Rachel Allan
Universitetslektor|Senior Lecturer
- Professional title: Senior Lecturer
- Academic title: Associate Professor
- Other title: Docent in English Linguistics
- Email: rachel.allan@miun.se
- Room number: Ej Angivet
- Location: Sundsvall
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- Employed at the subject:
- English
Background
I have worked in English language teaching in a wide range of contexts and countries. I completed my PhD at University College Dublin; this investigated using graded corpora for teaching and learning English vocabulary.
Area of interest
Corpus linguistics, English language teaching and learning, English language assessment, history of English language teaching, vocabulary acquisition, lexical bundles, English as a Lingua Franca.
Research
I am currently working on a joint project investigating assessment and grading of the National Test in English using a database of National Tests I and my colleagues Irina Shaw and Martin Shaw have developed. My other ongoing research interests focus on how we can use corpora and digital tools effectively in teaching and learning English, particularly in relation to vocabulary and lexical bundles. I am also very interested in historical language teaching materials, and am pursuing two strands of research, both using a corpus-informed approach: language manuals from the early 20th century designed to teach English to immigrants to the US, and teaching approaches used in mid-20th century ELT coursebooks.
Teaching and tutoring
I teach on a range of A, B, C and Masters courses in linguistics-based courses and teacher training courses.
Research projects
Current
Collaboration for Advancing Classroom Teaching (CoACT)
Finished
Publications
Articles in journals
Chapters in books
Collections (editor)
Conference papers
Articles in journals
Allan, R. , Shaw, I. & Shaw, M. (2023). Building a Corpus of Written Tasks of Swedish National Tests in English : Motivation, Method and Research Applications. Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 22: 2, pp. 128-154.
Allan, R. , Walker, T. & Langum, V. (2023). Data-Driven Learning : Tools, Approaches, and Next Steps. Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 22: 1, pp. 1-12.
Allan, R. (2023). Reserved for Research? Normalising Corpus Use for School Teachers. Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 22: 1, pp. 68-92.
Walker, T. & Allan, R. (2018). Bridging the gap between university and upper secondary school English studies : The ULE project. ICAME Journal/International Computer Archive of Modern English, vol. 42: 1, pp. 191-212.
Allan, R. (2018). Lexical bundles from one century to the next : An analysis of language input in English teaching texts. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, vol. 19: 2, pp. 167-185.
Allan, R. (2017). From Do You Know to I Don’t Know: An Analysis of the Frequency and Usefulness of Lexical Bundles in Five English Language Self-Study Books. Corpus Pragmatics, vol. 1: 4, pp. 351-372.
Allan, R. (2016). Lexical Bundles in ELF Business Meetings. The Linguistics Journal, vol. 10: 1, pp. 141-163.
Allan, R. (2016). Lexical bundles in graded readers: To what extent does language restriction affect lexical patterning?. System An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, vol. 59, pp. 61-72.
Rachel, A. (2009). Can a graded corpus provide 'authentic' input?. ELT Journal, vol. 63: 1, pp. 23-32.
Chapters in books
Allan, R. (2010). Concordances versus dictionaries: Evaluating approaches to word learning in ESOL. In Insights into non-native vocabulary teaching and learning. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters. pp. 112-126.
Collections (editor)
Allan, R. (ed.) , Walker, T. (ed.) & Langum, V. (ed.) (2023). Data-Driven Learning : Tools, Approaches, and Next Steps. Umeå : Umeå University
Conference papers
Allan, R. , Shaw, I. & Shaw, M. (2022). Swedish National Tests in English : A corpus resource for teachers. Paper presented at the 15th Teaching and Language Corpora (TaLC) Conference, University of Limerick, Ireland, July 13–16, 2022.
Allan, R. (2021). English for Foreigners : A study of female-authored textbooks for immigrants in early twentieth century America. Paper presented at the AILA World Congress 2021, HoLLT.net symposium on Women in the History of Language Teaching, Groningen, Netherlands, August 20, 2021.
Allan, R. (2021). Tracing the effects of text simplification on collocation. Paper presented at the Corpus Linguistics 2021, Limerick, Irland, [DIGITAL], July 13-16, 2021.
Allan, R. (2020). Reserved for Research? Normalising corpus use for teachers. Paper presented at the Incorporating Corpora in Teaching" Symposium, Mid-Sweden University, October 23, 2020
Allan, R. (2018). Recycling the data : Building and using a learner business English writing corpus. In Call Your Data : Proceedings of the XIXth CALL Conference. Antwerp :
Allan, R. (2018). The ELT Archive Textbook Corpus: How much has language teaching changed?. Paper presented at the 9th Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) International Conference, Vallettta, Malta, June 13 – 15, 2018
Allan, R. (2016). Lexical bundles from one century to the next: An analysis of language input in English teaching texts. Paper presented at the IVACS 2016, Bath Spa University, June 16-17, 2016
Allan, R. (2016). Lexical bundles in English language teaching texts: A century of change?. Paper presented at the Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560–1760: Research on Historical Corpora of Speech-related Texts,21-22 April 2016, Sundsvall, Sweden
Allan, R. (2014). Lexical Chunks in Business English as a Lingua Franca. Paper presented at the I7th Biennial IVACS Conference, Newcastle, 19-21 June 2014
Allan, R. (2013). At the end of the day… An ELF perspective on lexical chunks in spoken business English.. Paper presented at the iLinC 2013; Interdisciplinary Linguistics Conference Evolving perspective; Queens University, Belfast, UK; 2nd Nov 2013.