Applied Linguistics Research Group
ALG members
Welcome
You are most welcome to the ALRG’s homepage. This group brings together experts across a diverse range of fields relating to language learning and linguistics, including:
- Computer-assisted language learning
- Super-diversity and language teaching
- Social justice approaches to language teaching
- Language learning strategies
- Minority language support and maintenance
- Translation in language teaching
- Task-based language learning and teaching
- Social-psychological facets of language acquisition
- Language teacher education
- Grapholinguistics and writing systems
- Language planning and policy
- Heritage languages
- Pragmatics
- Multimodal discourse
- Sociocultural linguistics
- Language and Identity
- Sociolinguistics and Gender
We are passionate about our research, and welcome new members with interests in the above or cognate disciplines. If you would like to join, please feel free to email the current Director, conchur.maclochlainn@dcu.ie.
Our research encompasses three primary areas:
Innovative approaches to language teaching
We are constantly pushing the boundaries of traditional language teaching to provide students with a language learning experience that is not only meaningful but also informed by the latest developments in Applied Linguistics and intersecting disciplines. Our members are actively engaged in research related to virtual exchanges, Visual Thinking Strategies, translation, plurilingual pedagogies, and social justice approaches to language learning, among others. We also explore how to best support pre-service and in language service teachers.
Plurilingualism in society
Our members investigate issues related to plurilingual societies such as heritage language maintenance, minority languages revitalisation, translanguaging, among others. We are also interested in exploring language policy and planning both at the micro and macro level in different domains (e.g., educational institutions, politics, media) and how different stakeholders navigate and appropriate these policies.
Language, technologies, and communication
Language plays a vital role in communication. With the advancement of technology, communication is increasingly going digital, creating an environment where humans take advantage of multiple communicative inputs - linguistic, visual, aural, and more. This is particularly important given recent advances in generative AI. Our members conduct research in areas such as pragmatics, exploring the intersection between verbal and non-verbal communication, multimodal discourse, and lexical innovation processes, among many others which lie at the interface of language, technology, and communication.
Current students
| Student | Thesis | Supervisors |
| Monireh Mokhtarzadeh | An exploration of Iranian language teachers' professional development: addressing educational inequality through virtual communities of practice. supervisors | Inmaculada Gómez Soler and Ryoko Sasamoto |
| Ma’arib AbdulKader Jastaniah | Exploring the processes of an internal evaluation in relation to an EFL Preservice Female Teachers’ Training Programme in a Saudi University | Inmaculada Gómez Soler and Fiona Gallagher |
| Hind Almuhawiss | Gender and Lexical choices in oral Najdi Arabic by Saudi University Students | Alicia Castillo Villanueva and Lucía Pintado Gutiérrez |
|
Ahmed Alhassani |
Productive and receptive knowledge and avoidance of phrasal verbs: The case of Saudi Learners of English |
Dorothy Kenny and Iker Erdocia |
| Eman Alahmari | Investigating Teachers’ Agency in Curriculum-Making within EFL Higher Education Context: An Ecological Perspective |
Inmaculada Gómez Soler and Iker Erdocia |
Prospective students
Prospective PhD students are encouraged to browse the profiles of members of the Applied Linguistics Research Group and to contact those working in their area of interest directly.
For full information on postgraduate research at Dublin City University and application procedures, click here.
Past Doctoral Theses (from 2020)
Hannah Leonard [2025]. Slanguages Connect: Using Translation to Foster L2 Sociolinguistic Competence. Supervised by Lucía Pintado and Jennifer Martyn.
Sagun Shrestha [2023]. ICT in education in crisis contexts: an activity theoretical study of teaching and learning in Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supervised by Françoise Blin and Jennifer Bruen.
Lacie Raymond [2025]. The lived experiences of English language teachers in conflict-affected settings: a study of the Palestinian context. Supervised by Jennifer Bruen and Ágnes Maillot.
Èrika Marcet i Torrijos. [2022]. Activating L2 Pragmatic Competence in Japanese Oral Interaction. Supervised by Ryoko Sasamoto and Lucía Pintado
Fiona Gallagher. [2021]. The classroom as a bilingual space: An exploration of attitudes towards mono- and bi/multilingual practices in English language teaching contexts. Supervised by Jennifer Bruen and Angela Leahy.
Elena López Cuenca. [2021] Integrating the visual arts into Spanish-as-a-foreign-language education: developing visual literacy and lexical competence using a visual thinking strategies-led teaching. Supervised by Ryoko Sasamoto and Angela Leahy
Ian Hurley. [2021] Kanji learning by Japanese language learners from alphabetic backgrounds: an examination of how ‘component analysis’ impacts learners of differential proficiencies. Supervised by Ryoko Sasamoto
Dey-Plissonneau, A. [2020]. Designed and emerging affordances in tutor-learner multimodal interactions via videoconferencing for second language learning and teaching: an activity theoretical approach. Supervised by Françoise Blin and Maria Loftus.
Caitriona Osborne. [2020]. The effects of focused memorisation, delayed character introduction, character colour-coding, and a unity curriculum on the character learning of Beginner CFL learners. Supervised by Qi Zhang.