Daniel Craig
10-16-00
Preliminary Term Project Proposal #1
All international students entering the University of Illinois who received lower than a 610 on the TOEFL are required to take the EPT (English Proficiency Test). This test consists of two sections: oral and written. The oral section includes a brief interview where students will be asked various questions designed to elicit targeted language areas and will be scored on their responses. The written section is a process. Students are brought into a room where they are given instructions on the how to proceed with the test. They are given an article to read on a pre-chosen topic and a brief video of a lecture relating to the same topic. After having gone through these materials, students are given an hour to write an essay on the topic discussed in both the article and video, using evidence from each as support. A new experimental program is being piloted now as well that would allow students to use the same input materials to write the essay, but would differ in three ways. First, students would get into groups and discuss the materials. Second, students would do peer editing on two other students essays. Third, students would get a chance to rewrite their essays with the suggestions of their peers.
Having taught in the ESL service courses for the last two semesters and having rated hundreds of EPT essays, I will focus on the written portion of the test. The teaching of oral skills on the Web is not something that I choose to attack at this time. The Web was designed for writing though. With audio, video, graphics, and interactivity, the teaching of the writing process can be very rewarding. I would like to put all of these together and make a Website devoted to preparing students for the EPT.
I have mapped out a few ideas that should go into this site. There will be at least four sections of the site.
1. Introduction
2. Reading
3. Video
4. Essay Development
The Introduction would include some of the information that I provided above. Other information would be the purpose of a Website such as this, the University of Illinois ESL requirements and how the EPT relates to them, and the general instructions on how to use the Website and what they will be expected to produce at the end of the process.
The Reading section will provide a reading similar to those used in the EPT, a variety of glossing techniques, a discussion board, and a comprehension quiz. The reading will be glossed using text, graphic, audio, and/or video. It may not be possible, or even beneficial, to use all of these methods for each item, but using a combination of them may benefit comprehension.* Students may do either the quiz or discussion board next. The quiz will a multiple choice/true-false format, which will provide correct answers on request or respond to those given by the user. The discussion board will consist of a message board where students can get together and discuss their ideas in a central area. These discussions may be kept for any amount of time allowing users to benefit from their predecessors.
The Video section will consist of a streamed video (size of a 10 minute video being a factor) with a running text of the dialogue below. This will also be accompanied by a discussion board of its own and a quiz of the same nature as the one in the Reading section.
The Essay Development section will consist of outline development as well as the final essay writing component. The outline assistant is still in its early stages. Generally, it takes students on a step by step process for creating an outline. With this finished the students would be prepared to write actual essay, which will be timed at 60 minutes.
With this basic proposal at your finger tips, I welcome your suggestions and criticisms. Nothing is too insignificant. I hope that this project will benefit people outside of this classroom. I hope to direct students to this site for years to come.
* This is debated a bit. While current studies have not proven this point, it is being researched.
created by Daniel Craig