Language, Literacies and Learning Research Group

The Surrey Language, Literacies and Learning Research Group is interested in the role of language and literacies in different learning contexts. 

Our research

Our research focuses on exploring and understanding how students and teachers use linguistic and interactional repertoires to develop conceptual understanding as well as how students and teachers develop literacies in a variety of contexts.

We examine the areas of linguistics and literacies in educational contexts including compulsory school contexts, higher education and teacher education.

Our combined research interests led to a group project exploring how we frame our research and the learning from an interdisciplinary research group. The project culminated in a recently published paper Heron et al (2024). See below under relevant publications.

Current projects

  • 2024 – 2025 Exploring AI in doctoral education. Funded through ESRC Impact Accelerator Award
  • 2024 – 2025 Designing tasks for doctoral education. Funded through ESRC Impact Accelerator Award
  • 2024 Belonging to and beyond the digital university. Funded through ESRC Impact Accelerator Award
  • 2022 – 2023 Discovering doctoral literacies: the emergence of new literacy events and relational doctoral practice: UKLA funded project
  • 2022 – 2023 Belonging to and beyond higher education in hybrid spaces: collaborative SRHE-funded project with Deakin University and Curtin University to examine how and in what ways educators can foster students’ sense of belonging and engagement in the digital university.
  • 2021 – 2023: Performing knowledge in spoken and written contexts: non-funded project based at the University of Surrey exploring PhD students’ experiences of confirmation viva
  • 2022 User experiences of a Whatsapp-supported appointment scheduling system: funded through ESRC Impact Accelerator
  • 2020 – 2021 Staff and Educational Development Society (SEDA) grant: Developing a dialogic teaching approach to teach critical thinking skills 
  • 2019 – 2021 British Academy grant: Supporting Exiled Syrian Academics in preparing journal articles from research 
  • 2020 – 2021 Collaborative project with University of New South Wales, Australia: Scoping study on oracy and equality 
  • 2020 – 2021 Collaborative project with Birkbeck University, UK: Translanguaging in collaborative research project meetings: linguistic repertoires and strategies of exiled Syrian academics 
  • 2019 – 2021 Collaborative project with Drake University and the University of Maine (USA), Maynooth University (Ireland) and the University of Edinburgh (UK): Writing beyond the University – an exploration of connections and transitions.

Meet the team

Directors

Marion Heron profile image

Dr Marion Heron

Associate Professor in Educational Linguistics

Doris Dippold profile image

Dr Doris Dippold

Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Communication

Karen Gravett profile image

Dr Karen Gravett

Associate Professor; Associate Head (Research); Director of the PGCLTHE and AFHEA pathway.

Postgraduate Researchers

  • Jessica Marsh
  • Dominique Hopgood
  • Samaher Aljabri
  • Lingyu Wang
  • Hanaa Abdullah Al-Ghamdi
  • Adeeba Ahmad
  • Raniah Kabooha
  • Fengmei Zhu
  • Junyi Zhou
  • Olutope Adebiyi
  • Zhi Li
  • Mia Moqier
  • Asif Soofi
  • Gustavo Zomer
  • Razan Al Adwan
  • Bianca Sanfilippo
  • Beyza Uçar
  • Hebba Himdi
  • Dina Mousawa
  • Claire Seller
  • Mohammad Makram Mareye
  • Paul Fernandez
  • Lingyu Wang
  • Shiyi Dai

Previous events

Stay connected

@LLL_research

Twitter profile image for LLL_research
Very much looking forward to hearing from @shelleuk at our research meeting today, on her research into Adventures… https://t.co/bRf3ZZdRNi
Twitter profile image for LLL_research
Fantastic discussions on linguistic ethnography and microanalysis of data. Thank you @HelenDonaghue Looking forwar… https://t.co/ifrDqoeqFr
Twitter profile image for LLL_research
We are really looking forward to hearing from @HelenDonaghue today at the LLL research group. She will be sharing h… https://t.co/fymwQBrdlp