Teaching

Having grown up in Switzerland, and being the first in my family of Portuguese immigrants to have studied in higher education, I am especially attuned to the challenges students from national/ethnic minority groups can face. Academia is a strange world that requires one to adapt to an elitist culture, and learn its own specialized language. As such, I try as best as I can to:

speak in an accessible language when explaining complex concepts
maintain an interactive and supportive relationship with students
present concrete examples students can relate to when explaining theories
provide students with exercises where they can apply the learned methods
provide well-explained, illustrative, numbered power point slides containing all used references
encourage students to develop their critical thinking and communication skills
provide criteria-based assessments containing constructive feedback that explicitly tells students how to improve

My goal is to forge a community of mutual learners that do not get intimidated by the power dynamics between students and lecturers, but actively engage with what they learn. All of this, while creating a welcoming and respectful atmosphere for disadvantaged social groups (e.g., women, LGBT+ people, ethnic/national minorities, and people with disabilities). Ever since my teacher training at the Haute École Pédagogique de Vaud – especially after attending a module on assessment strategies taught by Dr. Raphaël Pasquini – I've been interested in creating methods to assess students at the university level. I mostly follow the paradigm of "assessment for/as learning" by providing students formative assessments or self-assessments where they can regulate their learning process when acquiring (inter)disciplinary and transversal skills. Moreover, when teaching English language, I tailor my lessons according to students' needs by drawing from different approaches (task-based language teaching, content and language integrated learning, present-practice-produce, etc.). In order to get an idea of the kind of assessment grids that I promote, you can read the PowerPoint slides that I used at a workshop aimed at my colleagues at the University of Lausanne.

Teaching Experience

A = Autumn semester S = Spring semester

2024(S) MA – The Language of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, University of Lausanne.
2024(S) BA – English Composition, University of Lausanne.
2023(A) MA – Language & Health Communication, University of Lausanne.
2023(A) BA – Introduction to Discourse Analysis, University of Lausanne.
2023-24 BA – Practicing English Proficiency, University of Lausanne.
2023-24 BA – Introduction to English Linguistics, University of Lausanne.
2023- English Language Teacher (B1-C2) at the Language Center, University of Lausanne.
2023(S) MA - Language & Sexuality, University of Lausanne.
2023(S) BA – Introduction to English Linguistics, University of Lausanne.
2023(S) BA – Introduction to Discourse Analysis, University of Neuchâtel.
2022-23 English Language Teacher (B1-B2), Centre d'enseignement professionnel de Vevey.
2021-22 English Language Teacher (A2-B1), École secondaire Montreux-Est.
2021-22 BA – Introduction to English Linguistics, University of Lausanne.
2021(A) BA – Introduction to Discourse Analysis, University of Lausanne.
2020(S) BA – Health, Discourse and Communication, King's College London (Teaching assistant).
2019(A) BA – Language and Health Communication, Queen Mary Uni of London (Teaching assistant).
2015/17 Examiner at Swiss high school English (B2) graduation exams.
2013-17 English Language Teacher (A1-A2), École de la Cressire.

Invited Guest Lectures / Workshops

Coimbra-Gomes, E. (2023). Assessment Strategies for the English Department. University of Lausanne (Switzerland). 23 November.

Coimbra-Gomes, E. (2022). Critical Discourse Analysis. Linguistic Research Methods. University of Lausanne (Switzerland). 2 December.

Coimbra-Gomes, E. (2017). Introduction to Queer Linguistics and Its Application to Sexual Orientation OCD. Language & Gender. Venice International University (Italy). 3 April.

Coimbra-Gomes, E. (2017). Applying Corpus Linguistics to Analyze CMC Discourse: a Very Brief Introduction. The Sociolinguistics of Cyberspace. Venice International University (Italy). 3 April.

Coimbra-Gomes, E. (2016). Social Media and Corpus Linguistics in Health Communication: the case of Sexual Orientation Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Language and Social Media. University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). 16 November.

Coimbra-Gomes, E. (2015). Online Identity Creation. Language and Social Media. University of Lausanne (Switzerland). 10 November.