Joining the Department of Education in 2020 after teaching English and foreign languages in secondary schools and early years settings for 15 years, Cate completed the MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (ALSLA) in 2021. Her doctoral research investigated the effects of using songs on young foreign language learners’ linguistic outcomes in formal educational settings through a systematic review of intervention literature and then a classroom-based randomised trial comparing primary school (age 7–8) French learners’ oral language development through songs, chants and stories.
Cate teaches quantitative research methods and critical reading/writing on the MSc applied linguistics programmes, and supervises MSc students. She also teaches on the PGCE Modern Languages programme. She served as Vice-Chair and annual conference lead for NALDIC, the national subject association for EAL until 2024, and is part of the department’s Research in English as an Additional Language (REAL) research group as well as the Creative Approaches to Teaching English (CreATE) reading group.
Cate’s research interests span arts-based approaches to language teaching (including songs and creative translation), and best practice for supporting multilingual learners’ additional language acquisition. She is particularly interested in the facilitation of teacher-researcher knowledge exchange around these topics.
Cate is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). In 2025 she received a Teaching Excellence Award from the Social Sciences Division for her work designing and implementing the Statistics for Applied Linguists module.
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters:
Chalmers, H., & Hamilton, C. (forthcoming). Sing a song of synthesis: Harmony and discordances in preparing a systematic review on the effects of songs in second language education. In S.W. Chong (Ed.) Research Synthesis Methodologies in Applied Linguistics. Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Hamilton, C., & Murphy, V. (2023). Folk pedagogy? Investigating how and why UK early years and primary teachers use songs with young learners, Education 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2168132
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(103350). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2024.103350
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
Thesis:
Hamilton, C. (2025). Investigating the effects of whole-class singing activities on linguistic outcomes of young foreign language learners in English primary schools [PhD thesis]. University of Oxford.
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e6a8b5d9-0b06-45f6-8671-02605aebddd2
Edited volume:
Hamilton, C. (Ed). (2020). Multilingual is Normal: An anthology of voices, talking about talking. https://amzn.eu/d/9Qb09rX