Senior Lecturer talks at English Language Conference

The Centre for Language and Linguistics has sponsored ‘Is the future perfect?’: this year’s English Language conference run by the education publisher Pavilion ELT. The conference is a three-day, online, interactive festival of English language teaching (ELT) looking at today’s teaching to create a better tomorrow.

Sarn Rich, a Senior Lecturer in the Centre, will be giving a talk titled: ‘Getting out of our brains: distributed cognition in English Language Teaching’. Theoretically, in contrast with a traditional view which locates cognition firmly in the human skull, Sarn’s talk will reflect how cognition extends through the body & sensorimotor system, through artefacts, and the social and physical environment. In practical terms, this interactive session will incorporate simple examples of the use of gesture/posture, of the vocal apparatus, and collaborative ‘escape room’-style activities to show how distributed cognition enhances the understanding, retention and use of language.

Find out more about the conference HERE

Sarn Rich is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Linguistics; he has taught in the UK, Eastern Europe and the far East and is now involved in teacher training, and the teaching of historical linguistics, language acquisition, and Cognitive Linguistics. In English Language Teaching, he is interested in the effective, realistic application of theory in the light of teachers’ practical, professional experience.

About the Centre:

The Centre for Language and Linguistics runs a range of degree-related courses including a BA in English Language and Linguistics, and an MA suite and PhD research in related areas of applied linguistics, language education and intercultural communication. The Centre also offers the CELTA qualification: CELTA stands for ‘Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults’, and is ‘the most widely recognised English teaching qualification in the world and the most often requested by employers’ ⁽¹⁾. The Language and Linguistics team also offer specialist in-service teacher education, and support English language development for students and partner institutions where English is not the first language.

The Centre has been involved in a number of partner projects and consultancies, including pre-PhD preparation programmes for the Communication University of China, Nanjing, and the government of Algeria, Ministry of Education. Past programmes have included teacher education and curriculum development projects in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority, with the British Council in Bangladesh, and with the Malaysian Ministry of Education. 

Find out more about the Centre for Language and Linguistics and the courses on offer HERE

¹ CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) | Cambridge English