Karen Woodman

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Karen Woodman's experience includes Educational Consultant, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of the Master of Education (TESOL) and Master of Education (TEFL) in the School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education at Queensland University of Technology, and Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of the online Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics at the University of New England. Former Chair of the Teacher Education Interest Section (TEIS) for the International TESOL organization (2008-2009), and currently is a Member of the Professional Development Council of TESOL.org. She is a member of many professional associations, and she is involved with the promotion and development of the fields of ESOL teacher education. Karen’s research interests include issues in education and second language acquisition, including learning disabilities in ESL, technology in the classroom, curriculum development and assessment, LOTE teaching and learning, neurolinguistic issues in SLA, gender and culture in the ESL classroom, cross-cultural education and graduate supervision, ESP and cross-cultural issues in medical training.

Karen has given national and international invited conference papers, and workshops, and public lectures, won national and international awards, grants and fellowships.

Karen has held academic and leadership positions at institutions including:

Ongoing: Second Language Learning Group (Educational Consultant) (Canada, Australia)
2008 - 2017: Queensland University of Technology (Australia)
2000 – 2007: University of New England (Australia)
2005 – 2006: Monterey Institute of International Studies (USA)
1996 – 2001: Vancouver Community College
1993-94, 1997: Simon Fraser University (Canada)
1994 – 1996: Brock University (Canada) and the University of Victoria (Canada).

She has also extensive experience in educational consultancy, in both private and public sectors.

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Factors influencing the success of culturally and linguistically diverse students in engineering and information technology

International Journal of Engineering Education, 2018

The perception of supervisors who supervise culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) higher D... more The perception of supervisors who supervise culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) higher Degree research students(HDR) in Engineering and IT was analysed to identify, operationalise and quantify factors which could influenceoutcomes related to successful completion of HDR studies. A large study was conducted from three AustralianUniversities (Queensland University of Technology, University of Western Australia, and Curtin University) to explorethe key factors using Bayesian Network (BN) analysis, a complex systems approach. The BN model was quantified usingcoded survey variables and was further compared to write-in responses from a survey of 228 students and 69 supervisors, toexplore the benefits of using mixed method analysis in the study of complex phenomena. Key findings indicate thatqualitative responses broadly supported the results of the BN analysis, withsupervisor experience,styleandtrainingidentified as key factors. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that ‘student prior experience’ showed the greatest positiveinfluence, whilst ‘student obligations’ and ‘student attributes’ had the most negative impact on ‘HDR student studycompletion’. Overall maintaining ‘student motivation’ was seen as the single most influential factor on ‘HDR student studycompletion’. ‘CALD student study completion’ can be largely improved through ‘supervisor’s involvement’ in helping todevelop communication and networking skills. Moreover, supervision activities developed through participation ofsupervisors in respective training programs, followed by improving ‘University Support’, made the biggest positive impacton ‘supervisor attributes’. These findings are useful for universities seeking to prioritise areas of funding, whilst alsoenhancing the performance of CALD students in these disciplines.

The handbook of English for specific purposes [Book Review]

English Australia journal, 2014

Review(s) of: The handbook of English for specific purposes, by Brian Paltridge and Sue Starfield... more

Multimodality stimulation : understanding fluency in study abroad programs

Study abroad students often enter programs having significant knowledge of the target language. T... more Study abroad students often enter programs having significant knowledge of the target language. Traditional frameworks do not accommodate the impact of this previous knowledge on early increases in fluency. This paper synthesizes research on activation, acquisition and attrition to develop a model of language activation in study abroad programs. The question of why study abroad (and immersion) programs are typically more successful in increasing language fluency than classroom environments has been approached from a number of perspectives, and across a number fields. However, little consensus appears to exist as to the key factors underlying and influencing this process. While it is generally agreed that it's 'something about the environment' that promotes such language change, there is considerable debate over the identification or role of specific factors (e.g., frequency, motivation, identity, cognitive factors, etc). Drawing on recent research in the fields of psycholinguistics (e.g., Ellis, 2004; Jarvis, 2000), cognition and neurolinguistics (e.g., Paradis, 2000), this paper proposes a theoretical model in which the key to the operationalization of activation in the study abroad (or immersion) experience is the recognition of language learners as progressive bilinguals (e.g., with differing interlanguage levels of linguistic and sociocultural competence) with L2 knowledge and/or skills which are particularly activated by the multimodality stimulation of the environment typical of study abroad programs. This paper synthesizes research incorporating the concepts of partial concept activation, multimodality activation of language, influence of working memory limitations on language processing, influence of environment on language dominance, frequency effects and activation thresholds.

The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes" reviewed by Karen Woodman

English for specific purposes is a critical, but often under-researched, area in the fields of TE... more

The Goddess and the Horsemen: A Discussion of the Origins of the Greek Language

In Classical times, it was believed by many that the Hellenes had originated with ,.. Hellen. Tha... more In Classical times, it was believed by many that the Hellenes had originated with ,.. Hellen. That meant that the Greeks had been around longer than anyone else, for ,..-Hellen was the firstborn son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the parents of all man r kind... to ancient scholars the story symbolized the larger truth that the Greeks had lived in Greece since earliest times (Drews, 1988: 3) In the discussion to follow, two basic questions concerning the origins of the Greek language will be addressed: (1) who were the original speakers of the language which is now referred to as r Greek, and (2) how did their language come to dominate and/or characterize a particular region ,..-and people. An examination of some of the issues surrounding the origins and movements of the (Proto) Indo-Europeans, emphasizing the coming of the Greeks to Greece-will address the first ,.. question. Other issues to be considered will include the re-evaluation of traditional theories which , have envisioned the spread of the Indo-European (and Greek) languages as an essentially histori ,.. cally unprecedented "Volkswanderung", or mass migration-an idea which will be seen to rest on ,.. questionable scholarly presuppositions concerning the Aryan race (Drews, 1988, Eisler, 1987). , It will be argued that a more plausible explanation for the development of the Indo-European , languages from a (hypothetical) proto-language (i.e. Proto-Indo-European, or PIE) may be derived , from processes both attested to in records of the period, and having analogues throughout history. , These processes will be seen to include small scale immigration and/or military takeovers. The lin r guistic and archaeological evidence presented will demonstrate that the coming of the Greeks to ,..-Greece may best be characterized in terms of military conquest (or "takeover" in the terms of ,.. Drews, 1988) by a relatively small number of warrior kings, who by virtue of their superiority in chariot warfare were able to impose their language and/or culture on the pre-Greek Minoan civili ,..

Karen Woodman

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