Maria Christoforou has been involved in English Language Teaching since 2002. She is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus, focusing on the pedagogical use of Virtual Reality in the learning of English as a foreign language. Her postgraduate qualifications include a Masters of Arts in Education (Applied Linguistics) from the Open University, UK, and a Bachelor’s Degree in “English Language and Literature” from the University of Cyprus. She has worked as a Teacher of English as a Second Language (L2) in private institutions, as a Teacher in Secondary Education, teaching English as a First Language (L1), a Speaking Assessor for English exams, and as an English Language Lecturer in Tertiary Education Institutions in the private and public sector in Cyprus since 2007. She has been involved in Curriculum Development and Teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at the Cyprus University of Technology since 2012.  She has participated in the writing of Erasmus + research proposals, and has been involved in Erasmus + research projects, like DR FLEMP and VALIANT, as well as in intercultural projects with foreign universities (Taipei Medical University and Utrecht University). She is an active member of E-LaRA, WP3 (task 3.4) of the European University of Technology (EUt+), participating in various symposia and presentations.

She has also tested the pedagogical application of Virtual Reality (VR) as an educational tool since 2018 and presented the results of that research in conferences in Cyprus and abroad. She is a research partner in Immerse, the first immersive platform in the world, used exclusively for language learning. Her research interests revolve around Virtual Reality-Assisted Language Learning (VRALL), immersive technologies research, digital social semiotics, and multimodality