The role of feedback in second language learning processes. Teachers spend an inordinate amount of time providing feedback to second language learners on their written work. This research investigation has two stages. Stage one aims to examine the effectiveness of different kinds of feedback, the extent to which learners take notice of the feedback, and the extent to which learners are able to incorporate the feedback into their developing second language systems both in the short term, and th ....The role of feedback in second language learning processes. Teachers spend an inordinate amount of time providing feedback to second language learners on their written work. This research investigation has two stages. Stage one aims to examine the effectiveness of different kinds of feedback, the extent to which learners take notice of the feedback, and the extent to which learners are able to incorporate the feedback into their developing second language systems both in the short term, and the longer term. In the second stage we investigate the success with which the findings from the first stage can be transferred into the classroom context.Read moreRead less
Understanding communication about advance care planning across the lifespan. This project aims to understand how people communicate about advance care planning for children, adolescents, and adults. This project expects to generate new knowledge by using leading social scientific and linguistic methods to analyse real-world advance care planning conversations and documents. Expected outcomes include detailed knowledge about challenges people encounter in these conversations and how to manage the ....Understanding communication about advance care planning across the lifespan. This project aims to understand how people communicate about advance care planning for children, adolescents, and adults. This project expects to generate new knowledge by using leading social scientific and linguistic methods to analyse real-world advance care planning conversations and documents. Expected outcomes include detailed knowledge about challenges people encounter in these conversations and how to manage these challenges. Over 170,000 Australians die each year, most from serious illness. This project should provide significant benefits to future initiatives for enhancing communication about advance care planning, especially in relation to young Australians, older Australians, and Australians with disabilities.Read moreRead less
Bilingualism in the bush: reconceptualising 'speech community' in immigrant family language maintenance in regional Australia. This project will investigate how immigrant families in regional Australian centres maintain their children's home language(s) in the absence of the critical mass of speakers, networks and resources found in metropolitan areas. It will establish how such families can best be supported through community and educational services to ensure that children grow up bilingual, w ....Bilingualism in the bush: reconceptualising 'speech community' in immigrant family language maintenance in regional Australia. This project will investigate how immigrant families in regional Australian centres maintain their children's home language(s) in the absence of the critical mass of speakers, networks and resources found in metropolitan areas. It will establish how such families can best be supported through community and educational services to ensure that children grow up bilingual, with the attendant benefits of improved cognitive, social and academic skills. The project will examine home practices and the interface between home and early childhood services. Outcomes will include a better understanding of successful family language planning practices in isolated regions and a reconceptualisation of 'speech community' through communications technologies.Read moreRead less
Metrolingual language practices in four urban sites: talking in the city. Metrolingualism has recently been coined as a term to describe the use of multilingual resources in urban contexts. Through detailed analysis of language use in four urban sites, this project will develop our understanding of metrolingual language practices as well as our understanding of the ways in which urban spaces are managed linguistically.
New methodologies for representing and accessing resources on endangered languages: a case study from South Efate. Linguists produce material which has immense cultural significance as it is often the only record of endangered cultures. With new technologies come new ways of working with indigenous languages. This APD will develop an innovative methodology for documenting and archiving data from a language of the Pacific. It will do this by linking a dictionary, texts, audio, video, images and a ....New methodologies for representing and accessing resources on endangered languages: a case study from South Efate. Linguists produce material which has immense cultural significance as it is often the only record of endangered cultures. With new technologies come new ways of working with indigenous languages. This APD will develop an innovative methodology for documenting and archiving data from a language of the Pacific. It will do this by linking a dictionary, texts, audio, video, images and a grammar to facilitate presentation of both the data and its analysis to speakers, fellow linguists, and the general public. The methodology developed in this APD will result in innovative linguistic data management techniques conformant to emerging international standards.Read moreRead less
Languages of Barrier Islands, Sumatra: Description, History and Typology. This project aims to investigate endangered languages of the Asia-Pacific via four undocumented languages in the Barrier Islands, Indonesia. New knowledge will be generated into the languages, cultures and societies of the region on an unprecedented scale, and be made freely available to the public. New data will uncover past migration patterns in Southeast Asia, advance language theory (such as linguistic typology and lan ....Languages of Barrier Islands, Sumatra: Description, History and Typology. This project aims to investigate endangered languages of the Asia-Pacific via four undocumented languages in the Barrier Islands, Indonesia. New knowledge will be generated into the languages, cultures and societies of the region on an unprecedented scale, and be made freely available to the public. New data will uncover past migration patterns in Southeast Asia, advance language theory (such as linguistic typology and language change), and support the computational modelling of Austronesian for future language technologies. Connections with Indonesian institutions will strengthen Australia’s regional engagement, and support language revitalisation and maintenance among minority communities for the preservation of their culture and history.Read moreRead less
English as a spoken lingua franca in ASEAN: a study of its linguistic and socio-cultural features. The project will collect the first corpus of Lingua Franca English in Asia. It will thus complement the two European LFE projects currently underway and will put Australia at the forefront of this new research. Given that the findings of the research have the potential to revolutionise the ways English is taught and learned throughout the ASEAN region, as it takes the focus away from the impositio ....English as a spoken lingua franca in ASEAN: a study of its linguistic and socio-cultural features. The project will collect the first corpus of Lingua Franca English in Asia. It will thus complement the two European LFE projects currently underway and will put Australia at the forefront of this new research. Given that the findings of the research have the potential to revolutionise the ways English is taught and learned throughout the ASEAN region, as it takes the focus away from the imposition of an external native speaker norm of English. The research thus places Australia in the forefront of culturally and contextually sensitive work into English language teaching and research. The project will also benefit all communities within Australia where English plays a role as a lingua franca.Read moreRead less
Tense and topic in English as an Asian lingua franca. Using the Asian Corpus of English (ACE), this project will investigate linguistic features of 'Asian' English, how Asian multilinguals use English with each other and consider the implications of this for regional communication and English language teaching.
Talking knowledge, doing learning: the early years. An enduring problem in Indigenous schooling is the discrepancy in outcomes compared to mainstream children, but little is known about one crucial factor: the role of Indigenous ways of speaking and their ways of engaging with knowledge and learning. This ground-breaking project aims to compare preparatory school students in two urban settings: a mainstream school and a school with high Indigenous enrolments. The project also seeks to examine le ....Talking knowledge, doing learning: the early years. An enduring problem in Indigenous schooling is the discrepancy in outcomes compared to mainstream children, but little is known about one crucial factor: the role of Indigenous ways of speaking and their ways of engaging with knowledge and learning. This ground-breaking project aims to compare preparatory school students in two urban settings: a mainstream school and a school with high Indigenous enrolments. The project also seeks to examine learning in children's homes to establish how the flow of knowledge is managed in Indigenous and mainstream families. By investigating these four settings, it is expected to provide important evidence for understanding how language and cultural ways of knowing contribute to the discrepancy in schooling outcomes.Read moreRead less
The spread of gender-inclusive language reform in Outer-Circle Englishes: English in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines. This examination aims to describe the adoption and spread of gender-inclusive language use in the Englishes in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and to compare this process to the one observed in 'native' Englishes (eg.Australian English). The comparative approach between 'native' and 'non-native' Englishes is innovative. Expected outcomes include significant progre ....The spread of gender-inclusive language reform in Outer-Circle Englishes: English in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines. This examination aims to describe the adoption and spread of gender-inclusive language use in the Englishes in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and to compare this process to the one observed in 'native' Englishes (eg.Australian English). The comparative approach between 'native' and 'non-native' Englishes is innovative. Expected outcomes include significant progress in the study of planned language change, of English as a global language and language and gender identity. The study will have an impact on social policy development.Read moreRead less