Kerry was a senior lecturer based in the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism at the University of Birmingham October– November 2016.
Research within the School of Education
The purpose of her visit was to work with Emeritus Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones of MOSAIC on a publication arising from arecent Leverhulme Partnership on Sociolinguistic Realities in the Nation of East Timor and its Diasporas and to explore potential future research collaborations. The Leverhulme Research Network grant brought together international experts from six universities who have worked on East Timorese language issues from different perspectives (contact linguistics, second language acquisition, linguistic ethnography, psycholinguistics, education, language policy, and diaspora and immigration studies). Formed as an independent nation in 2002, Timor-Leste and its Diasporas are ideal loci to study on-going issues of societal multilingualism, otherwise unobservable in long-established nations. During her short visit Kerry presented a seminar on her work on linguistic landscapes in Dili, East Timor and she also held conversations with members of MOSAIC and participated in the academic life in the school.
Professional Experience
Kerry Taylor-Leech is a senior lecturer in Applied Linguistics and the teaching of second languages. Her home base is the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. She convenes courses and supervises students in these fields of study in Griffith’s postgraduate programs. Her research is sociolinguistic, ethnographic and interdisciplinary in nature and explores language policy and planning, identity, education and literacy practices in multilingual settings. She has strong interests in all aspects of language and identity, especially in immigrant and postcolonial contexts. She is a co-editor of the international journal Current Issues in Language Planning.
Recent work includes a co-edited volume (with Donna Starks, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia) Doing research within communities: Stories and lessons from language and education fieldwork (Routledge 2016), the analysis of social semiotics in public signs in Dili, East Timor, an exploration of new-Australian families’ multilingual literacy practices and a study of pre-service modern language teachers’ emerging professional identities in the light of changing language-in-education policy in Queensland. She is currently doing collaborative research on Australian adolescent perceptions of accent, migration and place identity.
A list of Kerry Taylor-Leech’s publications.
A link to Kerry Taylor-Leech’s personal blog.