Abigail Parrish

School of Education

Lecturer in Languages Education

Deputy Director of MA Education Programme

a.parrish@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 8113

The Wave

Full contact details

Abigail Parrish
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

Following an undergraduate degree in Modern European Studies, I trained as a Modern Foreign Languages teacher at the University of Sheffield. I went on to undertake an MA at Sheffield alongside teaching full-time in Lincolnshire, followed by a PhD in Education at the University of York.

My PhD focused on choice and motivation in Modern Foreign Languages education in schools in England, and I continue to research in this area. Before coming to Sheffield, I worked at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln where my teaching focused on education policy, language policy and research methods.

Research interests

I am interested in motivation to learn a language, particularly in schools, and how this links to factors such as choice, multilingualism and socio-economic status. I use self-determination theory in my work, which is a broad theory of motivation and wellness grounded in psychology.

I would be interested to hear from prospective research students interested in language learning motivation, self-determination theory, school-level language learning or language policy, multilingualism in schools and related topics.

Publications

Journal articles

Parrish A & Vernon J (2022) Measuring Motivation in English Schools: The Appeal of Self-Determination Theory. Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning, 4(1), 1-17.
Scally J, Parrish A & Montgomery A (2022) Intercultural competence and languages: inextricably linked or linked inexplicably?. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(3), 492-510.
Parrish A (2020) Book Review: Contemporary Language Motivation Theory: 60 Years Since Gardner and Lambert (1959). Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39(5-6), 777-780.
Parrish A (2020) Modern foreign languages: decision-making, motivation and 14–19 schools. Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(4), 469-481.
Parrish A (2020) Curriculum change in modern foreign languages education in England: barriers and possibilities. The Language Learning Journal, 48(5), 534-554.
Parrish A & Lanvers U (2019) Student motivation, school policy choices and modern language study in England. The Language Learning Journal, 47(3), 281-298.
Parrish A () Policy tug of war: EBacc, Progress 8 and Modern Foreign Languages in England. Journal of Education Policy.
Parrish A & Bailey E () Multilingualism & motivation in language classrooms in England. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education.
Parrish A, Bailey E & Pierce N () ‘Having a decent understanding of more than one language’: Exploring multilingualism with secondary school students in England.. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
Gee N & Parrish A () Towards a typology of secondary school subject departments. Teacher Development.
Oga-Baldwin WLQ, Parrish A & Noels K () Taking Root: Self-Determination in Language Education. Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning, 4(1), 1-7.
Parrish A () Feminisation, masculinisation and the other: re-evaluating the language learning decline in England. The Language Learning Journal, 1-18.

Chapters

Scally J, Parrish A & Ayudhaya PDN (2022) Power Imbalances Inequality in International Exchange in the UK and Thailand, CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON EQUITY AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN STUDY ABROAD (pp. 13-26).

Teaching interests: My teaching focuses on language education and general education topics. I am interested in all aspects of education and language policy and the teaching of research methods.

Professional activities and memberships: I lead the self-determination theory special interest group of the International Association for Language Learning.