Anne Stazicker

Profile

During my career I have taught English as a foreign language, English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes in a variety of contexts in the UK from private, one-to-one clients, and in Further and Higher Education settings.

I have had experience of working with all age groups from pre-school to those who have retired, and taught individuals as well as groups of all sizes.

I spent several years running an internationally recognised initial teaching qualification programme and worked on that as a teacher trainer, mentor and observer.

I also spent much of my career working as an examiner travelling around the world assessing students' spoken English and marking written examination papers. In this capacity I also travelled with the management team as academic marketing representative, ran workshop sessions for examiners, and teachers, spoke at conferences and appeared in videos and podcasts, which I co-wrote.  

I spent a year implementing a new suite of examinations in the UK for this international examination board during which time I was responsible for a large panel of examiners and a small panel of item writers. I vetted examination papers and liaised with the publication team to ensure consistency in the quality, validity and reliability of examination papaers and  that the monthly deadlines were met.  I was a monitor and inspector which meant that I observed and gave feedback to other examiners and visited centres to ensure that examination sessions were being conducted according to the examination board's stipulations.

For around 12 years, as well as teaching at the University Language Centre on International Foundation Year modules and coleading the summer presessional Language Communication and Society module,  I was also an External Examiner for a company who provide a suite of qualifications for international students wishing to embark on their studies on various undergraduate programmes in the UK.

Responsibilities

• Assessment, Academic Integrity, Admissions and Progression Lead

Research interests

As a member of the Language Centre I am lucky enough to have scholarship time built into my workload model and so far I have used that time to firstly investigate tutor confidence in the role of assessor and personal tutor. This resulted in the creation of a ‘best practice’ document for Language Centre colleagues in the areas of assessment and feedback. 

Following that I was recently involved in co-writing a practical guide for those wishing to set up and run EAP Foundation programmes for international students. This was published by Routledge in April 2022.

I am currently working on a collaborative project which aims to test the feasibility of using the single set of School-wide, generic assessment rubric developed through this project. The rubrics are static and intended for use in generating final marks (measurement) and were designed to work in conjunction with a developmental feedback system (l;earing and development). A statement bank which contains detailed, pick and mix descriptors wenable task-specific development of skills, language and competencies and are aimed towards dynamic and interactive dialogic feedback. The aim of this is to enable the development of ‘evaluative judgement’. The two elements of feedback and assessment practices have been devised to better fit within the context of a process-focused approach to teaching and learning putting feedback at the centre of learning rather than simply as an end point alongside grades. 

Qualifications

• Certificate in Teaching English as a second language
• Masters in English Language Teachng

Student education

My teaching here at the University invovles preparing pre-undergraduate and post-graduate students for their studies in a UK context. I have also acted as a personal tutor for students and been responsible for marking and assessing students' work. I have co-lead and in this capacity I was jointly responsible for syllabus design, development as well as managing a teaching team.

I am currently in the roles of Assessment, Academic Integrity, Admissions and Progression Lead as part of a Student Education Team in the Language Centre. In these roles I help form and enact policy and lead change. In  these roles I conduct development sessions, run workshops and other events to faciliate change. In conjuncation with these roles I also act as an advisor to students in one to one language advice sessions. 

Research groups and institutes

• Language Centre