre of Cambridge to attend a workshop or supervision. And so the move online was arguably more straightforward than it might have been for other parts of the University.

The In-Sessional workshops went fully online in ET20, delivered either via Zoom or Adobe Connect, and were recorded so that students could rewatched them or catch up if they were not able to attend the session.

The Pre-Sessional, a 200-hr, five-week, intensive residential programme, also went online and this was arguably more of a challenge to realise through Zoom and Teams. But with a re-designed programme and significant pre-recording for the asynchronous sessions, the programme for 53 postgraduates from Peru to Japan was successfully delivered across a 14-hr time difference.

Bespoke Provision

In addition to all of the sessions that we currently deliver, we also had a request from the Department of Chemistry for a series of three sessions, with formative feedback, on aspects of academic writing. These will be delivered in LT21.

Assessments

Assessment numbers rose significantly on last year in light of the pandemic, with increased numbers across the board for the GAO, JBS, ICE, as well as a significant number of assessments for undergraduate entry. ADTIS also authored several papers for the University’s UPAG Working Group on English language tests during the pandemic.

ADTIS FEEDBACK

“As I mentioned last week, it was an excellent course considering the current situation. Undoubtedly, the ADTIS team achieved to cope with this huge challenge to move the course online in an incredible way.” Feedback on the Online Pre-Sessional Programme

“Thanks for the session yesterday - much appreciated! It tees up so much for the course and the suggested tools and resources are really helpful too.”

Feedback on an Introductory session on academic writing for a Department

“I found Dr Ottewell a very interesting speaker, who kept my attention throughout the talk. I think I would find it very easy to listen to her whatever the subject. The talk was extremely instructive and explained very clearly the origins and developments of the English language over two millennia. Congratulations on a well-presented and clear delivery that was a pleasure to listen to.”

Feedback on a lecture as part of ICE’s Virtual Summer School on The History of English

“Coming from a Spanish speaking household, although I did my undergraduate + MEng in the States, I found your explanation on how English differs from romantic languages quite interesting and illuminating. It was one of those things that I never thought about until it was brought up to my attention.”

Feedback on the pre-recorded materials on academic writing at PG level for the Computer Lab.