Dr Alex Leung

Associate Professor

Department: Humanities

I grew up in Hong Kong where I obtained my BA (Hons) in Contemporary English studies. During my undergraduate years I've spent some time in the States at Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania and also in the UK at the University of York. Upon the completion of my BA, I came to the UK to pursue my (Integrated) PhD studies at Newcastle University in English Language and Linguistics. I successfully defended my thesis on second language phonology acquisition under the influence of multiple varieties in 2012. I first joined Northumbria as a part time lecturer in TESOL at the beginning of 2012 and have been employed as a full time lecturer since the academic year of 2012-2013. In addition to my Northumbria duties, I worked as an external examiner for the MA programmes of UCLAN between 2019-2024 and Leeds between 2018-2021. I’m the Secretary of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and have previously served as the Meetings Secretary (2013-2019) and the Publications Secretary (2021-2024). I am a section editor for Open Linguistics (De Gruyter), the Key Concepts co-editor of the ELT Journal (Oxford), and an editorial board member of the International Studies in Sociology of Education (Taylor & Francis). I am also a regular reviewer for various journals. I am currently co-editing the second edition of the Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition alongside three colleagues.

Email Alex

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Second Language Acquisition
Second Language Speech & Phonology
Applied Linguistics and TESOL
Teacher Identity and Experience
Racialisation of the TESOL Profession
Language Attitudes and Variations
Lived Experience of Ethnic Minoritised Students
English Historical Linguistics
Research Ethics

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Investigating L2 Phonological Acquisition from Different Perspectives: An Introduction to the Special Issue, Leung, A., Pavlovskaya, N., Young-Scholten, M. 1 Jan 2025, In: Languages
Reflections on Transdisciplinarity in SLA studies, Leung, A. 7 Feb 2025, The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Herschensohn, J., Young-Scholten, M., Fernandez-Dobao, A., Leung, A. 2025
The impact of Filipina domestic workers on Hong Kong primary school children’s L2 English spoken CAF and reading accuracy and fluency, Wolfaardt, F., Leung, A. 1 Feb 2025, In: Applied Linguistics
ESL classroom interactions in a translanguaging space, Lin, S., Leung, A. 26 Nov 2024, In: Applied Linguistics Review
Ethnic group affiliation and second/foreign language accentedness in English and Mandarin among Hong Kong speakers, Leung, A., Lee, P. 2 Apr 2024, In: Language, Culture and Curriculum
Situating Moral and Cultural Values in Elt Materials: The Southeast Asian Context, Leung, A. 1 Aug 2024, In: Applied Linguistics
The Impact of Virtual Exchanges Using English as a Lingua Franca on Students’ Linguistic and Intercultural Competence, Nguyen, N., Leung, A., Hien, H., Thiet, N. 1 Nov 2024, In: TESL-EJ
Wearing face masks in different speech styles during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of Thai L2 English learners, Kitikanan, P., Leung, A. 6 Aug 2024, In: International Journal of Applied Linguistics
(Mis) perception of consonant clusters and short vowels in English as a foreign language, Leung, A., Young-Scholten, M., Almurashi, W., Ghadanfari, S., Nash, C., Outhwaite, O. 23 Sep 2023, In: IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Perceptions of vulnerability of clinical populations involved in biomedical research, Barkus, E. (Principal Investigator), Leung, A. (Co Investigator), Institute of Medical Ethics, 01/01/25 - 31/12/25, £8,031.00

PGR Supervision

Nancy Dieu-Ngoc Nguyen TRANSNATIONAL VIRTUAL EXCHANGE FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION BEYOND WEIRD CONTEXTS: FROM DESIGNING TO EVALUATION Start Date: 01/10/2022