Dr Yifang Xu is an Associate Tutor and dissertation supervisor at the Institute for Language Education and the Institute for Education, Community and Society, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. She has extensive experience in postgraduate teaching across MSc TESOL, MSc Language Education, MSc Intercultural Communication, and MSc Education programmes, and also supervises MSc dissertations on topics related to language education, intercultural communication, and applied linguistics.
With an interdisciplinary background in education, applied linguistics, and social psychology, she situates her academic work around Global Englishes, language attitudes, English language teaching, and the internationalisation of higher education to understand both the theoretical dimensions and the practical implications of these intersecting fields. Her thesis examines language attitudes and policy, particularly through the lens of Global Englishes and linguistic equity in the context of Internationalisation of Higher Education. Her role as a Research Assistant on projects related to EDI and inclusive internationalisation further reflects her commitment to exploring how internationalised institutions can promote equity and inclusivity in a global context, while also engaging with issues of fairness, access, and representation.
Building on this foundation, her current research pays particular attention to how people’s language attitudes are shaped and negotiated, with a focus on intervention and longitudinal studies designed to influence pre-existing attitudinal processes. To this end, she uses dedicated language-attitude research techniques to capture how attitudes evolve over time and across settings. Specifically, she traces patterns of change across cohorts, policy moments, and educational contexts, with the aim of generating theoretically grounded, practice-relevant insights for curriculum design, language teacher education, and institutional decision-making.