Sylvie Beresford

Biography

Sylvie Beresford graduated from Besançon University with an Honours Degree in English and Comparative Literature. She moved to the UK to teach French for one year in Bangor (Northern Ireland) and subsequently for two years at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, now Anglia Ruskin University. She wrote her Master's thesis on Virginia Woolf's involvement in the Feminist Movement and did her MPhil on Late 18th Century Celtic Studies with an analysis of the novel by Thomas Flanagan "The Year of the French". Her research also involved an interpretation of "Partners in Revolution: The United Irishmen and France" by Marianne Elliott. Sylvie gained a PGCE (FE) at Cardiff Institute of Higher Education in 1984. She then joined the Department of Extra-Mural Studies (now Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning) where she taught French at all levels. Sylvie contributed to academic papers on Coastal Zone Management in the European Union and translated a book commissioned by the Special Air Service (SAS). She has worked as a conference interpreter and translator for the South Wales Police and for the Home Office. She has also worked in around 30 companies in France and in the UK as language consultant and adviser and has trained senior examiners at the Patent Office. In addition, Sylvie has worked as a voice coach for the Welsh College of Music and Drama training opera singers to sing in French as part of their final year Honours Degree assessment. Sylvie joined Coleg Glan Hafren, now Cardiff and the Vale College (CAVC), in 1992 as Lecturer in French where she subsequently became Languages Team Leader. ​ Sylvie taught free-standing modules to undergraduates at Cardiff University from 1991 until 2009. These included modules for Engineers, Medical Students, and Business Management and Finance Students at Cardiff Business School. Sylvie was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Social Research in 2010 in University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC). Externally, she is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and an Examiner at both advanced and supplementary levels for the DELF and DALF of the Institut français (London) and for the Diplôme de français professionnel (DFP) B2 and C1 of the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie (Paris). Sylvie currently teaches Business French at levels 4, 5 and 6, Personal Development Planning at level 4, and Work Experience with Personal Development Planning at level 5.

Research Interest

Her current research area is the trajectory of Modern Foreign Language teaching in Higher Education Institutions taking an international perspective. Her particular interest is the added value of language proficiency and the employability of graduates through an exploration of the expectations of students and employers, and from an examination of the needs of specialist groups within industry. Sylvie also carries out ad hoc research into cultural and behavioural dimensions of international environments.​​​​