Author: Patrick Rebuschat (Page 1 of 3)

Study-abroad briefing sessions: 2018/2019

October 26, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

Studying at LAEL and interesting in going abroad in 2018/2019?

The International Office is organizing their annual briefing sessions on the dates below. he International Office manages the details of studying abroad (grade conversion, allocation of places, Erasmus grants, etc.), so it is very important that you attend one of these sessions if you are interested in spending time at one of our partner universities in 2018/2019. (The sessions are the same so you only need to attend one of them to get all the relevant information.)

Wednesday 17th October – 1-2pm, Faraday Lecture Theatre
Wednesday 24th October – 4-5pm, Faraday Lecture Theatre
Wednesday 31st October – 3-4pm, Faraday Lecture Theatre

Undergraduate students can either spend their 2nd year abroad or Michaelmas term of term 3. Postgraduate students can generally spend any time between 3 and 9 months abroad (since they don’t take classes and just visit labs usually.) Available places change from year to year; the International Office will communicate numbers of places and partners during the briefing sessions.

The application deadline is January 2, 2019.

Erasmus+: Continuing longstanding cooperation between Lancaster and Ljubljana applied linguists

July 12, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

We have been very honoured to welcome Dr Karmen Pižorn (Vice-dean of Undergraduate Studies and International Cooperation & Associate Professor in EFL in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) to our Department in June 2017 as part of the Erasmus+ staff exchange programme. During her stay, Karmen presented her work on language classroom anxiety among young learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), offered several research consultancy sessions to post-graduate students in Lancaster’s Department of Linguistics and English Language, and joined the Department’s writing retreat to work on joint publications with Lancaster staff.

This was not Karmen’s first visit, though. The first collaboration between Lancaster’s Department of Linguistics and English Language and Ljubljana’s Faculty of Education dates back to the late 1990s when Professor Charles J. Alderson (Lancaster) helped design a study on a language assistant scheme. The scheme, which involved highly proficient English speakers spending a year assisting in Slovenian classrooms, led to a set of recommendations followed-up by the Slovene Ministry of Education. The collaboration continued when the Slovene government decided to implement national assessments for English and German at Year 9, and five language testing experts from Lancaster (Charles Alderson, Jay Banerjee, Caroline Clapham, Rita Green and Dianne Wall) were brought in to train the Slovene test development team. Apart from the introduction of a more rigorous test cycle, the fruitful cooperation also resulted in the publication of a bilingual Slovene-English handbook, Constructing school-leaving examinations at a national level – Meeting European standards (Alderson & Pižorn, 2004), which to date is still the compulsory textbook for new test writers joining the Slovene national testing teams. The experiences on the national assessment reform have also been reported in the edited volume The politics of language education: individuals and institutions (Alderson, 2009; including a chapter co-authored by Pižorn). Importantly, Karmen and Charles cooperated with others in creating a European network for language testing and assessment (the ENLTA project), which has led to the establishment of the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA; www.ealta.eu.org).

More recently, the support of the Erasmus+ staff exchange programme has ensured the continuation and expansion of this productive collaboration between the two institutions. Since 2013, Professor Judit Kormos (Lancaster), together with Dr. Karmen Pižorn and Dr. Milena Košak Babuder (Ljubljana), have trained 100+ teachers in teaching EFL to students with specific learning differences in Slovenia and have conducted joint research on this topic. Furthemore, during visits to Ljubljana in 2014 and 2015, Dr Tineke Brunfaut (Lancaster) ran language testing workshops for novice test writers and in-service teachers, taught pre-service primary school English teachers on innovations in research methodology, and set up a joint study on the rater training needs of teachers involved in the Slovene national assessments. Karmen Pižorn, on the other hand, has been visiting Lancaster on an annual basis, where her research and operational expertise in young learner language teaching and testing – which she has shared through talks and consultancies with Lancaster staff and students – has been greatly valued and has informed Lancaster student and staff projects.

Lancaster Linguistics covered on Portuguese television

June 1, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

Last April, RTP (the Portuguese national broadcaster) sent a team to cover the heritage language symposium that I organized with the financial support of the FASS Internationalization Fund. The event was a joint initiative between Lancaster University and PARSUK, the association of Portuguese scientists and students based in the UK. It brought to Lancaster policy makers, leading researchers, parents and educators in order to discuss challenges and opportunities associated with heritage language education. We were particularly pleased to welcome the Portuguese Secretary of State for Education (Professor João Costa) as our distinguished keynote speaker.

You can see the clip produced by RTP by clicking on the video below. For more information on our symposium, please drop me a line or visit our symposium website.

Second Lancaster-Ghent Symposium: Program online!

April 13, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

The program of the second symposium of the Lancaster-Ghent partnership is now online!

The workshop is taking place on April 18-19, 2017, in Ghent. The topic is “Multilingualism: Language learning and testing”. Day 1 will feature talks by Lancaster and Ghent colleagues, Day 2 consists of a workshop on corpus linguistics. The Lancaster delegation will consist of Vaclav Brezina, Tineke Brunfaut, Aina Casaponsa, Dana Gablasova, Luke Harding, and Diane Potts. The local organizer is Piet van Avermaet (piet.vanavermaet@ugent.be). We are grateful to the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) Internationalization Fund for the financial support.

Multilingualism: Language learning and testing

Please click here to download the abstracts

Day 1: Tuesday, April 18, Faculty Board Room, Blandijnberg 2, Ghent

8.30: Registration

8.45: Welcome

9.00: Vaclav Brezina and Dana Gablasova (Lancaster) : Lancaster corpus-based linguistic research: Advances in corpus tools and corpora

9:50: Discussion

10:15: Aina Casaponsa (Lancaster): Foreign language comprehension achievement: insights from the cognate facilitation effect

10:40: Ellen Simon and Mieke Van Herreweghe (Ghent): Media-induced Second Language Acquisition

11:05: Discussion

11.30: Coffee break

11:50: Diane Potts, Lancaster University: Multilingualism, plurilingualism, translanguaging: Meaning-making in the field of applied linguistics

12:15: Fauve De Backer, Stef Slembrouck and Piet Van Avermaet (Ghent): Pupils’ perceptions on accommodations in multilingual assessment of science

12:40: Discussion

13:05: Lunch break

14:15: Tineke Brunfaut and Luke Harding (Lancaster): Methodological and theoretical innovations in language testing

15:15: Frank van Splunder (Antwerp) and Catherine Verguts (Ghent): Language Policy and Language Testing in Flanders

15:45: Discussion

16:15: Conclusions and futher cooperation

16:45: Reception

Day 2: Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Hiko PC-lab, corner Rozier – Sint-Hubertusstraat, Ghent

8:30: Registration

9:00: Welcome

9:00: Dana Gablasova and Vaclav Brezina (Lancaster): Corpus linguistics workshop

12:00: Lunch break

Portuguese Secretary of State for Education visits Lancaster University

April 10, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

Coverage of Saturday’s symposium with Portuguese Secretary of State Joao Costa on Lancaster University website:

Lancaster’s historic links with Portugal, dating back to John O’Gaunt, were rekindled at the weekend.

The Portuguese Secretary of State for Education, Professor João Costa, visited Lancaster University on Saturday (April 8) to take part in a conference on bilingualism and heritage language learning.

The event, opened in fluent Portuguese by Professor Sharon Huttly, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education at Lancaster University, focused on Portuguese heritage language education across Europe.

It brought together policy makers from the Portuguese Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, leading academics, journalists, school teachers and parents to discuss current trends and challenges in fostering bilingual competence in English and in the heritage language (the language spoken at home).

The event, supported by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ‘Impact and Engagement Fund’ featured the presentation of successful case studies, including the innovative and award-winning Native Scientist project and the new Anglo-Portuguese School.

Portuguese national TV (RTP) sent a team to cover the event for a popular early evening news programme which is broadcast worldwide.

Event organiser Dr Patrick Rebuschat, from the University’s Department of Linguistics and English Language, said: “The conference was a big success. It is very rare for parents, teachers, researchers and policy makers to be sitting in the same room and engaging in a very constructive dialogue about education. The event demonstrates again the University’s commitment to both engaging with our local communities and to maintain a strong international outlook.”

Lancaster University is renowned for its research in the language sciences and is currently ranked 19th in the world for linguistics according to the 2017 QS Rankings.

In his keynote speech, Portuguese Secretary of State João Costa emphasized the importance of this initiative and outlined future challenges and opportunities in heritage language education.

The conference continued Lancaster University’s long-term links with Portugal.

In 1986 the then President of Portugal, Dr Mário Soares, who died earlier this year, received an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University. The occasion served to celebrate 600 years of the Treaty of Windsor between England and Portugal, the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in existence.

President Soares’ visit was seen as a big event for the City because it marked the first time Lancaster had received a foreign head of state. It was widely covered in the media in the UK and in Portugal.

“Professor João Costa’s visit on Saturday provided an opportunity for us to remember this event 31 years ago and to honour one of our Honorary Graduates,” added Dr Rebuschat.

For more information, please visit the Lancaster University website or email Dr Patrick Rebuschat, p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk

Marije Michel: Invited talk at Ghent University

March 28, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

Lancaster’s Marije Michel gave an invited talk in Ghent on March 21, 2017, as part of the innovative “New Flavours in Second Languge Acquisition” seminar series, which is dedicated to cutting-edge research in second language acquisition.

Please see below for more information.

Location: Ghent Linguistics Department, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent.

Date: March 21, 2017, 19.15

Title: FB me 2N8! Taalleerprocessen tijdens geschreven computerchat

Abstract: Sinds de opkomst van sociale media heeft schrijven een nieuwe plaats verovert in ons leven. We smsen en appen veelvuldig en chatten met vrienden en familie over de hele wereld. Veel van deze chatinteracties vinden plaats in een taal die niet de moedertaal is van interactiepartners, bijv. het Engels of Nederlands als tweede taal (T2). In deze lezing zal ik uiteenzetten in hoeverre chatten in een T2 bijdraagt an taalleren. In verschillende experimentele studies heb ik gekeken waar T2-gebruikers hun aandacht op focussen tijdens het chatten, hoe interactiepartners elkaars taal hergebruiken en hoe dit bijdraagt aan het vermeren van hun kennis van de taal die ze leren. Op basis van onder meer eye-tracking data zal ik laten zien hoe wij in het taalonderwijs gebruik kunnen maken van schrijftaken via chat.

Impressions from the first Lancaster-Ghent Symposium

March 23, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

Today, we greatly enjoyed hosting a wonderful group of colleagues and students from Ghent University for the inaugural Lancaster-Ghent symposium. The symposium is part of our new research and teaching partnership (for more info please see our website).

The first event focused on “Discourse and Media”. A great thank you to our invited speakers for their excellent presentations and to our delegates for their thoughtful comments and discussion. The symposium clearly indicated many fruitful avenues for future research and teaching collaborations, and it will be exciting to strengthen the links between our institutions over the coming years.

Invited speakers:

Gent: Geert Jacobs, Jana Declercq, Eliza Kowal, Sophie Busschop
Lancaster: David Barton, Daniela Ibarra Herrera, Elena Semino, Karin Tusting

We look forward to next month’s Lancaster-Ghent symposium in Ghent – the event will take place on April 18-19, 2017, and focus on “Multilingualism: Learning, processing, teaching and testing.” The program will be uploaded shortly.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the FASS Internationalization Fund.

First Lancaster-Ghent symposium: Discourse and Media

March 14, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

The first symposium of the Lancaster-Ghent partnership takes place on March 23, 2017, at Lancaster University. The topic is “Discourse and Media”; it will feature talks by Lancaster and Ghent staff and students. Participation is free (and includes lunch and coffee break), but registration via Eventbrite is required. Click here to register.

We are grateful to the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) Internationalization Fund for the financial support. For more information on our partnership and on how to get involved, please email Dr Patrick Rebuschat (p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk).

For more information, including the schedule and abstracts, please click here.

New partnership with Ghent University

March 14, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

We are pleased to announce that the Department of Linguistics and English Language has established a new partnership with the Department of Linguistics at Ghent University.

Our Departments are particularly well-matched in terms of research areas, ambition, size (staff and students) and orientation (emphasis on empirical language research). This initiative will run for three years (2016-2019); during this period, we will explore joint research projects and potential teaching links, including co-supervision of postgraduate students. The partnership involves both academic staff and students from our institutions.

The cornerstone of our partnership are two annual delegation visits. Each delegation consists of 5-6 members of staff; there will be one Lancaster visit to Ghent every year and one Ghent visit to Lancaster. The host university will organize a symposium around each delegation visit and widely publicize the event. This means there will be six delegation visits (and symposia) in the 2016-2019 period. The first symposium takes place in Lancaster on March 23, 2017, with the second symposium taking place in Ghent in April 18-19, 2017.

In addition, to the annual delegation visits and symposia, there will several individual visits by staff members, and we will maintain an active student exchange program between our Departments. Our Erasmus+ agreements cover two undergraduate and postgraduate students per academic year.

For more information or to get involved, please email Dr Patrick Rebuschat (p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk) or visit our dedicated website.

Prestigious International Book Prize for Ruth Wodak

February 28, 2017 / Patrick Rebuschat

We are pleased to announce that Ruth Wodak has recently been awarded the Austrian Book Prize for the 2016 German translation of The Politics of Fear – Politik mit der Angst. Ruth’s award is in the category of Humanities and Social Sciences. The official ceremony will take place on February 20, 2017, in the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research.

Ruth Wodak’s book The Politics of Fear – What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean (Sage 2015) was published October 2, 2015. In it, she focusses on the discourse, rhetoric, performance and argumentation of populist right-wing politicians across Europe (compared with the “tea-party/ies” movement in the US) on the front- and back-stage. Specifically, she elaborates on the (inter)dependencies between politics and the media in several case studies. The recontextualisation and glocalisation of images and posters across several European right-wing political parties also form a relevant focus of this book.

Ruth’s award was reported in the following media outlets:

Ruth Wodak - The Politics of Fear - What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean