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People

CRiCLE-Net: Executive Committee

Yongcan Liu

Yongcan Liu     University of Cambridge    (convener)

Yongcan Liu is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Languages Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and a Bye-Fellow of Downing College. He coordinates the MPhil/MEd Research in Second Language Education programme and is the founder of CRiCLE. Broadly speaking, his research is based on two sociocultural theoretical frameworks: Wenger's Community of Practice theory, from a sociological/situational perspective, focusing on issues of situated cognition, participation and social practice, and Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory of mind, which takes a socio-cognitive view and deals with issues such as mediation, cognitive regulation and potential development. He brings together these two perspectives to understand the social nature of second language teaching, learning and teacher professional development. His recent research focuses on bilingual children's language development, social integration and educational achievement.


Michael Evans

Michael Evans     University of Cambridge

Michael Evans is Emeritus Reader in Second Language Education in the Faculty of Education of University of Cambridge and a fellow of Clare Hall College. He specialises in research in second language education with particular interests in teacher education and foreign language learning (French and Spanish) in the secondary sector. Related fields of interest include bilingual and cross-cultural pupil discourse analysis, language learner code-switching, the use of ICT in language learning, the effect of study abroad on L2 proficiency, the politics of second language education. His latest projects include ‘the impact of curriculum changes on provision and practice of MFL in schools at KS3 in England’ and ‘Social disadvantage and language education for EAL learners with an immigrant background’.


Linda Fisher

Linda Fisher     University of Cambridge

Linda Fisher is Professor of Languages Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, specialising in foreign languages education. Having taught languages in schools for the first ten years of her career, she currently co-ordinates the foreign language initial teacher education course (PGCE) and teaches on MEd, MPhil and PhD programmes. Her research interests are in languages teacher education, learner beliefs, language learning motivation, assessment for learning and languages policy. Recent projects include ‘the construction of young learners' beliefs about foreign languages through classroom interaction’ and ‘the impact of policy reform on language learning in Key Stage 3 in England’. She is currently leading the education strand of a major AHRC project on multilingualism as part of the Open World Research Initiative.


Edith Esch

Edith Esch     University of Cambridge

Edith Esch was Director of Cambridge University Language Centre and Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education. She is currently Emeritus Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College. For a number of years, she had worked on the MPhil/MEd in Research in Second Language Education programme. Her main current research interest is in the area of second language education with a special interest in the influence of the British and French pedagogical cultures in post-colonial contexts and more particularly in multilingual societies in Africa where both are in contact. These sociolinguistic and sociocultural themes in education result from her life-long interest in bilingualism, cross-linguistic communication in non-educational contexts, and factors of language change. She was recently invited to speak at the 18th Commonwealth Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Mauritius.


Karen Forbes

Karen Forbes     University of Cambridge

Karen Forbes is Associate Professor in Second Language Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in second language education in the Faculty and recently worked as a research associate on a 4-year AHRC project on multilingualism. Within the Faculty, she mainly teaches on the PGCE in Modern Foreign Language and MPhil/MEd in Research in Second Language Education programmes. Her main areas of interest lie in the use of learning strategies in language classrooms and in community language education. In the past she has worked as a teacher of Modern Foreign Languages (French and Spanish) in a Cambridgeshire secondary school and has also taught English as a Foreign Language both in a school in Spain and at various language schools in the UK. Her PhD research looks at cross-linguistic transfer of L2 writing strategies: Developing L1 and L2 writing through metacognitive strategy use.