Doctoral Journeys —Beyond the Doctorate: David Little (Part 1)

Mario Velazquez
Monday 23 March 2026

Author: Yumiko Fujita Imanishi

DProf in TESOL at University of St Andrews (Doctoral Student), Scotland, UK

Co-author: Professor David Little

B.Litt. (Oxon.), M.A. (Dubl., Oxon.), D.Ed. (h.c. N.U.I.), F.T.C.D., Trinity College Dublin, UK

Corresponding Author: Yumiko Fujita Imanishi [email protected]

Abstract 

This article (Part 1) presents insights from an interview with Professor David Little, tracing his scholarly journey through language teaching, inclusive education, and language policy, drawing on materials reported in Imanishi (2025a, 2025b; 2026). It highlights key intellectual influences, political challenges, and his sustained commitment to improving language education, including his contributions to Council of Europe initiatives on migrant integration, sign language education, and plurilingual policy. The reflections offered here may resonate with practitioner researchers and doctoral students navigating their own academic trajectories. Key literature introduced by Little is listed in the Appendix. The second half of the interview will appear in Part 2 of this academic blog series.

AI Declaration

AI was used solely for language refinement, and the authors created all content.

Conflict of Interest 

The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the content.

Introduction

This article reflects an interview with Professor David Little about his scholarly journey. Professor Little is one of the most influential voices in learner autonomy, language policy, and plurilingual education. Although he noted in our conversation that he did not hold a traditional doctorate, his contributions have been recognised at the highest level: he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Education by the National University of Ireland in acknowledgement of his decades of leadership in language education. It is a privilege to feature him in the Doctoral Journeys – Beyond the Doctorate series.

The full interview is available in the Spotify podcast series Doctoral Journeys – Beyond the Doctorate (Imanishi, 2026). His video interview with Thomas Stringer, a DProf student, Beyond the Abstracts: Rethinking Language Teaching – David Little (Episode 12)is also accessible (Stringer, 2024).

Scholarly Journey

The Beginning of Little’s Academic Career

Professor David Little began his academic career in 1967, when he was appointed to a junior lectureship in German at Trinity College Dublin. Trained as a Germanist specialising in 18th and 19thcentury literature, he also became increasingly engaged with the challenges of teaching the German language at the university level over the following decade. In 1979, he was appointed Director of the newly established Centre for Language and Communication Studies (CLCS) at Trinity, a position he held for almost thirty years until his retirement.

 The Launch of CLCS and Mentor’s Advice 

CLCS was designed to bring together three functions: a support unit for language teaching and learning, an academic department in linguistics, applied linguistics and phonetics, and a research institute. At the time, such centres were rare in the UK and Ireland. John Trim, founder of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge and its first Director from 1958 to 1978, advised Little to resist separating language teaching from research. Trim, widely regarded as a leading figure in modern language education, was also among the co-developers of what is now the widely used Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which establishes benchmarks for language teaching and assessment. In addition, Trim played a founding role in the British Association of Applied Linguistics and served as its Chair from 1985 to 1988 (Cambridge Language Sciences, 2013). His advice shaped the Centre’s mission to integrate language teaching, linguistics and research, and Little worked to uphold this principle throughout his 30 years as Director.

Applied Linguistics and the Emergence of Little’s Research Focus

Little openly acknowledges that many applied linguists would not regard his work as “research” in the conventional sense. Although applied linguistics has produced a substantial body of empirical studies over the past half-century, he argues that relatively few have made meaningful contributions to actual classroom practice. This gap between research and pedagogy shaped his early work in the field.

In the late 1970s, linguistics, applied linguistics, and sociolinguistics were still relatively new disciplines. As Director of the newly established CLCS, Little needed to familiarise himself with this emerging field, despite having no formal training in linguistics—his undergraduate studies at Oxford had focused instead on philology, the historical study of language. Faced with the task of identifying a research direction, he later found his way to the study of learner autonomy, a focus that aligned with the practical realities of classroom learning.

The Development of CLCS

In 2005, Trinity College reorganised its academic structures, replacing departments and faculties with schools. The Centre for Language and Communication Studies combined with the School of Clinical Speech and Language Studies and the newly established Centre for Deaf Studies to form the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences. Little served as the School’s first Head from 2005 to 2008.

Inclusive Education for Sign Language Users

In the 1990s, Little invited the Irish Deaf Society to collaborate on evening courses in Irish Sign Language taught by members of the Deaf community. This work led him to support the creation of professional training for ISL–English interpreters at a time when none was available. With EU Horizon funding and collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bristol, a full-time two-year interpreter training programme was established. These developments contributed to the founding of the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin in 2001, which began on a small scale and was gradually integrated into the university as a recognised centre for research and degree programmes.

Inclusive Education and Plurilingual Policy

From the mid1990s, Ireland experienced increasing immigration, and provision for newly arrived adults with refugee status was fragmented. Little was asked by a government agency to review the situation, which led to a pilot project and eventually to Integrate Ireland Language and Training (IILT), a not-for-profit campus company of Trinity College. As its nonstipendiary Director, he developed a national system of Englishlanguage provision for adult refugees. When private language schools were unable to meet the required standards, IILT established its own school in Dublin, with temporary centres elsewhere as needed.

Once adult provision was stabilised, the Department of Education asked Little to support schools enrolling growing numbers of children with no English. Working with Barbara Simpson, he developed in-service training and practical guidance for primary and post-primary teachers. This work continued until the 2008 financial crisis, when IILT was abruptly closed, forcing Little to make 53 staff redundant—an experience he described as deeply distressing.

Through this work, Little played a central role in advancing the Council of Europe’s plurilingual vision. He consistently emphasised the value of learners’ home languages as resources for further language learning and demonstrated how language education can support the development of an integrated plurilingual repertoire, a principle central to the Council of Europe’s language policy (Council of Europe, n.d.).

Closing Reflection

I recently had the opportunity to write a book review of Reforming the Foreign Language Classroom: Empowering Learners to Take Ownership (Heim, Albrecht, Becker, & Dam, 2025) for SAJILE. Reading the introduction and Chapter 1 on plurilingual education—both written by Little—prompted me to ask how he became involved in such a wide range of internationally influential initiatives, while remaining best known for his work on learner autonomy. This interview provided a valuable opportunity to trace his development as a language teacher and researcher across different phases of his career. As he noted in the interview (Imanishi, 2026), a variety of resources for plurilingual education, including those for students, are available on the Council of Europe’s website, which also serves as a reference point for multicultural education in many countries (Council of Europe, n.d.). I am pleased to discover the connection between his work and English language teaching in Japan, as reflected in initiatives such as CEFR-J (CEFRJ, n.d.).

Part 2 of this academic blog series explores his early challenges in language education leadership, the influence of Leni Dam on his thinking about learner autonomy, and his advice for doctoral students.

Acknowledgement

I sincerely thank Professor David Little for generously sharing his time and experience for this interview, which formed the basis of this article.

References

  • David Little’s Key Literature

    Four publications that have had a decisive impact on David Little’s work:

    1. Barnes, D. (1976). From communication to curriculum. Penguin.

    Leni Dam introduced Little to this ground-breaking work at our first meeting, in 1984. The relevance of Barnes’s distinction between “school knowledge” and “action knowledge” remains fundamental to arguments in favour of learner autonomy.

    1. Tharp, R. G., & Gallimore, R. (1988). Rousing minds to life. Cambridge University Press.

    Written from a Vygotskian perspective, this book played a decisive role in helping Little to think of pedagogy as a learning conversation, a concept on which my practical advice to teachers rests.

    1. Alexander, R. (2020). A dialogic teaching companion. Routledge.

    Little could have named any number of publications in this slot, but I am especially appreciative of Robin Alexander’s work. In its conceptualisation of pedagogy as dialogue, it is continuous with items 1 and 2.

    1. Clark, A. (1998). Magic words: How language augments human computation. In P. Carruthers (Ed.), Language and thought (pp. 162–183). Cambridge University Press.

    Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Little’s version of the learner autonomy approach to language teaching is the role it assigns to writing. This chapter (and other writings by Andy Clark) has helped him to understand why spontaneous discursive writing should be central to successful language learning.

    The best introduction to David Little’s understanding of language learner autonomy is provided by the following three publications:

    1. Little, D. (1991). Learner autonomy 1: Definitions, issues and problems. Authentik.

    This very short book was Little’s first significant publication on learner autonomy, and it has proved remarkably durable. It is freely available on ResearchGate and has been downloaded many thousands of times.

    1. Little, D., Dam, L., & Legenhausen, L. (2017). Language learner autonomy: Theory, practice and research. Multilingual Matters.

    The first part of this book provides a detailed description and exploration of Leni Dam’s teaching practice, which has been Little’s principal source of inspiration for four decades. The second part summarises the research that Dam and Legenhausen undertook with Dam’s learners, including a longitudinal project that still awaits replication.

    3.    Little, D. (2022). Language learner autonomy: Rethinking language teaching. Language Teaching, 55

    This article provides a compact summary of Little’s current thinking.

    David Little’s Forthcoming Publication:

    Language Learner Autonomy: A Guide for Teachers, which includes video-recorded introductions to each chapter, is scheduled for online and print publication by Candlin & Mynard, with release expected in March 2026.

Related topics

academic blog and podcast inclusive education language policy language teaching plurilingualism

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