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Karen Forbes

@karenforbes.bsky.social
455 followers 237 following 34 posts

Associate Professor in Second Language Education at the University of Cambridge. Former languages teacher. Interested in multilingualism, identity, language learning strategies, EAL and much more! Webpage: www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/for…

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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Very happy to share our latest paper on school language policy with @nic-morea.bsky.social at @camedfac.bsky.social 😀 In this multiple case study we explore how policies around languages are developed, perceived and enacted in secondary schools. Open access ⬇️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Positioning languages in schools: Negotiating policy, perceptions and practices across three dimensions of language
Language plays a fundamental role in education, yet is rarely conceptualised as a cohesive policy issue. In multilingual schools in England, language …
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I'm very happy to share the latest paper led by the wonderful @nic-morea.bsky.social from our project on school language policies which has just been published in Language and Education @languageeducation.bsky.social. It's available open access here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Research-informed principles for developing cohesive school language policies
Language and education are intrinsically connected, as it is through language that content knowledge is both accessed and assessed, and communication occurs. Yet, in England, research has shown tha...
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
I really enjoyed giving a workshop today on multilingual identity as part of the Transforming Research into Practice series at @manmetuni.bsky.social. Huge thanks to Mai Nguyen & the team for the invite and to all of the in-person and online participants for their enthusiasm and contributions! 😃
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
I couldn't agree more @susiedentwords.bsky.social ! Resonates with findings from my own research in schools in England @camedfac.bsky.social suggesting the strategies students learn in the languages classroom (e.g. French and German lessons) can positively influence their writing skills in English.
thetimes.com
Susie Dent: Foreign languages help children decode English
The Countdown wordsmith cautions against the decline in the study of French and German, saying it gives you a ‘huge perspective on human life’
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
It was a privilege to give the opening keynote at the Language and Education conference at FPT University in Hanoi. Great to connect with and learn from colleagues from across Vietnam and beyond! 😃
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
I had a fantastic few days learning from the MULTIWRITE team at the University of Oslo @uio.no ! A pleasure to be on the advisory board for such an important project. Congrats to Hildegunn Dirdal and team!
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Delighted to have been a part of this project with my former PhD student Xinran Wu, now Assistant Professor at Xiamen University 🌟 A fantastic analysis of the role of time and space in multilingual identity development in the Modern Language Journal: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>The Modern Language Journal</em> | NFMLTA Journal | Wiley Online Library
The dynamic property and developmental trajectory of language learners’ multilingual identity (MI), which concerns one's self-perception as a multilingual learner and user, have attracted increasing ...
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Reposted by Karen Forbes
UCFL - University Council For Languages @ucflangs.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
What effect do school policies have on uptake and achievement in languages at Key Stage 4? If you are interested to learn more, read @karenforbes.bsky.social article as well as Zhu Hua, Elin Arfon and Ann-Marie Hunter’s article www.tandfonline.com/journals/rll...
tandfonline.com
Language Education in the Curriculum
Explore the article collection: Language Education in the Curriculum. Published in The Language Learning Journal.
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Looking forward to contributing to this seminar on 'Professional agency & language policy in the context of the Curriculum and Assessment Review' @camedfac.bsky.social on 30th Oct with Norbert Pachler, @wendya-b.bsky.social @zhu-hua.bsky.social @cforsdick.bsky.social and others. In-person & online ⬇️
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Reposted by Karen Forbes
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge @camedfac.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Students from less wealthy backgrounds are more likely to attend schools where learning a foreign language to GCSE is considered optional – and not necessarily even encouraged – new research by @karenforbes.bsky.social shows. Read more: content.educ.cam.ac.uk/content/poor...
content.educ.cam.ac.uk
Poorer students more likely to miss out on studying a language at GCSE
Students from less wealthy backgrounds are more likely to attend schools where learning a language to GCSE is treated as optional – and not necessarily strongly encouraged – new research shows.
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Very happy to share this article exploring the influence of school-level curriculum policies on both uptake and attainment in GCSE modern languages in England @camedfac.bsky.social Freely available to download - key points below ⬇️ (1/6) www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
tandfonline.com
Promoting modern languages beyond the compulsory stage: exploring the relationship between school-level curriculum policy, GCSE uptake and attainment in England
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
And it’s down to the other end of the country for #BERA2025 at the University of Sussex! Looking forward to presenting tomorrow morning in session P3.23 (Leadership for Linguistic and Cultural Diversity).
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Had an amazing time at #BAAL2025 in Glasgow! Great to (re)connect with colleagues and attend so many brilliant talks. Huge congrats to the organising committee for being such fab hosts 😃
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Very happy to see this paper come out which builds on our work on multilingual identity @camedfac.bsky.social 😊 It's open access so free to download - brief overview in thread below ⬇️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Willingness to identify: an exploration of the factors that influence secondary school students’ willingness to identify as multilingual
For decades researchers have debated the criteria for identifying someone as multilingual; however, little is known about how individuals, and particularly school-aged students, subjectively identi...
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Really enjoyed my first experience of Swedish PhD examination yesterday @linneuni.bsky.social Huge congratulations to Dr Legutko and her supervisors 🎉
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Always lovely to be back @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social 😊
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Excited to see this come out - it extends the application of our work on participative multilingual identity construction to higher education contexts @camedfac.bsky.social. Free to download here: www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15...
mdpi.com
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Gutted to see Modern Languages under threat at Cardiff - please consider signing and sharing! chng.it/wpFjbhydsX via @UKChange
chng.it
Sign the Petition
Save MLANG at Cardiff University!
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Delighted to see this paper come out from Zehui Yang's doctoral research. Such an important and timely topic! It focuses on an identity-based approach to enhancing the agency of non-native English speaking teachers (of English). Freely available here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
And with that, the brain is being switched off and the out of office is being switched on! Everything else is a 2025 problem. Wishing everyone a lovely festive break 🎄
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
And the award for festive typo of the day goes to… “elf-regulation” 🤣
media.tenor.com
a man in a green elf costume is standing in front of a shelf .
ALT: a man in a green elf costume is standing in front of a shelf .
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Love a world cloud! Thanks Scholar Goggler 😀 scholargoggler.com
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Karen Forbes @karenforbes.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Hello! 👋 I’m new to the neighbourhood and looking forward to rebuilding the community here. Interested in all things language and education-related 🙂
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