I have been involved in learning and teaching in linguistics since my undergraduate degree in French and Linguistics, where I spent a year abroad in Strasbourg. After some time in the travel industry, working as a Reservations and Operations Manager, and using my languages to problem solve and troubleshoot for our escorted group holidays, I trained on the CELTA programme and became an English language teacher, privately as well as for York Associates, before then teaching General English and EAP at York St John, Edinburgh and Durham universities.
I completed my MA in English Language Teaching at York St John University in 2009 and began lecturing in Linguistics at York St John during the 2009-2010 academic year. My PhD in Language Education from the University of York was completed in 2017, and was focused on teachers' discourses about multilingualism in English schools.
I teach all of the students in Languages and Linguistics in some capacity as I am the module director for the core first year module, Introduction to Linguistics and Multilingualism. I teach on a range of other undergraduate modules at all levels, focusing on multilingualism, language varieties and language attitudes. I teach on the following undergraduate programmes:
- Introduction to Linguistics and Multilingualism
- Attitudes to Language
- Reflections in Linguistics
- Dissertation supervision
I also teach on the following postgraduate modules:
- Research Methods in Linguistics
- Dissertation supervision
I also supervise students on our MRes, MA by Research, PhD, and ELP EdD programmes.
My principal research interests coalesce into two key ongoing strands.
Attitudes, Beliefs and Knowledge about Multilingualism in schools
I am involved in an ongoing international collaborative cross-country project to investigate teachers' attitudes to linguistic diversity, which stemmed in large part from my doctoral research about the experiences of children who speak languages beyond English in UK schools (Saying more than you realise about ‘EAL’: discourses of educators about children who speak languages beyond English. Available at URL: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/19395/).
My co-researchers and I are currently working on multiple co-authored papers, after publishing on some of the UK data in 2022 and on the back of a number of presentations at prestigious international conferences.
Ecolinguistics
Two projects are ongoing under this strand. The first is part of the cross-school Ecological Justice in the Curriculum project with a paper published in 2022 on student discourses about agency/ disagency with regards to ecological justice, and ongoing potential collaborations for lingusits (staff and students) as part of the ISJ's Living Lab Project.
Another project is concerned with understanding the way primary aged children can use written narratives to explore feelings and their ideas about nature and the environment, with a chapter forthcoming and two further papers in press for ecolinguistics publications.
Recent publications
I am the academic lead on the student led civic engagement project YEAL (York English as an Additional Language). This is an outreach project to local schools led by a student committee of York St John University Linguistics and Education undergraduates. The committee aims to increase aspiration amongst school children and to assist teachers in working with children who speak languages beyond English.
I am a founder member of the National Association for Language Development in the Community (NALDIC)'s Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Group, established in October 2012.
I developed a relationship with the British Council from 2010, being an English Language Teaching Research Partnership grant holder (c. £2.5K) and following this research paper up with a further publication and an appearance as a speaker during the 2012-2013 Teaching English seminar series, at the Evening Seminar for EAL teachers in May 2013.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
