Mr. Rowland Anthony Imperial

Assistant Professor, C.L.C.S.

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics (TESOL) at the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences. I have recently obtained my DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford. As a trained linguist and language educationalist, my research interests are in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and the sociology and philosophy of education. My recent work draws on Latin American philosophy of liberation and decoloniality thinking, contemporary studies in the sociology of language, and histories of social activism, to promote what I call a critical-ethical politics for English language education. I have over eight years of work experience in higher education, having taught more than 15 undergraduate and postgraduate modules in applied linguistics, general linguistics, sociolinguistics, TESOL/language education, academic literacy skills, and language communication

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Rowland Anthony Imperial, Rethinking Global Englishes and moving toward reparative redress for language-minoritized and racialized TESOL practitioners, TESOL Quarterly, 0, (0), 2024, p1 - 23Journal Article, 2024, URL , TARA - Full Text
Nair, V., Khamis, R., Ali, S., Aveledo, F., Biedermann, B., Blake, O., Rosa Brea, M., Cheng, L., Sheen Chiou, H., Cruz, D., Cushing, I., de DiegoLázaro, B., Eads, A., El Amin, M., Fabiano-Smith, L., Morrison Fagbemi, A., Brown Gandhi, A., Saldívar García, E., Hackett, A., Henner, J., Hsieh, L., Huang, T., Hussain, F. N., Hyter, Y. D., Imperial, R. A., Ito, N., Joseph, H., Kaš"elan, D., Licata, G., Lin, C.-C., MacLeod, A. A.N., Malik, M., Robles Manalili, M. A., Matias, F. A., McMillen, S., Modayil, M., Mohamed, N., Mollaei, F. , Monda, D., Moya-Galé, G., Munson, B., Nkomo, C., Padia, L., Perez, C., Privette, C., Risueño, P., Rodgers, L., RodríguezGuerra, M., Serratrice, L., Shannon, D. B., Soto-Boykin, X., Tan, G., Sun, L., Wylie, K., Yu, B., Yu, V. and Zisk, A. H., Accent Modification as a Raciolinguistic Ideology: A Commentary in Response to Burda et al. (2022), Journal of Critical Study of Communication & Disability, 1, (1), 2023, p105 - 112Journal Article, 2023, TARA - Full Text
Entanglements of post-colonial, racial and (non-)native-speaker logics: non-native bifurcation and the 'dual' Filipino listening subject in, editor(s)Martinez, Julius Martin, Isabel P. , Routledge Handbook of English Language Education in the Philippines, Routledge, 2026, [Rowland Anthony Imperial]Book Chapter, 2026
Rowland Anthony Imperial, Lexical variation in Philippine English: The case of deontic MUST and HAVE TO, Philippine Journal of Linguistics, 45, 2014, p1 - 18Journal Article, 2014, TARA - Full Text
Rowland Anthony Imperial, Pluralist publics in market driven education: Towards more democracy in educational reform by Ruth Boyask, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, 178 pp., Review of Pluralist publics in market driven education: Towards more democracy in educational reform, by Ruth Boyask , International Studies in Sociology of Education, 31, (4), 2022, p493-498Review, 2022, DOI , TARA - Full Text

Research Expertise

Broad research interests: Applied linguistics Sociolinguistics Sociology and philosophy of education Theories of liberation Specific research interests: Decoloniality thinking and critical perspectives in TESOL, English for Academic Purposes, and language education more broadly; Constructive and distributive models of reparative justice in language education; Semiotics and metapragmatics; Language teacher education and continuing professional development; bi-/multi-lingualism, second language teaching, and language pedagogy

Title

A city of the (English-speaking) future? The role of English language schools in the development of New Clark City as the Philippines' first smart and green metropolis

Summary

The project that I am proposing to carry out in 2025 aims to build on the PhD data that I had collected during my fieldwork in Manila, Philippines from September 2021 to August 2022. This fieldwork, which involved many interviews with Filipino English language teachers and classroom observations, was done completely online because of the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions at the time. In this new proposed project, I intend to do conduct in-person interviews and onsite visits to several English language schools based in the Philippines. The proposed project will have two key objectives: (1) to follow up with several English language teachers that I recruited during the PhD and conduct more interviews with them; (2) to survey two potential new research sites, Angeles City and New Clark City in the province of Pampanga, Philippines, reach out to and meet with key stakeholders from several foreign-owned English language schools located in both cities. My central research question is: how did Angeles City and New Clark City in Pampanga, Philippines become popular destinations for Korean, Chinese, and Japanese nationals seeking to learn English as a second or foreign language?

Funding Agency

TCD AHSS Benefactions Fund

Date From

July 2025

English and literacy curriculum and pedagogy (excl. LOTE, ESL and TESOL), Education policy, Education, Language studies, Education policy, sociology, psychology and philosophy, Applied ethics, LOTE, ESL and TESOL curriculum and pedagogy, Comparative and cross-cultural education, Inclusive education, Sociology of education, History and philosophy of education, Professional education and training, Sociology of race, Linguistics,

Finalist - American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) 2025 Best Dissertation Award 2025

Comparative and International Education Society 2024
British Association of Applied Linguistics 2024
Comparative and International Education Society 2024
American Association of Applied Linguistics 2025
British Association of Applied Linguistics 2025