I am an educational linguist and applied linguist. 

I have worked as a teacher educator for several years and have designed and taught on English-medium (science) ITE courses. I moved to Glasgow in 2012 and currently teach on the MEd/MSc TESOL, PGDE and M.Educ programmes. I have worked as a teacher of English (English for Academic Purposes/English as an Additional Language) in France, Germany and the UK, teaching both adults and children.

I'm interested in the role language plays in the development of conceptual thinking. I draw on cognitive linguistic frameworks and discourse studies to investigate the development of conceptual thinking in pedagogical and home settings. 

Research interests: Application of cognitive and functional linguistics in educational settings, especially in science: Text World Theory, Cognitive Grammar, stylistics, metaphors, image schemas, abstract concepts. The intersection between language, cognition and culture. Multilingualism. Assessment for learning. Intercultural communication. 

Qualifications:

MA TESOL (distinction) -  University of Nottingham 2011

PGCE Science with CLIL (secondary) - University of Nottingham 2004

RSA/Cambridge Diploma TEFLA - British Institute, Paris 1998

RSA/Cambridge Certificate TEFLA 1991

BSc Chemistry with Education, University of York, 1991 

I investigate teacher and student Knowledge About Language (KAL). I am interested in usage-based (cognitive and functional) approaches to language learning in all pedagogical contexts, as well as the application of principles from these approaches to the knowledge-building process, by teachers and students. I am especially interested in how conceptual thinking develops in the disciplines, especially in the sciences. In my doctoral research, I used and developed a cognitive discursive framework to describe and explain the development of how scientific abstract concepts are both constructed and linguistically represented in classroom discourse. A link to my thesis is [here].

The central questions I have that underpin my research interest are:

How do language(s), culture and physical environment shape thought when learning?

How does Knowledge About Language (KAL) support the knowledge building process for both L1 and L2 users?

I am also interested how different languages and cultures construct and represent abstract thought and the implications of this for multilingual settings.  

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Creative Multilingualism AHRC (Open World Research Initiative) 2018-9 'The Moon in narrative, metaphor and reason: A multilinguistic perspective' £1,940

British Council ELTRA award 2017. Challenging the Translingual Turn: Student-Teachers' Perceptions, Practices and Networks (co-researcher with Lavinia Hirsu) £5,000

I supervise MEd and MSc TESOL dissertation students

I co-supervise with

Dr Dely Elliot PhD student Idris Hamed Nasser Al Adawi. Investigating Omani EFL teachers' beliefs and practices of intercultural competence (IC): A qualitative enquiry within two higher education institutions in Oman.

Dr Lavinia Hirsu PhD student Chufan Qiu: A study of the identity reconstruction of Chinese HE students in the UK.

Professor Louise Haywood PhD student Jingwei Song: Teachers' practices and understandings of formative assessment: A case study in Shenzhen, China.

Principal supervisor with

Dr Philip Tonner and Dr Jennifer Farrar PhD student Dorothy Munro: An analysis of the impact of cross-curricular metaphor awareness as a tool for inhanced literacy and increased attainment in both the English classroom and other secondary subjects.

• Al Adawi, Idris Hamed Nasser
  Developing Intercultural Competence (IC) in EFL: a qualitative enquiry into the beliefs and practices of a group of Omani EFL teachers in two Higher Education Institutions in Oman
• Qiu, Chufan
  A Study on Identity (Re)construction of Chinese Students Studying in Higher Education in the UK
• Song, Jingwei
  Assessing for learning in English language classrooms in China

I teach on and convene the following modules on the MSc and MEd TESOL programmes:

Descriptions of Language (core module) (convenor)

Language Proficiency, Assessment and Feedback (2nd semester option) (convenor)

Dissertation module (convenor)

I teach the EAL/literacy component of ITE/PGDE programmes within the School 

I teach on Modern Educational Thought and (online) Modern Educational Thought. 

I am a member of the School of Education's Ethic's committee. 

Professional Affiliations:

I am convenor LKALE (Linguistics and Knowledge About Language) Special Interest Group of British Association of Applied Linguistics.

I am membership secretary of NALDIC (National Association of Language Diversity Across the Curriculum). 

Member of BAAL, NALDIC, PALA. RaAM and BALEAP.

Prizes and Awards

Winner of the 2016 British Association of Applied Linguistis (BAAL) Richard Pemberton prize for the best student paper: Knowledge About Language from a Cognitive Linguistics Perspective. What Content Teachers Might Want to Know. 

2020 Teaching Excellence Award (TESOL team award). University of Glasgow. 

Current Project

I running workshops with colleagues at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India, the language infectious diseases and in particular, how information about Covid 19 has been represented in science and media texts and, as a result, how knowledge about Covid-19 is constructed across a range of genres. Participants are secondary science teachers.

Past Projects

One: I was PI of 'The Moon in narrative, metaphor and reason: A multilinguistic perspective', a Creative Multilingualism project (2018 - 19) funded through AHRC (Open World Research Initiative), where I investigated how concepts associated with the Moon are constructed and represented in four languages (English, Polish, Mandarin and Arabic) . More details about Creative Multilingualism and my project can be found [here]. 

Two: Hirsu, L., Zacharias, S. and Futro, D. : Creative Language Practices: Exploring Translanguaging in Pedagogical Contexts and Beyond is a project that started with a few important questions: What is the role of translanguaging in language teaching? How can teachers enrich their practice if they are to engage with translanguaging? What does translanguaging mean for teachers and pupils in different multilingual classrooms? How can practitioners talk about translanguaging in their daily practice? In an attempt to answer some of these questions, our project aims to discover and develop creative practices, activities and ideas that teachers can use in multilingual classrooms within a translingual framework. The project builds on a collaborative model that brings together expertise about multilingual learning and teaching, as well as arts-based methods and creative practices.

As language researchers and practitioners, we believe in the creative potential of languages and the important role of all our communicative resources. In a world where languages oftentimes become measures of someone’s identity, place and individual worth, we have a duty to support our learners of all linguistic backgrounds. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/gc/creativepracticestranslang/

Three: Co-creator with Doherty, C. of MOOC with FutureLearn TESOL Strategies: Supporting ESL Students in Mainstream Classrooms

Conferences and Workshops

Zacharias, S. (2021) Learning science through the language lens: a collaborative project between two Higher Education Institutions in Scotland and India. BAAL and CUP seminar. Language, Literacies in the disciplies: A Higher Education Perspective.

invited speaker Zacharias, S. (2021) It…he [the Moon] didn’t look tasty! Transnational children’s use of metaphors as a transcultural tool to gain symbolic power in family discourse. Resaerch seminar series. Linguistics at Huddersfield. 

Hirsu, L. and Zacharias, S. (2021) (webinar) Adopting a translanguaging approach​: Exploring student-teachers’ metalinguistic beliefs ​through creative metaphors and practices. Cener for translingual and multilingual education (CTME). Georgia State University. USA.

​Hirsu, L., Zacharias, S. and Futro, D. (2020) (webinar) Creative Activities ​for Language Learners ​at Home. ELTRA webinar series. British Council.  ​

McGuire, W. , Harrington, O. , MacDiarmid, C. and Zacharias, S. (2020) Showing; Not Telling: Modelling Student Feedback to Improve Satisfaction. BERA 2020, Liverpool, UK, 08-10 Sep 2020.

McGuire, W. , Harrington, O. , Zacharias, S. and MacDiarmid, C. (2020) The Problem with Feedback. ECER 2020, Glasgow, UK, 24-28 Aug 2020 [Event cancelled]. (Unpublished)

Zacharias, S. and Marren, A. (2020) Creative Use of Metaphors in Bilingual Settings. Research and Applying Metaphor (RaAM14). Hamad, Norwary. 

Zacharias, S. (2019) What Can Cognitive Linguistics Do for the EAP Community? BALEAP Conference 2019: Innovation, Exploration and Transformation, Leeds, UK, 12-14 Apr 2019.

Zacharias, S. (2019) The Moon in Narrative, Metaphor and Reason: a Multilinguistic Perspective. The Creative Power of Metaphor, Worcester College, Oxford, UK, 29-30 March 2019.

Zacharias, S. (2018) Moon Metaphors: a Multilinguistic and Multicultural Perspective. 5th International Conference on Metaphor and Discourse: Metaphors Across Cultures and Social Spheres, Fundación Universitat Jaume I-Empresa, Castellón de La Plana, Spain, 8-9 November 2018.

Zacharias, S. (2018) 'The Heat's Travelling Along the Rod!' Constructions and Representations of Scientific Abstract Concepts in Classroom Discourse. 8th International Conference of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, 26-28 September 2018.

Zacharias, S. (2018) How are we Meant to use Heat? Towards a Model of Linguistic Knowledge for Teachers. Cognitive Grammar in Stylistics, Aston University, Birmingham, UK, 13 September 2018.

Zacharias, S. (2018) Is That What You Meant? Towards a Formative Evaluation Framework for Content Classrooms. BAAL 2018 Taking Risks in Applied Linguistics, York, UK, 6-8 September 2018.

Zacharias, S. and Hirsu, L. (2018) Embracing a Translingual Approach: Between Pedagogical Risk and Daily Practice. BAAL 2018 Taking Risks in Applied Linguistics, York, UK, 6-8 September 2018.

Zacharias, S. and Hirsu, L. (2018) Challenging Student-Teacher Language Ideologies in Translingual Contexts. TLANG 2018, Birmngham, UK, 28-29 March 2018.

Zacharias, S. (2018) Developing Knowledge About Language with Student Teachers on Short English as an Additional Language Input Sessions. SATEAL 2018 Conference, Edinburgh, UK, 17 March 2018.

Zacharias, S. (2016) Knowledge about Language from a Cognitive Linguistics Perspective: What Content Teachers Might Want to Know. BAAL 2016 Taking Stock of Applied Linguistics: Where Are We Now?, Cambridge, UK, 1-3 September 2016.