Author: Paul Breen

Having completed my PhD in the University of Manchester in 2014, I am now working for the University of Westminster in London and continuing my research in the areas of teacher development and teacher knowledge. This was conducted through a theoretical lens of TPACK in my PhD studies for a thesis entitled 'Teachers in transition - developing actions, knowledge, and practice in the EAP classroom.' In my PhD studies I was supervised by Gary Motteram and Diane Slaouti, and then my thesis was externally examined by Alex Ding, now of the University of Leeds. I am hoping to produce an open access publication out of the thesis through the University of Westminster Press, and to get more professionally involved in the provision of teacher education courses. At present I am doing mainly EAP work, and feel that there is much to do in terms of situating EAP and Academic English as core components of academic disciplines, and even in earning the right for academic language courses to be seen as disciplinary in their own way. Regarding publishing since my PhD, I have been concentrating on books and also on trying to create impact (as deemed important in the REF) in other areas of writing and broadcasting.

The 'conf' in conferences

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Hi everyone, I would like to share a recent experience with you all which was incredibly beneficial for me and can hopefully contribute to someone else’s development. Recently I attended a conference/workshop session in the University of Helsinki in Finland which had as its central themes teacher identity, teacher education, and English Language teaching. The keynote speaker was Ken Hyland […]

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An article I was working on that I abandoned due to PhD research but one that might be useful to someone

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Widening seas of possibility in the Digital Age. Commentators often use the term ‘digital divide’ in a way that suggests the core problems are lack of access to and education in the proper usage of new technologies. There are a great deal of initiatives taking place at grass roots level, both in education and in industry, but these rarely form […]

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The panel experience and advice for future candidates

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PANEL_PRESENTATION_JUNE_2010   On June 22nd I presented my research proposal to the PhD panel with the title of my proposal being ‘Teachers in transition: a case study of EAP teachers’ applications of blended learning approaches before, during, and after a series of teacher training workshops.’ The research proposal itself was submitted to the panel on 11th June (eleven days in […]

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