Research interests

I have always been most comfortable doing research that has grown out of my first-hand experience as a language learner or teacher. My first - and still primary - interest in terms of research and materials development is the processes of foreign language listening comprehension.

My PhD thesis involved linking two bodies of research that had not been connected before: the literature on L1 and L2 listening comprehension on one hand, and empirical studies of native-nonnative interaction on the other. This led on to a second major interest: the modifications in classroom interaction necessary for successful communication and learning. These formed the basis for my book Communication in the Language Classroom (Oxford University Press, 1996).

I believe that the most relevant areas of recent SLA research for the classroom practitioner are feedback and noticing and I have written a number of papers on those two elements of the teaching/learning process.

Within the EAP field I have published on the teaching of academic speaking and academic writing , and on issues of principle and practice for learner autonomy at tertiary level .

Materials and course design is a key part of our daily work in the EAP Section at ELTC, and I have written a number of EAP textbooks and articles on pedagogic design, often in collaboration with my colleague Kenneth Anderson. These include the second editions of Study Speaking (Anderson, Maclean and Lynch, Cambridge University Press, 2004), Study Listening (Lynch, Cambridge University Press, 2004) and PROFILE: Principles, Resources and Options for the Independent Learner of English (Anderson and Lynch, 2007).

My latest book is Teaching Second Language Listening (Lynch, Oxford University Press, 2009), which helps teachers to design and evaluate listening tasks.