Jim Donohue

Profile

I am currently Head of OpenELT, the English language teaching section of the Open University.

My interests are in the teaching of English for academic and specific purposes and in researching the role of language in the community, the academy, and the workplace. In my teaching and research I draw on systemic functional linguistics and community development theory and practice (particularly the work of Paolo Freire).

I am Director of the English Language Provision Programme, 2009-2011, which is working towards establishing English language provision at the OU.

I am a member of the committee of the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing.

Before moving into distance education at the OU, I taught English in a range of face to face settings including ‘new’ and ‘old’ universities, a residential women’s college, the Dutch finance sector, community English classes, a university access unit, and primary and secondary schools. I have also worked as an inner city community development worker.

Teaching Interests

Teaching

• Team-leader of the team that produced the first English for Academic Purposes distance module at the Open University, Professional Communication Skills for Business Studies (LB160)
• Co-leader and member of the teams that wrote the first fully online English for Academic Purposes module, EAP Online (L185) and the international MBA version of LB160, English Communication Skills for Global Managers (pre-MBA)
• Collaborator with the faculties of Health and Social Care and Maths, Computing and Technology on projects to embed language development within their curricula.

Teaching experience before coming to the Open University:

• responsible for English language across the curriculum at the UK’s only residential college for women, Hillcroft College (2002-6)
• taught English for Academic Purposes to postgraduate students at the Institute of Education, London University (2001-2)
• taught English for Academic Purposes to undergraduate students at the University of Bedfordshire (1998-2001)
• worked for a corporate communications organization in the Netherlands, delivering customized language training across the Dutch business sector (1993-1998)
• worked in a variety of community development activities in the UK, as a neighbourhood worker, a tenant involvement officer, an ESOL teacher, and a community support worker for people with learning disabilities (1979-1993)
• taught English in a secondary school (1973-1978)

Research Interests

I am a member of the Educational Dialogue Research Unit within the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology at the Open University 

Areas of research:

• use of English in the workplace
• language development and pedagogy of academic literacy at tertiary level, primarily in fields with a ‘theory-practice divide’: media studies, business studies, and health and social care.

In my research, I draw on the following:

• systemic functional linguistics, genre theory and social semiotics (M.A.K. Halliday, J.R. Martin and J. Lemke)
• semantic variation theory (R. Hasan, B. Bernstein)
• adult education theory (P. Freire)

Recent research activity
2003-5 – Member of the Thesis and Dissertation (TAD) Project led by Professor Martha Pennington (formerly) of University of Bedfordshire, developing an academic literacy support website for thesis and dissertation writers.

2006-7 Developing Academic Literacy in Context. Participant on behalf of the OU in a collaboration led by Wollongong University, Australia, with Cornell, Queen Mary London, Coventry, Stanford and Iowa State Universities to investigate ways in which systemic functional linguistics can inform the development of subject specific academic literacy at course production, course presentation and institutional level.

2008-9 An investigation into the relationship between the use of academic language and attainment (with a focus on students from a Black and Minority Ethnic background). Project Supervisor of this internally funded OU Student Services project

2008-9 Writing in Health and Social Care: genres, practices and pedagogies: A study of the writing of students in K101 Health and Social Care. Co Investigator of Practice Based Professional Learning CETL funded project

2009-10 Genre analysis, lexicogrammar and students as informants. Follow up research project with HSC K101 students related to HSC Writing Development Pathway Project. Sole investigator.
 

Current Research

Current Research 

2010 - ongoing The Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology, Open University. Writing in Health and Social Care; a linguistics and sociology of knowledge based investigation

2010- ongoing The Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology, Open University. Learning collaboratively through online interactive writing tasks

2009 - ongoing The Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology, Open University. Genres in comparison: traditions, practices and policies

Publications