Dr Petra Schoofs FHEA

Dr Petra Schoofs

Department of Linguistics and Communication
Lecturer in TESOL

Contact details

Address
Frankland Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I have joined Birmingham University in September 2015, and am teaching MA modules on campus. I am also responsible for Distance Learning modules and DL tutors. My research interests lie in bi- and multilingualism, psycholinguistics and in application of these to TESOL.

Qualifications

  • Magister Artium (Duisburg, Germany),
  • PhD Educational and Applied Linguistics, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (2013)

Biography

Before I joined the Department of English Language and Linguistics I worked at the University of Sunderland as subject leader TESOL in their undergraduate programme and as senior lecturer  in their MA TESOL programme.

Teaching

I teach on the MA TESOL and/or convene the following modules

  • Second Language Teaching and Learning (on campus)
  • How to teach grammar (on campus)
  • Language Teaching Methodology (convenor)
  • Second Language Acquisition (convenor)
  • ELT Management (convenor)

Postgraduate supervision

At the moment I am co-supervising one PhD student (DL), together with Dr Ruth Page; Rachel Manley, “Using the board game Forbidden Island to analyse students’ improvement on English Language”.


Find out more - our PhD English Language and Applied Linguistics  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

In my PhD study I explored the question of first language attrition, in particular if your environment language is faster and more easily accessible than the native language after a speaker has been living in these environments for a lengthy period of time. I am interested in investigating psycholinguistic processes and their effects on learning (and teaching).

Other activities

  • Departmental MA SSC Committee Staff Liaison Contact (SLC)
  • June 2014; conference The 8th Days of Swiss Linguistics: Dynamics of Variation, University of Zürich, Switzerland. Contribution Title: Variability from an FLA (First Language Attrition) perspective.
  • July 2008 - September 2009; co-convener of an international research group chaired by Professor Vivian Cook. Investigation of the influence of a second language’s metaphors on the metaphoric (and probably cognitive) language use of bilinguals. Representing our group (together with another student member and Professor Cook) and presenting the group’s results at the EUROSLA conference in Cork in September 2009.