Research, scholarship and knowledge exchange

The School of Languages and Applied Linguistics is one of the UK’s largest, most dynamic and internationally active departments in the area of Applied Linguistics and Language Studies. Our research in languages and applied linguistics deals with language as a social practice in various contexts, notably language in education and higher education, in the workplace and the professions, in politics and the media, and in various cultural environments. Some of our specific areas of focus include:

• Language as a social and cultural practice. Our researchers tackle topics such as changing literacy practices, translation and interpreting, literary and intercultural heritage, post-digital interactional practices, (im)politeness in conversational interactions, political storytelling, and English as a global language.
  Some of our recently funded projects include:
  • Universities fit for the future? Towards a critical governance of EDI in the neoliberal university, UKRI 2025-2028
  • Global Patwa: Raciolinguistic appropriations of Jamaican language features in British, German and Indian Reggae cultures, British Academy 2024-2025
  • ELEMENTAL (English-as the Language-of-Education Mechanisms in Europe: New Transdisciplinary Approaches in Linguistics), UKRI 2020-2024.
  • Mobile Conversations in Context (MoCo), British Academy 2021-22
  • Lexical thresholds and profiles across CEFR levels in the Aptis test, British Council 2021 
     
• Language education and learning (including online language teaching, professional teacher development, digital pedagogies, education policies, language acquisition, assessment and testing, classroom interaction, phonology and phonetics). Our publications in this area tackle topics such as the pedagogic implications of artificial intelligence, language learning and social justice, academic literacy and tuition strategies, the teaching of pronunciation in the language curriculum, foreign language anxiety, attitudes to language variation, and other aspects.
  Some of our recently funded projects include:
  • Scots language revitalisation, with Education Scotland, including Scottish Government funded teacher CPD programme, ongoing from 2016
  • Language learning for wellbeing with senior learners, with Lingo Flamingo, ongoing from 2017
  • Diasporic identities and the politics of language teaching, AHRC 2016-2021
  • Open World Learning: establishing modern methods for online learning, Leverhulme 2015-2021
  • MOOC2Move: LMOOCs for university students on the move, European Commission 2018-2021
  • The Impact of Virtual Exchange on Student Learning in Higher Education, Erasmus + 2018-2020
  • Marginalization and Underrepresentation in Virtual Exchange: Causes and Remedies, Stevens Initiative 2020-2021 

Academics in the School belong to the following research groups: the Open Languages Research Group (OLRG), the Applied Languages and Linguistics Research Group (ALLRG), and the Language, Literature and Politics Research Group.

Through the Graduate School, our staff supervise more than 20 PhD and Professional Doctorate students, who form a vibrant multidisciplinary community and constitute a central part of our activities. To learn more, please visit our Study with us page.

To learn more about our global development research, visit the Global Development Centre website.