Dr Anne Preston
Research Associate

Currently, I am engaged in research on a European-funded project which involves creating multilingual materials for language learning and cooking. This work involves developing new approaches to language learning and teaching to increase motivation and engagement through the use of educational technology both in and outside the classroom: see www.europeandigitalkitchen.com for more information.

As part of my work on the European Digital Kitchen, I collaborate with a range of people from ECLS and Computing Science at Newcastle University as well as academics, teachers and other educationalists in the UK and Europe.

I am currently a consultant on a Narrowing the Gap technology enhanced learning initiative led by Karen Laing at the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University. This project aims to evaluate the use of the digital kitchen with disadvantaged young learners, in order to enhance their engagement with learning, and motivate them to engage with language learning. 

I play a leading role in developing iLab:Learn, a practice-based research lab in ECLS which undertake world-class research in education and ICT by combining pedagogic theory, methods and practice in situated learning applications to motivate, develop and evaluate technology enhanced learning.

I am an external examiner for PhD candidates at the National University of Modern Languages (Pakistan) 

 

Before my current role on the European Digital Kitchen, I conducted research into motivation and engagement at Key Stage 3 in Modern Foreign Languages in the UK.

In previous research, I have also developed the use of computer assisted language learning materials for French in a task-based learning setting of a technologically enhanced kitchen. This work has involved managing a large corpus of non-native French speaker cooking sessions, the findings from which were used to improve the pedagogical and technological design of the kitchen. I am currently responsible for making a series of recommendations about materials design which will inform the new EU project: www.europeandigitalkitchen.com.

I am especially interested in how the pedagogical and theoretical underpinnings in second language learning processes can be integrated into new technological applications such as pervasive computing and situated language learning. I am working with school teachers, computer scientists, digital interactionists and applied linguists to formulate a methodology for this within a participatory research framework.

More recently, I have co-directed two films which disseminate research activities within ilab:Learn. I am keen to work more in this area and develop specific approaches in which multimedia can contribute to the dissemination and impact of research in language learning and educational technology.

To have a look at my work in this area go here and here. 

 

 

 

Previously, I taught English and French for a number of years in the UK and France.

I currently supervise Master’s students doing research in applied linguistics and TESOL and deliver sessions on research methodology. Recent examples of MA dissertations I have supervised include:

A CA perspective on group work discussion and the relationship between L1 use and learning inL2 classroom

The application of L2 motivational self-system among the Kuwaiti high school learners of English

A comparison between recasts and elicitations used by teachers in SLA communicative classrooms from a CA perspective

An exploration of English Speaking Anxiety and its potential effects on oral fluency of prepared presentation in an assessment

What is the role of learners' metacognitive strategy use in listening comprehension?

The contribution of repair to the second language learning process in a typical PPP lesson

The organisation of repair in an accuracy-based speaking lesson: A case study of an EFL classroom for secondary school students in China

I am also second supervisor to a PhD student doing a mixed methods study on vocabulary learning in the Digital Kitchen.

I lead workshops on educational technology in iLab:Learn for postgraduate students, teacher trainees, teachers and many others.