Researcher in Focus
Dr Lorna Carson (Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics) is an internationally renowned scholar in the field of language learning and multilingualism. She has assumed a leadership role in promoting Chinese, Korean and Japanese Studies in the university, and is currently serving as Director of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies.
Dr Carson’s work focuses on the roles of languages in the contemporary world of mobility and migration. Her research on language learning is of vital importance to the economy and of direct relevance for emerging government policies. She employs qualitative multi-modal methods to investigate the interface between individual and societal multilingualism and the processes of second language learning throughout the lifespan.
She has a track record of successful funding applications as well as in philanthropic funding. Her research has attracted doctoral students, working on topics such as the perceived economic value of foreign language learning, collaborative learning in curriculum design, and measuring language outcomes among students in high-stakes health science programmes.
Her participation in funded international projects includes the Jean Monnet network on European Identity, Culture, Exchanges and Multilingualism, where she is a national partner (2014-2017). This project sets out to investigate language and identity formation in Europe. She was also involved in the LUCIDE consortium (Languages in Urban Communities: Integration and Diversity for Europe) where she was Principal Investigator of the Dublin and Oslo research teams as well as Work Package leader of the consortium’s research activities. LUCIDE (2011-2014) aimed to capture how communication occurs in multilingual cities, and to develop ideas about how to best manage such communication, especially in education, interpretation and translation. Dr Carson co-edited the project’s findings on the vitality of urban multilingualism (due 2015).
She has authored two books and co-edited a further volume (with Dr. Breffni O’Rourke) on aspects of language learning, as well as peer-reviewed articles in international journals. She has served in various leadership and administrative roles, including as Chair of the School’s Research Ethics Committee and as course director of the university’s institution-wide language programme (IWLP). She was the founding director of Trinity’s English for Academic Purposes programmes, now the Centre for English Language Learning and Teaching.
In 2014 she was elected President of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics. She also sits on the executive committee of AILA-Europe and the international committee of the AILA Research Network on Learner Autonomy in Language Learning. She is a sought after speaker, giving many keynote addresses and public talks across the world. She serves on the editorial board of the journal Language Learning in Higher Education and on the advisory board of the European Journal of Applied Linguistics. She was recently a guest editor, along with Dr Heath Rose, of a special edition of Language Learning in Higher Education on East Asia and language learning.
In her role as Director of the new Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, one of the university’s interdisciplinary teaching and research centres, Dr Carson is responsible for the launch of Trinity’s flagship degree in Chinese Studies. She has played a crucial role in promoting Asian Studies at third level in Ireland. She has been a key player in the development of initiatives of international importance at Trinity in the context of its Global Relations Strategy, including building relationships with top universities in Asia, such as collaboration between the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies and the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization at Fudan University.
She has served as a founding board member of the Dublin Korean School (2010-2012) and, following a series of funding awards from the Korea Foundation, established Trinity’s Korean Studies programme, including Korean language classes for students, an extramural programme in Korean Language and Culture, and outreach activities for such as a national quiz on Korean popular culture and Ireland’s first Korean Speech Contest for Korean second language learners.
Dr. Carson has also been active in extending Trinity’s extramural programme in Japanese Language and Culture. With support from the Japan Foundation, she established credit-bearing modules in Japanese for new learners as well as for students who have already studied Japanese at post-primary level. In 2014, she launched credit-bearing modules in Mandarin along with a Broad Curriculum module in Contemporary Asian Studies. She is the convenor of Trinity’s Inaugural Asian Studies Lecture Series.