Institute of Education London

Dr Siân Preece

• Qualifications and position:
  • Lecturer in TESOL Education
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Culture and Pedagogy
• Department:
  • Department of Learning, Curriculum and Communication
• Summary:
  • My background is as an EFL and EAP teacher in language schools in the UK and in Greece. Since working in higher education, I have been involved in (language) teacher education and teaching English language and linguistics at both under and postgraduate level. My interests include language learning and identity in tertiary education among multilingual students; language, gender and sexuality; the design and delivery of ESOL curriculum in contexts of cultural and linguistic diversity and discourse analysis.
• Teaching:
  • I am a member of the MA TESOL team and the module tutor for Language Learning and Teaching and English for Academic Purposes. I also contribute to Language Teacher Development, Basic Research Skills and Multilingual and Multicultural London.
• Research Projects:
  • My doctoral research involved an investigation into the construction of identities among first-year minority ethnic university students from widening participation backgrounds with a specific focus on linguistic diversity and gender.
    
    I am currently working on 2 collaborative ESRC bids:
    'Discourse analytical perspectives of widening participation in linguistically and culturally diverse university classrooms' with Prof David Block (IOE)
    'Investigating Pathways to Citizenship in Adult ESOL Classes in Australia and the UK' with Prof Adrian Blackledge (PI)and Prof Angela Creese (University of Birmingham), Prof Sue Wright (University of Portsmouth), Dr James Simpson (University of Leeds), Dr Alastair Pennycook (University of Technology Sydney) and Prof Tim McNamara (University of Melbourne)
• Postgraduate Research:
  • My main research interests include language learning and identity, language and gender, design and delivery of ESOL curriculum in tertiary education, discourse analysis of spoken interaction and academic literacies. I am currently supervising the following research students:
    
    Sarah Gartland (PhD)
    'An investigation into the factors affecting academic writing development of students on an MSc Health Sciences programme'
    
    Mary Davis (PhD)
    'Learning and teaching about the use of other authors' words in non-native academic writing: how do international postgraduate students incorporate others' text into their text?'
• Professional Activities:
  • Membership in professional organisations: British Association for Applied Linguistics, International Gender and Language Association, Gender and Education Association, Fellow of The Higher Education Academy
• Conferences/presentations:
  • Recent papers include:
    • 'Multilingual Identities in English-medium Universities'. Convenor of colloquium at the International Symposium on Bilingualism 7, Utrecht University, July 2009.
    • 'Gender Identities: Performing gender in talk about heritage languages', Paper given at 41st Annual BAAL Meeting, University of Swansea, September 2008.
    • 'Language and Identity in Higher Education: A Global Concern'. Convenor of colloquium with Prof Peter Martin (UEL) at the Language issues in English medium universities: A Global Concern conference, University of Hong Kong, June 2008.
    • 'When "posh" and "slang" collide: issues of language and gender among non-elite British Asian undergraduates'. Paper given at Sociolinguistics Symposium 17, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, April 2008.
    • 'Multilingual identities in higher education'. Paper given as part of Negotiating Multilingual Identities in Educational Settings Colloquium (Convenor, Prof Adrian Blackledge) at 40th Annual BAAL Meeting, University of Edinburgh, September 2007.
    • 'Talking Posh, Acting Posh? Language and Gender on a First-Year Undergraduate Academic Writing Programme'. Paper given at Learning Together: Reshaping Higher Education in a Global Age conference, Institute of Education, July 2007.
    • 'British Asian undergraduate students in London'. Paper given as part of Multilingual identities, attitudes and practices in a global city: Five London case studies Colloquium (Convenor, Prof David Block) at Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, University of Limerick, July 2006.
• Personal Country Knowledge:
  • I have country knowledge of the UK and Greece, primarily in relation to language learning and teaching and education policies and practices.
• Languages Spoken:
  • Greek (intermediate)
    French (basic/intermediate)
• Languages Written:
  • Greek (basic)
    French (basic/intermediate)