• Multilingualism
• Applied linguistics
• Geolinguistics
• Australian community languages
• Language learning environments
• Narrative inquiry and qualitative methods

Phil is an Honorary Professor of Applied Linguistics and formerly Director of the Multilingualism Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences and Faculty of Arts. His current research focuses on the community languages of Australia, their geographical distribution, and demographic characteristics of their speakers. He is interested in language learning environments and informal language learning beyond the classroom and has recently published the ground-breaking book, Language Learning Environments: Spatial Perspectives on SLA (Multilingual Matters, 2021). He is co-editor of Multilingual Sydney (Routledge, 2019), author of Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learning (Pearson, 2011) and has co-edited several collections of papers on autonomy and out-of-class language learning.

Phil is an expert in the use of a range of qualitative research methods. He is especially interested in narrative inquiry as an approach to research on language learning beyond the classroom and is co-author of Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research (Routledge. 2013), the first applied linguistics research manual on narrative methods.

Having retired in December 2022, Phil continues to conduct research as an Honorary Professor in the Department of Linguistics, but he no longer teaches or supervises higher degree research students.