The team’s work is organized into five interconnected strands, each reflecting diverse expertise in language education
Together, we push the boundaries of language education research, combining their perspectives to address current issues.
Technology and Language Education
This strand focuses on the study of the integration process and the use of technologies in language teaching and learning. More precisely, it explores the links between language, culture and society, and their influence on the appropriation and use of the information and communication technologies by language teachers and learners.
Language Program Innovation and Evaluation
This strand centres on investigating the successes and challenges of additional language programming in Canada. Research documents and evaluates innovation in Canadian official language education or international language programs in K-12 and/or adult learning contexts, such as implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and the Canadian Language Benchmarks.
More precisely, studies aim to capture the lived experiences of students, teachers, principals, parents and other community members.
Equity in Language Education
This strand is devoted to the study of equity and social justice within language teaching and learning. Some examples include exploring the links between citizenship and the acquisition of languages in the contexts of immigration and refugee diaspora, considering how globalization has affected issues related to the integration of second language newcomers and other minoritized groups into educational systems, and examining how teachers become culturally-responsive educators.
Plurilingualism, learning contexts, and language of schooling
This strand explores the teaching of the language of schooling (i.e., its grammar, its spelling, its oral traits, etc.) with particular emphasis on the cognitive, linguistic, affective, and cultural factors that support its learning. By thoroughly considering the sociolinguistic particularities of the contexts in which this learning process takes place, this strand focuses on the languages that mark the learners’ trajectories and the linguistic varieties students utilize in and out of school. By so doing, it aims to study the plural linguistic repertoires of learners and describe their use in the teaching and learning of the language of schooling.
Language Teacher Education
This strand encompasses research on future and current language teacher education and professional learning, with a particular focus on teachers as lifelong learners and/or teachers as social actors within their professional contexts. Some areas being investigated include identity development for teachers whose first language is not the language they are going to teach, programmatic and institutional challenges faced by teachers working in minority language contexts, or addressing teacher professional well-being through a competence-based framework to respond to teacher attrition.
