Profile

Biography

I joined the department in September 2010, after finishing my PhD in the Psychology of Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language at the University of Nottingham (School of English Studies), with a thesis entitled ‘A quadripolar model of identity in adolescent foreign language learners’. I also have an MEd in TESOL (with a dissertation on involvement avoidance in language learning), a BA in English Language and Literature (dissertation on a critical interpretation of identity in literature) and Qualified Teacher Status for England. I have 18 years’ teaching experience in EFL, ESP, EAP and HE contexts in the UK and abroad. I have also taught and demonstrated qualitative and quantitative research software.

I teach or have taught the following modules at York:

• English Linguistics (MA core)
• Planning and Communicating Research (MA core)
• Identity and Foreign Language Learning (MA option)
• Teaching English for Academic Purposes (MA option)
• Language and Culture (MA option)
• Computer-Assisted Language Learning and eLearning (MA option)
• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (UG option)
• Introduction to Skills for Studying Education – Argumentation (UG core)
• Quantitative and qualitative data analysis software

Departmental roles

MA TESOL Programme Leader

If you are a York MA TESOL student and would like to leave anonymous feedback on the programme, please click here.

Research

Overview

My key research interests are: self, identity, motivation and autonomy/ self-determination in foreign language learning and teaching; language teaching methodology; adolescent identity development; student-centred education; relationships between student perceptions and achievement. I welcome applications for supervision in any of these or related areas.

Current projects

Recently completed:

• Improving the perceived relevance of Modern Foreign Languages in Year 9 (with Emma Marsden and Chris Kyriacou)
• Identity and foreign language learning: A comparison of four European countries (with Emma Marsden, Vera Busse, Barbara Roosken and Lubina Gagova)
• Identity perceptions amongst international MA TESOL students: A comparative longitudinal study (with Margaret Hearnden and Martin Lamb)
• Using collaborative action research to improve postgraduate supervision (with Margaret Hearnden)

Research group(s)

Centre for Language Learning Research

Grants

• British Council ELT Research Partnership award: Identity and foreign language learning: A comparison of four European countries (principal investigator), 2011
• British Academy small research grant: Improving the perceived relevance of Modern Foreign Languages in Year 9 (principal investigator), 2011
  
• Departmental pump priming grant: Improving the perceived relevance of MFLs in Year 9: A pilot study  (principal investigator), 2011
• Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust - Small doctoral research award: A quadripolar model of identity in adolescent foreign language learners, 2009
• Lumen Publishing, Romania - National Award for Encouraging Young Researchers, 2007

Supervision

Ongoing PhD projects

• Noha Halabi - Investigating learner autonomy in a Saudi Arabian context
• Dewi Rosmala - L1 interference in Indonesian EFL students’ L2 writing
• Farihah Mazmi - English language communication competence and employability amongst final-year undergraduates in Malaysia
• Tasnima Aktar - English language learning strategies and strategy instruction in Bangladesh
• Lin Liu - The English language learning motivation of Chinese undergraduates

Publications

Full publications list

Taylor, F. (forthcoming, 2013a). Self and identity in adolescent foreign language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Taylor, F. (forthcoming, 2013b). Relational views of the self in SLA. In S. Mercer and M. Williams (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on the self in SLA. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Taylor, F. (2013a). Listening to Romanian teenagers: Lessons in motivation and ELT methodology. In E. Ushioda (Ed.), International perspectives in motivation: Language learning and professional challenges. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Taylor, F., Busse, V., Gagova, L., Marsden, E., & Roosken, B. (2013b). Identity in foreign language learning and teaching: Why listening to our students’ and teachers’ voices really matters (ELT Research Papers No. 13-02). London: British Council. Available from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications

Taylor, F. (2012). Influencing the perceived relevance of Modern Foreign Languages in Year 9: An experimental intervention (Research report). York: Centre for Language Learning Research, University of York. Available from http://www.york.ac.uk/education/research/research-paper/

Taylor, F. (2012). Acted and unacted parts: The quest for identity in Virginia Woolf’s novels (2nd ed.). Iasi, Romania: Lumen.

Taylor, F. (2010a). A quadripolar model of identity in adolescent foreign language learners (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Nottingham.

Taylor, F. (2010b). Surreptitious teacher development: Promoting change from within. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 7, 401-409.

Taylor, F. (2009a). Authentic Internet in the EFL class. Modern English Teacher, 18(1), 5-9.

Taylor, F. (2009b). Some grim effects of a nationally imposed English curriculum in Romania. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 6, 417-427.

Taylor, F. (2008). Involvement avoidance in the English class: Romanian insights (Unpublished MEd dissertation). University of Exeter.

Taylor, F. (2007). Acted and unacted parts: The quest for identity in Virginia Woolf’s novels. Iasi, Romania: Lumen.

External activities

Memberships

• British Association for Applied Linguistics
• Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée
• Society for Educational Studies
• International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

Editorial duties

Peer reviewer for:

• Journal of Educational Psychology
• Palgrave Macmillan
• System
• International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching
• International Journal of Educational Development
• International Journal of Multilingualism
• Studies in Higher Education
• Lumen Publishing

Invited talks and conferences

Taylor, F. (2012). Private and public selves in foreign language learning. Invited talk, School of Education, University of Leeds, 16 October.

Taylor, F. and Marsden, E. (2012). Sustaining post-compulsory interest in Modern Foreign Languages: An intervention study. British Association for Applied Linguistics, Language Learning and Teaching SIG Annual Conference, University of Oxford, 4-5 July.

Taylor, F. et al. (2012). Is there any place for the individual in the teaching and learning of English in Europe? ‘The English Language in Europe: Debates and discourses’ International Conference, University of Sheffield, 20-22 April.

Taylor, F. and Marsden, E. (2012). Pupil perception of Modern Foreign Language lessons and GCSE uptake. ‘Language World’ Annual Conference, Association for Language Learning, University of Manchester, 30-31 March.

Taylor, F., Roosken, B. et al. (2012). Student and teacher identity perceptions in four European countries. Psychology of Language Learning Symposium (invited), the 46th Annual IATEFL Conference, Glasgow, 19-23 March.

Taylor, F. (2011). Does identity awareness facilitate better foreign language learning? Identity in Language Teaching and Learning Symposium, the 45th Annual IATEFL Conference, Brighton, 16-19 April.

Taylor, F. (2010). Do we need identity awareness in EAP? Invited talk, Staff Development Series, Centre for English Language Education, University of Nottingham, 27 July.

Taylor, F. (2010). Are our students being ‘themselve­s’ in class? And does it matter? The 13th International Postgraduate Conference in Applied Linguistics, University or Warwick, 23 June.

Taylor, F. (2010). The public selves of foreign language learners. The Postgraduate Symposium, School of English, University of Nottingham, 12 May.

Taylor, F. (2010). Students’ differential identity: Evidence from the foreign language classroom. The 44th Annual IATEFL Conference, Harrogate, 7-11 April.

Taylor, F. (2009). Actual and possible selves in the foreign language classroom. The 12th Postgraduate Conference in Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, 17 June.

Taylor, F. (2009). 'Hands up who's not here today!' Insidious self-presentation in the foreign language class. The Postgraduate Symposium, School of English, University of Nottingham, 13-14 May.