Dr Catherine Walter

Catherine Walter is a member of the Applied Linguistics research group, and of the Research on English as an Additional Language group. She is the course leader for the Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching English Language in University Settings, and she lectures on the MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition.

Her research interests are in the cognitive aspects of second language acquisition and performance, in language teacher education, and in second language academic performance.

Catherine obtained a first degree in French literature from the University of St Thomas (Houston, Texas), a Licence-ès-lettres in linguistics and French literature from Université Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), and a PhD from the University of Cambridge for a study of the role of verbal working memory in second language reading.

She taught English to speakers of other languages, trained language teachers and wrote award-winning English language textbooks for 25 years before becoming a full-time teacher educator and researcher. In 2008 she became a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellow. Catherine joined the Department of Education at Oxford in 2009. She is a Fellow of Linacre College, where she is the Disability Advisor and is responsible for Student Welfare; and she is a member of the University’s Gender Equality Steering Group.

Catherine is the Chair of the British Council’s English Language Advisory Group and a member of the BAAL/LAGB Committee on Linguistics in Education. She is a member of the ESRC Peer Review College and the Advisory Council of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. She serves on the Editorial Board of English Today and on the Advisory Board of the English Language Teaching Journal.

Catherine is currently supervising doctoral students researching these topics:

• The effects of task demands on form-function detection in multilingual English language university classrooms in the UK
• A study of second language task performance: the effects of interlocutor, planning and the use of explicit knowledge in second language English by UK university students
• The effects of grammaring tasks on young Bruneian learners’ interaction in and acquisition of L2 English
• The effects of planning instruction on the academic writing of female Saudi university students
• A protocol-based study of noticing in Korean university students’ L2 English academic writing

Research

There are four strands in Catherine’s research activity, and she particularly welcomes proposals for doctoral study in these areas:

• Working memory and its role in language acquisition and use:  using the Multi-Component Model of Baddeley and Hitch to examine in detail how working memory is used and developed in second language and in the comprehension of ‘unfriendly’ texts
• The cognitive aspects of second language reading comprehension:  applying Gernsbacher’s Structure Building Framework to reading comprehension in second language
• Non-formal avenues for language teacher development (e.g. teacher associations, project work, structured peer support)
• International students’ transitions to academic work in Western English-speaking university settings

Current research projects

Project title: Facilitating Transitions to Master’s-level Learning through Improving Formative Assessment and Feedback (with David Scott, Mary Stiasny, David Watson, Penny-Jane Burke, Gwyneth Hughes and Carol Evans) Brief description: This project aims to investigate and facilitate students’ transitions from undergraduate study or employment to Master’s-level work, by improving formative assessment and feedback processes.  Catherine’s role in the project is to examine the transition from the international context to the UK national context, and to probe how the findings can be taken into account in formative assessment and feedback processes. Funding body: Higher Education Academy

Project title: New Technologies and English as a Second Language (with Ernesto Macaro and Zoë Handley) Brief description: The over-arching question in this project is: Can technology enhance language learning?  Initially, we are carrying out a systematic review of the research literature on technology-based teaching of English to young learners and adolescents.  Based on the review, we will design one or possibly two research projects to examine rigorously one or more aspects of the main question. Funding body: Oxford University Press

Publications

• Swan, M. and Walter, C. (2011). The Oxford English Grammar Course. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Walter, C. (2008). Phonology in L2 reading: not an optional extra. TESOL Quarterly, 42(3), 455-474.
• Walter, C. (2007). First- to second-language reading comprehension: not transfer, but access. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17/1: 14-37.
• Walter, C. (2004). Transfer of reading comprehension skills to L2 is linked to mental representations of text and to L2 working memory. Applied Linguistics 25/3:315-339.
• Swan, M. and Walter, C. (2001). The Good Grammar Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Walter, C.  (2001).  French learners.  In M. Swan & B. Smith (Eds.)  Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and Other Problems (2^nd Edition).  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.
• Swan, M. and Walter, C. (1997). How English Works: A Grammar Practice Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Winner of the English-Speaking Union Duke of Edinburgh Award.