Dr Paul Thompson

Office

Room 183 HumSS Building, phone 0118 3786472 (internal 6472)

E-mail

p.a.thompson@reading.ac.uk

Qualifications

BA in English and Related Literature (York); PGCE (York); MA in TEFL (Reading); PhD (Reading)

University responsibilities

School Director of Postgraduate Studies, and convenor of the School Doctoral Training Programme.

Teaching experience

15 years teaching EFL/EAP in Japan, 6 years teaching EAP and 6 years lecturing in the UK

Research interests

L2 writing pedagogy, Subject-specific EAP, Corpus development and analysis, Applications of IT to language teaching

External roles

Secretary of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL); Convenor of the BAAL Corpus Linguistics SIG; Research Officer for the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP)

Research

With Alison Sealey (now University of Birmingham) and Mike Scott (University of Liverpool), he worked on an ESRC project (R000223900), 'An investigation into corpus-based learning about language in the primary school', which ran from 01 June 2002 to 31 May 2004. The project was an investigation of the potential of corpus-based teaching for children's evidence-based learning about language. Further information can be found on the project web page.

Paul has also worked (January 2000 to April 2005) with Dr Hilary Nesi, of the University of Warwick, on a lecture recording project. This involves recording lectures in a range of departments, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, and then producing transcriptions of the lectures. The transcripts form a corpus, named the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus, which will be used for a variety of studies, one of which is the compilation of a lecture word list. The number of lectures is 160, with 60 lectures from Reading and 100 from Warwick. At Warwick, 40 seminars have been video-recorded, and the transcripts from these recordings will also be incorporated into the corpus. This project was funded by a substantial Resource Enhancement grant from the Arts and Humanities Board, from April 2002 for three years. The Research Assistant at Reading on this project was Sarah Creer.

He also worked with Hilary Nesi and Sheena Gardner at the University of Warwick, and Paul Wickens at Oxford Brookes University on a three year ESRC funded project, "An investigation of genres of assessed writing in British Higher Education". The project began in December 2004, and aimed to create a corpus of assessed student writing at different levels, from three UK universities, and use this corpus as the basis for a comprehensive investigation of the range of genres of assessed writing in different disciplines, at different levels. The Research Fellow at Reading on this project was Alois Heuboeck.

Paul is responsible for maintaining and extending the Reading Academic Text corpus by collecting more texts for inclusion in the corpus, and coding them. He conducts research on the texts in the corpus, and provides advice and assistance to staff and research students at SLES about the exploitation of language corpora with specific relation to language teaching pedagogy, and the uses of computers in applied linguistic research.

Publications

2009: 'Shared disciplinary norms and individual traits in the writing of British undergraduates' in M. Gotti (ed) Commonality and Individuality in Academic Discourse Bern: Peter Lang, pp 53-82.

2007:(with Alison Sealey) 'Corpus, Concordance, Classification: Young Learners in the L1 Classroom' Language Awareness 16/3: 208-216.

2007:(with Alison Sealey) 'Through children's eyes? Corpus evidence of the features of children's literature' International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 12/1: 1-23.

2006: 'A corpus perspective on the lexis of lectures, with a focus on Economics lectures' in K. Hyland and M. Bondi (eds) Academic Discourse Across Disciplines Bern: Peter Lang

2006: 'Assessing the contribution of corpora to EAP practice' in a collection entitled Motivation in Learning Language for Specific and Academic Purposes Macedonia: University of Macedonia.

2006: (with Alison Sealey) '"Nice things get said": corpus evidence and the National Literacy Strategy' Literacy Vol 40/1: 22-28

2005: 'Aspects of identification and position in intertextual reference in PhD theses', in E. Tognini-Bonelli and G. Del Lungo Camiciotti (eds) Strategies in Academic Discourse Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 31-50

2005:'Points of focus and position: Intertextual reference in PhD theses' Journal of English for Academic Purposes 4/4: 307-323

2005: 'Spoken language corpora', in M. Wynne (ed) Developing Linguistic Corpora: a Guide to Good Practice Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp 59-70
The full text of the book is available online, at http://www.ahds.ac.uk/creating/guides/linguistic-corpora/index.htm .

2004: (with Alison Sealey) '"What do you call the dull words?" Primary school children using corpus-based approaches to learn about language' English in Education 38/1: 80-91

2002: 'Modal verbs in academic writing' In B. Kettemann & G. Marko (eds) 2002 Teaching and learning by doing corpus analysis Amsterdam: Rodopi (pp. 305-328)

2002: 'Manifesting intertextuality in the PhD thesis' Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 44: 97-114

2002: (edited, with Kristyan Spelman-Miller) Unity and Diversity in Language Use London: Continuum

2002: 'Academic writers putting modal verbs to work' In G. Aston & L. Burnard (eds) 2002 Corpora in the description and teaching of English Bologna: CLUEB (pp. 25-43)

2001: (with Chris Tribble) Looking at citations: Using corpora in English for Academic Purposes Language Learning & Technology Vol. 5, No. 3, September 2001, pp. 91-105

2001: A pedagogically-motivated corpus-based examination of PhD theses: macrostructure, citation practices and uses of modal verbs Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Reading

2001: Review of Thurstun and Candlin 'Exploring Academic English' Language Learning & Technology Vol. 5, No. 3, May 2001, pp. 28-31

2001: Review of B. Paltridge 'Genre, Frames and Analysis', in Multilingua 20-3

2001: Review of K. Hyland 'Hedging in Scientific Research Articles', in Multilingua 20-4

2001: 'Integrating IT skills into an EAP course' In P. Brett (Ed) CALL in the 21st Century (CD-ROM) IATEFL Publications

2000: 'Citation practices in PhD theses' In L. Burnard & T. McEnery (Eds). Rethinking Language Pedagogy from a Corpus Perspective Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (pp. 91-101)

2000: Edited volume. Patterns and Perspectives: Insights into EAP writing practice Reading: CALS, The University of Reading

1999: 'Exploring the contexts of writing: Interviews with PhD supervisors' In P. Thompson (Ed). Issues in EAP Writing Research and Instruction Reading: CALS, The University of Reading (pp. 37-54)

1999: Edited volume. Issues in EAP Writing Research and Instruction Reading: CALS, The University of Reading

1999: Edited volume. Academic Writing Development in Higher Education: Perspectives, explorations and approaches Reading: CALS, The University of Reading

Presentations

Participant in a round table discussion on "English Studies in Doctoral Programmes: a European Perspective" at the ninth European Society for Studies in English conference in Aarhus, Denmark, August 2008

Shared disciplinary norms and individual traits in the writing of British undergraduates, an invited plenary address at the CERLIS 2008 conference, "Trading identities: Commonality and Individuality in English Academic Discourse", Bergamo, Italy, June 2008

Disciplinary variation in assessed writing for undergraduate programmes, Invited talk at Aston Corpus Symposium, Birmingham, May 2008.

Exploring literacies in an increasingly digital age [keynote address] and Exploring corpora on the web [workshop] at an international colloquium on "La communication Web, un nouveau mode de lecture et d'écriture", Hammammet, Tunisia, November 2007.

The BAWE corpus in Sketch Engine, BALEAP PIM, Warwick, June 2007.

Perspectives on variation in academic discourse, Invited plenary address at BALEAP Conference, Durham, UK, April 2007.

Telling the difference between Economics and Philosophy lectures BALEAP PIM, Durham, UK, November 2006

"They have their words yeah" - the lexis of lectures ESSE 8, London, UK, August 2006

"They have their words yeah" - the lexis of lectures TALC 7 conference, Paris, France, July 2006.

(with Susan Hunston) Enabling language learning through corpora IVACS 2006 Conference, Nottingham, UK, June 2006 [keynote address]

Uses of corpora in research AHRC-funded Corpus Research Training Day, Nottingham, UK, June 2006

Recent developments in EAP research International Conference on Language Learning for Specific & Academic Purposes, Thessaloniki, Greece, October 2005 [invited plenary speaker]

Re-viewing the Academic Word List: the language of lectures BAAL 2005, Bristol, UK, September 2005

The lexis of lectures across the disciplines LSP 2005 (Languages for Specific Purposes) conference, Bergamo, Italy, August 2005.

Approaching the lexis of academic lectures AILA 2005, Madison, WI, USA 25-29 July 2005.

(with Alison Sealey) Through children's eyes? Corpus evidence of the features of children's literature, Corpus Linguistics 2005 (July), University of Birmingham.

(with Hilary Nesi) "What words should we teach?": A corpus-based perspective on the vocabulary of academic lectures BALEAP 2005 Conference, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, April 2005

BASE data: towards insights into spoken academic language 5th IVACS Annual Research Colloquium (keynote address), Queen's University, Belfast, February 2005

Corpora, learning and mediation and
(with Alison Sealey) Primary learning with corpora
in Corpus SIG colloquium Learning about language using corpus evidence BAAL Annual Meeting, London, September 2004

(with Alison Sealey and Mike Scott) Dull words, colourful words: Primary school children using corpus- based approaches to learn about language ALA Conference, Lleida, Spain, July 2004

(with Alison Sealey and Mike Scott) Kids, corpora and concordancing TALC Conference, Granada, Spain, July 2004

(with Sarah Creer) Processing spoken language data: the BASE experience Paper given at workshop on 'Compiling and processing spoken language corpora', LREC 2004 International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, May 2004

(with Alison Sealey) Through children's eyes? Corpus evidence of the features of children's literature ICAME 25 Conference, Verona, Italy, May 2004

Points of focus and position: intertextual reference in PhD theses Presentation delivered as part of a colloquium on 'Advanced academic literacy in the world' AAAL conference, Portland, Oregon, USA, May 2004

(with Alison Sealey) The bravest knight in the whole land: a corpus analysis of writing for children BAAL Corpus Linguistics SIG Meeting, Birmingham, UK, April 2004

The role of EAP in supporting the teaching and learning of international students UKCOSA seminar on 'Teaching and learning in a diverse community' London, January 2004

What use are corpora in the teaching of English for Academic Purposes? BALEAP PIM on 'Uses of corpora in EAP', Reading, November 2003

(with Alison Sealey) What do you call the dull words? Primary school children using corpus based approaches to learn about language BAAL 36th Annual Meeting, Leeds, September 2003

Bringing corpora to bear on the testing of reading and writing Presentation delivered as part of a symposium on 'Exploring the relationship between language corpora and language testing'. Language Testing Research Colloquium conference, Reading, July 2003

Looking at what goes on in university seminars Oral Communication conference, University of Westminster, London, July 2003

Aspects of evaluation in intertextual reference 'Evaluation in Academic Discourse' conference, Siena, June 2003

Corpora in the analysis of academic discourse
Discussant in colloquium on Investigating academic speech: Merging corpus linguistics and discourse analysis
AAAL 2003, Arlington, Virginia, March 2003

(with Colin Campbell) Developing a ‘Vocabulary for EAP’ course BALEAP Professional Interest Meeting, University of Warwick, February 2003 [Powerpoint file]

(with Anne Pallant) Accommodating diversity: An electronically delivered course in writing for researchers CILFE 6 Conference, Barcelona, January 2003

Corpus-based approaches to the analysis of academic discourse: prospects and perspectives and
Interactive teaching about the grammar of the English Language on the Web
AILA 2002 Conference, Singapore, December 2002

Degrees of propositional responsibility: manifest intertextuality in PhD theses BAAL 35th Annual Meeting, Cardiff, Wales, September 2002

Degrees of propositional responsibility: manifest intertextuality in PhD theses ESSE 6, Strasbourg, France, September 2002

What use are corpora in the teaching of English for Academic Purposes?
(with Hilary Nesi, Warwick University) Building BASE: an introduction to the British Academic Spoken English corpus TALC 5, Bertinoro, Italy, July 2002

Uses of corpora in the teaching of English for Academic Purposes The First Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) International Conference, Limerick, Ireland, June 2002.

(with Eddie Williams, Grace Varela and Brother Andrew Makocho) 'Discoursification of text' as a cultural product in Malawi Sociolinguistic Symposium 14, Gent, Belgium, April 2002

Facing the challenge of change in Higher Education and Keeping pace with developing technologies in language teaching and research Plenary presentations, 16th FEULE Conference, Universidad de Colima, Mexico, March 2002

Coping with vocabulary for academic purposes Bilkent 2002 Conference, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, January 2002

(with Eddie Williams, Grace Varela and Brother Andrew Makocho) Repetition in Malawian classroom culture: the "discoursification" of text International Literacy Conference, Cape Town, November 2001

(with Anne Pallant) Accommodating diversity at a distance EATAW Conference, Groningen, the Netherlands, June 2001

Design, implementation and evaluation of an electronically-delivered academic writing course BALEAP 2001, Glasgow, April 2001

The roles citation plays in the construction of PhD theses Research and Practice in Professional Discourse Conference, Hong Kong, November 2000

(with Anne Pallant) Accommodating diversity at a distance BALEAP Professional Interest Meeting, University of Hertfordshire, November 2000

Examining the roles citation play in constructing PhD theses BAAL 2000 Conference, Cambridge, September 2000

(with Eddie Williams and Grace Varela) Comparing teachers teaching in their first and second languages BAAL 2000 Conference, Cambridge, September 2000

Academic writers putting modal verbs to work ESSE-5 Conference, Helsinki, Finland, August 2000

Uses of modal verbs in academic writing TALC 2000, Graz, Austria, July 2000

Integrating IT skills into an EAP course ESADE/IATEFL Computer SIG Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 2000

Integrating IT skills into an EAP course IATEFL Annual Conference, Dublin, Ireland, March 2000

The roles of citations in theses TESOL Annual Convention, Vancouver, Canada, March 2000

(with Chris Tribble) Exploring citation practices through corpus research BALEAP Professional Interest Meeting, Reading, November 1999

(with Chris Tribble) Exploring citation practices through corpus research CALS 25th Anniversary Conference, June 1999

Examining PhD theses in a corpus Teaching and Language Corpora 98, Oxford, July 1998

The use of modal verbs in doctoral theses in two subdisciplines Sociolinguistics Symposium 12, London, March 1998

Genre? What genre? PhD theses in two subdisciplines BALEAP PIM on 'Current Issues in EAP Writing Instruction', University of Reading, November 1997

Invited talks, consultancies, etc.

A series of lectures and workshops on academic writing and uses of Information Technology in ELT, Thailand, February 2008

Invited talk at the Institute of Education, London, on Perspectives on variation in academic discourse, January 2008

Invited talk at Middlesex University, on The lexis of lectures, January 2008

An invited plenary presentation on "Exploring literacies in an increasingly digital age" and a workshop on "Exploring corpora on the web" at an international colloquium on "La communication Web, un nouveau mode de lecture et d"écriture" hosted by the Institut Supérieur des Langues Appliquées et d"Informatique de Nabeul, in Hammammet, Tunisia, 22-24th November, 2007.

An invited workshop on Investigating academic text corpora with Sketch Engine at the Open University, Milton Keynes, June 2007

Plenary address: Perspectives on variation in academic discourse BALEAP 2007 Conference, Durham, UK, April 2007

Series of workshops on corpus construction using Sketch Engine's 'Corpus Builder', University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, April 2007

Talk entitled 'A corpus-based view of the language of lectures' at the Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Essex, Colchester, February 2007

Plenary address (with Susan Hunston): Enabling language learning through corpora IVACS 2006 Conference, Nottingham, UK, June 2006

Plenary address: Recent developments in EAP research 5th International Conference on Language Learning for Specific & Academic Purposes, University of Macedonia, and a workshop on "Corpus-based research and teaching in EAP" at Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece. October 2005

Presentations on " Building corpora for the study of English in academic settings: BASE and BAWE " at the University of Stockholm, and on "Academic writing: Corpus research and practical applications" at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, May 2005

Keynote address: BASE data: towards insights into spoken academic language at the 5th IVACS Annual Research Colloquium, at Queen's University, Belfast, February 2005

(with Alison Sealey) Corpus-based learning about language in the primary school Invited talk at the English Information Exchange Day, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), London, November 2004

Spoken language corpora: the BASE corpus Centre for Applied Linguistics Research, University of Southampton, October 2004

(with Alison Sealey) Using corpus-based methods with young children Invited talk at CELTE, University of Warwick, May 2004

Lectures on Investigating language use through corpus analysis as part of a third and fourth year seminar, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, April 2004

Corpora in English for Academic Purposes and Spoken language corpora: the BASE corpus, talks given at SSLMIT, University of Bologna, at Forli, Italy, April 2004

Uses of corpora in EAP research and pedagogy workshops, University of La Laguna, Spain, December 2003

Research consultancy for the Department of Modern Languages, University of Colima, Mexico, August 2003

Workshops on the teaching of listening and speaking in ELT, as part of the ELTU Project, Sri Lanka, October 2003