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Peter Garrett

Professor Peter Garrett

Teams and roles for Peter Garrett

Overview

Centre for Language and Communication Research

Peter Garrett began working at the Centre for Language and Communication Research (School of English, Communication and Philosophy) at Cardiff University in 1994. He previously worked at Bangor University.

The primary focus of his research has been in attitudes and attitude change in language and communication, and in language awareness. These have been the main thread of his research and publications across several fields: e.g. multilingualism, minority languages and language revitalisation, language variation, standard languages and standard language ideology, communication across the lifespan, globalisation, diaspora, internationalisation in education. His teaching and supervising has drawn upon his research and its broader research context (e.g. teaching and supervising in sociolinguistics, media communication, persuasive communication, communicating in relationships, language attitudes, communication research methods).

He has co-directed a number of funded research projects on the Welsh language, examining attitudes and perceptions both within and outside Wales, and with colleagues in Catalonia and the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, comparing the impact of internationalisation in higher education on Catalan, Basque and Welsh.

In the language awareness field, he co-organised a seminal BAAL Seminar on Language Awareness in 1989, which led to the seminal book Language Awareness in the Classroom (Longman 1992, co-edited with Carl James). He also co-organised the first International Conference on Language Awareness in 1992, and was a founder member and secretary of the Association for Language Awareness, established at that conference. He was Editor of the journal Language Awareness from 1993 to 2008, and produced The Routledge Handbook of Language Awareness (Routledge 2018, co-edited with Josep M. Cots). He was made an Honorary Member of the Association for Language Awareness in 2022.

Currently (September 2026), he is co-editing the 2nd edition of The Routledge Handbook of Language Awareness, which is both an update and an extension of the first edition published in 2018. It is scheduled to appear in early 2027.

Publication

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2007

  • Garrett, P. 2007. Language attitudes. In: Llamas, C. , Mullany, L. and Stockwell, P. eds. The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. Routledge Companions Routledge. , pp.116-121.

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1989

1988

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Websites

Research

I research in sociolinguistics and the social psychology of language. I am particularly interested in the evaluative and attitudinal fields of language and communication. These include attitudes to language; persuasive communication and attitude change; and perceptions, evaluations and attitudes in intergenerational communication across the lifespan.

I have co-directed an ESRC-funded project investigating attitudinal and performance effects of mother-tongue use in bilingual education, and have also co-directed a University of Wales funded research project on language attitudes in Wales.

On the Leverhulme-funded Language and Global Communication project at CLCR, my research included work on global attitudes to English, and comparing public perceptions of globalisation in different parts of the world. It also included research in the ‘Wales, Language and Globalisation’™ strand of the project.

In the period 2009-2012, I was conducting collaborative research with colleagues in Spain (Professor Josep M. Cots, University of Lleida, and Professor David Lasagabaster, University of the Basque Country). This was a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, entitled: Internationalisation and multilingualism in universities in bilingual contexts: Catalonia, The Basque Country, and Wales.

Since then, I have been researching with colleagues at the Universitat de Lleida and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya on a follow-on project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, entitled Interculturality, European citizenship and English as a Lingua Franca: between policies and practices in the international mobility programmes of universities.

I also participate in SLICE (Standard Language in Contemporary Europe). This is a consortium of European countries researching the different histories of language standardisation in different contexts, and contemporary moves away from and/or revisions of linguistic normativity, both in general spoken usage and in media contexts. SLICE is administered through the Copenhagen University LANCHART Centre (Danish National Research Foundation Centre for Language Change in Real Time) - http://lanchart.hum.ku.dk

Biography

I began working at the Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR) at Cardiff University in 1994. Prior to that, I was a lecturer in the Linguistics Department at Bangor University.

I was a co-founder in 1992 of the Association for Language Awareness, and of its journal Language Awareness, now published by Taylor and Francis. I was Editor of the journal Language Awareness from 1993 to 2008. I have published many articles in the Language Awareness field. Significant book-length publications in this field include Language Awareness in the Classroom (Longman, 1992, co-edited with Carl James) and The Routledge Handbook of Language Awareness 1st edition (Routledge, 2018, co-edited with Josep M. Cots). 

I am on the Editorial Board of the Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics.

I have co-directed and researched in a number of funded research projects, including the Leverhulme Trust funded Language and Global Communication research programme carried out at CLCR between 2001 and 2006.

From 2009 to 2012, I was co-holder of a research grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for a three-year project entitled Internationalisation and Multilingualism in Universities in Bilingual Contexts: Catalonia, The Basque Country and Wales. From 2013, I worked on a follow-up project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, entitled Interculturality, European citizenship and English as a Lingua Franca: between policies and practices in the international mobility programmes of universities.

I also participate in SLICE (Standard Language in Contemporary Europe). This is a consortium of European countries researching the different histories of language standardisation in different contexts, and contemporary moves away from and/or revisions of linguistic normativity, both in general spoken usage and in media contexts. SLICE is administered through the Copenhagen University LANCHART Centre (Danish National Research Foundation Centre for Language Change in Real Time) - http://lanchart.hum.ku.dk

I was Visiting Professor at the University of Lleida (Catalonia) in the autumn semester of 2011. In the autumn semester of 2012, I was Visiting Professor at the University of Barcelona, and teaching postgraduate seminar courses in Language Attitudes at the University of the Basque Country and the University of Barcelona. In the autumn semester of 2014, I was Visiting Professor at Copenhagen University.

I am an Honorary Committee Member of the Association for Language Awareness.

Currently (September 2026), I am preparing (with Josep M. Cots, University of Lleida) the second edition of The Routledge Handbook of Language Awareness (scheduled to appear in early 2027), which is both an update and extension of the first edition published in 2018.

 

Qualifications

2000: PhD (Language and Communication) Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK

1984: MA (Applied Linguistics) Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, UK

1983: PGCE (TESL) Bangor University, Wales, UK

1973: BScEcon London University, London, UK

Professional memberships

Honorary Committee Member of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA)

Founder member of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA)

Contact Details

Email [email protected]