Second language/multilingual writing, genre- and corpus-based writing pedagogy and assessment, writing development, second language acquisition and bilingualism, systemic functional linguistics
Yiran Xu is an Assistant Professor of Writing Studies in the Department of Global Arts, Media and Writing Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Georgetown University, M.A. in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and B.A. in English from Qingdao University.
Her research centers on multilingual writing and second language acquisition, particularly among adult learners in classroom settings. Drawing on usage-based theory, her work seeks to understand how multilingual learners develop academic and disciplinary writing skills through a mixed-methods approach. Her work challenges the traditional monolingual paradigm, advocating for a recognition of language diversity as a vital asset for multilinguals in their academic and professional growth. Furthermore, she addresses methodology concerns in second language writing and applied linguistics, striving to foster methodological advancement and develop innovative instruments for data collection and analysis.
Her work has been published in the Journal of Second Language Writing, System, Linguistics and Education, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, and others. Her recent longitudinal work examines how international lawyers develop lexical and syntactic complexity as well as legal argumentation skills in academic legal discourse in a Master of Laws (LL.M.) program in the U.S. For more insights into her research, please visit her website.
