Matthew Prior

Matthew T. Prior is an associate professor in the Department of English (Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, TESOL), where he mentors undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. He is presently the Director of the Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and TESOL programs at ASU, a Barrett Honors faculty member, and affiliated faculty with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Prior holds a doctorate in second language acquisition (SLA) from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. He also has degrees in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), speech and hearing sciences, and music. Courses he teaches include qualitative research methods, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, TESOL, second language acquisition, and professional development.

Four primary objectives drive Prior’s approach to teaching and mentoring: (a) to inspire and motivate students as lifelong learners, (b) to encourage and engage with alternative ways of learning and knowing, (c) to cultivate sustainable and equitable professional practices, and (d) to translate research and praxis into social action. He received the Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015.

As an applied linguist, Prior takes a holistic approach to language and language life. Much of his recent research is concerned with the relationship between language and emotion and the interactional construction and management of identity, mental health, and well-being. Informing his work is social interaction through the lenses of conversation analysis, discursive psychology, membership categorization, and formulation analysis; narrative and discursive-constructionist approaches to identity; ethnographic inquiry; socio-psychological dimensions of second language learning and use; and methodographic analysis and critique of interview and qualitative research practices. 

Prior’s publications on emotion, trauma, discourse, identity, narrative, transcultural belonging, mental health, multilingualism, discourse analysis, language teaching, qualitative methods, and other topics have appeared in a wide range of professional journals, including Applied Linguistics, Qualitative Inquiry, Applied Linguistics Review, TESOL Quarterly, Text & Talk, The Modern Language Journal, Journal of Pragmatics, Pragmatics and Society, and volumes for Benjamins, De Gruyter Mouton, and Routledge. Prior is author of “Emotion and Discourse in L2 Narrative Research” and co-editor of the volumes “Emotion in Multilingual Interaction (with Gabriele Kasper) and the forthcoming Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse Analysis (with Brian Paltridge). He is also co-editor of many journal special issues.

Prior is presently associate editor of Brief Reports for TESOL Quarterly (2023-present). He co-founded (with Shaofeng Li) Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, where he served as associate editor (2021-2023). He was also managing editor of Language Learning & Technology (2008-2010) and editorial assistant for Applied Linguistics (2005-2008). Prior is an active member of several professional associations, including the American Association for Applied Linguistics, where he has chaired and served on many committees.