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Biography
After taking degrees in English language and literature at Sussex and Birmingham Universities and gaining teaching qualifications, I worked for the British Council and others for 10 years in UK, Sweden, Singapore, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Colombia before joining the University of Wales, Cardiff in 1993.
At Swansea University, Wales, from 2000- 2011 I led MA TEFL, BA English Language Studies and was Head of Applied Linguistics from 2007-9. I supervised PhDs in Discourse Analysis, TEFL, CLIL and Second Language Acquisition.
In my teaching and research I have been committed to a fruitful dialogue between literary and applied linguistic studies in international contexts and so Nottingham Ningbo University is now a natural home for me where I took over as Head of Division from September 2011. Current research interests are literary stylistics, intercultural communication and global Englishes and China.
I have been Assistant Editor since 1999, Chief Editor since 2010 of the journal 'Language & Literature' (Sage) http://lal.sagepub.com/ and a member of PALA (Poetics and Linguistics Association) since 1988. http://www.pala.ac.uk/
A member of BAAL (British Association for Applied Linguistics) since 1994.
I have delivered invited lectures and plenaries in recent years in Pakistan, China, Japan and the UK among others.
Research Summary
A book for Benjamins, Amsterdam entitled 'Discourse Stylistics' is gradually emerging arguing the value of discourse analysis of literary activity as well as including case studies from canonical… read more
(2009). 'Texts, readers - and real readers' Language and Literature 18 (3) 333-339.
(2008). 'A Grammarian's Funeral: On Browning, post-structuralism, and the state of stylistics' In G. Watson ed. The State of Stylistics Amsterdam: Benjamins. 31-44.
(2008). Empirical research into the processing of free indirect discourse and the imperative of ecological validity. In S. Zyngier et al. Directions in Empirical Studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 21-34.
(2007) 'Every joy is a sorrow to me now. Vocabulary in culture and communication' In Davidson, Palfreyman and Coombe eds. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in a Second Language. Dubai: TESOL Arabia. 79-87.
(2006) 'Stylistics in second language contexts: A critical perspective' In G. Watson and S. Zyngier (eds.) Literature and stylistics for language learners. Palgrave Macmillan. 3-14
(2006) 'Literature as a social practice'. In S. Goodman and K. O' Halloran (eds.) The Art of English: Literary Creativity Palgrave Macmillan pp. 451-9.
(2005) Literature in Language Education. Palgrave Macmillan.
Current Research
A book for Benjamins, Amsterdam entitled 'Discourse Stylistics' is gradually emerging arguing the value of discourse analysis of literary activity as well as including case studies from canonical 19th and 20th century English literature.
Future Research
Intercultural research and research on uses of English in China is planned to develop along with continuing interest in literary stylistics, including Free Indirect Discourse and emotions in literary reception.