UWI to observe English Language Section Week

FROM February 16-21, the Language Section of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy (DLLP) in the Faculty of Humanities and Education (FHE) at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) will be hosting a series of activities/events to observe ‘English Language Section Week’.

The objective is to raise awareness, within and outside of The UWI, of the work carried out by the department’s Language Section, its multiple arms, functions, and areas of interest and specialisation, Dr Caroline Dyche, chair of the Language Section Week Committee, told The Gleaner.

“The Section is significant in being one of the very few in the university with courses in which nearly all students, from every discipline and area of enquiry, enrol as a result of the compulsory requirement of a suite of foundation academic literacies courses designed for students in the individual faculties,” a Language Section statement says.

Students and staff in all the faculties of The UWI, tertiary-level academic literacies practitioners and their students, upper secondary school staff and students, particularly teachers of language arts and communication studies, are particularly encouraged to participate in the activities, which kick off with a corporate worship service for the Language Section/DLLP staff at Webster’s Memorial United Church at 53 Half-Way Tree Road at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Dr Ruth Baker-Gardner (lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Studies, The UWI, Mona); Celia Webster (head, English Department at Campion College); Jonathan Shaw (head boy at Campion College); Michelle Stewart-McKoy (faculty/educational developer in the Centre of the Excellence in Teaching and Learning, The UWI, Mona); and Jasmin Lawrence (assistant lecturer in the Language Section) will be the panellists for the Zoom panel discussion on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Student Writing’ on the 18th from 6 to 8 p.m. The meeting ID is 94093418393, while the password is ELSWEEK.

On Thursday, the 20th, ‘Language and Identity’ is in the spotlight of a ‘Student Rap Session’, to be led by ‘Dat Bumpy Head Gal’, Joan Andrea Hutchinson, in the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1) at the FHE from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Hutchinson, a justice of the peace, is a writer, performance poet, public speaking coach, communications specialist, and language teacher.

On the 17th, 19th, 20th and the 21st, there will be workshops at Waterford High School and Bridgeport High School in St Catherine, and Charlie Smith High School, Wolmer’s Boys’ School, The Queen’s School, Mona High School, Papine High School, and Dunoon Technical High School in the Corporate Area, focusing on critical thinking, reading and writing, ‘English is Fun’, language and communication, the art of public speaking, the Jamaican language and Jamaican Standard English: What makes them different?’

Also on the 18th and 19th, The Writing Centre at UWI will be facilitating pop-up ‘writing centres’ at the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Humanities & Education, and the Faculty of Science & Technology. At these ‘writing centres’, there will be ‘Did you Know?’ information booths, writing coaching services, proofreading/editing challenges/quizzes (with prizes), and give-aways.

“We the members of the ELS have a key role to play in the accomplishment of the UWI’s mission to equip students to meet critical regional needs and to be “globally attuned”. For our part, we are committed to empowering our students to become “critical and creative thinkers, problem solvers, effective communicators and life-long learners” while taking into account the cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects of the individual,” the English Language Section’s Statement of Philosophy of Teaching says.

“Several enabling tenets undergird our teaching: the social construction of knowledge; process-oriented approaches to understanding and producing speeches and texts in oral, print and electronic contexts; engagement with multiliteracies; and a combination of assessment types and tools. These tenets facilitate the honing of students’ communicative competencies in the socio-linguistic context of the Caribbean and for the global community.”