Gillian has a BA Honours in Comparative Literature (First Class, 1980) from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; an MA in Language and Literature in Education -TESOL (With Distinction, 1985) from London University Institute of Education and an RSA Certificate (now CELTA) and Diploma (now DELTA) in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language.
Gillian began her career as a teacher at the British Council, Athens and as a teacher/teacher trainer at International House, London. She then worked freelance as a teacher trainer, lexicographer and materials writer. In 2000 she became a Senior Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes/Academic Literacies at Middlesex University, working with students and collaborating with staff in Nursing, the School of Arts and Education (at Trent Park) and the School of Law at Hendon. She has also taught and supervised dissertations on the MA TESOL and Applied Linguistics. She is now a Senior Lecturer (Learning and Teaching) in the Department of Education.
Gillian is a member of the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL). She has been an external examiner at University College London, and was an IELTS examiner from 2010 to 2012.
Gillian has been an invited speaker on using literature in language teaching, figurative language and academic literacies at conferences and teachers' associations in the UK, France, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Hungary and South Africa.
French (High Intermediate), Spoken Modern Greek (Elementary).
Gillian has recently taken up the post of Senior Lecturer (Learning and Teaching) in the Education Department, working on the Post-graduate Certificate in Higher Education (PG Cert HE) for staff. As an applied linguistic, she is interested in the reciprocal relationship between theory and practice, and the ways that linguistic and educational theory can inform best practice at the chalk face.
Gillian has collaborated with academic colleagues in Education in publishing journal articles which describe interventions designed to improve academic language and writing (see Research Outputs).
Gillian was awarded a Middlesex University Teaching Fellowship in 2011.
Academic literacies, figurative language, the use of literature in language teaching, learning and teaching in Higher Education
Books
-Lazar, G. (2003) Meanings and Metaphors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-Lazar, G. (1999) A Window on Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-Lazar, G. (1993) Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for teachers and trainers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Other selected recent output
-Lazar, G. (in press) 'Playing with words and pictures: Using post-modernist picture books as a resource with teenage and adult language learners' in Teranishi, M., Saito, Y., and Wales, K. (eds) Literature and Language Learning in the EFL Classroom. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
-Lazar, G. (in press) 'Literature and Language Teaching' in Jones, R. (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Creativity. London: Routledge.
-Lazar, G. and B. Barnaby (in press) 'Working with grammar as a tool for making meaning' in Lillis, T., Harrington, K., Lea, M. and Mitchell, S. (eds) Working with Academic Literacies: Research, Theory, Design (Parlor Press).
-Lazar, G. (2011) 'The Talking Cure: From Narrative to Academic Argument' in Bhatia, V., Sanchez, P. Perez-Paredes, P. (eds) Researching specialized languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
-Lazar, G. and Ellis, E. (2011) 'Genre as implicit methodology in a collaborative writing initiative', International Journal of English Language Studies, Vol 11, No 1.
-Odeniyi, V. and Lazar, G. (2011) 'A cross-cultural awareness workshop: Language, Communication and Difference', The Teacher Trainer, Vol 25, No 1.
