Dr Xiaowen Liu
Associate Lecturer in Skills Development

Profile

Biography

I joined the School of Business and Society in 2022 as an Associate Lecturer in Skills Development. I design, coordinate, and deliver embedded skills provision at both the programme and module level, supporting undergraduate and postgraduate students in developing their academic and communication skills.

Prior to this, I was a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds, where my doctoral project explored how study-abroad students in the UK decode the socio-cultural meanings behind language and negotiate their identities within second language communities. Alongside my research, I taught across multiple BA and MA modules in Education, as well as pre-sessional academic skills courses for students from a range of subject backgrounds. I also have four years' experience working an English as a Foreign Language teacher, materials designer, and teacher trainer, during which I acquired an MA in Language Education.

I have a strong passion for research on student experience and creative pedagogy in higher education. My previous and current research and scholarship projects include topics such as:

• Students' development of second-language proficiency, identity, and intercultural awareness during study abroad
• Gamification in classrooms to enhance active learning 
• Second-language students' use of translation software
• Students' perceptions of supervisor authority in higher education
• Instructional strictness: students' perceptions and its effectiveness 

Publications

Selected publications

Liu, X.  and Liu, J. (2026). Enhancing Active Learning through Gamification: Developing Research Skills with an Escape Game Experience. In Neal-Smith, J. and Martins, H. (Eds.). Approaching the Classroom Creatively, pp. 46-65. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003627890-5 

Liu, X. (2025). Shall we talk? Everyone is talking: L2 pragmatic challenges noticed by Chinese study-abroad postgraduates in the United Kingdom. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education. https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.24013.liu 

Liu, X., Lamb, M., & Chambers, G. N. (2022). Bidirectional relationship between L2 pragmatic development and learner identity in a study abroad context. System, 107, 102823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2022.102823

Liu, X. (2021). Culture and identity in the learning of pragmatics during studying abroad: A longitudinal case study. The European Conference on Language Learning 2021: Official Conference Proceedings. IAFOR. https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-112X.2021.1