Caroline Tagg

I began my current post at the Open University in October 2015. Prior to that, I worked for four years at the University of Birmingham as a lecturer and, before that, I held another post for two years at the Open University. I gained my PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2009, with a thesis titled 'A corpus analysis of SMS text messaging'. I have an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from Leicester University, which I completed in 2005. I previously worked as a TESOL teacher in Spain, and then in Vietnam with the British voluntary organisation, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

My research interests are in language and social media, including multilingualism, audience design, and online language play, with a focus on text messaging (and, more recently WhatsApp) and Facebook. I am currently working on the AHRC-funded research project headed by Professor Angela Creese, 'Translation and Translanguaging' in which I am responsible for coordinating the collection and analysis of social media data. I have authored two books (The Discourse of Text Messaging, Continuum 2012; and Exploring Digital Communication, Routledge 2015) and I have co-edited a further two books (The Politics of English, with Ann Hewings, Routledge 2012; and The Language of Social Media, with Philip Seargeant, Palgrave 2014).