Role: Investigating the effect of psychological trauma on linguistic skills during second language acquisition in child and adult refugees. Responsible for designing and setting up psycholinguistic experiments for Ukrainian child refugees in the Netherlands, in collaboration with other team members and interns/ assistants under my supervision. Responsible for analysis, interpretation and dissemination of research findings.
Awarded early career researcher grant from Gorilla Experiment Builder
Partial UTQ certificate in student supervision
Role: Supporting OASIS (Open Accessible Summaries in Language Studies), including: to improve visibility and engagement, increase reach to existing and new communities, examine the influence of OASIS summaries on engagement with original journal articles and produce an impact report to be shared with publishers.
Role: Creating engaging and accessible fiction for adult learners of English with limited literacy. Organising workshops with writers and maintaining website.
Role: In collaboration with Sybren Spit (UvA), we organised a day of short presentations and discussions between researchers at Radboud University and University of Amsterdam working on second language acquisition in forcibly displaced children and adults in the Netherlands. The event was hosted in Nijmegen and presentations fore fronted the experiences and best practices of early career researchers on the projects Second Language Acquisition in Refugees and How literacy shapes language learning.
Role: As part of the project run by Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, I have created a science-based language demo aimed at young children as part of a wider science festival held at De Mariënburg Library in Nijmegen. My demo is playful introduction to literacy in different writing systems and promoting awareness of endangered alphabets around the world. The biannual language science festival attracts an average of 1000 visitors from the local area. My demo is also featured in roadshows and science days around the Netherlands that are affiliated with the project.
Thesis title: The influence of written input on encoding difficult phonological contrasts for L1 Arabic learners of L2 English
Awarded ESRC PhD 1+3 scholarship
Awarded 3-month UKRI Policy Fellowship at House of Lords Library, UK Parliament
Awarded 6-month intensive Arabic language training in Jordan
Awarded EuroSLA doctoral grant
Other responsibilities: Department of Education ethics committee PGR student representative, conference organising committee, peer-review for Bilingualism, Language and Cognition and International Review of Applied Linguistics
Dissertation title: The influence of written input and script familiarity on adult L2 early word learning: Native English speakers' acquisition of Arabic consonants
Awarded distinction
Dissertation title: The influence of orthographic input on the phonological representations of nonassimiliable contrasts: Adult English speakers' acquisition of Zulu click consonants
Awarded distinction
Awarded pass A English teaching qualification
Awarded 1st class honours
Role: Developed and delivered Science Communication: Content creation across genres module for 1st year BA Communication and Information Science students. The course develops academic English skills for understanding research and how to communicate appropriately across a range of science communication genres.
Role: Helping oversee Reading in a LESLLA context professional development module for teachers and tutors around the world. The module addresses reading from a psycholinguistic perspective, including both theoretical and practical input, for teachers of adult second language learners in migration contexts with little to no formal education.
Role: Delivered Understanding Research module for 1st year BA Educational Psychology students. Topics covered included: academic skills, research ethics, research design, qualitative and quantitative methods.
Role: Running seminars on a variety of PG and UG modules, including: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (1st year BA Language and Linguistics), and Research Methods (MSc Psychology in Education).
Role: Delivered Teaching English as a Foreign Language 1 module for 2nd year BA Language and Linguistics students. Topics covered included: History of teaching approaches, second language theories, classroom management, learner motivation, English grammar, English pronunciation, world Englishes, linguistic imperialism.
Role: Part-time teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages, with a focus on pre-entry level learner. Classes involved introductory literacy, numeracy and communication in English to multilingual adult learning migrants to the UK, including refugees and people seeking asylum.
Role: Full-time teaching English to all ages and stages, including Cambridge exam preparation (PET, FCE, CAE). Responsible for preparing and delivering communicative and engaging language classes, assessment and communication with parents. Attended regular professional development training.
Role: Full-time teaching English to all ages and stages, including Cambridge exam preparation (KET, CPE). Responsible for creating appropriate materials and assessments for all classes.
Role: One-to-one and small group classes delivered in-person and online, including conversational practice and exam preparation (FCE and CPE).