• BA (Hons.) English, University of London
• RSA Cert TEFLA, International House, London
• RSA Dip TEFLA, ITTC, Sydney
• MA TESOL, University of London
• MPhil(B) Corpus Linguistics, University of Birmingham
• PhD English (Corpus Linguistics), University of Birmingham

From 1989 to 2001 I worked as an English language and literacy teacher at schools and universities in Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2001 I moved to Birmingham and became a corpus linguist (in roughly that order).

Current teaching

At present, I am on research leave and thus not doing any teaching (apart from PhD supervision work). Usually I teach on the following campus-based course modules:

• Describing Language
• Introduction to Corpus Linguistics
• Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
• Research Methods in Corpus Linguistics

and convene the following distance MA course module:

• Corpus Linguistics

I currently supervise a lively and enthusiastic group of MPhil and PhD students, who are using corpora to address a wide range of research questions in applied linguistics. Please get in touch with me if you would like to join them!

My research interests lie principally within the field of corpus linguistics. I am particularly interested in applications of corpus linguistics to issues in discourse analysis, language education and second language acquisition research. My current research projects focus on the following topics:

• The relationship between phraseology and epistemology in academic writing
• The relationship between second language immersion and the development of second language collocation knowledge
• The use of pedagogic corpora in EAP teaching (with Benet Vincent)
• The acquisition of L2 English spelling among Arab learners (with Mick Randall)

My work on academic discourse is currently being written up as a book, tentatively entitled Semantic Sequences in Humanities Writing

Nicholas talks about corpus linguistics

• Transcript

Administrative roles and responsibilities

Internal

• Coordinator of CELS Distance MA programmes in TEFL/TESL, Translation Studies and Applied Linguistics
• Member of College of Arts and Law Standing Group on Plagiarism
• Contact Officer for Postgraduate Plagiarism Cases, School of English, Drama and American and Canadian Studies
• Member of School of English, Drama and American and Canadian Studies Postgraduate Programmes Committee

External 

• 2007 – 2010: Newsletter Editor for the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL), and a member of the BAAL Executive Committee
• 2009 – present: Convenor of the BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group
• 2011: Member of Organising Committee, Corpus Linguistics 2011, Birmingham, 20 – 22 July 2011

Peer review

• 2007 – 2010: Peer reviewer of abstracts submitted to British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) annual conferences.
• 2009: Member of Programme Committee, Corpus Linguistics 2009, University of Liverpool, 20 – 23 July 2009.
• 2010 – present: Member of Economic and Social Research Council Peer Review College.
• 2011 – present: Member of Editorial Board, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. 
• 2011: Member of Programme Committee, Corpus Linguistics 2011, Birmingham, 20 – 22 July 2011.
• 2011: Member of Scientific Committee, Learner Corpus Research 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 15 – 17 September 2011.
• Peer reviewer for the academic journals Applied Linguistics, International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,  Journal of English for Academic Purposes and Language Awareness.
• Peer reviewer for Routledge, Pearson Longman and Continuum publishers.

• 2008/09 – 2011/12: External Examiner, BA (Hons.) English Language, University of Gloucestershire
• 2010: Member of Re-validation Panel for MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL (Campus), Anglia Ruskin University
• 2010 – 2011: External validator, MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL (Distance), Anglia Ruskin University
• External examiner for PhD theses at the University of Essex and Lancaster University 

International invitations

• 19/11/11: Guest speaker, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
• 19/11/11: Distinguished Guest Speaker, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea (funded by the Korean Government’s ‘Brain Korea’ programme).
• 15/11/11: Featured Speaker, 19^th Annual Korea TESOL International Conference, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea.
• 23/11/09: Featured Speaker, 35^th Japan Association for Language Teaching International Conference, Shizuoka, Japan.
• 08/06/07: Guest speaker, Max Weber Programme, European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
• 5/11/06: Featured Speaker, 32^nd Japan Association for Language Teaching International Conference, Kitakyushu, Japan.
• 24/03/06: Keynote address, Jornada sobre Aprendizaje Abierta y a Distancia para Lenguas Modernas, University of Valencia, Spain.

National invitations 

• 16/11/11: Guest speaker, UCREL research seminar series, Lancaster University.
• 24/01/11: Guest speaker, UCREL research seminar series, Lancaster University.
• 01/12/10: Guest speaker, School of English, University of Liverpool.
• 18/05/10: Guest speaker, Centre for Applied Linguistics, Warwick University.
• 22/05/09: Plenary speaker, Aston Corpus Symposium 2009, Aston University.
• 21/05/09: Keynote speaker, Aston Postgraduate Conference 2009, Aston University.
• 13/01/08: Guest speaker, Discourse Research Group, Middlesex University.
• 21/04/05: Plenary speaker, British Association for Applied Linguistics/Cambridge University Press Workshop on Identifying and Researching Multi-Word Units, Oxford Text Archive, University of Oxford.

Conference papers

• 'Disciplinary differences in small-group interactions: quantitative and qualitative perspectives on turn-taking in university seminars.' Learner Corpus Research 2011, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 15 September 2011. (With Oliver Mason.)
• 'Disciplinary differences in small-group interactions: quantitative and qualitative perspectives on turn-taking in university seminars.' Corpus Linguistics 2011, Birmingham, UK,  22 July 2011. (With Oliver Mason.)
• 'Disciplinary differences in small-group interactions: corpus perspectives on turn-taking in university seminars.' ICAME 32, Oslo, Norway, 1-5 June 2011.
• ‘Disciplinary differences in small group interactions.’ Connecting Corpus Linguistics: The Fifth IVACS International Conference, University of Edinburgh, UK, 18 – 19 June 2010.
• ‘NLP meets CDA: investigating the linguistic representation of social actors in newspaper websites.’ (With Oliver Mason.) ICAME 31, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, 26 – 30 May 2010.
• ‘Language, learning and co-text: putting the pedagogic corpus into practice.’ (With Benet Vincent.) 42nd Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, Newcastle University, UK, 3 – 5 September 2009.
• ‘Effects of residence abroad on L2 collocational development.’ ICAME 30, Lancaster, UK, 27 – 31 May 2009.
• ‘From small words to big ideas: identifying semantic sequences in specialized discourses.’ PALC 2009, Łódź University, Poland, 6 - 8 April 2009.
• ‘The BUiD Arab Learner Corpus: a resource for studying the acquisition of L2 English spelling.’ PALC 2009, Łódź University, Poland, 6 - 8 April 2009.
• ‘Introducing the BUiD Arab Learner Corpus: a resource for studying the acquisition of L2 English spelling.’ (With Mick Randall.) 15th  TESOL Arabia Annual International Conference, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 12 – 14 March 2009.
• ‘Helping EAP students to find disciplinary voices.’ 14th  TESOL Arabia Annual International Conference, Dubai Men’s College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 13 – 15 March 2008.
• ‘A corpus-driven approach to disciplinary discourse analysis.’ Corpus Linguistics  2007, University of Birmingham, UK, 28 July 2007.
• ‘From grammatical keywords to disciplinary discourses.’ Keyness in Text, Certosa di Pontignano, University of Siena, Italy, 28 June 2007.

External teaching and consultancy

• Max Weber Programme, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (June 2007; November 2007, 2008 and 2009)
• Faculty of Education, The British University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (March 2008 and 2009)
• Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy (April 2008)
• School of Languages, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey (May and December 2008)
• Faculty of Philology, University of Valencia, Spain (June 2009)

• Groom, N. (forthcoming 2013) ‘The COBUILD Project.’ In C.A. Chapelle, (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Groom, N. (2011) ‘Grow your own corpora.’ The English Connection, September 2011, 21-22.
• Groom, N. and Littlemore, J. (2011) Doing Applied Linguistics. London: Routledge.
• Groom, N. (2010) ‘Closed-class keywords and corpus-driven discourse analysis.’ In M. Bondi and M. Scott (eds.) Keyness in Texts. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.
• Groom, N. (2009a) ‘Effects of second language immersion on second language collocational development.’ In A. Barfield and H. Gyllstad (eds.) Researching Collocations in Another Language: Multiple interpretations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Groom, N. (2009b) ‘Phraseology and epistemology in academic book reviews: a corpus-driven analysis.’ In K. Hyland and G. Diani (eds.) Academic Evaluation: Review genres in university settings. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Groom, N. (2009c) ‘Putting the pedagogic corpus into practice.’ The Language Teacher 30/7: 26-8.
• Randall, M. and Groom, N. (2009d) ‘Introducing the BUiD Arab Learner Corpus: a resource for studying the acquisition of L2 English spelling.’ In M. Mahlberg, V. González-Díaz and C. Smith (eds.) Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics Conference CL2009, University of Liverpool, UK, 20-23 July 2009.  http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/publications/cl2009/54_FullPaper.doc
• Groom, N. (2006) ‘Phraseology, identity, community, motivation.’ The Language Teacher 30/7: 25-27.
• Groom, N. (2005) ‘Pattern and meaning across genres and disciplines: an exploratory study.’ Journal of English for Academic Purposes 4/3: 257-277.
• Groom, N. (2000a) ‘Attribution and averral revisited: three perspectives on manifest intertextuality in academic writing.’ In P. Thompson (ed.) Patterns and Perspectives: Insights into EAP writing practice. Reading: CALS, 14-25.
• Groom, N. (2000b) ‘“A workable balance”: self and sources in argumentative writing.’ In S. Mitchell and R. Andrews (eds.) Learning to Argue in Higher Education. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Heinemann, 65-73.