Summary
Simon is a teacher of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the Centre for Academic English. He delivers a range of workshops and courses for Imperial students and researchers which focus on effective academic STEMM communication. He is a Fellow of the Advance HE.
His responsibilities include teaching on the CfAE's doctoral writing and effective speaking courses. These courses are designed to support doctoral students at different stages of their careers at Imperial. On the Effective Speaking 2 course, for example, he coaches first-year students preparing for their ESA viva. The course looks at topics such as voice control, tackling tricky questions, and dealing with nerves. On the Writing a Research Paper course, he teaches second- and third-year students aiming to publish their first journal article. He helps train them to identify and imitate the key linguistic features of articles in their specific fields.
He also coordinates the CfAE's 3-week pre-sessional course. This is an orientation course in September for new undergraduate and postgraduate students. This highly-rated course prepares students for success in their first term by giving their academic communication skills a radical upgrade and by introducing them ahead of their peers to Imperial's resources and facilities. Simon's role on the 3-week pre-sessional includes designing and developing the syllabus as well as managing the course. In 2020 he was heavily involved in reinventing the course as an online pre-sessional and is looking forward to reimagining it once again in 2023 as an on-campus course that retains some of the best practice developed over the last few years of digital delivery.
Another strand of his work is running GTA training sessions for the Department of Materials. The sessions prepare new GTAs to mark undergraduate lab reports by raising their awareness of the features of successful student writing and developing their understanding of how to give focussed and effective feedback. The sessions form part of the CfAE's tailored provision.
Background
Simon joined the CfAE as a Teacher of English for Academic Purposes in 2015. Previously, he taught English for more than a decade in a range of institutions both in the UK and abroad; most notably, for five years he taught on the pre-sessional programme at Durham University.