Job Announcement: University of Leeds and University of Manchester
Language Acquisition: Post Doc, University of Leeds and University of Manchester, Leeds and Manchester, United Kingdom
| Employer: |
University of Leeds and University of Manchester
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/linguistics/ |
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| Job Location: | Leeds and Manchester, United Kingdom | ||
| Rank or Title: |
Post Doc |
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| Linguistic Field(s): |
Language Acquisition
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| LL Issue: | 23.3356 | ||
| Date Posted: | 08-Aug-2012 | ||
| Job Description: |
Fixed term for 2 years, starting on 1 October 2012 Project title: Referential communication and executive function skills in bilingual children As one of two research assistants on this Leverhulme Trust-funded project, you will play a key role by (i) contributing to the creation of the experimental materials and parental questionnaires, (ii) liaising with schools to recruit child participants and organising the running of experiments, (iii) carrying out the experiments in schools and day- centres (with the help of another research assistant), (iv) transcribing and coding relevant portions of the data, (v) contributing to the analysis of results, (vi) taking part in dissemination and public engagement activities. With a PhD in language acquisition or a related discipline, you will be able to demonstrate excellent interpersonal and organisational skills. During the second year of the project, you will be working with both the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester. The work you will carry out will be split between the two sites and you will be employed 50% by the University of Leeds and 50% by the University of Manchester. About the Project The main aim of this study is to bridge the gap between two independent lines of research: a) The study of executive functions skills as a function of language experience b) The investigation of the relationship between executive function skills and children’s performance in referential communication tasks More specifically we have three objectives, spanning (i) the cognitive development of different types of bilinguals, (ii) factors influencing cognitive and linguistic development in young bilinguals, and (iii) factors affecting monolingual and bilingual children’s use of referential expressions. We aim to: 1. Extend previous findings on the relationship between key executive function skills (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control and working memory) and language experience to bilingual children who have unbalanced exposure to two languages 2. Gather new information on the role played by language proficiency, bilingual experience and SES (social/ economic status) on the above subset of executive function skills and on referential abilities 3. Develop our understanding of the linguistic and non-linguistic contextual variables affecting children's referential choices (visual context, awareness of differences in perspective between speaker and listener, and linguistic factors affecting a referent's prominence) University Grade 7 (£30,122 - £35,938 p.a.) It is likely that an appointment will be made no higher than £32,901 p.a. since there are funding limitations which dictate the level at which the appointment can start. Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Cecile de Cat at the email address below. Interviews are expected to be held in early September 2012 Reference number for Leeds HR website: ARTML0067. |
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| Application Deadline: | 03-Sep-2012 | ||
| Application URL: | http://jobs.leeds.ac.uk/fe/tpl_universityofleeds01.asp?s=yhJgMRoBzQChEeQzw&jobid=87183,1298779861&key=83724926&c=258754769833&pagestamp=seqoxyccgncgiualby | ||
| Contact Information: |
Dr Cecile
DeCat
click here to access email |
