Christopher Walklett

Biography

I have been working for this Department at the University of Essex for 20 years as of summer 2023. I have taught on and lead various modules in this department first as ELTC, then as International Academy and now as Essex Pathways Department. Nowadays I teach and module lead History and RADS (academic skills) and have been support lecturer for Politics and Literature. The former of which I taught for one term I module lead the History course which is called The United Kingdom During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth II. I am interested in UK cultural change, poetry and song for protest and fortitude and the changes exhibited in the UK particularly between the 1960s and 1990s. Outside this and in the field of TESOL/Linguistics my speciality field is that of using music and songs in teaching, I hold a BTEC National Business Diploma, a BA Honours in Literature and History (2:1) - my dissertation being on the late great Iain Banks, a CTEFLA teaching certificate and a postgraduate teaching diploma (Dip TESOL). More recently I achieved an MA TESOL (Merit) to add some further theoretical knowledge to my practical experience. My MA dissertation was on the use of songs and song lyrics in EFL course books. I have been teaching in one form or another for 25 years now including stints as a teacher trainer, Director of Studies and also College Principal in the UK, Belgium, Brazil and Greece. I have given conference talks/papers/workshops all around the UK and Ireland and in countries including Netherlands, Malta, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Moldova and Macedonia. I have had articles published in the fields of assessment and culture/social English and I have also had articles published in IATEFL Voices, INFORM, Humanising Language Teaching Magazine and various others. In June 2015 I was invited to give a Ted X Talk at the University of Essex on the place of song lyrics in the canon of English literature and in 2019 invited to give a talk to Aschehoug one of the leading publishing houses in Norway / Denmark. I have given many in house lectures to a wide number on students on subjects that include social English, British culture, and genealogy (I am an experienced genealogist) and British music history and I am an experienced examiner for all major examining bodies Cambridge, IELTS and Trinity College, London. I have externally examined/validated for the University of Winchester. I am a published author with recent appearances in 20th Century Skills (Express Publishing) and am the author and creator of the Teaching Tracks series of books.

Qualifications

• MATESOL University of Essex,

• Diploma (TESOL) University of Brighton,

• Certificate TEFL Anglia Ruskin University,

• BA Honours (History & Literature) Anglia Ruskin University,

• HN Diploma Business Studies Suffolk New College,

• Cambridge BA (Honours) 1996. Literature & History joint Degree - 2:1 Suffolk College

• B/TEC National Diploma in Business Studies. Suffolk College, Ipswich,