Innovation in Language Learning

Jean M. Jimenez is an Associate Professor in English Language and Translation at the Department of Culture, Education, and Society (DiCES), University of Calabria, Italy, where she teaches English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes to undergraduate and graduate students. She is currently the Coordinator of the degree course in Linguistic Mediation at DiCES. She is a Member of the Faculty Board of the PhD Program Politica, Cultura e Sviluppo (Field of study: Language analysis and interdisciplinary studies). She is also part of the Advisory Board of the University Language Centre, where she is involved in the coordination of the development of EFL tests for university students attending basic academic English language courses.

Jean holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Lancaster University, UK. Her thesis examined the role of immediate electronic corrective feedback on foreign language development. Before completing her PhD, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and in International Relations at the University of Wisconsin, USA, a degree in Foreign Language and Literature at the University of Calabria, and a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the University of Reading, UK.

She is currently participating in three national projects, namely PRIN2022 “European Language Centres as a multilingual community of practice: A multimodal discourse analysis of academic, cultural and social growth conveyed through the language of websites”, PRIN2020 “Communicating transparency: New trends in English-language corporate and institutional disclosure practices in intercultural settings”, and Progetto POT “UniSco - Azioni integrate Università-Scuola per le competenze in lingue, letterature, mediazione linguistica”, of which she is the local coordinator.

Jean has taken part in several European Projects, including the award-winning CMC- Communicating in Multilingual Contexts: Awareness and development of academic language skills for mobility students and CMC_E Communicating in Multilingual Contexts meets Enterprises project. Her tasks involved planning and revising the online materials created by the Team of European universities to promote the development of academic and professional language skills in six different languages. The Project was selected by the European Commission as one of the five most innovative European projects in language teaching and learning in the decade 2002-2012.

Jean participated in the Progetto ClaC as an advisor. The project, funded by the Regione Calabria, offered English language courses (ranging from A1 to C2) to undergraduate and graduate students as well as school teachers. Her role included collaborating in the design of the curriculum, selecting didactic materials, and supervising the work of the language instructors. In addition, she was a member and coordinator of the Test Development Team, which was responsible for creating the in-house exams administered at the end of the ClaC courses.

Jean also took part in the AICLUCert project, which was set up to develop a language assessment tool to be used in the Italian university context. In particular, the specific aims of the project were to bring together the resources of various language centres in order to share expertise and good practices in language testing, and create standardized language tests in English, German, and Italian.

Her research interests include Second Language Acquisition, Corrective Feedback in Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Testing, ESP and EAP (in particular Business English and Tourism Discourses), and the use of Corpus Linguistics in the second language classroom. She has presented papers at national and international seminars and conferences in Europe and North America, including invited talks at the Institute of Education, University College London, and the Escuela Nacional de Lenguas, Lingüística y Traducción, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México.

Area/s of Expertise: Corrective Feedback, ICT and Language Learning, Language Testing and Assessment, English for Specific Purposes, English for Academic Purposes, Learner Autonomy in University Contexts.