Dr Amanda Cole

Amanda’s research is in the sociolinguistics of varieties of English, particularly language variation and change, language attitudes, and perceptual dialectology. She is interested in how people speak and how they or others feel about it. She focuses on the dialects spoken in the UK and, in particular, being born into a family of East Londoners in Essex, she has always been fascinated by Essex and London dialects and more broadly the way people speak across Southeast England. Her work has also focused on linguistic variation by social class and gender.

Amanda appears regularly in the media discussing issues and topics related to linguistics, and she hopes to share linguistic knowledge and research as widely as possible. Along with Professor Rob Drummond of Manchester Metropolitan University she runs the Accentism Project, a project which raises awareness and shares stories of language-based discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping.

She has collaborated extensively with educational charity English and Media Centre, including co-authoring New Directions with Dan Clayton. This research and resource pack is designed for teachers and students of A Level English Language and aims to bring some of the most up to date research on linguistic variation to the classroom.

Amanda welcomes inquiries from potential PhD students with research interests in the sociolinguistics of varieties of English.