Online publishing: authentic writing opportunities for learners

This paper describes the use of live online journals established by the course providers to create an authentic writing environment for learners to work within. A range of six journals provides learners with choices of writing topics and audiences, and opportunities to learn about audience awareness and genre. Approximately 600 Year 2 university students write an article for one of these journals each year as part of their ESP course. In addition to being graded for the course, the best articles are submitted to the journal editors who decide independently which to publish. Maintaining high but achievable standards produces a challenging but accessible target and an authentic writing environment as well as an additional 'qualification' for the cv of those who are successfully published.postprin

The Professional Identity of SALL Practitioners

Session: Facilitating self-access learningThe article can be viewed at: http://sola.kmutt.ac.th/dral2014/proceedings_online/106-114%20ILA%20David%20Gardner%20Lindsay%20Miller-formatted.pdfThis paper examines the professional identity of practitioners in the field of self-access language learning (SALL) at tertiary level institutions in Hong Kong. It uses research data and examples from the literature to illustrate membership of a SALL practitioners’ professional community which exhibits the characteristics of a “community of practice” (CoP) as defined by Lave and Wenger (1991). After outlining the three key elements (Wenger, 2006) and the seven main principles of a CoP (Wenger et al, 2003), we illustrate through interview data a clear example of membership and non-membership of the community and discuss an example of how teachers who are not initially members were inducted into a CoP by challenging their beliefs and values. Thirdly, we identify ways to bring teachers into a SALL practitioners’ CoP and review the key features which promote and strengthen such a community. Nurturing a strong SALL practitioner’s CoP and encouraging teachers’ membership of it contributes to the development of their professional identity

Peer tutoring: Out-of-class speaking opportunities

Conference Theme: Research into Practice in the Four-year curriculumOut-of-class learning will become a large component of all English courses in the new curriculum at HKU. However, experience shows it is particularly difficult to provide out-of-class speaking opportunities. This paper reports on a collaborative project by the Centre for Applied English Studies and the Centre of Development and Resources for Students (both at HKU) which recruits students who are native- or expert-speakers of English to volunteer their time to provide face-to-face speaking opportunities for other students of the university. This form of peer-tutoring has its origins both in tandem learning (Voller & Pickard 1996 through to Schwienhorst 2009) and in the development of Learning Commons (see for example, learningcommons.sfu.ca and Demeter 2011). The HKU programme has become popular with students at all levels of proficiency because it has sufficient flexibility to offer: confidence raising for anxious speakers, ad hoc tutoring for those needing improvement, natural language interaction for higher level speakers and an opportunity for highly local knowledge exchange between the tutors and tutees (the development of Knowledge Exchange is a theme that is currently being strongly promoted by the UGC). Using data collected through questionnaires and focus groups this presentation reports on the perceived benefits of the scheme both for tutors and tutees, and suggests ways to facilitate such a scheme in other institutions.published_or_final_versio

Uncovering SAC managers’ attitudes and approaches to autonomous language learning

The Conference accepted abstracts' website is located at http://ilac2009.elc.polyu.edu.hk/index.php/ILAC/ILAC2009/schedConf/presentationsConference Theme: Independent Learning: Building on experience, seeking new perspectivesPaper Presentation - Managing independent learning centresIn this session we present an analysis of qualitative data from a research project which looked at the management of self-access language learning from the perspective of the managers of seven self-access centres. The goal of the project was to see how, and to what extent, there is a match between a theoretical perspective of learner autonomy and the practice of managing self access facilities. There were three stages to the project: First, the seven SAC managers completed a detailed questionnaire about their attitudes and approaches to self access learning and learner autonomy; secondly, based on their replies to the questionnaire, each manager was interviewed to provide a deeper understanding of their views and practices; and finally, we brought the managers together for a focus group discussion about some of the main issues which emerged from the data. Our interpretation of 'theory versus practice' is discussed in this session.postprin

Peer tutoring: Out-of-class speaking opportunities

Conference Theme: Research into Practice in the Four-year curriculumOut-of-class learning will become a large component of all English courses in the new curriculum at HKU. However, experience shows it is particularly difficult to provide out-of-class speaking opportunities. This paper reports on a collaborative project by the Centre for Applied English Studies and the Centre of Development and Resources for Students (both at HKU) which recruits students who are native- or expert-speakers of English to volunteer their time to provide face-to-face speaking opportunities for other students of the university. This form of peer-tutoring has its origins both in tandem learning (Voller & Pickard 1996 through to Schwienhorst 2009) and in the development of Learning Commons (see for example, learningcommons.sfu.ca and Demeter 2011). The HKU programme has become popular with students at all levels of proficiency because it has sufficient flexibility to offer: confidence raising for anxious speakers, ad hoc tutoring for those needing improvement, natural language interaction for higher level speakers and an opportunity for highly local knowledge exchange between the tutors and tutees (the development of Knowledge Exchange is a theme that is currently being strongly promoted by the UGC). Using data collected through questionnaires and focus groups this presentation reports on the perceived benefits of the scheme both for tutors and tutees, and suggests ways to facilitate such a scheme in other institutions.published_or_final_versio

Promoting self-directed learning in the curriculum: training new teachers

Theme: Research into Practice in the Four-year curriculumIn the new curriculum being implemented for the 4-year curriculum at The University of Hong Kong, an important emphasis is being placed on out-of-class learning which, in many parts of the curriculum, may contribute up to two-thirds of the students’ learning hours. In the new English academic literacy courses being developed by the Centre for Applied English Studies, a major component of the out-of-class learning will be self-directed learning. To enhance its impact, self-directed learning is being directly integrated into many of those new courses as a tangible component that will be monitored by teachers and will contribute to success in the assessment of other parts of the course. However, …postprin

Training new teachers to promote self-directed learning

Conference theme: Autonomy in a Networked WorldSession 3: Autonomy and learning environmentpublished_or_final_versio

RepSeq-A database of amino acid repeats present in lower eukaryotic pathogens

BACKGROUND Amino acid repeat-containing proteins have a broad range of functions and their identification is of relevance to many experimental biologists. In human-infective protozoan parasites (such as the Kinetoplastid and Plasmodium species), they are implicated in immune evasion and have been shown to influence virulence and pathogenicity. RepSeq http://repseq.gugbe.com is a new database of amino acid repeat-containing proteins found in lower eukaryotic pathogens. The RepSeq database is accessed via a web-based application which also provides links to related online tools and databases for further analyses. RESULTS The RepSeq algorithm typically identifies more than 98% of repeat-containing proteins and is capable of identifying both perfect and mismatch repeats. The proportion of proteins that contain repeat elements varies greatly between different families and even species (3 - 35% of the total protein content). The most common motif type is the Sequence Repeat Region (SRR) - a repeated motif containing multiple different amino acid types. Proteins containing Single Amino Acid Repeats (SAARs) and Di-Peptide Repeats (DPRs) typically account for 0.5 - 1.0% of the total protein number. Notable exceptions are P. falciparum and D. discoideum, in which 33.67% and 34.28% respectively of the predicted proteomes consist of repeat-containing proteins. These numbers are due to large insertions of low complexity single and multi-codon repeat regions. CONCLUSION The RepSeq database provides a repository for repeat-containing proteins found in parasitic protozoa. The database allows for both individual and cross-species proteome analyses and also allows users to upload sequences of interest for analysis by the RepSeq algorithm. Identification of repeat-containing proteins provides researchers with a defined subset of proteins which can be analysed by expression profiling and functional characterisation, thereby facilitating study of pathogenicity and virulence factors in the parasitic protozoa. While primarily designed for kinetoplastid work, the RepSeq algorithm and database retain full functionality when used to analyse other species

Ectopic A-lattice seams destabilize microtubules

Natural microtubules typically include one A-lattice seam within an otherwise helically symmetric B-lattice tube. It is currently unclear how A-lattice seams influence microtubule dynamic instability. Here we find that including extra A-lattice seams in GMPCPP microtubules, structural analogues of the GTP caps of dynamic microtubules, destabilizes them, enhancing their median shrinkage rate by >20-fold. Dynamic microtubules nucleated by seeds containing extra A-lattice seams have growth rates similar to microtubules nucleated by B-lattice seeds, yet have increased catastrophe frequencies at both ends. Furthermore, binding B-lattice GDP microtubules to a rigor kinesin surface stabilizes them against shrinkage, whereas microtubules with extra A-lattice seams are stabilized only slightly. Our data suggest that introducing extra A-lattice seams into dynamic microtubules destabilizes them by destabilizing their GTP caps. On this basis, we propose that the single A-lattice seam of natural B-lattice MTs may act as a trigger point, and potentially a regulation point, for catastrophe