Victoria Murphy

Victoria Murphy is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. She is affiliated with St Anne's College and specializes in child second language acquisition, bilingualism, and literacy development. Her research examines cross-linguistic relationships in emergent bilingual children and the role of primary school foreign language learning in first language literacy. Dr. Murphy has held leadership roles including Chair of NALDIC (2018–2021) and has advised on language education programs internationally. She holds a B.A. in Linguistics/Psychology from Queen’s University (Canada), an M.A. in Educational Psychology from McGill University, and a Ph.D. in Second Language Education from McGill.

• Education Background:
  • B.A. Linguistics/Psychology - Queen’s University, Canada
  • M.A. Educational Psychology - McGill University, Canada
  • Ph.D. Second Language Education - McGill University, Canada

Her research interests focus on EAL learners, multilingual education, and interventions in primary schools. Key themes include the impact of bilingualism on literacy, lexical development in L1/L2 learners, and the design of effective language teaching strategies. Recent work includes studies on drama-based interventions, digital media’s role in parent-child interactions, and systemic reviews of song-based language pedagogy.

Current funded projects explore interventions for Indian primary school reading comprehension, drama-based oral language improvements for EAL learners, and touchscreen apps for creativity development. Dr. Murphy supervises doctoral students in areas such as Jamaican Creole education, multilingual literacy, and language policy.

She leads the CreATE Research Group and collaborates with institutions globally. Doctoral applications are encouraged in domains like EAL language development, bilingualism, and foreign language education in primary settings.