We are seeking a post-doctoral Research Associate in Second Language Acquisition and Processing.
This two year post will involve working on research projects relating to instructed second language learning.
More details are below and here.
Please forward to your networks and potential candidates!
With many thanks
Emma
Emma Marsden, Univ. of York, UK
Language Learning (Associate Editor)
Instruments for Research into Second Languages (IRIS) ; Open Accessible Summaries of Research in Language Studies (OASIS)
National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP)
This post is available on a fixed term contract for up to 2 years
Applications are invited for a post-doctoral Research Associate to work in close collaboration with Professor Emma Marsden in the Centre for Language Learning and Use in the Department of Education at the University of York. The Associate will work with Marsden on experimental research programmes investigating instructed second language acquisition and processing.
The primary aspect of the post-holder’s activities will involve designing, undertaking, and analysing a series of experiments relating to ‘Processing for Acquisition’. The experiments will investigate key theoretical questions, with pedagogical implications, about the extent to which processing (including assigning meaning, parsing, and anticipation/prediction) is (a) a learning mechanism, (b) can be explicit, and (c) can be trained and improve learning in the long term.
The second aspect of the post-holder’s activities includes involvement in the research strand of the national ‘Centre for Excellence for Modern Foreign Language Pedagogy’. This very large Department of Education (government ministry) funded initiative aims to develop and evaluate research-informed language instruction in secondary schools for 11-16-year olds in England. The Research Associate will contribute to the collection and analysis of data on the learning of morphosyntax, vocabulary, and phoneme-grapheme correspondences, via a quasi-experiment in the 45 schools undertaking the research-informed pedagogy.
The Research Associate may also collaborate with Marsden on various other activities such as: her work as incoming Editor of Language Learning; two large, international open science initiatives (OASIS and IRIS); and the analysis of a very large dataset gathered from an online digital game (known as Gaming Grammar) for learning French and Spanish morphosyntax.
The Associate will work under the supervision of Marsden and in collaboration with a range of national and international collaborators, including other post-docs and PhD students, journal editors, professional associations, schools, and researchers. They will work with Marsden on a series of articles for publication in high-impact journals
The Associate will be expected to: have a doctorate (or to be very near completion) in psycholinguistics, linguistics, applied linguistics, psychology or education (or equivalent experience); be competent users of psycholinguistic methodologies (such as self-paced reading or visual world eye-tracking) and of advanced statistical analytical techniques; and have excellent knowledge of more than one language.
Candidates should be knowledgeable about theories of (second) language learning and/or processing, in order to undertake rigorous research and publish in high quality academic journals. Highly developed communication skills to engage effectively with different audiences (including academic, education professionals, and a wider public) and an ability to work as part of a team as well as independently are essential.
This is a full-time appointment available to start as soon as possible, with the start date and a ‘phased (part-time) start’ negotiable.