Matthew Prior

Matthew T. Prior is Professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University, where he mentors undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students. He currently serves as Associate Chair for Personnel in the Department of English. Dr. Prior is also a Barrett Honors faculty member and holds an affiliated appointment with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. He earned his master’s and doctorate in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and also holds degrees in TESOL, Speech and Hearing Sciences, and Music.

His teaching portfolio spans qualitative research methods, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, TESOL, second language acquisition, and professional development. Prior’s teaching philosophy centers on fostering lifelong learning, embracing diverse ways of knowing, developing sustainable and inclusive professional practices, and translating research into meaningful social action. His excellence in teaching was recognized with the Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015.

As an applied linguist, Prior takes a holistic approach to language and its role in human experience. His research examines the relationships between language and emotion, with particular attention to how identity, belonging, mental health, and well-being are constructed and managed through interaction. A central strand of his current research investigates the language of grief, including how loss and vulnerability are narrated and made socially meaningful in digital and mediated contexts. His work draws on conversation analysis, discursive psychology, membership categorization, and formulation analysis, and is further informed by narrative and discursive-constructionist approaches to identity, ethnographic inquiry, and methodographic analysis of qualitative research practices.

Prior’s scholarship has appeared in leading journals including Applied Linguistics, Qualitative Inquiry, TESOL Quarterly, Text & Talk, The Modern Language Journal, and Journal of Pragmatics. He is the author of Emotion and Discourse in L2 Narrative Research and co-editor of the volumes Emotion in Multilingual Interaction (with Gabriele Kasper) and the Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse Analysis (with Brian Paltridge). He is also co-editor of several journal special issues. 

His editorial experience includes serving most recently as Associate Editor of Brief Reports for TESOL Quarterly (2023–2025), as well as previousl roles as Associate Editor of Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (2021–2023), Managing Editor of Language Learning & Technology(2008–2010), and Editorial Assistant for Applied Linguistics (2005–2008). Prior remains actively involved in professional organizations, particularly the American Association for Applied Linguistics, and serves on the editorial boards of Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, and Applied Linguistics Press.