The WACC Research Group is interested in the following research areas:

• Language use in different cultures and languages (i.e. comparative studies);
• The impact of cultural factors on communicative interaction in social, educational and professional contexts (i.e. interactional studies)
• Intercultural effectiveness (including conceptions of intercultural interaction competence)
• Culture, identity and adaptation (including issues associated with culture shock and personal growth)
• Culture and pedagogy (including conceptions of the role of the teacher, ‘good’ student behaviour and ‘good’ teaching approaches)

We welcome applications from suitably qualified people who wish to undertake postgraduate research (PhD, MPhil) in any of these (or related) areas. Please see Research Degrees page for information on how to apply.

Conceptual Stance

We believe that the social context (both micro and macro) has a major impact on people’s language use and interactional behaviour, and we draw especially on work in pragmatics and discourse (e.g. face theory, ‘politeness’ theory, rapport management theory, multimodality) for the theoretical and analytical frameworks that underpin our research.

We acknowledge that an applied linguistic perspective is insufficient for fully understanding the issues associated with working and communicating across cultures, and we strongly encourage a multidisciplinary perspective. Members of the group have training in education, psychology and management, and we are keen to encourage interdisciplinary research.