Our research

Our research focuses on the diverse phenomena of multilingualism, which we believe is the rule rather than the exception in today’s increasingly multicultural world. We have not only developed a distinctive academic identity but also helped to redefine the field as a social science.test

We adopt a very broad and interdisciplinary approach, and believe that it is through rigorous, critical examination of these phenomena from several perspectives that the nature and functions of language and communication can be understood more holistically:

• current research projects
• staff research interests
• current research students
• recently completed PhDs
• Centre for Multilingual and Multicultural Research
• the International Journal of Bilingualism
• the online journal, Birkbeck Studies of Applied Linguistics

We are best known for our research in the following areas:

• bilingualism and multilingualism, including bilingual education
• language acquisition, including first, second, additional, bilingual and multilingual language acquisition
• language development and disorders from a cross-linguistic and multilingual perspective
• neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics
• pragmatics, especially cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics
• discourse and conversation analysis
• sociolinguistics
• intercultural communication
• professional and workplace communication

Find out more about our staff research areas.