An overview of current and recently completed CLLEAR projects.
Laura Dominguez (PI) and Glyn Hicks
Project title: “Vulnerable native grammars: the effects of limited input in native language attrition”
Funded by: AHRC, £578,951
Duration: 36 months, starting on 1st June 2020
Project description: When bilingual adults stop using their native language as often, for example after migrating, their skills in that language can change. They may find it harder to retrieve words, become slower at understanding, or lose confidence. These changes are known as “native language attrition.” The least understood aspect of attrition concerns the vulnerability of a speaker's native (unconscious) grammar. This research aims to find out what happens to adult speakers' native grammars when they move from a ‘monolingual only’ environment to one where input from two languages or dialects is abundant.
See more details here.
Rosamond Mitchell
Project title: "Study Abroad Research in European Perspective," a research network grant.
Funded by: EU COST Action 15130
Duration: 2016-2020.
Output: Mitchell, R. & Tyne, H. (Eds.). (forthcoming 2021). Language, mobility and study abroad in the contemporary European context. Routledge.
Project title: "LANGSNAP 6.0"
Funded by: ESRC
Duration: 2019–2021
Project description: This is a long-term follow-up from the original 2011-2013 LANGSNAP project researching language maintenance, language engagement and language identity of Modern Languages graduates 6 years post-graduation.
Output: Mitchell, R., Tracy–Ventura, N., & Huensch, A. (2020). After study abroad: The maintenance of multilingual identity among Anglophone languages graduates. The Modern Language Journal, 104(2), 327-344. doi:10.1111/modl.12636
Alison Porter
Project Title: “Teaching Languages in Primary Schools: Putting Research into Practice”
Funded by: ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, £30,000.00
Duration: 2019-21.
Project description: This inter-institutional award (PIs: Dr Alison Porter & Professor Florence Myles) involves the design and production of a free, online course (see output). The MOOC is directly linked to instructed language learning research conducted by its lead educators.
Output: a free MOOC https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-languages-in-primary-schools-putting-research-into-practice
Ying Zheng
Project title: “Towards a new Psychometric model for a test of general English proficiency” Funded by: Pearson Education
Duration: 2019–20
Project description: This project will contribute to the wider field of language testing and assessment, particularly the field of English language assessment. The project involves detailed psychometric design work to build a matrix of data which will be used to calibrate test items and build a psychometric model to relate those items to an existing scale - Global Scale of English - and contribute to the new development of Global Scale of English General.
Project title: “HSK test taker characteristics, test performance and implications for HSK test constructs” Funded by: Chinese Testing International
Duration: 2018–2020
Project description: This project will use the global Mandarin Chinese testing data to model the relationship between HSK test performance and test taker characteristics to see if any patterns can be identified to inform test taker behaviour and test constructs. This project also aims to compare the identified patterns to those found in English tests, and explore the reasons behind those differences to seek pedagogical implications. This project is in collaboration with two co-investigators, Dr. Yang Lu from Nottingham University and Dr. Clare Wright from Leeds.