Dr Fiona O’Neill (Phd) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Program Director of the Bachelor of Arts. Fiona’s research focuses on the significance of language in professional interactions, particularly at critical moments in which communicative rights and capabilities are unequally distributed, placing shared meanings and life, health and wellbeing outcomes at risk. As lead and co-lead in multiple industry-partnered and funded projects investigating language use in justice, counselling and healthcare contexts, her work investigates the role of language in creating trust, care and accountabilities moment by moment in professional encounters.
The applied orientation of Fiona’s linguistic research involves... Read more
About me
Dr Fiona O’Neill (Phd) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Program Director of the Bachelor of Arts. Fiona’s research focuses on the significance of language in professional interactions, particularly at critical moments in which communicative rights and capabilities are unequally distributed, placing shared meanings and life, health and wellbeing outcomes at risk. As lead and co-lead in multiple industry-partnered and funded projects investigating language use in justice, counselling and healthcare contexts, her work investigates the role of language in creating trust, care and accountabilities moment by moment in professional encounters.
The applied orientation of Fiona’s linguistic research involves collaborating with organisations and professions to examine communicative expertise and challenges in everyday encounters, and co-design evidence-based learning resources for practitioners, including in policing, counselling and aged care contexts. Given the cross-cutting nature of language and communication challenges, Fiona often works in multidisciplinary teams with colleagues from medicine, nursing, law, and psychology, and her focus on language and learning in the professions is informed by her previous career as a healthcare practitioner.
The impact of her collaborative work has been recognised nationally and internationally in her field through awards, successful competitive industry-funded grants, commercialisation of professional learning digital resources, peer-reviewed publications, including a research monograph, and invitations to peer review. Fiona integrates her research and engagement within her teaching and learning practice, fostering learning communities and connections between higher education and community/industry partners, enriching students’ learning experiences, and highlighting the relevance of the Humanities and Social Sciences in co-creating solutions for pressing human and societal problems.
About me
Research Centre for Languages and Cultures (RCLC), University of South Australia
https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/research-centre-for-languages-and-cultures/
About me
Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) University of South Australia
Bachelor of Arts (Languages and Intercultural Communication) University of South Australia
Current: Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, University of South Australia
Language and Policing: Investigating the Significance and Role of Language Choices in Policing (URIPA), 2020
Communicating Care and Safety in the Context of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Aged Care: An Intercultural Approach to Training (SafeWork SA Innovative Practice Grant), 2017
Developing English language and intercultural learning capabilities: An investigation in the Division of EAS, 2016
Research
Excludes commercial-in-confidence projects.
Constable Development Program (CDP) Redesign SAPOL, South Australian Police, 16/05/2024 - 15/02/2025
Culturally and linguistically Inclusive Placement Learning: Mentored Business Placements for International Students in Post-Covid Era, National Association of Field Experience Administrators Inc., 17/01/2024 - 31/12/2024
Research
Research outputs for the last seven years are shown below. Some long-standing staff members may have older outputs included. To see earlier years visit ORCID, ResearcherID or Scopus
Open access indicates that an output is open access.
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2020 |
Open access
|
| 2020 |
O'Neill, F 2020, The intercultural professional, Palgrave Macmillan, UK.
1
|
| 2019 |
Open access
6
5
|
| 2017 |
Open access
|
| 2016 |
|
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2020 |
O'Neill, F 2020, The intercultural professional, Palgrave Macmillan, UK.
1
|
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2024 |
|
| 2023 |
1
|
| 2016 |
|
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2025 |
|
| 2025 |
1
1
|
| 2021 |
9
5
1
|
| 2020 |
Open access
1
37
|
| 2019 |
Open access
6
5
|
| 2013 |
5
6
|
| 2011 |
50
41
|
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2025 |
|
| 2024 |
|
| 2024 |
|
| 2023 |
|
| 2021 |
Open access
|
| 2020 |
Open access
|
| 2017 |
Open access
|
| 2016 |
Open access
|
| 2016 |
Open access
|
| 2015 |
Open access
|
| 2014 |
Open access
|
Intercultural Communication in Aged Care: an online professional learning resource (with Kineo)
https://www.kineocourses.com.au/content/browse/courses/26105/intercultural-communication-in-aged-care
Research
Language and Policing: Investigating the Significance and Role of Language Choices in Policing (URIPA), 2020
Communicating Care and Safety in the Context of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Aged Care: An Intercultural Approach to Training (SafeWork SA Innovative Practice Grant), 2017
Developing English language and intercultural learning capabilities: An investigation in the Division of EAS, 2016
Governor's Multicultural Award 2018 for collaborative research in aged care
Michael Clyne Prize 2016, national award for Best Postgraduate Research Thesis in the area of immigrant bilingualism
International Association of Applied Linguistics Research Network (AILA ReN) Migrants in working life: Language and Im/mobilities. https://www.jyu.fi/renmigrantswl
Research Centre for Languages and Cultures, UniSA http://www.unisa.edu.au/research/research-centre-for-languages-and-cultures/
External engagement & recognition
| Organisation | Country |
|---|---|
| Central Adelaide Local Health Network Incorporated | AUSTRALIA |
| Northern Adelaide Local Health Network | AUSTRALIA |
| University of Adelaide | AUSTRALIA |
| University of Otago | NEW ZEALAND |
| University of South Australia | AUSTRALIA |
| University of Technology Sydney | AUSTRALIA |
External engagement & recognition
| Engagement/recognition | Year |
|---|---|
Governor Multicultural AwardMulticultural SA, Government of South Australia |
2017 |
Recent research collaborations:
Survivors of Torture & Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (STTARS), SA Police (SAPOL), Helping Hand Aged Care
Advance Higher Education, Fellow, 2020
ESPE Aquitaine/Université de Bordeaux (Online Master of International Education and Training), Lecturer
Professional Directions Program, UniSA: connecting Bachelor of Arts students with diverse industry and community partners, Course Coordinator
Teaching & student supervision
Teaching & student supervision
Supervisions from 2010 shown
| Thesis title | Student status |
|---|---|
| Literacy mediators' experience of supporting adults with literacy gaps in Australia: an applied linguistic study | Current |
| The monolingual speaker: a creative approach examining the 'linguistic self' of English-speaking monolinguals in twenty-first century Australia. | Current |
| Expanding multilingual and intercultural knowledge as expertise: young people arriving in Australia as refugees navigating education-to-employment trajectories | Completed |
| Hearing and heeding `the other side': (Re)-centring the southern multilingualisms and lived realities of South Sudanese women in Australia | Completed |
