Faculty Profile: Sigrun Lucas, Ph.D.
Sigrun Lucas, Ph.D, is an English language and linguistics educator with thirty-plus years of classroom teaching experience. She has helped countless English language students prepare for success in college and university studies. After completing undergraduate studies in her home country of Germany, Dr. Lucas earned an MAT in TESOL and Bilingual Education, and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, from Georgetown University. She has taught in the English Language Center (ELC) at GU since 2006.
First academic job: Lecturer in Linguistics (Teacher Preparation classes) at Georgetown University
Favorite book: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier: I first read this book in German and could not put it down. I have read it about three times in German and three times in English (the only book I have ever read in two languages) – it has the same effect on me each time.
Best advice you’ve received: Hard work pays off.
What do you do for fun outside of class? I enjoy yoga, barre, walks with my dog “Strider”, visiting our condo at the beach on the Virginia part of the Delmarva Peninsula, sea glass hunting on the beach, and face-timing my little granddaughter, who lives in Alaska.
How do you keep learning fun in the classroom? Hopefully by conveying enthusiasm for teaching, showing genuine care for and interest in my students’ learning, tolerating all sorts of questions, and being exceptionally prepared for each class.
What is your favorite course(s) to teach and why? I enjoy upper-level reading/writing/research – because I have taught it so many times that each time I push myself to improve on the last course, because I have been creating my own teaching materials for this class, and because there is nothing better than former students informing me that what they have learned in my class/es has prepared them so well for their graduate or undergraduate programs that they feel confident about their English skills and academic skills.
Do you have any research interests in the field of English Language Teaching? I co-authored Next Generation Grammar 4, a grammar textbook; now I focus on how I can best teach reading and writing skills, and I enjoy presenting at professional conferences on themes related to teaching methodology.
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Writer Regan Carver is a Program Manager in the English Language Center.
