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Adeyemi Awomodu
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Email
aawomo@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
- Language of instruction in multilingual education
- Language-in-education policy in Nigeria
- Multilingual classroom interaction
- Linguistic ethnography
- Educational inequality and classroom participation
- Translanguaging and multilingual pedagogy
Biography
I am a doctoral researcher in Linguistics at the University of Essex. My research focuses on language of instruction in multilingual primary schools, particularly how language-in-education policy is interpreted and enacted in everyday classroom practice. My PhD examines primary schools in Lagos, Nigeria, and explores how linguistic access shapes pupils comprehension, participation, confidence, and opportunities to have their knowledge recognised in the classroom. Methodologically, I draw on linguistic ethnography, classroom interaction, interviews, focus groups, and questionnaire data. My wider research interests include multilingual education, language policy, translanguaging, educational inequality, African education, and the relationship between language, participation, and educational opportunity. I am especially interested in how multilingual resources can support learning while high-status languages continue to carry greater institutional authority. More broadly, I am interested in research that connects classroom practice with questions of policy, equity, and social justice in multilingual educational settings.
Qualifications
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BA English Language and Linguistic University of Essex (2021)
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University Diploma in English Language Studies London Metropolitan University (2008)
Research and professional activities
Thesis
Language of instruction in multilingual primary schools: Policy enactment, participation and recognition in Lagos, Nigeria
This thesis examines how language of instruction shapes comprehension, participation and recognition in multilingual primary classrooms in Lagos, Nigeria. Focusing on Primary 4–6, it explores how language policy is enacted in practice and how multilingual resources support access to meaning while English retains greater institutional authority in recognised classroom performance.
Supervisor: Professor Hannah Gibson , Dr Joseph Lovestrand
Research interests
Language, participation and educational inequality
My work explores the relationship between linguistic access, classroom participation, and the recognition of pupils’ knowledge. I am particularly interested in how interactional practices, institutional language norms, and unequal access to high-status languages can shape educational opportunities without reducing these relationships to simple causal claims.