Language Toolkit/Toolkit Taal: plug-and-play teaching materials
Do your students struggle to structure their writing, express ideas precisely, engage with academic texts or present their work effectively? The ALP Language Toolkit/Toolkit Taal gives teachers across all disciplines practical, plug-and-play lessons in English and Dutch for supporting students’ academic language development. The modules cover reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary. A separate set of modules deals with AI and writing. No background in language teaching is required, and the modules work as standalone units. The Toolkit provides ready-to-use slides, teaching notes and direct links to the corresponding modules in the student version of the Toolkit, which contains self-study materials. Take a look around, try a lesson or two with your students and come back from time to time to see what’s new.

Sign up for the Toolkit by filling out this form.

Rich language feedback with a single click
The ALP has developed feedback sytems based on a categorisation of common errors that students make in Dutch and English texts: NLS Online en ELS Online. A key aspect of these systems is that as a teacher you only have to recognize and indicate the type of mistake (for instance, tense or spelling). This category, in turn, gives the student access to extensive information about the topic and exercises to practise their skills.   

The ALP feedback systems are integrated in Canvas. This means that you can add standardized comments on language to the feedback that you're giving on any assignment that you grade in Canvas. If you're interested in working with these systems, sign up for our Canvas training module via alp.sgw@vu.nl. 

Designing good writing assignments
With the availability of Generative AI tools, designing good writing assignments for students has become even more important. ALP staff have worked on various projects these last years to understand what the availability of these tools means for teaching writing. One of these projects led to the so-called Writing Pie of writing skills. The Writing Pie allows a teacher to evaluate their own writing assignments: which aspects of writing skills are part of the learning goals of the course? What kind of assessment fits these goals?  

You can read more about the Writing Pie and (re)designing writing assignments here.  

Modules or courses on language skills as part of degree programmes 
ALP staff provide courses, modules or guest lectures about language skills in English and Dutch for various degree programmes at the VU. If you're interested in a guest lecture on writing, presenting or Generative AI and writing, you can send us an email at alp.sgw@vu.nl. If you're interested in the possibilities for including an ALP module or course on academic communicative skills in a degree programme, you can find more information here.

Referring students to the ALP 
The ALP has an extensive list of options for students to work on their language skills by themselves or to get some extra support from ALP staff. We always appreciate it when teachers help us to spread the word about these extra options for students! Refer them to them to our homepage, or directly to our Courses, Workshops, Coaching, or the Language Toolkit.