British Council Russia is looking for a publishing house to take part in designing a course “English for Academics”
Background and project outline
Within the Internationalising Higher Education project, the British Council has carried out a baseline research into English language provision in higher education in Russia, which identified the need to raise the level of English of University staff and researchers in order for the Universities to be able to engage in international projects more effectively, to publish in international journals, attend international conferences and offer other subjects in English.
In order to address this need the British Council is launching a project aimed at producing an “English for Academics” course.
The course will be designed by a team of Russian authors under the guidance of UK expert. The final product will be available in both printed and online versions. The British Council is now seeking a publisher as a partner in this project. The publishing house partner will contribute to the design, editing, production and dissemination of the product. Blended modes of course delivery should be considered when designing the product.
As a by-product we also aim to capture all stages of course production by means of videos, blog posts and other digital means. This digital product will aim at raising the capacity of teachers to design materials and will aim to illustrate all stages of materials design so that it can then be applied to designing different types of materials.
The lead UK consultant for the project is Rod Bolitho - Academic Director, Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE). The team of writers was selected in open competition in March 2012. The framework for the materials was produced at the inaugural workshop and is attached as an Appendix to this invitation. For the moment it is envisaged that the final product will consist of 2 books, each providing for 72 academic hours (108 clock hours altogether) of face to face class time backed up by on-line support.
Expectations
The publishing house is expected to contribute to the design and development of the product including involvement in copyright clearance of texts and images, online support for printed materials etc.; and to lead on production and distribution of printed and audio/video materials
The call is open to Russian and UK publishing houses with a strong track record in publishing ELT materials. A UK publishing house needs to have a representative office in Moscow and a track record of producing and distributing ELT materials in the Russian market.
Interested publishers are requested to send the expressions of interest (in English) to Olga Barnashova (olga.barnashova@britishcouncil.ru) at the British Council by May, 31 including the following aspects, which will effectively form the basis of the selection criteria:
-overview of the publishing house experience in ELT with special reference to ESP/EAP materials and experience of working in the Russian market (250 words maximum)
-statement of possible investment in the project including financial
-level of editorial support that can be made available to the writing team
-available facilities and opportunities for production of audio/video content
-approach to dealing with copyright
-ability to cope with Roman, Cyrillic and phonetic alphabets on the same page.
-the process that will be used for reproducing colour illustrations
-estimated time required from delivery of final manuscript to publication
-suggested arrangement for royalties
-potential capacity for wider international distribution at a later date
We expect to reach a decision by 8 June and there will be a requirement for the publisher to send an editorial representative to be present for at least a part of the next project team workshop 18 – 21 June in Moscow.
If you require additional information please contact Olga Barnashova (olga.barnashova@britishcouncil.ru)
Appendix
Towards a Framework for the Materials Package
Assumptions
•minimum entry level of B1+ on the CEFR scale (based on an entry test)
•possibly mixed groups of specialists from different disciplines as well as administrators and possibly research students
•2 books, each providing for 72 academic hours (108 clock hours altogether) of face to face class time backed up by on-line support
•teachers’ guidelines either on-line or in print form
•extent of each book: probably 176 or 192 pages
•DVD with audio (and possibly video) material
In Book Form for Face to Face DeliveryPossible On-Line Support Materials
Four Modules
•Academic Reading & Discussion (to include vocabulary strategies): 24 academic hours
•Academic Listening & Discussion: 16 academic hours
•Spoken Production (focus on presentation skills & classroom language): 16 academic hours
•Academic Writing (limited treatment in first book, e.g. proposals, abstracts, professional correspondence): 16 academic hours
Plus a glossary of common terminology in language teaching and learning
The four modules to be written by separate sub-teams (see Appendix B); decision to be taken later on whether to run the modules in parallel or series.
•Grammar Practice Tasks
•Vocabulary Building Tasks
•A Text Bank (academic articles)
•An Extensive Glossary including ‘semi-technical’ vocabulary
•Further Academic Writing Tasks
•Pronunciation Practice
•Guidelines for the Teacher (including a typology of tasks)
•Links to Useful Websites
•Further Practice Materials (in all the other areas in the printed material)
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