Dr O'Boyle's research interests are the relationships between language and education. These include the analysis of discourse in educational contexts, academic and professional discourse, and English Language learning and teaching. She is particularly interested in the application of research in corpus linguistics to education and has been involved in the design, development, and research of a number of spoken (academic and learner) corpora to investigate the construction of knowledge in classroom contexts, oracy and speaking skills, and language use in intercultural contexts.

Recent research included conducting a state-of-the-art review and multiple case studies of English Language Teaching professionals in South America, Asia, Europe and the UK and how they make best use of corpora for English Language Teaching and Learning.

The objective of the research activity is to develop a guide on digital data-driven learning for learners, teachers, and teacher educators.