Alice Deignan is a professor of applied linguistics in the School of Education at the University of Leeds. She has worked as a teacher of TESOL and EAL in Spain, Turkey and the UK, and as a lexicographer and materials writer. At Leeds, she teaches modules in applied linguistics and TESOL methodology. She uses corpus linguistics to research the language of education. She is the Principal Investigator of the ESRC-funded project, ‘The linguistic challenges of the transition from primary to secondary school’.