Projects
Our members of staff conduct research in many areas of linguistics such as first and second language acquisition,
language variation, phonology, syntax and English language teaching. Our world-class research has had a profound
effect on the world today.
Are young children better at learning a foreign language?
A research project by Professor Florence Myles challenged the belief
that young children are better at learning
foreign languages. She found that older children tend to do better at grammar, but younger children are incredibly
enthusiastic about their learning. Better understanding of the learning processes can inform teaching practices.
The research has been useful in educating teaching professionals and used to inform language learning in schools.
In this video, Professor Florence Myles talks about her research into second language acquisition. She tells us more
about examining the differences between how we learn a new language to how we learn our native tongue.
Free text processing in emergency situations
Dr Doug Arnold explored the use of computational techniques for the
analysis of free text conversations that arise
spontaneously between emergency service staff and situation controllers as emergency situations develop. Examples of such situations
include paramedics and police officers responding to a traffic accident, and the fire service responding to a report
of a suspected fire.
Analysing language to determine country of origin of asylum seekers
The Language and Asylum Research Group has been run by
Professor Peter Patrick since he founded it in 2003.
This multi-disciplinary, multi-national group of researchers works together with governments, non-governmental organisations
and legal professionals when assessing asylum seekers who are applying for refugee status. Their expertise in language
analysis to determine origin (LADO), a new branch of applied linguistics, is widely recognised across the world.