Skip to main content
Melanie Cooke

Dr Melanie Cooke

Senior Lecturer in ESOL and Applied Linguistics

Research interests

  • Languages

Biography

Before coming to King’s, Dr Melanie Cooke taught EFL in Spain and ESOL to adult migrants in London. Since 2003 she has worked as a researcher and lecturer in the School of Education, Communication and Society and the School's Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication.

Research 

Melanie's research is concerned with teaching and learning in adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classrooms in the UK, in particular, the social and political contexts of migrant language education.

She is convenor of the Hub for Education and Language Diversity (HELD), a collaboration between the Centre for LDC and English for Action. Most recently she worked on an edited collection, Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens (2019, with Rob Peutrell) about the role of citizenship in ESOL. She has also collaborated on several projects exploring the application of participatory pedagogy in ESOL classrooms. The most recent of these is Our Languages which aimed to raise awareness about sociolinguistic issues with teachers and learners of ESOL.

Melanie was the co-organiser of Queering ESOL, an ESRC funded seminar series on the cultural politics of LGBT issues in adult ESOL.

Teaching

BA English Language & Linguistics

  • Introduction to Sociolinguistics
  • Qualitative Research Methods 
  • Introduction to Language and Linguistics
  • Language, People and Boundaries

MA Applied Linguistics and ELT

  • Principles & Practice in Communicative Language Teaching
  • Qualitative Research Methods

MA Language and Cultural Diversity

  • Researching Linguistic Diversity
  • Multilingualism, Migration and Diversity

MA TESOL

  • Qualitative research methods

PhD supervision

Melanie is happy to consider supervising PhDs on ESOL teaching and learning, language and citizenship, language and migration.

You can learn more on Melanie's work on her research staff profile.

    Research

    books-1204029_1920
    Centre for Language, Discourse & Communication (LDC)

    The Centre for Language, Discourse & Communication is a major centre for descriptive linguistics, applied linguistics and language in education.

    Translate languages
    Hub for Education and Language Diversity

    The Hub for Education and Language Diversity (HELD) is a collaboration between academic, professional and third sector organisations.

    Project status: Ongoing

    Events

    05OctAbstract people b&w

    English language education in colonised & (in)securitised environments

    In this seminar, two researchers will share a case study of their country to answer the question: how does teaching & learning English really operate in...

    Please note: this event has passed.

    07OctSpeech bubbles digital flat design

    Teaching English in Israel/Palestine, Brazil and the UK: Resonances and commonalities?

    This seminar reflects on similarities and differences between English language teaching in Israel/Palestine, Brazil and the UK.

    Please note: this event has passed.

    Features

    It's Just Research, Ep.2: 'Teaching English as a form of political activism, with Mel Cooke'

    For the second episode of ‘It’s Just Research: Critically questioning the world we live in’, we talked to Dr Mel Cooke, Senior Lecturer in ESOL & Applied...

    ECS podcast ep2 ESOL classroom

    WPULL, the sociolinguistic paper series going polycentric

    Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies is a working paper series started in 1997. Based at King’s, it went online in 2014, through the academia.edu...

    WPULL 1903x558

      Research

      books-1204029_1920
      Centre for Language, Discourse & Communication (LDC)

      The Centre for Language, Discourse & Communication is a major centre for descriptive linguistics, applied linguistics and language in education.

      Translate languages
      Hub for Education and Language Diversity

      The Hub for Education and Language Diversity (HELD) is a collaboration between academic, professional and third sector organisations.

      Project status: Ongoing

      Events

      05OctAbstract people b&w

      English language education in colonised & (in)securitised environments

      In this seminar, two researchers will share a case study of their country to answer the question: how does teaching & learning English really operate in...

      Please note: this event has passed.

      07OctSpeech bubbles digital flat design

      Teaching English in Israel/Palestine, Brazil and the UK: Resonances and commonalities?

      This seminar reflects on similarities and differences between English language teaching in Israel/Palestine, Brazil and the UK.

      Please note: this event has passed.

      Features

      It's Just Research, Ep.2: 'Teaching English as a form of political activism, with Mel Cooke'

      For the second episode of ‘It’s Just Research: Critically questioning the world we live in’, we talked to Dr Mel Cooke, Senior Lecturer in ESOL & Applied...

      ECS podcast ep2 ESOL classroom

      WPULL, the sociolinguistic paper series going polycentric

      Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies is a working paper series started in 1997. Based at King’s, it went online in 2014, through the academia.edu...

      WPULL 1903x558