Johannes teaches on the MSc Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. He holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics.
His main research interest is in constructionist approaches to foreign language acquisition, particularly in German as a foreign language. Broadly speaking, he is interested in the role of recurring linguistic patterns—ranging from fixed to flexible—in foreign language acquisition at all levels of proficiency. He is also interested in experimental pragmatics, particularly in how the interpretation of conveyed meaning differs between L1 and L2 speakers.
Johannes has extensive teaching experience in linguistics, foreign language acquisition, experimental psychology, and statistics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and the University of Oxford.
Publications
Schulz, J. & Wonnacott, E. (2024). Pragmatic competence and pragmatic tolerance in foreign language acquisition – revisiting the case of scalar implicatures. Applied Psycholinguistics. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716424000274
Schulz, J., Hamilton, C., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. (2023). The impact of multi-word units in early foreign language learning and teaching contexts. A systematic review. Review of Education, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3413
Schulz. J. (2024). Multi-word-constructions and linguistic development in early foreign language classrooms: the role of input variability. PhD thesis, University of Oxford. Available online. Data and analyses available here.
Schulz, J. (2021). Pragmatic competence and pragmatic tolerance in foreign language acquisition – revisiting the case of scalar implicatures. M.Sc. thesis, University of Oxford. Available online.
Hamilton, C., Schulz, J., Chalmers, H. & Murphy, V. (2024) Investigating the substantive linguistic effects of using songs for teaching second or foreign languages to preschool, primary and secondary school learners: A systematic review of intervention research. System, 124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2024.103350
Mathers, S., Schulz, J. & Outhwaite, L. (2023). Review of Process Quality Measures. Research review report for UK Department for Education.
Conferences
Schulz, J., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. The role of input variability in foreign language construction learning: a primary school intervention. Early Language Learning Research Association, Pedagogical University of Krakow, PL, April 2024.
Schulz, J., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. The role of input variability in foreign language construction learning: a primary school intervention. Constructionist Approaches to Language Pedagogy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE, März 2024.
Schulz, J., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. Input variability in foreign language construction learning. Experimental Psychology Society, Contextual Diversity Workshop, University College London, GB, September 2023.
Schulz, J., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. Input variability in foreign language construction learning. British Association of Applied Linguistics, Nottingham Trent University, GB, Juni 2023.
Schulz, J. & Wonnacott, E. Pragmatic competence and pragmatic tolerance in foreign language acquisition – revisiting the case of scalar implicatures. XPrag (Experimental Pragmatics Conference), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, IT, September 2022.
Schulz, J., Hamilton, C., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. The impact of multi-word units in early FL learning and teaching contexts. Advances in Teaching Foreign Languages to Young Learners, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, DE, September 2022.
Schulz, J., Hamilton, C., Wonnacott, E. & Murphy, V. The impact of multi-word units in early FL learning and teaching contexts. A systematic review. European Second Language Association, Université de Fribourg, CH, August 2022.
Kason is a Titular Clarendon Scholar, a Hong Kong Jockey Club Oxford Graduate Scholar and a DPhil student at Department of Education, University of Oxford. He is currently a MSc tutor (Science Stream) in Learning and Teaching.
He was awarded a distinction in both his PGCE/QTS at Durham University and MPhil in Educational Research at the University of Cambridge. His MPhil was fully funded by Doris-Zimmern HKU-Cambridge Hughes Hall Scholarship and received Raffan Prize In Education from Hughes Hall, the University of Cambridge.
Kason has extensive secondary teaching experience in state schools in England. He is an academic working in the field of nature of science, multimodal representations, visualization and reading and writing in science. His research has been published in a range of journals in the areas of science communication, public health and science education. These journals include Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Nature Portfolio), Studies in Science Education, Public Health, Transaction in GIS, Science and Education, Research in Science and Technological Education and International Journal of Science Education.
He is currently serving as an editorial board member of Research in Science and Technological Education. He is also a peer reviewer for a range of journals in the fields of science communication, science education, research method and applied linguistics such as Public Understanding of Science, Field Methods, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Journal of Biological Education, Science and Education, Research in Science and Technological Education, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and Asia-Pacific Educational Researcher.
Ellen’s background is in Psychology and Education with 15+ years of experience working as a school counsellor, IBDP & undergraduate and graduate lecturer for international institutions in Greece.
Her passion for engaging adolescents and young adults in experiential community projects for positive youth development prompted her to initiate the non-profit organization, EIMAI-Center for Emerging Young Leaders. As director of EIMAI and PeaceJam Greece, Ellen provides programs for youth leadership development by bringing together university mentors and vulnerable youth with Nobel Peace Laureates to empower their self-concept and purpose in self, school, society and transition to adulthood. Ellen has served on the executive board of Habitat for Humanity, Greater Athens and the Greek Adlerian Psychological Association, where she has been trained as an Adlerian therapist. Her service- learning work with youth has been awarded by the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas schools, the Nobel Peace Laureate initiative- Billion Acts of Peace, the Loukoumi-Make a Difference Foundation and best practices in character education by Character.Org.
As a scholar practitioner, Ellen has supported research projects at the Rees Centre, Department of Education and others on trauma- informed practices in UK schools.
Ellen’s research interests include: participatory action research, adolescent purpose, student voice, youth trauma, transition to adulthood, and trauma-informed and restorative educational practices with youth in social care and unaccompanied refugee minors.
Ellen has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Arizona State University, a Master’s of Education—Special Emphasis School Counseling from University of La Verne, California and Master’s in Clinical Psychology from the University of Indianapolis.
Supervisors
Dr Ian Thompson and Dr Neil Harrison (former)
Isobel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Education. Alongside her academic work, Isobel is also an independent consultant and researcher for organisations including Plan International, FCDO, Save the Children and the Landworkers’ Alliance.
Her doctoral thesis critically explored the ‘gender data revolution’ in international development through an in-depth case study of a smartphone-based data collection project working with young women in Bangladesh. During her time in Bangladesh Isobel was appointed a ‘Visiting Research Fellow’ at the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts (ULAB) in Dhaka. She contributed to research activities at the CSD, including studies of Oxfam’s PROTIC project, which worked with rural women to create smartphone-based information services on climate adaptation strategies; pro-poor technology schemes in the Teknaf peninsula; and the effect of climate change on fishing villages in the Sunderbans. Additionally, Isobel taught classes for the modules ‘Introduction to Sustainable Development’ and ‘Economic Grassroots Development’.
These experiences in Bangladesh motivated Isobel to seek out further opportunities to utilise her skills and experience to help fight the climate crisis and support the movement for climate and environmental justice. This led to her working as the research assistant for the Nuffield funded ‘Trust and Climate Change: Information for Teaching in a Digital Age’ project. This initiative brought together the Education Department and Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford with secondary schools and teachers to draft a research agenda to transform climate change teaching. She then went on to become the research assistant for the ‘Climate Change Education Futures in India’ project, which sought to develop and deploy a framework for Climate Change Education (CCE) in India and beyond to increase the effectiveness of large-scale online CCE programmes. Since completing her DPhil, Isobel has undertaken the role of Postdoctoral Researcher on the Refugee Health Education Programme (RHEP), which utilises participatory research techniques to develop a collaborative and scalable health education curriculum for refugees and survivors of trafficking and torture.
Previously Isobel was a researcher on the Goldman Sachs funded technology and educational inclusion project Go_Girl:Code+Create, which explored the ways learning to code might benefit disadvantaged young women in the UK. She holds a MSc in Gender from the London School of Economics, for which she was awarded a Distinction and the Betty Scharf prize for best dissertation. Isobel has worked as a consultant and researcher for numerous international development organisations from Plan International to CGIAR on topics such as: gender and diversity in STEM; social media and gender-based violence; gender and conflict; early marriage and pregnancy and school dropout in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); the effect of gender on early learning in LMICs; the motivations of and barriers facing new entrants to agroecological farming; and, how public engagement in urban and peri-urban farm enterprise affects health, well-being and consumption habits.
In her free time Isobel likes to grow food and flowers, and volunteers at her local community garden and a regenerative farm. She is passionate about agroecology and food sovereignty. In the future she would like to work collaboratively with others towards the realisation of an environmentally and socially just food system, as she recognises that this is the foundation of an environmentally and socially just world.
Ian Thompson is an Associate Professor of English Education at the Department of Education and Director of the PGCE course. He is joint convenor of the Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research (OSAT) and a Fellow of St. Hugh’s College. He is also a member of the university’s English Faculty. Ian is currently co-PI on the £2.55 million ESRC funded project Excluded Lives: the Political Economies of School Exclusion and their Consequences.
After completing English Literature degrees at the Universities of Leicester and Victoria (Canada) Ian worked as a journalist, lecturer and theatre director. He then taught English for sixteen years in comprehensive secondary schools. Ian studied part time at the University of Bristol and completed his PhD in Education in 2010.
Ian was appointed to his post at the University of Oxford in 2011 where he teaches on the PGCE English course and on the MSc in Learning and Teaching. Ian also supervises several DPhil students. Ian has been PI and co-investigator on several mixed methods and qualitative research projects. These projects include: Collaboration for Teaching and Learning; The Effectiveness of Arts Based Approaches in Engaging with Disaffected Young People; and Disparities in School Exclusion across the UK. He was a core member of the recent BERA Commission for Poverty and Policy Advocacy. In his current research, Ian focuses on English pedagogy, school exclusion, initial teacher education, learning, and social justice in education from a Vygotskian and cultural historical theoretical perspective.
He publishes widely in the fields of cultural historical research, social justice in education, English education, and initial teacher education. Ian is currently Vice-President of the International Society for Cultural-Historical Activity Research.