- Member of the NCLE (National Consortium of Languages Education) Research and Innovation Board.
- Member of the British Academy Language Advisory Group
- Member of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College
- Member of the ESRC Peer Review College.
- Member of the ESRC Interdisciplinary Assessment College
- Member of Editorial Advisory Board,ÌýLanguage Learning JournalÌýandÌýSystem.
- Guest Editor for Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
- Reviewer forÌýApplied Linguistics,ÌýLanguage Learning, Language Teaching Research,ÌýThe Modern Language Journal and others.
Suzanne Graham

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+44 (0) 118 378 2684
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Professor of Language and Education
- Unit of Assessment Lead, Education
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Areas of interest
- Second language learner strategies and their relationship with proficiency and self-efficacy
- Motivation for language learning, particularly at points of educational transition
- 91µ¼º½ and listening comprehension in a second language
- Creativity and language learning
- Second language vocabulary development
- Language learning and technology
Postgraduate supervision
Masters, PhD and EdD Level Supervision offered in these areas:
- Second language learner strategies and their relationship with proficiency and self-efficacy
- Motivation for language learning, particularly at points of educational transition
- 91µ¼º½ and listening comprehension in a second language
- Creativity and language learning
- Second language vocabulary development
- Language learning and technology
Current and Recent PhD and Ed D Students, with Topics/Titles of their research:
Completed:
- Emre Debreli.ÌýThe impact of teacher training programs on pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning English.
- Tom Parkinson.ÌýHow does canon formation impact upon Popular Music pedagogy at undergraduate level?
- Radhika De Silva.ÌýLearner strategy instruction in writing (English for Specific Purposes).
- Nantikarn Simasangyaporn.ÌýAn investigation of the nature of and relationship between self-efficacy and English as a foreign language listening skill in Thai university students.
- Suttawan Sriwantaneeyakul.ÌýFactors influencing Critical 91µ¼º½ development in university EFL students.
- Jinghui Wang.ÌýLearner autonomy and computer assisted language learning for Chinese learners of English.
- Shahla Yassaei.ÌýTeachers' reflective practice.
- Heike Krüsemann.ÌýAn investigation into the subject of German in UK schools.
- Fang-I Chu.ÌýEnglish learning motivation in a Taiwanese university context: A study of its dynamic nature from socio-dynamic perspectives.
- Ruth Koro.ÌýRethinking the Foreign Language curriculum through content and language integrated practice.
- Pengchong Zhang.ÌýLanguage teaching strategies and lexical acquisition in high school English as a foreign language (EFL) context in China.
- Mohammed Alshaikhi.ÌýInvestigating Saudi English teachers’ use and perceptions of the IWB when teaching vocabulary as a Foreign Language in English classrooms in Saudi primary schools.
- Yasir Yahya.ÌýThe development and implementation of a Speaking Module in Oral Presentation among undergraduate students in Malaysia.
- Nezha Badi.ÌýThe impact of collaborative strategic reading on learners’ reading comprehension and self-efficacy. The case of EFL students in Algerian universities.
- Keltoum Mansouri.ÌýEFL listening self-efficacy and metacognitive instruction.
- Abrar Owaidah.ÌýThe development of learner autonomy for EFL writing.
- James Wagstaffe (SENSS ESRC student).ÌýProcessing cohesive devices as a second language reader: A mixed methods study.
- James Bury.ÌýDeveloping and enhancing productive language and retention of lexis among foreign language learners in Japan.
- Chuyi Wang.ÌýMotivation and motivational strategies among Chinese as a foreign language adult learners in the UK.
- Ghadeer Alghahtani.ÌýTeaching L2 idioms through cognitive-linguistics inspired approaches: An experimental study with Saudi EFL learners.
- Sarah Alamoudi.ÌýLearning lexical chunks through CALL.
- Xiaobo Li.ÌýExploring a combined input and output- oriented teaching approach to develop Chinese secondary school students’ English grammatical knowledge: A classroom-based experimental study.
Current students:
- Phoebe Graham. Exploring the effects of French and Latin learning on the metalinguistic abilities of Year 7 children.
- Huining Yang. The development of learners’ listening comprehension, self-efficacy, and anxiety within an informal digital learning of English listening (IDLEL) context: Examining the role of frequency, diversity of use, and self-regulation.
- Sarah Alrashdi. Teaching EFL academic writing and metadiscourse: Teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and classroom practices.
- Deborah Buttery (SENSS ESRC Student). The use of picturebooks in the languages classroom: Impact on linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes.
- Areen Badri.ÌýListening comprehension and L2 learners with visual impairment.
- Gail Hickman.ÌýVocabulary learning and self-regulation among work-based adult learners of English.
Teaching
- MFL ITE
- PhD and MA dissertation supervision
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Research centres and groups
Language and Literacy in Education: Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism.
Research projects
- Digital Empowerment in Language Teaching (). This ESRC funded project is being led by the University of Southampton in collaboration with the 91µ¼º½, as part of the ESRC’s Education Research Programme. It examines the role of technology in foreign language teaching and learning in the primary school, and runs from December 2022 to December 2025.
- Access and Higher Education: Inclusive Online Learning for Deaf Students.ÌýThis Leverhulme Trust funded-project is being conducted in collaboration with the 91µ¼º½â€™s Department of Computer Science and two 91µ¼º½-based partner organisations,ÌýÌýandÌý. The project is exploring how to adapt online materials to enhance the learning of HE students who are deaf, as well as those who have dyslexia or speak English as an additional language.
- Linguistic Creativity in Language Learning.ÌýThis project, led by Suzanne Graham in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, is the Education Strand of a large interdisciplinary project with several universities headed by Oxford, ‘Creative Multilingualism’. It is part of the Open World Research Initiative scheme, funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). It explores the impact of using literary and non-literary texts on the motivation and linguistic development of learners of French and German in secondary schools. SeeÌý.
- Developing the teaching of reading in Modern Foreign Languages.ÌýFunded by the Nuffield Foundation and led by the University of Oxford, this project investigated whether instruction in phonics and reading strategies can improve progress and motivation for beginner learners of French at secondary school.
SeeÌý. - The Language Magician.ÌýFunded by the European Commission and in collaboration with a range of European Partners, this project builds on our Nuffield Primary Modern Languages project in creating an assessment tool for use in primary languages classrooms throughout Europe. For more details seeÌý.
- Professional Development Consortium in MFL.ÌýSupported by the ESRC Follow-on Fund, this joint project between the universities of 91µ¼º½ and Oxford aimed to close the divide between what research indicates are the principles of effective language teaching and learning, and current practice within the MFL curriculum. For more details see the project blog,Ìý
- Primary Modern Languages: the impact of teaching approaches on attainment and preparedness for secondary school language learning.ÌýThis project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and was joint with colleagues from Applied Linguistics and Clinical Language Sciences. A 2-year project (2012-2014), it investigated the teaching of French in primary schools and its impact on learners' grammatical knowledge and preparedness for secondary school MFL learning. SeeÌý
- Second language listening comprehension in England: from current practice to improved pedagogy.ÌýFunded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, this project investigated teachers' beliefs about and understanding of the teaching of second language listening comprehension in its first phase. The second phase of the research developed and evaluated materials to improve teachers' ability to teach listening as a skill. These were rolled out in workshops for teachers and ITE tutors. SeeÌý
- Strategy training in Year 12 French.ÌýThis Economic and Social Research Council funded project investigated the impact of a programme of strategy training on the listening and writing of Year 12 learners of French. SeeÌý.
Awards and honours
Award of Fellow of Social Sciences by the Academy of Social Sciences, 2026Enterprise activity, external roles and consultancy: