Senior Lecturer in TESOL and Education
Teaching and supervision
Research interests for potential research students
I welcome PhD supervision in all areas of TESOL, especially the following:
- Spoken discourse analysis: in particular the discourse analysis of argumentation
- Teacher education: critical and participatory pedagogies
- Exploratory Practice/Action Research methodologies
- Social Justice in TESOL
Research
My PhD investigated the ways in which the teaching and learning of argumentation in language classrooms connected to democratic citizenship. I have worked on several community-based TESOL research projects, including the HENNA project which mapped language provision against language need in a multicultural area of Leeds and the Turning Talk into Learning project, which investigated ways of generating extended turns of talk in the language classroom.
I am currently working on a research project developing an ESOL Network in Sunderland and on a research project investigating the needs and aspirations of refugees in Sunderland.
Publications
Book Section
Hepworth, Michael and Johnson, Neil (2022) Ghosts in the Machine? Exploratory Practice on a distance learning development project. In: Professional Development Through Teacher Research: Stories from Language Teacher Educators. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, pp. 31-50. ISBN 9781788927710
Hepworth, Michael (2021) Teaching controversial issues in the language education of adult migrants to the UK: a risk worth taking. In: Vulnerabilities, Challenges and Risks in Applied Linguistics. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, pp. 197-213. ISBN 978-1-78892-822-9
Hepworth, Michael (2019) Argumentation, Citizenship and the Adult ESOL classroom. In: Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, pp. 103-119. ISBN 978-1-78892-461-0
- Adult migrant language education
- Discourse analysis: especially the discourse of argumentation
- Teacher education: especially critical and participatory pedagogies
- Exploratory practice/action research
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I have completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education.