Dr Annie Hughes

Profile

Biography

I am a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department and the Programme Leader of the MA in Teaching English to Young Learners. I am also the Department’s Erasmus exchange coordinator for students coming into the Department. I am member of the Centre for Language Learning Research, Distance Learning Forum and a visiting member of Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice.

I taught in special, primary, secondary in London, followed by nearly ten years in English language education in the Middle East. Here I worked with, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa’s Palace, the British Council, Qatar Ministry of Education, and the Women’s University of Qatar before coming to York to take an MA in Linguistics and Language Teaching. My dissertation for this involved the setting up, running and monitoring of a pilot young learner foreign language classroom here on campus.

I became a Lecturer in Education, in the EFL Unit, in 1991 moving to the Department of Educational Studies in 2009 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. Whilst in the EFL Unit I designed and directed courses for visiting Japanese student groups and directed TEYL teacher development courses for delivery both in-country and at York, including responsibilities as the Director of Studies and tutor on The British Council Summer Schools for overseas TEYL teachers for over ten years.

From 1997, I created and established one of the University’s first distance learning masters programmes, the MA in TEYL. This programme has now been running for thirteen years and is delivered online to two cohorts at York each year and through face to face introductory courses, to students in Singapore. From 2011 the introductory courses will also be delivered to cohorts in Greece, UAE and Switzerland. The programme recently came top in an independent international survey of distance learning ELT masters courses being offered by universities in US, Australia, New Zealand and UK. In, 2009 the whole programme team won the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Award.

Research

Overview

My research interests are in Teaching English to Young Learners, particularly the patterns, problems and passions emerging from Action Research carried out by TEYL practitioners; the use of meaningful and purposeful activities in TEYL; the use of story in TEYL; the use of song, rhythm, rhyme and chant in TEYL.

My recent work and publications are linked to the research interests outlined above

Research group(s)

Publications

Full publications list

Articles and books on aspects of TEYL for trainers and teachers

Hughes, A (2011) ‘Teaching reading in English as a foreign language to young learners: what the situation is and how the teaching of reading fits into the TEYL picture overall.’ In Farstrup, A, E. & Samuels, J. S. (eds) What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction. Delaware: International Reading Association

Hughes, A (2011)’ The Literate Classroom: How to support Literacy Classroom’ In Grundschule Englisch 35. Seelze:FriedrichVerlag

Hughes. A (2007) ‘How do we think young learners learn languages?’ in the Proceedings of the 2007 APAC Conference, Barcelona, Plenary paper

Hughes, A (2010) ‘Why should we make activities for young language learners meaningful and purposeful?’ in Mishan, F. And Chambers, A. (eds) Perspectives on Language Learning Materials Development Bern : Peter Lang

Hughes. A (2007) ‘How do we think young learners learn languages?’ in the Proceedings of the 2007 APAC Conference, Barcelona, Plenary paper

Hughes, A. (2006a) ‘The all-round use of real stories and authentic books in Teaching English to Young Learners’ in Reading is for Everyone: Publications of IATEFL Hungary Young Learner Special Interest Group – Spring 2006

Hughes, A (2006) ‘The ‘Why’, ‘What’ and ‘How’ of using authentic picture books and stories in the EYL classroom – some practical considerations’ in Enever, J. & Scmid-Schönbein, G.(eds.) (2006) Picture books and young learners of English. Munich, Germany: Langenscheidt.

Hughes, A (2002) ‘Supporting Independence : Teaching English to Young Learners within a three-stage Journey’ in CATS IATEFL YL SIG newsletter 1:2

Hughes, A. (2002) ‘The linking of Language to Young Learner: Linking Understanding of Principles with Practice’. In M.J.Raya, P Faber, W. Gewehr and A.J.Peck (eds) Effective Foreign Language Teaching at the Primary Level. (pp17-24). Frankfurt : Peter Lang

Hughes, A. & Williams, M (2002) Penguin Young Readers Series – A Practical Teacher’s Guide. London: Penguin ELT

Hughes, A (2002) Songs and Rhymes. London: Mary Glasgow Publications

Hughes, A & Williams, M (2000-2002) Penguin Young Readers Series (39 titles) London: Penguin ELT

Holderness, J, and Hughes, A ( ****) 100 + Ideas for Children : Topic-BasedActivities for Teaching Children Oxford: Heinnemann ELT

Hughes, A (1998) ‘Teacher Training'. University of York: EFL Unit

Hughes, A (1998) ‘Getting Published'. University of York : EFL Unit

Hughes, A. (1993) English Across the Curriculum: Theme-based Learning in the Primary Classroom. In J. Kohn & D. Wolff (eds.) New Tendencies in Curriculum Development (pp 13-21). Sombathely: Berzsenyi Daniel

Online Courses for In-service Training

Hughes, A (2007) An Introduction To Teaching English to Young Learners. Thomson ELT (USA) Complete Online Advantage Training. Boston: Heinle Cengage

Conteh, J, Hayes, D, Hughes, A., (2006) Online In-service Trainer Training Course for Trainers of Teachers in TEYL, Nigeria. London: The British Council

TEYL Courses /TEYL readers / Classroom Teaching Materials

Hughes, A. (2011) Shrek , Mary Glasgow Popcorn Readers Series. London: Mary Glasgow Magazine

Hughes, A. (2011) Shrek Two, Mary Glasgow Popcorn Readers Series. London: Mary Glasgow Magazine

Hughes, A. (2011) Shrek The Third, Mary Glasgow Popcorn Readers Series. London: Mary Glasgow Magazines

Hughes, A. (2011) Shrek Forever After, Mary Glasgow Popcorn Readers Series. London: Mary Glasgow Magazines

Hughes, A (2010- present). Consultant in TEYL for Mary Glasgow Popcorn Readers Series. London: Mary Glasgow Magazines

Hughes, A (2002- present). Guest Editor and Topic Author for Grunschule Englisch a quarterly magazine for teachers of English to Young Learners in Seelze : Kallmeyer

Hughes, A (2002) TEYL Consultant Usborne Publishing – creation off template for Usborne young learner ELT titles and co-editing 20+ trial titles to date sent

Hughes, A (2000) The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. London: Penguin ELT

Hughes, A (2000) The Best Christmas. London : Penguin ELT

Hughes, A (2000) Goldilocks. London: Penguin ELT

Hughes, A, (1998) Carnival of Song. Berlin: Cornelson Verlag

Hughes, A (1998) ‘Songs and Rhymes’ in JET 6 (2 No 3), 2-4.

Hughes, A (1998) ‘It’s written in the Stars.’ In P. Watcyn-Jones (ed) Top Class Activities. London : Penguin ELT

Hughes, A & Brown, K (1993) Treasure Trail 3 & 4 Course: Pupils’ Book, Activity Book, Teacher’s Book & Cassette. London: Penguin ELT

Hughes, A (1992) Carousel 2 Course : Pupil’s Book, Activity Book and Teacher’s Books. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons

Hughes, A (1992) Chicken Licken Story . In P. Watcyn-Jones (ed) Top Class Activities (pp. 46 & 47) London: Penguin ELT

Holderness, J & Hughes, A (1991) Carousel 2 Course: Pupil’s Book, Activity Book and Teacher’s Books. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons

Holderness, J & Hughes, A (1991) Carousel 1 Course: Pupil’s Book, Activity Book and Teacher’s Books London: Thomas Nelson and Sons

External activities

Memberships

I am a member of the Editorial Board of the Edinburgh University Press Series in TESOL, regularly reviewing books, chapters and papers for its series.

I am a board member of MATSDA, the Materials Design Association and was the conference organizer for the MATSDA 2010 Conference ‘Engaging ELT Learners’

I am a member of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.

Invited talks and conferences

I regularly contribute to international conferences as an invited plenary speaker and research workshops in many countries. So far, my work has taken me to over 60 countries.

Department of Education