Author: Patrick Rebuschat (Page 4 of 8)

Just uploaded a manuscript we recently submitted for review. Please access by clicking link below- comments and suggestions welcome!

Grey, S., Schoetensack, C., Bell, K., Monaghan, P., & Rebuschat, P. (under review). Individual differences in implicit and explicit language learning: Working memory, learning styles, and personality.

Having fun setting up our new statistical learning – EEG  💡 experiment with Aina Casaponsa and Padraic Monaghan. We look forward to testing subjects soon, together with our two SPRINT interns Abigail Dutton and Pavlina Kutsarova. Thanks to the SPRINT scheme and to the FASS Research Fund 2017-2018 for making this great project possible.

Happy to announce that our special issue of Language Learning on “Experimental, computational, and corpus-based approaches to language learning” is out today, co-edited with Tony McEnery and Detmar Meurers. You can access the special issue here.

Many thanks to our authors for their excellent contributions and to our peer reviewers, who provided very valuable feedback, especially on how to make the contributions accessible and relevant across disciplines.

Our editors’ introduction is available online (open access), please click here to read the introduction.

Summary:

Language acquisition occupies a central place in the study of human cognition, and research on how we learn language can be found across many disciplines, from developmental psychology and linguistics to education, philosophy and neuroscience. The investigation of a complex phenomenon like language acquisition naturally requires insights, tools, and methods from many disciplines, yet it is still relatively rare to find studies that combine multiple approaches. This volume brings together leading researchers in cognitive psychology, corpus research, developmental psychology, linguistics, and natural language processing to discuss opportunities and challenges of combining multiple approaches to language learning. The peer-reviewed chapters in this volume are written in an accessible and engaging fashion. Together, they provide the reader with a panorama of the exciting research currently being conducted at the intersection of experimental, computational and corpus-based approaches to language learning.

“This issue contains insightful state-of-the-art reviews and offers a great overview of the issues learner corpus and SLA research are facing, an absolute must-read for everyone in these and neighboring fields.” —Stefan Th. Gries, University of California, Santa Barbara

“A timely contribution on the roles that experimental, corpus-based and computational approaches play in our understanding of language learning, bringing together both conceptual overviews and empirical evidence.” —Florence Myles, University of Essex

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).

For more information on the Lancaster-Ghent initiative, please visit our Lancaster-Ghent website or send me an email.

Insightful article by Ricardo Garcia in Expresso on the spike in applications from Portuguese students to study in the UK. Applications have increased by 17% while EU numbers have declined. In a short interview, I mentioned that this increase might be due to (i) increased visibility of UK universities because of widely-reported initiatives undertaken by PARSUK; (ii) excellent reputation of UK universities and strong presence in HEI rankings; (iii) many UK universities guaranteeing Home fees for EU students for the time being; (iv) dominance of English as lingua franca and language of science. (Previous generations of Portuguese students were particularly strong in French, so studying in France might have been more appealing in the past.)

Click here to read the article (in Portuguese).

Here goes a graph from the article that shows the latest UCAS figures by EU country:

More pictures from Saturday’s event on heritage language education.

Coverage of Saturday’s symposium with Portuguese Secretary of State João 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