Dr Indu Vibha Meddegama

Teaching

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)

Professional activities

• 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.

Publications

• Meddegama, I.V., Skender-Lizatovic, M., and Sors, L. (In preparation) The role of professional training in scaffolding community language school volunteers’ Funds of Knowledge.
• Meddegama, I.V. and Zingaretti, M. (Under review) Translanguaging practice as an inclusive pedagogy: teacher perspectives and classroom practices at a community language school in Yorkshire.
• Meddegama, I.V. and Qian, Y. “We were willing to try again and make it understandable for both parties”: Working across geographical borders to dispel language misconceptions (2021), Bedrettin Yazan & Ali Fuad (Eds), Global Englishes Language Teacher Education, Routledge.
• Meddegama, I.V. (2019) Cultural values and practices: the pillars of heritage language maintenance endeavours within an immigrant multilingual Malayali community in the UK. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(6).
• Meddegama, I.V. (2018) Bilingualism: how to get your child to speak your language – and why it matters. The Conversation.
• Meddegama, I. (2017) A Narrative on the Use of Interviews to Shape an Ethnographic Research into Family Language Practices. In Jean Conteh (Ed.), Researching Education for Social Justice in Multilingual Settings. London: Bloomsbury.
• Meddegama, I.V. (2011) ‘A sociolinguistic study of the status/power relations enacted through the linguistic practices of a multi-generational, Indian, immigrant community.’ Proceedings of the first interdisciplinary linguistics conference on Crossing boundaries: the impact of language studies in academia and beyond, Queen’s University Belfast, 2011, pp.68.
• Meddegama, I.V. (2009) Fantasy and the credulous spectator. In: Kumarasinghe, K. (ed), Wimal Dissanayake and the Communication World, Colombo.

Conference presentations

Conference presentations

• 'Translanguaging as an include pedagogy:Teacher perspectives and classroom practices at a community language school in Yorkshire', with Zingaretti, M. British Association for Applied Linguistics conference, University of Glasgow, UK, September, 2025.
• ‘Challenging Monolingual Norms: The Impact of Translanguaging Practices in a UK-based Community Language School’, with Zingaretti, M.15th International Symposium on Bilingualism, Donostia San Sebastien, Spain, June, 2025.
• ‘Bridging the gap between ‘having’ and ‘knowing how’ to leverage life experiences: Making a case for the significance of professional training for community language school volunteers against the funds of knowledge construct’. British Association for Applied Linguistics conference, University of Essex, UK, September, 2024.
• ‘Supporting heritage language maintenance via a Community Language School’. Engaging with Language as Heritage - Roundtable event, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, March, 2023.
• ‘Community Language School-sharing experiences’. Language and Social Justice Seminar Series, York St John University, UK, November, 2022.
• ‘Championing heritage language maintenance endeavours: multilingual Malayali women’. Conference on Multilingualism, Leiden University, Netherlands, September 2019.
• 'Reflecting its socio-cultural setting: Sri Lankan English vocabulary', Festival of Ideas, York St John University, June 2019.
• 'Public engagement: focusing on processes - from planning to post-event management', LIdIA, York St John University, with Chisato Danjo and Clare Cunningham, March 2019.
• The cultural practices and values of an immigrant multilingual Malayali community in the UK: pillars of heritage language maintenance', Multilingual language theories and practices conference, University of Valladolid, Spain, April 2018.
• ‘From ‘will they understand us?’ to ‘the way they speak is not incorrect English, it is their variety, China English’. Moving beyond geographical borders for engagement and disengagement’. Talking about Teaching conference, York St John University, January 2016.
• ‘Breaking paradigms: the language learner(s) in two-generational immigrant multilingual families and heritage and host language acquisition within the home domain’. BAAL conference, Aston University, September 2015.
• 'The immigrant multilingual, Malayalis in York, UK- a paradigm of heritage language maintenance'. Languages and Linguistics Colloquium Series, York St John University, March 2015.

Invited talks

• ‘Championing heritage language maintenance endeavours: multilingual Malayali women’. ‘Perspectives on multilingualism’ colloquium, British Association of Applied Linguistics annual conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, August 2019. 
• 'Sri Lankan Englishes', World Englishes guest lecture series, SOAS, January 2019.