Robert is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics and director of the MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (ALSLA). His main research interests centre on instructed foreign language learning and teaching, particularly in school settings. He is particularly interested in: reading skills and strategies; the role of phonology in reading; the teaching of phonics; language teachers’ professional learning; and the teaching and learning of Languages Other Than English (LOTE), including Chinese and Arabic as well as the more commonly taught European languages of French, German and Spanish. As a former secondary school teacher, Robert is passionate about building stronger links between research and classroom practice.
Robert teaches and supervises on the PGCE, MSc ALSLA, MSc ALLT, Masters in Learning and Teaching and doctoral programmes. He is a member of the Applied Linguistics, Teacher Education and Professional Learning and Subject Pedagogy research groups.
Robert obtained an Honours degree in Modern Languages (French and German), an MPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology, an MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, an MSc in Educational Research Methods and a DPhil in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford. After completing a PGCE in Modern Languages at the University of Sheffield in 1998, he worked as a secondary school teacher of French, German and Outdoor Education before joining the department in 2007.
