Rate My Professor Mei French

Dr. Mei French is a Lecturer in the School of Education within the College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences at Adelaide University. Previously affiliated with Education Futures at the University of South Australia, she is an educational linguist specializing in multilingual education. Her academic background includes a Doctor of Education and Applied Linguistics from the University of South Australia, completed between 2012 and 2018, where her PhD investigated multilingual practices in high school settings. She also holds qualifications in Secondary Education, TESOL, Languages, and Adult Education from the University of South Australia (2005-2006), and studied Japanese Studies at the University of Adelaide in 2004. Prior to her academic career, Dr. French worked as an English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EALD) teacher in Australian high schools. Since July 2020, she has served as a Lecturer and tutor for courses such as Foundations in Education 2: Creating Positive Learning Environments, and supervises projects in the Masters in TESOL program as well as higher degree by research students.

Dr. French's research specializations encompass multilingualism, plurilingualism, translanguaging, second language acquisition, and pedagogies for linguistically diverse classrooms. Her work explores linguistic citizenship, teacher perspectives on multilingual resources, and the integration of multilingual approaches in education policy and practice. Key publications include the book 'Using multilingual approaches: moving from theory to practice. A resource book of strategies, activities and projects for the classroom' (2019), 'Eroding the monolingual monolith' (2020), 'Multilingual pedagogies in practice' (2019), 'Reciprocal multilingual awareness for linguistic citizenship' (2023), 'Southern multilingual moves in education: agency, citizenship, and reciprocity' (2023), and 'Multilingualism, translanguaging and transknowledging: Translation technology in EMI higher education' (2022). These contributions have garnered over 238 citations, influencing discussions on eroding monolingual biases in Australian education and promoting reciprocal multilingual awareness. She has contributed to projects on multilingual pre-service teachers' recruitment and retention, and delivered presentations on her research, including at international symposia.