I am a Senior Research Associate on a large scale corpus methods project that investigates the effectiveness of teacher strategies in guided reading. 

The purpose of the project is to understand how teachers scaffold children’s understanding during story book interactions with the aim to identify how best to support children of different ages and ability groups in the classroom environment.

This project is supported by Lancaster University’s Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Sciences (CASS), which has recently been awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. The principal investigators on the project are Professor Kate Cain (www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/kate-cain) and Dr Andrew Hardie (http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about-us/people/andrew-hardie).

I am also pursuing research interests that follow my PhD which examine the role of connectives in children's integration of text:

-In more sensitive online measures (that are capturing the language process as it happens), are children as young as four able to take advantage of connectives to aid their integration of text?

-Why does children's knowledge of some connectives develop later than for other connectives?

-Comprehension versus production: Is the developmental sequence of comprehension skills for temporal, causal and adversative connectives similar to that of production?

EDUCATION (DEGREES AND AWARDS).

Lancaster University*                    

2011-15          ESRC 1+3 funding. The ESRC 1+3 award waives fees and has provided an enhanced tax-free stipend during both Masters and PhD training.       

2012                M.Sc.,Psychology: Language, speech and hearing. Distinction (US equivalent: summa cum laude).

University of Liverpool**                                                                            

2010                B.Sc.,  Psychology. First Class Honours. Ranking: #1 out of 240 students (Valedictorian).               

2010                The British Psychological Society Award. The highest overall grade upon graduation from a B.Sc. accredited by the British Psychological Society at the University of Liverpool.

2010                The Leslie Spencer Hearnshaw Prize. The best overall performance on all aspects of the undergraduate programme, including written examinations.

2008 & 09      "Outstanding achievement award by an undergraduate (Psychology)."

When I make free time I love to play/practice tennis, fitness workouts, yoga, and any other new skill that sounds fun!