Case studies archive

English language case studies

Trees in Representation and Reality: An Induction Activity for English Language Students November 2010: As part of induction at the University of Gloucestershire, first-year English Language students conducted an outdoor exercise assessing the relationship between representations of trees and their physical presence.

Enhancing interactive learning in the classroom with Turning Point - March 2010: Engaging students in class discussion can be difficult when they feel reticent or not confident enough to openly express their personal views, especially in a module focused on prescriptive vs. descriptive attitudes to language. This case-study describes the use of an innovative resource which helps foster and enhance interactive teaching and learning by means of an electronic response system with voting pads, namely Turning Point.

Research-Led Language Teaching: Designing a new ‘Language and Style of Crime Narratives’ module: This case study describes an undergraduate English Language option module, ‘Language and Style of Crime Narratives’, derived from the stylistic research of the lecturer. The module is contextualised then details are proivided of its content in the form of activities (seminar, workshops, group presentations), assessment, and student performance/feedback.

Teaching transitivity: One of the difficulties involved in stylistics and Critical Discourse Analysis is the time it takes for students to become fluent and confident in handling a new vocabulary when discussing and describing texts. This case-study describes a way of introducing students to a new technical vocabulary by way of an approach drawn from creative writing and textual intervention.

Developing oral skills for a changing world: the potential of Open Space facilitation: This case study describes an attempt to adapt the facilitation technique known in the business world as ‘Open Space’ to higher education, in particular to a second year English Language module ‘Language and Gender’.

Awareness into action: linking learning with research in ecolinguistics: This case study describes the close linkages made between teaching and research in the Language and Ecology module at the University of Gloucestershire. As part of the module, students become involved in the international Language & Ecology Research Forum, contributing insights from their own research and reflection at a variety of levels from short comment to full articles.