Author In Focus: Janine Turner
ZigZagEducation.co.uk | PublishMeNow.co.uk
| Subject: | German |
| Top Resource: | Getting to Know... Das Leben der Anderen (Second Edition) |
"In 2017, the German Embassy awarded me a Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the German language in Great Britain."
Janine studied languages at the Queen’s School in Chester, where she took English, French and German at A Level.
She continued to develop her language skills, first at Birmingham University and then at Durham University, where she did her PGCE.
Janine lived in Chile with her family when her sons were small, and there she perfected her Spanish. For 37 years she has taught German, French and Spanish in nursery, primary, comprehensive, grammar and independent schools in the UK and in Santiago, Chile. Her roles have included Head of MFL, Head of German and Head of Spanish.
In the UK she has also worked as a translator of medical research and as an interpreter for East German heart patients in a Cheshire clinic. Since 2010, in collaboration with Goethe Institut and the Association for Language Learning, Janine has developed training courses on how to teach film at German A Level.
In 2017, the German Embassy awarded Janine a Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the German language in Great Britain.
"I love what I learn during my research for PublishMeNow resources... I have always felt inspired by the enthusiasm and consistently warm response from the PublishMeNow team."
Janine joined PublishMeNow in 2012, after attending a course in Berlin about using film in the classroom. She wanted to support other teachers of MFL in using film at A Level. Her choice to write about Das Leben der Anderen was dictated by the fact that the film portrays such an important part of Germany’s political and social history.
Jeanine has really enjoyed the opportunities that PublishMeNow has afforded her to help practising teachers. She is conscious of the pressures involved in delivering animated, memorable lessons, and is fully aware of the numbers of hours involved in preparing such lessons.
She loves what she learns during her research for ZigZag resources and she has always felt inspired by the enthusiasm and consistently warm response from the PublishMeNow team.
"My ZigZag publications have evolved either out of courses that I have attended or else personal experiences."
Janine's ZigZag publications have evolved either out of courses that she has attended or through personal experiences. During the coronavirus pandemic, while on a woodland walk, she thought up the idea of comparing experiences of coping in the UK with experiences of German colleagues, friends and their family members.
The study – Alles in Lockdownland – led to a series of case studies and to the development of her resource titled 'The Impact of Coronavirus in Germany'.
This study kept Janine in touch with another nation at a time when there was so much potential for isolation.
In 2023, Janine wrote content for York University in conjunction with the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP), and she is soon to be involved in a project with Goethe-Institut, Berlin, on film in the classroom.