Ms Julia Miller

Biography/ Background

Julia is currently engaged in a part-time PhD in applied linguistics, examining the use of idioms in English learners' dictionaries for students in Australia. Her background is in Romance languages and TESOL, and she has taught English in France and Portugal. She worked as an academic skills advisor in the Student Learning Centre at Flinders University for eight years before moving to the University of Adelaide. Her current role involves lecturing and teaching in academic and study skills areas. She is also a member of the tri-institutional Grammar Gang blog team, with colleagues from the University of South Australia and Purdue University in the United States.

Qualifications

MA (research) Flinders University

BA (Hons) University of Cambridge

RSA Certificate in TEFL, Cambridge

Awards & Achievements

November 2005 – Flinders University Teaching and Learning Innovation Grant, to film a resource for teaching academic oral presentation skills

November 2005 – Educational Research Conference Early Career Award, Flinders University

August 2007 - Carrick citation for outstanding contribution to student learning (Member of team from Flinders University who won an award 'for sustained excellence in developing and adapting support programmes that allow international students to succeed academically and grow personally while in Australia'.)

Research Interests

• The use of idioms by different age groups in the UK and Australia
• Pedagogical lexicography
• The English article system
• The teaching of English prepositions
• Academic advising in relation to students with dyslexia
• The IELTS academic writing test as a predictor of academic success

Publications

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

July 2010, Euralex, Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Paper: Coals to Newcastle or glittering gold? Which idioms need to be included in a learner's dictionary for use in Australia?

November 2009, Tri-university day, University of South Australia, Adelaide. Presentation: Look in the dictionary! English learners' dictionaries for academic advising.

November 2009, Australex, Macquarie University, Sydney. Paper: No jam for the wicked: do all English speakers understand and use the same idioms?

November 2008, First International Symposium on Lexicography and L2 Teaching and Learning, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.  Paper: English learners’ dictionaries in Australia: A challenge to publishers?

November 2008, Australex conference, University of Wellington, NZ.  Paper: Teachers and dictionaries in Australia: Is there a need to train the trainers?

September 2008, Synergy conference, Flinders University. Paper: A paper on or about prepositions? Does a consideration of metaphor in academic writing help students to choose the correct preposition?

November 2007, Tri-University Day, University of Adelaide.  Paper: Idioms and dictionaries

September 2007, Australex Conference, Adelaide.  Paper: Idioms and dictionaries

July 2007, HERDSA Conference, Adelaide. Showcase paper: Dodging the Damocletian sword of academic oral presentations

November 2006, Educational Research Conference, Flinders University.  Poster: An amazing investment opportunity! The Nigerian business letter as an English teaching aid

November 2005, Educational Research Conference, Flinders University.  Paper: An investigation into the effect of English learners' dictionaries on international students' acquisition of the English article system, specifically in the area of countability (This paper won the conference early career award.)

September 2005, Australex Conference, Melbourne University.  Paper: An investigation into the effect of English learners' dictionaries on international students' acquisition of the English article system, specifically in the area of countability

June 2005, Asialex Conference, National University of Singapore.   Paper: English learners' dictionaries: an undervalued resource

November 2004, Educational Research Conference, Flinders University. Paper: Most of ESL students have trouble with the articles

November 2003, Language and Academic Skills in Higher Education, Biannual National Conference, Flinders University. Round table discussion on academic skills advising for depressed and anxious students

PUBLICATIONS

Refereed Publications

Miller, J 2010, ‘Coals to Newcastle or glittering gold? Which idioms need to be included in a learner’s dictionary for use in Australia?’, in A Dykstra & T Schoonheim (eds), Proceedings of the XIV Euralex International Congress, Leeuwarden, 6-10 July 2010, Fryske Akademy, Ljouwert, The Netherlands. [CD-Rom]

 

Miller, J 2010, ‘C. Fellbaum (ed.), Idioms and collocations: corpus-based linguistic and lexicographic studies. Book review', Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 09.1-09.4.

Miller, J 2009, ‘Cambridge advanced learners dictionary, 3rd edition. Book review', TESOL in Context, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 69-72.

Miller, J 2009, ‘No jam for the wicked: do all English speakers understand and use the same idioms?', Australian Style, vol. 16, no. 2, viewed 5 January 2010, < http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/news/australian_style/v16_no2/no_jam_for_the_wicked.htm>.

Miller, J & Schmidt, L 2009, 'Peer assisted study sessions to facilitate transition for international students', The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, forthcoming

Miller, J 2009, ‘English learners’ dictionaries: an undervalued resource’, in Perspectives in lexicography: Asia and beyond, (eds VBY Ooi, A Pakir, IS Talib & PKW Tan), K Dictionaries Ltd, Tel Aviv, pp. 161-171. Reprinted from TESOL in context with permission.

Miller, J 2009, ‘An investigation into the effect of English learners’ dictionaries on international students’ acquisition of the English article system’, in Lexicography: the changing landscape, (ed. S Priya), The Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, India, pp. 78-96. Reprinted from IEJ with permission.

Miller, J 2008, ‘English for academic study: Vocabulary. Book review’, TESOL in Context, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 33-34.

Miller, J 2008, ‘Help wanted with idiom research’, World wide words (ed. M Quinion), issue 573, 2 February.

Miller, J 2008, ‘Teachers and dictionaries in Australia: is there a need to train the trainers?’, TESOL in Context, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 11-19.

Slatter, M, Petrie, L-A & Miller, J 2007, ‘Flinders’ Law students’ transition: warm welcome, hot topics: cool program,’ 10th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference 2007 - Conference Proceedings, (ed. J Thomas), Brisbane.

Miller, J 2007, 'When did you last spend a penny?', Australian Style, vol. 15, no. 2, p. 5.

Miller, J 2007, ‘Dodging the Damocletian sword of academic oral presentations’, HERDSA conference proceedings, vol. 30.

Miller, J 2006, ‘An investigation into the effect of English learners' dictionaries on international students' acquisition of the English article system, specifically in the area of countability’, International Education Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 435-445.

Miller, J 2006, 'English learners' dictionaries: an undervalued resource', TESOL in Context, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 30 – 37.

Miller, J 2006, 'A review of the Macquarie WordGenius CD-ROM', TESOL in Context, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 28 – 31.

Miller, J 2005, 'Most of ESL students have trouble with the articles', International Education Journal, ERC2004 Special Issue, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 80 – 88.

Miller, J 2005, 'English grammar in use' [Review of the book English grammar in use, 3rd edn], TESOL in Context, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 20 – 21.

OTHER

Haisley, JL 2008, The Good Samaritan, Ginninderra Press, Adelaide.

Miller, J 2008, ‘Up a gum tree’, Bonzer Issue 73, February, [online magazine].

November 2006, Academic oral presentation skills. DVD produced with the aid of a Flinders University Teaching and Learning Innovation Grant.

THESES

Miller, J 2002, 'An investigation into the use of anglicisms in modern European Portuguese', Masters thesis, Flinders University.

Miller, J 2005 ongoing, An investigation into the inclusion of idioms in English learners' dictionaries for EAL students in Australia.

 

Professional Associations

• Australex committee member
• TESOL in Context committee member (joint book review editor)
• Association for Academic Language and Learning
• Asialex
• European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing

 

Files

• Coals to Newcastle or glittering gold? Idioms for learners' dictionaries in Australia (2010) - Coals_to_Newcastle_or_glittering_gold.docx [30.6K] (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document)
• English learners' dictionaries in Australia (2010) - English_learners_dictionaries_in_Australia_-_Julia_Miller.doc [127.0K] (application/msword)
• Teachers and dictionaries in Australia (2008) - Teachers_and_dictionaries_in_Australia.docx [47.2K] (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document)
• Learners' dictionaries and articles - Learners_dictionaries_and_articles_(2006).pdf [162.9K] (application/pdf)
• English learners' dictionaries: an undervalued resource (2006) - English_learners’_dictionaries.doc [83.5K] (application/msword)
• Most of ESL students have trouble with the articles (2005) - Most_of_ESL_students_have_trouble_with_the_articles_(2005).pdf [41.4K] (application/pdf)

Entry last updated: Friday, 8 Jul 2011