Brian Turner
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+44 (0) 118 378 6828
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Lecturer
Course Tutor - PSE (Pre-sessional) & AEP (Academic English Programme) Courses
Assistant Course Director - Summer Pre-sessional
Summer Assistant Programme/Course Director - Short Courses (Temporary position May-September 2019)
Positive Minds Facilitator
IELTS Invigilator
Graduate Programme Workshop Lecturer - 'Studying in Another Culture'
ISLI TEL Committee member
Lecturer of my own lecture 'An introduction to western logical reasoning and how it will help you on the PSE and beyond'
Base Section:
Academic English Programme (AEP) & Pre-sessional (PSE) - year-round; Reading Researcher Development Programme Workshop - annual
Projects:
Materials Development for a PSE Writing Component. This involves work on logical reasoning in a cause and effect unit.
Lecture Listening into Writing materials development and research. In the first stage the pre-and post-lecture materials were created and in the second stage I am analysing the data gathered. Two LTRFs were given during the process. The lecture was my own (named above). In my spare time I am also working on developing this into a Conference presentation and drawing from further data from later deliveries of the lecture.
Bio:
I have over 15 years of accumulated experience in English language teaching. I began my teaching career in 1998 in Japan at a senior high school for the JET Programme and later worked with all ages (literally 3-93) and levels with positions in senior and junior high schools, kindergartens and private language schools during the years 1998-2002 and 2006-2011. Upon returning to the UK in the summer of 2011, I worked as a head teacher for a summer English course for Italian teenagers and did my first summer PSE at UoR. Following that I worked at a local language school teaching EGP (as well as some comprehensive schools as a cover supervisor) before joining ISLI long term in April 2013.
On-going pedagogic activities and research:
My teaching on AEP courses often entails significant materials development. For example, in the Autumn 2018 term I was responsible for writing a new set of course materials for the Undergraduate Business Management Course
I am informally developing a lecture provisionally entitled 'Recognition of common fallacies and how it will help you on PSE and beyond' to follow on from my current lecture named above.
In my spare time I am researching the subject of how philosophical traditions permeate and influence different cultures and modes of thought. This specifically involves classical Chinese philosophy which I believe is especially important given the large number of Chinese and East Asian students we have enrolled on our courses. Whenever possible I attend philosophy lectures with a mind to incorporating the ideas into this research area as well as to observe different teaching styles and techniques outside of language teaching.
Pedagogic Interests:
Corpus
Diversity in education
Intercultural communication and cultural diversity
Lexico-grammar
Logical reasoning
Materials Development
Metaphor in language
Philosophy as underpinning cultures, language and thought
Rhetoric
SLA
Student welfare and study skills
Other Pedagogic Interests:
Delivering a Teacher Training Workshop at the JET Programme (Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme) Pre-Departure Orientation. This occurs at two events - one in Edinburgh and one in July - in July. I have been doing this since 2017.
A few personal comments:
I enjoy quality family time, listening music of many kinds, reading, writing, philosophy, watching movies of varied genres, and travelling whenever possible.
Modules Taught:
AEP & PSE courses
Twice-yearly lecture entitled 'An Introduction to Western Logical Reasoning and How It Will help You on the PSE and Beyond' which is designed to for our international study for PSE students
Conferences Attended:
24/11/18: BALEAP/ALDinHE Joint One-day Conference (PIM) - Academic Literacies and EAP; University of Essex.
14/3/15: BALEAP Reading at Reading PIM; University of Reading. For this conference, I was on the organising committee and also gave a presentation entitled 'The impact of the "Reading Review" homework task on the activation and development of core reading strategies and skills of EAP pre-sessional students'.
Qualifications:
FHEA
MA in ELT (University of Reading)
TEFL Certificate with Business (Global English)
BA Philosophy (University of North London)