Dr Bettina Beinhoff

Dr Bettina Beinhoff

MPhil PhD

Bettina Beinhoff is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies in Linguistics at Wolfson College. Her research interests are in sociolinguistics, especially in language ideologies, migration & language and social justice.

Dr Bettina Beinhoff

Bettina Beinhoff completed her undergraduate degree at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany; she did her MPhil in Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge (Wolfson College) and remained in Cambridge for her PhD on attitudes towards 'non-native' accents in English (Trinity Hall). She is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Anglia Ruskin University where she is Chair of the School's research ethics panel. She was Programme Director for the BA in Linguistics for several years; currently, she is leading the MA Intercultural Communication. She also supervises a number of PhD students.

Bettina is the Treasurer of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and a member of EuroSLA and PhilSoc.

Bettina's research interests are in the areas of language ideologies, attitudes towards accents/dialects/languages and the way these ideologies and attitudes affect individuals and groups. Bettina is currently working on a project that investigates attitudes toward languages of migrant communities. She is working with individuals and support groups to reveal how attitudes held by the local communities can have an impact on the lives, identities and wellbeing of people who migrate across national boundaries. The findings contribute to recommendations for policy development and support programmes.

Bettina is also involved in research on constructed (or invented) languages. She is particularly interested in how constructed languages are perceived by audiences from different cultures and with different first language backgrounds. She has studied the process of designing such languages in detail and investigated how the design aims match up with how the constructed languages are perceived by the audience.

What's on

A black backpack hangs from a tree branch in a lush, green forest.

Open Call: WolfWords Poetry Anthology 2026

01/12/2025 at 09.00

We are delighted to announce the open call for this year’s WolfWords anthology. The theme for this year’s collection is 'lost and found'.

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Wolfson Annual Global Health Research Conference - Global Health in a Changing World

13/03/2026 at 13.30

Join us for the “Global Health in a Changing World” conference, where students, researchers, and leaders explore pressing global health issues, from funding and equity to disease and innovation.

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Wolfson Entrepreneurship Competition Final & Dinner 2026

14/03/2026 at 09.30

Discover groundbreaking ideas and cutting-edge solutions as Cambridge’s brightest entrepreneurial minds compete for prizes over £10,000.

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Lent Term Concert: Of Wild Nights and New Light

15/03/2026 at 19.00

Wolfson College Choir presents an evening of gorgeous French, British and American choral music at this end of term concert.

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Cambridge Festival - Bulb Trail

16/03/2026 at 10.00

Early March brings the first true burst of colour to the College gardens. 

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