Karen Roehr-Brackin is a reader in applied linguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistics and the director of the Centre for Research in Language Development throughout the Lifespan at the University of Essex.

She holds a PhD from Lancaster University and an MA from the University of Hamburg. Her work focuses on explicit and implicit knowledge and learning in instructed language acquisition in both adults and children. She is also interested in individual learner differences such as language learning aptitude, cognitive style, learner beliefs, and language learning history. Her most recent projects are concerned with language learning in older adults and the impact of playing to learners’ strengths vs. compensating for their weaknesses in language instruction.

She has published a monograph on metalinguistic awareness in second language learning as well as a number of articles in international peer-reviewed journals.