Chartered Institute
of Linguists
Our Honorary President and Vice-Presidents are honorary officers of CIOL, nominated by Council and elected by the membership at the AGM. The President and Vice-Presidents draw on their expertise and experience in various parts of the languages sector to act in an advisory capacity to Council and represent CIOL externally. They are entitled to attend meetings of Council as non-voting observers.
| Postnominals | Role | Bio |
|---|---|---|
|
Baroness Jean COUSSINS HonFCIL |
Honorary President |
Baroness Jean Coussins was appointed as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords in 2007. She co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages. She is also vice chair of the APPG on the United Nations and takes an active interest in Latin America, human rights and corporate responsibility, as well as a range of issues connected with languages. She is a Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. |
|
Prof David CRYSTAL OBE FCST FRSA HonFCIL |
Vice-President |
David Crystal is honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He has written or edited over 100 books and published numerous articles for scholarly, professional, and general readerships, in fields ranging from forensic linguistics and ELT to the liturgy and Shakespeare. His books include the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Words, Words, Words and The Fight for English. |
|
Susanna DENT MBE HonFCIL |
Vice-President |
Susie Dent is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated 30 years as a co-presenter and the resident word expert on C4's Countdown, and also appears on the show's comedy sister 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news. She has contributed to discussions on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Word of Mouth, Saturday Live, More or Less, Today, and on Radio 5 Live's Breakfast and Drive programmes. She has made guest appearances on many TV programmes including BBC Breakfast, Newsnight, This Morning, Test the Nation, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Not Going Out, and The One Show. |
|
Mrs Judith Gabler-Schoessow HonFCIL CertTrans FCIL |
Vice-President |
Judith is a business leader, linguist and mentor. She has studied in the UK, France and Germany and holds language qualifications in French and German. Early in her career, Judith relocated from the North of England to Frankfurt and now holds British-German citizenship. |
|
Mr Richard HARDIE HonFCIL |
Vice-President |
Richard Hardie read History and French at Lincoln College, Oxford, and spent a year as a British Council lycée assistant in Dijon. He also has a working knowledge of Italian and some German. Richard qualified as a chartered accountant and, in 1977, joined the UBS Group, a global financial services firm and one of the world's largest financial asset managers. He was Non-Executive Chair of UBS Ltd from 2010–15. He chairs the UBS UK Donor-Advised Foundation and the UBS UK Pension Scheme. Richard gave the CIOL Threlford Lecture in September 2011 on ‘Business, Languages and the State’. He also gave the opening address in February 2011 at the launch of Speak to the Future: The Campaign for Languages, which he now chairs. He chaired the British Academy-funded Born Global project, an in-depth assessment of the appetite for language skills in the modern workplace, and of the implications for young people and for the economy of supply failing to meet demand. |
|
Bernardette HOLMES MBE HonFCIL |
Vice-President |
Bernardette is an acknowledged expert in languages education, working across the discipline and across sectors in areas including languages pedagogy, assessment and policy development, initial and continuing teacher education and standards setting. She is recognized as an innovative and inspiring linguist who throughout a long career in languages, as teacher, adviser, inspector, teacher trainer, researcher, curriculum and policy developer and author has made a major contribution to languages education in England. Since the inception of the national curriculum, Bernardette has played a central role in the development and implementation of languages policy at national level, and is a strong advocate of languages for all. Bernardette continues to work closely with the DfE on curriculum reform and assessment for modern languages. She was Subject Content Criteria writer for GCSE in modern and ancient languages and in Advanced Level for French, German and Spanish, and small cohort languages. She is currently developing the first GCSE in British Sign Language. Bernardette was a member of the Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review Advisory Group (2016) and a member of the review panel for GCSE Subject Content (2021). She has extensive experience of working internationally, and was a member of the standard setting working group for French in SurveyLang, the first European Survey on Language Competence, (2012) led by the European Commission. She was director of the first bilateral Graduate Teacher Programme working in partnership with the Institut français du Royaume Uni - Ambassade de France, the British Council, CILT and the Teacher Training Agency, and was a member of the expert panel of the Council of Europe (Profil de la politique linguistique éducative de la Vallée d’Aoste (2007) Bernardette was principal investigator for Born Global, a major policy research project for the British Academy, engaging key stakeholders from employment and education in a radical rethinking of languages education (2016). Her current research interests are transparent and reliable assessment of language proficiency, second language acquisition in multilingual instructed settings, interdisciplinary learning, and languages and employability. Bernardette was a member of the IoLET Trust Board from 2013 to 2022, and is proud to have been Chair during a period of transformation, overseeing the development of CIOLQ and the move to online assessment of our flagship qualifications. Bernardette has received a number of honours and awards in recognition of her significant contribution to languages. In 2015, she was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to languages education as a teacher and a modern languages advocate. In 2019, Bernardette was awarded an honorary doctorate of civil law by the University of East Anglia in recognition of her role in the development of national language policy. In 2022, Bernardette was made an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques, one of the oldest and most prestigious civil honours bestowed by the French Republic, for her services to French Culture. Bernardette continues to work tirelessly to promote the value of languages and intercultural understanding. |
|
Prof Jocelyn Wyburd BA(Hons) MA(Cantab) PGCE MA Hon FCIL |
Vice-President |
Jocelyn Wyburd is a graduate of Italian and French from the University of Cambridge. Her international and multilingual career has variously spanned the public, private and third sectors. |
