Professor Meara’s interest in psycholinguistics began following his postgraduate studies in applied linguistics at the University of Edinburgh from 1969 to 1970.
He followed this up with an MSc in Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex between 1970 and 1971.
He then went on to achieve a DPhil at the University of York in 1980.
Professor Meara was a founder member of the Department of Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck College, London University, where he worked from 1972 to 1990.
He then moved to Swansea University, where he worked until retirement.
The majority of Professor Meara’s research has been concerned with the lexical performance of second language speakers.
His most recent work involves computer modelling of lexicons, and the development of minimal testing tools, which extract a lot of information from very small outputs provided by learners.
In 2012, Professor Meara was made Honorary Professor at Cardiff University, and in 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford.