Dr Harry Kuchah

Dr Harry Kuchah

Profile

I joined the School of Education in September 2018 after working for 4 years at the University of Bath. Previously, I worked in the field of English language education and Applied Linguistics for 15 years, as an English language teacher, teacher trainer, and policy maker in my home country, Cameroon. Between 2011 and 2014, I worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow at the Universities of Warwick and Sheffield. My professional experience also includes school-based literacy support with young learners in the UK as well as in-service teacher education and material development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. More recently, I have served as Consultant for the Council of Europe in Albania; for Windle Trust International and ELT Consultants in Sudan and for the British Council in countries in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America.

I am currently Past President and Outgoing Vice President of IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language); Joint-Coordinator of the Teaching English in Large Classes Research Network (TELCNet) and Member of the British Council ELAG (English Language Advisory Group).

Responsibilities

  • Programme Leader, MA TESOL, Young Learners
  • Programme Leader, MA Education

Research interests

My research interest in English Language Education looks at two main strands: the practice of TESOL and English medium instruction. In relation to the first strand, I am particularly interested in classroom based research that takes into account the role of teacher and learner agency in developing contextually plausible pedagogic principles. My recent and current research aims at replacing the predominantly deficit paradigm that characterises the top-down approach to teacher education and policy dissemination with an enhancement paradigm that draws from teachers’ and learners’ appraisals of current teaching practices as a basis for developing a framework for pedagogic innovation. My work in this area has been mainly based in Brazil and Cameroon and has included pre-service language teacher education and collaborative research within Teacher Associations.

The second strand of my research looks at issues of social (in)justice and (in)equalities around the role of English as medium of instruction in multilingual contexts in sub-Saharan Africa. Working with Colleagues in the Universities of Bath, UK and Yaounde, Cameroon, I recently completed a British Council (ELTRA) funded project 'English medium Instruction (EMI) in a multilingual Francophone context: An investigation of the learning strategies and resources of primary school children in Cameroon' and am currently Co-Investigator (With Lizzi Milligan as PI) on an ESRC funded project: 'Exploring the opportunities for learning justice: a case study of girls' educational experiences in English Medium Rwandan Basic Education.'

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD in ELT & Applied Linguistics
  • MPhil in Comparative Literary Studies
  • MA (with Distinction) in TEYL
  • MA in English Literature
  • PG Diploma in ELT

Professional memberships

  • International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)
  • British Association for Applied Linguistics
  • TESOL International Association
  • Teaching English in Large Classes Research Network (TELCNet)

Student education

I currently teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels particularly on the following modules:

EDUC5932 - Analysing Language Teaching

EDUC5981 - Teaching Languages to Young Learners

EDUC5060 - Getting started: Research Questions and Approaches in Education TESOL Programmes (China)

EDUC5993 - Teaching Oral & Written Skills for TESOL (China)

Research groups and institutes

  • Centre for Language Education

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>The school welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>