Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open... more Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.
What do students' chatroom discussions tell us about their attitudes to the use of Google Transla... more What do students' chatroom discussions tell us about their attitudes to the use of Google Translate for coursework assignments? In: Google Translate & Modern Languages Education,
Innovative language teaching and learning at university: enhancing employability, 2017
T his case study examines student perceptions of the experiential value of a work placement carri... more T his case study examines student perceptions of the experiential value of a work placement carried out as part of a languages degree programme. The data for the case study consists of a corpus of 67 reports submitted from 2011 to 2015, reflecting on placements carried out in Europe, Japan, the UK and the US. The data offers a student view of the impact of the placement on their linguistic prowess, character development, employability and career plans. The case study compares these with the soft skills increasingly required in employment, and concludes that the reflective nature of the work placement report is beneficial to students in preparation for marketing themselves to potential employers.
For the amateur foreign language user, Google Translate can be a godsend. But what impact is it h... more For the amateur foreign language user, Google Translate can be a godsend. But what impact is it having on language learning and teaching, and what does the future hold? Whether you have dabbled in Google Translate for your own purposes, are trying to learn a language, have a child learning a language at school or are a language teacher yourself, this session is for you!
This paper outlines a highly innovative collaboration with schools throughout Yorkshire and Humbe... more This paper outlines a highly innovative collaboration with schools throughout Yorkshire and Humberside, supported hitherto by Routes into Languages (RiL). Eurofest is a simulated trade fair for year 8 students, developed by Selby MFL Forum in 2008. A European award for the event funded the development of a resource pack, enabling it to be run by other providers, and in 2015 it expanded to York St John University. This year it will be held in Selby, York and Leeds, and winning teams will go forward to a regional final. Over the last nine years, over 1000 students will have participated in this event. The students prepare at school, designing a stand promoting a town or a product, and practising the relevant language. On the day, they man their stands and talk to ‘judges’ from the host universities and business partners. They are scored according to criteria such as use of language and selling power, and certificates are awarded to the best teams. The event is notable both for its int...
This session addressed the benefits of teaching language and culture to pupils with SEND and offe... more This session addressed the benefits of teaching language and culture to pupils with SEND and offered a mutually advantageous model of collaboration between a university and a special school, through the joint delivery of cross-curricular language days.
This poster exhibits the use of authentic French texts, film and literature about the migrant cri... more This poster exhibits the use of authentic French texts, film and literature about the migrant crisis, which were used in an undergraduate module to heighten student awareness of the facts and the human stories behind the headlines.
This paper will present the interim findings of a research project on students’ use of Google Tra... more This paper will present the interim findings of a research project on students’ use of Google Translate (GT) for L2 production. Data was collected from online student forums to gauge the extent to which students spontaneously discuss the use of GT for assignments, and what their posts reveal about their attitudes. Although the main focus of the project will be students’ use of GT at degree level, it is valuable to determine how widespread its use is among GCSE and A level students before they reach university. The interim findings reveal that use of GT for assignments has been accepted practice among students over the last decade, reflecting behaviour shown in Clifford et al (2013) and Farzi (2016); however, their mixed attitudes to this usage also echo Bower’s (2010) findings. Some respondents discourage the original poster (OP) from using GT because of the likelihood of detection, and there is considerable discussion as to whether teachers can ‘spot’ it or not. Others take a more ...
Focus and rationale This paper reports on a research project which aimed to investigate universit... more Focus and rationale This paper reports on a research project which aimed to investigate university student perceptions of the impact of audio/video feedback on foreign language learning. The project was funded by the university’s Learning and Teaching Development directorate in order to provide innovative evidence-informed practice addressing the university’s Principles of Feedback. Research aims The project examined whether students had any preference between written, audio and video feedback, and whether their response varied according to the type of assignment (written or oral). Finally, it explored the extent to which students act on such feedback in order to enhance their future learning. Theoretical / conceptual foundation As previous studies have focussed on the relative merits of different tools and methods from the teacher’s point of view, and because the use of the lecturer-on-camera method was innovative, our interest lay in the students’ perceptions of the impact of thes...
Paper presented at Translation Technology in Education – Facilitator or Risk? 5 July 2019, Univer... more Paper presented at Translation Technology in Education – Facilitator or Risk? 5 July 2019, University of Nottingham. This paper presents the findings of a research project into student and staff attitudes to the use of Free Online Machine Translation (FOMT) tools in HE language learning, with a particular focus on its use in written assignments. This work builds on the research of Somers et al (2006), Nino (2008 and 2009), Bower (2010), Clifford et al (2013), Groves & Mundt (2015), and Farzi (2016), and is a partial replication study of Jolley & Maimone (2015). Online questionnaires were distributed via contacts throughout the UK in 2018, resulting in usable responses from 80 students and 36 instructors. Results show that a high percentage of these students habitually use FOMT not only for formative work and translation assignments but also for submitted written assignments, mainly in order to ‘verify hunches’ for words or phrases, but in some cases for help with whole sentences. In...
Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open... more Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.
What do students' chatroom discussions tell us about their attitudes to the use of Google Transla... more What do students' chatroom discussions tell us about their attitudes to the use of Google Translate for coursework assignments? In: Google Translate & Modern Languages Education,
Innovative language teaching and learning at university: enhancing employability, 2017
T his case study examines student perceptions of the experiential value of a work placement carri... more T his case study examines student perceptions of the experiential value of a work placement carried out as part of a languages degree programme. The data for the case study consists of a corpus of 67 reports submitted from 2011 to 2015, reflecting on placements carried out in Europe, Japan, the UK and the US. The data offers a student view of the impact of the placement on their linguistic prowess, character development, employability and career plans. The case study compares these with the soft skills increasingly required in employment, and concludes that the reflective nature of the work placement report is beneficial to students in preparation for marketing themselves to potential employers.
For the amateur foreign language user, Google Translate can be a godsend. But what impact is it h... more For the amateur foreign language user, Google Translate can be a godsend. But what impact is it having on language learning and teaching, and what does the future hold? Whether you have dabbled in Google Translate for your own purposes, are trying to learn a language, have a child learning a language at school or are a language teacher yourself, this session is for you!
This paper outlines a highly innovative collaboration with schools throughout Yorkshire and Humbe... more This paper outlines a highly innovative collaboration with schools throughout Yorkshire and Humberside, supported hitherto by Routes into Languages (RiL). Eurofest is a simulated trade fair for year 8 students, developed by Selby MFL Forum in 2008. A European award for the event funded the development of a resource pack, enabling it to be run by other providers, and in 2015 it expanded to York St John University. This year it will be held in Selby, York and Leeds, and winning teams will go forward to a regional final. Over the last nine years, over 1000 students will have participated in this event. The students prepare at school, designing a stand promoting a town or a product, and practising the relevant language. On the day, they man their stands and talk to ‘judges’ from the host universities and business partners. They are scored according to criteria such as use of language and selling power, and certificates are awarded to the best teams. The event is notable both for its int...
This session addressed the benefits of teaching language and culture to pupils with SEND and offe... more This session addressed the benefits of teaching language and culture to pupils with SEND and offered a mutually advantageous model of collaboration between a university and a special school, through the joint delivery of cross-curricular language days.
This poster exhibits the use of authentic French texts, film and literature about the migrant cri... more This poster exhibits the use of authentic French texts, film and literature about the migrant crisis, which were used in an undergraduate module to heighten student awareness of the facts and the human stories behind the headlines.
This paper will present the interim findings of a research project on students’ use of Google Tra... more This paper will present the interim findings of a research project on students’ use of Google Translate (GT) for L2 production. Data was collected from online student forums to gauge the extent to which students spontaneously discuss the use of GT for assignments, and what their posts reveal about their attitudes. Although the main focus of the project will be students’ use of GT at degree level, it is valuable to determine how widespread its use is among GCSE and A level students before they reach university. The interim findings reveal that use of GT for assignments has been accepted practice among students over the last decade, reflecting behaviour shown in Clifford et al (2013) and Farzi (2016); however, their mixed attitudes to this usage also echo Bower’s (2010) findings. Some respondents discourage the original poster (OP) from using GT because of the likelihood of detection, and there is considerable discussion as to whether teachers can ‘spot’ it or not. Others take a more ...
Focus and rationale This paper reports on a research project which aimed to investigate universit... more Focus and rationale This paper reports on a research project which aimed to investigate university student perceptions of the impact of audio/video feedback on foreign language learning. The project was funded by the university’s Learning and Teaching Development directorate in order to provide innovative evidence-informed practice addressing the university’s Principles of Feedback. Research aims The project examined whether students had any preference between written, audio and video feedback, and whether their response varied according to the type of assignment (written or oral). Finally, it explored the extent to which students act on such feedback in order to enhance their future learning. Theoretical / conceptual foundation As previous studies have focussed on the relative merits of different tools and methods from the teacher’s point of view, and because the use of the lecturer-on-camera method was innovative, our interest lay in the students’ perceptions of the impact of thes...
Paper presented at Translation Technology in Education – Facilitator or Risk? 5 July 2019, Univer... more Paper presented at Translation Technology in Education – Facilitator or Risk? 5 July 2019, University of Nottingham. This paper presents the findings of a research project into student and staff attitudes to the use of Free Online Machine Translation (FOMT) tools in HE language learning, with a particular focus on its use in written assignments. This work builds on the research of Somers et al (2006), Nino (2008 and 2009), Bower (2010), Clifford et al (2013), Groves & Mundt (2015), and Farzi (2016), and is a partial replication study of Jolley & Maimone (2015). Online questionnaires were distributed via contacts throughout the UK in 2018, resulting in usable responses from 80 students and 36 instructors. Results show that a high percentage of these students habitually use FOMT not only for formative work and translation assignments but also for submitted written assignments, mainly in order to ‘verify hunches’ for words or phrases, but in some cases for help with whole sentences. In...
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Papers by Alison Organ