Academic & Teaching staff

Mr Thomas Jochum-Critchley

ÖAD Lektor/Teaching Fellow in German

Mr Thomas Jochum-Critchley

0113 34 33506

Biography

Born in Grafrat near Munich I grew up and was educated in Amstetten in Lower Austria. After my civil service at the Red Cross I studied at the University of Vienna where I gained a MA in French Literature, Philosophy, Psychology and Pedagogy with German as Foreign Language. As a student I started to teach German as a Foreign Language at the Vienna University courses. I moved abroad in 2001 to as ÖK-Lektor at the University of Nice in France for six years. Throughout that time I was able to develop my interest in Austrian and German Cinema and ran the first (and probably last) German speaking film-club in an art house cinema in Nice. During that time I also taught German as a Foreign Language in the Summer Course at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. Before joining the German Department at the University of Leeds as ÖAD Lektor in September 2009, I taught in a similar position at the University of Nottingham for two years.

Teaching 2011/12 (italics = module leader)

  • Level 1: Core I Language (lectures & seminars)
  • Level 2: Core II Language (lectures & seminars)
  • Level 3: Core III Language (written seminars and oral tutorials)
  • Level 3: Dissertation (language advice & workshop on academic writing in German)
  • Level M: Dialogues with Hollywood (session on Holocaust film)

Administrative responsibilities

  • Director of German Language Teaching

Presentations

  • Back to the Future. Autonomous Language Learning Reloaded. Language Futures. Languages in Higher Education Conference 2012. Edinburgh 06/07/2012 (accepted)
  • with Antonio Martínez-Arboleda: Encouraging Personalisation, Motivation and Reflection on Language Learning. University of Leeds. SMLC Language Teaching Forum: Autonomous Language Learning: increasing Proficiency Through Self-directed Learning, 19/04/2012
  • Developing Independent Learning through Autonomous Blended Learning Portfolios. 1st University of Leeds Student Education Conference, 06/01/2012
  • with Mandy Poetzsch: Feedback on written tasks in German. University of Leeds. SMLC Language Teaching Forum: Enhancing Language Learning through Effective Feedback, 07/11/2011 

Projects and awards

  • Faculty of Arts - Teaching Development Award 2010 for "Use of personal response system in grammar lectures"
  • Grant of the Faculty of Arts Teaching Enhancement and Student Success (TESS) Fund to develop and implement an Autonomous Blended Learning Portfolio for Core Language 2

Academic interests

  • Autonomous Language Learning
  • Blended Learning, E-learning and Digital Media in Foreign Language Teaching
    (Thomas at Hands on the future, gadgets and gizmos for learning and teaching:     http://lutube.leeds.ac.uk/acdjmo/videos/2848)
  • Short films in language teaching
  • Austrian and German Cinema
  • Cultural exchange and intercultural communication

Co-curricular activities

  • Co-organisation of German-English Tandem Event
  • Supporting the German Society's events, i.e. "Weihnachstfeier"
  • Supporting student trips to Austria and Germany
  • Film screenings and cinema outings

Consultation about

  • Study in Austria (including information on available funding and grants)
  • Language Assistantship in Austria
  • Summer courses in Austria in general

Publications

  • with Piroska Lorinczi, Hamish Gillespie: LTC8 2011 review in: Student Education Bulletin. Issue 1 (http://www.lts.leeds.ac.uk/Student_Education_Bulletin/SEB_index.php?PAGE=137&SUBPAGE=138)
  • Österreichische Filmgeschichte als interkulturelles Experiment. In: Magali Laure Nieradka, Denise Sprecht (eds.): Fremdkörper? Aspekte der Geisteswissenschaften in der Auslandsgermanistik und im DaF-Unterricht. Berlin, Münster: LIT. 2009, pp. 153-171
  • Von der Produktivität der Fremderfahrung. Betrachtungen über das Lehren und Lernen an französischen Universitäten. In: Theorie und Praxis. Österreichische Beiträge zu Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Nr.8 (2004), pp. 185-196