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Dr Helen Lee

Profile summary

  • Visiting Formal Academic
  • Visiting Honorary Associate
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • helen.lee

Professional biography

Dr Helen Lee is currently working as a post-doctoral research associate and freelance consultant for WELS. She holds an MA TESOL in ICT (Distinction) from the University of Brighton and worked for many years as a language practioner and course designer in Spain and the UK. She is also a qualified International Business English Trainer (Cert IBET). Her PhD research on multimodal learning across mobile devices from outside the classroom won first prize for student research in Applied Linguistics and Technology in WELS in 2018. Recent contributions include a paper co-authored with Regine Hampel for a special edition on semiotics for Language Learning & Technology. Helen has also published on the theme of gesture in the journal System. She has also co-authored chapters on mobile learning and pedagogy for the The Handbook of Technology and Second.Language Teaching and Learning (2017) and The Handbook of Informal Language Learning (2020) (Wiley & Sons). Forthcoming publications include chapters for Cambridge University Press on emergent theoretical and methodological approaches evidenced in CALL and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Language Learning with Technology. She is presently working on an international project based at the Open University, UK which examines the identities and skills of the language teacher in the 21st century. 

 

Research interests

Research interests include learning inside and outside the language classroom, telecollaboration, videoconferencing, mobile learning and pedagogy, task design, multimodal discourse analysis, multimodal communication, multiliteracies, digial literacies, theoretical CALL, qualitative design, methodological innovation, the learner and teacher voice. 

Teaching interests

Dr Helen Lee has given guest lectures on the international MA TESOL programme at The University of Brighton. She has also presented her research at universities around the world and is an expert in multimodal communication and language learning and teaching with technology. She has led seminars and methodological workshops for PhD students on how to capture and analyze multimodal interaction across videoconferencing. Helen has extensive experience working with language students from around the world as both a practioner and researcher which she feels has afforded insights from both perspectives. She is particularly interested in collaborating on global /European projects which address features of learning today which include multimodal communication, digital and multiliteracies. Also research which explores the learning potential of use of different technologies in relation to aspects of place, as reflected in her recent work in mobile learning and pedagogy. Further areas of interest include working with digitally-marginalized communities and collaborating with academics from a wide range of disciplines. She can be contacted at: helen.lee@open.ac.uk

Impact and engagement

Dr Helen Lee's publications have been cited widely with a co-authored chapter titled "Mobile Learning Revolution: Implications for Language Pedagogy" referenced over one hundred times. A recent contribution with Regine Hampel on semiotics was selected to appear in a special issue of the open access journal Language Learning & Technology. Helen has four publications in the h index with the twitter feed for the AILA group which she runs attracting several hundred followers. Citations include recent articles in ReCALL and detailed descriptions of her PhD research study on multimodal learning with mobiles from outside the classroom in Pegrum (2019) and Hampel (2019).

External collaborations

Dr Helen Lee is currently working as a post-doctorate researcher on a project entitled: "Perspectives and Trajectories of the Language Teacher in the 21st Century" where OU researchers working in the field of language teaching with digital technologies are collaborating with universities based in S. America, N. America, Australia, N. Zealand, Asia,and Europe. The project also aims to bring together language educators and researchers.

For more information about this particular project please follow us on Twitter @21stcenturylangteach

Links with 45 members of a Research Network in AILA. See Twitter: @21stcenturylangteach

Publications

Geosemiotics as a multiperspectivist lens: Theorizing L2 use of semiotic resources in negotiation of meaning with mobiles from outside the classroom (2023-02)
Lee, Helen and Hampel, Regine
Language Learning & Technology, 27(2) (pp. 46-71)

Gesture in speaking tasks beyond the classroom: An exploration of the multimodal negotiation of meaning via Skype videoconferencing on mobile devices (2019-04)
Lee, Helen; Hampel, Regine and Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes
System, 81 (pp. 26-38)

Current and emerging theories in CALL (2023)
Hampel, Regine and Lee, Helen
In: Stockwell, Glenn and Wang, Yijen eds. The Cambridge Handbook of Technology in Language Teaching and Learning
Publisher : Cambridge University Press (In Press) | Published : Cambridge

Mobile Collaboration for Language Learning and Cultural Learning (2020-01-23)
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes and Lee, Helen
In: Dressman, Mark and Sadler, Randall William eds. The Handbook of Informal Language Learning. Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics (pp. 169-180)
ISBN : 9781119472308 | Publisher : Wiley Blackwell | Published : Chichester

Mobile Learning Revolution: Implications for Language Pedagogy (2017-06-30)
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Lee, Helen and Norris, Lucy
In: Chapelle, Carol A. and Sauro, Shannon eds. The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 217-233)
ISBN : 9781118914069 | Publisher : Wiley & Sons | Published : Oxford

Intelligent assistants in language learning: an analysis of features and limitations (2020)
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes and Lee, Helen
In : EUROCALL 2020 (19-22 Aug 2020, Online) (pp. 172-176)

Gesture in multimodal language learner interaction via videoconferencing on mobile devices (2020-04-03)
Lee, Helen
PhD thesis The Open University