Title: - Empowering Voices: ESOL in Adult Education Across Ireland and the UK

Date: – Friday 21st March 

Location: – TCD Arts Building Room 2043

Join us for an engaging seminar hosted by LUMIERE, the Language Use and Multilingualism in Education Research Group, in the School of Education, Empowering Voices: ESOL in Adult Education Across Ireland and the UK will explore key issues in ESOL provision, policy, and practice. 

Organised by Dr Chelsea Whittaker, this event will bring together leading experts to discuss the social and political dimensions of migrant language education. The seminar will conclude with a panel discussion featuring experts from Trinity College Dublin, offering insights on ESOL in Ireland.

Why Attend?

  • Gain insights from leading scholars in ESOL and applied linguistics.
  • Explore the challenges and opportunities in ESOL provision and policy.
  • Engage in discussions on multilingualism and language education.

To register for this free event, please sign up here:

Empowering Voices: Esol-in-adult-education-across-ireland-and-the-uk

Meet our speakers:

Dr Melanie Cooke (Senior Lecturer in ESOL and Applied Linguistics, King's College London).

Since 2003 she has worked as a researcher and lecturer in the School of Education, Communication and Society and the School's Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication. Melanie's research is concerned with teaching and learning in adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classrooms in the UK, in particular, the social and political contexts of migrant language education. She is convenor of the Hub for Education and Language Diversity (HELD), a collaboration between the Centre for LDC and English for Action. Most recently she worked on an edited collection, Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens (2019, with Rob Peutrell) about the role of citizenship in ESOL. She has also collaborated on several projects exploring the application of participatory pedagogy in ESOL classrooms. The most recent of these is Our Languages which aimed to raise awareness about sociolinguistic issues with teachers and learners of ESOL. Melanie was the co-organiser of Queering ESOL, an ESRC funded seminar series on the cultural politics of LGBT issues in adult ESOL.

 

Dr Declan Flanagan (Lecturer in Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) (DCU).

Dr Flanagan is an English language practitioner with over twenty years of experience in various contexts (EFL ESOL, EAL) and has worked as a senior lecturer in EAP at Queen’s University Belfast. He has recently joined the School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies at DCU. He is also an education coordinator for Looked After Children (LAC) and unaccompanied minors within the Belfast: Health and Social Care Trust (HSC). Declan is a sociolinguist who studies the social and cultural factors influencing linguistic communication, particularly English language education provision. His current research interests focus on the role of English language education in divided societies, intergroup relations and equality/equity in education throughout the island of Ireland. Declan has recently become the coordinator of both NATECLA (Island of Ireland) branch and IATEFL ESOL-SIG and is the NATECLA Language Issues Journal editor.