Research Interests

Expertise summary

Systemic functional linguistics, Canadian Literature, Textual Analysis, Theatre in and for Education.

Personal profile

Derek is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), as well as Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience.  He has served as the Chair of the International Systemic Functional Linguistics Association, and is the Honorary President of the International Hallidayan Linguistics Association.  His SFL work has looked at the movement of lexical items across languages, multimodality in interpreting, textual analysis of literary and dramatic texts, and literacy and language skills for post-secondary writers, particularly in terms of the grammatical resources employed in these activities.  He is currently working with doctoral students on language in music and musicology, affordances in immersive theatre, and AI and other technologies in education.

Teaching

Dr Irwin teaches on a number of different modules, including Studying Literature, Advanced Grammar for Study and the Professions, Essentials of Linguistics, and Language, Mind and Society. He convenes the module Introduction to Drama, which is an ambitious split between the history and theory of theatre and performance, and practical workshops designed to enhance students’ presentation skills along with bringing the texts to life.