Dr Clare Wright

Profile

After graduating from Cambridge University, I taught English for Academic Purposes for nearly twenty years, then gained my MA and PhD in Second Language Acquisition at Newcastle University, and was Programme Manager for Applied Linguistics and TESOL. I then moved to Reading as University Academic Fellow and Departmental Director of Research, helping set up the Centre for Literacy and Multlingualism. I was also Director of Bilingualism Matters@Reading.

I joined Leeds in 2016, and am currently School Director of Postgraduate Education. I teach across the MA programme, and on core modules for the undergraduate programmes. I am a member of the Language@Leeds research network, and continue to pursue international research and teaching exchanges, working with colleagues in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and other partners in UK and EU.  

External positions:

Chair of the Year Abroad Network; Founding member of the Transnational Mobility in Education Network (TraMe); Co-Editor of the International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching; Editor of Journal of the European Second Language Association; member of BAAL.

External Examiner experience: Cambridge, Edinburgh, Kings London, Newcastle, Southampton, Essex, Sheffield, Cork, SOAS, York, Reading.

Responsibilities

• School Director of Taught Postgraduate Education

Research interests

My research investigates the interfaces between linguistic, cognitive and pedagogic factors in second language acquisition, particularly in relation to language development and fluency during Study Abroad. I specialise in task-based communicative approaches to teaching and learning second languages including L2 Chinese. My publications include a monograph with CUP, articles and chapters appearing in TESOL Quarterly, Language Teaching Research, CALL, System, Routledge Handbook of Research in Study Abroad, Routledge Handbook of Chinese Language Teaching, Mind Matters in SLA (Multilingual Matters) and other publications.

I also research issues in improving internationalisation of higher education, looking at student adaptation and academic pedagogy in international study settings. I am currently developing a tool to help teachers boost learners' academic interactional competence in using listening and speaking strategies in EAP classrooms. I am also working on projects related to digital social interaction and improving students’ engagement with academic literacy resources.

I welcome applications for PhD research on theoretical and methodological innovations for developing communicative competence in English, Chinese or other languages, especially with a focus on fluency, task-based or digital technology focus, or in relation to Study Abroad.

• HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) test taker characteristics, test performance and implications for HSK test constructs
• “Reading to Learn” – cognitive processes involved in learning Chinese characters

Qualifications

• BA (Hons) Cantab
• MA Newcastle
• PhD Newcastle
• CELTA

Professional memberships

• Fellow, HEA

Student education

I teach extensively on our MA programmes in relation to approaches to linguistics, language acquisition and language teaching, research methods and dissertations. I supervise undergraduate dissertations and contribute to other undergraduate modules in the areas of language acquisition and processing.

Research groups and institutes

• Language acquisition
• Language processing
• Language at Leeds
• Chinese
• Speech production and perception
• PRIA
• Language pedagogy

Current postgraduate researchers

• Gadah Almishwat
• Lola Ramos-Brown