Office: NW914A

Email: r.love@aston.ac.uk

Website: robbielove.org

Twitter: @lovermob

I am a Lecturer in English Language at Aston. I work in the Department of English, Languages and Applied Linguistics (ELAL) in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, where I am Director of our undergraduate English programmes.

I am a member of the Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics (ACAL), within which I am Co-Director of the Aston Corpus Linguistics Research Group and host of the Aston Originals CorpusCast podcast, and I am a member of the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL).

I sit on the committee of the BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group as Communications Officer, and I am a former member of the BAAL Executive Committee (2021-2023). I am also a member of the IVACS Advisory Board. I sit on the Board of Referees of Research in Corpus Linguistics.

Before joining Aston, I held research positions at Cambridge University Press & Assessment and the University of Leeds. I completed my BA (Hons), MA and PhD degrees at Lancaster University where, as part of the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science, I was lead researcher on the design and construction of the Spoken British National Corpus 2014.

My research draws upon methods from corpus linguistics, applied linguistics and (critical) discourse analysis.

Variation and change in contemporary spoken British English

• short-term diachronic language variation
• corpus-based sociolinguistics
• swearing in casual conversation
• variation in lexis and grammar

Applied (corpus) linguistics

• commercial language research
• forensic linguistics
• language in education
• language teaching materials development
• news discourse
• strategic communications

Methods in corpus linguistics

• spoken corpus design and construction
• methods for the analysis of spoken corpora
• manual and automated transcription
• critical corpus evaluation

As of 2023-24, I convene the following modules:

• LE3133 Corpus Linguistics
• LEM136 Variation and Change in English

Previous:

• LE1104 Practical Applications of Language Description
• LE2101 Crime Fiction
• LE2120 Language in the News Media
• LE2118 Advanced Topics in Sociolinguistics
• LE3115 Multimodal Analysis
• LE3120 English Dissertation
• LE3123 Digital Approaches to Analysing Texts
• LEM100 Analysing Discourse
• LEM133 Multimodal Analysis (MA TESOL)

• Director of Undergraduate English Language, English Literature and TESOL Programmes

• Academic Offences Officer, College of Business and Social Sciences

• Co-Director, Aston Corpus Linguistics Research Group

Current PhD supervision

External supervision:

• Hadjar Hadj-Abdelkader (University of Limerick): Teaching English for Military Purposes within the Algerian EMI context (Associate supervisor)
• Ikram Messaoudi (University of Limerick): Investigating students’ difficulties in writing their thesis and the role of supervisor feedback: the case of Algerian university Master’s students (Associate supervisor)

2022-present: Board of Referees, Research in Corpus Linguistics.

2021-2023: Associate Editor, Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

• 2023-2024: Principal Investigator, College of Business and Social Sciences Learning and Teaching Project Fund, ‘English assessment and generative AI: opportunities, risks and perceptions’ (£2,150), Aston University.
• 2023: Co-Investigator, Crown Prosecution Service, ‘Disproportionality in case files: Corpus Linguistics’ (£55,192), Aston University.
• 2022: Principal Investigator, Aston Research & Knowledge Exchange Pump Priming Fund. 'Engaging the public: local government organisations' communications during the Covid-19 pandemic' (£10,453.80), Aston University.
• 2021-2022: Principal Investigator, Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL) Seed-corn and network funds programme. 'Evaluating human and automated transcripts of speech recordings: implications for forensic linguistics' (£6,000), Aston University.
• 2021: Lead organiser. BAAL/Cambridge University Press seminar. 'Corpora in Applied Linguistics: Broadening the Agenda' (£1,500), Aston University.
• 2019: Principal Investigator, National Trust commissioned research contract, 'The changing nature of language' (£3,500).
• 2018: Visiting Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Post-doctoral Fellowship (Short-Term). 'Updating AntConc for spoken and educational language data' (£8,363).

Since joining Aston, I have been nominated for and won several staff and student-led teaching awards:

2023

• Winner of Aston University College of Business and Social Sciences Staff Award for Excellence in Public Engagement

2022

• Winner of Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Research or Dissertation Supervisor
• Shortlisted for Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Teaching – Engagement

2021:

• Shortlisted for Aston University Achievement Award for Best Newcomer
• Winner of Aston University College of Business and Social Sciences Staff Award for Best Newcomer
• Shortlisted for Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Teaching – Engagement
• Shortlisted for Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Online Learning

I sit on the committee of the BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group as Communications Officer, and I am a former member of the BAAL Executive Committee (2021-2023).

I am also a member of the UKRI Early Career Researcher Forum and the British Academy Early Career Research Network.

I am available to take on consulting projects in the areas of linguistics and the English language. Previous clients have included Cambridge University Press, MEND, Mischief PR, the National Trust, Reed Business Information and TENA.