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Applied Linguistics
Applied Linguistics is a broad discipline which is concerned with increasing our understanding of the role of language in human affairs. It mediates between the theory of language and the practice of language both in its acquisition and its use. Applied Linguistics includes topics as varied as Courtroom Semantics, The Psychiatric Interview, Language and Globalization, Meaning Negotiation in Second Language Learning, Working Memory and Second Language Reading. Clearly our research area would not be able to sustain work in all these topics, nor would some of them sit comfortably within a department of Educational. We therefore have to restrict ourselves to a selection of them.
Although a large body of the current applied linguistics work in the area is concerned with second language acquisition, there is certainly no intention that it should remain as such and we welcome into the group anyone interested in first language acquisition and its development, as well as areas which cut across first and second language such as discourse and conversation analysis.
Given the above, the work of this group overlaps with psycholinguistics, general linguistics, and to some extent sociolinguistics.
The research pursued by this group is varied both in terms of topical focus, age group being studied, and research methodology adopted. Increasingly, the research is using quantitative methods. Recent (and current) funded research projects include:
- Young-beginner learners: an intervention into reading and writing skills and strategies (ESRC funded)
- Young-beginner learners: the relationship between decoding ability and motivation (ESRC funded)
- Lower intermediate: listening and writing strategies (ESRC funded)
- Intensive second language grammar tuition and its impact on writing proficiency (HEFCE funded)
- Investigating lexical representation in children with word finding difficulty (ESRC funded)
- The role of gestures in children’s cognitive and linguistic processes (ESRC funded)
- Language representation in bilingual children
Members of the group have also been involved in two systematic reviews (both EPPI-Centre funded):
- Strategy intervention studies in second language learning
- The role of prior knowledge in second language listening
Members of the group work collaboratively both with colleagues inside the university and with colleagues in other universities both nationally and internationally. For further information on the research interests of members of the applied linguistics group go to staff individual webpages
The members of this group currently are
- Ernesto Macaro
- Victoria Murphy
- Kathy Sylva
- Lynn Erler
- Liz Masterman
- Robert Vanderplank
- Katie Gray
- Kentei Takaya
- Tao Guo
- Napisah Kepol
- Mairin Hennebry
- Maria Kyriacou
- Gopa Nayak
- Akmal Shapirov
- Dorota Campfield
- Robert Woore
- Cristina Psomadakis
- Fiona Middleweek
- Giles Witton-Davies
- Lili Tian
- Lydia Chan
- Marion Williams
- Pei-tseng Hsieh
- Trevor Mutton
- Yuen Yi Lo
- Jang Ho Lee