PhD Studentships

Three studentships are available for students wishing to conduct a PhD in Bilingualism while attached to the new ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism at Bangor, as follows:

1) Testing models of code-switching with Welsh-Spanish and/or
English-Spanish data
The student will be attached to the corpus-based research group and will be a speaker of Welsh, Spanish and English. The aim of his/her project will be to identify the main code-switching patterns in Welsh-Spanish and English-Spanish bilingual data and to compare them with patterns identified in Welsh-English data being collected as part of an AHRC-funded project. The extent of similarities or differences will have implications for the question of whether there is a universal model of code-switching, and the student can be expected to make an original contribution to this theoretical debate
Supervisor: Professor Margaret Deuchar
Duration: 1 + 3 years (MA followed by PhD) Closing date: 23 March 2007 Start date: 1/09/07

2) An ethnographic study of Welsh and English in Caernarfon, Wales
The student will be attached to the observational/ethnographic research group and will be a speaker of Welsh and English. This project will give an account of the linguistic ethnography of the town of Caernarfon with a view firstly to identifying the use of Welsh and English in home, leisure and workplace practices, and secondly to examining the role these languages play (if any) in the views of students at primary and secondary schools, and of their parents/carers, concerning life choices and career guidance.
Supervisor: Dr Eddie Williams
Duration: 3 years
Closing date: 23 March 2007
Start date: 1/09/07

3) Welsh-Spanish and/or English-Spanish interactions and assessment The student will be attached to the Experimental research group and will be a speaker of Welsh or Spanish and English. The aim of his/her project will be related either to the examination of morpho-syntactic and lexical interactions between bilinguals' two languages, focusing especially on structures for which bilingual's two languages differ (e.g., grammatical gender, determiners, word order, categorisation) or to the examination of appropriate measures for assessing bilingual children and adults, or both. The student will be involved first-hand in the collection of data in North Wales, Patagonia, and/or Miami, where bilingual Welsh-English, Welsh-Spanish, and English-Spanish speakers are to be found, as well as monolingual comparison groups.
Supervisor: Professor Virginia Gathercole
Duration: 3 years
Closing date: 23 March 2007
Start date: 1/09/07

Stipends will be £12,300 per year

Person Specification for studentship 1)

Essential
* B.A. or equivalent in Linguistics or related subject (minimum II(1))
* computer literacy
* knowledge of Welsh and/or Spanish
Desirable
* knowledge of other languages
* knowledge of Excel and/or SPSS
* good interpersonal and communication skills


Person Specification for studentship 2)

Essential
* B.A. or equivalent in Linguistics, Education or a related subject
(minimum II(1))
* computer literacy
* knowledge of Welsh
Desirable
* M.A./MSc in Linguistics, Education or a related subject
* knowledge of other languages
* knowledge of Excel and/or SPSS
* good interpersonal and communication skills
* clean driving license and use of car


Person Specification for studentship 3)

Essential
* B.A. or equivalent in Psychology, Linguistics, or a related subject
(minimum II(1))
* computer literacy
* knowledge of Welsh and/or Spanish
Desirable
* M.A./MSc in Psychology, Linguistics , Education or a related subject
* knowledge of other languages
* knowledge of Excel and/or SPSS
* good interpersonal and communication skills
* clean driving license

For further information contact Professor Margaret Deuchar, e-mail:
m.deuchar@bangor.ac.uk , tel. +44 (0)1248 382269.

Letters of application, with CVs attached, should be sent to Professor Margaret Deuchar at the same e-mail address, or by post to her at ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism, University of Wales, Bangor, College Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG.


--
Dr Eddie Williams
Department of Linguistics
University of Wales
Bangor
Gwynedd LL57 2DG
Wales, UK

Tel: 01248 382263