Inaugural Lecture: Marina Orsini-Jones, Professor of Global Higher Education Practice (Applied Linguistics)

Role-reversal and action-research-informed transformational digital journey ‘blends’ in English language teacher education.

In this age of complexity, new pedagogical ecologies are emerging where the lines between formal and informal learning (and teaching) have become fuzzy. The COVID pandemic has accelerated this trend, forcing us into, for example, remote learning and teaching and a re-definition and re-conceptualisation of our learning and teaching spaces. Mirroring the findings and recommendations of the JISC report ‘Technology-enabled teaching and learning at scale’ published in June 2021, this lecture will illustrate the powerful impact that the utilisation of new technology-enhanced ‘blends’ can have on the creation of inclusive and transformative learning experiences in English language teacher education. It will report on research on Virtual Exchange(VE)/Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Projects and the intercultural knowledge-sharing that can happen in these safe decolonised ‘Third spaces’. The students’ ‘voice’ is ‘captured’ in cycles of participatory action-research and informs a continuous review of what new literacies and competencies we should embed into our ELT curricula in the 21st Century.

Marina Orsini-Jones is Professor of Global Higher Education Practice (Applied Linguistics) and Associate Head of School Global Engagement in the School of Humanities. Marina is also an associate in the Research Centre for Global Learning and Principal Fellow HEA. She has been involved in e-learning innovation in language learning and teaching since the late 80s and presented at over 100 national and international conferences. She has published work in her areas of expertise that include blended learning, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Telecollaboration/Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)/Virtual Exchange (VE) and Threshold Concepts-informed action research in languages and linguistics.

View Marina Orsini Jones Inaugural lecture video on our Inaugural Lecture Series YouTube playlist.