The University of Sheffield
Modern Languages Teaching Centre

Jane Woodin

Director of MA Studies, School of Modern Language and Linguistics
BA (Bristol), PGCE (Liverpool), MA, (Sheffield) PhD (Sheffield)

Biography

After my first degree in French and Hispanic Studies and subsequent PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education), I worked in state secondary schools for 3 years. I have also worked in very wide range of educational settings including community, adult and further education; my first Higher Education post was at the University of Leon, Nicaragua as language teacher and methodology advisor. I have undertaken interpreting and translation for international delegations in Central America as well as for Australian TV, and advised on subtitling of Latin American documentaries.

I came to the University of Sheffield in 1993 as Spanish Co-ordinator and set up the programme of Spanish for non—specialists which now offers a range of modules from beginners to near-native. I initiated and developed the MA in Intercultural Communication in 2003, which has been running successfully ever since. I later took on overall Co-ordination of the 4 MA Programmes in the Modern Languages Teaching Centre (Intercultural Communication, Translation Studies, Screen Translation and Multilingual Information Management ). Since 2010, I am Director of MA Studies for the School of Modern Languages and Linguistics.

Teaching and Research Interests

My research and teaching interests overlap considerably. I have a strong interest in the role of language and language learning in everyday life and the professions, including the adoption and change of identities and identification processes, interaction between speakers of different languages, roles of equality and inequality in language use. My research includes pedagogy, discourse and conversation analysis with a strong focus on intercultural communication, in particular in relation to positioning and identification in interaction. Recently I am also developing an interest in internationalisation processes in higher education, and the role of intercultural dialogue in developing intercultural competence and citizenship.

I convene and/or teach on the following modules:

I currently supervise PhD Students in the areas of

External roles

Selected Publications

( Forthcoming) Castro, P. Lungdren, U. and Woodin, J. ‘Tracking the traces of Intercultural Dialogue in internationalisation policies of three EU universities: Towards a framework’

(2010) Woodin, J. Cultural categorisation: what can we learn from practice? An example from tandem learning, Language and Intercultural Communication.

(2009) Woodin J. Tandem Learning as an intercultural Activity: Evidence from conversations about word meaning. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis.

(2006) Cultural Training materials for University Cultural Exchange (Nicaragua) students. Published in-house

2003 Woodin, J., ‘Encouraging Intercultural Competence in Tandem Learning’ in Lewis, T., & Walker, L., (2003) Autonomous Language Learning in Tandem, Academy Electronic Publications, Sheffield. (This article has also appeared in French, German, Spanish & Portuguese)

2001 Woodin, J., “Tandem learning as an Intercultural Activity” in Byram, M., Nichols, A. & Stevens, D., (eds.) Developing Intercultural Competence in Practice, Multilingual Matters.

2000 Woodin, J., & White, L., Joint article “What do they get up to? Activity in a Spanish-English Discussion List in Lewis, T., & Rouxeville, A., Technology and the Advanced Language Learner, CILT.

2000 Woodin, J., “Approaches to language teaching” in Arthur, L. & Hurd, S. (eds.) Supporting Lifelong Language Learning: Theoretical and Practical Approaches, CILT/Open University

2000 Woodin, J., “The planning process” in Arthur, L. & Hurd, S. (eds.) Supporting Lifelong Language Learning: Theoretical and Practical Approaches, CILT/Open University.

2000 Woodin, J., “Skills development and learning activities” in Arthur, L. & Hurd, S. (eds.) Supporting Lifelong Language Learning: Theoretical and Practical Approaches, CILT/Open University.

2000 Beigy, A., & Woodin, J., Training materials for supporting the introduction of Tandem Observation in HE Languages departments.

1997 Woodin, J. "Email tandem learning and the communicative curriculum" ReCALL Journal, Vol. 9 no. 1pp 22-33 May 1997.

Seminars/conference presentations

(September 2008) Invited paper for BAAL Conference Colloquium 2008 Communication, Discourses and Interculturality, University of Swansea.

July (2009) BAAL/Cambridge University Press Sponsored seminar: Key themes in intercultural communication pedagogy, University of Sheffield. (For more information please visit CUP’s Applied Linguistics website: Featured Topics> Intercultural Communication)

Personal

I am a member of the Sheffield –Estelí Society Nicaraguan twinning, and through this support and train students on an annual cultural exchange programme. I am also a keen cyclist and aspiring Argentinian tango dancer.

Telephone
+44 (0)114 22 20635
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Email
j.woodin@sheffield.ac.uk
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