Sam McIlroy

Head of Academic English and Acting Co-Director, Oxford University Language Centre

Biography

Sam McIlroy is the Head of Academic English and Acting Co-Director at the Oxford University Language Centre, specialising in the fields of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and academic literacies.

Sam holds a BA (Hons) in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, an MA in Latin American Cultural Studies from the University of Manchester, an MA in Applied Linguistics (with distinction) from the University of Nottingham, and a Diploma in Spanish from the Open University. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Sam has extensive teaching and professional experience across a range of countries - including Spain, Turkey, China, Kazakhstan, and Colombia - and has previously worked at UCL, the University of Nottingham and Suzhou University. His expertise spans various educational contexts, frequently involving transnational projects within universities. In his current role, he oversees collaborations with institutions such as the Open University of China and Wuhan University.

As an EAP practitioner, Sam has a particular interest in developing learners’ academic writing skills. He has designed and delivered numerous courses and curricula tailored to this area. Under his leadership, the Academic English courses at the Language Centre have achieved BALEAP accreditation, reflecting the Department's commitment to high professional standards. Those interested in the work the Language Centre do can find more information on the principles underlying our approach to EAP and the pedagogies we employ from our website.

Sam’s scholarly interests lie in genre pedagogy, task-based language teaching, and discourse analysis.