hybrid County South D72 and Teams

Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

As many Southeast Asian nations, Thailand has recently placed significant focus on English, a language policy orientation reflecting processes of regional integration as well as narratives of national development and global competitiveness. However, the discourse around language policy in Thailand is also dominated by narratives of ‘failure’ in which speakers are consistently positioned as deficient due to their perceived lack of English. In this talk, I will discuss a project focusing on the voices of the English (non-)speakers at the heart of this discursive struggle, namely learners who, having completed twelve years of compulsory English in basic education, have not reached the learning outcomes prescribed by policy. Our participants were 25 students who, upon acceptance to a major university, were assigned to take a remedial English course as a result of their poor scores on a placement test (approximately CEFR level A1). The students participated in drawing of language portraits and focus group discussions, two activities intended to highlight their voices in relation to recent policy. Data obtained through both activities showed that the participants’ identities were largely disconnected from that imposed by policies. While top-down measures have largely promoted a vision of (English-Thai) bilingualism, participants articulated a range of plurilingual identities. In these, English played a role, but as part of a broader network of languages of local, regional and global communication. I conclude by reflecting on alternative visions of language policy for Thailand that could be developed on the basis of our participants’ voices.

This is a joint meeting with the Language, Ideology and Power group.

Together with Bethan Garrett, Carys Nelkon and Irene Wise (all Lancaster University), Uta Papen has worked with seven schools in and around Lancaster and the Morecambe Bay to support children in developing stories based on local themes, landmarks, buildings or events. The aim was to create place-based oracy and literacy activities, leading to children writing and performing their own stories. The participating children had fun exploring local places, researching their community’s past, learning how to be a story-teller, writing and illustrating their own story. ‘Local Legends’, the booklet of the seven stories, is now used by the schools and by others to inspire further story-telling and writing activities. We have been working on a curriculum resource with tips and tricks for how to engage in similar story projects, to be published early in 2026. Together with a student researcher, Uta has been researching the impact of the project on children’s motivation to write.

Julia Gillen had the great privilege of going to the 75TH Literacy Research Association Conference in Las Vegas!  Funded through her editorship of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, she presented two papers, one from her recent “Toddlers, Tech and Talk” project, focussing on very young children’s interactions with AI via smartspeakers in the home. That was written with Dr Sabina Savadova, who used to be here at Lancaster and is now at Edinburgh. SheI also presented on my new project with Dr Samuel DeJulio, University of Texas, San Antonio, “An exploratory proposal for a posthuman perspective to transform the study of “Writing Systems.”  As Chair of the Brian Street Memorial Award she presented the Brian Street Memorial Award to Dr Jennifer Frean of the University of Melbourne. Julia continues to serve as Area Chair 12, International Research and Scholarship.

Thursday 30 October evening

External talk

Lancaster Archaeological and Historical Society

Julia Gillen gave a talk to 75 members and guests of the society in St Paul’s Parish Church, Scotforth. This included an introduction to the project’s open access main collection now hosted by Lancaster Digital Collections.

FHASS Meeting Room 1 (A008)

online:  teams link

LLRC meeting

This presentation traces the personal and professional journey that led me to explore the academic literacies of displaced Ukrainian researchers. As an English lecturer from Ukraine, I found myself struggling to publish in English after arriving in the UK on a Researchers-at-Risk fellowship. This experience prompted me to question how other scholars like me were coping with the demands of academic writing in exile.

What began as a study of English language proficiency and national language policy evolved into a broader inquiry into scholarly identity, voice, and agency. Drawing on data collected from 125 displaced Ukrainian scholars, I explore how war, displacement, and institutional inequality shape research literacy practices. I also reflect on emerging themes such as the use of AI as a self-directed tool for academic empowerment.

This biographical talk offers insights into how literacy research can emerge from lived experience, shift alongside the researcher, and contribute to more equitable academic spaces for marginalised scholars. It invites reflection on how we understand and support scholarly writing in contexts of crisis, transition, and transformation.

Short Bio

 Dr Oksana Torubara is a Visiting Researcher in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University and an Associate Professor at Taras Shevchenko National University “Chernihiv Collegium” in Ukraine. With over 20 years’ experience teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes, she is currently conducting the SURE project (Supporting Ukrainian researchers in Exile), which investigates the language needs, writing trajectories, and identity shifts of displaced Ukrainian scholars. Her work draws on survey, interviews, and case study data to explore how academic literacies are shaped by conflict, policy, and global publishing norms.