CRiCLE-Net: Alumni
CRiCLE students and SLEG PhD alumni are all members of the Second Language Education Group in the Faculty which provides an intellectual home for colleagues researching on second, foreign, heritage and additional language education.
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Mee Kyoung Kim Mia is currently a research associate in the Faculty of Education and | MPhil/PhD Project: The influence of language on how Korean-English heritage bilingual learners experience and express shame |
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Aretousa Giannakou Aretousa recently completed her PhD in Spanish linguistics in Cambridge. She holds a BA in Spanish Philology, a BA in Education Sciences (both from the University of Athens, Greece), a Specialization Diploma in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (Catholic University of Chile), a Master’s degree in Latin American Literature (University of Chile), and an MPhil in Research in Second Language Education (University of Cambridge). She has taught Modern Greek as a second/foreign language in Chile for six years seconded by the Greek Ministry of Education. Aretousa is currently a PhD student in Spanish and Portuguese at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) of the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research aims to investigate the change in the linguistic repertoire of Greek heritage speakers in South America. PhD Project: Morpho-syntactic change in the linguistic repertoire of Greek heritage speakers in South America |
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Joy Okwuonu Joy Okwuonu completed her BA in Education with English and her MPhil in Education and International Development at the University of Cambridge. Her Igbo heritage and her apparent inability to proficiently understand and communicate in Igbo has stimulated her interest in: the view that indigenous language learning is dwindling among youths and children living in African diaspora. This interest also encompasses investigating the need to make the paths to language learning more accessible to children and adults alike – especially considering the potential social and cultural benefits. Her previous volunteering opportunities in nursery, primary and secondary schools have contributed another area of interest: that is, the interaction between introverted or more reserved personality types in the classroom environment and later language and communication competency. |
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Tazreen Kassim-Lowe Tazreen completed her MEd in Research in Second Language Education in 2017. Prior to this, she trained for her PGCE in primary teaching at the faculty of education, Cambridge. She holds a BA in Sociology and Education from the University of Keele where she was fortunate enough to publish her third year dissertation on Multiple Intelligence theory in practice. Over her years of study she has enjoyed short term placements abroad teaching English as a foreign language in countries including Italy and Thailand. Her range of experience in classrooms, both abroad and the UK, ignited her interest to research the teaching and learning of vocabulary for bilingual children of primary school age. She is currently a full time teacher and assists with the provision of EAL support in her current school. Her research interests include vocabulary acquisition, multiple intelligences as a pedagogy, teacher development and multilingual appreciation. MEd Project: Bilingual children and vocabulary acquisition mediated through a self-made, visual learning tool |
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Catherine Bussiere Katie completed her MPhil in Research in Second Language Education in 2017. She holds a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College. Prior to Cambridge, she worked as a language tutor for immigrants in the U.S. and has experience teaching English at universities in Chile and Brazil. She was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in 2015. Upon arrival to the UK, her volunteer experience in ESOL classes for refugees prompted her to investigate the topic for her MPhil project. Her dissertation looked at the language learning and social integration experiences of Syrian refugees in the UK. Her current research interests lie similarly at the intersection of ESOL, migration and social integration. MPhil Project: “I Cannot Speak”: a case study of five Syrian refugees' language learning and social integration experiences in England |
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Harper Staples Harper is a current PhD student in the Faculty of Education. Her research focuses on the development and negotiation of multilingual identity in adolescent language learners during the L3 acquisition process, and aims to explore what factors impact, positively or negatively, upon the construction of multilinguality in different contexts of learning. She is particularly interested in the dynamic relationship between the individual and their context and the application of complexity theories in educational research. Prior to joining MEITS, she completed a Masters degree in Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Oxford, and has worked in the fields of foreign language teaching and translation in both France and Denmark. PhD Project: The complex construction of multilingual identity: exploring the dynamics between self and context in the process of L3 acquisition |
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Yuxin Feng Yuxin Feng is an MPhil candidate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She holds a BA in Italian Language and Literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University. During her undergraduate study she studied in Italy as an exchange student which extended her interest in multilingualism and language learning, heritage language acquisition and maintenance. She also taught English to high school students in China and was involved in the development of a corpus of Chinese EFL students’ writing. Her current research interests include heritage language education, language learning motivation, language and identity, second language acquisition and socialisation. Her MPhil project is a case study that looks at the motivational dynamics of Chinese heritage language learners in Italy. MPhil Project: Motivational dynamics in heritage language learning: an Italian-Chinese perspective |
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Courtney Roy Courtney Roy graduated from the Faculty of Education with an MPhil in Research in Second Language Education. Previously, she earned an B.S. Hon. in Exceptional Education from the University of Central Florida, along with a Psychology minor and TEFL certification. Courtney has been actively involved in a wide variety of learning and linguistic environments, including an English summer school for lower-socioeconomic children in the Middle East. These experiences have encouraged her to conduct research with English Learners, focusing upon instructional strategies and curriculum in multicultural contexts. Courtney is passionate to investigate international policies surrounding education. She is currently a facilitator of student-led language instruction, and serves as a mentor to first-generation university applicants. MPhil Project: The languages of maths and science: code-switching perceptions and practices between Ghanaian languages and English in Ga West classrooms |
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Hiroko Roberts-Taira Hiroko Roberts-Taira is the administrator at the Kaetsu Educational & Cultural Centre. She graduated from Waseda University (Tokyo) and taught Japanese literature in Japanese high schools. She also taught Japanese as a foreign language in The British School in Tokyo and Sheffield Hallam University & HE (UK). Hiroko founded Nihongo Club for Japanese bilingual children in the Cambridge area in 2002. She also started a Japanese studying group for Japanese bilingual high school students in 2012 and Japanese reading club associated to the International Children’s Bunko Association for young Japanese speakers in 2013. She recently completed her MPhil in Research in Second Language Education in Cambridge's Faculty of Education. Her current research interests lie in bilingual education, Japanese education in the UK, Japanese community school, language and identity. MPhil Project: Young community language learners' literacy development in a Japanese complementary school in the UK |
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Biljana Savikj Biljana completed her PhD student at the Faculty of Education following her MPhil degree in the Faculty. Prior to joining the Faculty, Biljana did her BA in English Language and Literature at Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia. Biljana has taught English as a foreign language to primary and secondary school students as well as adults for five years. She has also worked as a Grade teacher in an international school in Macedonia which involved teaching school subjects in English to students with different first languages and social backgrounds. This experience instilled in Biljana passion to investigate multilingualism, social mobility and second language acquisition, socialisation in multicultural settings, and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). PhD Project: Family language policy as parental mediation of capital, field and habitus: an ethnographic case study of transnational multilingual families |
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Yun Zhang Yun is undertaking an MPhil in Research in Second Language Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She obtained her BA in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at Nanjing University, China. During her undergraduate study, she had tutored CSL learners including Chinese heritage learners in Nanjing and had spent four months living in close contact with them. Currently, she is working on her MPhil thesis which looks at Chinese heritage language learners’ identity constructions in the study abroad context in China from a poststructuralist perspective. MPhil Project: Constructing self by learning and using Chinese in the study abroad context: multiple case studies on identities of heritage and non-heritage English-speaking young adults |
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Ting Ding Ting recently completed her PhD at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University and is currently a lecturer in Chinese at Shanghai Jiaotong University in Shanghai. She holds a BA from Beijing Foreign Studies University, an MA in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from Peking University and an MPhil in Education from Cambridge University. Her current research interests include the learning of Chinese as a heritage language, the effect of study abroad on L2 proficiency and the interrelationship between language learning, language use and identity. She has taught Chinese as a heritage language/second language since 2006 in China and the UK and has published in this area. PhD Project: Interactions between Chinese heritage language learning and identity in the study abroad context |
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Filio Constantinou Filio Constantinou is an educationist and an applied linguist. She holds a BA in Education Sciences (University of Cyprus), an MA in Language Learning and Education (University of York), an MPhil in Educational Research (University of Cambridge) and a PhD in Educational Linguistics (University of Cambridge). Her doctoral research focused on the linguistic challenges facing immigrant students in bidialectal communities. Her research interests span bilingualism, bidialectism, educational inequalities, language ideologies, writing performance and educational assessment. She is currently working as a researcher at the Research Division of Cambridge Assessment, University of Cambridge. PhD Project: School-based writing in bidialectal settings and the challenges facing immigrant pupils |
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Dieuwerke Rutgers Dieuwerke (Dee) completed her MPhil and PhD in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Dee first came to England as an exchange student from the Netherlands. As a result of her move to the UK, she became increasingly interested in what it means to be bi/multilingual and the impact this has on how we experience and influence the world, as well as on our cognition and learning processes. Dee currently works as a teacher-researcher at la Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA) in Quito, Ecuador, where her work focusses on the development of bilingual education (with both English and community languages) in Ecuador. Her current areas of interest are multilingualism and language learning, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and the role of social interaction and language in learning and learner agency. MPhil/PhD Project: Metalinguistic mediation in learning German as a third language within a Dutch-English bilingual education setting |
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Ruth Levine Having completed PhD research into children’s identities as users of different languages at the University of Cambridge, Ruth has a keen interest in children with community and heritage languages. She is also committed to the broader field of language education. After teaching languages in schools in Cambridge, Conwy and Villach (Austria), she moved into research and teacher education. Following MEd study, she worked as a researcher on a government-funded study looking at language learning at Key Stage 3. Alongside PhD study, Ruth developed a one month intercultural programme for language teachers and trainees in China and has delivered this in the UK and in China. Before moving back to Cambridge, she worked in teacher education at Liverpool Hope University where she contributes to primary and secondary programmes. PhD Project: Children's identities as users of languages: a case study of nine Key Stage 2 pupils with a range of home language profiles |
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Kseniya Tyshkevych Kseniya holds an MPhil in Research in Second Language Education from Cambridge, MPhil in Applied Linguistics from Greece, and BA in Foreign Languages from Ukraine. She has eleven years of experience of teaching Modern Greek and English in language schools in the UK, Greece, and Ukraine. After completing her MPhil in Cambridge, Kseniya worked as a Research Assistant for CRiCLE network project and conducted a bibliographic search on the literature in community language education. She was awarded a CEELBAS internship grant to receive training at the educational charity “Civilizations in Contact”. Kseniya currently resumed her teaching as a Greek tutor and prepares her first publication on the basis of her research projects. Her current research interest lies in the field of community/heritage language education and its impact on students’ general academic achievement. MPhil Project: Proficiency in a community language and the sense of belonging: a case study of learners at a Greek community school in the UK |
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Shanshan Yan Shanshan is currently Assistant Professor in Chinese Linguistics at Peking University. She completed her MPhil in Research in Second Language Education at the Faculty of Education, and her PhD in Chinese linguistics at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. Before coming to Cambridge, she had some research experience in grammar acquisition of Chinese as a second language as well as experience of teaching mandarin Chinese during her MA study at Peking University in China. She currently teaches Mandarin Chinese as a second/heritage language at FAMES. Based on her research background, she is particularly interested in Chinese language acquisition by L2 learners, language learning motivation research, and Chinese as a heritage language. MPhil Project: Motivation in heritage language learning: A multi-case study of Chinese heritage language learners studying on an L2 Chinese programme in Mainland China PhD Project: Chinese sentence final particles and their behaviours in learners of Chinese as a second/heritage language |
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Petar Apostolov Petar completed his MPhil in Research in Second Language Education at Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge in 2013 and is currenlty an English language instructor at Jumeira University, United Arab Emirates. He also holds a BA in foreign languages at FON University in Skopje Macedonia and had been an exchange student at the University of Geogria, USA. Petar has an educational background in applied foreign languages and TEFL and three years of professional experience as a language teacher at the Center for Foreign Languages in Skopje. He has worked on a number of projects on language education and youth education, in collaboration with local and international NGOs. His current research interests lie in multilingualism and minority language integrated educational programmes in Macedonia. MPhil Project: Teachers' perceptions about the role of minority language education in the conflict-ridden society of Macedonia |
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Lin Zhang Lin trained as a Chinese teacher in China and studied her MPhil in Education at Cambridge. Prior to coming to the UK, she obtained her Bachelors’ degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at University of Jinan and worked as a part-time Chinese lecturer in the International Education & Exchange School. She has taught Chinese learners from diverse international backgrounds. Lin’s research interests include language use, language attitude and cultural identity of Chinese immigrants and community/heritage learners. Her MPhil project investigated children's use of Chinese as a heritage language in three complementary schools in the UK. MPhil Project: Language use among students in Chinese complementary schools in the UK: a mixed methods inquiry |
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Karen Ashton Karen Ashton is Senior Lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand. She holds a PhD in cross-language comparability of reading proficiency from the University of Cambridge. Before joining Massey University, she was a Senior Research and Validation Manager at Cambridge Assessment in the UK and worked on several key projects, including Asset Languages, a multilingual assessment project for the Department for Education. She was also the project manager for the European Survey on Language Competences (SurveyLang), a project initiated by the European Commission which tested the language skills across 14 European countries. Her current research interests include ESOL, TESOL, community languages, assessment, the impact of assessments, comparability of assessments, international education surveys and large scale assessment methodology. PhD Project: Comparing proficiency levels in an assessment context (Asset Languages): the construct of reading for secondary school learners of German, Japanese and Urdu in England |
Past Working Group Members |
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Zhuxia Fu Zhuxia was recently appointed a Lecture in English at Shenzhen University in China after completing her PhD at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She studied for her BA in English Language and Literature at Sichuan University in China. During her undergraduate study, she took an one-year exchange program at the University of Barcelona in Spain, where she developed her interests in second language teaching and gained some experience of teaching Mandarin as a foreign language. She then received her MPhil in Research in Second Language Education from the University of Cambridge. Her current research interests are in classroom talk, genre-based pedagogies and second language writing. Her doctorate project is specifically focused on the role of talk as a mediating tool in promoting Chinese EFL learners’ conceptual development of genre in second language writing classrooms. |
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Sin-Yi Chang Sin-Yi Chang recently completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge and was appointed Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at the National Taiwan University. She obtained her BA degree in Foreign Languages and Literature at National Taiwan University (NTU) and MPhil in Research in Second Language Education from Cambridge. Her research interests include communication strategies, language policy, sociocultural theories in second language education, and the changing role of English in the growing trend of internationalization. Her current research project looks into the phenomenon of English medium instruction in higher education in Taiwan, with a specific focus placed on the impact of academic disciplines on classroom linguistic choices. Before her PhD, Sin-Yi taught English at a secondary school in Taipei for four years. She had worked as a teacher for after school alternative programs and as a teaching assistant for freshman English at NTU. |
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Simin Zeng Simin Zeng completed her PhD in Education at the University of Cambridge and was a member of Wolfson College. Her research interests include monitoring, self-repairing, communication strategies, community languages, classroom language teaching and learning, and English language teaching in China. She is currently working on her PhD project, which investigates how learners’ self-repair behaviour is affected by their classroom learning within different school settings in China (a state-run high school and a private A-level college). Prior to her Ph.D studies, Simin obtained her MPhil in Research in Second Language Education at the University of Cambridge. |
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Tianyi Wang Tianyi successfully completed her PhD in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, after the completion of her MPhil in Research in Second Language Education. She is currently working part-time at St Mary's Senior School in Cambridge. Her current research interests are language learning motivation, multilingualism and third language learning. Before her postgraduate study, Tianyi obtained her bachelor degree in English with particular focus on teaching Chinese as a foreign language at Sun Yat-sen University in China. She has also worked as a Chinese tutor for one year during her undergraduate study, which cultivated her initial interests in second language learning and teaching. Her PhD research is a mixed method study on Chinese learners' motivations in learning a third language in a Chinese university. |
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Rebecca Tron Rebecca Tron completed her MPhil in Psychology and Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Prior to this, she studied for her undergraduate Tripos in Education and English in the same faculty. Her interests in Language Education come from her teaching of English in Italy and her dissertation research with Italian schools. Broadly speaking, her research interests include the cognitive processes of language acquisition and development, bilingual education and community language education. |
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Shi Pu Shi Pu recently completed her PhD at the Faculty of Education and is currently a lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University in China. She obtained an MA in Applied Linguistics in 2009 and taught English to undergraduate students at Beijing Foreign Studies University. She also worked in primary and secondary education, promoting English teacher education and coordinating national projects on teacher education in China. In 2012, she obtained an M.Phil Degree in Politics, Development and Democratic Education in the Faculty. Her current research interests extend to cultural and ideological issues in applied linguistics, identity in relation to language, community and heritage language education, and the history of Chinese English education. Her PhD looks at critical thinking and learner autonomy in second language education. |