Claire Cuminatto

Claire organises some of the core modules of UEA’s French Honours degree (years 1 and 2). She also teaches French in modules open to students from other Faculties such as Beginners' French. She has an interest in linking French language learning and Employability, for example in the Professional Applications seminar of the final year, final semester module of the French Honours degree. She favours group work in all her classes, and often uses Collaborative Learning interactive patterns to structure interactions between students.

Claire is currently the Director of the University Language Programme, which offers subsidiary daytime language modules to UEA students, and evening courses to UEA students and members of the public. For more information, go on the UEA Language Programme website. 

Until summer 2024, Claire was Associate Dean for Employability in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She managed the Faculty's employability strategy, led cross-school employability initiatives, chaired the Faculty Employability Executive and ensured that this forum operated as a means of facilitating sharing of ideas and resources on employability between Schools. She also was Placement Director for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. 

Prior to being Associate Dean, Claire was her School's Employability Director for many years and worked on embedding career development within the School’s curriculum. Claire initiated and ran PPL's Professional Practice scheme, whose aim is to build bridges between academic and professional worlds whereby students in a selection of PPL modules produce work which is sent to external organisations.  

Claire started her career in France, as a qualified Modern Foreign Language teacher, and taught in schools in the region of Lyon.  Having taught English before teaching French enhanced her sensitivity of how the two languages cut out reality differently, and where similarities and differences can hinder or facilitate acquisition in the case the English learners.

She started teaching at UEA in 2011, first as an Associate Tutor, then as a permanent lecturer from 2012. The modules she teaches focus on French Language Acquisition, from beginner to advanced level. 

-Appointed SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), 2024. 

-Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice (PGCERT), University of East Anglia, Norwich, 2012-2014

-‘Diplôme universitaire’ (University diploma) in FLE (Teaching French as a Foreign Language), Stendhal University / National Centre for Distance Eduation, Grenoble, 2010/2011

-‘Certificat d'aptitude aux fonctions d'enseignant du second degré dans les établissements d'enseignement privé sous contrat’ (qualification to teach in French private secondary schools), French Institute for the Training of Teachers, 2009/2010

-Master of Arts in English Literature, History, Translation and Linguistics, Jean Moulin University, Lyon, 2008-2010

-Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, History, Translation and Linguistics, Jean Moulin University, Lyon, 2004-2007

Second Language acquisition.

Employability in Higher Education. 

Second language acquisition and employability.