I am currently a Postgraduate Researcher in the School of Education, undertaking an WGSSS funded PhD in Bilingualism under the supervision of Prof. Enlli Thomas (School of Education) and Dr. Eirini Sanoudaki (School of Arts, Culture and Language). My research, entitled 'Immersion Education and Bilingualism: Exploring Perceptions, Expectations and Effective Delivery,' aims to examine the role which immersion education plays in creating balanced bilinguals within the Welsh-English context and the various facets contributing to this. It hopes to highlight how immersion-based practices, environments and experiences can be adapted where necessary to produce high numbers of confident, bilingual speakers in an effective manner in line with achieving the Welsh Government’s target of increasing the number of Welsh speakers to a million by 2050.

I previously worked as a Research Project Support Officer alongside Prof. Enlli Thomas on the 'Ein Llais Ni' project; a collaborative project between Bangor University and GwE which was funded by the Welsh Government. The aim of this project was to work alongside Welsh-medium schools across North Wales to improve learners' attitudes and willingness to communicate in Welsh, to contribute confidently to their bilingual communities both within and beyond the school environment, to support and develop educators and learners towards the four purposes of the Curriculum for Wales, and to create learners who are proud of being Welsh and who are confident, bilingual communicators.

• PhD: Bilingualism (Education)
  2022–2026
• MA: Childhood and Youth
  2020–2021
• BA: Childhood and Youth Studies
  2017–2020

2024

• Accepted/In pressDemystifying the English bias in science: exploring the factors influencing bilinguals' uptake of STEM subjects in minority language education: STEM-related study and minority language education
  Thomas, E., Parry, N., Caulfield, G. & Sion, C., 30 Aug 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2022

• PublishedTranslanguaging in the classroom: Trawsieithu yn y Dosbarth
  Thomas, E., Lloyd-Williams, S., Sion, C., Jones, L., Caulfield, G. & Tomos, R., Jul 2022, 1.0 ed. Welsh Government.
  Research output: Book/Report › Other report
• PublishedWorking towards diagnosing bilingual children's literacy abilities: Some key considerations for teachers in Wales
  Thomas, E., Fontaine, L., Aldridge-Waddon, M., Sullivan, K., Owen, C., Winter, F., Young, N., Lloyd-Williams, S., Gruffudd, G., Dafydd, M. & Caulfield, G., 16 Dec 2022, In: Wales Journal of Education.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review