From the Linguistics Postgraduate Office
Recently we had a very large attendance at the Linguistics Postgraduate Student Welcome Party. It was great to see so many of you attend. Here are some pictures of some of the students and staff at the event.
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For more photos from this event, please click here.
From the NCELTR Resource Centre 
Document supply for postgraduates and staff.
The University Library has introduced its new interlibrary loan management system known as Virtual Document Xchange (VDX). Using this system you may locate items online; create requests for items not held by Macquarie; track the progress of your requests; and receive documents as PDF files delivered to you via email.
The system is very simple to use. Training is still available. Bookings can be made at http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/training/courses.php?cmd=details&cid=33%20 OR consult the online user guide at http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/additional/academic/VDX_UserGuide.pdf
Congratulations to our Graduates 
Congratulations to all our Linguistics students who graduated on 20 April having completed their award programmes. The Department wishes to congratulate you on all your hard work and to wish you and your guests a very happy graduation day.
PhDs awarded
The Department wishes to congratulate the following students and their supervisors. Senate has recently confirmed their PhDs.
- Kazuyuki Takata - Supervisor: Pam Peters
- Jing Wang - Supervisor: Robert Mannell.
Resourcing our Research Students
The Department?s Research Committee is beginning a process of exploring how we can improve the resourcing of our research degree students, especially in terms of assisting them with access to helpful research tools, research information, and, at Macquarie, with research facilities. We are aware that at present such resourcing is necessarily a little haphazard, especially with our research students constituting a very scattered community, and also that individual students circumstances and needs are very different. Still, we DO need input from you so that we have some sense of having listened to the voices of our audiences!
This inquiry is at the moment intended for research students and students involved in the professional doctorate (DAL), although we may want later to look at the probably rather different needs of coursework postgraduates. The inquiry does NOT relate to the excellent administrative and support work of our Linguistics Postgraduate Office, which does not deal with research resourcing matters, as you know.
If you have any ideas, thoughts, then please send them to any of:
Associate Professor Geoff Brindley gbrindley@ling.mq.edu.au
Professor Chris Candlin ccandlin@ling.mq.edu.au
Professor Christian Matthiessen cmatthie@ling.mq.edu.au
It would be helpful to have any replies by May 5th 2004.
Linguistics Department Seminars
As part of the Department?s response to the University and the Division?s requirement that we set in place an enhanced system of research student support and monitoring, the Research Committee of the Department is instituting a Linguistics Department Seminar Series. This Series is primarily intended for research students, but staff are also warmly invited as are coursework postgraduates. The seminars will be given by a mix of Department staff, invited lecturers from other fields in the University, and outside visitors to the Department.
For research students, at least two thirds attendance at the seminars in any given semester will be required as part of their research training. The scope of the series is intended to provide a broader understanding of a wide range of aspects of Linguistics over the candidature of the research student and, thereby, to ensure that research students can set their own particular research projects in the context of the study of language and linguistics as a whole, and develop a wider awareness of the discipline.
We hope that at least once per semester there will be a session which research students will want to organise for themselves, allowing for mini-presentations by a number of students. For such sessions, it will be for the research students involved to determine whether the sessions will be open, or will be closed to research students only. These sessions will provide a useful preliminary opportunity for the required on campus research student presentations at the annual Divisional Postgraduate Research Festival (to be held this year between December 9th to 12th, 2004).
Although, necessarily, the seminar series is limited to on-campus and locally based research students, we are seeking ways in which at least some of the sessions can be recorded and made available for off campus students. Of course, the two-thirds attendance requirement can only be set on those on-campus and local students.
Click here for details of the schedule of the initial seminar series.
For more information about the research seminars, please refer to the Seminar web page http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/programs/researchdegrees/researchseminars.htm
Geoff Brindley: Convener, Research Committee
Chris Candlin: Senior Research Professor
For the Research Committee
April 20th 2004
Division of Linguistics and Psychology Postgraduate Research Festival, December 9, 10 and 11 ? 2004, Macquarie University.
The Postgraduate research festival is a wonderful opportunity for our students to present their work in an open and friendly environment. You will meet colleagues from Psychology and Linguistics, and you may find that you share similar interests. The feedback that you receive from staff and students should prove to be invaluable.
If you are just starting out on your research you may like to use the festival to tell people what your research is all about, and the sort of things that you are likely to be doing.
For further information on the research festival and to see some abstracts from last year, visit the festival website at: http://www.psy.mq.edu.au/festival/
Postgraduate Program in Communication in Professions and Organisations
As mentioned in Issue 30 of Lingline , the Programs were launched in March this year. We look forward to another intake of students in August. Application for the August intake closes on Friday May 28 for prospective online students and Friday June 30 for prospective on-campus students. For those considering entry in March 2005, application closes mid-December 2004.
We have heard from prospective students who learned about the Programs via Lingline. Thank you to all who have passed on information to others. Once again, I offer a number of suggestions in relation to program promotion:
1. Send via e-mail the link to the Program Website http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/programs/communication to personal contacts already working in communication, communication training, communication assessment or communication policy formulation or communication management. Ask your contacts to consider the Programs and pass on the information.
2. Download the Program Flyer (312 KB) and send it as an e-mail attachment to your contacts. The Flyer contains a link to the Program Website and an e-mail link to Program Staff. To open, read and print the Flyer, Adobe Reader is needed and it can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html .
3. Refer your contacts to Program Staff. The first point of contact would be myself ( pycheung@ling.mq.edu.au ) or our Postgraduate Officers (Coursework) Ms. Lindy Cooper and Pat Lewis ( lingdl@ling.mq.edu.au ).
4. If you have institutional (as opposed to personal) contacts you think would be interested, then inform the Program Manager to pass on the relevant information. Program Staff have prepared information packages to send out to institutional contacts.
Paul Cheung, Program Manager
Two Speaking and Listening Workshops for Linguistics Postgraduate Students
Linguistics postgraduate students are advised that there are some places available in the final two speaking and listening workshops which form part of the Writing and Communication Skills Program. These workshops will be held after the mid-semester break.
You can attend Workshop One on Monday 3 May between 9 am and 11 am in E5A 309 OR on Thursday 6 May between 9 am and 11 am in W5C 221. This workshop will focus on strategies for learning English as a second/foreign language, and on aspects of English pronunciation.
You can attend Workshop Two on Monday 10 May between 9 am and 11am in E5A 309 OR on Thursday 13 May between 9 am and 11am in W5C 221. This workshop will focus on the prosodic apsects of English, and will look at communication strategies and issues of cultural context.
If you have not already enrolled in this program and would like to join either of these two workshops, please contact Tessa Green on (02) 9850-6875 or email tgreen@ling.mq.edu.au
From our postgraduate students
This space is reserved for contributions from our students. Lingline invites all our students to contribute or use this space to raise any relevant issues.
Jennifer Eagleton is a distance student and has previously contributed to Lingline . Here, Jenny writes a little about herself and looks forward to contributions from other postgraduate Linguistics students. Let's try to make the distance community seem not so distant. Perhaps you might also like to introduce yourself through Lingline. If so, please send an email to the editor tgreen@ling.mq.edu.au
I have sung Chinese opera (not professionally), been interviewed by Shanghai television (literally my 15-minutes of fame), sucked green coconuts beneath swaying coconut trees and shaken hands with pacific island royalty. However, my main interest in the moment is linguistics, the applied variety. It has been useful in many ways already in my job as an editor, writer, and general research assistant at the Department of Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I see things now in quite a different light?like in why a piece of text has the effect it has and how it accomplishes it.
As a distance student I miss out on the interesting discussions during class and informal meetings with other students. It is sometimes difficult to find the energy if one is working fulltime to get into some obscure theory, but I have always found that if you are interested enough time will be found! Ways to beat the isolation of being in the distance mode is to cultivate contacts wherever possible. For example, join an online linguistics discussion list to get information and arrange possible face-face meetings. I have managed to meet a number of Macquarie students in Hong Kong this way.
Being an email-junky, I suggest emailing your convenors as frequently as you can (sorry, convenors!) to clarify any problems that you may be having and to feel that you are part of the organization and not forgotten. In addition, always carry an article or book with you to read on the train, bus, tram or ferry. You can concentrate much better in small slabs of time, while freeing yourself up to actually have some time to relax. And never leave things to the last minute! It may be only the beginning of semester, but before you know it, the major assignment is due.
I am interested in finding out how other masters students out there cope and what their study strategies are.
Jennifer Eagleton
Megan Yucel is a distance student in the MA Appl Ling (TESOL) program at Macquarie. She also works as an English instructor at Bilkent University, in Ankara, Turkey. Megan says she always enjoys reading Lingline , and for this issue Megan shares with us the abstract of a paper entitled "Designing and Implementing In-Class Speaking Assessment" which she just presented at the IATEFL conference in Liverpool, UK, in April 2004.
Title: Designing and Implementing In-Class Speaking Assessment
Abstract: This talk describes the results of a project carried out in the English language preparatory school of a Turkish university. The presenters will describe how a new form of in-class speaking assessment was designed and implemented. Examples of tasks, criteria, and checklists will be shown, and the reactions of teachers and students to the innovation will also be shared.
Summary: This talk describes the results of a project carried out in the Bilkent University School of English Language (BUSEL), which is the English language preparatory school of Bilkent University, an English-medium university in Ankara, Turkey. The aims of the project were to design, implement, and evaluate a new form of in-class speaking assessment at Pre-Intermediate level.
The move towards in-class assessment of speaking was part of a growing recognition within the institution that speaking, as a skill, had been neglected for far too long. As part of the school?s EAP focus, the skills of reading and writing had been emphasised, at the expense of speaking. However, the growing awareness of speaking?s vital role in language acquisition, combined with our students? need for oral communication skills in their university departments led to a new focus on speaking.
In terms of assessment, this initially resulted in the introduction of external end-of-course speaking tests at various levels. Although backwash was positive in that more speaking was done in the classroom as a result of this assessment, it was felt that more could be done. How could we ensure that students were assessed on their speaking in a wide range of communicative contexts? How could students receive regular and systematic feedback on their performance throughout the course? With these concerns in mind, the presenters and their colleagues devised a programme of in-class assessment which was implemented with BUSEL Pre-Intermediate students. This programme and the reactions to it will be shared by the presenters.
Megan Yucel
Dissertation Award
The TOEFL Program at Educational Testing Service invites applications for the 2005 Jacqueline A. Ross Dissertation Award. This annual award recognizes completed doctoral dissertation research that makes a significant and original contribution to knowledge about and/or the use and development of second or foreign language tests and testing. The award includes US $2,500, a stipend to cover expenses, round trip economy airfare, and hotel accommodations at the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC) where a plaque is presented to the award recipient.
Dr. Mikyung Kim Wolf was the 2004 award recipient for her dissertation completed at the University of California, Los Angeles, entitled "Process and Product: An investigation of the writing of non-native speakers of English on a computer-based academic English test". Her dissertation was recognized at the LTRC meeting held in March in Temecula, California. A list of previous award recipients can be viewed at http://www.ets.org/toefl/grants/recipients.html#dissertation
To be considered for the award, a dissertation must have been accepted by the candidate's institution within three years prior to the date of the award application. The research must have been completed as part of the requirements for a doctoral degree, or its equivalent. Although the dissertation submitted for award consideration must be in English, the research may be related to the second/foreign language testing of any language. Candidates who have submitted abstracts for this award in previous
years are not eligible.
For complete information about the award, please visit http://www.ets.org/toefl/grants/dissertationaward.html
Upcoming Course in corpus-oriented technologies and tools
A short intensive course: texts, discourse and corpora: corpora in linguistics and related fields is advertised for this forthcoming September at Medienzentrum, Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany, 14 September to 18 Septemer.
Corpus linguistics has opened new ways of studying and describing language and corpora continue to offer innovative paths in various fields. In addition to general aspects of corpus linguistics, this course gives special emphasis to meaning in 'texts' as units of discourse.
The course is a joint project by the Tuscan Word Centre and the University of Saarbruecken. The course will give an overview of the main topics in corpus work, e.g. corpus design and compilation, research tools, corpus linguistic approaches to the description of language, monolingual and multilingual corpora, applied corpus linguistics (ELT, translation studies, literary studies, etc.). On the one hand the course aims to provide a basis that will prove useful to the individual work of participants. On the other hand, the course offers a forum to discuss innovative approaches in corpus linguistics and to establish interdisciplinary links. A recent development in corpus linguistics is the application to textlinguistics and discourse studies. In this area the course will present cutting-edge research. A corpus linguistic approach to the properties of texts will illustrate how corpora can provide a link between different research fields concerned with language. The expertise of international lecturers ensures a high-level course and intensive coverage of the topics.
Detailed course information available at http://fr46.uni-saarland.de/tdc2004/
Enquiries to Michaela Mahlberg, m.mahlberg@mx.uni-saarland.de
Information on the Tuscan Word Centre at http://www.twc.it/
Upcoming Conferences and Workshops 
The website below gives free listing for conferences - see 'linguistics' under 'social sciences'.
http://www.allconferences.com/
Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Annual Conference: SFL ripples in the 21st century, 30 June ? 2 July 2004. Conference and Preconference Workshops Second Call for Registration (by 18 June 2004).
Functional Grammar School: Pre-Conference School Workshops 28-29 June 2004. Conference Centre,Floor 12 Education House, 30 Mary Street, Brisbane, The River City. Further information can be found on the asfla website: http://www.lexised.com/asfla/
International Language and Cognition Conference 2004
Hosted by the University of New England, Pacific Bay Resort, Coffs Harbour, Sept 10-12, 2004.
1 May Deadline for submissions (Papers & Posters)
15 June Notification of Acceptance
Program Announcement
1 July Early Bird Registration Deadline
1 Aug Regular Registration Deadline
For more information see: http://www.ilcc.une.edu.au/
Call for papers ? 35th GAL 2004 (German Applied Linguistics, Gesellschaft f?ewandte Linguistik) Wuppertal, Germany, September, 23-25 2004 Section 9 - Contrastive Linguistics and Intercultural Communication ? will focus this year on the special theme of: Receptive Multilingualism Organizers: Jan D. ten Thije (Utrecht University) und Eija Ventola (Salzburg).
General information about the conference can be found at: http://www.gal2004.uni-wuppertal.de/
First International Congress of ISCAR ?Acting in Changing Worlds: Learning, Communication and Minds in Intercultural Activities 20-24 September 2005.
In September 2005, the First International Congress of ISCAR will be held in Seville, Spain. The Local Organizing Committee would like to invite all those interested in theory and research in culture and activity to attend the Congress. A key objective in sociocultural research is to analyse the mediational instruments that emerge and develop in (inter)cultural activities, with particular emphasis on those arising out of the new forms of communication (related to information technology and communications). Therefore, the main focus of interest in this first ISCAR congress will, in broad terms, be the acting subject. By this, we mean a subject who participates in sociocultural activities and is responsible for his/her acts in these activities, capable of acting and creating worlds. The discussions of the congress will be thematically related as much as possible, organised around two main themes, with each main theme having a list of associated subthemes.
A) Theoretical and Methodological Issues
? New trends in Cultural-Historical theory and research
? Cognition in social practices
? Diversity and heterogeneity of mind
? Emotion and subjectivity in culture
? Self, identity, and culture
? Semiotic mediation and meaning construction
? Narrative construction of self.
? Methodological challenges in cultural and social research
? Theoretical and methodological problems in Activity Theory
? Qualitative research and social practice
? Problems of the unit of analysis
B) Acting in changing worlds.
? Socialization, interaction, and human development
? Ways of discourse, modes of thinking and forms of participation
? Learning and knowledge construction in social practice
? School practices, interaction, and discourse
? Argumentation, negotiation, and intercultural communication
? Literacy in changing worlds
? Citizenship in changing world
? Doing gender in changing world
? Life long learning in changing worlds.
? New technologies, communication, and identity
? Working place and new technologies
? New ways of teaching-learning and technology
? Sociocultural approaches to therapy practices.
? Intervention programs in institutions (design and assessment).
Call for Proposals
The program committee invites researchers to send proposals that correspond to one of the congress themes. Proposals must be submitted by e-mail and sent to: iscar2005@iscar.org More detailed information about the congress will be provided in the second announcement, which will be issued by April, 2004, as well as on
the website: http://www.us.es/glabahum/ISCAR2005
New Publications
From Equinox
Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 1.1 April 2004 - Inaugural Issue Out Now -
Editors: Christopher N Candlin and Srikant Sarangi.
JAL will have 3 issues per year, organised along the following rationale:
- The first issue every year will include papers on a broad range of applied linguistic themes, based on an open, peer review procedure.
- The second issue every year will be a special issue (organised thematically, regionally, or using other principled criteria). This issue will be guest-edited by advisory board members or other scholars.
- The third and final issue every year will be devoted to methodological debates, which will be of particular relevance to the wide audience of postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers. This focus will underscore the point that methodological issues within Applied Linguistics need a different kind of airing to the ways these are discussed in cognate disciplines such as sociology, education, psychology. Language-specific methodological debates around case studies, and the call for a mixing of methodologies within Applied Linguistics more generally will serve a long-awaited need for younger scholars engaged in postgraduate and in funded research.
Each annual volume will also contain a selection of special features such as editorials; debates/dialogues on specific themes/keywords; interviews by specialists with key scholars; review articles; synopses of funded projects; doctoral research reports; book notices on specific domains etc.
For more details see http://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/main.asp?jref=53
New Book
Banks, David (ed.): Text and Texture, Systemic Functional viewpoints on the nature and structure of text, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2-7475-5812-6, 647pp. 50.
The publication of this book is a historic event. It is the first Systemic publication produced in France. It is also a first for the publishers, since it is the first book in English that they have published. We hope therefore that the Systemic community will help justify the confidence the publishers have placed in us, by recommending this book to your libraries and to your students, as well as acquiring your own copy, of course! We have done our best to keep the price down, and we hope you agree that 50 (approximately $60) is a reasonable price for a book that runs to well over 600 pages. Here are the bibliographical details, and, to whet your systemic appetite, the contents.
(David Banks). For more information, contact David Banks at David.Banks@univ.brest.fr
Positions Vacant
Two re-advertised positions for an immediate start with the Language Centre in Katherine, Australia.
Both of these positions are full time. One position will be based in town, the other in the community of Ngukurr. Basic requirements would be an degree in Linguistics from a recognised university, a CV outlining qualifications, academic and other, work experiences of all kinds, interests and contact details for at least two referees, one of whom can comment on academic skills. A current driver's license is essential and 4x4 driving experience preferable. The applicants would need to have demonstrated an ability to be independent, self-motivated, highly organised, adaptable and able to cope with cross cultural situations and, in some instances, with third world conditions. Salary would range from $36,660 to $42,783 depending on qualifications and experience, with entitlements of 5 weeks leave a year. These salaries would rise to a top rate of $44,750 in the new financial year. Rent at Ngukurr would be very low, $20 per week, to compensate for the remote locality.
Town based linguist
This position would be based in Katherine and would be responsible for the language interests closest to the town, such as Mangarrayi language at Jilkminggan, 1.5 hrs drive from Katherine and Jawoyn, the language of people in town and communities closer to the town. The successful applicant would be expected to become familiar with Kriol, the new Aboriginal language most often spoken in the Katherine Region now, and work with Kriol speakers to facilitate and deliver Kriol Awareness Courses and oversee translations of English into Kriol, The Town based linguist would also be expected to coordinate the interpreting service (recruitment of trainees, mentoring of new interpreters, advertising of the service, broadening the client base).
Ngukurr based linguist
The Language Centre set up an annexe in the community of Ngukurr in 2000. A linguist was based there in 2001 and 2002. There was no funding in 2003 so there has been a hiatus in language activity in the community for the last twelve months. There is now funding for another 2.5 years beginning now. The linguist is also expected to undertake some language work in the Roper region communities of Urapunga and Minyerri. There is a small building based at Ngukurr consisting of bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, office and a meshed in verandah providing workspace. A 4x4 vehicle is available for use with this position. The linguist would work mostly at Ngukurr but liaise closely with the town base. The first language spoken by most people at Ngukurr now is Kriol, but there is a passive knowledge of a number of traditional languages in the community. The linguist would work with speakers and community members to devise ways of revitalising the languages in the community through adult workshops, the school, BRACS (radio) and language courses in collaboration with BIITE (Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education).
Could enquiries be directed to Robin Hodgson dacadmin@kathlangcentre.org.au Ph: 08 89 711233. Diwurruwurru-Jaru Aboriginal Corporation, P Box 871 Katherine NT 0851.
Vacancies for Assistant Professors of English Language - Nagoya University of Commerce and Business Faculty of Foreign Languages and Asian Studies, Japan
NUCB is a private University situated in an unusually expansive and beautiful green campus just outside Japan' s third largest city, Nagoya. NUCB comprises of just over 3,500 students and 100 lecturers and professors, where the Faculty itself has a teaching staff that draws from 15 different nationalities. We have a vacancy for a full-time Assistant Professor of English . As well as typical classroom duties, lecturers may be requested to participate in other affairs, such as supporting Open Campus events, holding demonstration classes at High Schools, and attending other important promotional events. Applicants should:
" Hold or be in the latter stages of a PhD. in a language-related field
" Have experience in teaching at University level
" Be published in the field
Previous experience of Japan is not essential. Salary and benefits will be established according to qualifications and experience with possible twice-annual bonuses of up to 20% of salary. Airfare to Japan and relocation allowance provided. Initial contract is for 2 years thereafter renewable annually by mutual agreement Starting date: 1st Sept 2004 or 1st April 2005. Full CV, cover letter, contact details of 3 referees and list of publications by e-mail, fax or post should be sent by May 29th 2004 to Yuki Halls, Executive Assistant to the President, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, 4-4 Sagamine, Komenoki-cho, Nisshin-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan 470-0193. E-mail: yhalls@nucba.ac.jp Fax: +81 561-75-2430 Website: http://www.nucba.ac.jp/
Speech Language Therapists
Our client is a division of the Ministry of Education who is the largest employer of Speech Language Therapists in New Zealand. Therapists are required for the Group Special Education division and will work in multidisciplinary teams. These teams provide support within an Early Intervention model or within a School Focus model. Other members of the teams include Advisors on Deaf Children, Early Intervention Teachers, Psychologists, Special Education Advisors, Maori Cultural Advisors and paraprofessionals. This environment provides excellent supervision and peer support. Successful applicants will provide assessment, programme planning and interventions for children and young people with speech and language delays and disorders. You will also be working with these children?s families.
Palmerston North will be the main base for this position. This is a vibrant provincial city located in the lower part of the North Island. It has access to mountains on one side and the coast on the other, just an hour?s drive away. It is also home of New Zealand?s largest University, Massey.
Duties for this role will be carried out throughout the central North Island region, so a valid drivers licence is essential.
Applicants for this position must have a degree in Speech Language Therapy, or an equivalent qualification, and be eligible for membership of NZSTA. For further information about these positions, please contact Simon Boyes, including your CV/Resume. Email simon.boyes@healthrecruitment.com , Phone +64 4 499 1885 or fax +64 4 499 1600.
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Second Language Testing: University of Alberta
The English Language Program (ELP) in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta is delighted to host a Postdoctoral Fellow in language testing. The Fellowship will be for 2 years. Reporting to the ELP Director, the candidate will spend approximately 50% of his/her time working with teachers and administrators to develop tests for ELP students. His/her remaining time will involve maintaining close collaboration with one or more academic staff within the Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation (CRAME) in the Faculty of Education, to work on second-language testing research projects. Payment will be negotiated and will include a research allowance. Applicants will be interested to know that the University of Alberta is the best place to work for Postdocs, according to an international survey published in the February 16 issue of The Scientist of Britain, available online with free registration. Send a letter of application and updated CV to me, Robert Berman (address below), by April 30, 2004. Robert Berman, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director English Language Program, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta 8303 112th Street Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2T4 Canada Phone: (780) 492-0142 Fax: (780) 492-1857 E-mail: robert.berman@ualberta.ca (send cc to: rberman9223@yahoo.com ) http://www.extension.ualberta.ca/elp/