Dr Jim King

I am an applied linguist who specialises in psychological aspects of foreign language education. I receive regular invitations to talk about my research at both national and international events, presenting on topics such as foreign language anxiety, language teacher psychology and classroom silence. My most recent books on these topics are The Emotional Rollercoaster of Language Teaching and East Asian Perspectives on Silence in English Language Education (both published by Multilingual Matters as part of their Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching series).

I joined Leicester in 2013 after having previously held positions at a number of different universities both in the UK and abroad. My PhD in Applied Linguistics is from the University of Nottingham, where I studied under the supervision of the late Professor Zoltán Dörnyei. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked for a number of years in Japan as a lecturer and teacher trainer at Kansai University of Foreign Languages (Kansai Gaidai) and Ehime University. In all, I have over 20 years of experience teaching and teacher training within university settings. Even though I am now based in the UK, my professional links with Japan continue, particularly in the research I do. I am an International Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and a past recipient of the Visiting Research Scholar Award from Kansai University's Faculty of Foreign Language Studies.

I serve as Director of Research and Enterprise for the School of Education and am responsible for the successful delivery of the school's research strategy, fostering a supportive environment for world-class research and leading on preparations for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). In 2023, I was awarded the University of Leicester's Citizen Award for Research Leadership.

In terms of my own research, I am particularly interested in situated psychological aspects of foreign language teaching and second language acquisition. My most recent and current research projects have focused primarily on the phenomenon of silence and nonverbal communication in language learning, looking at these issues from an affective (emotions) perspective. I am intrigued by the differing forms and functions of silence within educational contexts, how silence impacts upon learning and also the roles that social interaction and affect play in the production of silent episodes. A developing area of interest for me is the role of engagement in classroom language learning.

I take a keen interest in the psychology of language teachers themselves and have conducted research which seeks to better understand teachers' in-class emotional displays and the emotion regulation strategies that they employ when teaching. I was recently an international partner on the three-year, FWF-funded (€395,698) research project 'The Psychological Capital of Foreign Language Teachers' (Principal Investigator - Professor Sarah Mercer) which sought to better understand the psychological well-being of foreign language teachers working in secondary schools in Austria and the UK.

A full list of my publications can be found on my Google Scholar profile.

Books and edited collections

Gkonou, C., Dewaele, J-M. & King, J. (Eds.) (2020). The Emotional Rollercoaster of Language Teaching. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

King, J. & Harumi, S. (Eds.) (2020). East Asian perspectives on silence in English language education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

King, J. (Ed.) (2015). The dynamic interplay between context and the language learner. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

King, J. (2013). Silence in the second language classroom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Recent selected journal articles and book chapters 

King, J., Almukhaild, H., Mercer, S., Mairitsch, A., Babic, S. & Sulis, G. (2024). Teacher emotions and the emotional labour of Modern Language (ML) teachers working in UK secondary schools. In M. Nazari & P. De Costa (Eds.), Second Language Teacher Emotion Labor. Special issue of International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0080

Morris, S. & King, J. (2023). University language teachers’ contextually dependent uses of instrumental emotion regulation. In M. Prior & M. Haneda (Eds.), Language teacher emotion research: Contemporary developments and challenges. Special Issue of System, 116, 103080. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2023.103080

Morris, S., Yamamoto, K. & King, J. (2023). Practitioner researcher intuition in stimulated recall studies. In R. Sampson & R. Pinner (Eds.), Intuition and practitioner research. Special issue of Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning, 5(2), 34-44. https://jpll.org/index.php/journal/article/view/180/115

Almukhaild, H. & King, J. (2023). Emotions in TBLT. In C. Lambert, S. Aubrey & G. Bui (Eds.), The role of the learner in L2 task-based language teaching: Theory and research methods (pp. 58-72). Routledge.

Shin, S., Mercer, S., Babic, S., Sulis, G., Mairitsch, A., King, J. & Jin, J. (2023). Riding the happiness curve: The wellbeing of mid-career phase language teachers. The Language Learning Journal, 51(2), 195-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2021.1979632

Maher, K. & King, J. (2023). Language anxiety and learner silence in the classroom from a cognitive-behavioral perspective. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL), FirstView version, 1-7. https://doi:10.1017/S0267190523000077

Humphries, S., Aubrey, S. & King, J. (2023). Fluctuations in capacity to speak: Influencing willingness to communicate before, during and after studying abroad. System, 113, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2023.103001

Babic, S., Mercer, S., Mairitsch, A., Sulis, G., & King, J. (2023). Language teachers’ capitals as resources for wellbeing across the career trajectories. European Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2023.2280530

Maher, K. & King, J. (2022). ‘The silence kills me’: Silence as a trigger of speaking-related anxiety in the English-medium classroom. English Teaching & Learning, 46, 213–234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-022-00119-4

Al-Ahmadi, S. & King, J. (2022). Silence behind the veil: An exploratory investigation into the reticence of female Saudi Arabian learners of English. TESOL Quarterly (Early View version), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3163

Sulis, G., Babic, S., Mairitsch, A., Mercer, S., Jin, J. & King, J. (2022) Retention and attrition in early-career foreign language teachers in Austria and the United Kingdom. The Modern Language Journal (Early View Open Access version), 1-17.

King, J. & Morris, S. (2022). Social interaction. In T. Gregersen & S. Mercer (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Psychology of Language Learning (pp. 311-322). Routledge.

Babic, S., Mercer, S., Mairitsch, A., Sulis, G., Jin, J., King, J., Lanvers, U. & Shin, S. (2022). Late-career language teachers in Austria and the UK: Pathways to retirement. Teaching and Teacher Education,113, 1-10.

Maher, K. & King, J. (2022). Enhancing emotional engagement in speaking tasks: A cognitive-behavioural theory approach. In A. H. Al-Hoorie & F. Szabó (Eds.), Researching language learning motivation: A concise guide (pp. 135-152). Bloomsbury.

Shin, S., Mercer, S., Babic, S., Sulis, G., Mairitsch, A., King, J. & Jin, J. (2021). Riding the happiness curve: The wellbeing of mid-career phase language teachers. The Language Learning Journal (Open Access online version), 1-13.

Mairitsch, A., Babic, S., Mercer, S. Jin, J. Sulis, G. & King, J. (2021). Being a student, becoming a teacher: The wellbeing of pre-service language teachers in Austria and the UK. Teaching and Teacher Education, 106, 1-11.

Aubrey, S., King, J. & Alahmadi, H. (2020). Language learner engagement during speaking tasks: A longitudinal study. RELC Journal (OnlineFirst version), 1-15.

Smith, L. & King, J. (2020). Researching the complexity of silence in second-language classrooms. In R. J. Sampson & R. S. Pinner (Eds.), Complexity perspectives on researching language learner and teacher psychology (pp. 86-102). Multilingual Matters.

Maher, K. & King, J. (2020). Observing anxiety in the foreign language classroom: Student silence and nonverbal cues. Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning, 2, 116-142. 

King, J., Yashima, T., Humphries, S., Aubrey, S. & Ikeda, M. (2020). Silence and anxiety in the English-medium classroom of Japanese universities: A longitudinal intervention study. In J. King & S. Harumi (Eds.), East Asian perspectives on silence in English language education (pp. 60-79). Multilingual Matters. 

Morris, S. & King, J. (2020). Emotion regulation amongst university EFL teachers in Japan: The dynamic interplay between context and emotional behaviour. In C. Gkonou, J-M. Dewaele & J. King (Eds.), The emotional rollercoaster of language teaching (pp. 193-210). Multilingual Matters.

King, J., Gkonou, C., & Dewaele, J-M. (2020). Concluding thoughts on the emotional rollercoaster of language teaching. In C. Gkonou, J-M. Dewaele & J. King, (Eds.), The emotional rollercoaster of language teaching (pp. 288-295). Multilingual Matters.

 

Potential areas for PhD research relate to situated psychological aspects of instructed language learning, including the following sub-topics:

    Silence in second language (L2) or general education contexts
    Language anxiety in L2 and higher education
    Language learner engagement
    Teacher emotions and well-being
    Emotional labour in language teaching
    Language teacher emotion regulation
    Group dynamics in language classrooms

I'm currently supervisor to the following doctoral students:

• Rob Werner (silence in Japanese tertiary EFL)
• Nick Marx (affect and engagement in SLA)
• Heilah A M Almohaser (positive emotions in classroom language learning)
• Alaa Ahmed Aladnani (L2 teacher emotional labour and emotion regulation)
• Diana Margarita Di­az Mejia (emotional labour of language teachers)
• Rania Elmajdoubi (psychology of language education)
• Xinyi Wang (L2 classroom silence)
• Zhihan Zhao (pre-service L2 teacher emotions)
• Yifan Wang (entrance exam washback - supervision passed on from Prof Glenn Fulcher)
• Charlotte Morriss (ESOL teachers’ wellbeing and emotional labour), co-supervised with Dr Mohammed Ateek

Recent doctoral student completions include:

• Dr Shatha Talib Al-Ahmadi (Thesis - Behind The Veil of Silence: A Exploratory Investigation Into The Silence of Saudi Female Learners of English).
• Dr Haydab Almukhaild (Thesis - Emotional Engagement among Anxious Language Learners from the Perspective of Flow: An Exploratory Study in a University Classroom in Saudi Arabia).
• Dr Jeremy Boston (Thesis - Engagement with Language during Transcript Revision: Japanese University English Learners' Processes, Products and Perspectives).
• Dr Paul Kavanagh (Thesis - Educator Attitudes to English as a Lingua Franca in the International University: A Q-sort Intervention Study).
• Dr Sam Morris (Thesis - The Emotion Regulation of Non-Japanese EFL Teachers at a Japanese University).
• Dr Kate Maher (Thesis – Apply Cognitive-Behavioural Theory to Examining Student Silent Behaviour and Anxiety in the Foreign Language Classroom).
• Dr Sarah Kwan-Yee Ng (Thesis - Emotion Regulation and Foreign Language Anxiety: A Mixed-Methods Study of Chinese Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Hong Kong).

 

My classroom-based research informs not only the content of my teaching, but also the pedagogy I employ. I draw on concepts from psychology, education and linguistics to explain what goes on in the complex setting of the language classroom. I teach on the following modules on the university's MA courses focusing on Applied Linguistics and English/second language teaching:

Psychological Issues in Language Learning (PILL): EN7316 (Campus) (Convenor)

Teaching and Learning a Second Language : EN7731 (Campus)

Research Methods for the Dissertation and Professional Enquiry Dissertation (ED7735) (Campus)

    Dissertation: EN7300 (Campus) and EN7501 (Distance)
       
    University of Leicester FutureLearn MOOC: An Introduction to Applied Linguistics & TESOL

 

I was interviewed for the Lost in Citations podcast about my Applied Linguistics paper 'Silence in the second language classrooms of Japanese universities.' The interview can be accessed here: https://lostinthecitations.podbean.com/e/citation-27-king-j-2013-silence-in-the-second-language-classrooms-of-japanese-universities-applied-linguistics-343-325-343-1594713012/

In 2017, a feature article about my research on learner reticence appeared in Japan's largest English-language newspaper, The Japan Times. The details of the article are as follows:

    Hollingworth, W. (2017, January 2). Study explores deafening silence in Japan's English-language classes. The Japan Times. Online version available at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/02/national/study-explores-deafening-silence-japans-english-language-classes/

In 2007, a feature article about a small research project I had conducted into the phenomenon of students sleeping in class appeared in Malaysia's only broadsheet English-language newspaper, The New Straits Times:

    Ling, K. S. (2007, July 8). In Japan, a nod to sleeping. The New Straits Times, Learning Curve, p. 16.

I have been the External Assessor of the University of York's BA TESOL programme within the Department of Education, and served as External Examiner for the MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL programme at York St John University. I have extensive experience of assessing research at an international level through working as a grant proposal reviewer for the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and doing invited editorial review work for journals such as Applied Psycholinguistics, Modern Language Journal, Classroom Discourse, International Review of Applied Linguistics (IRAL), Language Teaching Research (LTR), System, and so on. I have also done invited work for the publishers Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Mouton De Gruyter and Springer as a book proposal reviewer.

BA (Hons), RSA Cambridge CELTA, MEd (Distinction), PhD (Nottingham), FHEA