Multilingualism

Pedagogical translanguaging

Teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts

Languages other than English

Teacher language awareness

Disciplinary literacies

Oracy development

Learner investment in language learning

As well as directing the Secondary Education Program, Sue convenes and teaches a number of language-related units at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. These include:

EDTE4310 and EDTE4320 Languages Other than English (LOTE) Methodology 1 & 2

EDTE4420 Teaching English as an Additional Language

EDST4020 The Practice of Teaching: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners

EDST8238 (Master of Teaching)  Professional Practice 2: Literacy and Numeracy for Diverse Learners

Sue is a senior lecturer in Languages and Literacy Education and the Director of Secondary Teacher Education at Macquarie University. She grew up in multilingual South Africa, a country with twelve official languages, where she learned English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, and French at school and university. She began her teaching career at a Xhosa-medium primary school and then went on to teach Zulu-speaking factory workers in South Africa's adult migrant literacy program. She has also spent a large part of her working life teaching English and working in educational publishing in South Africa, Namibia, Egypt, and the United Kingdom. Throughout her academic career, Sue has used her international experiences to train numerous undergraduate and postgraduate students to become knowledgeable, reflective, and responsive teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. 

Sue supervises Higher Degree Research students whose projects align with her research specialisation. 

Principal Supervisor PhD Thesis

Principal supervisor MRes Thesis

Nicola Hoffman. The challenges experienced by EAL/D teachers when trying to identify and support EAL/D students with disabilities (ongoing)

Amanda Jackson. Extending the writing proficiency of high ability students (completed)

Associate supervisor PhD Thesis

Xuan Thi Mai Hoang: An investigation of Vietnamese learners’ construction of English learning ecologies (ongoing)

Rima Hamidi: Exploring the efficacy of generative artificial intelligence in feedback provision for academic writing in higher education (ongoing)

Associate supervisor MRes thesis

Faisal Alshahrani. Language anxiety and its relation to culture among Saudi Arabian students in Australia (ongoing)

Sue is currently editor of TESOL in Context, the peer reviewed journal of the Australian Council of TESOL Associations. She serves on the executive board of the English as a Medium of Instruction Centre (EMI) at Macquarie University. She also works closely with secondary schools and intensive English centres to advise them on pedagogical strategies for working with multilingual students.