Search Herts

English Language and Communication

Research theme/s: Health and wellbeing theme icon Heritage culture theme icon Information and security theme icon
People Projects Publications

The English Language and Communication group is an enthusiastic and dedicated group interested in various aspects of language and language teaching.

Their work covers all the main subject areas in EL&C including corpus linguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, child language acquisition, narrative inquiry and phonetics and phonology. Their research spans across several of the University’s key research themes and, although diverse, also shares some commonalities (e.g. work relates to culture, identity, and community).

It is precisely this wide range of specialities/expert knowledge in methodology and procedures that allows the EL&C staff to supervise a diverse range of Ph.D. topics. We are happy to receive proposals for masters and doctoral research in any area of focus within the group.

Regular research seminars are held during the academic year where staff members as well as invited speakers present their research to staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Please contact Dr Joanne McDowell, EL&C research leader, if you have subject specific enquiries or visit our Doctoral College for more information on research degrees.

Research projects

Our research projects are wide-ranging and seek to have an impact beyond academia and the university.

Our staff

We welcome inquiries from potential research students wishing to work broadly in these areas:

  • Dr Marjolein Groefsema (pragmatics; lexical semantics)
  • Dr Gwyneth James (students' learning & transition experiences; second language identity; narrative inquiry; intercultural communication)
  • Dr Man Ki Theodoral Lee
  • Dr Cathy Lonngren-Sampaio (bilingualism and codeswitching; TEFL/TESOL; constructing and investigating (bilingual) language corpora; eye-tracking)
  • Dr Joanne McDowell (sociolinguistics; discourse analysis; gender and language; workplace discourse; classroom discourse; identity construction
  • Dr Christina Schelletter (language processing; bilingualism; specific language impairment; first language acquisition; eye tracking)

Apply for an English research degree

Get more information on how you can apply to study for an English research degree.