Promoting research-informed practice in education, particularly in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), has been a central focus of Dr Clarice Chan's scholarly work. Her interdisciplinary research has covered a wide range of topics, such as authenticity in language teaching, materials evaluation, curriculum design, needs analysis, second language socialisation and workplace communication.

Clarice's research, published in SSCI journals such as English for Specific Purposes and System, has been cited in leading handbooks and encyclopedias in linguistics and language education, including The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes (1st and 2nd editions), The Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning, The Routledge Handbook of Corpora and English Language Teaching and Learning, The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching, etc.

A paper that Clarice published in Elsevier’s English for Specific Purposes in 2018 on research-informed curriculum innovation received an Outstanding Article Award from the Association for Business Communication, USA. In addition to articles in academic and practitioners’ journals and chapters in edited books, she has published two encyclopedia entries (one co-authored with L. McGrath) in the International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (3rd edition; Elsevier) and a chapter (co-authored with C. B. Feak) in the Handbook of English for Specific Purposes (2nd edition; Wiley).

Clarice currently serves on the editorial boards of English for Specific Purposes and the St Andrews Journal of International and Language Education. She co-edited (with C. Nickerson) a Special Issue of English for Specific Purposes in 2023-2024, which brought together researchers’ and practitioners’ perspectives on research-informed pedagogical practice in business English. She has also served as a reviewer for a number of major international journals and academic publishers. 

Clarice is regularly invited to give plenary talks and guest lectures. She has delivered plenaries at international conferences organised by special interest groups of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), including BESIG, ESPSIG and TEASIG, and has been a guest speaker for events organised by the University of Leicester and Toastmasters International, among others.

She currently leads the Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) Hub of the Centre for International, Language and Teacher Education Research (CILTER) at the Institute, whose vision is to promote research-informed practice in LSP beyond the University. {Click here to register for an upcoming Distinguished Lecture.]

At the Institute, Clarice supervises doctoral students in TESOL and teaches on the following core doctoral modules:

• ET5641 Being a Doctoral Practitioner (Module Leader)
• ET5642 Planning for Professional Projects

She has been nominated for the St Andrews Students' Association 1413 Teaching Excellence Awards (Outstanding Teacher category) for her doctoral-level teaching.

In addition to supervising and teaching doctoral students, Clarice ​also supervises master's students on MSc TESOL and MSc International Education programmes.

She is a mentor and reviewer for Advance HE (Higher Education Academy) Fellowships awarded via the St Andrews Recognition Scheme.

Externally, Clarice has served as a judge for the British Council’s ELT Master's Dissertation Award. She will be delivering a workshop for PhD researchers through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) Summer School.