Languages in Society

Research Themes

Talk in and across languages: this theme encompasses descriptive linguistic work in English and languages other than English (LOTEs). In particular, descriptive work on Japanese, English and Italian is currently underway.

Understanding literatures: this theme encompasses research into literature from a linguistic point of view. Projects looking at literature in Spanish, Japanese and Italian are in progress.

Language in education: this theme broadly encompasses language teaching in terms of first, second and foreign language teaching methodologies as well as language learning technologies and curriculum development. Projects like Japanese curriculum development, the development of computer-aided translation, the utilisation of simultaneous talk in language education are under investigation.

Language and society: this theme broadly encompasses the cultural effects on language such as the development of a global language, the language of minorities, the language varieties of migrant speakers etc – each of which is currently in progress.

Research Group Functions

The Languages in Society research group has a number of functions. These are:

• to enable both collaborative and individual research in which language is the principal object of investigation;
• to promote language research through a seminar programme;
• to increase the number of postgraduate students in languages
• to nurture and induct emerging researchers whether they be undergraduate, postgraduate or staff;
• to encourage and facilitate grant applications both internal and external to the University;
• to encourage and facilitate collaborative projects with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally;
• to support Visiting Fellows with language related research interest