Prof. Dr. Alex Housen

​​Alex Housen received an MA in Germanic Languages from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, 1985), an MA in Applied Linguistics & TESL from UCLA (1987) and a PhD in Linguistics from the VUB (1995).  From 1996 till 2002 he was a post-doctoral research fellow of the Belgian Foundation for Scientific Research.  He is currently Professor of English Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in the department of Linguistics & Literary Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and (since 2019) Dean of the Faculty of Languages & Humanities at the VUB.  His research interests and expertise include second language acquisition,  language teaching, bilingualism and bilingual education, and English linguistics (esp. morpho-syntax).

His publications have appeared in various journals and edited volumes (e.g. Applied Linguistics, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, The Modern Language Journal, Second Language Research, Language Teaching Research, Applied Psycholinguistics,  Journal of Corpus Linguistics, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Language Testing,  International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Bilingual Research Journal, Studia Linguistica).

He co-authored and co-edited several books (in English, French and Dutch), including Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism (with JM. Dewaele and Li Wei; Mouton de Gruyter 2002), Bilingualism: Beyond Basic Principles (with Li Wei & JM. Dewaele; Multilingual Matters 2003), Investigations in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (with M. Pierrard; Mouton de Gruyter 2005), Dimensions of L2 Performance and Proficiency - Investigating Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in SLA (with F. Kuiken & I. Vedder; John Benjamins 2012).  He is co-editor of several special and thematic journal issues, including the 2009 Special Issue of Applied Linguistics on Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in SLA Research,   the 2016 Special Issue of Studies in Second Language Acquisition on Cognitive Approaches to Complexity in Second Language Acquisition,  the  2018 Special Issue of Second Language Research on Multiple approaches to L2 Complexity and of 2019 Special Issue of the International Journal of Applied Linguistics on Perspectives and challenges for research on syntactic complexity in SLA: The case of variation.

He has so far been the supervisor of 16 completed doctoral dissertations. From 2014 to 2019 he was Vice-President of the The European Second Language Association (EuroSLA).  He has also worked as a consultant on multilingualism and language education for the Soros Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme and for various ministerial agencies in Belgium and abroad (incl. the European School system).  He has also been a member of the Flemish Research Council (FWO) panel on language since 2011.​