Position: Course Director MA TEFL ( Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy/RSA)

Email: j.j.clapham@bangor.ac.uk

Phone: 01248 388702

Location: School of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics Room 206, 41-47 College Road, Bangor University

Biography 

I joined Bangor University in 1994. I am Course Director for the MA TEFL at the School of Languages, Literatures andLinguistics. I was educated in Bangor and Cardiff University, where I gained a BA in English Literature and an MA in Applied Linguistics. I have taught in Sudan and China and provided consultancy and literacy training in Jamaica, Lesotho, and Pakistan. I am currently lecturing on postgraduate MA programmes, Phd/ MA Research Projects in Languag Planning and I also teach an MA module in Intercultural Education (MDIS Singapore) and contribute to the MA module in Research Methods. The MA in TEFL is run in collaboration with the School of Linguistics.

Responsibilities

• Course Director: MA TEFL
• Co-ordinator for Overseas Students 
• Supervising MA/PhD dissertations 
• Teaching and Learning Panel
• Mentor : Women's University Mentoring Scheme
• PGCertHE Assessor
• Reviewer for HEA.
• UCET Literacy Test Piloting Panel.
• TEFL MA Programme Board. (Linguistics)
• Bangor English Test Panel. (ELCOS)]
• External Examiner MARJON Plymouth and USWTSD.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) in English Literature, University of Wales, Bangor
PGCE Secondary English, University of Wales, Cardiff
Cert TEFLA, Godmer House, Oxford
MA in Applied Linguistics, University of Wales, Bangor
Doctorate in Education, Exeter University

Senior Fellow HEA, Fellow RSA.

My doctoral research focused on teachers' use of Code-switching in bilingual classrooms in Wales, with a view to examining in what ways teachers are aware of the positive benefits of Code-switching and to raise awareness of the relationship between code choice, bilingual identity and wider social factors. I am particularly interested in how far teachers employ code-switching as a teaching strategy and how teachers' identities undergo a process of transformation as a result of their experiences of the research process.

Other research interests include metalinguistic awareness (LLAWEN Mentoring Project) with Dr Lise Fontaine, language awareness, bilingual teaching methodology and Narrative Inquiry.

I am a member of BAAL, NA TESOL and NALDIC and have several years experience of working with minority ethnic achievement in Wales. I am an external examiner for the MA programme in UHI, Outer Hebrides and St. Mark and St. John University, Plymouth.

I was instrumental in setting up the Wales-Jamaica Project  and I have co-written articles for English in Education and Education Transactions, and I have also written a chapter on Bilingualism with Professor. Colin Baker. I regularly contribute reviews on educational matters and I am an associate member of the ESRC Centre for Bilingualism.

Current teaching

• Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition
• Language Awareness and Multilingualism
• Intercultural Education (MDIS, MA in Education, Singapore).
• TEFL/ ESL/EAL teaching methodology.

Module Leadership

• MA module XME4001: Research Methods in Education (Qualitative interviewing)
• EFL Theory QXL3313
• MA TEFL QXL4413
• SLA and Teaching QXL 4420
• MA TESOL XME4070
• Dissertation Module, MA in Education All Pathways.

Supervision

MA Dissertation students (5)ervision (2) Yue Zhang Language planning in Cambodia +1

Research areas

Bilingual Teacher Identity and Code-switching

• Multilingual Education
• Development Education issues: developing global awareness
• Aspects of written performance in bilingual settings
• Second language acquisition in the multilingual classroom
• Attitudes to Jamaican Creole in Jamaica

Projects

• LLAWEN Metalinguistic Awareness Project 2015-Present
• Wales-Jamaica Project, 2001-2006
• Lesotho Link - : Literacy for Mother Figures, 2003
• UMEED Literacy Project Pakistan, 2004 - 2006
• Dynamo Entrepreneurship and Thinking Skills INSET Provider for Teachers KS1-KS4, 2005-2007
• Code-switching in Secondary schools in Wales 2009-2015

Links

Project work for the Wales-Jamaica Project can be found at http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/slavestoslate/default.html