About the Department

The Department of Language and Linguistics was founded more than 40 years ago, and has a long tradition of excellence in English Language and Linguistics on the one hand and Modern Languages on the other.

English Language & Linguistics

Students in the Ivor Crewe buildingWe employ 20 teaching and research staff in English Language and Linguistics, and we have more than 200 undergraduate and 200 postgraduate students enrolled on more than 30 courses in English Language, English Language Teaching or Linguistics – making us the largest department of its kind in the UK. We have a suite of Linguistics labs with specialist equipment for recording and analysing your speech and for monitoring your eye movements when you are reading and/or listening. We were awarded a 5 rating for our research in the last Research Assessment Exercise, which means we produce research of international excellence, and that our staff are among the most eminent scholars in their fields in the world. Our members of staff and their main areas of teaching and research expertise are listed below.

Staff member Main areas of teaching and research expertise
Dr. Enam Al-Wer Varieties of English, Language and Sex, Multilingualism
Dr. Doug Arnold Syntax, Semantics, Computational Linguistics
Prof. Bob Borsley Syntax, Pragmatics, History of English, Approaches to Linguistics
Dr. David Britain Sociolinguistics, English accents and dialects
Prof. Harald Clahsen, FBA Language acquisition, language disorders and language processing
Dr. Rebecca Clift Language use in conversation and in the media
Dr. Sonja Eisenbeiss Child language acquisition and Psycholinguistics
Dr. Helen Emery Teaching reading and writing, particularly to young learners
Dr. Claudia Felser Syntax and language processing
Dr. Adela Ganem Use of computers in English Language Teaching
Dr. Julian Good Materials and methods in English Language Teaching
Dr. Nigel Harwood Academic writing in English Language Teaching
Prof. Roger Hawkins Acquisition of syntax by second language learners of English
Dr. Wyn Johnson   Phonology and the acquisition of phonology
Dr. Mike Jones English and Romance syntax
Dr. Nancy Kula Phonology and its interaction with morphology and syntax
Mr. Tony Lilley, OBE English Language Teaching, reading skills and proficiency testing
Prof. Peter Patrick Language variation and change, African American & Caribbean English
Dr. Bojana Petric Cultural and identity issues in the teaching and learning of English
Prof. Andrew Radford English syntax, and how children acquire it
Dr. Karen Roehr Second language learning, learning aptitude and learning style
Prof. Louisa Sadler Syntax and the interaction between syntax and morphology
Mr. Phil Scholfield Historical Linguistics, vocabulary learning, and language awareness
Prof. Andrew Spencer Morphology and its relation with Syntax

Modern Languages

For more information about the Department's Modern Languages staff and activities, please visit the Modern Languages website.

Further Information

University Information

Last modified on 29 April 2010.