Dr Colin Christie

Biography

Dr Colin Christie is a senior lecturer (scholarship) in Modern Languages Initial Teacher Education at the University of Aberdeen. Before that, he was lecturer in Languages in Education and subject leader for the PGCE Languages course at University College London Institute of Education. Prior to this, he worked at the University of Cumbria's London base, mainly on the Modern Languages PGCE. He has held a number of advisory positions, including as a Key Stage 3 consultant in the London borough of Hackney and has produced teaching resources in a variety of media. He has also worked in schools and colleges in different roles, such as a Languages Development project co-ordinator in a Language College and a head of department. His PhD thesis was on the topic of spontaneous learner target language talk in the languages classroom and his academic interests include the teaching and learning of modern languages, in particular pupil use of the target language, the development of spontaneous target language talk and the inclusion of meaningful content in modern languages lessons. He has been a member of the ALL ITET Steering Group linking language teaching and teacher education. Recent publications include Christie, C. and Conlon, C. (eds) (2016). Success Stories from Secondary Foreign Languages Classrooms: Models from London School Partnerships with Universities. London: Trentham Books at UCL Press and Christie, C. (2016). 'Speaking spontaneously in the modern foreign languages classroom: Tools for supporting successful target language conversation' The Language Learning Journal, Volume 44, Number 1, pp. 74-89.

Research Overview

Learning and teaching of modern languages in the primary and secondary school

Pupil target language use in the modern languages classroom

Teaching Responsibilities

PGDE Professional Studies

PGDE Primary and Secondary and MA Modern Languages

MA Education

TQFE

PhD supervision