Staff Members

Dr Roger Barnard

Role: Senior Lecturer Qualifications: B.Ed. Sussex, M.A. (Linguistics) Surrey, M.A. (Education) London, Ph.D. Southampton, DipTEFLA Email: rbarnard@waikato.ac.nz Location: I3.12 Contact: +64 7 838 4466 ext. 6691

Research Interests:

Before taking up post at the University of Waikato
For twenty years in Europe and the Middle East I held a number of increasingly senior executive and advisory positions with particular regard to the teaching of English as a second or foreign language. My work focussed on the management of language teaching, the design and implementation of language curricula and professional development programmes for teachers and inspectors, and I played important roles in national language education policy and planning in Italy, Yemen and Oman. For example, as English Language Teaching Adviser to the Ministry of Education in Oman, I was a senior member of an international team responsible for designing the country’s English language curriculum. I also served for several years on the boards of directors of two international schools in a voluntary capacity. In each of these counties, I established a national professional reputation and provided leadership to educational practitioners, whether teachers, inspectors, or those involved in materials writing, testing and other aspects of applied linguistics. At various times after my B.Ed (Sussex), I completed an MA in Education (London), an MA in Linguistics (Surrey), and a PhD (Southampton).

Since taking up post at Waikato in 1995
I have taught a wide range of graduate courses leading to the Post Graduate Diploma in Second Language Teaching and the MA in Applied Linguistics. For several years, I acted as graduate adviser to the increasing number of students (particularly those from overseas) who wished to follow the department’s programmes, and I also organised the regular series of departmental seminars at which guest speakers made presentations of their research and scholarly interests. I also served on various faculty and university committees, and between 2001 and 2004, I was chairperson of the Department of General and Applied Linguistics.

In addition to teaching, I currently supervise nine doctoral students, and am frequently asked to examine doctoral and masters theses from New Zealand and abroad.

I have also been increasingly involved with several overseas universities - notably in New York, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and East Timor - usually in the capacity of Visiting Professor. As well as teach and carry out research, I have sought to build inter-institutional academic linkages and thereby actively promote the university’s strategic goal of international connectedness.

Publications
I have presented aspects of my work at many international conferences, published a number of case studies co-edited books and (co-) authored numerous book chapters and articles in international refereed journals. I encourage my research students to publish on aspects of their work in progress, and frequently co-author articles and book chapters with them. I am currently under contract with a UK publisher to edit a volume of case studies in which chapters will be co-authored by most of my doctoral students and a team of international experts.

Research interests
My research has focused on understanding the nature of learning, of language learning in particular, and the role of language in education – and the implications for teacher education, curriculum design and language policy and planning. Most recently, I have been engaged in the exploration of the extent of, and sources of, convergence and divergence between beliefs and practices of teachers and learners.

I have been a member of several funded research projects in New Zealand, Japan, and Vietnam. Since 2005, I have been the co-principal investigator of a collaborative research project to align the English language curriculum of the National University of East Timor with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The curriculum is now being implemented using computer-mediated Flexible Language Acquisition tasks (FLAX), which are based on the digital library facility (Greenstone). Both of these software innovations originated in Waikato’s Department of Computer Sciences, and we have worked closely with the design team led by Prof. Ian Witten. This project has been growing in importance since late 2005, when it was initiated with a grant from New Zealand Aid, and subsequently funded by the University of Waikato and the Seriously Asia Programme (SAP) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade.

I have recently lodged a proposal to formally establish within the School of Arts a Research Centre for the Study of Second Language Education (RUSSLE), which will seek to integrate and expand the research activities of staff and research students in the field of applied linguistics, and incorporating colleagues in related disciplinary areas.

My research and publication activity is marked by three characteristics. Firstly it is conducted within the paradigm of case study, because I fundamentally believe that it is more important to explore contexts in depth before seeking to generalise. Secondly, it is invariably collaborative, because I believe that knowledge and understanding are inevitably co-constructed within academic communities of practice. Thirdly, it is informed by sociocultural perspectives, and in particular Activity Theory.

Looking towards the future
I intend to contribute further to the growing trend towards a more educational and ethnographic stance of applied linguistics. This will be achieved in several ways:

a) The attraction of external funding for (collaborative) research projects in which I and fellow members of the proposed Research Unit will participate.

b) The enhancement of academic understanding of issues in applied linguistics, with particular reference to the study of teacher and learner cognition and discourse from a sociocultural perspective.

c) The promotion of a greater awareness, and use, of qualitative research approaches to data collection and analysis. In particular, there is a need to problematise and further validate methods of appropriate data collection/analysis in the exploration of cognition.

d) The mentoring of emerging academics, especially (but not limited to) doctoral candidates under my supervision, into the academic community, such as by encouraging participation in graduate teaching programmes, collaborative research projects, (co)authoring of conference presentations and quality-assured publications.

e) The ongoing (co)design and teaching of a range of graduate (and undergraduate) programmes in general and applied linguistics informed by current theoretical and empirical developments, my own research and that of others, especially those with whom I collaborate.

Research Publications:

You may like to view publications from 1997 onwards for Dr Roger Barnard