Dr Sally Zacharias
- Lecturer in Education (Culture, Literacies, Inclusion & Pedagogy)
telephone:
0141 330-3421
email:
Sally.Zacharias@glasgow.ac.uk
St Andrew's Building, N502b, 11 Eldon Street, Glasgow, G3 6NH
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9430-8166Biography
I joined the University of Glasgow in 2012 and am a lecturer in the School of Education, where I am part of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) team. I have a background in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and have taught in a variety of contexts (UK, France & Germany) including ones where I taught children at both secondary and primary levels.
I am the deputy Postgraduate Taught Director and also a member of the Ethics committee within the School.
Qualifications:
PhD University of Nottingham 2018
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
Research interests
My scholarship and teaching revolve around developing Language Awareness with language educators and content specialists and how this impacts on pedagogy, material design and assessment practices. I use cognitive linguistics and metaphor theory to inform my work.
I work with language educators to develop their Language Awareness and explore the social, cognitive and cultural aspects of the meaning-making process through language and other semiotic modes. I see language and grammar as a meaning-making resource and an embodied set of practices rather than a prescriptive set of rules to be learnt by rote based on strict native speaker norms. I encourage my students to critically explore language and their languaging practices by using their creativity and their full multilingual and multimodal repetoires.
I am currently working on a Learning and Teaching Development (LTDF) project, funded by the University of Glasgow, whereby I am developing language teacher-training materials and digital technologies to enhance conceptual understanding. More details of the project can be found HERE.
I am interested in how conceptual thinking develops in the disciplines, including the fields of language education and the sciences. I carry out workshops with practising science teachers in developing language awareness. 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].
I explore how objects and concepts have been linguistically represented across cultures and languages. For example, with the Creative Multilingualism AHRC (Open World Research Initiative) 2018-19 'The Moon in narrative, metaphor and reason' I looked at how the Moon is lingustically represented and interpreted through metaphor across different cultures and languages (Mandarin, Polish, Arabic and English).
Methodologically, I am interested in qualitative research methods and metaphor analysis. See link to my lecture as part of the Open Lectures in Educational Research Series.
Co-creator with Doherty, C. of MOOC with FutureLearn TESOL Strategies: Supporting ESL Students in Mainstream Classrooms
Grants
Learning and Teaching Development Fund (LTDF) University of Glasgow 2022-23. 'Developing a digital platform for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) student-teachers to co-create and share mini lesson plans and templates' £1223, 80 (with Natalie Finlayson and Nurfadzilah Binti Nek Kamal)
British Council's Going Global Exploratory Grant: Enhancing teacher education in STEM through a linguistic lens: a cross-curricula and transnational effort challenging gender stereotypes (Co-I)
Creative Multilingualism AHRC (Open World Research Initiative) 2018-9. 'The Moon in narrative, metaphor and reason: A multilinguistic perspective' £1,940
Cognitive Approaches to Language in Education Workhop 2018 BAAL/Routledge
British Council ELTRA award 2017. Challenging the Translingual Turn: Student-Teachers' Perceptions, Practices and Networks (co-researcher with Lavinia Hirsu) £5,000
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.
Supervision
I supervise MEd and MSc TESOL dissertation students
I co-supervise with
Dr Julie McAdam and Dr Gracia Maria Imperiale PhD student Guiping Ying A Study on the Mismatch of Public English Education
Dr Lavinia Hirsu PhD student Chufan Qiu: A study of the identity reconstruction of Chinese HE students in the UK.
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.
- Qiu, Chufan
A Study on Identity (Re)construction of Chinese Students Studying in Higher Education in the UK
Past supervision
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
Professor Louise Haywood PhD student Jingwei Song: Teachers' practices and understandings of formative assessment: A case study in Shenzhen, China.
Teaching
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.
Additional information
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, IATEFL, UKLA 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.
