BBE has a fantastic group of speakers who are available for presentations at schools and events. Browse through the profiles and submit a request, or submit a general request via the Contact Form and we will be in touch.
Kate Burridge
English Language
Kate Burridge is Professor of Linguistics at Monash University and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Her main areas of research are language change, the Pennsylvania German of Anabaptist communities in North America, the notion of linguistic taboo, the structure and history of English. Recent books include: Living Lingo and Love the Lingo (2015) for VCE English Language, Forbidden Words: Taboo and the censoring of language (with Keith Allan, 2006), Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English language history (2010), Wrestling with Words and Meanings (with Réka Benczes, 2014), For the Love of Language (with Tonya Stebbins 2016), Understanding Language Change (with Alex Bergs 2018), Introducing English Grammar (with Kersti Börjars, 2019). She is a regular presenter of language segments for radio and TV. Kate would be delighted to speak on any aspect of the VCE English Language course.
Alice Gaby
English Language
Alice Gaby is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Monash University, Australia. Her research explores questions like: How much (and what) is common to all human languages (and why)? How much (and why) do languages differ from one another? To what extent do the differences and similarities between languages reflect and/or shape how we think about the world? She has taught all areas of linguistics (from the sounds and structures of human languages to how these relate to identity and belonging), both in Australia and the United States.
Hayley Harrison
English and EAL
Since beginning teaching over 15 years ago, Hayley has spent the last few years supporting many schools in their whole school literacy approaches. A well as specialising in explicit feedback models, supporting low-literacy students in the classroom and designing and implementing curriculum, Hayley also has worked extensively with VCAA on the current VCE Study Design for English and EAL. She was one of the Implementation Briefing Presenters and has been an external marker for both SACs and Practice Exams across Victoria. She has written and presented for VATE, been a NAPLAN assessor, written for Insight Publications and is currently designing an online resource for whole school literacy for Connect Literacy. Hayley would be delighted to speak on any aspects of VCE English and EAL. Currently available on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday for 2019. Prefer Western or Northern Suburbs.
Jason Jewell
English, EAL and Literature
Jason Jewell [BA (Hons.), Dip. Ed., MA (Appl. Ling)] taught for 20 years at McKinnon Secondary College, where he was the Manager of English. He still teaches, and has written textbooks and study materials for, VCE Units 1-4 English, EAL and Literature, and regularly lectures for students, as well as at universities and conferences. He has a passion for social justice and a love of art and literature, especially from the twentieth century. He travels widely and spends much time with family and friends. Jason’s areas of expertise are: EAL Listening, Reading Comprehension, Argument analysis, Text study, Comparative SACs on all pairs, Oral strategies and the Point of View SAC. English: Any aspect of the course, including Oral, Creative, Text study, Argument analysis and the exam. Literature: Passage Analysis, all the SACs, Literary Perspectives, How to plan a course, and the exam.
Julia Lippold
EAL
Julia Lippold is the EAL Coordinator (Years 7-12) at Lauriston Girls’ School in Melbourne, where she had an integral role in establishing the EAL program. She also supports mainstream teachers who have EAL students and delivers staff professional learning workshops. Julia has taught in the New Arrivals and Independent School sectors, and in Korea. She was also a Leading Teacher and International Student Coordinator at Blackburn English Language School. Julia is a member of ACTA's Executive Board, a VicTESOL Committee Member, is actively involved in the VCAA EAL curriculum F-10 for the Victorian Schools Consultation Review and is the founder and creator of ‘Zealous English’ – a blog and YouTube channel about middle-years EAL. She holds a BA (Languages) with Honours, a Grad Dip of Education (Sec), a Masters of Public and International Law, and is currently completing a Grad Cert of Literary Classics. Julia is able to offer sessions on any aspect of EAL teaching, from years 7-12.
Jonathon Lum
English Language
Jonathon Lum is a lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on the complex relationships between language, culture, cognition and the environment. Having studied VCE English Language, Jonathon has worked for many years as a VCE English Language tutor and has also been involved in presenting revision lectures and in preparing study materials and practice exams for the subject. He is a regular presenter at BBE events and has been a popular speaker for students at BBE member schools.
James Walker
English Language
James is Professor of Language Diversity at La Trobe University, with degrees in Linguistics and Anthropology from the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa. He is a specialist in sociolinguistic variation and change with publications on varieties of English and English-based creole. James can speak to any unit in the VCE EL curriculum, but especially those dealing with variation, social purpose and identity.
Louisa Willoughby
English Language
Louisa is a sociolinguist/ applied linguist based at Monash University. She is interested in how people use languages in Australian society - both Australian English and migrant language. A theme running through her work is how language and identity are intertwined and how linguistic practices emerge from social interactions and institutions. Louisa is particularly interested in the adolescent life-stage and she has conducted and supervised numerous research projects on language behaviour and language attitudes among groups of teenagers. She has been involved in curriculum writing for VCE English Language for a number of years and has strong familiarity with the course content. She offers 3 tailored talks for EL students: Using film texts to talk about the evolution of English (units 1+2) Using film texts to talk about Australian English (units 3 +4) Nicknames, Australian English and Identity (unit 4).
Lee Murray
English Language
Lee Murray is a sociolinguist at Monash University, specialising in variation in Australian English and the social meanings that speakers attach to it. Along with teaching linguistics to recent VCE graduates, she teaches academic writing and communication as an academic skills adviser at Monash. She is passionate about linguistics communication, and has recently presented at the Australian Skeptics National Convention on the science behind language-based discrimination. Lee has a love-hate relationship with the comment sections under language-related Facebook posts. Lee is a regular and popular speaker at schools on topics related to Units 3&4 English Language.
