Proceso de investigación

The participants then role-play several request scenarios with their classmates, with the teacher and with volunteer tutors. The role-plays are video-taped for later review. A fi nal step involves the participants practicing making requests by email and by telephone and discussing the different style of language that these mediums require.

The Learning Cycle

As can be seen from the description of the instruction model and the example of the classroom materials above, the program provides many opportunities for learners to practice, refl ect, observe, and receive feedback from teachers, from volunteer tutors, from workplace support personnel, and from managers during the work placement. The participants are often pushed beyond their comfort zone but as a result often make signifi cant progress in a very short time. This cyclical process of learning is outlined in Figure 7.1.

Assessment

The progress that participants make is assessed during and at the end of the three-month course. There are a number of formal assessment tasks that the class is

FIGURE 7.1 The cyclical process of learning

Helping Skilled Migrants into Employment 79

introduced to on the fi rst day of the course. All the tasks are linked to the objec-tives of the program and this is made explicit in the course information booklet.

The formal assessment tasks include:

• a professional portfolio containing a CV and cover letter, an email, a career plan, language learning goals;

• an oral presentation (10–15 minutes) that integrates understandings gained during the classroom phase of the course and the work experience compo-nent;

• participation in interactions during the course, for example, in mock job interviews;

• a self-evaluative refl ective exercise where each participant summarizes their development of communication skills in English.

In addition each participant receives a report from their work placement manager, who comments on a range of features including the ability to work indepen-dently, communication skills, and how well the participant fi tted into the team.

As can be seen from the discussion and model of the learning cycle above, there are also many informal assessment and feedback opportunities that occur throughout the course, for example, self-assessments of recorded interactions and mock job interviews, feedback from volunteer tutors, ongoing feedback from the teacher, and feedback from the workplace consultants.

Program Evaluation

Evaluation of the program takes a number of forms: an evaluation questionnaire completed by all graduating participants, a formal evaluation of the course and teaching carried out by the university, and informal debrief meetings at the end of each course with feedback from all contributors: teachers, workplace consul-tants and managers. In response to the suggestions raised in these different forms of feedback and evaluation the program is constantly being added to and improved.

In addition, several of the skilled migrant participants have also been involved in a research study that is currently being carried out by the Language in the Workplace research team at Victoria University. This study tracks the development of communication skills of course members during the instructional segment of the program and during the work experience period. The results of this research provide further valuable insights into the effectiveness of the teaching module and course materials.

Perhaps the most compelling insight into the value of the program comes from a survey of the employment outcomes for the graduates. To date approximately 79 per cent of the graduates of the program, from 2005 to 2009, have found employ-ment in their professional areas.

80 Nicky Riddiford

Conclusion

This chapter has described a program designed to prepare skilled migrants for the professional workplace in New Zealand. Signifi cant features of the program are the instruction in communication skills based on the analysis of authentic inter-actions; opportunities for participants to practice these skills with native speakers in the classroom and the workplace; and opportunities for participants to become aware of workplace practices in New Zealand by completing a six-week intern-ship in their specialist areas.

References

Holmes, J. (2000). Doing collegiality and keeping control at work: Small talk in govern-ment departgovern-ments. In Justine Coupland (Ed.), Small talk (pp. 32–61). London, UK:

Longman.

Kasper, G. (1996). Introduction: Pragmatics in SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18, 145–148.

Riddiford, N. (2007). Making requests appropriately in a second language: Does instruc-tion help to develop pragmatic profi ciency? The TESOLANZ Journal, 15, 88–102.

Schmidt, R. (1995). Consciousness and foreign language learning: A tutorial on the role of attention and awareness in learning. In Attention and Awareness in Foreign Language Learning (pp. 1–63). Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Comment

This chapter has provided us with a concise description of a specifi c purposes course that has achieved remarkable results in moving skilled migrants into the workplace. The successful manner in which a number of people and organizations have worked together over several years is also a noteworthy feature of the program. Ultimately, however, the well-intentioned efforts of individuals and organizations would most probably have failed in meeting the program’s goal if the course had not been appropriately designed.

The content of this course was clearly selected to meet the needs of the partic-ipants, which had in turn determined the course goals. The Language in the Workplace Project provided a rich resource of authentic workplace exchanges to draw on for teaching purposes, but having well-chosen authentic material for classroom use would not have been suffi cient in itself. It was the tasks built around the available material that created the learning opportunities; in this case study, then, we have information both about course content decisions and about the format and presentation of the teaching material. These are important questions for teachers and course designers to consider, and the suggestions for further reading below explore them further.

Helping Skilled Migrants into Employment 81

Tasks

1. The content of a course should be related to the needs of the learners, and to who the learners are. Read the chapter again and make notes to complete the table below. As the example shows, not all needs in this case study may be language-related.

TABLE 7.1

About the learners Learners’ needs Course content

Do not have New Zealand Experience of a New Work experience

work experience Zealand workplace placement

2. Kasper’s (1996) instructional model suggests three important elements, or principles, to draw on. Explain to a partner how these elements are included in the example from the requesting unit in this chapter.

3. This chapter has focused on how one pragmatic skill, making a request, was taught to the skilled migrants. Choose one other area of course content, from the table in Task 1, and consider a sequence of activities for teaching that. You might want to consider the principles that Nicky Riddiford mentions in this chapter, or draw on another set of principles.

Suggested Further Reading

Macalister, J. (forthcoming). Today’s teaching, tomorrow’s text: exploring the teaching of reading. ELT Journal.

Nation, P. (2007). The four strands. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 1–12.

Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. Harlow, UK: Longman.

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