About us
The Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics (CRAL) brings together over 20 academics and over 30 postgraduate research students. The Centre is committed to developing world-class research into language use.
Researching language teaching, learning and use in a wide range of authentic contexts, contributing to the better understanding of, and informing how, language is used and learned in the real world.
Celebrating 25 years of CRAL
In 2026, the Centre is celebrating its 25th anniversary of research, teaching, and collaboration. In this time, the Centre has grown dramatically from its roots in the Nottingham Linguistic Circular (see below). Now, CRAL is home to a host of academics and students from across the world, all with a passion for the study of linguistics.
Here are a few things to celebrate from the last year alone:
- We host 20 academics in the centre.
- We have had 19 invitations as plental or keynote speaker.
- Published 8 books with the Centre.
- Written 63 articles, including 27 international collaborations.
- Generated over 1.2 million words of output.
- Gained £200,000 in research and scholarship income.
Upcoming events:
To be confirmed
The History of CRAL
The Centre was established in 2001 after a revival of the Nottingham Linguistic Circular Journal. Dating back to 1971, this journal presents papers for discussion, debate, criticims and information on the study of linguistics and lanages, and is now available in paper and electronic copies. The reissue of the journal created a new network of liguistics scholars who shared an interest in applied linguistics. Thus, CRAL was born.
Its founding members included:
- Ron Carter
- Mike McCarthy
- John McRae
- Robert Cockcroft
- Vimala Herman
- Zoltan Dornyei
- Norbert Schmitt
- Peter Stockwell
Membership expanded rapidly soon after, welcoming our doctoral research community and new academic staff in the School of English. We have since branched out, encompassing new areas of research and supervising a wide range of subject areas within linguistics and language learning and teaching.