Stephen Jeaco

Start date at XJTLU: July 2006

Steve Jeaco moved to Suzhou in July 2006 to establish the English Language Centre at XJTLU.  He has a strong commitment to China, and is currently completing his tenth year working with Chinese undergraduate students.  His experience in China includes a combination of teaching, examining, management, curriculum design and training.  Through this he has developed an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese students’ productive language, and an awareness of teaching strategies and techniques which motivate and challenge students in this area.  He has brought with him to Suzhou insights gained from working on English courses during the start-up phases of two sino-foreign higher education partnerships – University Technology of Sydney’s double-degree programme with Shanghai University, and the University of Nottingham’s campus with Wanli Education in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

He has a strong interest in corpus linguistics.  Through research projects for his Masters (Leicester), he applied language learning theories to the Chinese context and began investigating how computer-based tools could be used to facilitate learning in a self-access situation.  Currently, he is particularly interested in developing pedagogical frameworks for incorporating elements of UK academic practice in a way which will help students at XJTLU take an active role in shaping their learning environment and achieve their goals for their university studies and beyond.