Position/Status

Professor of Applied Linguistics and Languages Education

E-mail Address

yl258@cam.ac.uk

Phone

+44 (0)1223 767638

Qualifications

• PhD in Second Language Education (University of Cambridge)
• MPhil Research in Second Language Education (University of Cambridge)
• MA Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)
• BA English Linguistics and Translation Studies (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)

Professional Bodies/Associations

• Home/Heritage/Community Languages Advisory Group (British Council and Association for Language Learning)
• Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement

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Profile

Yongcan's research seeks to deepen the debate about the role of language(s) in schooling, particularly for migrant-background children in contexts of diversity and uncertainty. He brings together three related research domains (heritage language maintenance, foreign language learning, and literacy development across the curriculum) to address critical issues in education and integration. 

Yongcan has worked on a series of linked projects on EAL children's language development, social integration and educational achievement funded by the Bell Foundation. He is co-author of the 'EAL Assessment Framework for Schools' and the Key Principles of EAL Assessment which are widely used in UK and international schools. To understand the contributions of community/heritage languages to the development of plurilingual individuals and multilingual societies, he also founded Cambridge Research in Community Language Education Network (CRiCLE-Net). 

Academic Area/Links

• Second Language Education Group
• Cambridge Language Sciences

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Research Topics and Interests

Home/heritage/community language education

Language(s) of schooling and the knowledge base for teaching in diverse contexts

Sociocultural theory and instructional design of ZPD for SLA

Language teacher cognition in (digital) communities of practice

Development, validation and evaluation of teacher knowledge/competence frameworks

Current Projects

• EAL Assessment Framework for Schools (primary and secondary)
• Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (AHRC)
• Language Development, Social Integration and Educational Achievement of EAL Children (Bell Foundation)
• The Learning Passport (Cambridge/UNICEF/Microsoft)
• We Are Multilingual (WAM)

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Course Involvement

• Education Tripos
• MPhil/MEd Research in Second Language Education
• MPhil/MEd Research Methods Strand
• PhD/EdD Supervision
• Secondary PGCE

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Selected Publications

Zhou, Y., & Liu, Y. (2022). Theorising the dynamics of heritage language identity development: A narrative inquiry of the life histories of three Chinese heritage speakers. Language and Education. DOI:10.1080/09500782.2022.2068351  

Leung, C., Evans, M., & Liu. Y. (2020). English as an additional language assessment framework: Filling a void in policy and provision in school education in England. Language Assessment Quarterly, 18(3), 296-315. DOI: 10.1080/15434303.2020.1869745

Liu, Y. (2019). Situated teacher learning as externalising and mobilising teachers' tacit knowledge through talk in a language teacher professional community. Research Papers in Education, 34(3), 330-351. DOI:10.1080/02671522.2018.1452956

Fisher, L., Evans, M., Forbes, K., Gayton, A., & Liu, Y. (2019). Participative multilingual identity construction in the languages classroom: A multi-theoretical conceptualisation. International Journal of Multilingualism, 17(4), 448-466. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2018.1524896

Evans, M., & Liu, Y. (2018). The unfamiliar and the indeterminate: Language, identity and social integration in the school experience of newly-arrived migrant children in England. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 17(3), 152-167. DOI: 10.1080/15348458.2018.1433043

Liu, Y., Fisher, L., Forbes, K., & Evans, M. (2017). The knowledge base of teaching in linguistically diverse contexts: 10 grounded principles of multilingual classroom pedagogy for EAL. Language and Intercultural Communication, 17(4), 378-395. DOI:10.1080/14708477.2017.1368136

Duff, P., Liu, Y., & Li, D. (2017). Chinese heritage language learning: Negotiating identities, ideologies and institutionalisation. In O. Kagan, M. Carreira & C. Chik (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Heritage Language Education (pp. 409-422). London, New York: Routledge.

Liu, Y., & Evans, M. (2016). Multilingualism as legitimate shared repertoires in school communities of practice: Students' and teachers' discursive construction of languages in two schools in England. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46(4), 553-568.

Liu, Y. (2016). The emotional geographies of language teaching. Teacher Development, 20(4), 482-497. DOI:10.1080/13664530.2016.1161660

Evans, M., Schneider, C., Arnot, M., Fisher, L., Forbes, K., Liu, Y. & Welply, O. (2020). Language development, social integration and academic achievement of EAL students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.