Research

Staff research interests

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Dr Joan Cutting

Programme Director: TESOL / Senior Lecturer

Education, Teaching and Leadership (ETL)

Email: joan.cutting@ed.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 6324

Location:

Charteris Land

Background

I began my teaching career in Havana, Cuba, where I taught Business English and ran a TEFL Masters programme for English teachers in the medical schools, for 13 years. I returned to the UK in 1990 and taught English for Academic Purposes and MA TESOL in the University of Sunderland. I now teach on the University of Edinburgh's MEd TESOL and MSc Education: Language. I have undertaken consultancy in Russia (Cherepovets), mainland China (Beijing, Changchun, Chongqin, Guangzhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Nanning, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Zhejiang) and Hong Kong. I was Meetings Secretary for the British Association for Applied Linguistics 2004-07.

Qualifications:

University of Birmingham, BA Hons French Language and Literature, Italian
Trinity College Licentiate Diploma Teaching of English as a Foreign Language
University of Edinburgh, MSc Applied Linguistics
University of Edinburgh, PhD in Applied Linguistics: 'MSc common room casual conversations: a lexico-grammatical longitudinal study of a discourse community in formation'

Principal interests

I analyse naturally-occurring spoken and written language, using corpus linguistics, and suggest applications to TEFL and teacher training. My main interests are:

Vague language (e.g. 'do', 'thing', 'and all that') and its social function
International student interactions in UK university tutorials

Other interests include:

In-group code of academic discourse communities
The language of conferences - questions from the floor; abstracts
Airport groundstaff spoken grammar and vocabulary

I am keen to supervise research under the headings above. I currently supervise students in the following areas:

Airport English in China: raising awareness of politeness strategies
English vague language used by Japanese learners of English
Perceptions of the effectiveness of teaching Law courses in English in Italy
Code-Switching in English Language Classrooms in Saudi Arabia
Teachers' and Students' Views of Using Arabic in EFL Classrooms at a University in Saudi Arabia.
Professional identity and English language teachers in China

Research supervision

Projects supervised by Dr Joan Cutting

Current and recent research

Current projects:

Second-language Competency for Technicians in Industry (Lang2Tech) Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation, European Commission 2012-14.
Corpus analysis of written feedback given by tutors and classroom teachers to students on school placement, University of Edinburgh 2013.
‘Dingsbums and dong dong: vague language across cultures’, University of Edinburgh 2013.
The compilation of the EDASE (Edinburgh Academic Spoken English) Corpus with Dr Brona Murphy, University of Edinburgh, Ongoing.
A TEMPUS staff exchange project with Karlsruhe Education University, Germany.

Recent projects:

The organisation, with Dr Brona Murphy, of the 2010 Inter-Varietal Corpus Studies (IVACS) Conference, The University of Edinburgh, 18-19 June 2010
The organisation of the Annual 2009 Inter-Varietal Corpus Studies (IVACS) Symposium, held at Moray House, The University of Edinburgh
The organisation of a seminar of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and Cambridge University Press entitled 'Academic Language Corpora and Education' (ALCE), The University of Edinburgh
Scottish Council for Research in Education: 'Institutional Support for Overseas Students'
European Commission Leonardo Languages Competences: 'ELSY: Devising a Multi-media Airport Syllabus for Young People who are Unemployed and Under-qualified'
European Commission Leonardo Mobility: 'English for Tourism and Catering'
European Commission Leonardo Mobility: 'Airport English'
The University of Edinburgh Development Trust fund. 'Conference abstracts'
The University of Edinburgh RAE Enhancement fund. 'Chinese students' needs in the UK'

Publications

Publications list for Dr Joan Cutting