Summary
Andrew is a Teacher of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the Centre for Academic English (CfAE). He is responsible for delivering timely and targeted academic writing guidance and support to help students and researchers throughout their time at Imperial and in their academic careers. He is a Senior Fellow of the Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy).
Andrew works in partnership with Imperial programme leaders from the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine and Natural Sciences to develop and deliver tailored workshops to help students achieve success in their academic STEMM writing. Andrew also provides consultations to Imperial researchers and leads workshops for research groups to equip them for success in writing for publication. In collaboration with the Graduate School, he supports PhD students writing up their thesis as a CfAE writing coach at the Guardian award-winning doctoral Thesis Writing Retreat.
In addition to his in-sessional contributions, Andrew is responsible for the design and coordination of the Academic Process strand of the CfAE six-week summer pre-sessional course. He has created new online materials and assessments entirely from Imperial STEMM resources to ensure that students acquire the reading, writing and feedback literacy skills they need to succeed when they begin their degree courses at Imperial. His prior experience of designing, teaching and coordinating online courses informed his principled redesign of this strand of the course for an online format so that student learning is scaffolded by the course design and facilitated by the teachers. He is also responsible for managing, supporting and training a team of summer teachers to deliver and assess this intensive reading and writing strand of the course.
These areas of Andrew’s expertise and competence have been particularly valuable in enabling him to make a strong contribution to the CfAE’s ongoing quality assurance (QA) process. He is currently leading and collaborating on the QA of a wide range of CfAE workshops and courses, bringing them into alignment with the pedagogy, student needs and strategic developments across the College.
Andrew is actively engaged in scholarship, writing and presenting at conferences. He is a reviewer for several academic journals, including the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, and Professional and Academic English.
Background
Andrew has over 12 years' experience designing and teaching discipline-specific academic English programmes in higher education, with a particular focus on STEMM writing. Prior to joining Imperial in 2016, he designed and taught academic English courses at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The University of Southampton (summer pre-sessional programme), and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Between 2012 and 2016, he was also a core member of several inter-institutional government-funded research and development project teams that designed scaffolded writing support programmes and integrated language assessments to raise levels of discipline-specific academic literacy in Hong Kong.
Andrew holds a Master's degree in Modern Languages from the University of Cambridge and a Master's degree in Teaching English for Academic Purposes from the University of Nottingham, as well as a Gold Medal in Public Speaking from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Recent Conference Presentations and Podcast Episodes
Glasman-Deal, H. & Northern A. (2021). Scholarly Communication hosted by Shea, D. New Books Network. [Podcast episode]. Available at: https://newbooksnetwork.com/hilary-glasman-deal-and-andrew-northern-on-stemm-communications
Northern, A. & Glasman-Deal, H. (2021). The academic writing rehearsal: learning from the performance. [Conference presentation]. NFEAP conference: Stages. Oslo Metropolitan University. 3-4 June 2021. Online.
Northern, A. & White, R. (2021). Surviving and thriving in challenging times: Investigating pre-sessional teacher emotions on an online summer pre-sessional course. [Conference presentation]. BALEAP conference: Exploring pedagogical approaches in EAP teaching. University of Glasgow. 6-10 April 2021. Online.
King, J., Mowat, R., Northern, A. & Riley-Jones, G. (2019) Moving beyond the EGAP/ESAP dichotomy: How an understanding of approaches to EAP teaching in specialised contexts at the extreme ends (STEM & AHSS) could inform and transform teaching of EAP in between. [Conference] BALEAP Conference: Innovation, Exploration and Transformation. University of Leeds. 12–14 April 2019.
Northern, A. & Daughton, B. (2018) Navigating STEM research texts: Strategies for EAP teachers. [Conference] CPD Conference: Creatively navigating current controversies in EAP: Applications for classroom practice. Queen Mary University of London. 12 April 2018.
King, J., Mowat, R. & Northern, A. (2018) Don’t be scared by the science: The most common problems in STEM research writing and how to deal with them. [Conference] EAP in the South East event: EAP for STEM. University of Reading. 16 February 2018.
King, J., Mowat, R. & Northern, A. (2018) Reverse engineering: an approach to supporting the publication of STEM research at Imperial College. [Conference] EAP in the South East event: EAP for STEM. University of Reading. 16 February 2018.
Tang, E. & Northern, A. (2016) A discovery-based approach to teaching academic and professional communication to civil engineers. [Conference] Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) Symposium, National University of Singapore. 26 May 2016.
Northern, A. & Kohnke, L. (2014) Developing higher order thinking and independent research skills for first-year undergraduates in Hong Kong. English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) Conference. The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 5 June 2014.
Northern, A..& Kohnke, L. (2014). Turnitin-to-a-learning-experience: Exploring the use of similarity detection software (Turnitin) to develop student writers' understanding of academic integrity. English Language Centre (ELC) Writing Roundtable: Innovations in developing writers beyond the writing classroom, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 26 May 2014.
Recent and Upcoming Publications
Tyrer, P. & Northern A. (2022). ‘Writing for Publication’ in Clinical Topics in Teaching Psychiatry, Eds. Huline-Dickens, S. & Casey, P. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Northern, A. & Hartill J. (2022). ‘Responding to the challenges of moving an on-campus pre-sessional online during the COVID-19 pandemic’ in Cases on Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) During Covid-19: Insights from Around the World. Available at: https://www.igi-global.com/book/cases-teaching-english-academic-purposes/288418. Ed. Kohnke, L. IGI Global.
Northern, A., White, R. & Mtuda M. (2021). Project: online asynchronous academic communication workshops for Imperial students. Available at: https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/learning-and-teaching/2021/06/29/project-online-asynchronous-academic-communication-workshops-for-imperial-students/. Imperial Learning and Teaching. Blog. Ed. Rialas, A.
Northern, A. (2018). Embedding academic literacy within the curriculum. Available at: https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/learning-and-teaching/2018/11/13/embedding-academic-literacy-within-the-curriculum/. Imperial Learning and Teaching. Blog. Ed. Rialas, A.