Faidra is a Departmental Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Department of Education and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). She teaches and supervises on the MSc in Applied Linguistics & Second Language Acquisition and on the MSc in Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching. Faidra has also formed the Creative Approaches to Teaching English (CreATE) Group, that aims to explore the relationship between language development and the arts.
Prior to joining the Department as a Lecturer, Faidra received a BA in Linguistics from UCL, as well as an MSc in Applied Linguistics & Second Language Acquisition and a DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford. Furthermore, she has a CELTA from UCL’s Centre for Languages and International Education and possesses substantial experience of teaching English to adults and children in diverse academic settings.
Faidra’s research explores the linguistic, cognitive and educational factors that underpin (pre)school-aged children’s acquisition of English as an additional/foreign language. She is particularly interested in two topics under this research umbrella. The first is the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence: through experimental tasks, Faidra wants to investigate the effects that knowing a first language might have on the children’s development of a second language. The second is the role of the arts in language learning: using quantitative (and qualitative) methods, she intends to evaluate whether and how the use of artistic activities can benefit language development, teaching and maintenance.
Faidra welcomes informal contacts from students interested in:
- Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual and second language acquisition
- Language learning and maintenance through the arts
- Early language learning in school settings
Research Funding
- “Improving the oral language skills of children with English as an Additional Language through a drama-based intervention” (£44,676.39). Funding Scheme: John Fell Fund. Role: Principal Investigator (Co-Investigator: V.A. Murphy). Funding Period: September 2022 – August 2023.
- “Setting Research Priorities for English as an Additional Language” (£3,870). Funding Scheme: BAAL Applying Linguistics Fund. Role: Research Assistant (Co-Principal Investigator: V.A. Murphy, Co-Principal Investigator: H. Chalmers). Funding Period: August 2020 – July 2021.
- “From the page to the stage: A feasibility study on using theatre to improve EAL children’s communicative skills” (£2,996). Funding Scheme: TORCH Theatres Seed Fund 2019-2020. Role: Co-Investigator (Principal Investigator: V.A. Murphy). Funding Period: January 2020 – March 2020 (Interrupted due to COVID-19).
Publications
Book Chapters
Faitaki, F. & Murphy, V.A. (in press). “Using theatre to improve English as an Additional Language learners’ communication skills”, in B. Cortina-Pérez, A. Andúgar, A. Álvarez, S. Corral, N. Martínez & A. Otto (Coord.). Addressing Future Challenges in Early Language Learning and Multilingual Education. Madrid: Dykinson.
Faitaki, F., Hessel, A.K. & Murphy, V.A. (2022). “Vocabulary and grammar development in young learners of English as an Additional Language”, in M. Schwartz (Ed.). Handbook of Early Language Education (pp. 428-444). Cham: Springer.
Faitaki, F. & Murphy, V.A. (2020). “Oral elicitation tasks in language acquisition research”, in H. Rose and J. McKinley (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (pp. 360-369). London: Routledge.
Journal Articles
Faitaki, F., Nation, K. & Murphy, V.A. (in preparation). Investigating crosslinguistic transfer in bilingual preschool children’s grammar: A comparison of two experimental language production tasks.
Faitaki, F., Nation, K. & Murphy, V.A. (in preparation). Crosslinguistic transfer or developmental progress? The case of Greek-English sequential bilingual children.
Faitaki, F., Haase, A., Dimitriou, M. & Hessel, A.K. (in preparation). Transfer effects in adult bilinguals’ processing and comprehension of multimorphemic words.
Faitaki, F. & Murphy, V.A. (under review). Crosslinguistic transfer in preschool learners of English: Evidence(?) from subject realisation.
Proceedings Papers
Faitaki, F., & Nation, K., Murphy, V.A. (2021). Immersion in the Early Years: The future of education and children’s key to success. Proceedings of the Yidan Prize Doctoral Conference, 1, 125-136.
Reports
Chalmers, H., Faitaki, F., Murphy, V.A. (2021). Setting Research Priorities for English as an Additional Language: What do stakeholders want from EAL research?. British Association of Applied Linguistics.
Reviews
Faitaki, F. (in preparation). Book Review of Performative Language Teaching in Early Education: Language Learning through Drama and the Arts for Children 3-7, by Joe Winston. Language Teaching for Young Learners.
Volumes
Tawell, A., Davison, K., Faitaki, F. & Oldaç, Y.I. (Eds.). (2019). Proceedings of the 2018 STORIES Conference. Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford: STORIES Conference.
Web Publications
Faitaki, F. (2021, May 6th). Using theatre to improve children’s communication skills: Reflections on the project and plans for the future. TORCH Blog.
Faitaki, F. (2018, April 16th). Becoming bilingual at preschool: Greek children’s acquisition of subject pronouns in English. EAL Journal.
