Hi there!

This is me: Tony Jolley and my ‘chorus line‘:Katy and FeeBee: the best looking pair of  blonde-bombshell backing singers  in the business! [Sadly, recently RIP the pair]

  And this is the Introduction to your

Professional English unit.

This is, in other words, my ‘base page‘ for your L3 unit which will give you an idea of the course content and the assignments relating to this Applied English programme.  When you hover your cursor over the L3 Comms & Media item under the main FSESJ  tab on my

www.tonyversity.com/students

website, you will also find that there is a ‘spring out menu‘ that appears automatically.  This is where you will find such things as:

• detail of ‘Blocks‘ of work (subjects we will treat usually over a three week period).
• materials I may put up for you in the form of ‘Thinkpieces‘,  mini-lectures or other resources
• general feedback upon the work you are doing / have done.

Pretty much ALL the materials I will use/project in class are on this site including tasks we may be doing in class  or things you will be doing a assessed work (assignments’).  So make sure you bookmark www.tonyversity/students.  There is no login or password to remember: it is just there for you.

In the first slot you have on your timetable for this unit (and before the next one a week later), I would like you to look closely at the material (links and videos) provided HERE (and you have a small whole-group task to do  concerning your confidence levels in English – it is after the last video on this page! ).  If we have time we may cover all or some of this in our first class – we’ll see!

Now for my Concept of English-learning.

To summarise what I will be saying in class, the idea of this course is, first and foremost, to enable you to make use of the English that you already have.  Year on year, I find that students have studied English for a very long period but have little or no confidence in using it.  We have to overcome this before we can move on.  I aim to give you the confidence to want to try to use your English – knowing you might make mistakes, yes, but also knowing that you will be understood and communicate successfully.   I’ll prove that to you by speaking French at some point: I make mistakes and have a horrible English accent I can’t get rid of (even after 18 years here!): you might smile and laugh a bit at my confusion between conditional and subjunctive, noun gender and agreement errors, but I have enough that you should be able to understand me clearly.  IF you don’t – whether I am speaking English or French – please just ask me (I would prefer you tried out your English, but in French if you must).

That’s all I need from you: that you launch out and try and, above all, aim to be clear about what you mean.  

If you make the odd mistake but are 100% understandable – what does it matter if you have a very French accent or make the odd mistake?  If you have the confidence to try you will give me the opportunity to help you to improve!  If you don’t try, you give me nothing to work with in order to help you: you won’t advance like this!

I will try to advance topics that relate to your course and will interest you which will help develop your professional vocabulary, fluency and confidence.

———————————————————————————

INTRODUCTORY GROUP TASK FOR Wk.1

FIRST: watch this VIDEO

I would like you all to listen to the video linked immediately above and to:

1. reflect upon / calculate how many years you have each been learning English.  Then calculate the group average
   
2. each consider the two workplace examples I give you in the video:
   • EXAMPLE 1. what is your level of confidence of giving a VIP a tour of your company premises, people and processes: in English.  Calculate the group average on this scale: /10 where:
     • 0/1 = no confidence whatever: ‘find someone else!!’;
     • 2/3 = confidence far too limited to do it;
     • 4/5 = OK, if you can’t find anyone better, I’ll try, but I’m bound to make a lot of mistakes;
     • 6/7  = Yes, I think I can do it, but it will fall far short of perfect;
     • 8/9 = Yes, fine, I’ll do it and it should be pretty good with a few minor errors only; 
     • 10 = no worries, it’ll all be fine…fully confident..
   • EXAMPLE 2. what is your level of confidence in communicating complicated and precise instructions in English in a fluent, easily-understandable written form in the context of arranging travel and accommodation for your boss on a business and conference tour in the USA?   Calculate the group average on the scale above.

THEN:

… in this, our first week, would you please find a way to combine and feedback your results – hopefully in class. [IF ever we are back in confinement – or cannot finish this in Week One –  record together a brief standard video or audio file with which to present an overview of your individual and group results … in English of course!  You may be able to share your individual results perhaps via the completion of a file via Google Docs / Drive, then you could do the short video/audio file summary of the overall group results  and remember to make it accessible to me!] 

Why am I doing this?  Essentially, as I explain in the video, I think the challenge for you is to operationalise your English before you complete your university studies, and this, for many, if not most of you, is mostly a question of opportunity and confidence.  Then it can be about improvement, precision use of language and developing vocabulary : but without the confidence to use it such things would be of little value.

Some other important things:

1. the website address is www.tonyversity.com/students    Don’t forget the ‘/students’ bit!  Bookmark it on your university browser profile and it should appear every time you log on and open the browser.  Saves time and memory.  There is no login and no password for the site for your ease of access.  I am a ‘vacataire/contractuel’ so I don’t use the various different systems for web publishing offered by the faculties of UHA or elsewhere.  This is for two reasons.  Firstly it would take me far too long to juggle 3 or four website creation tools: Moodle…Blackboard etc; and secondly I want to retain my own intellectual property – that is to say that there could be some doubt about the ownership of the content were it on a University site or server, but on my own site, on a paid-for server, under my own domain name, the content is unarguably mine.    This is a point you might well think about in relation to your career in the creative industries: how do you stop people ripping you off… how do you protect your own material…?
2. to contact me, use  tjolley@gmail.com  or anthony-ian.jolley@uha.fr – everything defaults to my gmail address anyway!).
3. I do now have a ‘shared’ office across the corridor from RD107.  I am not in there that often, but Monday 08h-10h is usually a moment where you may well find me.

Principles, the ‘spirit’ of the unit and some helpful material for you.

I have written about this under several headings on my site – see the links and videos on

This Page

Please view ALL of these and come prepared to talk about them with me in our next class….

The link above has short videos on a number of topics.  [Where I have put ‘E‘ after the title, then it is Essential for you, rather than optional … but you can read /view these after our first session – but no later than Week Two of our course, please.]:

• my website : background
• how I like to work (two vids on principles)
• the concept of ‘Blocks and Bridges’  E
• understanding and answering the question.  E
• using academic sources E
• citation and attribution E
• plagiarism 1 & 2  E
• Use of Artificial Intelligence and Translator websites is outlawed (this is a written item on the NEWS section of Tonyversity) Please read it.  We will then re-read it in class together and discuss it. E
• deadlines  E

At L3 and Master’s level, I hope most of the above video content goes without saying … but there are things there that you probably don’t know which are designed to help you improve your performance and your marks – take PARTICULAR NOTE of the ‘Understanding and Answering the Question’ one: it is THE KEY to doing a good assignment!

I guess what I am aiming for in our classes is what I would best term: ‘Professional Informality’:  a way of working which is respectful, motivated, dedicated and having more to do with the working world than the classroom but which dispenses, for the mostpart, with the need for suits and ‘they way it must always be done‘.  For example, I don’t have to be standing immobile on a podium, ‘dressed to the nines’ (do you recognise that expression?) to be able to relate to you  with a classic Powerpoint support… I could be in jeans and open-necked shirt perching upon the edge of a desk in my office speaking to you all via the internet rather than in full-on, presentation mode…BUT…that doesn’t mean for a minute that I will be being any less professional at all: we’ll just dispense with some traditions to be more relaxed and comfortable, which I believe to be more in keeping with the sort of work environment into which you are likely to be going. 

You are also being prepared for a world and a career (especially the English-speaking world) where deadlines are deadlines: putting back a performance/event date on a whim with little or no notice is simply NOT a possibility.  You have to get used to this NOW.  The same goes for your work.  If I set a deadline, unless you have a medical certificate or a reason admissible under Course Regulations and approved by the Course Director, then you will find penalties applied you your work. Depending upon the circumstances it may receive 0/20 (but you will get feedback) or the bare passmark of 10/20 even if the content might have been worth more had it been submitted on time.  This is only fair to your colleagues who hit the deadline as I am sure you will appreciate.

I won’t go on (I tell you about this in a video ifyou are interested), but you get the picture I am sure…..

Aims and Objectives

1. To develop your confidence to USE effectively the English you already possess after years of study.  There is little point in giving you more vocabulary and more grammar and syntax if you don’t have the confidence to actually USE it!  My first position is to say to you that I am first of all looking for you to be clear what you mean even if you make glaring errors.  Have the courage to make some mistakes…. not only do I permit it – I want to encourage it!  This gives you the opportunity to take risks without fear of ‘punishment’ and it gives me the opportunity to actually help you.  You are not doing a Master’s in English.  You are not going to be perfect (unless you are already virtually bi-lingual!) even after 40+ hours with me….SO you are going to have to get used to making the odd mistake when you are operating in English, but as long as you can be clear as to what you mean then no-one gives a damn!  You will also find people, your interlocutors, are very generous (they know you are trying); very helpful (sometimes they throw you the word you need) and very grateful (otherwise they’d have to speak your language – which they don’t!).
2. To apply the English you are using and developing to your chosen career context.    You are not engineers or nuclear physicists: you have your own specialist context and I will endeavour to set our blocks of work, projects and assessments specifically around these areas, at times giving you lots of opportunity to tailor things specifically and very personally to your career aspirations and contexts.

Looking Forward: where do we go from here?

The answer is that we need to start!

Q. What do we start with next week – our second timetabled week?

Task 1.  The Personal/Professional Profile 

The video below gives an overview.  The link above gives specific instructions.  I will cover this in class, but the video gives you a chance to re-visit the instructions.

Follow the Task One link above and watch the video and you’ll see the task that I am about to set you.  [BUT….  Provided we are not back in a CoVid situation you do NOT have to do the audio – Just the typed/word-processed and printed PPP to be handed to me in class as instructed]. You will need to follow the instructions in our second and third timetabled weeks and prepare a personal/professional profile or PPP…. The Task1 link above explains it all.  You should use the 2 hours course time allocated in class and 2 further hours each week in order to submit your individual PPP to me in hard copy.  Deadline  to be confirmed.

Why am I asking you for this?

1. I want to get to know you and your English capabilities better and early on in the programme.
2. you are very likely indeed to be asked for this in your career to come
3. the PPP is NOT a cv/résumé and neither is it a covering letter / lettre de motivation – the style and the language are different: less formal, but no less professional.
4. your métier is all about presentation…. and this is you presenting the most precious thing in the world to you: YOU!  You should be able to do this brilliantly as you are the world expert on you!  Also it is not just about your expression in English: you will also be judged by your readers on the quality of your presentation: style, setting on the page, character, humour, attention to detail.

So.  Follow the link to Task 1 above.  Follow the instructions and present me with something that you can really be proud of.  It might help to follow this process:

• read and re-read the Task 1 PPP instructions and comply with them, in particular the requirement for 2 x FULL pages with the body of the text in normal size (12pt). etc
• think about the personal aspects of your life it would be important to communicate (and the same for the professional side).
• consider how you are going to deliver this in terms of style and format in order to make the pages attractive such that your target audience (colleagues and clients) will WANT to read about you. I’m afraid: ‘I was born… I have one younger brother etc’… is a boring history lesson!?  How are you going to grab their attention .. and keep it? At the end can you think of a ‘call to action‘ to make things happen after people have read about you?
• Think about ‘LOOK’ – how does it appear on the page: is there a ‘WOW’ factor or does it look ugly and unattractive?
• Do a draft in your own English [DO NOT under any circumstances throw data at ChatGPT / AI and get it to draft the PPP for you or write in French and get Linguée, DeepL, Babelfish etc to translate it into English. This is outlawed in all your English language work. The result will be a 0/20 mark and a visit to a Commission de Discipline with a very unpleasant outcome].
• Read the draft OUT LOUD [not just with your eyes] – you will find more errors more easily that way.  If you have difficulty reading it then imagine the reader’s task!  It will also help you to impove punctuation.
• Use Word’s SPELLCHECK (you’ll need to change it from French to English obviously) as a dictionary and ALSO download and use the free copy of Grammarly (in English) to help correct minor errors. These two programmes are legitimate and work which has not gone through this process will not receive a pass mark.
• Now try reading it out load again: see/hear the difference?  Better, isn’t it?
• Now look at it on the page: can you make the look / the setting as good as the content?
• Print it out and come to class with confidence prepared to read us a reasonable length paragraph.

I will mark this as soon as I can (normally within a week) and give you both individual and group feedback.

NB.  I did the video during confinement assuming it might well continue this year … but we are back to the mode ‘presentiel’, so you should do your Personal Professional Profile in hard copy (printed) and hand it to me in class as per the written instructions here (also on the green cascading menu for your unit). .

Looking even further forward:

Task 2: Definitions.

You are studying a course on Communications and Media / Multi-media and therefore also Publishing (offline and online) , so we had better understand what on earth we understand by these terms.  Strangely enough, I am not so interested in what the ‘experts‘ say about it or what you might have been told or written down – or even what you can find out online – rather I am interested in what you actually think and believe.  Why? Because we make decisions based upon what we believe. [Remember, the British were made to believe that Saddam Hussein had ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’…. the reality proved to be that he didn’t … but we went to war on the basis of what were were persuaded was the case…].

So: divide yourselves into three teams of as equal a size as is possible and without duplication select one of the three terms to address:

1. To Communicate (the verb / the process) & Communicator (the person) & Communications (the materials/content)
2. Medium & ‘The Media’ & Multi-media
3. To Publish (the verb) & Publishing (the industry)  & Publication (the output) & Publisher (the person)
   

Why are we doing this?

Simple really:

• we need to know what we are talking about when we use key terms. If we don’t really understand, then it is easy to talk ‘at cross-purposes‘ as we say: one understanding one meaning and the other another!  In your reports (especially rapports de stage) it is imperative that you define the key terms in your title from the start.  It is not as simple as just choosing one definition from the first page of Google search returns: how will you know if it is really good: comprehensive, valid, reliable, accepted/acknowledged?  Don’t get the idea that adopting a much-used defnition means that it is necessarily correct either [from an early career in Tourism Management, I can tell you that ‘official’ definitions of ‘Tourism’ are very limited indeed and tell far less than the whole ‘Tourism story’].   You need to take definitions seriously!

• From an English-learning point of view, coming up with a clear and complete definition in an attractive, narrative form requires precision language, specialist terminology and specific vocabulary. Saying what you mean and meaning what you say become all-important: sometimes there are only slight nuances of difference that you wish to express: that takes a LOT of work to achieve (which is where using Grammarly and WordReference will help you enormously and where keeping a vocabulary / expression list would be sensible).

How are we going to do this?

Please Note: Most definitions are poor because they tend only to answer the question: WHAT. Here we need to apply ALL the principle question words to the term/terms we have to define: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How [WWWWWH].    It is not as simple as it sounds.  Let us take just one of these: ‘WHO’.  That implies questions, inter alia like: Who started/invented ‘the media’… WHO are they for … WHO works in them? … Who benefits from them / Who suffers?

1. Start silently and alone – produce your own personal definitions  in English (WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE WEB OR YOUR BOOKS OR COURSE NOTES)
2. From your personal definitions, discuss together in English with the members of your team and brainstorm up the best team narrative definition (not just a bullet list of  WWWWWH points) you can (still WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE WEB OR YOUR BOOKS OR COURSE NOTES)… and write them down in English in a WORD document.
3. Critique your definitions: remember that a good definition will usually answer most, if not all the ‘question words’: what, why, who, how, when and where.  Improve your definitions where possible and write down the improved definitions in the best English you can.  Be prepared to present it to us. (ALL THIS still WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE WEB OR YOUR NOTES!)
   
4. Consider where online you might be likely to find a range of expert and reliable definitions and interpretations (brainstorm this up BEFORE you attempt to search – it is likely to be far more productive than a general search)
5. Go online, find and record such definitions (for those you feel add significantly to your own definitions – incorporate elements of them [in your own words or with quotations] into your Word document providing sources and URLs / hyperlinks  and a full bibliographic reference using Harvard or MLA.  Note: citethisforme.com will help you do this instantly). Critique such definitions in the light of your own thinking and team definition … is yours better / ‘perfect’ as it is, or do you need to incorporate some of the experts’ thinking into your own definition or vice-versa?  I want to see the evolution of your thinking.
6. Produce a written (word processed) report showing how your definitions evolved though the above stages to become definitive, submit this in hard copy (printed) format to TJ for assessment (date to be advised) and prepare to discuss and defend your findings in class. To be specific about how you do this, for each of the three terms you must cover in your written report:
   
   • present the team’s own initial narrative version [Pt. N°2 above] – and recount any particular difficulties or disagreements you encountered in producing it.
   • present certain definitions you found online and discounted because they added nothing to your original definition [do you find yourselves a little surprised that certain ‘important‘ sources do not always offer decent/comprehensive definitions?].
   • present (cite and attribute) certain definitions you found online and decided to incorporate elements thereof / ideas therefrom (or perhaps borrow brilliant phrases / expressions)  in order to improve your definition.  Where and why/how did this source ‘add something‘ and what was it you had ‘missed‘.
   • present your final ‘Master’ definition of each term and offer a brief explanation as to why you believe it is the best and why you feel others are not as good!

You should notice my intention here: this is a sort of ‘micro literature review’ where you don’t just ‘cite and dump’ + ‘cite and dump’, but rather you consider and critique what is in the existing literature: you don’t just accept it.  You also attempt to synthesise it and evaluate it: what does it all mean / add up to?   That is the approach you need to take to the Literature Review / Secondary Research componet of any Rapport de Stage / Mémoire / Thèse…You need to adopt the spirit and approach at the heart of this assignment when you write such documents – and in assignments too.  I’m rehearsing you (faire des repetitions) for this.

We will then attempt to record the key attributes of the respective definitions from each team with a view to developing a ‘Master’ definition for each of the three terms which we believe encapsulates all the key attributes in the best form of words possible.

I hope you can prove to yourselves that you can do better than the ‘experts‘ if you have a mind to think for yourselves and challenge and test ‘received wisdom’.

As mentioned earlier, in order to improve the quality of your English, please do use all the legal and acceptable tools at your disposal:

• The spell-check facility in WORD
• WordReference: helpful dictionary showing synonyms and examples of expressions using particular words
• Grammarly to help you correct.
• A proof-read (relecture) OUT LOUD (à haute voix) which will help you ‘catch’ punctuation, spelling and expression errors far more effectively than an on-screen read through.

Your team definitions and explanations will be marked principally on a team basis (given your last assignment was 100% individual, this seems balanced to me). However, I reserve the right to increase or reduce marks for conspicuous individual performance (both positive or negative).

NB. Having done this, you will have something you can cite in your assignments (if you put it online or permit me to showcase it for you on Tonyversity (with full attribution of course!) and you will REALLY know what you mean when you speak of communicate/ communication, publish / publication and media/multi-media.

Task 3. Workshops