UN welcomes visiting academic from the University of Babylon

In September 2014, the University of Northampton welcomed a visiting academic from the University of Babylon – Dr Abbas Deygan Darwesh Al Duleimi.

Since joining the School of The Arts, Dr Abbas has published six academic papers in well-known journals, attended a number of workshops and seminars and has presented a two-hour lecture titled ‘The Problems involved in Teaching English Listening Comprehension at University Level.’ This paper focuses on the important role that listening comprehension plays in English language teaching and reveals some of the difficulties faced by students while learning English language.

He has also worked in collaboration with Dr Ali Al-Sherbaz, Senior Lectuer in Computing at the University of Northampton, to successfully translate and edit the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) into Arabic. The RDF identifies the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers and helps them maximise their potential and get the most of their career by developing these attributes.

Dr Abass has acted as the Assistant Dean of the College of Education at the University of Babylon in Iraq. He is a specialist in Linguistics and Translation, who has published over 30 peer reviewed academic papers and spoken at academic conferences internationally. During his time at the School of The Arts, he met a number of Arabic-speaking staff and postgraduate students, one of whom is studying in the field of Applied Linguistics, and talked with them about their research and university life in the UK.

Dr Abass commented: “During my visit to the University of Northampton, I have been working closely with Professor Janet Wilson who has been a constant inspiration to me. I have learned a great deal from her and appreciate her invaluable guidance.

“Since the start of my visit I was encouraged by Professor Wilson to attend the MA English (Contemporary English) modules. Within the English Division, I would like to extend my thanks for Dr Larissa Allwork for her help and cooperation. Thanks also go to Professor Ian Livingstone and Simone Apel of the Graduate School who encouraged me to attend the fruitful workshops they have been holding all the year. These events have taught me how to realise the potentials of the true and active research. Finally, I would like to extend my deep heartfelt thanks to Dr Ali Al-Sherbaz for his care, collegiality and brotherly cooperation.”