Aug 13 2010
4. Richard Fay’s home page
After a period teaching English (e.g. in Poland), I joined the Manchester TESOL team in 1994. Apart from my TESOL identity, I am also a musician (composing, arranging and playing pieces in the Hard Times Orkestar, a band in which Gary also plays) and a mountaineer (with trips to Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, and Spain in recent years).
My professional home is first and foremost TESOL and language teacher education for TESOL, with special interests in:
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intercultural aspects of TESOL - a specialism most evident in the MA TESOL course unit “Language Education as Intercultural Practice”; and
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the developing researcher competence of TESOL practitioners – see the MA TESOL course unit “Developing Researcher Competence” - and I have a particular interest in the possibilities of narrative inquiry and of the bilingual / bicultural aspects of undertaking research.
My intercultural interests also find outlet in undergraduate teaching. With Diane and Susan, we offer the “Computer-Mediated Intercultural Communication” course unit.
Currently, with Susan and colleagues from the Study Abroad Unit / International Office, I am developing two new BA course units: “Going Global: Intercultural Communication for International Experience” – for Manchester students undertaking sojourns overseas as part of their studies (e.g. under ERASMUS); and “Becoming Global” – for Manchester students in Manchester, i.e. internationalisation-at-home.
I am a member of various professional organisations and associations related to TESOL, intercultural communication and international education.
My broad areas of research interest include:
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intercultural aspects of TESOL;
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intercultural aspects of distance / elearning – the focus of my PhD completed in 2004 which focused on the development fo the Hellenic Open University in Greece and its use of our distance learning materials of its MA TEFL programme;
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computer-mediated intercultural communication (especially when it is undertaken using English); and
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(developing) researcher competence.
For a more detailed presentation of my current research activities, follow the link below.