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• 1989. PhD English. University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡. Title of thesis: ‘
• 1983. MA (by research). University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡
• 1977. Postgraduate Diploma in English as a Second Language. University of Leeds
• 1974. BA English Language and Literature. University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡

I was born and brought up in Leeds and since then have lived in Singapore, the Philippines, Smethwick, Guildford and Birmingham. My first degree focused mainly on English Literature, but teaching English as a Second Language and English for Academic Purposes in my early career led to an increasing interest in how the English language works, and I pursued that interest in my MA and PhD. 

Since 1983 I have taught Applied Linguistics and English Language as a degree subject at the National University of Singapore, the University of Surrey, and since 1996 at the University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡. I also had two years in the commercial world as a member of the Cobuild project. 

In my current job I am Professor of English Language.

Over the years I have taught various subject areas, including spoken and written Discourse Analysis, Pedagogic Grammar, the Language of Science and Corpus Linguistics.

Find out more - our PhD English Language and Applied Linguistics  page has information about doctoral research at the University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡.

My research focuses on two areas: Corpus linguistics, especially the interface between lexis and grammar, phraseology, and the contribution of corpus linguistics to Applied Linguistics and to discourse studies; and Discourse Analysis, in particular the study of evaluative language and the analysis of written academic English. My monograph (Corpus Approaches to Evaluation: Phraseology and Evaluative Language) brings together these interests. I worked with Dr Paul Thompson on the ESRC-funded 'Interdisciplinary Research Discourse' project (IDRD). This led to a number of publications, including the monograph Interdisciplinary Research Discourse (2019, Routledge).

Research groups

• I am a member of the Centre for Corpus Research.

I am currently co-editor of the Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series. From 2006 to 2009 I was Chair of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. I serve on the editorial board of Applied Linguistics, Functions of Language and AJELT.

Conferences

I helped to organise the Corpus Linguistics conferences in Birmingham, held in 2005 and 2007. I have been an invited or plenary speaker at a number of conferences in Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Spain, Taiwan and the US as well as in Britain.