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Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > Maria Leedham

Maria Leedham

Lecturer (English Lang/App Linguistics)

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Centre for Language and Communication

+44(0)1908655312

Profile

I have been a Lecturer in CLAC at the OU since September 2009, and have mainly worked on a new MA module in Applied Linguistics (E852, entitled 'Language, Literacy and and Learning in the Contemporary World'). I am currently chair of this module as well as production chair of the remake of a level 3 undergraduate module (E303 'English Grammar in Context').

From January 2007 until September 2009 I was a full time PhD student at the OU; I completed my PhD in 2011. My thesis is entitled A corpus-driven study of features of Chinese students' undergraduate writing in UK universities.

Previously, I taught English as a Foreign Language in Iwate, Japan; Gyosei College, Reading and in language schools in Oxford, UK. I also taught English for Academic Purposes at Oxford Brookes and Oxford Universities and was a teacher trainer at both universities. From 2005-07 I was a Research Assistant at Oxford Brookes on the 'British Academic Written English' corpus compilation project.

Teaching Interests

I am presentation chair for the module 'Language, Literacy and Learning in the Contemporary World' (E852) within the Masters in Education (Applied Linguistics). I'm also the production chair for the remake of 'English Grammar in Context' (E303), a level 3 undergraduate course and was previously an Associate Lecturer on this module (2006-2008 presentations).

I have taught and coordinated the PACE programme (Professional Academic Communication in English) - an OU course for postgraduate students - and also taught on the OU's Doctoral Training Programme. I currently supervise students on the EdD and PhD programmes at the OU, and have been an internal examiner on both the EdD and MRes programmes (see 'research' tab for details of my current students). I am the External Examiner on Brighton University's Graduate Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Research Interests

Key areas of interest

Academic writing across different disciplines, corpus linguistics, academic literacies, lexical chunks/formulaic language, Chinese students studying in the UK,  TEFL, EFL teacher training.

 

Research Degree Supervision

Ongoing from 2011:

Subhi Ashour, MRes. - 'An Exploration of Teacher Learning and Professional Development Through Action Research'

David Hann, (p/t) PhD - 'Playful language in a mixed business class of English language learners.'

Jenny McMullan, PhD - 'Gender in a Study of Academic Writing? An exploration into the writing practices and experiences of fifteen women enrolled in research courses in UK universities'

Mat Terrett, EdD - 'Investigating how academic literacies practices and values have evolved on a foundation year EAP programme in China'

Publications

Book Chapter
Leedham, Maria (2012). Writing in tables and lists: a study of Chinese students’ undergraduate assignments in UK universities. In: Tang, Ramona ed. Academic Writing in a Second or Foreign Language: Issues and Challenges Facing ESL / EFL Academic Writers in Higher Education Contexts. London: Continuum, pp. 146–166.
Leedham, Maria (2005). Exam-orientated tasks: transcripts, turn-taking and backchannelling. In: Willis, Jane and Edwards, Corony eds. Teachers Exploring Tasks. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 93–102.
Conference Item
Leedham, Maria (2012). Embracing different semiotic modes in undergraduate assignments. In: British Association of Applied Linguists (BAAL), 6-8 September 2012, Southampton University.
Leedham, Maria (2012). Embracing different semiotic modes in undergraduate assignments. In: Writing Development in Higher Education (WDHE), 2-4 July 2012, Liverpool University.
Leedham, Maria (2011). Writing in tables and lists: exploring multimodal undergraduate writing through keyword searches. In: ICAME 32 Oslo 2011: Trends and Traditions in English Corpus Linguistics: In Honour of Stig Johansson , 1-5 June 2011, Oslo, Norway.
Erling, Elizabeth; Leedham, Maria and Adinolfi, Lina (2010). Combining methods to analyse the relationship between language and attainment among Open University students. In: Ethnographies of Academic Writing in a Global Context: the Politics of Style, 16 July 2010, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Leedham, Maria; Adinolfi, Lina and Erling, Elizabeth (2010). Layering methods to analyse the relationship between language use and attainment among Open University undergraduate students. In: WDHE (Writing Development in Higher Education), 28-30 June 2010, London.
Leedham, Maria (2010). Combining intuition with corpus linguistic analysis: a longitudinal study of lexical chunks in four students’ writing. In: Formulaic Language Research Network (FLaRN), 23-26 March 2010, Paderborn, Germany.
Leedham, Maria (2009). 'According to the equation...': key words and clusters in Chinese and British Students' undergraduate assignments from UK universities. In: Corpus Linguistics Conference, 21-23 July 2009, Liverpool.
Leedham, Maria (2009). 'In light of this...' Comparing n-grams in Chinese and British students' undergraduate assignments from UK universities. In: ICAME Conference, 27-31 May 2009, Lancaster.
Leedham, Maria (2008). Searching corpora of Chinese and British writers for lexicalised language. In: Crossculturality: English Studies and World Literature in China, 24-25 April 2008, Beijing University, China.
Leedham, Maria (2008). Searching corpora of Chinese and British writers for lexicalised language. In: Chinese Postgraduate Network, 15 - 16 March 2008, Oxford.
Leedham, Maria (2008). From traditional essay to "Ready Steady Cook" presentation: Reasons for innovative changes in Higher Education assignments. In: WDHE (Writing Development in Higher Education) Conference, 25-27 June 2008, Strathclyde University.
Leedham, Maria (2008). “Enjoyable”, “okay” or “rather pointless”? An exploration of Chinese and British students' views on innovative and traditional assignment types in UK universities. In: Promoting Partnership: Responding to the Needs of the East Asian Learner in Higher Education, 12-13 July 2008, Portsmouth.
Ebeling, Signe and Leedham, Maria (2006). What can the BAWE Corpus tell us about student development? In: Writing Development in Higher Education (WDHE) Conference, 11-12 May 2006, The Open University, Milton Keynes.
Journal Article
Leedham, Maria (2012). Combining intuition with corpus linguistic analysis: a study of marked lexical chunks in four Chinese students' undergraduate assignments. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 11(3), pp. 155–187.
Leedham, Maria (2009). From traditional essay to 'Ready Steady Cook' presentation: Reasons for innovative changes in assignments. Active Learning in Higher Education, 10(3), pp. 191–206.
Leedham, Maria (2006). “Do I speak better?” A longitudinal study of lexical chunking in the spoken language of two Japanese students. The East Asian Learner, 2(2),
Nesi, H.; Gardner, S.; Forsyth, R.; Hindle, D.; Wickens, P.; Ebeling, S.; Leedham, M.; Thompson, P. and Heuboeck, A. (2005). Towards the compilation of a corpus of assessed student writing: An account of work in process. Proceedings from the Corpus Linguistics Conference Series, 1(1),
Thesis
Leedham, Maria (2011). A corpus-driven study of features of Chinese students' undergraduate writing in UK universities. [Thesis]