Julie Blake

Research Associate

Contact information:

Email:             Julie.Blake@bristol.ac.uk

Telephone:    +44 (0)117 909 2427

Website:         www.thefullenglish.org.uk

About me

Tim Shortis and I have been appointed Visiting Research Associates at the University of Bristol in order to work with Dr Nils Langer on a scoping study of Bristolian dialect and the spoken language of young people in the area. The project builds upon a questionnaire survey of Bristolian and youth sociolect - or the language of young people- conducted by 16-19 year old students at St Brendan’s sixth form college in the 1990s. The questionnaire design in that survey has been used as a model for other undergraduate and postgraduate studies of Bristolian and other dialects, including a forthcoming masters dissertation by Katharina Oberhofer from the University of Graz. We are beginning work in 2011 with a re-analysis of the the 1990‘s questionnaires by Sini Liponen, who is working as an intern following the completion of her degree in Linguistics at the University of the West of England. 

Our project with Dr Nils Langer has three dimensions:  an exploratory sociolinguistic study of aspects of Bristolian dialect  and other varieties especially as they are used by young people in Bristol; the design of educational materials for working with spoken language in educational settings, especially in the context of the study of spoken language becoming a mandatory component in GCSE English; a scoping study of the opportunities for the study of historical variation and change in Bristolian dialect from the evidence of a selection of written archives and related sources. 

Tim and I work independently for The Full English, a small Bristol-based research and design company working in the area of resources for teaching about English Language and Literature. We have also been appointed visiting research associates at King’s College London in recognition of our contribution to the teaching of English in UK schools. We work much of the time on a variety of curriculum and pedagogical development projects, many of which are concerned with the “re-resourcing of English for the digital age”. I have taught on BEd and PGCE courses of teacher education, and countless workshops and short courses of teacher professional development, specialising in imaginative pedagogy, meaningful uses of ICT, and gifted and talented education. I taught English Language and Literature for twelve years in Sixth Form and Further Education Colleges, moving into a management position with responsibility for curriculum development, and for teaching and learning across a range of different curriculum subjects. Statistically speaking, I have been told that my book, The Full English: an A-Z of English teaching activities, is owned by 1 in 6 English teachers in the UK.

Association memberships

• British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
• National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE)
• Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
• Association of British Scrabble Players (ABSP)

Other roles and offices

• Representative of NATE in the South West region: currently working with Phil Norman at the University of Plymouth to run a short conference for teachers on Early Literacy and Multimodality with Professor Gunther Kress as our key speaker
• Member of the NATE Management Committee
  

Research

• Who’s prepared to teach? With Tim Shortis, a benchmarking investigation of the degree level qualifications and preparedness of initial teacher trainees in English. This research was commissioned by the Committee for Linguistics in Education, with financial support from the British Association for Applied Linguistics, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, the National Association for the Teaching of English, and the Higher Education Academy’s English Subject Centre and centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies.
• Tackling expert evasion. Masters degree dissertation on the academic literacy practices of “borderline” prospective A Level students, University of Leicester 2000, and applied outcomes implemented at Park College, Eastbourne in a specially devised, research informed “Advanced Learning Skills” programme.
  

Accolades

• Teachitworld, for which I was consultant launch editor, shortlisted in the 2009 British Council English Language Teaching awards (ELTons), in the category UK Award for Innovation
• The Full English: an A-Z handbook of English teaching activities shortlisted in the 2007 British Educational Suppliers Association Education Resources Awards
• Blagging it in the Blogosphere: design experimentation in blogging for English teaching – NATE conference presentation awarded the 2006 Terry Furlong Prize
• “Advanced Learning Skills” programme devised and implemented following MA research achieved a “Highly Commended” citation from the South East Open College Network, 2003

Current and ongoing projects

Find out more about my current projects here.

Selected past projects

Find out more about my past projects here.

Publications and conference presentations

You can see a selected list of my publications and presentations here.

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