Staff Profile
Dr Alan Firth
Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics
- Email: alan.firth@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5273
- Address: Room 2.04 KGVI
School of ECLS
King George VI Buiding
Newcastle University
Queen Victoria Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
United Kingdom
Background
Background:
After graduating and completing an RSA TEFL diploma I taught English in the UK and Denmark, and published English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching materials - two 'Readers' ('The Bermuda Triangle Mystery' and 'The Loch Ness Mystery'), an English Language Teaching (ELT) textbook ('On Location'), videos for EFL teaching, and for 3 years was a regular columnist on the Danish FL teachers' magazine 'Sproglæreren' ('The Language Teacher'). I then embarked on an MA in Applied English Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, UK, and subsequently a PhD at Aalborg University, Denmark. As part of my PhD I spent a year at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the East-West Center, Honolulu. I worked at Aalborg University for a total of 21 years (1986-2007).
I have spent research sabbaticals at the University of York, UK (1994), the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (1997), and The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2011).
I moved to Newcastle University in March, 2007.
My research:
I carry out research on human interaction, more specifically interaction transacted through talk, and have a particular interest in English as a 'global language', English as a 'lingua franca', second language use, intercultural communication, and interaction in institutional settings.
In order to carry out this research, I look at how spoken/embodied interaction is *micro-managed* and *socially-organised* - in an attempt to describe, in detail, how people together accomplish understanding, how they overcome (or fail to overcome) problems caused by differences - in communicative styles, in cultural backgrounds, in language proficiency, in competence, or differing interests and agendas.
Much of my research (both empirical and theoretical) has been concerned with interaction in English as a global language/ 'lingua franca' (a contact or auxilliary language between people who do not share a mother tongue). The theoretical and methodological implications of English as a 'lingua franca' are, I believe, wide-ranging and profoundly important for English-language studies, applied linguistics, L2 (Second Language) Education and L2 Acquisition, intercultural communication, and EFL/ESL research.
In terms of theory and methodology, I'm inspired by the fields of Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis, micro-ethnography, social constructivism, the phenomenology of everyday life, the learning theories of Lave & Wenger, and post-structural theory, and I attempt to bring these fields of knowledge to bear on my empirically-driven research.
Roles and Responsibilities at Newcastle University:
Degree Programme Director, MA in Cross-Cultural Communication
Chair of Curriculum Review Committee, MA in Cross-Cultural Communication
Committee member, Academic Audit Committee
Committee member, Equality and Diversity Committee
Committee member, Research Ethics Committee
Qualifications:
Ph.D. in Applied English Linguistics, Aalborg University, Denmark
M.A. in Applied English Linguistics, University of Birmingham, UK
B.Ed. (Hons.) with specialism in English language teaching, University of Bradford, UK
R.S.A. T.E.F.L. Diploma in 'Teaching English as a Foreign Language', The Bell School of Languages, Cambridge, UK
Previous Positions:
Associate Professor of Applied English Linguistics, Department of Culture and Languages, Aalborg University, Denmark
Director of the Post-Graduate programme on 'International and Intercultural Communication', Department of Culture and Languages, Aalborg University, Denmark
Languages:
Fluent in Danish, very good knowledge of Swedish and Norwegian; working knowledge of Thai, Italian, German and French.
Esteem Indicators:
My work (with Johannes Wagner) on reconceptualizing Second Language Acquisition research has been the focus of 2 'special issues' of Modern Language Journal - in 1997 (MLJ 81/3) and 2007 (MLJ 91/5: 'The Impact of Firth & Wagner: SLA Reconceptualised').
I was credited by Juliane House - in her introduction to a 'Special Issue' on 'The pragmatics of English as a 'lingua franca'', in the journal 'Intercultural Pragmatics - as founding a 'new research paradigm' (interactional studies of 'lingua franca' encounters). See 'Intercultural Pragmatics', vol. 6, no. 2, p. 141 (2009)
My work on English as a 'lingua franca' has been featured in The Wall Street Journal (Barry Newman: 'Global Chatter', reproduced as: Barry Newman (1996). Global chatter: the reality of ‘business English’. English Today, 12 (2), pp 16-20) and the Danish national newspaper Weekendavisen (Fri Dec 8, 2006).
I have been invited to be keynote or plenary speaker at international conferences on several occasions; recent invites include:
Plenary speaker at the international conference 'Ethnographies of Diagnostic Work', Lancaster University, April, 2007. See: www.ist-palcom.org/diagnosis
Plenary speaker at the SLRF 2008 conference (Exploring SLA: Perspectives, Positions, and Practices), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (17-19 October 2008). See www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/program.htm
Plenary speaker at the conference 'Living, working and studying in (a) vehicular language(s): Language, discourse, hybridity and identities', Turku, Finland, 26-28 September, 2008. http://www.hum.utu.fi/oppiaineet/ranskankieli/tutkimus/konferenssit/vehicular.html
March-April 2008: invited to give lectures and lead workshops at Brazilian universities, sponsored by a Brazilian government grant (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sol, Porto Alegre, Universidade do Unisinos, Port Alegre, and PUC, University of Rio de Janeiro).
Keynote speaker at the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Intercultural Communication 'Special Interest Group's' inaugural meeting, Nottingham Trent University, 27-28 May 2010. For further details, see: http://baalicsig.wordpress.com/announcement/05-03-2010/
Keynote speaker: ‘Towards a metatheory of English as a lingua franca.’ The Third Annual Language and Society Centre Roundtable, Theme: Language learning in the “global economy”, Monash University, 17 February, 2011
Keynote speaker: ‘Conversation Analysis, competence, and L2 interaction: Why, how and to what end?’ Nordand 10: Conference on Nordic languages as a second and foreign language, hosted by University of Iceland, Reykjavík: http://www.real-association.eu/news/nordand- 10-conference-nordic-languages-second-and-foreign-language-reykjavik-iceland (26-30 May, 2011)
Plenary speaker, 17th Conference of International Association for World Englishes, Hosted by Monash University, Australia, November 23-25, 2011 – see: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/lcl/conferences/iawe-2011/
Plenary speaker, Business English Special Interest Group, 2012 IATEFL Conference, Glasgow, 19 March, 2012
Keynote speaker, Japanese Association of Language Teaching (JALT) conference, Hamamatsu, Japan, 12-15 October, 2012
Keynote speaker: Organizational Communications Conference, Newcastle University Business School, March 2015
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching
Undergraduate courses I have taught:
Introduction to the English Language * English as a Global Language * Introduction to Sociolinguistics * Introduction to Pragmatics * Introduction to Micro-Ethnography * Introduction to Discourse Analysis * Introduction to Conversation Analysis * Introduction to Applied Linguistics * Introduction to Second Language Acquisition * Introduction to Intercultural and International Communication * Communication at Work: Social Interaction in Institutional Contexts * Ethnography of Speaking * Teaching English as a Foreign Language * Qualitative Research Methods * Academic Composition Writing * Translation (English-Danish) * Oral Proficiency in English
Postgraduate Teaching
Graduate Courses I have taught:
Applied Conversation Analysis * Themes in Discourse Analysis * Micro-analysis and ethnography * Spoken Narrative Analysis * Anthropological Linguistics * Research Methods in Intercultural Communication * Theories in Intercultural Communication * Workplace Communication: Methods, Theories and Findings * Controversies in Applied Linguistics * The Discourse of Negotiation * Work Talk: Studying Institutional Interaction * Second/Foreign Language Pedagogy * Calling for Help: Discourse and Social Interaction in Telephone Helplines * Discourse and Identity * Talk and Chalk: Analysing the Language of Classroom Interaction * Reconceptualising Second Language Acquisition Research * Talking Global: English as a 'lingua franca'
PhD seminars and courses I have led:
Analyzing English as a Global Language * Second Language Acquisition Reconceptualised * Conversation Analysis * Spoken discourse and social interaction * The discourse of negotiation: Methods and Approaches * Sociolinguistic Metatheory * Intercultural Communication * English as an International Language
Update October 2009: Students following my MA module 'English in the World' should consult the module website at: sites.google.com/site/englishintheworldsite
My teaching blog is located at: englishintheworldsite.blogspot.com
Publications
- Firth A, Jenks C, Trinder E. Managing emotionality in Mediation Meetings. Journal of Conflict Resolution 2017. In Preparation.
- Firth A, Brandt A. 'Oh I love Chinese People!' Essential Essentialising in Cross-Cultural Encounters. Journal of Cross-Cultural Communication 2017. In Preparation.
- Firth A. Talk International: English in the age of superdiversity. Oxford University Press, 2017. In Preparation.
- Firth A, Whittle A. Strategic Neutrality in Commercial Debt-Recovery Phone Calls. Journal of Business Communication 2016. In Preparation.
- Firth A, Brandt A. The material world of material haggling: Interpretation and multimodality. Language in Society 2016. In Preparation.
- Schneider S, Firth A. The Role of Laughter in Business Meetings. Journal of Applied Linguistics 2016. In Preparation.
- Firth A. Spoken Discourse and Social Interaction: An Introduction. Oxford: Hodder Arnold, 2013. In Press.
- Jenks C, Firth A. Synchronous voice-based computer-mediated communication. In: Herring, S., Stein, D., Virtanen, T, ed. Handbook of the Pragmatics of Computer-Mediated Communication. Berlin; New York: Mouton De Gruyter, 2013, pp.217-244.
- Firth A. Conversation Analysis and Lingua Franca. In: Chapelle, C.A, ed. Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
- Firth A, Jenks C, Trinder L. Mediators’ methods for managing emotionality: Circumventing, curtailing and containing conflict in child contact conciliation. Discourse Studies 2012, (forthcoming).
- Emmison E, Firth A. Requesting and Receiving Advice in Helpline Discourse. In: Limberg, H., Locher, M, ed. Advice in Discourse. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2012, pp.213-232.
- Jenks C, Firth A, Trinder L. When disputants dispute: interactional aspects of arguments in family mediation sessions. Text & Talk 2012, 32(3), 307-327.
- Firth A, Emmison M. Diagnosis as Dialogue: Diagnostic Work in Calls to a Technical Support Helpline. In: Büscher, M., Goodwin, D., Mesman, J, ed. Ethnographies of Diagnostic Work: Dimensions of Transformative Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp.113-132.
- Trinder L, Firth A, Jenks CJ. 'So presumably things have moved on since then?' The management of risk allegations in child contact dispute resolution. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 2010, 24(1), 29-53.
- Trinder L, Jenks CJ, Firth A. Talking children into being in absentia: Children as a strategic and contingent resource in family court dispute resolution. Child and Family Law Quarterly 2010, 22(2), 234-257.
- Firth A. Doing not being a foreign language learner: English as a lingua franca in the workplace and (some) implications for SLA. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 2009, 47(1), 127-156.
- Firth A. Ethnomethodology. In: D’hondt, S., Ostman, J-O., Verschueren, J, ed. The Pragmatics of Interaction. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins, 2009, pp.66-78.
- Firth A. The lingua franca factor. Intercultural Pragmatics 2009, 6(2), 147-170.
- Firth A. English in the world: Global rules, global roles. Applied Linguistics 2008, 29(2), 318-321.
- Firth A, Wagner J. Second/foreign language learning as a social accomplishment: Elaborations on a reconceptualized SLA. Modern Language Journal 2007, 91(1), 800-819.
- Baker C, Emmison M, Firth A. Calibrating for competence in calls for technical assistance. In: Baker, C.D., Emmison, M., Firth, A, ed. Calling for Help: Language and social interaction in telephone helplines. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005, pp.39-62.
- Baker C, Emmison M, Firth A, ed. Calling for Help: Language and social interaction in telephone helplines. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005.
- Firth A, Wagner J. Text 20: On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in Second Language Acquisition Research. In: Seidlhofer, B, ed. Controversies in Applied Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.173-198.
- Baker C, Emmison M, Firth A. Discovering order in opening sequences: calls to a software helpline. In: McHoul, A; Rapley, M, ed. How To Analyse Talk in Institutional Settings : A Casebook of Methods. London: Continuum, 2001, pp.41-56.
- Phillips J, Firth A. Introduction to Intellectual Property Law. London: Butterworths, 2001.