AULC Conference speaker profiles
Nick Byrne
Nick Byrne is based at The London School of Economics and Political Science, where he has been Director of the LSE Language Centre since January 1999. He is also an Associate Professor at IFM Paris and acts as an external examiner and quality evaluator in numerous HE institutions. He is a member of the Higher Education Academy, a National Teaching Fellow (2001), and in 2009 received the Institute of Linguists' award for his 20 years contribution to promoting languages in HE . His recent European project focus on language policy: LETPP - Languages in Europe Theory Policy Practice www.letpp.eu
Jim Coleman has been Professor of Language Learning and Teaching at The Open University since 2001, having previously worked at Glasgow and Portsmouth. He has co-authored French language courses, and published on French literature and area studies before concentrating on university language learning and teaching. He has authored or (co)-edited fourteen books and over 100 articles/book chapters, and delivered over 160 lectures and papers, including invited keynote plenaries, in twenty-two countries. In 2011 he became Chair of the University Council of Modern Languages, and Editor of System, while also chairing the OU's Beginners French course, Bon Départ.
Dr Johann Fischer is the President of CercleS (Confédération Européenne des Centres de Langues de l'Enseignement Supérieur), the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education. He was Director of the Language Centre of Tübingen University, Germany, 2001-2006 and Director of the Language Centre of Würzburg University from 2006 until spring 2008 before moving to Göttingen. He is an executive member of AKS and member of the UNIcert® committee. His areas of interest include LSP/LAP, task-oriented language teaching, language testing and teacher training. He has been involved in various projects funded by the European Commission and by the Council of Europe (European Centre for Modern Languages, Graz). He has carried out teacher training courses in a large number of countries across Europe.
Dr Akiko Furukawa is the Coordinator of Japanese and Mandarin Chinese at the International Study and Language Centre of the University of Reading. She was the Head of Japanese Studies and Lecturer in Japanese until 2007, when Japanese minor degree programmes were available, and has also worked as a guest lecturer in Applied Linguistics for the Department of English Language and Literature. She is the leader of the CEFR Study Group of the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language. She has published and presented papers in the areas of acquisition of Japanese as a foreign language and CEFR.
Marina Orsini-Jones is Joint Associate Head in the Department of English and Languages at Coventry University. She has been carrying out research on the integration of e-learning into the languages curriculum since 1986. She set up the UK-wide JISC-supported VLEs' Languages User Group in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Manchester, the LSE and the University of Nottingham Trent in 2004. She leads the Applied Research Group on Pedagogical Innovation in Languages and Literature at CU and has published work on the impact that education technology can have on the undergraduate students' learning experience. She has delivered numerous papers on this topic (including keynote ones) at academic conferences both in the UK and abroad.
Shakeh Manassian started her career teaching ESOL both in the UK and overseas and taught at a variety of institutions including the University of Surrey. She has worked in Assessment and language testing since 1999, first as a subject officer for Cambridge ESOL and since 2003 as a freelance consultant. Projects have included the development of English language examinations for the Bahrain National Exams Unit with Cambridge International Examinations, the development of various training courses including the Certificate in the Principles and Practice of Assessment for the Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education and Cambridge Assessment, as well as various research projects mapping English language examinations to the CEFR.
Evan Stewart worked in schools and Further Education before spending 16 years at Nottingham Trent University. He was Academic Team leader for Languages (MFL & EFL) and International studies at NTU, then moved to the University of Warwick in 2007 as Director of the Language Centre. At different times he has been in charge of IWLPs, language degree programmes, EFL, Italian and European Studies.
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