Edith Esch

Position/Status

University Senior Research Fellow in Language Education

E-mail Address:

eme10@cam.ac.uk

Phone:

01223 767646

Qualifications
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations

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Profile

Edith Esch is Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.

Her main current research is in 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 (Harding-Esch and Riley, 1985, 2003) cross-linguistic communication in non-educational contexts (PhD Dissertation), and factors of language change (Jones and Esch, 2002).

Formerly member of the Centre de Recherches et d'Applications Pedagogiques en Langues (CRAPEL), Nancy 2, France, Edith Esch was an Assistant Director of Research in Applied Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics of the University of Cambridge from 1974 until 1990. There, she pursued the notion of learner autonomy and developed the concept of advising for language learning as a new form of teaching appropriate to new technological environments. 'Self-Access and the Adult Learner', CILT, 1994.

In 1990, she was appointed Director of the new Language Centre of the University. She was involved in two major national initiatives, the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) and the (FDTL) 'SMILE' project, and in two major EC-funded Research and Development projects: HIPERNET and LEVERAGE both aiming to develop the use of broadband networks for language learning and teaching (see R and D page, Language Centre website, http://www.langcen.cam.ac.uk/

E. Esch has served on many committees including the Executive Committee for English as a Foreign Language of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and the Board of the Institute of Linguists'. Professionally, E.Esch was also actively involved in the creation of the European Association of Language Centres in Higher Education (CERCLES).

She is a frequent rapporteur for ESRC end of award reports and external assessor or validator for research initiatives in a number of European Universities. She is a member of the Conseil Scientifique de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme–Lorraine, and served on the 1996 and 2001 Research Assessment Exercise panels for European Studies.

Academic Area/Links

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Research Topics

Current Research Projects

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Course Involvement

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Publications

[selection since 2001]

Esch, E. and Solly, M. (eds.) Due 2012. The sociolinguistics of Second language Education in International Contexts, Linguistic Insights Series No XX, Berne, P.Lang.

Esch E. 'English and French Pedagogical Cultures: Convergence and Divergence in Cameroonian Primary school teachers' discourse. Comparative Education (in press)

Esch (2010) 'Epistemic Injustice and the Power to Define: Interviewing Cameroonian Primary School Teachers about Language Education' in Chris. Candlin and Jonathan Crichton (eds.) Discourses of Deficit, pp.235-255, Palgrave, Macmillan.

Yakoumetti, A. and Esch, E. (2010) 'Educational Complexities inherent in Bidialectal Communities and the Potential Contribution of the Common European Framework of Reference to Second-dialect Development', In : O'Rourke, B. and L. Carson (eds.) Language Learner Autonomy: A Festschrift in Honour of David Little, pp 291-312, Bern, P.Lang.

Esch, E. (2009) 'English and Empowerment: potential ,issues, way forward' in: Nasreen Hussain, Azra Ahmed and Mohammad Zafar (eds.) English and Empowerement in the Developing World, pp 2-26.

Esch, E., (2009), ' Clash or Crash?: Autonomy ten years on' In: Pemberton, R.Toogood, S. and Barfied ,A.(eds.) Maintaining Control : Autonomy and Language Learning, pp.27-44 . Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press.

Esch, E. (2008) 'Researching Language Education in Cameroun' in: Mpoche, K.and K. Harrow (eds.), Language, Literature and Education in Multicultural Societies, pp.24-46. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Esch, E. (2007), 'Français d'ailleurs: the pluricentricity of French Identities?'
in Bennett, W. and Jones, M. (eds.) The French Language and Questions of Identity, London, Legenda Series.

Esch, E. Review of A. Barfield and M. Nix (eds.) Autonomy you ask! (The Learner Development Special Interest Group of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Tokyo, 2003, xxiii + 298pp) System, 33 ( 2005) 544-546.

Esch, E. , 2005, 'Representations of English amongst French adolescents in Senegal'. In: Cortese G. and A. Duszak (eds.) Identity, Community , Discourse: English in Intercultural Settings. Berne, Peter Lang. pp 233-265.

Yakoumetti, Androula, Michael Evans and Edith Esch ,( 2005) 'Language Awareness in a Bidialectal Setting: the oral performance and Language attitudes of Urban and Rural Students in Cyprus, Language Awareness, Vol.14, No.4, 254- 260.

Fisher,L. , Evans, M., and Esch, E. (2004) 'Using Computer-Mediated Communication to promote learner autonomy and develop intercultural understanding at secondary level', Language Learning Journal, 30, 50-58.

Esch, E. (2003) 'Le trilinguisme: recherches actuelles et questions pour l'avenir' in : Vers une Compétence plurilingue, Numéro Spécial, Le Français dans le Monde, Clé International. pp 18-31.

Harding-Esch, E. and Riley, P. (2003) The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents, CUP, pp. 1-190. (Revised second edition).

Esch, E. (2002) 'My Dad's auxiliaries' in Jones, M., and Esch, E. (eds.) Language Change: The Interplay of Internal, External and Extra-Linguistic Factors, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter. Contributions to the Sociology of Language.

Esch, E. (2001) 'Disseminating the Practice of Advising: towards a new evaluation framework' in Mozzon-Mcpherson, M. and R. Vismans (eds.) Beyond Language Teaching: Towards Language Advising, CILT: London pp. 25-39.

Plenaries

June 2007: 'English and Empowerment: potential, issues and way forward', CELSE seminar, Aga Kahn University Centre for English Language / Faculty of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.

2006: 'Home learning, school learning and the role of Language' , International Conference on Language, Literature and Education in Multilingual Societies, Yaounde, Cameroun.

2004: 'TIC i Autonomia Aplicades a l'Aprenentatge de Liingues, Castilló, (Spain).
TAAL Conference

2004: 'Autonomy Ten Years on', Hong-Kong/ Hanzhou , 'Maintaining Control', Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Language Centre Conference