Pantelich, Melania

Position: Coordinator, English Language Support Program
Location: Mt Helen Campus, E Building, Room 204
Discipline: School of Education 
Phone: +6 13 5327 8018
Email: m.pantelich@federation.edu.au
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0982-8010

Qualifications

  • Master of Teaching (TESOL and LOTE), The University of Melbourne (2011)
  • Post-Graduate Diploma of Teaching (TESOL and LOTE), The University of Melbourne (2010)
  • Bachelor of Arts (Italian), The University of Melbourne (2009)
  • Certificate IV Training and Assessment, The University of Ballarat (2013)

Teaching

Courses

  • Master of Specialist Teaching (TESOL
  • Master of Education Studies
  • English Language Support Service

Units

  • EDMST6114 TESOL Methodology, Language Teaching, and Technology
  • EDMED7058 Academic Reading and Writing in Educational Research
  • EDMES7066 Digital Learning and Teaching

Biography

Melania Pantelich is the co-ordinator and lecturer of the English Language Support Service (ELSS) (formerly the English Language Support Program) for international students, which supports undergraduate and post-graduate students in their first year of study at an Australian university. She is an emerging researcher in the international student transition and experience space.

Upon completing her Master of Teaching (TESOL and LOTE) in 2011, during which she undertook teaching in the General English Program for adult migrants at SMB, Melania joined the university where she continued to teach General English and extended her teaching repertoire by supporting domestic students as part of the literacy and numeracy support program. Melania has worked on developing ELSS into a timely program tailored to the specific needs of international students, and has focused on expanding the program’s reach, specifically by exploring and implementing online options for program delivery.

In 2016, Melania presented initial ELSS results and student experiences at The Learner Conference in Vancouver, Canada, and is in the process of delving further into researching cultural and academic experiences of secondary and tertiary international students. Melania has also presented at various forums, including the Internationalisation of the Curriculum Showcase in 2015, where she led a panel discussing “International teaching and learning: how to be more inclusive of international students’ learning experiences” and the Federation University Partner Forum in 2017. In 2019, she was an invited speaker at the English Australia conference, discussing the challenges and benefits faced by international students studying in regional locations. Melania also presented at conferences held by the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL) and TasTESOL in 2019.

Melania looks forward to continuing the important work of supporting the valued, and, at times, vulnerable international student cohort by equipping them with the necessary study skills to excel in their tertiary career. As an early career academic she is also committed to building a research profile around the experiences of international students, which will, in turn, inform the further development of ELSS.

Melania is a current Copy Editor for The Journal of International Students, and reviewer for The Learner journals and The Journal of International Students. She has previously co-edited the M/C Journal (Abroad, Volume 19, No. 5, 2016).

Melania commenced her PhD studies with Federation University Australia in 2020. Her project explores the experiences of university lecturers teaching international students in the Australian tertiary education context.

Areas of expertise and research interests

  • English Language (TESOL and ELICOS)
  • Second Language Acquisition
  • Acculturation and identity
  • International student experience
  • International student transition
  • Adult language learning and literacy

Publications

Refereed journal articles

Green, C., Pantelich, M., Barrow, M., Weerasinghe, D., & Daniel, R. (2023). Receptive vocabulary size estimates for general and academic vocabulary at a multi-campus Australian university. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.21099.gre

Pantelich, M.(2021). A student-centered approach: The English Language Support Service for international students. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 15(1), 72-84. https://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/view/663

Adams, J., & Pantelich, M. (2016). Abroad. M/C Journal, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1171

Refereed conference proceedings

Green, C., Pantelich, M., Barrow, M., Weerasinghe, D., & Daniel, R. (2023). Receptive vocabulary size estimates for general and academic vocabulary at a multi-campus Australian university. Presentation. The Applied Linguistics Association of Australia Conference, Woollongong, Australia, 19-21 November.

Conference presentations

Pantelich, M. & Barrow, M. (2020, July). Exploring how (tertiary) international students are experiencing their learning in the current COVID-19 environment. Presentation for PeCALE Symposium, online, 24 July.

Pantelich, M. (2019). A student-centred approach: the English Language Support Service for international students. Conference paper presented at AALL, The University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia, 28 November.

Pantelich, M. (2019). A student-centred approach: the English Language Support Service for international students in Higher Education. Workshop presented at TasTESOL, Sacred Heart College, Hobart, Australia, 11 May.

Invited speaker presentations

Pantelich, M. (2019, September). It’s better to live in the country than in the city. Discuss. Invited member of panel presentation. English Australia Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 19-20 September.

Pantelich, M. (2017). English Language Support Program. Presentation. Federation University Partner Forum, Ballarat, Australia, 7 December.

Pantelich, M. (2015).International teaching and learning: how to be more inclusive of international students’ learning experiences. Panel leader. Internationalisation of the Curriculum Showcase, Ballarat, Australia.

Conference poster

Pantelich, M. (2016, July). A Student-Centered Approach: English Language Support Program for International Students. Poster session presented at the Twenty-third International Conference on Learning, Vancouver, Canada.

Awards

Editor’s Choice Award 2020 (Journal of International Students)

2020 Vice-Chancellor Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Services. A helping hand: guiding and supporting international and domestic students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in their transition to higher education study in Australia.

Associations

  • Association of Academic Language and Learning
  • VicTESOL