From 1988 to 1995 I studied English and Portuguese at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and Psychology at the Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro for my undergraduate degrees. After that, I worked as an English teacher for about 9 years (from 1992 to 2001) in different schools, using various methodologies and working with students from diverse cultural backgrounds. I taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL)to children, teenagers and adults, and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in higher education.
In 1999 I finished a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. My Master’s dissertation presented an analysis of a way of teaching lexis based on a socio-interactional view of learning. In October 2001 I moved to the U.K. in order to undertake a full-time M.A. in English Language Teaching at the Linguistics Department of Lancaster University. This second Master’s dissertation dealt with the use of text-based asynchronous computer conferencing in two different postgraduate courses at Lancaster University.
From 2002 to 2005 I worked on my Doctoral Thesis at Lancaster University,which is a study of the impact of Interactive Whiteboard use on English language teaching and learning. While doing my Ph.D., I worked as a part time tutor at the Department of Linguistics, where I taught applied linguistics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and EAP. I was also involved in designing pedagogical materials for the EAP study skills courses provided by the University in order to integrate ICT, through the use of interactive whiteboard technology, into the teaching/learning process.
From 2006 to March 2013 I worked as an Assistant Professor (“Juniorprofessorin”) at the English Department of the University of Education Heidelberg, Germany, where I was fully engaged in research and teaching in the area of applied linguistics and TEFL with a specific focus on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). As an assistant professor, I led my own research group, taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and I was responsible for handling all administrative matters for my areas (e.g., examination of students and acquiring research funding).
Since April 2013, I am full professor of Applied Linguistics and TEFL at the English Department of the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. Since 2011, I have also worked as a visiting professor at Grand Valley State University (USA), and as a visiting scholar at Iowa State University (USA) and Lancaster University (UK).