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Professor Neil Murray


Job Title
Professor
Department
Applied Linguistics
Phone
+44 (0)24765-24179
Research Interests

My research interests include issues of policy and practice relating to English language and academic literacy in English-medium higher education institutions, and in particular the embedding of academic literacies, the benefits and challenges of post-enrolment English language assessment, and the intersection of English language and academic literacy provision and the widening participation agenda. I am also interested in academic writing and in pragmatics ? especially within the context of global Englishes and in terms of the application of pragmatic research/theory to language teaching materials development. I am interested in the issue of widening participation more generally and am currently involved in an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant project on attrition among non-traditional students who enter higher education.

Biography

I am an applied linguist and have been involved in language teaching and learning for 30 years in Italy, Japan, Australia and the UK. I cut my teeth as a teacher in Italy, after which I spent 9 years in Japan, working initially at a private University and later an American University (Temple University Japan), where I served as Assistant Director of its English language programme, with responsibility for the Osaka campus. Following my return to the UK to undertake research, I obtained my MPhil from Cambridge in 1992 and my PhD in 1996, under the supervision of Henry Widdowson. I then worked at King's College London for 11 years as Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics (teaching on the MA in ELT & Applied Linguistics and the BA in Language and Communication) and Programme Director of the English Language Centre. I moved to the University of South Australia in 2008, where I spent four and a half years, much of which was devoted to conceptualising and taking carriage of a new model of post-enrolment English language assessment and provision and, latterly, as Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of Language and Literacy, building a new team responsible for its implementation. I joined the Centre for Applied Linguistics here at Warwick in July 2012.

Title Funder Award start Award end
Supporting Sustainable English Teacher Professional Development in Yunnan Province British Council (China) 15 Mar 2022 31 Mar 2023
China course research Mr Liu Sing Cheong 01 Aug 2019 31 Jul 2022
How are IELTS scores set and used for university admissions selection: A cross-institutional case study British Council 01 Feb 2019 30 Jan 2020