Page 20 - ELG2207 Jul Issue 481

SPECIAL FEATURE .

Check out the research

ll the rankings in this feature are Liverpool, they concentrate on second language
based on the results of the REF acquisition, which is how a second language
2021 and all the results are based is learned and represented in the mind. At
Aeither on research done in one linguistics-based universities like Essex, they
department or case studies based on projects add in the neuroscience on how the brain
they have undertaken. processes language. Meanwhile at Birkbeck,
If you’re interested in a research-informed they research the impact of positive psychology
MA, you can start by checking the subjects on language learning. The question is: which PHOTO BY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
a university covers in the degree, including approach to psycholinguisics suits you?
the names of the options they offer – The REF results are not only based on
psycholinguistics, for example. published research, but also on the case studies
There are different ways of approaching of projects undertaken in the real world and
psycholinguistics: at corpus universities like measured for impact. The Quadrangle, University of Liverpool

Case study: University of Liverpool

A great example is the work at Liverpool, where David Oakey focuses on what he calls circular research. The research informs the
teaching, the teaching informs the projects and the results feed back into the research.
He gives me a simple example. Forty percent of the students of a local school have English as a second language, which creates
problems when it comes to communicating with parents, many of whom barely speak English at all. The schools asked Liverpool for help.
Liverpool is a corpus university and focuses on areas like corpus linguistics discourse analysis, formulaic language and second language
acquisition. “It’s in our academic DNA,” says David.
So, the first thing they asked for was example texts. A collection of school-to-parents communications was inputted and subjected to
corpus analysis, which showed that the language used was corporate, formulaic and, when checked against the Cambridge English Profile,
at least B1-B2 on the CEFR. Parents were not told their child had failed maths. Instead they were informed they “had not met target
performance expectations in the subject”.
When they analysed spoken text they found “the teachers had adopted the same corporate language”. Unable to change the language
of the school, Liverpool hit upon a plan to teach the parents to understand it with a syllabus based on the corpus of texts. The teaching
assistants drawn from the novice teachers on the Liverpool MATESOL observed and were supported by the more experienced teachers
on the MA in Applied Linguistics for TESOL. That’s what I call impact.

Check out the department

he subject area of a university of Bristol is famous for its work in the Centre
department which is home to a Master’s for Comparative and International Research,
provides clues to the approach the which examines issues of social justice
Tcourse will focus on: English language around the world, a theme reflected on it’s
departments emphasize English, in linguistics MscTESOL in its option on globalisation and PHOTO BY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
they look at languages plural, in education it’s the politics of English. At Queen’s University,
more about pedagogy and policy. Belfast, the module on research which focuses
Yet even different departments within the on children, young people and education is
same academic disciplines focus on certain taken alongside local students studying on the
areas. Take education, where the University Master’s in education. The main campus of the University of Bath

Case study: University of Bath

Perhaps the most focused of all the Masters – again in an education department – is at the University of Bath, which is renowned for
its work in international education. It runs a unit called the Centre for the Study of Education in International Context, a Master’s
in International Education and Globalisation (MA IEG) aimed at, amongst others, teachers in international schools, a postgraduate
certificate in international education for people who aspire to teach there and established by Trevor Grimshaw, an MA TESOL.
Trevor is a former teacher, teacher trainer and translator whose recent research projects have included a critique of the stereotype of the East
Asian learner and an exploration of the “marketising and branding” of English and is a stickler for what he calls the “context appropriate”
approach. “It’s not enough to just introduce these students to the key features of the latest practice. We need to show them how to make it
work in a particular context, to make it fit the customs and traditions of the culture they come from or, in the case of native-speaker teachers,
the contexts they hope to work in. What we’re aiming for is localised pedagogies.”
Bath takes the same approach to the way it comes at language awareness. “We have built a team of specialists in global Englishes and
English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI),” Trevor says. And the question students are asked to consider is: which English is right for their
context? When it comes to policy, they look at how they can adapt national curricula and assessment tools.

20 July 2022