DELTEA
What is DELTEA?
DELTEA is a research project investigating foreign language (FL) learning and teaching in UK primary schools. We are a multidisciplinary group of academics based at the Universities of Southampton and Reading conducting three phases of research:
- a programme of free, online teacher education,
- an intervention in schools using both a FL phonics app and digital stories,
- a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) to scale up the professional development to include a wider pool of teachers and contexts.
We will also engage with wider education stakeholders including school leadership and policymakers to present our findings on teacher professional learning and the benefits of languages education.
Meet the DELTEA team
Dr Alison Porter
University of Southampton
Expertise
- FL literacy
- Integrated FL literacy instruction including phonics and strategies
- Digital teacher learning
- Taught in KS2 for 10 years
Recent DELTEA work
- Preparing teachers to enter the first phase of classroom research which commences in June
- Monitoring bi-weekly engagement metrics to support teacher involvement
- Designing digital professional development content on a fortnightly basis
Professor Suzanne Graham
University of Reading
Expertise
- FL literacy
- Comprehension strategies
- Self-regulation
- Language learning motivation
- Twenty-three years’ experience as a language teacher educator and trainer
Recent DELTEA work
- Choosing and modifying materials for digital storytelling
- Working with Alison to create the teacher DPD materials for Canvas
- Thinking ahead about how to use literacy activities to develop learners’ creativity and empathy
Professor Kate Borthwick
University of Southampton
Expertise
- Digital education for language teaching
- Digital tools for research purposesTaught in KS2 for 10 years
Recent DELTEA work
- Design and development of the DELTEA Digital Professional Development course
- Technical and pedagogical advice to project team on digital tools for teaching
- Advice to project team on using digital tools to collect research data
Andrew Davey
University of Southampton
Expertise
- Learning technology
- Elearning development
- Online learning frameworks
- Learning object development
Recent DELTEA work
- Technical facilitation and support
- Tool troubleshooting
- Data gathering
Travis Ralph-Donaldson
Director of Niter LTD.
Expertise
- AI (audio visual speech recognition)
- Gamification
- Mobile app development
- FL teaching
Recent DELTEA work
- Real-time AI prosody feedback for intonation, stress, and articulation.
- Teacher control panel to monitor students’ engagement and progress.
Dr James Turner
University of Southampton
Expertise
- Expertise in FL speech learning
- Phonetics
- Spelling-sound links (phonics)
Recent DELTEA work
- Sounds and spellings to analyse in the DELTEA phonics app
- Digitizing linguistic tests
- Recording audios for digital story telling
Dr Anthony Zhang
University of Reading
Expertise
- Second language vocabulary learning
- Creativity
- Eye-tracking
Recent DELTEA work
- Working with Suzanne to plan our exploration of how learners engage with digital stories
- Collaborating with the project team on decisions about some of the tools we will use with teachers and learners
Dr Heike Krüsemann
University of Southampton
Expertise
- Language learning motivation
- Experienced language teacher and resource developer
- Qualitative research methods
- Creative multilingualism
- Language education in UK schools
Recent DELTEA work
- Teacher liaison – supporting teachers with the digital stories platform, the MOOC and research tasks
- Communications – dissemination of research events and developments
- Qualitative data analysis – teacher contributions from the MOOC and interviews
- Resource development – lesson plans, worksheets and activities for our digital stories
Contact us
For further information regarding DELTEA please contact: DELTEA@soton.ac.uk