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Overview

Dr Simon McKinnon

Assistant Professor (Teaching)


Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Assistant Professor (Teaching) in the School of Modern Languages and CulturesER234, Elvet Riverside II+44 (0) 191 33 43464
Member of the Centre for Intercultural Mediation +44 (0) 191 33 43464
Member of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies  

Biography

I teach French language classes as well as modules in Interpreting and Translation History. I also supervise undergraduate year-abroad projects. 

In terms of scholarship and research, my recent activities have focused on language learning pedagogy, study abroad, and the Modern Languages curriculum more broadly. 

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; I completed my undergraduate degree at Oxford before coming to Durham to study for an MA and PhD.

I am very much interested in the promotion of the French language and francophone culture in the UK as well as in encouraging study abroad. I play an active role in MLAC’s Outreach programme (feel free to email in relation to schools outreach/collaboration, etc).

Publications

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

  • McKinnon, Simon (2019), Showing language learners the way by explaining why: (inter-)cultural learning while abroad'. – 'UK LINGUA 2019 – Multilingual Language Learning and Teaching Colloquium: Culture in the Language Classroom (Durham University, UK).
  • McKinnon, Simon (2019), Encouraging students to value what we value: shaping student learning abroad'. – 'Thinking Global: Year Abroad Conference 2019 (University of Leeds, UK).
  • McKinnon, Simon (2019), Widening participation by improving employability prospects and confidence in the ability to succeed'. – 'Annual Cross-Sector Conference on New Perspectives on Language Teaching and Learning (University of Dundee, UK).
  • McKinnon, Simon (2017), The Transformative potential of engagement with scholarship'. – 'EuroSoTL 2017: Transforming patterns through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Lund University, Sweden).
  • McKinnon, Simon (2016), Teaching-focused academics and the scholarship of engagement'. – 'Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship 2016 (UCL, London).
  • McKinnon, Simon (2015), Bringing about a culture change: from gap year to year abroad'. – 'The Culture of Study Abroad for Second Languages Conference. St Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  • McKinnon, Simon & Johnson, Penelope (2014), From technophobe to technophile: getting students to see the benefits of electronic tools'. – 'DidTrad: Second International Conference on the Didactics of Translation (Universitat Autònoma, Barcelona, Spain).

Journal Article