Ms Jeanne McCarten

Profile

With a background in modern languages, Jeanne’s first job - as an English teacher - set her off on a career in English language in a number of roles, including teacher, editor, publisher, author and language researcher.

After working as a teacher in Sweden, France, Malaysia and the UK, she joined Cambridge University Press, initially as an editor working on coursebooks. Later, as Publishing Director, she led a team specialising in the areas of grammar and vocabulary and became involved in the development of the spoken English sections of the Cambridge English Corpus – a large database of language use. Her interest in how corpus research can improve English teaching materials, especially with regard to the spoken language, inspired her next transition to writer.  She is co-author of the internationally-renowned print and online courses Touchstone and Viewpoint published by Cambridge University Press, which draw heavily on corpus research. In her roles as publisher and author she has travelled extensively and delivered papers at several international conferences.  

Jeanne continues to do corpus research, about which she has published several academic papers, and to write materials.  

She teaches on the ADTIS pre-sessional and in-sessional courses, designing and delivering workshops and classes, using her corpus research, materials writing and teaching skills.

Away from her computer and the classroom, Jeanne enjoys gardening, especially growing things she can eat, and plays Irish traditional music on the fiddle (aka violin).

Recent publications

McCarten, J. 2022 (in press).  'Corpus-informed course design’, in O'Keeffe, A. and McCarthy, M. J. (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics Second edition. Oxford: Routledge.

McCarthy, M. J. and McCarten, J. 2020 (in press) ‘Corpora and the teaching of social conversation’, in Csomay, E. and Jablonkai, R.R. (eds),The Routledge Handbook of Corpora and Language Teaching and Learning. Oxford: Routledge.

McCarthy, M. J. and McCarten, J. 2020 (in press) ‘Writing corpus-informed materials’, in Norton, J. and Buchanan H. (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Materials Development for Language Teaching. Oxford: Routledge.

McCarthy, M. J. and McCarten, J. 2020 ‘Interaction management in academic speaking’ LINX journal https://doi.org/10.4000/linx.3611.

McCarthy, M. J. and McCarten, J. 2018 ‘Practising Conversation in Second Language Learning’, in Jones C. (ed.), Practice in Second Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 7-29.

McCarthy, M. J. and McCarten, J. 2016 ‘Creativity and conversation: key concepts in spoken grammar’, in Xerri, D. and Vassallo, O. (eds), Creativity in English Language Teaching. Malta: ELT Council, 127-136.

McCarten, J. and Sandiford, H., 2016. ‘Touchstone Blended Learning - a case study in design’, in McCarthy, M.J. (ed.), The Cambridge Guide to Blended Learning and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 200–215.

McCarten, J., 2014. ‘Authenticity revisited: Corpus, Conversation, and Materials’, The Language Teacher 38 (4): 23-27. 

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