This research theme highlights the interplay between language and society. Focusing on language in its social context, our research examines the ways in which identities and relations are produced in language practice, the role of language in social life (including its relationships to power, national identity, ideology, and institutional inequalities), and the dynamics of language within globalisation and intercultural contact. We address a broad range of research questions, such as: What are the processes through which linguistic features and styles come to be associated with social meanings? Why do regional dialects persist in the face of overt stigmatisation? What kinds of classroom talk are best for children’s learning? How is language involved in the replication of educational inequalities? How do people communicate across different languages and cultures in diverse urban centres? How are class, gender and ethnic identities constructed through language use? How are language-related issues represented in and by the media?
To address these questions, we draw upon a range of research methodologies and perspectives, including, quantitative variationist sociolinguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic ethnography, and discourse analysis.
Browse projects from our Showcase events
2025 Showcase
Accent Bias and Inequities in UK Higher Education (HE)
Artificial Intelligence & Arabic Natural Language Processing
Artificial Intelligence for University Education
CELCE
A citizen science approach to the assessment of pragmatic language in adolescents
A Contrastive Study of Metaphors in Theresa May's and Boris Johnson's Political Discourse
English teacher motivation and possible selves
Exploring similarities and differences in how researchers and young people understand key terms in youth mental-health research
Finding the Place of West Yorkshire and Glaswegian Vowels in the Chinese Phonological System: Perception of English Accents by Chinese EFL Learners
Generative Human, Creative AI
Investigating the Language of German Fine Art Market (1900–1945) – Using BERT
Language and Narrativisation in WW2 Memoirs
Language, Education & Social Justice
Leeds Language Week: Educational Engagement & Advocacy for Languages
Leveraging linguistics to enrich and diversify language teaching and learning
A longitudinal study of learning engagement in UK undergraduate students of Mandarin
The Multilingual Me: Lessons from UK Language Graduates
A Natural History of Language
Negative impact of high status languages in Indonesia (1) Health
Negative impact of high status languages in Indonesia (2) Education
RefugEAP Case Study
West Yorkshire’s contemporary Italian diaspora
2022 Showcase
AI Tracing for Detecting Covid19 Misinformation
A Corpus-Assisted Study of Defendant Questioning in Chinese Criminal Trials
Between Lexicon and Vocabulary: Terminology for Interactions with External Audiences
Listening to Muslims? Social Media, Belonging and Social Cohesion in Multicultural Europe
Corpus-based forensic linguistics
An evaluation of the effectiveness of a dialogic reading program in developing the home literacy environment, language and literacy skills of pre-schoolers in low socioeconomic status families
Language maintenance in migrant populations
Reclamation of the Kariri-Xocó language
How does speaking confidence impact students’ participation in higher education?
Authenticity and connection online – The psychology of online learning
Language & Educational Inequalities
Linguistic Bias at the University
On the making of Robinson’s stylistic ‘fast ones’ through the Banks’ series early years
Breaking the silence on women’s experience of incontinence
Processing Regional Accents
Representing Reality in Derek Chauvin’s Criminal Trial: Prosecution and defence strategies in opening speeches and closing arguments
Unpacking the ‘Hidden Curriculum’ language of Higher Education
