
Dr. Jennifer Martyn
Dr Jennifer Martyn is an Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies where she currently lectures in the French language and language pedagogy. She received her BA in French and English from NUI Galway, and her PhD in Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition from UCD, for which she received an Irish Research Council scholarship. Her research forms two strands:
- the sociolinguistics of language learning/second language acquisition, particularly with regard to identity and discourses of language learning, and
- language and gender, particuarly the language and discourse of motherhood.
She is the author of the monograph Discourses, Identities and Investment in Foreign Language Learning (2022) for Multilingual Matters’ Second Language Acquisition series, the co-editor of Language, Identity and Migration: Voices from Transnational Speakers and Communities (2016), and a number of other peer-reviewed publications. She has previously served on the executive committee of organisations such as the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (IRAAL), and has co-supervised a PhD to completion in the area of the sociolinguistics of language pedagogy/translation.
She is currently working on a project investigating discourses of motherhood, particularly the negotiation of mother identity in the workplace in Ireland; as well as an introductory linguistics textbook with Routledge Linguistics.
Research Interests
Jennifer's research encompasses:
- the sociolinguistics of language learning/second language acquisition, particularly with regard to identity and discourses of language learning, and
- language and gender, particuarly the language and discourse of motherhood.
Teaching Interests
Jennifer's teaching interests and prior experience includes Language Pedagogy, French Language at various levels, and Sociolinguistics and Applied Linguistics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
She welcomes applications from prospective PhD students interested in the areas of the sociolinguistics of language learning/education, language ideologies, and language and gender. I am also interested in hearing from students who aim to investigate the relationship between mother identity and workplace identities, particularly from discourse perspectives.
