Jody Bradford

Profile

I began working at The University of Leeds in 2017, teaching on an ESAP (English for Specific Academic Purposes) summer pre-sessional course in The Language Centre. Since then, I have taught on other ESAP and EGAP (English for General Academic Purposes) pre-sessionals, on two different International Foundation Year Academic Study Skills modules and also in the School of Education in-sessional with MA TESOL Studies students. 

I value working collaboratively with colleagues across the school and wider university to better understand the contexts in which our students at The Language Centre go on to study. This then informs my delivery of classes within The Language Centre and materials design. Beginning September 2021, I am also lead on the International Foundation Year Academic Study Skills (Arts and Social Sciences) module. Beginning June 2022, I also act as an external examiner for an International Foundation Year programme.

I have worked in a wide range of language teaching contexts both in the UK and abroad. I held a two year contract at The University of Bordeaux 4 from 2010 to 2012, where I designed and delivered ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classes to Law, Business and Economics students. Following this, I worked at the Chambre de Commerce in Bordeaux, giving Business English and General English classes. I then taught General English and IELTS preparation in a private language school in Perth, Australia, before teaching both English and French as a foreign language to adults in a private language school in Montreal, Canada. These previous teaching experiences enrich my approach at the University of Leeds.

Responsibilities

• EAP Practitioner
• Module Lead ELU0038 International Foundation Year for Arts and Social Sciences
• Co-Lead for 5006M: Academic Leadership (MA TEAP)

Research interests

My current focus relates to macro and micro level changes regarding language education, English for Academic Purposes and multimodal resource, including Large Language Model educational interfaces as part of the communicative repertoires of students and teachers both inside and outside of the language classroom. This is a part-time PhD project with a supervisor at Lancaster University. I am also interested in academic reading in L2: through uncovering and harnessing multimodality in our current and future digital and hybrid teaching and learning contexts. These applications are framed and understood through Systemic Functional Linguistics and Social Semiotics theories to provide a grounding for meaningful reading-related pedagogies, which take into account the cognitive, affective and social functions of academic reading. I am interested in both learner and teacher identities and how they are influenced by the contexts in which we study and work. 

Qualifications

• MA Teaching English for Academic Purposes (Distinction)
• BA (hons) French Studies
• Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
• Fellow HEA

Professional memberships

• BALEAP

Student education

I currently teach English for Academic Purposes to Arts and Social Sciences foundation and undergraduate students year-round. During the summer, I teach on content-based EAP modules on the Language for Arts and Social Sciences strand. I am also co-lead on an elective module (Academic Leadership) for the MA Teaching English for Academic Purposes which is a fully online and part-time MA designed for professionals working within or towards English for Academic Purposes.

Research groups and institutes

• Language Centre