Dr Jeanette Sakel

National Teaching Fellow 2015 Dr Jeanette Sakel joined the University of the West of England (UWE) in 2007 after working as a Research Associate at the University of Manchester and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. She gained her PhD in 2003 from the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Jeanette has a strong interest in pedagogy, linking her research with her teaching, which led her to write three textbooks for students: Linguistic Fieldwork, Cambridge University Press 2012 (co-authored with Daniel Everett), Study Skills for Linguistics, Routledge, 2015 and Bilingualism and Language Contact, Cambridge University Press, in preparation to appear 2016). She also produces innovative teaching videos making grammar accessible to students in higher education and schools alike.  Continuously evaluating and monitoring her practice, in particular by seeking feedback from students and colleagues, Jeanette keenly explores innovative approaches to learning and teaching. Her input has fed into a new curriculum for English Language and Linguistics at UWE, taking into account practical applications of the subject matter and teaching these alongside subject-specific skills. Jeanette has strong collaborative links nationally and internationally. For example, she has worked as part of two national HEA-funded research teams, looking at the employability of Language and Linguistics students and investigating how students understand the questions of the National Student Survey. Likewise, she promotes innovative learning and teaching within her own institution as Programme Leader for English Language and Linguistics and a UWE Learning and Teaching Fellow. She coordinated a project on how to incorporate employability skills in the curriculum, facilitating colleagues in their curriculum development. Jeanette has also been elected to a range of committees, such as the UWE Academic Board, which allows her to influence learning and teaching policies at her institution.  Jeanette is currently working on ways to integrate approaches to language(s) at school and in higher education and is on the national Committee for Linguistics in Education.