Simon Burfoot

Start date at XJTLU: August 2008

Simon Burfoot has taught English to students at universities in China for the past 7 years. He spent five years in Guangzhou at Guangdong University of Finance teaching EAP, General and Business English to degree students followed by another year at South China Normal University teaching EAP and General English. During his time at Guangdong University of Finance he completed his MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL with a large scale research project investigating the English vocabulary knowledge and learning strategies of Chinese university students. He therefore possesses an in-depth knowledge of the difficulties facing Chinese learners of English and the efficacy of various strategies they may employ to overcome these difficulties. His main areas of interest are second language vocabulary acquisition and the teaching of reading and writing. He is currently continuing the investigations he began with his MA into the rate at which Chinese university students acquire English vocabulary and the strategies they employ while learning new words. This research will lead to a PhD in Applied Linguistics with the University of Swansea where he is currently studying by distance learning under the guidance of Dr. Geoff Hall and Prof. Paul Meara who is the head of Swansea’s Vocabulary Acquisition   Research Group (VARG)