Marion writes: I recently had the opportunity to spend a week with Dr. Amanda Brown, another member of this research cluster, at Syracuse University. Although we had never met before, I predicted that we would have a lot in common in terms of research interests. As it was, we had a lot in common both personally and professionally, including a love of hot water bottles! On a professional level, we both research classroom talk. Amanda's expertise is analysing translanguaging within a quantitative paradigm. Discussions about data and initial findings from recent projects prompted us to explore classroom interaction and translanguaging from a qualitative, discourse analysis perspective. We plan to collaborate on exploring moment-by-moment interaction in second languages classrooms with research questions such as: When and why do teachers and learners choose to use first or second language?  What is the effect of choice of language on the trajectory of classroom interaction?

As well as observing classes, discussing research projects, sharing our own scholarly work, and generally familiarising myself with the work of the Linguistics, Literatures and Languages department, there was also an opportunity for professional development activities. Amanda had organised a half-day symposium with the theme (Trans)language interactions in classrooms. Four presenters, including Amanda and myself, presented our recent research to an audience of academics and postgraduate students. It was a fascinating morning with lots of opportunities for discussion and suggestions.

The trip was an excellent way to share work and discuss potential collaborations. I look forward to working with Amanda in the future, and hopefully hosting her at the University of Surrey at a later date.

Amanda writes: From my perspective, it was truly wonderful to have Dr. Marion Heron visit us at Syracuse. Carving out time for sustained, in-depth conversations about research is a rare and invaluable opportunity to see specific questions and data from other perspectives and to broaden one's view more generally. The work that Marion has published and that she is doing at Surrey, examining classroom interactions within the context of current priorities for higher education in the UK, was enlightening for our institution in the US, which faces many of the same issues. She also brought her micro-analytic eye to the relatively large datasets I typically work with, with pointed questions on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of interaction. While our spring weather was wildly variable this year, with a dose of snow, we hope we gave Marion a warm Syracuse welcome, and the visit culminated in a clear plan for future collaborative work within the research cluster.