Education Support Services

Library

The Department of English has direct contacts with many publishers, either through their local representatives in the UAE., their regional offices for the Middle East, or head offices in the United Kingdom and the United States. The department receives catalogues for new releases in the field of language, applied and theoretical linguistics, and language teaching on a regular basis. Publishers in TESOL/EFL/Linguistics send their annual catalogues to the department and the library. Many representatives maintain regular contact with the chair and TESOL faculty on a regular basis. In addition, publishers such as Cambridge University Press and Blackwell send electronic notifications of their new publications.

The university library has been involved with several initiatives to further information and resource sharing within both University City, and with the broader academic environment of the UAE. Librarians have been sharing information about resources, library systems, information literacy programs, and staff development. Document delivery services, information assistance, and catalogue access are currently in place and will be further developed as technologies and institutional policies evolve.

Information Technology Resources

The department's budget includes an allocation for software acquisition each year. The collection of CALL materials is reviewed and adjusted every year (after a review of available new software on the market). Companies specialized in CALL material and equipment (such as Edutech in the UAE) are invited to visit the AUS campus regularly and provide demonstrations of their new materials. The department adds software every academic year to its existing inventory. The department also plans to purchase a varied selection of software programs specifically geared towards younger language learners. These will be used as state-of-the-art demonstration materials in classes that deal with teaching methods and materials, as well as for individual graduate students' teaching and research projects.

The English Department maintains a computer lab with an assistant who maintains the functioning of the equipment assists students and faculty in using software. In addition, the department has a writing center with twenty computers. The center gives students in the department additional self-access practice with CALL software.

Finally, educational technology is integrated into every course offered by the department. Instructors at AUS have access to videos and audiotapes and regularly use power point presentations, video and audio taping, language software in the computer lab, and internet sites as part of their teaching tools. Workshops are provided each semester, in coordination with the IEP when appropriate, to keep faculty and students informed about possible uses of the available hardware and software. Faculty are encouraged to give assignments regularly in all classes that require students to make use of the Internet and the technology available in the department.

Merit Fellowships

The university plans to offer fellowships to graduate students in the MA TESOL Program who are native speakers of English in exchange for some teaching assignments in the IEP and COM 001 as is practiced by other American universities in the region. These fellowships will be widely advertised during the second year of the AUS TESOL program. Such arrangement augments not only the language and teaching exchanges in the MA TESOL classes, but also their cultural parameters.

In addition the university will encourage the establishment of exchange programs between American universities, especially the American University in Washington, D.C. and AUS, to provide the opportunity for AUS students to spend some time in an American educational environment if desired.