Special Announcement

23 Apr 2025

The Office of the Department of English and Communication has moved to 9/F, PolyU Hung Hom Bay Campus, 8 Hung Lok Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong w.e.f. 14 April 2025.

Faculty of Humanities

Staff Current Students
Start main content
  1. Home
  2. People
  3. Academic Staff
  4. Prof. Steve Marshall

Academic Staff

Prof. Steve Marshall

Prof. Steve Marshall

Director, Language Education Institute & Professor

Google Scholar
Research Gate

Biography

Before coming to PolyU, I had 30+ years of experience teaching English for academic purposes, academic literacy, and applied linguistics in higher education in the UK and Canada. My research is primarily qualitative and falls under the broad umbrella of applied linguistics. I focus on several areas, including academic literacies, plurilingualism, the effects of AI on students’ academic writing, international teacher education, and linguistic landscapes.

Research Overview

My research on academic literacies and plurilingualism has focused on English as an additional language (EAL) students’ learning experiences in first-year academic literacy classes and classes across the disciplines in higher education, their sense of belonging, identities, and use of languages other than English as tools for learning. I have also researched instructors' pedagogical responses to cultural and linguistic diversity in their classes. Most recently, I have analysed the incorporation of GenAI into higher education classes and the resulting co-constructed nature of knowledge formation, agency, and learning.

My other recent research has focused on the following: language teachers’ professional development during and after study abroad; how ethnic Japanese Nikkei Latin Americans combine Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese in their daily lives and between generations; and linguistic landscapes in higher education and as public pedagogy.

Education and Academic Qualifications

  • PhD, UCL Institute of Education (Educational Sociolinguistics)
  • MA, UCL Institute of Education (TESOL)
  • MA, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London (Area Studies)
  • BA (Hons), University of Manchester (Spanish Studies)

Academic and Professional Experience

  • 2023-2026, Associate Dean, Research and International, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • 2021-2026, Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • 2013-2021, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • 2006-2013, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • 2005-2006, Limited Term Lecturer, Writing Intensive Learning Office, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • 1993-2005, Lecturer, Language Centre, University College London

Research Interests

  • Applied Linguistics
  • Academic Literacy
  • Plurilingualism
  • AI and Academic Writing
  • International Language Teacher Education
  • Linguistic Landscapes
  • Language and Migration

Research Output

  1. Marshall, S., Clemente, A., & Higgins, M. (Eds.) (2014). Shaping ethnography in multilingual and multicultural contexts. Althouse Press (click on the title for a free download)
  1. Marshall, S. (2024). Advance in Academic Writing 2, Second Edition. TC Media ELT
  2. Marshall, S. (2019). Advance in Academic Writing 1. Montreal: Pearson ELT. CEFR Level B2
  3. Marshall, S. (2019). Grammar for Academic Purposes 1. Montreal: Pearson ELT. CEFR Level B2
  4. Marshall, S. (2018). Grammar for Academic Purposes 2. Montreal: Pearson ELT. CEFR Level C1
  5. Marshall, S. (2017). Advance in Academic Writing 2. Montreal: Pearson ELT. CEFR Level C1
  6. Marshall, S. (2012). Academic Writing: Making the Transition. Toronto: Pearson. CEFR C1
  1. Marshall, S., Heng Hartse, J, Fazel, I., & Son, G. (2023). Remote learning and first-year academic literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Interaction and collaborative learning among EAL students. TESL Canada Journal, 40(2), 1-18.
  2. Marshall, S. (2023). Navigating COVID-19 linguistic landscapes in Vancouver’s North Shore: official signs, grassroots literacy artefacts, monolingualism, and discursive convergence. International Journal of Multilingualism, 20(2), 189-213.
  3. Marshall, S., & Spracklin, A. K. (2022). “We are in our country. Why do we have to resort to western ways of doing things?”: an analytic framework for knowledge application in language teachers studying abroad. Educational Linguistics, 1(2), 267-289.
  4. Marshall, S. (2021). Plurilingual students’ mediation of course content through the same shared language in a Canadian university. Fremdsprachen und Hochschule (FuH) issue 96, “The CEFR Companion Volume – Impulses and implications for foreign language teaching in higher education.”
  5. Marshall, S., Moore, D., & Himeta, M. (2021). French-medium instruction in Anglophone Canadian higher education: The plurilingual complexity of students and their instructors. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(1), 181-204.
  6. Marshall, S. (2020). Understanding plurilingualism and developing pedagogy: teaching in linguistically diverse classes across the disciplines at a Canadian university. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(2),142-156. In a Special Issue edited by S. Preece & S. Marshall for Language, Culture and Curriculum: Plurilingual approaches to teaching and learning in Anglophone higher educational settings.
  7. Moore, D., Marshall, S., & Himeta, M. (2020). Le portrait de langues pour «marcher» et s’approprier la mobilité? Feuilletés expérientiels d’étudiantes à l’université dans l’ouest du Canada. Le Français dans le Monde, Recherches et Applications 68, 23-34.
  8. Preece, S. & Marshall, S. (2020). Plurilingualism, teaching and learning, and Anglophone higher education: An introduction. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(2), 117-125. In a Special Issue edited by S. Preece & S. Marshall for Language, Culture and Curriculum: Plurilingual approaches to teaching and learning in Anglophone higher educational settings.
  9. Ravindran, A., Li, J., & Marshall, S. (2020). Learning ethnography through doing ethnography: two student-researchers’ insights. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1-11.
  10. Marshall, S., Moore, D., James, C. L., Ning, X., & Dos Santos, P. (2019). Plurilingual students' practices in a Canadian university: Chinese language, academic English, and discursive ambivalence. TESL Canada Journal, 36(1), 1-20.
  11. Marshall, S., & Walsh Marr, J. (2018). Teaching multilingual learners in Canadian writing-intensive classrooms: Pedagogy, binaries, and conflicting identities. Journal of Second Language Writing, 40, 32-43.
  12. Marshall, S., & Moore, D. (2018). Plurilingualism amid the panoply of lingualisms: addressing critiques and misconceptions in education. International Journal of Multilingualism, 15(1), 19-34.
  13. Li, J., & Marshall, S. (2018). Engaging with linguistic landscaping in Vancouver’s Chinatown: a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning about multilingualism. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(8), 925-941.
  14. Marshall, S., & Lee, E. (2017). Chinese students in Canadian higher education: A case for reining in our use of the term “Generation 1.5”. Canadian Modern Language Review, 73(2), 133-157.
  15. Marshall, S. & Moore, D. (2013). 2B or not 2B plurilingual? Navigating languages, literacies, and plurilingual competence in postsecondary education in Canada. TESOL Quarterly, 47(3), 472–499.
  16. Marshall, S. (2012). The story of the tallat: Latin American bar workers, Catalan speaking customers, and coffee. Spanish in Context, 9(3), 400-419.
  17. Marshall, S., Zhou, M., Gervan, T. & Wiebe, S. (2012). Sense of belonging and first year academic literacy. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 42(3), 116–42.
  18. Marshall, S., Hayashi, H., & Yeung, P. (2012). Negotiating the ‘multi’ in multilingualism and multiliteracies. Undergraduate students in Vancouver, Canada. Canadian Modern Language Review, 68(1), 28–53.
  19. Lee, E., & Marshall, S. (2012). Multilingualism and English language usage in ‘weird’ and ‘funny’ times: A case study of transnational youth in Vancouver. International Journal of Multilingualism, 9(1), 65–82.
  20. Marshall, S., & Laghzaoui, G. (2012). Langues, identités et francophonie chez des étudiants universitaires issus de l’immersion française à Vancouver, au Canada.Canadian Modern Language Review, 68(2), 216–233 (reprint).
  21. Marshall, S., & Laghzaoui, G. (2011). Langues, identités et francophonie chez des étudiants universitaires issus de l’immersion française à Vancouver, au Canada. Le Français dans le Monde, Recherches et Applications, (51), 76-92.
  22. Popadiuk, N. & Marshall, S. (2011). East Asian international student experiences as learners of English as an additional language: Implications for school counsellors. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 45(3), 220–239.
  23. Marshall, S. (2009). Re-becoming ESL: multilingual university students and a deficit identity. Language and Education 24(1), 21–39.
  24. Marshall, S. (2009). Languages and national identities in contact: the case of Latinos in Barcelona. International Journal of Iberian Studies 22(2), 41–56.
  1. Marshall, S., Alhannash, M., & Masoumi Mayni, S. (2024). Reflecting on linguistic landscapes during decolonizing times: A case from Canadian higher education. In E. Krompák & D. Gorter (Eds.), Educational Agency and Activism in Linguistic Landscape Studies (pp 195-228). Peter Lang.
  2. Marshall, S. & Amburgey, B. (2024). Challenges faced by Japanese English teachers applying knowledge after study abroad. In K. Beck & R. Ilieva (Eds.) Language, Culture, and Education in an Internationalizing University: Perspectives and Practices of Faculty, Students, and Staff (pp. 129-146). Bloomsbury.
  3. Marshall, S. (2022). Japanese English teachers’ professional development in a Canadian university: perceptions of self and imagining practice. In G. Barkhuizen (Ed.) Language Teachers Studying Abroad: Identities, Emotions and Disruptions (pp. 35-46). Bristol, UK, Multilingual Matters.
  4. Marshall, S. (2021). Plurilingualism and the tangled web of lingualisms. The Routledge Handbook of Plurilingual Language Education (pp. 46-64).
  5. Marshall, S. (2020). Applying plurilingual pedagogy in first-year Canadian higher education: From generic to scientific academic literacy. In S. Lau & S. Van Viegen (Eds.), Plurilingual Pedagogies (pp. 253-270). Springer Language Education and Linguistics Series.
  6. Moore, D., Marshall, S. & *Zhu, Y. (2015). Plurilinguismes et identités à l’université. Les inter-maillages du français, du chinois et de l’anglais chez des étudiants de première année à Vancouver au Canada. In Bouvier-Laffitte, B. & Loiseau, Y. (Eds.), Polyphonies franco-chinoises. Mobilités, dynamiques identitaires et didactique (pp. 81–100). Paris: l’Harmattan.
  7. Marshall, S. (2014). Negotiating the ism schism: Is it possible to be ‘partially ethnographic’? In S. Marshall, A. Clemente, & M. Higgins (Eds.), Shaping Ethnography in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts (pp. 131-150). London, ONT: Althouse Press.
  8. Marshall, S., Clemente, A., & Higgins, M. (2014). Introduction. In S. Marshall, A. Clemente, & M. Higgins (Eds.), Shaping Ethnography in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts (pp. 1-28). London, ONT: Althouse Press.
  9. Marshall, S. & Mossman, T. (2010). Changing cultures and identities in Japanese-English bicultural names: From parents to children. In D. Nunan & J. Choi (Eds.), Language and Culture: Reflective Narratives and the Emergence of Identity (pp. 147–154). New York, NY: Routledge.
  10. Marshall, S. & Williams, S.A. (2010). Combining process, product and genre on a graduate EAP writing course ‘outside of the disciplines’. In G. Blue (Ed.), Developing Academic literacy (pp. 143–154). Oxford: Peter Lang.
  11. Nilson, M., Pidgeon, M., Laitsch, D., Marshall, S. & Ilieva, R. (2010). The sociopolitical context of teacher education in Canada/Contexto sociopolítico de la formación de docentes en Canadá. In E. Sandoval Flores, R. Blum Martínez, & I. H. Andrews (Eds.), Challenges and Possibilities in Teacher Education: A North American Perspective/Desafíos y Posibilidades en la Formación de Maestros: Una Perspective desde América del Norte (pp. 35–58). Mexico: Universidad Pedagógica Nacional.
  12. Marshall, S. (2008). Langues et identités dans les interactions entre les minorités allochtones et autochtones: Essentialisme, appropriation et multiplicité en Catalogne. In P. Martinez, D. Moore, & V. Spaëth (Eds.), Plurilinguismes et Enseignement: Identités en Construction (pp. 77–90). Paris: Riveneuve Editions.
  13. Marshall, S. (2006). Spanish-speaking Latin Americans in Catalonia: Reflexivity and knowledgeability in constructions of Catalan. In C. Mar Molinero & M. Stewart (Eds.), Globalization and Language in the Spanish Speaking World: Macro and Micro Perspectives (pp. 158-177). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  1. Marshall, S. (2007). New Latino diaspora and new zones of language contact: A social constructionist analysis of Spanish speaking Latin Americans in Catalonia. In J. Holmquist, A. Lorenzino, & L. Sayahi (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 150-161). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
  1. Himeta, M. & Marshall, S. (2017-2018). Furansu. 12 magazine articles (in French and Japanese) on learning French through Japanese: https://www.hakusuisha.co.jp/magazine/
  2. Marshall, S. (2012). Learning-to-Write and Writing-to-Learn in an additional language(review). Canadian Modern Language Review, 68(3), 347-349.
  3. Marshall, S. (2011). Towards multilingual education: Basque educational research from an international perspective (review). Canadian Modern Language Review, 67(1), 149-151.
  4. Marshall, S. (2008). A portrait of the young in the new multilingual Spain (review). Canadian Modern Language Review, 65(1), 171-173.
  5. Fee, E. J., Radford, W., Dench, S. & Marshall, S. (2011). (Invited chapter). Internationalization and SEM at Simon Fraser University: Curriculum, diversity, and literacy. In S. Gotheil & C. Smith (Eds.), SEM in Canada: Promoting Student and Institutional Success in Canadian Colleges and Universities (pp. 289–310). Washington, DC: American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers.

Others

  • 2025-2026: Plurality, linguistic justice, and decolonization: Addressing current issues in teaching first-year writing to multilingual learners. Co-Investigator. Principal Investigator, Anita Chaudhuri (University of British Columbia). Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant $15,815
  • 2022-2025: Latin American Nikkei Japanese in Japanese Society: languages, migration, otherness, and plurilingual pedagogy. Principal Investigator; Co-Investigators, Mariko Himeta (Daito Bunka University), Satoko Shao-Kobayashi (Chiba University). SFU Faculty of Education FIRE (Fund for International Research in Education) Award, $7,000
  • 2021-2024: Integrating Critical Media Literacies in Plurilingual & Pluricultural Teacher Education. Co-Investigator. Principal Investigator, Angel Lin (The Education University of Hong Kong). SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, $200,000
  • 2016–2017: Plurilingualism as an asset for learning across the disciplines in Canadian higher education. Principal Investigator; Co-Investigator, Danièle Moore (Simon Fraser University). SFU SSHRC VPR Bridging Grant, $10,000
  • 2010–2013: A qualitative study of academic literacies and multilingual first year students in an English-medium university: Social and demographic change, multiliteracies, and institutional response. Principal Investigator; Co-Investigator, Danièle Moore (Simon Fraser University). SSHRC Standard Grant, $57,525
  • 2009–2010: A qualitative study of the multiple literacies of multilingual undergraduate students in higher education: From the social to the academic. Principal Investigator. SSHRC 4a SFU VPR Research Grant, $9,719.98
  • 2006–2008: Foundational academic literacy development: A pilot study of learner contexts and perceptions of progress. Principal Investigator. President’s Research Grant, Simon Fraser University, $10,000
  • 2006–2008: Writing through transitions: Understanding the needs of learners writing in English as an additional language at SFU. Principal Investigator. Learning and Instructional Development Centre, Simon Fraser University, $6,000
  • Marshall, S. (May, 2026). Invited Plenary Speaker. AI in language and academic literacy education: where do we go from here? BC TEAL Annual Conference, Douglas College, Vancouver.
  • Marshall, S. (Jan, 2024). Invited Plenary Speaker. Researching plurilingualism in Latin American migrants’ families: Methodology, epistemology, and ethnolinguistic otherness. Exploring New Directions in Family Language Policy: Contexts, Methods, and Perspectives. Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain.
  • Marshall, S. (June, 2023). Invited Keynote Speaker. Shifting from the English-Only Mindset in the EAP Classroom: Does a Plurilingual Approach Offer an Alternative? TESL Nova Scotia Conference, online.
  • Marshall, S. (May, 2019). Invited Plenary Speaker. Navigating the many literacies and lingualisms: plurilingual students’ practices, writing instructors’ responses, and implications for higher education. Canadian Writing Centres Association (CWCA/ACCR), Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver.
  • Marshall, S. (Aug, 2018). Invited Plenary Speaker. Writing in English as an additional language across the disciplines in higher education: challenges, dilemmas, and plurilingual pedagogy. Symposium on Second Language Writing, Vancouver, Canada.
  • Marshall, S. (July, 2017). Invited Keynote Speaker. Teaching academic writing in higher education: from classroom practice to assessment. Modern English Education Society International Conference, Konkuk University, Seoul Korea.
  • Marshall, S. (July, 2016). Invited Keynote Speaker: From celebrating multilingualism to promoting plurilingual pedagogy. A view from Canadian higher education. The linguistic landscape in higher education in English-dominant and EMI settings: Future directions, UCL-Institute of Education, UK.
  • Marshall, S (Jan, 2016). Invited Keynote Speaker. The move towards plurilingualism in applied linguistics. Simposio Internacional de Educación Crítica de Lenguas y Estudios Críticos del Lenguaje, Universidad Autonónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, Mexico.

Esteem Measures

  • 2015 SFU Faculty of Education Excellence in Scholarly Teaching Award

Sign up to receive our latest news and e-publications

We use Cookies to give you a better experience on our website. By continuing to browse the site without changing your privacy settings, you are consenting to our use of Cookies. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy Statement.

Your browser is not the latest version. If you continue to browse our website, Some pages may not function properly.

You are recommended to upgrade to a newer version or switch to a different browser. A list of the web browsers that we support can be found here