Our Speakers
Movers and Shakers
David Crystal
SUBJECT
"New challenges: the role of Pragmatics"
David Crystal is honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, and works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster in language and linguistics. He joined the new department of linguistics at Reading in 1965, becoming professor of linguistic science there in 1975. From 1984 he has worked as an independent scholar. He is author of over 100 books on various aspects of the English language, including The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, now in its third edition. His latest book is Let's talk: how English conversation works (2020). A complete list of his publications can be found at www.davidcrystal.com.
Douglas Biber
SUBJECT
"Complexity in academic writing: The development of phrasal discourse styles"
Douglas Biber is Regents' Professor of English (Applied Linguistics) at Northern Arizona University. Beginning with his involvement in adult education programs in Kenya and Somalia, followed by faculty appointments at USC and NAU, he has been actively training language teachers and professionals for 35 years. His research efforts have focused on corpus linguistics, English grammar, describing patterns of register variation (in English and cross-linguistic; synchronic and diachronic), and how those research findings can in turn be applied in studies of language teaching and learning. He has published over 235 research articles and 25 books and monographs, including primary research studies as well as textbooks. He is widely known for his work on the corpus-based Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) and for the development of ‘Multi-Dimensional Analysis’ (a research approach for the study of register variation), described in earlier books published by Cambridge University Press (1988, 1995, 1998). More recently, he co-authored a textbook on Register, Genre, and Style [2nd edition] (Cambridge, 2019), co-edited the new Cambridge Handbook of English Corpus Linguistics (2015), and co-authored research monographs on grammatical complexity in written academic English (Cambridge, 2016) and register variation on the web (Cambridge, 2018).
Scott Thornbury
SUBJECT
"Twenty years of ‘grammar McNuggets’"
Scott Thornbury has taught and trained in Egypt, UK, Spain, and in his native New Zealand. His writing credits include several award-winning books for teachers on language and methodology, including About Language (Cambridge) and The New A-Z of ELT (Macmillan). His two latest books are 30 Language Teaching Methods and 101 Grammar Questions (both Cambridge). He is also the series editor for the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers and a trustee of the HandsUp Project, which promotes drama activities in English for children in under-resourced regions of the Arab world.. His website is www.scottthornbury.com
Eleni Agathopoulou
SUBJECT
“Corrective feedback in the EFL classroom”
Eleni Agathopoulou is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the School of English Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Currently she is head of the Postgraduate Programme in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics and editor of the Journal of Applied Linguistics of the Greek Applied Linguistics Association. Her research interests concern non-native language acquisition and foreign language learning, bilingualism, focus on form instruction and language learning strategies. She has published articles in the EUROSLA Yearbook, the Journal of Applied Linguistics and the Language Learning Journal, as well as volumes and conference proceedings.
