Applied Linguistics

Applied Linguistics is a multi-disciplinary group of colleagues who are interested in the description and use of language from social, developmental, psychological, discourse and pedagogic perspectives. Its members include staff from School of Education, School of History, Philosophy and Culture, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Japanese Studies and OCSLD. Current projects include:

• Children’s learning in Chinese and Portuguese complementary schools.
• The use of the first language amongst EAL children in UK schools.
• Developing whole-school approaches to language enrichment in UK schools.
• Student-generated grammar materials amongst learners of Japanese.
• Native speaker perceptions of spoken errors.
• Global citizenship as notion and practice in higher education.
• Learning through peer review processes in academic writing.
• Writing transitions: from BA into MA, MA into doctoral writing.

We have generated a number of symposia including:

• May 2015: Language and the Creative Arts.
• June 2016 and 2017; English as and additional language.
• September 2017: Thinking-in-action: approaches to teacher development.

We also participate in the convening of the following networks:

• NALDIC Oxford: (National Association of Language Development in the Curriculum)
• C-group: (the Creativity group for Language educators: an international lobby group)

We have also been involved in research projects in Australia (aboriginal languages); Chile (bilingual school initiatives); Hawaii (the re-emergence of Hawaiian language and culture); Japan (grammar development); India (spoken language and phonology).

A sample of funded projects include:

• AHRC (connecting poets, poetry researchers and teachers in and out of second language poetry).
• BELMAS (leadership in complementary schools).
• Brookes Student Experience grants (international student voices).
• Cambridge University Press (disciplinary interpretations of ‘reflection’).
• ESRC (academic discourse in undergraduate writing across subject disciplines).
• Higher Education Academy (HEA) (notions of the international university).

We aim to support the development of group members through regular meetings that include sharing news and work in progress, and building support mechanisms for both individual and team projects.

Academic staff with related research interests