Research

Research in the Centre for Applied Linguistics.

Research projects

Projects include:

  • Becoming a professional in the new global market: Language, mobility and inequality (UCL Global Fund, UCL IOE Seed corn grant, Beijing University of International Business and Economics, Nanjing Technological University, 2017–20). 
  • British Academy teaching-research nexus
  • British Council reading and writing in second language
  • Child bilingual brain imaging
  • CITTI research project, analysing interactions within virtual learning environments for students of citizenship
  • Cognitive benefits of language learning
  • Development of a strategy for EAL in the teaching workforce
  • Digital literacies as a postgraduate attribute
  • Dimension-selective attention and second language acquisition (ESRC Research Grant, 2021–25)
  • Examining language-related eligibility criteria in patient recruitment to randomised controlled trials
  • Exploring the neuro-cognitive demands of writing in a foreign language in crisis situations (UCL-Tohoku Strategic Partner Funds, 2022–23)
  • Family language policy
  • How does having a good ear promote L2 speech learning? (Leverhulme Trust Research Project, 2020–24)
  • How does literacy experience in more than one language shape cognition?
  • How does training a good ear promote L2 speech learning? (Spencer Foundation Research Project, 2020–24)
  • How tutors use masters degree studies in education to support teachers
  • Investigating IELTS Academic Writing Task 2: Relationships between cognitive writing processes, text quality, and working memory (British Council, 2015–16)
  • Investigating the impact of multilingual children’s identity on language and literacy (UCL Global Engagement Fund, 2024–25)
  • Investigating the integrated and independent TOEFL iBT writing tasks: Writing behaviours, underlying cognitive processes, and their relationships to test scores and text quality (Educational Testing Service, 2017–18)
  • Investigating the predictive validity of the Duolingo English Test
  • L2 reading and reading-while-listening in multi-modal learning conditions: An eye-tracking study (British Council English Language Teaching Research Awards, 2016)
  • Language and moral judgements: (Eye)Tracking emotions and decisions. (bLaME) (British Academy/Leverhulme, 2024–25)
  • Language of voice-hearing
  • Lexical coverage and its effect on second language reading comprehension: An examination of readers’ cognitive effort (CCM Small funds, 2017)
  • Maximising the impact of second language vocabulary on the design of language learning apps
  • Monitoring and evaluation of the hearing all voices project
  • Multilingual universities
  • Multilingualism in healthcare: Exploring the lived experience of maternity professionals
  • Neurocognition and second language learning: exploring neurocognitive processes during L2 speech in crisis situations (UCL-Tohoku Strategic Partner Funds, 2020–21)
  • Promoting English language learning: the role of reading in vocabulary acquisition (UCL Global Engagement funds, 2020)
  • Questioning vaccination discourse: Quo VaDis
  • Social Mobile Network to enhance community building for adults informal learning
  • Sustaining multilinguals' well-being through AI-based neurocognitive and language training (UK-ISPF Research Collaboration Project, 2024–26)
  • Tasks and assessing second language writing processes and outcomes (Trinity College London, 2013–14)
  • The complexity-accuracy-fluency triad, communicative adequacy, and revisiting the IELTS speaking band descriptors
  • The impact of writing proficiency on second language writing behaviours and text quality (Trinity College London, 2015–16)
  • Translanguaging and learning
  • Translanguaging in diverse contexts
  • Translanguaging in the workplace
  • Using computational tools to analyse the language demands of informed consent documents in health intervention research.
  • Using eye-tracking as an educational tool: An investigation into the effects of interactive eye-tracking on second language vocabulary knowledge (Spencer Foundation)
  • Writing in the city (HKU–UCL Strategic Partnerships, 2017–18)

See also UCL Profiles to find more about our researchers, publications, activities, groups and themes.

Collaborations

Research groups

Contact us

Centre for Applied Linguistics
Department of Culture, Communication and Media
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
University College London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL