Professor Alison Mackey

Distinguished Professor

Research Overview

Alison Mackey is interested in second language acquisition, specifically, input, interaction, corrective feedback and task-based language learning and teaching. She is also interested in second language research methodologies and willing to supervise students in any of these areas.

Group size effects on English production in young Japanese learners
Oral presentation

Metaphors in communication about vaccines
Oral presentation

Is less more? Group size and task performance with child L2 learners
Invited talk

Investigating framing effects of metaphors for vaccination
Oral presentation

English language learning outcomes of a research-based digital app for Chinese and Japanese children
Oral presentation

Novice instructors’ implementation of TBLT with young beginning EFL learners
Oral presentation

Evaluating language: Testing and portfolio-based assessment.
Invited talk

Applied linguistics research methodology: New practices, approaches, and “hot takes”
Invited talk

Interaction, feedback, and task research in second language learning
Invited talk

Is less more? Group size and task production with child L2 learners
Oral presentation

Immersion
Invited talk

Practices for maximizing L2 acquisition
Invited talk

Research methods in work on TBLT and IDs: A methodological review
Oral presentation

We regret to inform you…: Failure in academia and applied linguistics.
Invited talk

The Bilingual Edge: Cognitive, social and personal advantages of knowing more than one language
Invited talk

Plurilingualism: Using knowledge of one language to help learn another
Invited talk

Publishing
Invited talk

Second language learning: New findings, new methods, new practices
Invited talk

Raising bilingual children: What research suggests about bilingual homes and multilingualism in the family
Invited talk

Measuring learning outcomes
Invited talk

Multiple models of immersion: Potentially helpful practices for maximizing L2 acquisition
Invited talk

ELL curriculum approach: Underlying principles
Invited talk

Individual differences, creativity and L2 research
Invited talk

L2 research: Methodology and new findings
Invited talk

Cognitive creativity as an individual difference in SLA Research
Invited talk

Cognitive-Interactionist SLA: Findings, new methods and the big picture
Invited talk

ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS)
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Classroom-based research
Invited talk

Applying second language research in the private sector: Tech companies, independent schools and (N)GOs
Invited talk

Research Methodology in Second Language Studies: Trends, Concerns and New Directions.
Invited talk

The relationships amongst working memory, cognitive creativity and second language production during communicative tasks.
Oral presentation

Pre-task planning in L2 text-chat: Perceptions, performance, and individual differences
Oral presentation

The neural trajectory of adult second language acquisition: An fMRI study of learning a reduced natural language
Oral presentation

Tasks, interaction and L2 learning: Do we really know what we think we know?
Invited talk

Corrective feedback
Invited talk

Why should we teach & learn second languages
Invited talk

Why should we teach & learn second languages
Invited talk

Childhood bilingualism from a global perspective: Advantages, myths, and misconceptions
Invited talk

Identity in applied linguistics
Invited talk

Language learning: Controversies, myths, misconceptions, and the real deal
Invited talk

Input, interaction, and task-based language teaching
Invited talk

Second language interaction: How research can inform instructional practice
Invited talk

Reflecting on tasks and corrective feedback
Invited talk

Second language learning and the younger learner
Invited talk

Effective corrective feedback: A roundtable discussion for supervisors and training specialists
Invited talk

Are some languages really more difficult to learn? Maybe not.
Oral presentation

Pre-task planning, performance, and individual differences in L2 text chat
Oral presentation

Research, relationships and reflexivity: Reflections on two case studies of language and identity
Invited talk

Methodology in SLA research.
Invited talk

From SLA research on interaction to TBLT materials
Invited talk

Second language interaction: How it works, how it's evolving, and how it can be applied to instruction
Invited talk

Myths, misconceptions and advantages of learning and knowing a second language well
Invited talk

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Journal)
Editorial activity

Eliciting data in second language research: Challenge and innovation
Invited talk

Methodology in SLA research: Past, present, and future
Invited talk

Second language interaction: Theory, methodology, findings and applications
Invited talk

Early childhood language immersion
Invited talk

Applications of second language research
Invited talk

Social dialects and shifting identities: British women in the United States and American women in Britain
Oral presentation

Quantitative and Qualitative Orientations in Interaction Research: Exploring Questions of Balance
Invited talk

IRIS: A digital repository of instruments for research into second language learning and teaching
Invited talk

Integrating priming tasks and ESL learners’ subsequent production
Oral presentation

Child agency and language policy in translational families
Oral presentation

Culture, identity and proficiency: An outcomes-based study of Gujarati heritage language learners
Oral presentation

Metacognitive instruction and learning through task-based interaction
Oral presentation

Establishing a digital repository of research instruments
Oral presentation

Second language interaction in diverse educational contexts
Oral presentation

Advances in Arabic teaching and learning: Research-driven insights into methods and materials
Oral presentation

The case against the case against recasts
Oral presentation

Interaction, Modality and Learning: Comparing the Effectiveness of Computer-Generated and Face to Face Recasts
Oral presentation

Training learners to be more effective interactors
Invited talk

Classrooms, contexts, and communicative activities: A study of English question formation
Oral presentation

Social and cognitive aspect of interaction research
Invited talk

Research on cognition and interaction in second language acquisition
Invited talk

Age, teacher guidance and the linguistic outcomes of task-based interaction
Oral presentation

Syntactic priming and ESL question development
Oral presentation

Organizers and introduction. In Interaction and Second Language Acquisition, Pushing the methodological boundaries
Invited talk

Planning, autonomy, and guidance: Tasks and young learners
Oral presentation

Input, interaction and input: What’s it good for, anyway?
Oral presentation

Interactional tasks and English L2 child learning in Singapore
Oral presentation

The role of setting in classroom and laboratory interaction
Oral presentation

Working memory capacity, noticing of interactional feedback and L2 development
Oral presentation

Beyond production: Insights from learners' perspectives on interactional opportunities
Oral presentation

Interactional feedback, modified output and working memory: An empirical study of the acquisition of Spanish
Oral presentation

Exploring the relationship between modified output and working memory capacity
Oral presentation

Interactional input and modified output: An exploration of NS-NNS and NNS-NNS adult and child dyads
Oral presentation

Feedback, noticing and second language development: An empirical study of L2 classroom interaction
Oral presentation

Interactional feedback on L2 morpho-syntax: Learners' perceptions and developmental outcomes
Oral presentation

Three empirical explorations of the interaction-L2 development relationship
Invited talk

Second language learning through interaction: Tasks, research and practice
Oral presentation

Novice teachers' provision of opportunities for attention to linguistic form: A study of the effects of intervention
Oral presentation

NNS/NNS interaction: Feedback and input incorporation
Oral presentation

Novice teachers' linguistic behavior before and after training
Oral presentation

Taylor & Francis (Publisher)
Editorial activity

Learners' perceptions of implicit negative feedback
Oral presentation

The provision of implicit negative feedback in the second language classroom: An empirical study of the effects of teacher experience
Oral presentation

Interaction and feedback in classroom SLA. Colloquium at the Pacific Second Language Research Forum
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

The provision and use of implicit negative feedback in NNS-NNS conversation.
Oral presentation

Working into the workplace: Strategies for coping with transition
Oral presentation

Are responses to recasts red herrings?
Oral presentation

Stepping up the pace: Input, interaction and second language acquisition
Oral presentation

Pieces in the puzzle: Do recasts add to the picture?
Oral presentation

Recasts: Responses and red herrings
Oral presentation

Stepping up the pace: Input, interaction and interlanguage development – an empirical study of questions and negatives in ESL
Oral presentation

Second language assessment procedures
Oral presentation

The value of interactional tasks in targeting morphosyntactic structures
Oral presentation

Eliciting targeted morpho-syntactic structures using communicative tasks.
Oral presentation

Rapid Profile, demonstration, elicitation procedures and discussion
Oral presentation

Rapid Profile: A second language assessment device
Oral presentation

Computational tools in second language assessment and learning
Oral presentation

Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize
Prize (including medals and awards)

International Association of Task-based Language Teaching Distinguished Achievement Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

American Association for Applied Linguistics’ Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

College of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University Condé Nast Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

Georgetown University President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers
Prize (including medals and awards)

Georgetown University Provost’s Career Research Achievement Award
Prize (including medals and awards)