Department of English Language and Literature

Translation Program Review
Literature Program Review
Internal Review
Literature Program Outcomes
Translation Program Outcomes

The BA Translation Program Review

The Department is currently undertaking an academic program review of the B.A. Translation Program. The review is being undertaken under the supervision of the Academic Program Review Office, SQU. The review process consists of the following three stages:

Program self-study report (SSR) (Fall 2017 – Spring 2108)
International reviewers’ field visit and their assessment report (Fall 2018)
Department’s action plan in response to reviewers’ report (Spring 2019)

The SSR has described program performance in the following four basic domains:

Curriculum
Students and learning outcomes
Academic staff
Resources

The report has provided an opportunity to:

document progress towards achieving quality standards
build up a database of statistics, information and charts in relation to the

translation program since its inception in 2003.

describe program offerings
conduct sample surveys of stakeholders (students, alumni, employers and

external assessors) to measure satisfaction towards the program

identify needs for resource allocation

The team of 6 international reviewers (SQU administration will select 3 of them) who showed interest in participating in this review are:

Professor Mona Baker, University of Manchester
Professor Juliana House, University of
Professor Said Faiq, American University of Sharjah
Professor Dorothy Kenny, Dublin City University
Dr. Sameh Hann, University of Leeds
Dr. Anna Gil Bardaji, Autonomous University of Barcelona

ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE – LITERATURE PROGRAM

The Department of English Language and Literature conducted an Academic Review of its Literature program between Sept 2015and November 2016. This was part of the university’s current policy to review all programs cyclically. The review was undertaken under the supervision of the Academic Program Review Office, SQU.

The review process consisted of the following three stages:

Program self-study report (SSR) (Fall 2015 – Spring 2106)
International reviewers’ field visit and their assessment report (Fall 2016)
Department’s action plan in response to reviewers’ report (Spring 2017)

The review aimed to:

Appraise the effectiveness of the program in achieving student outcomes.
Assist in enhancing and improving the program.
Align the program with the mission and objectives of the university.
Assist in planning the future of the program.
Comply with national and international quality standards.

The following three international reviewers participated in the academic review of the program in their visit to the Department between 7^th – 9^th of Nov. 2016:

Professor Claire Connolly, University College Cork, Ireland (Literature)
Professor Robbie Goh, National University of Singapore (Literature)
Professor Miriam Locher, University of Basel, Switzerland (Linguistics)

The review panel considered various aspects of the program by speaking to faculty, students, alumni as well as the administration at the college and university level. They focused on the program curriculum, admission process, the profile of admitted students, the grading system, student advising, faculty recruitment and diversity, faculty research facilities and support.

In response to the Academic Review Report, the department has instituted various committees to study the recommendations of the external reviewers and study the feasibility of changes suggested. The Department Board has subsequently discussed the report in detail and implemented many of the suggestions regarding documenting graduate attributes, enhanced student academic advising, making course-learning outcomes more visible to students and enhancing liaison with the Centre for Preparatory Studies. The department has also established a B.A Program Development committee which will explore the nature of a new program, keeping in mind the students and their professional requirements. This is being done meticulously, following a process of surveying stakeholders, environment scanning of similar programs across the world and in the region, basing the results of that data to establish the new program. The final, revised program will be submitted to the university by December, 2019.

The internal curriculum and assessment review was made as an internal comprehensive quality assurance procedure conducted by the Department of English Language and Literature in Fall 2017. The review was also made to respond to some of the comments made by the team of international reviewers who reviewed the BA Literature Program in Nov 2016. The review procedure was conducted on two main documents:

Course outlines
Course reports

The review assessed the two documents in terms of the following points:

Course outline details
Course description
Teaching and learning strategies
1. Critical thinking skills
2. Research-based teaching
Assessment
Course materials
Learning outcomes and their alignment to program outcomes
Weekly breakdown
Vertical and horizontal coordination

This review aimed to achieve the following objectives:

Assess the adherence of all colleagues in the Department to the new course outline template
Assess course outlines in terms of completeness, accuracy and relevance.
Assess whether and to what extent all the colleagues in the Department are able to create learning outcomes for their own courses and phrase them well using Bloom’s taxonomy of behavioral and measurable verbs.
Assess how course intended learning outcomes were mapped to program learning outcomes and to SQU graduate attributes.
Assess how assessment is done in every course and whether it meets the nature and objectives of the course.
Ensure whether the Language Descriptors which the Department had developed before are appropriately implemented in the teaching and assessment of the language component as an integral part of each and every course in the Department.
Assess whether and to what extent the courses taught in the Department allow for a research-based teaching and learning.
Assess how critical thinking is enhanced as a teaching and learning methodology and as a culture in the Department.
Assess how application and practical tasks are used in each course in the Department
Assess whether the Department is following a standard system of formatting and style in all work submissions of students.

This review found several areas of strength in the Department’s courses and pedagogical implementation in general. One of the main areas of strength is the fact that the Department quickly and positively responded to the new course outline template and we are the first Department in the university that has implemented it with a very high percentage.

This report (about 300 pages) focused more on the areas that need to be improved in order to enhance the teaching and learning process even further and ensure the quality of teaching and learning in this Department.

This course review exercise will continue to be regularly carried out to enable the Department to maintain its high standards in teaching and learning. The following is an action plan showing how this exercise will continue to be carried out on a regular basis.

Action Plan

No	Action	Responsible	Timeframe
1.	Entire report sent to every faculty member in the Dept.	HoD	By Sun, 28^th Jan, 2018
2.	Hard copy of each course evaluation will be given to the relevant course coordinator to be used during the Workshop	Assistant HoD	By Monday, 29^th Jan, 2018
3.	Course coordinators to follow up with their teams on the implementation of the comments made in the report and on improving course outlines	Course coordinators	Throughout Feb 2018
4.	Course instructors submit to course coordinators an improved version of the course outline with appropriate mapping, assessment and weekly distribution to course coordinators	Course instructors	Thu 15^th of March, 2018
5.	Course coordinators submit to area coordinators an improved course outline for the course and a detailed course report describing the main issues of relevance, i.e. assessment, learning outcome mapping, language descriptors, critical thinking skills, research-based teaching and learning, application/practice, formatting style of assignments, and changes in the course, if any.	Course coordinators	Thu 29^th of March, 2018
7.	Area coordinators submit to Dept. Curriculum Committee & Assessment an improved course outline for the course and a detailed course report describing the main issues of relevance, i.e. assessment, learning outcome mapping, language descriptors, critical thinking skills, research-based teaching and learning, application/practice, formatting style of assignments, and changes in the course, if any.	Area coordinators	Thu 15^th of April, 2018
8.	Dept. Curriculum & Assessment Committee submit a detailed report supported by evidence (in the form of attachments if needed) to the HoD and Assistant HoD about the current status of curriculum and assessment of all courses in the Dept.	Curriculum & Assessment Committee	Thu 31^st of May, 2018
9.	HoD and Assistant HoD read the report over the summer and feedback the Department about the outcome of the entire cycle of curriculum and assessment review	HoD & Assistant HoD	Sept 2018

B. A. in English Language and Literature Program Outcomes

communicate fluently, accurately and appropriately in spoken and written English for a variety of purposes in academic and other contexts
convey information, ideas and arguments cogently and coherently, both orally and in writing, with due regard to the target audience
read fluently and critically and write accurately and cogently in English a wide variety of texts for different purposes
demonstrate sound knowledge and effective mastery of English language structure and use and of the linguistic principles and techniques necessary for analyzing English
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the distinctive character of texts written in the principal literary genres and of other kinds of writing and communication, and be able to describe, analyze and evaluate these in spoken and written English
think independently, solve problems and discriminate critically
demonstrate effective research techniques for gathering data and retrieving information from a variety of print and electronic sources
interpret, evaluate, analyze and synthesize research material, to document sources and report findings in clear and accurate language
work independently and collaboratively, using effective management skills.

B. A. in Translation Program Outcomes

demonstrate high level of understanding of various translation approaches and techniques.
translate a variety of texts representing different genres and text-types from Arabic into English and from English to Arabic maintaining a high level of competence, fluency and naturalness in both written as well as spoken translations.
demonstrate a detailed knowledge and effective understanding of the structures, registers, functions and varieties of both English and Arabic, in addition to the principles required for analyzing English and Arabic texts for translation purposes.
communicate fluently and appropriately in both English and Arabic, maintaining a high degree of grammatical accuracy, a high level of naturalness in the use of a broad range of written and spoken materials in English and Arabic.
demonstrate a high level of awareness of cultural similarities and differences between English and Arabic.
effectively use monolingual as well as bilingual dictionaries.
retrieve, assess and analyze information, and express their findings in clear and accurate language, whether orally or in print.
effectively use IT applications both as an aid to learning and as a means of enhancing and facilitating translation practice.
think critically and make informed decisions about certain translation strategies and techniques.
assess the quality of a translation on the basis of a set of quality assessment criteria and models.
demonstrate the ability to think independently and solve various translation problems.