I am an academic at the Open University’s School of Languages and Applied Linguistics in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and an Associate Lecturer in Spanish; Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; a teacher-trainer in the use of VLEs, as well as a Spanish language teacher at Queen’s University in Belfast. At the OU I am involved in the design and production of course materials; co-author of L194 Module books; critical reader for L150 Italian module; Co-autor of L226 Unit 5 and critical reader of the remake module L336 Spanish Studies 3: Language and Culture of the Spanish Speaking World; collaborator in early stages of design of L116 Spanish Studies 1: Language and Culture of the Spanish speaking world.
My main role entails the recruitment, line management and Staff Development of Associate lecturers in the Spanish modules L204 & L314, formerly of Mandarin module L197 and Italian Modules L195 and L150. I have studied at the OU French (Dip), German (L193), Italian (Cert) as well as Mandarin Chinese (L197) and have continued my studies completing HSK1, HSK2, HSK3 and preparing for HSK4 in future. I'm currently studying Russian language in my spare time. Languages are my passion!
My areas of research interests are on Multilingualism, Teaching languages through the medium of games and Teaching languages to adults with Dyslexia. I have an MA in Education and have completed a module of the MA in Translation at the OU (last updated April 2017).
I teach Spanish language and culture at the OU as Associate Lecturer as well as a Mini-Module in Spanish for Law (Interpreting and Translation) at QUB.
I enjoy teaching through play and have designed several games to use in the classroom with the view of catering for all learning styles. I'm particularly interested in the process of teaching languages to adults with learning difficulties and how to cater for their needs in the best possible way.
Developing pedagogical expertise in modern language learning and specific learning difficulties through collaborative and open educational practices (2017)
Gallardo, Matilde; Heiser, Sarah and Arias-Mclaughlin, Ximena
Language Learning Journal, 45(4) (pp. 518-529)
Modern languages and specific learning difficulties (SpLD): implications of teaching adult learners with dyslexia in distance learning (2015-04-17)
Gallardo, Matilde; Heiser, Sarah and Arias-Mclaughlin, Ximena
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 30(1) (pp. 53-72)