Expertise summary

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

Research Interests

I am particularly interested in cross-language movement in a variety of contexts, but currently in language in performance.  The construction of particular identities using deliberately crafted language in front of audiences foregrounds many of the resources employed in our everyday cross-cultural encounters, but in such a way as to purposefully engage certain parts of the language which can then be searched for in other contexts.

Orcid Account：http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0342-6958

Specialising broadly in systemic functional linguistics, Dr Irwin has focussed more specifically on movement of lexical items across languages, textual analysis of literary and dramatic texts, and approaches to literacy and language skills for post-secondary writers, particularly in terms of the grammatical resources employed in these activities.  He is currently supervising PhD and EdD students working in Critical Discourse Analysis of political and literary texts, gestural and multimodal analysis in learning and in translation, discourse patterns in corpora of expert and learner texts in music, and critical thinking for the curriculum.  He is one of the coordinators of arts activities on campus, and has worked with a number of high schools and universities internationally and in China on theatre and arts events.  Derek spends his free time directing, acting, and writing fiction.

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.