Fiona Elsted

Biography

Fiona came to the University of Essex following a successful career in English Language teaching in the UK and various international contexts. This included achieving recognition as both a Cambridge ESOL CELTA and DELTA and Trinity CertTESOL Teacher Trainer as well as undertaking several Academic Management positions in language schools and institutes. On arrival at Essex, Fiona's experience in academic management and teacher training resulted in her leading the General English with EAP modules in the International Academy for several years as well as course directing the Cambridge ESOL CELTA. Very soon after arrival at Essex, she was elected to the position of coordinator for the IATEFL Teacher Training and Development Special Interest Group. Successfully completing her MATESOL, Fiona's dissertation drew upon her expertise in teacher development to investigate which attitudes and attributes may support a teacher's transition from General English teaching to teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP). This is been widely cited in an under investigated area. Continuing to use her expertise in teacher training, she went on to lead modules on the MATESOL, BATEFL (for the Department of Language and Linguistics). She regularly supervised dissertation students on the MATESOL and MATEFL. In order to support teacher training in the university further, Fiona developed and taught 3 modules for BATEFL students which covered initial teaching practice and teaching methodology. Currently she is module supervisor for LG666 with the Department of Language and Linguistics, an initial Teaching Practice module, this forms part of the Trinity CertTESOL award. As well as teacher training, Fiona has developed, led and taught several Academic Skills and English for Academic Purposes modules at the University of Essex, including Pre-sessional English modules. She was the Pre-sessional English Course Director for 5 years which involved significant levels of administrative, recruitment and teacher development responsibilities. Fiona has also utilised her expertise in these areas to offer critical friendship and professional assessment of QA processes to several universities in the UK as an external examiner for Pre-sessional English, Academic Skills and English Language, and Lifelong Learning modules. She has served on a number of reaccreditation panels in these areas too. Fiona's interest in and commitment to Quality in Higher Education was further demonstrated by her election to Senate in 2019 and her appointment as Faculty Assessment and Progress Officer in 2021. Fiona has advocated strongly for the role of Foundation Year provision in UK universities as a vehicle for widening participation in HE. She was an elected member for the Foundation Year Network committee and in this role she actively contributed to the representation, promotion and support of foundation year provision. She took this passion for widening participation and foundation year provision forward within the University of Essex firstly in her role as Departmental Director of Recruitment and Transitions and then, following election as Head of Department of Essex Pathways (a department devoted to foundation year provision). She served in the appointed role for three years until 2025 and in that time successfully guided the department through a restructuring of provision moving towards a more interdisciplinary approach to some pathway structures and instituted approaches which supported more students to successful outcomes. Fiona continues to be actively engaged in the teacher training at the University with a special interest in Teacher Reflection and Teacher Development in Higher Education and how this supports engaging and successful teaching. She is also interested in the development of written assessment types which overtly focus on capturing the student process of creation as a tool for the enhancement of critical thinking capacity.

Qualifications

• MATESOL (Distinction) University of Essex

• BA(Hons) History 2(i) University of Kent

• Cambridge/RSA DTEFLA

• Cambridge/RSA CTEFLA British Council, Tokyo, (1993)

Appointments

Other academic

• lecturer, International Academy, University of Essex (1/10/2009 - 30/9/2021)

• Senior Lecturer, Essex Pathways, University of Essex (1/10/2021 - present)

• Head of Department, University of Essex (1/8/2022 - 31/7/2025)