AY 2007-2008 Projects - Africa

Country                       Namibia
City                              Windhoek
Host Institution           Polytechnic of Namibia

Note: This project starts in February 2008

Project Description
An EL Fellow with either writing center or tutoring experience would be extremely valuable in helping the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to launch the Reading and Writing Center. This type of academic support service is relatively new to Namibia; and although the Reading and Writing Center has been thoroughly researched, the Polytechnic lacks staff who have first-hand experience working in one. An EL Fellow will provide essential guidance for the CTL on setting up and running the center, training staff members and collaborating with content-area lecturers. The opening of the Reading and Writing Center will correspond with the arrival of the EL Fellow (it is scheduled to offer full-fledged services starting in August 2007), and the EL Fellow will have the opportunity to contribute significantly to the success of this fledgling project. Through the CTL, the EL Fellow will also be well placed to assist with outreach programs to secondary schools. The EL Fellow will be able to have considerable impact on increasing secondary-tertiary dialogue particularly in the area of English language teaching and learning. EL Fellow duties will be divided between three areas: faculty support, student support and outreach to the secondary education system. The EL Fellow will develop a training course for new tutors at the Reading and Writing Center; train tutors during the year and train trainers to take over after he/she has left; gather and develop materials for use in the Reading and Writing Center and in the Faculty Resource Center. These include training materials, tutoring materials and handouts, and faculty-support materials for content-area lecturers. The EL Fellow will also work with content-area lecturers on ways to make classes more accessible to non-native English speaking students and on strategies for adding more reading and writing across the curriculum. The EL Fellow will mentor a group of lecturers on their course design and teaching methods to help them improve their courses; plan and conduct periodic workshops for faculty to address teaching challenges; and assist the CTL director with already established workshops such as weekly CTL Sessions, the New Academic Staff Induction and the annual Great Teacher’s Workshop. The EL Fellow will provide student support at the new Reading and Writing Center; and tutor students up to six hours per week in reading and writing skills. The EL Fellow will work with the Khomas Region ESL Subject-Area Advisor to design and conduct weekly, professional skills development workshops for secondary school educators in the Windhoek area.  The EL Fellow will assist the CTL director in organizing meetings and workshops for secondary and tertiary instructors to encourage dialogue and collaboration between secondary and tertiary institutions. The CTL will also encourage the EL Fellow to work closely with the American Culture Center and NIED and participate in conferences or workshops arranged by these organizations.

Division of Workload/Work Schedule
Faculty support: 26 hours per week
Student support: 6 hours per week
Outreach: 8 hours per week
This will build on two years of work by the current EL Fellow who helped lay the groundwork for this project while working mainly in the communications department. The CTL has been recommended because, with the opening of the new Reading and Writing Center, the next EL Fellow can have the greatest positive impact. It also offers the most flexibility and more opportunity for the EL Fellow to do outreach.

Project Objectives
Although English is the language of instruction in Namibia, almost all students at the Polytechnic are non-native English speakers and struggle considerably with English. The Polytechnic requires students to enroll in ESL classes; however, for most students these classes are not enough. Language skills are constantly cited by content-area lecturers as the biggest problem for students. Students have difficulties reading textbooks, understanding lectures and writing papers. Employers also cite lack of English communication skills as one of their greatest frustrations when hiring Polytechnic graduates. In response to this need, the CTL is establishing a Reading and Writing Center which will provide individualized support for students and also work closely with content-area lecturers to adapt their courses to meet students’ needs. The Center is modeled on an American-style, university writing center, but with a focus on working with non-native English speakers. The goal of the Reading and Writing Center is to provide students and faculty with instructional support for improving English reading and writing skills across the curriculum. Specifically, the Reading and Writing Center will aim to provide a supportive and motivating environment where students can receive one-to-one assistance to help them develop their writing, reading, vocabulary, grammar, research and study skills; advise faculty on teaching methods and course design for developing reading and writing skills in the disciplines; encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning; facilitate a shift from teacher-centered instruction to active, student-centered learning. Polytechnic’s request for an EL Fellow clearly addresses English instruction at the tertiary level -- a critical weaknesses in the Namibian education system. Namibia needs some kind of intervention to jump start its students’ English skills and this center holds that promise. This proposal emphasizes the need for Namibian students to learn English well in order to be successful in their fields of study and later endeavors in the work place. The EL Fellow will work with professors in different disciplines to better incorporate English usage and writing into their course work. This is the method used in many of the finest liberal arts colleges and universities in the United States and we would like to see it replicated in Namibia. Of the three universities in Nambia, only Polytechnic has the management skills and innovation to carry off a project of this nature.

About the Host Institution
The Polytechnic of Namibia is Namibia’s university of science and technology and one of only two universities in the country. Approximately 7,000 students are currently enrolled at the Polytechnic in either full-time, part-time or distance education programs. The Polytechnic offers degrees in Engineering, Information Technology, Agriculture, Nature Conservation, Hospitality & Tourism, and Accounting & Finance, among others. Its goal is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become leaders in Namibian society and contribute toward the economic success of the country. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the Polytechnic is responsible for providing academic support services for students and faculty in order to improve the quality of education at the Polytechnic. It is also involved in outreach programs focused on increasing secondary-tertiary collaboration. Through these projects, the CTL seeks to improve teaching and learning at the Polytechnic and in the Namibian school system, which feeds into the Polytechnic.