Founder and Principal Consultant of ELCOT Consultants (established in 1995), a language education consultancy that provides professional development support to English Language departments in  secondary schools and private institutions. Dr. Benjamin has been conducting training since 1995.  Her area of research interests include reading comprehension teaching and testing as well as linguistic analysis and diagnosis of reading comprehension problems.

QUALIFICATIONS

 2010

Doctor of Education, The University Of  Western Australia

Area of  Specialization: Applied Linguistics (Reading Comprehension Testing, Discourse Analysis )

Thesis title: ‘The Target Of  The Question’: An Investigation of  Textual Features Typically Targeted in  Reading Comprehension Questions.

2002   

Master of  Arts in Applied Linguistics, National University  Of  Singapore / RELC

Dissertation Title: An Analysis of the Linguistic Skills and Knowledge Bases Targeted by the Comprehension Component of  the GCE ‘O’ Level English Paper 2 from 1998 to 2000.

1992

Postgraduate Diploma In Applied Linguistics, RELC (Passed With Distinction)

1988

Certificate in TESL, RELC (Singapore)

1987

Bachelor of  Science, National University Of  Singapore

PUBLICATIONS

Benjamin, I.S. 2005. What to Teach? Procedural and Declarative Knowledge Significant to Reading Comprehension Ability.  

Innovative Approaches to Reading and Writing Instruction. Anthology Series 46. Poedjosodarma, G. (ed).  SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Benjamin, I.S. 2015. The Target of the Question: A Taxonomy of Textual Features  for Cambridge University 'O' Levels English. 

Education Research and Perspectives. Vol 42(2015) Special Issue on International Education. www.erpjournal.net. The University Of Western Australia.



CONFERENCE: WORKSHOPS & PAPERS

2016

51^st RELC International Conference

WORKSHOP: Hacking the Reading Comprehension Question: What are You actually testing?

2014

49^th RELC International Conference

WORKSHOP: Figurative Language: Teaching and Testing.

2013

48^th RELC International Conference

WORKSHOP: The Doc Is In!: Diagnosing Problems in Answering Short-Answer Reading Comprehension Questions.

 2011

46^th RELC International Conference

WORKSHOP: Profile of the  Short-Answer Reading Comprehension Question:Evaluation Objectives versus Design.

2010

Inaugural APEC-RELC International Seminar

WORKSHOP: The Target of the Question: Top 20 Textual Features.

2004

39^th RELC International Seminar

PAPER:  What To Teach? Procedural And Declarative Knowledge Significant  To Reading Comprehension Ability.

2003

38^th RELC International Seminar

WORKSHOP:  Reading Comprehension Questions: The Good, The Tricky And  The  Vague.

2002

37^th RELC International Seminar

WORKSHOP: Cohesion Comprehension: The Microskills of Reading.