Biographical sketch

Professor Ernesto Macaro is well known for his studies in English Language Teaching as a foreign language and for his leadership in encouraging the Department of Education of the University of Oxford to be ranked first in the UK for educational research by The Research Excellence Framework; he currently works as the Director of EMI Oxford, being the only centre worlwide for research and development in English Medium Instruction, in the prestigious University of Oxford. We are honored to appoint him as our Distinguished Visiting Professor in the context of the International Image Fest 2016, as its main theme: Education.

Ernesto Macaro obtained a first degree in French and English from the University of Kent, an M.A. in Applied Linguistics by research from the University of Warwick and a Doctorate in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading. He was Director of the Department of Education at the University of Oxford from 2013 to 2016, where he is currently the Director of EMI Oxford (Centre for Research and Development in English Medium Instruction) and Professor of Applied Linguistics.

He was a teacher of French and Italian in UK secondary schools for 16 years before becoming a teacher educator and applied linguist. He joined the Department of Education of the University of Oxford in 1999, where he is currently supervising doctoral students researching the following topics: codeswitching patterns and student reactions among Chinese secondary school students of English as a second language, how teachers provide definitions of new vocabulary items in EFL contexts, secondary students' strategies for coping with English-only teacher explanations, the interaction in science lessons where English is the Medium of Instruction, the effects of backchanneling on second language oral productions, and the vocabulary learning strategies of study abroad students in out of class contexts.

His research is focused on two major strands: the second language oral discourse and interaction between teacher and learners in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) settings; and the language learning strategies that the learners themselves deploy in order to facilitate and maximize learning and in order to overcome obstacles in their language learning or their learning of academic subjects through a second language.

• Improving Foreign Language Teaching: Towards a Research-based curriculum and pedagogy, 2015.
• Language Learning: Research, policy and practice, 2013.
• Continuum Companion to Second Language Acquisition, 2010.
• Language Learner Strategies: Thirty years of research and practice, 2007.