LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Life and work in academia: event for new and aspiring lecturers in languages, linguistics and area studies
Event date: 12 April, 2012
Location: Conference Aston, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET

Life and work in academia: event for new and aspiring lecturers in languages, linguistics and area studies
Event date: 15 April, 2011
Location: Jesus College, Ship Street Centre, Oxford

Stories with impact: a workshop for heads of department and subject leaders. (Audio recordings of Michael Kelly's and Gavin Fairbairns's presentations are now available on this event)
Event date: 17 September, 2010
Location: Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9HQ

Life and work in academia: event for new lecturers in languages, linguistics and area studies
Event date: 15 April, 2010 - 16 April, 2010
Location: Aston Business School Conference Centre, Birmingham

Thriving in difficult times: a workshop for heads of department and subject leaders
Event date: 10 September, 2009
Location: School of African and Oriental Studies, London, WC1H 0XG

Life and work in academia: event for new lecturers in languages, linguistics and area studies
Event date: 16 April, 2009 - 17 April, 2009
Location: Clare College, Cambridge

Enhancing MFL teaching for new tutors
Event date: 19 September, 2008
Location: Leeds University Business School

National Teaching Fellows in languages, linguistics and area studies

National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) nominations

The individual strand of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) recognises and rewards individual excellence in teaching in higher education in England and Northern Ireland. Fifty individual awards of £10,000 will be made to recognise individual excellence. The award may be used for Fellows' personal and/or professional development in teaching and learning and aspects of pedagogy. Nominations for the NTFS Individual Awards 2008 are now open.

Join the Higher Education Academy professional recognition scheme

The Academy has developed a new Professional Recognition Scheme. The scheme has been designed to support the implementation of the sector-owned UK Professional Standards Framework.

Online teaching skills for language tutors

Online teachers need different skills than those normally employed by tutors trained to teach languages in a face-to-face classroom and they also require different skills compared to online teachers of other subjects. Research shows that the medium influences the form of communication and interaction (see e.g. Hutchby 2001). The asynchronicity of communication in written conferencing and the lack of non-verbal clues in audio-conferencing are examples of new challenges for online language tutors.

Training the trainer: language teaching assistants
Quality requirements mean universities must ensure suitable training for all language teaching staff. Courses for language assistants are most effective when divided into two parts, with a combination of initial intensive input and subsequent reflection on practical experience in the classroom. Foreign language assistants, part-time tutors and postgraduate teaching assistants have differing developmental needs which can be met through modular elements. All assistants can qualify for membership of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education via one of two routes.

Training the trainer: staff development for language teaching
Support for the professional development of full-time staff teaching languages in higher education is poor, particularly because universities' initial training programmes tend to be exclusively generic. Furthermore, most academics' expertise is in non-language areas and there is no real culture of language pedagogy. The DELPHI programme offers a completely free online distance-learning programme in language teacher development, suitable for all university teaching contexts.