Dr Dorota Gaskins joined the School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London in 2020 to work on a Leverhulme-funded Early Career Fellowship, and to study how two- to six-year-old children acquire metaphors.

Following the fellowship, in 2023, she was appointed Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and has continued her research in the department.

Before moving into research, Dorota worked for 18 years as an MA TESOL and DELTA qualified teacher across both private and public sectors, and for 14 years as an examiner for an international language assessment board.

Research interests

• Mono/bilingual first language acquisition in early childhood (ages 1-10).
• The impact of child-directed speech on early language development.
• Contrasting perspectives on the development of language skills (especially pragmatics).
• Methods development in working with young research participants.

Teaching

Dorota teaches and supervises students on BA English Language and Linguistics, as well as the MA TESOL and MA Applied Linguistics programmes, including:

• BA Lexis / MA Lexis.
• BA Language and Communication.
• MA Second/Additional Language Acquisition.
• MA Materials Development.

PhD supervision

Dorota would be interested in supervising students working on any topic related to mono-/bilingual first language acquisition, usage-based linguistics, or figurative language development/use.