A longitudinal study of the interaction of home and school language in three Aboriginal communities. The importance of language skills cannot be underestimated, and contribute to 'a healthy start to life'. In multilingual Indigenous communities, children must negotiate the complexities of different languages used for different purposes. This project will provide detailed insights into how children manage differences between home and school language, the kinds of problems they encounter when the ....A longitudinal study of the interaction of home and school language in three Aboriginal communities. The importance of language skills cannot be underestimated, and contribute to 'a healthy start to life'. In multilingual Indigenous communities, children must negotiate the complexities of different languages used for different purposes. This project will provide detailed insights into how children manage differences between home and school language, the kinds of problems they encounter when they enter the school system, and how their languages develop over the first four crucial years of school which provide the foundation for the children's future education. Their ability to manage the language of school underpins their ability to lead successful and engaged lives as adults. Read moreRead less
How Strict is the Mother Tongue? Using Dialects to Probe Early Speech Perception and Word Recognition. This project will 1)advance knowledge of toddler word representations and their developmental precursors; 2) contribute to theories of phonological vs phonetic properties of spoken language; 3) explain how experience with the ambient language shapes children's phonological and lexical development. Moreover, the findings will 4) offer crucial new insights into sources of developmental disorders ....How Strict is the Mother Tongue? Using Dialects to Probe Early Speech Perception and Word Recognition. This project will 1)advance knowledge of toddler word representations and their developmental precursors; 2) contribute to theories of phonological vs phonetic properties of spoken language; 3) explain how experience with the ambient language shapes children's phonological and lexical development. Moreover, the findings will 4) offer crucial new insights into sources of developmental disorders (language delay, dyslexia) leading to improved early diagnosis and treatment; 5) bear on issues of second language learning; and by understanding the process by which young learners handle dialect variability, 6) provide insights into how automatic speech recognition systems can be made more robust to dialectal and foreign accent differences.
Read moreRead less
Development of second language phonetic and phonological categories. The majority of the world's population speaks two or more languages, yet we know little about how multiple languages are accommodated within a single speaker. Why do children appear to learn a second language 'like a native' but adults invariably develop a clearly perceptible foreign accent? This project investigates a little-known fact - adult second language speakers also 'hear' with a foreign accent. As Australia becomes inc ....Development of second language phonetic and phonological categories. The majority of the world's population speaks two or more languages, yet we know little about how multiple languages are accommodated within a single speaker. Why do children appear to learn a second language 'like a native' but adults invariably develop a clearly perceptible foreign accent? This project investigates a little-known fact - adult second language speakers also 'hear' with a foreign accent. As Australia becomes increasingly multilingual increasing our understanding of the human capacity for language learning would strengthen Australia's social and economic fabric by leading to improved educational practices, work prospects for migrants and, most importantly, understanding between cultures.Read moreRead less
Talking through touch: adapting sign languages for use by Deafblind people. This project intends to investigate tactile Australian Sign Language (Auslan), the sign language of deafblind Australians. People who are both deaf and blind are at high risk of social isolation and often have only a limited number of people with whom they can communicate fluently. Those who were born deaf and lose vision as adults often use a tactile form of sign language, but how visual sign languages are modified for ....Talking through touch: adapting sign languages for use by Deafblind people. This project intends to investigate tactile Australian Sign Language (Auslan), the sign language of deafblind Australians. People who are both deaf and blind are at high risk of social isolation and often have only a limited number of people with whom they can communicate fluently. Those who were born deaf and lose vision as adults often use a tactile form of sign language, but how visual sign languages are modified for tactile delivery is poorly understood. Drawing on conversational data from experienced tactile signers, the project will use conversation analysis to document and describe tactile Auslan. This analysis aims to inform interpreter and case worker training and to contribute to our understanding of touch as a previously underexplored language modality.Read moreRead less
New languages seen with new eyes: Evidence for the emergence of grammar in signed languages using new methodologies and technologies. This project will ensure that the education of signing deaf children and the scientific study of human language are based on descriptions of sign language vocabulary and grammar that are supported by empirical evidence from representative samples of naturalistic language. The knowledge is essential for developing assessment and teaching tools for deaf children, fo ....New languages seen with new eyes: Evidence for the emergence of grammar in signed languages using new methodologies and technologies. This project will ensure that the education of signing deaf children and the scientific study of human language are based on descriptions of sign language vocabulary and grammar that are supported by empirical evidence from representative samples of naturalistic language. The knowledge is essential for developing assessment and teaching tools for deaf children, for improving the training of sign language interpreters, and for understanding the results of research into human cognition and the processing of language-spoken, written or signed-in the brain. The internet accessible digital video corpus will be an important cultural archive, educational resource and scientific dataset for the on-going research.Read moreRead less
Phonological development in child speakers of mixed language. In Northern Territory Aboriginal communities where traditional languages are mostly spoken fluently by older people, the home language for many children is a kind of mixed language combining elements of traditional languages, Kriol and English. This project will document for the first time the sound system of this language, and investigate how children's background knowledge of this sound system prepares them to learn words in English ....Phonological development in child speakers of mixed language. In Northern Territory Aboriginal communities where traditional languages are mostly spoken fluently by older people, the home language for many children is a kind of mixed language combining elements of traditional languages, Kriol and English. This project will document for the first time the sound system of this language, and investigate how children's background knowledge of this sound system prepares them to learn words in English and traditional languages. This information is important because it can help parents, teachers and speech pathologists assess and teach Aboriginal children from mixed language backgrounds.Read moreRead less
Voice, indexicality and the mediation of diversity on Australian television. Multicultural Australia is a country of many voices, although concern has been expressed about the under-representation of those voices in the media. This project investigates how the voices of minority groups are represented on mainstream Australian television, when they do appear. It examines a substantial body of TV data, from four types of programming: news, sports, advertising and drama. It focuses on minority ethn ....Voice, indexicality and the mediation of diversity on Australian television. Multicultural Australia is a country of many voices, although concern has been expressed about the under-representation of those voices in the media. This project investigates how the voices of minority groups are represented on mainstream Australian television, when they do appear. It examines a substantial body of TV data, from four types of programming: news, sports, advertising and drama. It focuses on minority ethnic voices and on voices linked to different social classes. Close analysis of media processes will be supplemented by consulting professionals and TV viewers. The findings will provide a new perspective on the media’s role in promoting or curtailing cultural literacy and linguistic diversity.Read moreRead less
The social dynamics of language: a study of phonological variation and change in West Australian English. This project studies the role of pronunciation as a marker of individual and community identity. As the first systematic study of accent variability in Perth, it focusses on how, across different contexts, speakers from older and younger generations and different backgrounds deploy speech as a means of projecting social affiliation and difference.
Change in language, culture and identity in a small isolated speech community: Palmerston Island English. This project will investigate language variation and change through a case study of Palmerston Island, a small, isolated community in the Cook Islands, where a new dialect of English has developed. The relationship between social networks, cultural identity and linguistic variation will be explored.
Why and how do languages expand, coalesce or die? Lisu in China, Burma, Thailand and India. This project extends Australian leadership of international co-operation in language contact research. Practical outcomes include a pandialectal dictionary of Lisu and literary materials which provide in-depth background on the languages, cultures, religions and history of East, Southeast and South Asia. Like most nations, Australia has many indigenous and migrant languages which are under threat, many wi ....Why and how do languages expand, coalesce or die? Lisu in China, Burma, Thailand and India. This project extends Australian leadership of international co-operation in language contact research. Practical outcomes include a pandialectal dictionary of Lisu and literary materials which provide in-depth background on the languages, cultures, religions and history of East, Southeast and South Asia. Like most nations, Australia has many indigenous and migrant languages which are under threat, many with dialect issues that further complicate the situation. The findings of this project may be directly applied for the maintenance and revitalisation of our indigenous languages, nearly all of which are now struggling for survival, and in similar efforts for migrant languages.Read moreRead less