I mainly work in the following inter-connected, research areas: phonetics; varieties of English, (particularly Malaysian English); applied linguistics with a particular focus on language education policy, and language use in education; and language in culture and society especially language use in multilingual contexts, language and culture, and endangered languages especially Melaka Portuguese. My other area of interest is language documentation, and my documentation of Melaka Portuguese, funded by the Endangered Language Documentation Programme, is digitally archived at the Endangered Languages Archive. Together with Professor Emeritus Peter K. Austin, I worked on capacity building for language documentation funded by the Newton Advanced Fellowship Scheme. My documentation of and research on Melaka Portuguese (Papiah Cristang) have contributed to the development of materials and programmes with community representatives to encourage the use of this endangered language. I am also interested in raising public awareness about indigenous languages and cultures. As part of this interest, in 2019, I co-convened an exhibition on indigenous languages in Malaysia in conjunction with the International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019. I also recently co-edited a book, Selected Research on Orang Asli Communities. My work and thoughts on endangered languages in general and more specifically on Melaka Portuguese have been featured in local and international media.

Apart from my academic and administrative duties, I have been involved in capacity building for research training, leadership development in higher education. I was part of the pioneering team that developed the Malaysian Chapter of the International Deans' Course (MyIDC). I also recently led a development programme for Early Career Researchers funded by the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Both programmes involved mentoring, and I am currently also a mentor in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities' Asia Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) programme.