Dr Robbie Love

Office: NW914A, School of Social Sciences and Humanities

Email: r.love@aston.ac.uk

Office: NW914A

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 Director of the Aston Corpus Linguistics Research Group and host of the Aston Originals CorpusCast podcast.

I sit on the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Executive Committee.

I sit on the committee of the BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group as Communications Officer.

I am a member of the IVACS Advisory Board.

I sit on the Editorial Boards of the journals Research in Corpus Linguistics and Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

Before joining Aston, I held research positions at the University of Leeds and Cambridge Assessment English (University of Cambridge). I have a PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University.

I am a researcher and educator in English language and linguistics, with a specialism in corpus linguistics. I apply corpus methods to explore how English is used in a range of contexts, including casual conversation and public communications. My research harnesses the power of technology to better understand how people use language and, ultimately, help people to communicate more effectively.

My research interests include:

• lexis and grammar in contemporary spoken British English, including:
  • swearing
  • modality
  • adverbs
• strategic communications in the context of Covid-19
• transcription of indistinct recordings in forensic contexts
• methods of designing and building spoken corpora
• LGBTQ+ representations in the news media and Parliamentary debate
• corpus research for English Language Teaching
• language in mainstream education

2022-23

Teaching Period 1

• Digital Approaches to Analysing Texts (UG)
• Language in the News Media (UG)

Teaching Period 2

• Multimodal Analysis (UG)

I have previously taught on the following modules:

• Advanced Topics in Sociolinguistics (UG)
• Analysing Discourse (PG)
• Crime Fiction (UG)
• Multimodal Analysis (PG)
• Practical Applications of Language Description (UG)

• Director of Undergraduate English Language and Literature Programmes

I would be very happy to talk to prospective doctoral researchers interested in any of the following areas relating to corpus linguistics:

• corpus design
• data collection methods
• transcription
• multimodal corpora
• spoken discourse
• spoken grammar
• language change
• news/media discourse
• applied corpus linguistics

I sit on the Editorial Boards of Research in Corpus Linguistics (RiCL) and Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature).

• 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).
• 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).
• 2021: Lead organiser. BAAL/Cambridge University Press seminar. ‘Corpora in Applied Linguistics: Broadening the Agenda‘ (£1,500).
• 2020: Co-Investigator, Aston University Centre for Critical Inquiry into Society and Culture research fund. ‘Comparing media discourses of COVID-19 and HIV’ (£800).
• 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 awards relating to my teaching:

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 am a member of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, where I sit on the BAAL Executive Committee as Ordinary Officer as well as the committee of the BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group as Communications Officer.

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.