An Online Writing Support Course – Writing Enrichment Program
By Sokphea Phal, ACE Teacher
The Australian Centre for Education (ACE), which has been providing high quality English language training in Cambodia since 1992, recently established a new course at its Santhor Mok campus: the Writing Enrichment Program (WEP).WEP is an online learning program for students in Levels GEP 7A, 7B and 8. Initiated in Term 1 2019, it is run by Language Learning Advisors (LLAs) who are also teachers at ACE. The program runs for six weeks and is completed using an online learning platform, Google Classroom.
Since there are only 45 hours of classroom time per term at ACE and a few sessions are spent on the end-of-term tests and feedback, this program is created to provide students with additional learnings and help with their writing. Besides, what students can learn in their class is the writing lesson, and what is taught in the program are writing skills such as vocabulary building and sentence structure. Both lessons in the class and lessons in the writing enrichment programs are well-matched for the needs of students.
The main aims of this program are to enrich students’ vocabulary and writing skills. Upon completion of the program, students are better able to practice self-learning and useful writing activities, in addition to their classroom learning. In addition, they are also better able to harness technology for academic purposes.
The program proceeds very simply: writing tasks and practice activities are uploaded and posted in Google Classroom. So, students need only to use their smartphone, laptop or PC to complete assignments.
Briefing sessions are provided to students before they commence the program. In these sessions, students learn how to use Google Classroom, Google Docs and other related platforms. It is essential that students know how to work with those platforms to avoid problems during the program itself.
In the first week, a Google Classroom guide and a program schedule are given to students. The purpose of the guide is to further familiarise students with the platform. Students are also required to do a pre-writing task online in the first week of the program. In the second week, writing tasks and additional practice activities are posted. The LLAs are responsible for correcting students’ work, responding to students’ questions and giving constructive feedback to students. This process is repeated until the final week of the program. In that week, students are required to complete a post-writing task, which is compared to their initial pre-writing task to assess students’ learning progress during the program.
Although this is a new program, many students have enrolled and have shown active involvement in most of its activities. One participant said, “I think online learning is the best way to work and study at the same time”. Another reported, “After completing the WEP, I have improved a lot”.
To date, the WEP has been running for two academic terms. It is expected to continue, and will be rolled out to other ACE Programs in the future.