Brian Turner

Email:
b.j.turner@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
+44 (0) 118 378 6828
Job title:
Lecturer

Responsibilities:

EAP Lecturer
School Director of Academic Tutoring (SDAT) + DAT Community of Practice Chair (AY 2025-26)
Disability Representative
IELTS Invigilation
InForm Journal editorial board member (hiatus for AY 2025-26)
Member of UoR’s Digital Capabilities Action Plan Group since May 2024
Member of UoR’s Reasonable Adjustments for Schools Working Group (RASWG) core group since Sep 2023
Former D&I Lead and Co-Lead (Sep 2022 to Aug 2025)
Former Representative to Senate (Sep 2022 to Aug 2025) – included membership on Joint Standing Honorary Degrees Committee
Former UoR Access and Participation Committee member (Sep 2022 to July 2025)
Former UoR Disability and Neurodiversity Action Plan Group member (March 2024 to March 2025)

Areas of interest

Diversity and inclusion in education
Inclusive teaching
Intercultural communication and cultural diversity
Lexico-grammar
Logical reasoning
Materials Development
Metaphor in language
Neurodiversity
Philosophy as underpinning cultures, language and thought
Rhetoric
SpLDs
Student well-being and study skills

Background

I have nearly 25 years of accumulated experience in English language and academic skills teaching. I began my teaching career in 1998 in Japan at a senior high school for the JET Programme and later worked with all ages (literally 3-93) and levels with positions in senior and junior high schools, kindergartens and private language schools during the years 1998-2002 and 2006-2011. Upon returning to the UK in the summer of 2011, I worked as a head teacher for a summer English course for Italian teenagers and did my first summer Pre-sessional at UoR. Following that I worked at a local language school teaching English for General Purposes (as well as some comprehensive schools as a cover supervisor) before joining UoR and ISLI/Global Academy in April 2013. Since then, I have taught on a wide range of programmes and modules, developed numerous course materials therein, and moved into leadership and academic leadership roles.

Academic qualifications

Fellowship of Higher Education Authority (FHEA)
MA in ELT (University of Reading)
TEFL Certificate with Business (Global English)
BA Philosophy (University of North London)

Professional bodies/affiliations

AbilityNet
Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)
myGwork
National Inclusive Teaching & Learning Community of Practice (Deputy Chair)

Selected publications

‘How to Improve your English Academic Writing for University Study’ – FutureLearn blog article available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/general/improve-your-english-academic-writing

‘Reflections on teaching a new programme’ – InForm Issue 22 available at:

https://static.reading.ac.uk/content/PDFs/files/Inform/InForm-Issue-22.pdf

Selected Conference Papers and Presentations:

9/7/25: UoR T&L Summer Event – Bridging the Gaps: Supporting academic transitions for student success. Joint presentation with colleagues Victoria Collins, Mark Peace and Rachel Rushton: ‘Spotting the Gaps Early: Lessons learned from identifying and addressing absence in Foundation Students’.

18/5/21: Language Teaching and Research Forum (LTRF) – Joint presentation with colleague Dawn Dinsdale: ‘Getting first year HBS undergraduates to engage during the pandemic – The triumphs and tribulations of teaching UGs online’.

1/2/18: Language Teaching and Research Forum (LTRF) – ‘“Lecture Listening into Writing” Project’

28/3/17: Language Teaching and Research Forum (LTRF) – ‘Lecture Listening into Writing Project – Literature Review Presentation’

14/3/15: BALEAP Reading at Reading PIM; University of Reading. For this conference, I was on the organising committee and also gave a presentation entitled 'The impact of the “Reading Review” homework task on the activation and development of core reading strategies and skills of EAP pre-sessional students'.