Lǐ Wéi () is a British

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, journal editor, and educator, of Manchu-Chinese heritage, who is currently the Director and Dean of the

UCL Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. He is an elected Fellow of

the British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

http://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/the-british-academy-elects-84-new-fellows-recognising-outstanding-achievement-in-the-humanities-and-social-sciences/, Member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

, Fellow of the

Academy of Social Sciences The Academy of Social Sciences is a representative body for social sciences in the United Kingdom. The Academy promotes social science through its sponsorship of the Campaign for Social Science, its links with Government on a variety of matters, a ...

(United Kingdom), and Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(RSA). Prior to his appointment as IOE’s Director and Dean in March 2021, he held a Chair of Applied Linguistics, was Director of the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the UCL Institute of Education, and directed the ESRC UCL, Bloomsbury (Birkbeck, SOAS, LSHTM) and East London Doctoral Training Partnership. Until the end of 2014, he was Pro-Vice-Master of

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, where he was Chair of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Birkeck Graduate Research School. His research interests are in

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

and

multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

. He founded a number of journals in linguistics and education.

Biography

Li Wei was born in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China, of

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

-Chinese parents and was initially trained as an English language teacher at the end of Mao's

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. He worked as an English teacher for two and a half years before studying for a BA in English language and literature at

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...

. He went to

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

to teach Chinese in 1986. He has an MA in English Language Studies and a PhD in Speech Sciences from Newcastle. His PhD supervisor was the sociolinguist Lesley Milroy with whom he worked on a number of research projects. He became Professor of Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University in 1998, the first Chinese to achieve full professorial rank in linguistics in a UK university, and was Director of the Centre for Research in Linguistics between 1999 and 2002 and founding Head of the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences between 2002 and the end of 2006. He joined Birkbeck, University of London in January 2007 as Chair of Applied Linguistics. In January 2015, he took up the Chair of Applied Linguistics at University College London's Institute of Education.

Publications

Amongst Li Wei's publications are the best selling ''The Bilingualism Reader'', ''The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader'', ''Applied Linguistics'', ''Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education'' (with Ofelia Garcia, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) which won the 2015 BAAL Book Prize, and ''The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism'' which won the 2009

British Association for Applied Linguistics The 'British Association for Applied Linguistics'' (BAAL) is a learned society, based in the UK, which provides a forum for people interested in language and applied linguistics. BAAL organises regular meetings of its members at various venues in ...

Book Prize. He is

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the '' International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism'' (Taylor & Francis), and '' Applied Linguistics Review'' (De Gruyter). He founded several other leading journals in linguistics and education, including the '' International Journal of Bilingualism'' (Sage),International Journal of Bilingualism: Homepage
(Accessed 20 March 2012), ''Global Chinese'' (De Gruyter), '' Chinese Language and Discourse'', ''Language, Culture and Society'' (Benjamins), ''Educational Linguistics'' (De Gruyter), and ''Research Methods in Applied Linguistics'' (Elsevier). He is editor of the Wiley-Blackwell book series ''Research Methods in Language & Linguistics'' and ''Bloomsbury Studies in Linguistics''.

Personal

Li is his surname, but he follows the

Eastern Name Order A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

and is known as Li Wei in his professional work and research publications. He is married to the linguist and intercultural communication scholar and educator Professor Zhu Hua, with whom he has two sons. In his Who's Who entry, he lists travel, music, non-fiction, and food and drink as his recreations.

References

External links

University College London research profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Wei Living people Academics of University College London Academics of the UCL Institute of Education Educators from Beijing Year of birth missing (living people) Chinese emigrants to England Writers from Beijing Linguists from China Scientists from Beijing