Our People

Ms Deborah Mason

Member of Common Room

deborah.mason@kellogg.ox.ac.uk

Deborah Mason studied English (Language and Literature) at Leeds University. After graduating, she spent a year working in Kajaani in northern Finland before returning to Leeds to study for a Postgraduate Diploma in teaching English as a Second Language (PDESL), qualifying as a teacher for both secondary school and adult learners of English. Following this, she went to Japan to teach English near Tokyo for nearly two years before returning to Finland to take up a position at Helsinki University. While teaching there, Deborah obtained an MEd in TESOL (with distinction) from Manchester University.

After working for over fifteen years at Helsinki University Language Centre, she came to Oxford to take up the post of Assistant Director at the Language Centre in 1998. Until 2018 she was in charge of the year-round programme of English for Academic Studies at the Language Centre, running and teaching on EAS in-sessional courses throughout the academic year and pre-sessional courses in the summer to prepare international students for academic study at Oxford University. From 1998 to 2013 she also taught on the Advanced Diploma in British and European Studies (a pre-Master’s course) in the Department for Continuing Education.

Deborah’s interests include language learning strategies and classroom practice, as well as contemporary poetry. Her publications include books (2 sole author and 4 co-authored textbooks for English language teaching); articles in professional journals on topics such as preparing course materials, classroom activities and testing; surveys and book reviews; reports and newsletters; and around 50 poems in magazines, journals and anthologies. Her latest publication, a collection of 70 poems entitled Squaring the Circle, was published by Graft Poetry in June 2021.