Professor Mike Baynham

Profile

I am Emeritus Professor of TESOL in the School of Education. My professional background is in Adult ESOL and Literacy. Before I came to Leeds, I spent ten years in Sydney at the University of Technology, Sydney where I was Director of the Centre for Language and Literacy and before that I worked in London in Adult and Higher Education. My academic background is in sociolinguistics, but I have always been involved in and committed to Applied Linguistics.

Professional Activities

I was Chair of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) for the period 2001-2003.

From 1996 to 2003 I co-convened with Mastin Prinsloo of the University of Cape Town of the International Applied Linguistics Association (AILA) Scientific Commission on Literacy.

From 2006-2010 I was co-director with Stef Slembrouck of the AILA Research Network on Language and Migration.

Research interests

My research interests include oral narrative (my Phd [Reading 1988] was entitled “Narrative and Narrativity in the English of a First Generation Migrant Community). From narrative I developed an interest in speech representation in both narrative and non narrative contexts. Other areas of interest are socially situated perspectives on literacy, in particular academic literacies, classroom discourse, language and maths.

I am currently a co-investigator on the AHRC Translating Cultures project  Translation and translanguaging: Investigating linguistic and cultural transformations in superdiverse wards in four UK cities (2014-2018)

I am also interested in Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) issues in Adult ESOL and am co-investigator on the ESRC Seminar Series "Queering ESOL towards a cultural politics of LGBT issues in the Adult ESOL classroom" (2013-2015) also consultant on the British Council Nexus Project "Exploring LGBT Lives in Adult ESOL" (2013-2014).

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Language Education