Since November 2020, John is an Honorary Senior Lecturer.

Teaching

John Knox taught Applied Linguistics in the Linguistics Department at Macquarie from 2000 to 2020, beginning as an Associate Lecturer and leaving employment at Macquarie as a Senior Lecturer. From 1992 to 2000, he taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the English Department at Rangsit University, Thailand. He also taught on EFL, ESP, and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs at Kasetsart University, Mahidol University, and Mahidol University International College in Thailand; and taught EAP at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney in Australia.

John taught and convened many units in Macquarie’s Postgraduate Programs in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. His main areas of teaching were in multimodality, language learning, SFL, discourse analysis, language curriculum, and language assessment. 

Education

John's PhD research, which examined the multimodal discourse of online newspapers, was completed at the University of Sydney. He completed a Master of Applied Linguistics by distance at Macquarie University, and a BA majoring in English and History, and minoring in Education, also at Macquarie.

Research

His primary academic interests are in the broad areas of:

• multimodality
• mediated discourse
• language in education
• social semiotics and systemic functional theory.

Research Supervision

John is no longer taking on research students.

John supervised research projects in curriculum development and implementation; language assessment; pedagogic discourse in face-to-face, online, and blended environments; educational discourses and policy; and web discourse; particularly where Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) were employed in analysis.

Former, Continuing PhD Students

1. Emily Kecman: Investigation of research into parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (now supervised by Annabelle Lukin)
2. Akiko Nagao: Investigation of a genre-based curriculum in an EFL tertiary writing curriculum in Japan (now supervised by Cassi Liardet)

Completed PhD Students

1. Nur Afifi (2020) Introducing genre-based pedagogy to the teaching of literature reviews in an Indonesian EFL context.
2. Thomas Amundrud (2017) Analyzing classroom teacher-student consultations: A systemic multimodal perspective.
3. Miranda Legg (2016) An exploration of the voices of a new university curriculum in Hong Kong: Implications for the teaching of English for Academic Purposes.
4. Justin Falkus (2016) An analysis of the lexicogrammatical errors of Japanese university students studying English: A Systematic Functional Grammar approach.
5. Siti Noor Fazelah Mohd Noor (2016) Empowering the powerful: A Critical Discourse Analysis of public discourse on graduate employability. (supervised with David Hall)
6. Pei Soo Ang (2016) Naming and visualising people in the discourses of disability. Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for an Outstanding Thesis (supervised with Chris Candlin)
7. Olga Kozar (2015) Private one-to-one Language Education via Video/Audio Conferencing (LEVAC) in Russia. Faculty of Human Sciences HDR Excellence Award 2014 (supervised with David Hall)
8. Jonathan Carreon (2013) Critical discourse analysis of a private hospital in Thailand: A case study of the Bumrungrad International Hospital website. (co-tutelle student with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi: supervised with Richard Watson Todd)
9. Yupaporn Piriyasilpa (2009) Genre and discourse in online discussions: A study of online discussion postings in a Thai EFL writing course. (supervised with David Hall)

Completed Master of Research Students

1. Lyndell Nagashima (2020): The evaluation of Japanese universities through online English president messages.
2. Steve Baggaley (2020): The role of cohesion in cricket journalism: Parallelism and reference from a systemic functional linguistic perspective.
   
3. Gyeyoung Lee (2019): Genre and impact captioning in a Korean real-variety show: A systemic functional - multimodal discourse analysis.
4. Emily Kecman (2017) Exploring ‘attitude’ in information for parents of newly identified deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children in NSW: An Appraisal analysis of two early intervention websites.
5. Nur Afifi (2016) Indonesian EFL Learners’ Development of Academic Literacy: A Study of Grammatical Metaphor. (supervised with Cassi Liardet)
6. Sarah Timbs (2016) Raising learners’ metalinguistic awareness: An examination of students’ academic writing development At university. (supervised with Cassi Liardet)

Completed Postgraduate Coursework Research Dissertation Students

1. Joumana Naja (2015) Evaluation in forum discussion discourse.
2. Zou Juanjuan (2011) What do they really need? A study of the needs of East Asian postgraduates in Australian TESOL programs.
3. Katerina Stratilas (2011) An investigation of student attitudes towards academic support at an Australian university.
4. Louise Kaktins (2010) Appraising plagiarism policies of Australian universities.
5. Jonathon Adams (2009) A multimodal interaction analysis of Japanese university students.
6. Yongja Kwon (2009) A study of the effects of genre-based pedagogy on Korean high school students’ reading comprehension skills.
7. Brie Willoughby-Knox (2009) Indian English - Out of its element.
8. Mary Jane Hogan (2008) Cohesion in writing: An exploration of correlations between a theory of cohesion and the assessment of Coherence and Cohesion in the IELTS Writing Module.
9. Susan Clarke (2007) Evaluating the ‘usefulness’ of the IELTS spoken module from a Systemic Functional perspective. International IELTS Masters Award 2008
10. William Kay (2007) Blended learning in the Japanese English language learning environment: An investigation into the effects of blended learning amongst first-year Japanese university non-English majors.
11. Donald Fraser (2007) An investigation of a genre-based approach to the teaching of responses to verbal complaints to Japanese tertiary students studying for the airline industry.
12. Richard McGeough (2006) Rater perceptions of the LPATE Speaking Test scoring criteria: What can they tell us?
13. Fumiko Ishinuki (2006) An exploration of a genre-based approach to Japanese Dokushokansōbun writing to the Year 8 class at the Sydney Saturday School of Japanese.
14. Miranda Legg (2005) Student and tutor roles in problem-based learning medical tutorials at Hong Kong University.
15. Esther Mary Raikes (2003) Putting the grammar back into language teaching: A study of the linguistic strengths and problems of Japanese learners of English in producing short letters requesting advice. (supervised with Rhondda Fahey)
16. Kelly Martin (2001) Implementing a new curriculum: An ethnographic study of teacher and student relations. (supervised with David Hall)

University Service

John was Co-convenor of Macquarie’s Doctor of Applied Linguistics Program from January - December, 2009; Co-convenor of Macquarie’s Postgraduate Programs in Applied Linguistics from July, 2009 - July, 2011 (including development and implementation of a new curriculum with colleagues); Convenor of the Postgraduate Programs in Applied Linguistics from April 2012 - July, 2013; and Acting Convenor of the Postgraduate Programs in Applied Linguistics from January, 2015 - July, 2015 (including development and implementation of a new curriculum with colleagues); and was the Acting Director of the Postgraduate Programs in Translation and Interpreting from May - December, 2018. When he left the employment of the University at the end of 2020, his university committee work included serving on the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences Board, the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences Individual Cases Committee, and the Department of Linguistics Research Committee. Prior to that, his work included serving on the University English Policy Working Group, the University Academic Literacy and Language Reference Group, the Faculty of Human Sciences Learning and Teaching Committee, the Linguistics Learning and Teaching Committee (including as Acting Chair), the Linguistics Program Directors Committee, the Faculty of Human Sciences Board, the Faculty of Human Sciences Peer Review Working Group, the Faculty of Human Sciences Individual Cases Committee, the Linguistics Academic and Professional Communication Group, the University Postgraduate Coursework and Professional Program Committee, the University Student Photos Policy Working Group, the University Working Group on Provision of Materials, the University Blueprint for the Future Working Party, and the University eBenchmarking Advisory Group.