Research
Research strengths
- Linguistics
The primary research focus of the Research Group in Linguistics within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is Applied Linguistics and Educational Linguistics. Members of the Research Group represent a diverse range of theoretical orientations, not limited to a single framework. Research in Applied Linguistics at UNSW is applied to a diversity of languages and not narrowly focused on English. A distinctive feature of our operation, facilitated by our location within a single School, is the close interaction between linguists and applied linguists/language researchers. With the exception of Dr Louise Ravelli from the School of English, Media and The Performing Arts, all members of the Research Group in Linguistics are located within the School of Languages and Linguistics.
Our researchers have investigated aspects of pedagogical practice and teaching materials. Dr Mullock’s research aims to analyse and improve the quality of classroom language teaching, language teaching curricula, and language teaching institution management. A/Prof Thomson’s work focuses on the promotion of learner autonomy in Japanese language education through the use of community-based language resources. Dr. Thomson’s work with members of the Sydney Japanese community and beyond is supported by an ARC Linkage Grant. Dr Lee is recognised as an expert on input processing in second language acquisition, and Dr Peters on foreign language education policies in the Caribbean region. Dr S C Shin and Dr G H Shin have investigated teaching strategies in the Teaching of Korean as a Foreign Language. A/Prof Collins and Dr Amberber have drawn upon their research in general Linguistics in preparing an edition of the most widely used linguistics textbook in Australia. Dr Armour’s work focuses on identity formation and cross-cultural adaptation in foreign language teaching pedagogy. Meanwhile, Dr Ravelli’s research involves applying the tools of systemic-functional linguistics and multi-modal discourse analysis to the demands which specific contexts place on communication needs.
There is a good deal of collaboration in research and supervision between members of the School-based group and researchers outside the School (Dr Amberber and A/Prof Collins recently held, and Dr Ravelli currently holds, an ARC grant with colleagues from other universities). The members of the group have published a large number of refereed articles, book chapters, monographs and edited books. Members of the research group have supervised and are currently supervising a large number of research students in such fields such as General and Applied Linguistics as Second Language Acquisition, Academic Discourse, Classroom Language and Corpus Linguistics.
- Literatures
- Language Aquisitions
- Area Studies
