This is a follow-up of the successfully completed UROP 2021 project that documented progress in acquiring English of newly arriving children in the period of one year. The database will be an Open Access training tool showcasing different trajectories to English language proficiency for the use of teachers and families.
Department: The Learning Hub
Supervised by: Anna Tsakalaki
This placement aims to address the lack of a consistent and easy to use database of learning profiles of pupils who arrive in the UK with little or no English and are placed in formal education. Educators and professionals in local educational authorities who work with this population often have no models with which to compare their language skills or lose track of these children’s language development after the initial assessment. In this placement, we will create a database of real-world profiles of EAL learners at various stages of development assessed via the Bell Foundation EAL Assessment Framework. In our UROP 2021 project, teachers/assessors formed a collaborative working group and mapped language development (oral and written English) of 30 children in 5 primary and secondary schools over the course of a year. In the proposed placement, we will document the changes made over time and build an applied, evidence-based database accessible to other teachers and parents. The student will help the PI to illustrate learning trajectories to English proficiency per learner, build the Open Access database and disseminate the results of the study and the Open Access tool to the wider public.
The student is going to be guided by the PI in undertaking tasks corresponding to key milestones of creating Open Access tools from research evidence. These include: 1) collating data and mapping with the Assessment Framework, 2) building the database or other visuals to represent the learning profiles, 3) preparing data for analysis (engagement in data analysis using NVivo, if the student is interested in this task), 4) interpreting and writing a synthesis of the results (draft report). The duration of the tasks will be agreed with the supervisor based on the student’s previous experience and confidence in doing parts of the tasks independently. It is anticipated that the whole placement will last for 6 weeks. The PI is going to provide guidance with regards to the content of each task and will make sure the student is offered relevant training in software for data analysis and database creation, if needed.
No prior knowledge is essential but good knowledge of Microsoft Excel or SPSS or NVivo is desired. Experience of creating websites or databases in the past is a bonus, but not having it is not a criterion for exclusion. A strong interest in Open Research, in the field of language development, EAL, multilingualism, the use of technologies for learning purposes would be ideal for the role. Applicants may come from the Institute of Education, English Language and Applied Linguistics, Psychology and Clinical Languages, or Computer Science, but students from other schools with an interest in the field are welcome to apply.
The student will have the opportunity to get involved in decision making, designing and conducting aspects of this type of research (exploratory and participatory research). They will get a first-hand experience of organising data for analysis, analysing data, illustrating research results for a wider audience aiming for application to real-life situations and writing a report of findings. Shared authorship or acknowledgement in the published report is an additional potential outcome for the student subject to the project reviews (see relevant field). The student will benefit directly from networking with other academic staff and research students at the Institute of Education working in the field of interest. All skills are transferable in the student’s own studies and future profession, and depending on their stage, could be transferable to a postgraduate research-based degree in Education, Applied Linguistics, Psychology and Clinical Languages or Computer Science.
Depending on student's availability this placement can be completed in a working-from-distance mode. However, if the student prefers working on campus, there is availability of study space and a computer room on the London Road campus and the Whiteknights campus.
9am-5pm but flexible depending on students' other commitments
Monday 19 June 2023 - Friday 28 July 2023
The deadline to apply for this opportunity is the end of the day on Wednesday 31 May 2023. The Students should send their CV and cover letter via email to a.tsakalaki@reading.ac.uk. Subject of the email must be ‘UROP application – Open Access EAL Database’.