We promote a broad-based linguistics and applied language research and consultancy agenda.
We bring together research staff, language educators and postgraduate students interested in formal and applied linguistics. Our Centre's lively and active research environment promotes excellence in teaching and learning.
We organise events including workshops, reading groups, research seminars, and conferences. Find out more about our event listings.
Our staff and PhD students have research expertise in a variety of topics. These include:
- discourse analysis
- sociolinguistics
- multilingualism
- linguistic ethnography and theory
- language acquisition
- testing and assessment
- language education
Language learning and teaching group
Our research explores how humans learn second and additional languages, in and outside of classrooms. We examine how teaching practices vary, and how they can be improved.
We ask what features are typical or interesting about the language produced by learners. We are also interested in how culture and other beliefs influence teaching and learning practice.
Linguistic theory group
Our research explores theories of the human language faculty. We ask how language appears in the minds of speakers.
Our theoretical interests focus on generative approaches to the language faculty and its architecture. We are especially interested in syntax and its interfaces with morphology, phonology, semantics and pragmatics.
A specific focus of this group is the language attrition processes that happen in the mind when our first language is not used on a regular basis, or when it is in contact with another dominant language.
Our director
The director of the Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research is Dr Adriana Patino.