Ivan Au

Ivan is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a doctoral researcher at the Department of Education (also former Student Liaison Coordinator/Doctoral Professional Fellow). He is part of the Language Learning Lab, and his research interest lies in the psychology and pragmatics of word meanings. Ivan’s current project investigates how children learn words with multiple meanings (i.e. polysemy). Broadly speaking, he is also interested in AI, higher education, teacher training, and English Language Teaching.

Outside the lab, Ivan is a tutor in the Department of Experimental Psychology and a Teaching Fellow in the Vice-Chancellor’s Colloquium on Climate Change (2023–24; 2024–25) and AI (2025–26). He has also recently been in two project teams who set out to investigate the effectiveness of early years intervention in England, EAL students’ academic attainment in the UK, and the role of artificial intelligence in science education. He holds a concurrent role teaching in the International Programme at Hertford College.

Prior to joining Oxford, Ivan has taken up lecturerships in a number of universities in Hong Kong and has delivered courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He received his teacher-training in Hong Kong and his postgraduate training in Linguistics (with a specialisation in pragmatics) at University College London. He currently peer-reviews for the International Journal of Science Education.

Ivan is the President-elect of the Trainee Board in the International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES) and also serves as the Curator of TEDxOxford.