Professor Martin Bygate

Emeritus Professor

Research Interests

Currently my major research interest is the interface between different teaching procedures and activities, and students' language use and language learning. A particular interest is the nature of communicative repetition in language learning activities, and its role in language development.

My work has extended into oral second language learning, particularly the use of pedagogic tasks, the development of oral second language proficiency, dimensions of teacher talk, and classroom interaction. I am also interested in more general issues of language in education, such as language across the curriculum. A particular current interest of mine is the nature of communicative repetition in language learning activities, and its role in language development. I have directed funded research projects both in the UK and abroad. I welcome applications from potential research students interested in exploring aspects of oral second language proficiency and its development; tasks and their use in developing oral second language proficiency; teacher talk; oral language and learning; and oral language in the community.

My main publications are Tasks in Second Language Learning (co-authored with Virginia Samuda, Palgrave, 2008), Researching Pedagogic Tasks (co-edited with Peter Skehan and Merrill Swain, Pearson Educational 2001), Grammar and the Language Classroom (co-edited with Alan Tonkyn and Eddie Williams, Prentice Hall, 1994), and Speaking (OUP, 1987), and guest-edited a Special Issue on 'Tasks in Language Pedagogy' for the journal Language Teaching Research (2000). I co-edited the journal Applied Linguistics from 1998-2004, and am on the boards of Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching Research, and Language Teaching.

I am a member of a recently formed group, the Second Language Learning and Pedagogy Research Group.