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research overview |
<p>1. The development of the discipline of English studies in global contexts. In
particular I am interested in how English language study is incoorporated within
the subject area of English in higher education.</p><p>2. Using detailed textual analysis
to focus on areas such as Thematic patterning, metadiscourse and the semantic contents
of grammatical subjects in order to analyse different genres of academic writing including
computer mediated discussions: student essays written by native speakers studying
geography; international students writing dissertations in business administration;
published research articles in a variety of disciplines; answers written by international
students in response to the IELTS examination academic writing component; essays and
computer mediated discussions in the fields of applied linguistics and health and
social care; psychology articles written in English by non-Anglophone context
scholars. </p><p>3. Learning to argue through on-line conferencing: This research
project looked at the discourse of students participating in on-line tutorial conferences.
Contributions resulting from different tutor strategies to encourage reflection and
critical engagement on-line were compared to the final written assignments produced
by students. Findings relate to stutor strategies and to the hybrid nature of
both on-line and assignment writing.</p><p> </p><p>Funded Research Projects</p><p>Supporting
analysis of the English language. Open Uuniversity Scholarship of Assessment Funded
project 2016-17.</p><p>How can employability be integrated into assessment on E304?
New models of assessment and tuition scholarship project. Open Uuniversity Scholarship
of Assessment Funded project 2013-14.</p><p>Challenges in Residency - HEA Digital
Literacies in the Disciplines project. 2013-14.</p><p>The discipline of English Language
Studies- a global perspective? HEA Discipline Workshop Seminar Series 2011-12.</p><p>The
effectiveness of interventions to support greater participation in, and more purposeful
use of online forums on undergraduate English Language studies modules. Open
University Scholarship grant (2011-2012)</p><p>English Studies in East European Higher
Education: Post-Accession Bulgaria and Romania. Leverhulme Trust funded‘International
Network’ grant (2008-2009)</p><p>Trajectories of knowledge production:
English medium academic writing in national, transnational and international contexts
(2007-2008)<br />(Economic and Social Research Council funding)<br /><br />Supporting
undergraduate students’ acquisition of academic argumentation strategies through
computer conferencing (2005-2006)<br />(Higher Education Academy funding)<br /><br
/>Academic argument - the role of asynchronous electronic conferencing (2002 to 2003)<br
/>(Learning and Teaching Innovation Committee funding, Open University)<br /><br />Academic
argument- using new technologies to move students from collaborative to individual
forms of argumentation (2001 - 2002)<br />(Learning and Teaching Innovation Committee
funding, Open University)<br /><br />IELTS 2000 A linguistic analysis of Chinese and
Greek L1 scripts for IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 (2000-2001)<br />(British Council
and International English Language Testing System Funding )<br /> </p><p><br
/>Research Degree Supervision<br />2003 Sarah North, Emergent disciplinarity in an
interdisciplinary course: theme use in undergraduate essays in the history of science,
PhD.<br /><br />2005 Gab’sile Lukhele, Academic Writing in global open distance
learning: Case studies of an MBA programme in Ethiopia, Russia and the United Kingdom,
MPhil.<br /><br />2006 Sylvia Jones, Arguing on-line and off: an investigation of
students' argumentation in the context of computer-mediated discussions and individually
written assignments, PhD.<br /><br />2010 Doris Scharinger, Thematic structure of
PhD thesis abstracts in English, MRes.</p><p><br />2011 Maria Leedham, L1 Mandarin
students and L1 English students in UK HE: How and why does their use of lexical chunks
differ?</p><p>Ongoing Jane Cobb A comparative investigation of multiple perspectives
on dialogic feedback on academic writing. EdD.</p><p>Ongoing Amy Aisha Brown Discourses
of the English Language in the Japanese Twitter Community. PhD.</p><p>Ongoing Theron
Muller Experiences and Reflections of Emerging Scholars Pursuing Academic Publication.
PhD    </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br />Research
Degrees Examined<br />2002 PhD Title: Investigating textual structure in native and
non-native English research articles: Strategy differences between English and Indonesian
writers, University of New South Wales, Australia.<br /><br />2003 EdD Title: Students’
notions of‘audience’ as revealed by the academic writing of a group of
Open University undergraduate students, The Open University, UK.<br /><br />2004 PhD
Title: Person-oriented and process-oriented teachers: An investigation of the links
between ESOL Teachers’ Personal Belief Systems and approaches to teaching, Aston
University, UK.<br /><br />2005 PhD Title: A rhetorical analysis of examination essays
in three disciplines: The case of Ghanaian undergraduate students, National University
of Singapore, Singapore.<br /><br />2006 MPhil Title: A retrospective analysis of
learning through cooperative dialogue: Dialogic acts, plausible inferences and empathy,
The Open University, UK.<br /><br />2006 Masters by Research Title: Comparing text
structures in English and Spanish in discussion genre at university level, University
of New South Wales, Australia.<br /><br />2007 PhD Title: Dialogic learning in tutorial
talk: a case study of semiotic mediation as a learning resource for second language
international students, Universit |