Current projects

Here you can see some of the current projects being undertaken within Applied Languages and Linguistics. For more information, contact the relevant project lead. You can see more projects by visiting group members’ staff profiles.

ELEMENTAL

Researcher: Kristina Hultgren

Project summary

This project takes a novel, interdisciplinary approach to the rise of English in European higher education, re-theorizing it within the context of 'steering at a distance' reforms. 'Steering at a distance' is premised on a neoliberal philosophy of granting higher education institutions greater autonomy while putting into place extensive accountability mechanisms, such as key performance indicators, performance-related funding and development contracts.

Raciolinguistics

Researchers: Jaspal Singh

Project summary

Global Patwa is a performative type of musical speech that can be heard around the world whenever reggae music is played and celebrated. In such performances, singers borrow, appropriate and approximate linguistic features of Jamaican Patwa (or Jamaican Creole) and blend them with local styles of speaking and local linguistic meanings. The project asks how and why Global Patwa performances are differently evaluated in Germany, in the UK and in India; three national contexts that have different histories of postcolonial Caribbean and Black migration and that are differently positioned in the colonial matrix of power. The findings raise critical awareness of race and racism and inform about the implications of using racially marked language in global spaces.

Young Adult Fiction

Researchers: Maria Leedham, Sally Hunt, Sarah Jane Mukherjee

Project summary

Best-selling young adult (YA) fiction is a space where teenagers can read purely for pleasure, in sharp contrast to their compulsory study of school set texts. Such self-directed reading supports young people’s developing identities, empathy, improves their reading skills, and can also improve their mental health. This project explores 50 commercially successful YA fiction books using an innovative combination of quantitative linguistic analysis and participant interaction via focus groups (young people) and interviews (school librarians) with the aim of exploring the worldviews presented in fiction and co-constructed by participants.

Mobile Conversations in Context

Researcher: Caroline Tagg

Project summary

This project develops new understandings of the ways in which we move between online and offline interactions in our daily lives. As well as assuaging people’s anxieties, the research also aims to contribute to a better understanding of how we communicate with others, by recognising the central role that mobile phones now play in our everyday lives and relationships.