| Country Cyprus
City Famagusto
Host Institution Eastern Mediterranean University, InterCollege Project Description
In general, the English writing skills of EMU’s undergraduate students are far below what is required for an academic setting. Currently, there are no mandatory writing courses to address this problem. It is thought that by running a pilot project involving a semester of intensive writing instruction, in an intimate setting of no more than 20 students per class, with quality teacher feedback, this will substantially boost students’ writing performance. To test this hypothesis, the EL Fellow will be responsible for designing the structure and content of an academic research writing elective, teaching it, and monitoring students’ progress from beginning to end. The Fellow will get initial writing samples from the course participants before any actual instruction begins so that pre-course writing ability can be quantifiably measured against post-course writing ability. Those involved in this pilot project will be 2nd year university students from various disciplines. Participants would number approximately 40, i.e., two class sections of 20 students. The writing ability would represent the typical skill level of this student population – advanced beginning to pre-intermediate. In fact, student participants may be hand picked to represent the weaker end of the writing skill spectrum. If the project demonstrates significant positive results, this may be the basis by which certain undergraduate curriculum changes in the area of General Education are made university system-wide. Additionally, the Fellow will work closely with John Eldridge, Vice Chair of the General Education Department, in the area of English Language Instruction. The Fellow will take part in the following duties: develop computer based language activities with critical thinking components that students would be able to access independently and that would enhance current classroom instruction; organize and contribute materials (and ideas) to the newly-established Language Support Center; assist with strategies to attract student visitors/users to the center; host and/or participate in professional development workshops for language teachers on a variety of topics relevant to the EMU context; assist John Eldridge with reports, program assessments, evaluation of materials and curriculum, etc. in preparation to meet the newly established“foreign” language programs standards for universities officially recognized as part of the European Union. | 
