Since graduating from the University of Edinburgh with a MSc in Applied Linguistics, Irene has been teaching English language proficiency and communication courses; and has been involved in materials development. She is one of the coordinators of the Common Core English program.

Being interested in improving learners’ written communication skills, she has worked on a funded research project and presented papers on the acquisition of effective writing skills in business communication. Another area of her research interest is vocabulary acquisition and assessment. She has been developing test items to assess students’ vocabulary development and surveyed their use of learning strategies. Currently, she is actively involved in a UGC funded project which aims at helping learners to master the technical vocabulary of STEM.