The sociolinguistics of writing in a global context

• Start date: 01 June 2009
• End date: 25 January 2012

 This programme of work aims to explore the practices and politics of writing in a global context by: 

1. generating detailed empirical description and theoretical frameworks for understanding the role played by English in mediating academic text production and distribution in a global context;
2. critically exploring and reconfiguring key ways in which written texts and literacy practices are dealt with in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics.

Empirically, the programme draws on a longitudinal study on academic writing in four national contexts (Hungary, Slovakia, Spain and Portugal) and theoretically on current work in New Literacy Studies, sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography.

The key output activities of the programme are the writing of two books (one co-authored, one single authored) and  the organising of two international seminars paralleling major themes of the books,  with the goal of setting a future international research agenda in the field of writing studies.

The programme will seek to involve professional groups to whom the programme of work is  directly relevant. These include editors of international journals, professional 'language consultants'  representatives of European research bodies  with an interest in international research writing and representatives from UK curriculum bodies specifically concerned with writing and literacy.