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Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > Elizabeth Erling

Elizabeth Erling

Lec in Ed, Internat Teacher Education

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Department of Education


Profile

I joined the OU in September 2007. My role in OpenELT is to create and deliver language and professional development programmes for English language teachers, as well as discipline-specific English language and literacy development programmes.

I am currently co-chair of the course L185 English for Academic Purposes Online and on the course team for LB160, Professional Communication Skills for Business Studies. I also work the English in Action project in Bangladesh, which is delivering teacher training and learning materials using a diverse range of information and communications technologies (http://eiabd.com).

From 1998-2007 I was a Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes in the Language Centre of the Free University of Berlin.

From 1995-1997 I was a freelance English teacher in various companies, private language institutes and secondary schools in Seoul, Korea.

For my PhD, I carried out sociolinguistic research analyzing the role of English in the lives of university students. My thesis, Globalization, English and the German University Classroom, includes a theoretical overview of globalization and the spread of English as well as a qualitative analysis of students’ uses of and attitudes towards English.

Teaching Interests

As a specialist in teaching writing across the curriculum, I am interested that student writers develop both subject and language expertise. But as I am aware of the  global hegemony of English as an academic language, I also intend to promote awareness of the social concerns involved in teaching dominant languages. One continuing aim of my work is to develop materials that can be used to provide students with English as an additional language with the resources to convey their own identity in English while also promoting agency and the critical skills to negotiate (and potentially resist) norms of the standard language.

 

Research Interests

Language policy: I have examined the increasing use of English in higher education across Europe and how English is increasingly being used as a gatekeeper to higher education. I am also interested in the role of English in language education policies in developing countries.

World Englishes: I have looked into the increasing use of English in the European Union, particularly in Germany, and what this means for English language teaching professionals who are teaching students who are increasingly asserting ownership over English. Part of this research also examines the phenomenon of writer's blogging in English as an additional language.

Language and identity: My research takes account of the role of identity in the acquisition of additional languages and investigates how European speakers of English identify with the English language. The results of my studies show that a growing number of English language speakers do not necessarily idenitify with English-speaking countries.

English as a lingua franca: I am also interested in the changing norms of English and what this means for English language educators in these contexts. Where should they use their red pens?

 

Current Research

In 2008, I led an OU research project that investigated whether language use is a factor in the gap in performance between ethnic minority students and White students at the Open University. This involved textual analysis of students' assignments as well as investigating students' motivations and practices through interviews. The results are being written up for wider dissemination and publication.

In 2011, I was principal investigator on the British Council ELTRP research project English as a language for international development in rural Bangladesh.

Publications

Book Chapter
Seargeant, Philip and Erling, Elizabeth (2011). The discourse of ‘English as a language for international development’: policy assumptions and practical challenges. In: Coleman, Hywel ed. Dreams and Realities: Developing Countries and the English Language. London: British Council, pp. 248–267.
Breckenridge, Yvonne and Erling, Elizabeh J. (2011). The native speaker English teacher and the politics of globalization in Japan. In: Seargeant, Philip ed. English in Japan in the Era of Globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 80–100.
Erling, Elizabeth (2008). Local investigations of global English: Teaching English as a global language at the Freie Universität Berlin. In: Dogancay-Aktuna, Seran and Hardman, Joel eds. Global English Language Teacher Education: Praxis & Possibility. Alexandria, VA, USA: TESOL, pp. 147–165.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Hilgendorf, Suzanne K. (2006). English at the German University: A means of disadvantage or empowerment? In: Weideman, A. and Smieja, B. eds. Empowerment through Language and Education. Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture (65). Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, pp. 113–128.
Erling, Elizabeth (2005). Who is the global English speaker? A profile of students of English at the Freie Universität Berlin. In: Gnutzmann, Claus and Intemann, Frauke eds. The Globalisation of English and the English Language Classroom. Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr, pp. 215–230.
Erling, Elizabeth J. (2004). English as the language of the European academic community: Questions from the Freie Universität Berlin. In: Duszak, A. and Okulska, U. eds. Speaking from the Margin: Global English from a European Perspective. Polish Studies in English Language and Literature (11). Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, pp. 77–90.
Conference Item
Erling, Elizabeth; Leedham, Maria and Adinolfi, Lina (2010). Combining methods to analyse the relationship between language and attainment among Open University students. In: Ethnographies of Academic Writing in a Global Context: the Politics of Style, 16 July 2010, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Leedham, Maria; Adinolfi, Lina and Erling, Elizabeth (2010). Layering methods to analyse the relationship between language use and attainment among Open University undergraduate students. In: WDHE (Writing Development in Higher Education), 28-30 June 2010, London.
Erling, Elizabeth. J.; Hamid, M. Obaidul and Seargeant, Philip (2010). Grassroots attitudes to the positioning of English as a language for international development. In: Sociolinguistics Symposium 18: Negotiating Transnational Space and Multilingual Encounters, 1-4 Sep 2010, Southampton, UK.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Seargeant, Philip (2009). Discourses of international development: an analysis of the role of English in language education policies in South Asia. In: 8th International Language and Development Conference, 23-25 June 2009, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Leppänen, Sirpa and Erling, Elizabeth (2008). For the love of dog: the use of English in Finnish and German dog blogs. In: The 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, 25-29 Aug 2008, Essen.
Bartlett, Tom and Erling, Elizabeth J. (2007). Local voices in global English: the authenticity and legitimation of non-standard ways of speaking. In: 33rd International Systemic Functional Congress (ISFC), 10-15 July 2006, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Journal Article
Donohue, James P. and Erling, Elizabeth J. (2012). Investigating the relationship between English for academic purposes and academic attainment. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(3), pp. 210–219.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Richardson, John T. E. (2010). Measuring the academic skills of university students: evaluation of a diagnostic procedure. Assessing Writing, 15(3), pp. 177–193.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Bartlett, Tom (2008). Making space for us: German graduate student voices in english. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 2(2), pp. 174–188.
Erling, Elizabeth J. (2007). Local identities, global connections: affinities to English among students at the Freie Universität Berlin. World Englishes, 26(2), pp. 111–130.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Walton, Alan (2007). English at work in Berlin: A report on a survey of seven multinational companies in Germany. English Today, 23(1), pp. 32–40.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Hilgendorf, Suzanne K. (2006). Language policies in the context of German higher education. Language Policy, 5(3), pp. 267–293.
Erling, Elizabeth J. and Bartlett, Tom (2006). Making English their own: The use of ELF among students of English at the Free University of Berlin. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 5(2), pp. 9–40.
Erling, Elizabeth (2005). The many names of English. English Today, 21(1), pp. 40–44.
Erling, Elizabeth J. (2002). 'I learn English since ten years’: the global English debate and the German university classroom. English Today, 18(2), pp. 8–13.
Other
Erling, Elizabeth; Seargeant, Philip; Solly, Michael; Chowdhury, Qumrul Hasan and Rahman, Sayeedur (2012). Attitudes to English as a language for international development in rural Bangladesh. British Council, London.
Erling, Elizabeth; Burton, Sonia and McCormick, Robert (2012). The Classroom Practices of Primary and Secondary School Teachers Participating in English in Action (Study 2a2). English in Action (EIA), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Erling, Elizabeth J.; Burton, Sonia and McCormick, Robert (2011). The classroom practices of primary and secondary school teachers participating in English in Action (Study 2a). English in Action, Dhaka, Bangladesh.