BA (Peradeniya, Sri Lanka), MA (York St John University), PhD (Leeds), SFHEA
I am a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL within the School of Education, Language and Psychology. My principal research interests centre on the perceptions and practices surrounding heritage language maintenance among migrant families residing in English-dominant contexts such as England.
In alignment with this research, I established and lead the Community Language School at York St John University. The initiative is underpinned by three core objectives:
- Language education for heritage language learners and those learning an additional language;
- Professional development for volunteer language teachers through training and mentoring;
- Research and impact, with a special focus on translanguaging as a pedagogical approach to promote inclusivity.
I welcome expressions of interest from prospective PhD candidates who wish to explore topics related to heritage language maintenance, community-based language education, or translanguaging in educational settings.
I teach on a range of undergraduate and MA modules, whilst also acting as Programme Lead for the Taught MAs in TESOL, Language and Social Justice as well as the MRes in Applied Linguistics.
Module director and/or tutor:
- Dissertation (BA and MA)
- Key concepts for TESOL (BA)
- World Englishes (BA)
- Descriptive Grammar of English (BA)
- Theory and Practice in Language Teaching (MA)
- Research Methods (MA)
Recent publications
- 2024-present: Race Equity Lead, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group, School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St John University
- 2024-present: Race Equality Charter Steering group, York St John University
- 2022-2023: Wellbeing Champion, University Wellbeing Group, York St John University
- 2022-2023: Member of the Wellbeing Strategy Working Group.
- Current: Member, Centre for Language and Social Justice, York St John University.
- Current: Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK.
- Current: Member, British Association of Applied Linguistics.
- 2018-2022: External Examiner, BA and MA units in TESOL, Manchester Metropolitan University.
- 2014-2019: Mentor and Assessor, Fellowship Programme of the Higher Education Academy, UK.
- 2019-2020: Quality Panel rep, School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St John University.
- 2018-2019: Editor, Extended abstracts, BAAL 2018 online proceedings, York St John University.
- 2009-2019: Member of Language and Identities in InterAction (LIdIA) research unit, School of Languages and Linguistics, York St John University.
