About Vassilia...

Vassilia Kazamia is Senior Teaching Fellow at the Center for Foreign Language Teaching of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is currently teaching English for Specific Purposes at the School of Engineering Dept of Chemical Engineering, at the School of Agriculture and at the Department of Computer Sciences.

She is particularly interested in learners' personal development and in life-long learning; this is why she integrates language learning strategies, learning styles and skills in her courses.

Having a sense of entrepreneurship, she initiated, structured and taught seminars which are outcome based, professionally focused in terms of English and relevant to learners’ careers. Technical Writing, Presentation Skills, and Communication skills for Job-hunting, have been attended by more than 180 students of the School of Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Moreover, she has been repeatedly invited by Aristotle University Professors to deliver talks on Presentation Skills to postgraduate students of the School of Medicine and the School of Agriculture.

The International Hellenic University has been a challenge for her. She designed a compact seminar on Transferable Skills, offered during 2010-2012, 2011-2012 and highly evaluated by postgraduate students of the study programs “MSc in Banking & Finance” and“MSc in Management”.

Being part time lecturer at the Hellenic Open University she has been teaching the module ‘AGG53 Course Design and Evaluation’ at the Master of Education for English language teachers since 2005-2006. For the past 8 years she has taught to more than 190 Greek teachers of English, supervised and examined 14 Master's theses (supervisor and internal examiner) and 19 theses as external examiner.

She constantly learns and applies new things and has intercultural awareness since she had lived in Egypt and England for 12 years. She enjoys meeting people and talking to them in French, German or Arabic in order to share experiences. In parallel to this, she tries to inspire her students to explore their skills and expand further. She loves travelling with her daughters and tries to pick up new ideas from their youthful way of thinking. She feels proud of being raised by parents who have never been afraid to face the unknown and have considered people as worthy of devotion and respect.

Publications

• Kazamia, V., Joycey, E. (2016). ELF across teachers' strategies in TEFL. In N. Tsantila, J. Mandalios, M. Ilkos (Eds.), ELF: Pedagogical and interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 322-329). Athens: Deree – The American College of Greece.
• Kazamia, V. (2016). ‘Gender and Age Impact on Language Learning Strategy Use: A Study of Greek EFL Learners’. In Z Gavriilidou, K. Petrogiannis (Eds), Language Learning Strategies in the Greek setting: Research outcomes of a large-scale project. Kavala: Saita, Pp 76-100. http://www.saitabooks.eu/2016/03/ebook.172.html
• Agathopoulou, E., Psaltou - Joycey, A., Kazamia, V., Petrogiannis, K., (to appear). ‘EFL teachers’ Language Learning Strategy Instruction Practices in Mainstream and Minority Schools in Greece’. Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.
• Kazamia, V. (2015). Activity No 4:EXPRESSING EMOTIONS In Psaltou-Joycey, A. ed., Foreign Language Learning Strategy Instruction: A Teacher’s Guide, pp.67-74. Kavala: Saita Publications. http://www.saitabooks_eu/2015/ebook.162.html
• Kazamia, V. (2015). Activity 5: HOW DID YOU FIND THE STRATEGIES? In Psaltou-Joycey, A. ed., Foreign Language Learning Strategy Instruction: A Teacher’s Guide, pp.67-74. Kavala: Saita Publications http://www.saitabooks_eu/2015/ebook.162.html
• Kazamia, V. (2012). ‘Training Engineers on Communication Skills’. Proceedings of the SEFI 40th Annual Conference Engineering Education 2020: Meet the Future http://www.sefi.be/conference-2012/Papers/Papers/085.pdf.
• Kazamia, V. (2010). ‘Using the SILL to record the language learning strategy use: suggestions for the Greek EFL population’. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of the Greek Applied Linguistics Association “Advances in Research on Language Acquisition” Pp 277-293. http://www.enl.auth.gr/gala/14th/Papers/English%20papers/Kazamia.pdf
• Kazamia-Christou, V. & I. Ziaka. (2006). English for Agricultural Sciences. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press.
• Καζαμία-Χρήστου, Β. & Ι. Ζιάκα. (2006). Γλωσσάρι Βασικών Γεωπονικών Όρων. Αγγλοελληνικό / Ελληνοαγγλικό. Θεσσαλονίκη: University Studio Press.
• Kazamia, V. (2005). ‘Language Learning Strategies for ESP Courses’. CD-ROM Motivation in Learning Language for Specific and Academic Purposes. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Language Learning for Specific and Academic Purposes. Pp 1-7.
• Kazamia, V. (1999). ‘How Tolerant are Greek EFL Learners of Foreign Language Ambiguities?’ Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics. 7:69-78. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/linguistics/WPL/WP1999/kazamia.pdf
• Kazamia, V. (1991). ‘Τhe Impact of Language on Greek Political Advertising’, Description and/or Comparison of English and Greek. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium. 4:109-127.

Scholarships – Awards

• Greek Scholarships’ Foundation, (IKY) Scholarship for doctoral research at the University of Leeds 1996-2000.
• Grant by the University of Leeds for postgraduate studies 1988-1989.
• Grant of the Greek Scholarships’ Foundation (IKY) awarded to the top ten students of the year for undergraduate studies, academic years 1984-1985, 1986-1987.

Research and Other Activities

GELS Global Engineers Language Skills. Network member since January 2017
http://www.language-unit.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/GELS
The objective of this project is to enhance future engineers’ language skills in order to prepare them for the increasingly challenging demands of a globalised market. It is a common initiative between the University of Cambridge, KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm and a French research laboratory (Institut Mines-Telecom – Didalang).

THALES project MIS 379335, run under the National Strategic Reference Frame (NSRF) and co-funded by the European Social Fund (2012-2015). Researcher This project aimed to adapt the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) in order to identify the strategy profile of primary and secondary education EFL learners as well as Muslim learners acquiring Greek as a second language and to explore the strategies employed by school teachers in class.

• Member of the Editorial Board and Reviewer of the journal Research Papers in Language Teaching and Learning since 2009
http://rpltl.eap.gr/index.php/el/editorial-board
• Treasurer of the Greek Applied Linguistics Association (February 2006-January 2008).
• Member of the organizing committee and treasurer for the 14th International Conference of the Greek Applied Linguistics Association “Advances in Research on Language Acquisition and Teaching” 14-16 December 2007.