I joined the School of Education and Lifelong Learning as Associate Professor in Education in August 2019 to implement and lead the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).  My responsibilities include directing the Master’s in TESOL, coordinating all the Master’s courses in the School and leading the Language in Education Research Group.

I have extensive experience of language teaching in several contexts and of language/teacher education at universities. In the UK, I started my career as a Teaching Assistant at Queen’s University Belfast, where I worked in the former Schools of English and Education. Soon after my PhD viva, I was appointed a Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at the University of Stirling. In addition to convening and teaching face-to-face and online Master’s modules, I led the implementation of the PhD in TESOL Research at Stirling.

My main research interests are in the fields of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), corpus linguistics, English for academic purposes (EAP), teacher education, and academic/pedagogical discourse analysis.  These research interests are reflected on the Language in Education Research Group, which I have created and have been leading at UEA.

I have secured nearly £400k from prestigious funders (e.g. British Academy, British Council) for projects in which I was the PI, and even more for projects in which I was a co-investigator.  I am experienced in working with colleagues in large interdisciplinary teams, contributing with my expertise in language and discourse analysis to projects in areas such as Architecture, Biology, and Environmental Sciences.  I have also successfully supported early-career researchers in securing funding for research under my supervision.

My contribution to the field includes (i) publications in international journals and edited books as well as (ii) academic reviews of journal paper submissions and book manuscripts.  With regard to the former, one of my books – Perspectives on Corpus Linguistics – has had a Chinese issue commissioned by one of the main publishers in Applied Linguistics in that country.  In relation to the latter, I am an editorial board member of, for instance, Corpus Pragmatics and the Brazilian Journal of Applied Linguistics, and I have peer reviewed submissions to several international journals (e.g. System, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, The Curriculum Journal).  I have also been invited to evaluate book proposals and full manuscripts by international publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Wiley Blackwell.

I have supervised both PhD students and early-career researchers to successful completion, and I have supported numerous colleagues with their academic writing over the years.  I would welcome applications for (post-)doctoral supervision in any of my areas of expertise.

I have taught a wide range of courses throughout my career.  I started as a language teacher, delivering classes on English as a foreign language to students of different ages (from young learners to seniors), at diverse proficiency levels (from complete beginners to advanced ones), in a range of contexts (e.g. primary/secondary/tertiary levels, language institutes), and for different purposes (e.g. general, specific and academic).

I then moved on to higher education and have extensive experience of both face-to-face and online teaching/learning.  I have worked in Schools of English and Education, and I have a range of teaching interests in English language, Linguistics and Education.  In the past eight years, my teaching has been focused on Master’s courses in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).  At UEA, I have been led and/or taught the following modules:

• Corpora in Language Research, Learning and Teaching;
• Critical Reading;
• English Language Analysis for Language Professionals;
• Language Teaching Methods and Materials;
• Principles and Practices in Second Language Education;
• Teaching with Information Technologies.

I have delivered guest lectures on my areas of expertise in a range of countries such as Germany, Hungary and Japan.  I have also been invited to teach postgraduate courses in Brazil and Ukraine.

I have always pro-actively engaged in continuous professional development and have successfully supported the continuous professional development of colleagues.  I am a Senior Fellow (SFHEA) of Advance HE, and I was a mentor/evaluator of the Stirling Framework Evidencing Learning and Teaching Enhancement (SFELTE) from its inception.

I have engaged in numerous associations over the course of my career.  I am the co-founder and the co-chair of the Corpus Linguistics in Scotland (CLiS) Network, and the Seminars Coordinator of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL).  I am a member of main associations in my teaching/research areas such as the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP), International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), and TESOL International Association.

I have undertaken a number of external examining positions.  These included evaluating course proposals (e.g. York St John University) and courses (e.g. University of Glasgow and Trinity College Dublin).  I have also externally examined Master’s dissertations (e.g. Federal University of Minas Gerais and São Paulo State University) and doctoral theses (e.g. De Monfort University, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Edinburgh and University of Limerick).

I was hired at the University of East Anglia to implement and lead the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning.  To this end, I work alongside colleagues delivering modules on the MA TESOL to ensure its high quality.

My administrative responsibilities include the chairing of the Master’s Exam Board in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning as well as the coordination of all six Master’s courses that are offered in the School:

• MA Mathematics Education (ME);
• MA Second Language Education (SLE);
• MA Education: Learning, Pedagogy and Assessment (LPA);
• MA Educational Practice and Research (EPR);
• MA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL);
• MSc Education Leadership and Management (ELM).

I am the founder and the leader of the Language in Education Research Group.  I am also a member of the REF Review Group and the Teaching Committee in the School.  I have been the Course Director for the MRes in Social Sciences Research Methods (Education) and UEA’s Education Pathway Representative in the South-East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS).