LINGLINE is a departmental newsletter specific to the interests and concerns of postgraduate students and staff within the Linguistics Department of Macquarie University. LINGLINE aims to help students and staff feel that they are in touch with the Department and its news, as well as with one another, whether one is currently in Sydney or elsewhere in Australia, New Zealand or any of 25 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. LINGLINE welcomes contributions from all students and staff in the Linguistics Department. Please submit notices by email to the editor Tessa Green tessa.green@ling.mq.edu.au Any ideas or comments re this newsletter will also be gratefully received and can be directed by email to this site.
Support victims of the Chinese Earthquake
Macquarie Sub-Association of the NSW Chinese Students and Scholars Association have written below to express their sincere thanks for all those who helped with fundraising initiatives or donated funds in the wake of the recent earthquake that hit the Sichuan area. The disaster has deeply affected so many and requires more financial help. If you can help, then please support these students and scholars in their fundraising.
We say THANK YOU for your help. “Support China’s Sichuan” Fundraising @MQ
The 8.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Wenchuan in Sichuan province on May 12 has so far killed more than 68,900 and left tens of thousands missing. It is one of the most devastating natural disasters witnessed in modern time.
Even though we were thousands of miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake, we were shocked and stunned. As a quick response, the members of MQ University also took action at no time to do its bit. A charitable fundraising activity including money donation and a charity sale was organized by the Macquarie Sub-Association of the NSW Chinese Students and Scholars Association (NSW-CSSA). We have spared no efforts helping rescue the people in the rubble.
The event has won full support from Macquarie University and the Chinese Consulate General in Sydney. It is on from Monday, 19/05/08 to Wednesday, 21/05/08 in front of the U@MQ shop. All members at Macquarie University have taken an active part in the activities. Up to the end of the event, the amount of AUD 47,938.8 and RMB 6,836.8 has been raised (A copy of the receipt attached). All the money has been donated to the China Education Development Fund through the Education Office, Chinese Consulate in Sydney for the rebuilding of the local schools in Sichuang affected areas.
Here, on behalf of those kids who will be able to go back to school with your help, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all members at Macquarie University, no matter where you come from, no matter what mother tongue you speak. Our special appreciation also goes to all volunteers who have devoted their precious time (when the finals are about to come) to the organization of all the activities. Without you, the event would not be possible. In particular, a “thanks, mate” to all international friends who bear the same sympathies to the people in Sichuan, China.
Catastrophes like this have helped us understand what really matters to our lives, to our nature, to our world, when we are confronted with the magnitude of effects, both public and personal. Our love in giving will not, and shall not cease after today. We thank you for your continuously support. You can make your future donation to “China Education Development Foundation” (Banker Name), No: 01770308091014 at Bank Of China Head Office Banking Department, or to the Australian Red Cross through secured website at https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp, or free call 1800 811 700 from anywhere within Australia, or Send a cheque or money order to: GPO Box 2957 Melbourne VIC 8060. Please indicate the donation is to the China Sichuan Earthquake Appeal 2008.
From Macquarie Sub-Association of the NSW Chinese Students and Scholars Association (1.6.08)
Congratulations
Young Professional of the Year
Professions Australia (The Australian Council of Professions) has just conferred one of its highest awards to our very own Dr. Catherine McMahon. Catherine has been named as the 2008 Young Professional of the Year! Linguistics staff and students wish to send their congratulations to Catherine for this excellent achievement! The Audiological Society of Australia nominated Catherine due to her commitment and achievements in the field of audiology. A press release about Catherine’s award and her dedication to her profession is available HERE. For more information about Professions Australia (and the award itself) you can also go to http://www.professions.com.au/thecouncil.htmlCongratulations also go to:
- Sue Spinks who was successful in being awarded a grant from the Carrick funded project: 2008 Leadership and Assessment: Strengthening the Nexus Fund. The project is: “Increasing the diversity and authenticity of assessment tasks across undergraduate programs in the Department of Linguistics.”
- Dr Jemina Napier and Andy Carmichael for the recent birth of their baby girl, Tilda.
- Dr Catherine McMahon and Hiranya Loder on their respective upcoming weddings.
From the Linguistics Postgraduate Office
Welcome
Staff in the Linguistics Department warmly welcome Thi Thi Aung who replaces Pat Lewis in the Linguistics Postgraduate Office.
Thi Thi has worked at a variety of administrative roles at several tertiary education institutions including Macquarie University's Higher Degree Research Office. Her experience adds further depth to the assistance provided to students and staff in the Linguistics Postgraduate Office.
The Linguistics & Psychology Postgraduate Research Festival (December 8-9, 2008)
The Research Festival is held every year in December. The main aim of the festival is to provide a forum for new researchers within the Division to share their work in a supportive environment and to obtain constructive feedback from peers and established experts in their field. In so doing it highlights the large and diverse body of research going on within Linguistics and Psychology at Macquarie. All candidates are required to present, either in person (on campus students) or via ePresentation (external students).
The core of the Festival is students giving 15-minute oral presentations on their research work followed by five minutes of questions from the floor. This format provides a great opportunity to develop presentation skills and receive invaluable on-the-spot feedback.
The Festival has proven to be a unique social occasion with time for students and staff to network and chat in a friendly and relaxed setting. Besides the core component of student presentations and ePresentations, the Festival program comprises other events such as addresses by invited speakers, discussion panels and lots of good food and drink.
The 2007 Festival was a great success with around 200 higher degree students from as far afield as Mexico & Hong Kong showcasing their research.
The Festival organising committee is largely made up of students and supported by administrative and academic staff from the Division. We are seeking expressions of interest from current research candidates who would like to join the committee. Ideally, we would like representatives from all Departments and Centres in the Division (Linguistics, Psychology, CISAB, NCELTR and MACCS) on the committee so that each department’s suggestions and concerns can be raised (this is especially helpful when it comes to programming). Participation as a committee member gives valuable experience in event organisation, insight into the workings of the Division and the University, and the opportunity to network with people you might not otherwise come into contact with. We are also seeking to fill the positions of Chair and Co-Chair - ideally candidates for these positions would be at least in their second year of candidature and have already experienced the research festival firsthand.
Planning meetings will be held throughout the year, monthly to begin with and more frequently as the Festival draws closer. All kinds of different skills are needed, so please consider volunteering in whatever way you can. Active committee members can choose not to present at the Festival as a special concession for helping to organise it.
If you would like to help but are unable to join the committee, please consider being a volunteer during the Festival. More information about volunteering will be available later in the year.
You can also visit the Festival website for information throughout the year http://www.lp.mq.edu.au/festival/index.htm
Please contact robyn.guilmette@ling.mq.edu.au to register your interest in joining this committee.
Linguistics Research Seminars
The Linguistics Research Seminar Series for 2008 is held in the Seminar Room W5C221 from 11 am to 12 pm. Upcoming seminars include:
- Aug 11 - Dr Kimie Takahashi
- Aug 25 - Dr Agnes Terraschke
For further information please go to http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/research/researchseminars.htm
Linguistics research seminars now available for download
We are pleased to announce that some of the 2008 Linguistics Seminar Series are now available for download. Where possible and with permission of the presenters, we will audio podcast the seminars so that students who are unable to attend may access online. If you need login details, please contact Robyn Guilmette robyn.guilmette@ling.mq.edu.au
Upcoming seminars
The following seminar to be held at UTS may be of interest to those linguists with a particular interest in plagiarism in the academy. It will be given by Malcolm Coulthard, Professor of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham.
The Linguist as Detective and Expert Witness
Linguists are ever more frequently being asked to help the police and the courts when there is a dispute over the authorship of a written text - suicide note, abusive or threatening letter, email or text message and even research questionnaire! In this lecture I will outline the underlying concepts linguists use to approach such data and illustrate using examples from real cases including the recent trial of David Hodgson for murder http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/search/display.var.2061834.0.snared_by_texts_ meant_to_throw_police_off_scent.phpOne area of disputed authorship which interests academics is Plagiarism and I will outline the linguistic principles underlying the Copycatch detection program, now being used by the British Universities and Colleges Application Service to check all personal statements. I will illustrate this section with extracts from UG student essays and UCAS personal statements. While most forensic linguists enjoy being detectives, they find acting as expert witnesses in Court a very stressful and usually frustrating experience. I will give a linguistic explanation for this and at the same time illustrate how it is possible to present linguistic evidence clearly to a jury if one is allowed to do so.
Malcolm Coulthard is best known for his work on the analysis of Spoken and Written Discourse and his /An Introduction to Discourse Analysis/ (1977/1985) is still widely used. Recently he has become increasingly involved in the area of Forensic Linguistics. He is the founding editor of Forensic Linguistics: the International Journal of Language and the Law and was the Founding President of the International Association of Forensic Linguists. He has been commissioned to write reports as an expert witness in over 150 cases and has given evidence in three terrorist trials in Northern Ireland and in a case of academic plagiarism in Hong Kong. He has appeared as an expert twice in the Court of Appeal, including the successful Derek Bentley Appeal when, in 1998, the verdict of guilty was overturned after 46 years. Malcolm’s website is: http://www.forensiclinguistics.net/cfl_staff.html
The seminar will be held from 4.00 - 5.30 pm, Monday 23 June 2008 in Room 456, Level 5, Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney, 235 Jones St Ultimo, 2007.
The Interpreting and Translation College Research Node in the College of Arts at the University of Western Sydney will be hosting a free seminar by A/Prof. Sandra Hale entitled:
What do the interpreters’ codes of ethics really mean? An empirical analysis of codes of ethics from around the world.
This will be followed by the launch of A/Prof. Hale’s new book Community Interpreting published by Palgrave Macmillan, and presented by the series editor, Professor Christopher Candlin (Macquarie University).
Date: Thursday, 5 June 2008
Venue: Building 23, Room BA-23.41 (Conference Room 2) UWS, Bankstown campus, 2 Bullecourt Avenue, Milperra
Time: 6.00 - 8.00pm (refreshments provided also)
Lingfest 2008 – Call for student volunteers
Lingfest is a series of five linguistics conferences and a winter school to be held 30 June - 11 July 2008 at the University of Sydney, Australia. Information on these events is available at: www.lingfest.arts.usyd.edu.au
Lingfest 2008 is currently seeking volunteers to assist with the events. For students who are interested in attending any of these events and wish to volunteer in lieu of registration costs, the hours of volunteer work required to attend each event are set out below:
Event
ALAA 14 hours,
ALI 20 hours,
ILI 10 hours,
ALS 7 hours,
AFLA 4 hours,
LFG 4 hours.
If you are interested in volunteering, send an email to Andrew Yip at: andrew_yip@optusnet.com.au In the email please provide your name, email address and contact telephone number. Volunteer work includes duties such as the following:
• Staffing of registration desks
• Provision of technical support
• Assisting with conference setup
• Assisting with the organization of social events
Along with free registration, volunteers will receive a Lingfest 2008 t-shirt and a certificate of participation.
Introductory and advanced course in SFL
Students and staff in linguistics may be interested in doing advanced-level courses in sfl, or an introduction to sfl course. Which is offered at the Systemic-functional linguistics (SFL) institute which will be held at Macquarie University in July, preceding the major congress. For further details go to: Click Here. The website for the congress can also be found at http://www.asfla.org.au/isfc08/
From Audiology
Audiology Australia XVIIIth National Conference 2008. Held: 20th -23rd May 2008 - National Convention Centre, Canberra.
The Audiology section and some of its second year students attended the Audiology Australia National Conference which is held every two years. Two successful workshops were run by Catherine McMahon and Mridula Sharma on Clinical Education and Auditory Processing Disorders, respectively. Shannon Wang and Louise Collingridge also presented findings and work contributing to their PhDs. The conference was a great opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and students. It was rewarding to see how successful and happy many of our Macquarie University’s graduates are in the profession.
Farewell to Andrew Myles
The Department of Linguistics and particularly the Audiology section, sadly farewell Andrew Myles – a clinical educator in the Audiology Clinic. Andrew has been working in the Audiology clinic for the past 5 years, with much loyalty and dedication to both his clients and students. His interest in the Deaf community, experience as a youth ambassador in Fiji and his recent NAATI accreditation as a Sign Language Interpreter have been an asset to the section. Andrew is now working part-time in Audiology and part-time as an Auslan interpreter. We wish him the best of luck and success. He will be sadly missed by all those who worked with him closely.
From the Applied Linguistics and Language in Education (ALLE) Research Group
ALLE Events for staff and student members and visitors interested in applied linguistics are held regularly. Each Event is recorded and powerpoint presentations are included where possible. They are available for downloading on the ALLE website. For details of recent Events go to: http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/centres/alle/events.htm
Information about ALLE members, their research interests and recent publications are also on the ALLE website. If you are a Macquarie research student working in the ALLE area and would like to become a student member of ALLE please contact Anne Burns at anne.burns@ling.mq.edu.au
Innovative new programs at Macquarie in Professional & Organisational Communication
Probably no other program in Communication Studies in the world is attracting such high‐level participants, coming from all sectors of the Australian and international community and including professionals, managers and consultants of all kinds. To read more, go to: Click Here
New Writing Unit: LING 939 : Writing in Professions & Organisations
In Semester 2 2008 Dr Alan Jones and Professor Christopher Candlin will be delivering a new 4 credit-point unit for the first time, in trialling mode.
The aim of this new unit from linguistics is to ground the development of writing expertise in a thorough knowledge of the social, psychological and discursive processes involved in writing in professions and organisations & a range of modes. It will be available to ALL students in the Master of Applied Linguistics Program, to all other HDR students in Linguistics and students from other University department disciplines by arrangement with the course convener. In Semester 2 2008 it will only be available in on-campus mode. But from Semester 1 2009, it will be available both on-campus and in distance mode.
In this unit you will
- explore the inner world of the writer
- analyse structures and strategies used by successful writers
- learn to identify constraints & opportunities that shape the writing enterprise
Key Themes
- Writing as technology, as art; writing to learn; writing as reflection; writing to persuade; writing to understand; writing apprehension …
- Exploring subject position and authorial stance: constructing an ‘audience’ through writing
- Writing as process: multiple "problem spaces" in writing; relating "content" and language/discourse; recursive nature of writing
- Genres and discourses in writing – constraints and affordances in different institutional sites
- Developing themes in writing; lexical, semantic and pragmatic chains; lexical domains; collocation and priming
- Information structure in writing: Given versus New information; the Focus of the New; shared knowledge; knowledge of field; knowledge of setting
- Writers guiding readers: the role of metadiscourse in the writer-reader relationship; developing and projecting your “voice”
- Issues of complexity and clarity; Plain English and the organization; links between grammar and vocabulary; generality, abstraction and nominalization; functions of metaphor in writing.
- Writing to persuade/convince; composition studies; the rhetorical tradition
- Writing and expertise in professions and organizations: experts who write; developing expertise through writing
- Critical approaches to writing in professions and organisations; ideological undercurrents; power and authority
- Evaluating writing in organizational contexts: critical reviews and ‘critical analysis’: coping with criticism – types of writing apprehension
These themes will be addressed in weekly Seminars linked to Readings, Course Notes, Sample Texts and Analytical Tasks. In on-campus mode there will be one 2-hour meeting per week for 13 weeks. For Assignments, students can choose from a range of Readings and Tasks relevant to their own professional and organisational contexts and their own interests, and can select texts for analysis and evaluation from these same contexts and fields of interest. To register for credit, contact: Linguistics Postgraduate Office lingdl@ling.mq.edu.au For those wishing to add it as a credit-bearing unit in their own discipline-specific programs, or for further information, please contact the convener of LING 939: Dr Alan Jones: ajones@ling.mq.edu.au
Linguistics in the media
Trainers in pyjamas
This interesting article which features two Macquarie linguists – A/Prof David Hall and John Knox recently appeared in the Guardian Weekly on 22 May. The article looks at on what is involved in distance teaching/learning. It is based on research that they reported on at IATEFL in Exeter in April. In part, the article reads:
Two key factors have fuelled the growth of LTED: the steady increase in demand for English language skills and the revolution in online communication that has provided faster and cheaper ways to deliver training. According to Hall and Knox, research carried out in the early 1990s revealed that there were just 23 providers of LTED globally, but by 2007, when the pair concluded their survey there were more than 120 providers with enrolments possibly in the tens of thousands.
To read the full article, entitled "Trainers in pyjamas", go to http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=594&catID=18
Appearing in Google news, the following article from a Pakistani English-language paper: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=115278 on 28/5/2009 written by Rawalpindi.
Seminar on discourse analysis held at FJWU
Prominent Professor of Linguistics, Dr Ruqaiya Hasan, has talked about discourse analysis in a seminar held here at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) Tuesday. The university's Department of English has arranged the seminar in collaboration with Learning Innovation Division of the Higher Education Commission at the university. Dr Hasan spoke on key issues regarding 'Discourse Analysis: Meaning in Context' and discussed the effects of context in terms of field, tenor and mode, and how language is interpreted by an individual in the field of discourse analysis. A total of 40 participants comprising faculty members from different degree awarding colleges and universities of Islamabad along with students of the host university attended the seminar.
Dr Hasan is a professor of Linguistics at Macquarie University, New South Wales, and her book 'Cohesion in English' with Halliday is one of the seminal works in linguistics. She has written 14 books and scores of articles mostly published in well-known journals in the field of linguistics.
Linguistics Phd Student Jennifer Eagleton writes to share a few linguistics related stories she found. This in a Guardian blog:
Formula for perfect voice revealed
A study conducted by linguistics Professor Andrew Linn from Sheffield University, and sound engineer Shannon Harris, keyboard player for Rod Stewart and Lily Allen have worked out a formula for the “perfect female and male voice”. According to research for Post Office Telecoms, a combination of Mariella Frostrup, Dame Judi Dench and Honor Blackman make up the perfect female voice. The most appealing male voices are Alan Rickman, Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon. The formula represents a subtle blend of tone, speed, frequency, words per minute and intonation that make up the perfect voice. Experiments revealed that vocal traits associated with positive characteristics, such as confidence and trust scored higher. Analysing the highest scoring voices, sound engineers and academics hatched a mathematical conclusion on elements that the ideal voice should contain. The ideal voice should utter no more than 164 words per minute (wpm) and pause for 0.48 seconds between sentences that fall in intonation, researchers found.
To read more and listen to sound clips you can go to: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2008/05/a_formula_for_the_perfect_voic.html
Jennifer also summarises the following two stories for us. This one reported in The South China Morning Post - http://www.scmp.com
Watch those “pull-out” quotes
European Union regulations will criminalize producers and publicists who misrepresent quotations with quotes from reviews that are taken out of context in a long-established practice in the theatre industry. The EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive states in Article six: A commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading if it contains false information…likely to deceive the average consumer”. Prosecution would have to prove that audiences were misled by this practice (which is known as “contextomy”).
This story featured in the Texarkana Gazette:
BU researchers developing sign language video dictionary
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/WireHeadlines/2008/05/29/bu-researchers-developing-sign-language--20.phpThere are print and video ASL dictionaries, but one needs to know the meaning of the word to look up the sign. Researchers from Boston University, working with a 3-year, $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, are in the early stages of the project, capturing thousands of ASL words on video. The goal is to develop a lexicon of more than 3,000 signs. Researchers will go through hundreds of words alphabetically in English. A native ASL speaker will sign them for four cameras, three in front and one on the right. Two cameras shoot close-ups from different angles, and one will take a wider shot. The goal is to develop a multimedia ASL dictionary to help parents better communicate with deaf children and to help sign language students.
If other LINGLINE readers wish to share their ideas and stories, or have something to advertise, please email the editor tessa.green@ling.mq.edu.au
Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards
The Division of Linguistics and Psychology International Visiting Research Fellowships are offered to researchers of high standing at any stage in their career to share and disseminate new and original ideas and/or techniques, initiate and undertake collaborative research and facilitate interaction and training of University staff and students. Applicants and their Division of Linguistics and Psychology host researcher must have outstanding track records relative to opportunity. Visits must be for a minimum of three weeks. Closing date: July 4th 2008. Funding Rules and Application form available: http://www.lp.mq.edu.au/research/index.htm
Christopher Brumfit PhD / Ed.D. Thesis Award 2008
Research students may be interested in applying for this award which is sponsored by Cambridge University Press and promoted by Language Teaching. The award aims to recognize doctoral thesis research that makes a significant and original contribution to the field of SLA and/or FL teaching and learning. Award winners will receive Cambridge University Press books to the value of £500. For more information go to http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displaySpecialPage?pageId=664 Contact details for application and further information: Dr Graeme Porte, Editor Language Teaching, E-mail: gporte@gmail.com
Applications for 2009 Fulbright Symposium Now Open
The Australian-American Fulbright Commission annually offers a grant of $A30,000 to a university, group, or individual to host what is recognised as the Fulbright Symposium. The Symposium focuses on a topic of current bi-national interest between Australia and the United States and engages leading speakers from both countries.
The grant is awarded following a national competition with proposals assessed on criteria including a topic of bi-national significance, defined outcomes and benefits, and the wider professional and institutional interest and support. The Symposium must be held between 1 March and 1 October, 2009.
Applications forms for the 2009 Fulbright Symposium, further information and details of previous Symposiums are available at http://www.fulbright.com.au/
Closing date for applications is 31 July, 2008. Selection will take place in late August.
From the Macquarie University Research Office
For the latest news, go to: http://www.research.mq.edu.au/researcher and click on the news icon.
Writing website for postgraduate students
Linguistics postgraduate students can access LINGPWS The Linguistics Postgraduate Writing-Skills website. This is a resource designed to assist Linguistics students with academic writing. The Unit Content section for the website has six parts:
Part 1. Approaching the
Assignment Question
Part 2. Planning Your Assignment
Part 3. Structuring Your Assignment
Part 4. Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism
Part 5. Critical Review Writing
Part 6. Common Questions about Linguistics Assignments
All Linguistics students enrolled in a postgraduate unit (on-campus, external) can access the site by using their MQ ID and password which every student is given at enrolment. To logon to the website please go to: http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/support/writing_skills/online.htm
For further enquiries about the Writing Skills Website, contact Tessa Green tessa.green@ling.mq.edu.au
From the Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association (MUPRA)
As you may be aware the Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association (MUPRA) makes available a newsletter to all postgraduate students on campus. The content is is a mixture of campus events and information, however anything off campus is also considered (such as lectures or policy changes etc.). We would like to extend an invitation for input. If you would like to contribute, please email Kate.Boyce@po.mq.edu.au. For the latest news, please go to: http://www.mq.edu.au/mupra
New e-journals
DISCOURS is an international, interdisciplinary e-journal, publishing twice yearly non-thematic issues and occasional special issues. The journal focuses on the following topics: discourse structure, cohesion, co-reference, linearization, indexation, information structure, word order, segmentation markers, integration markers, discourse relations and the cognitive processes involved in discourse comprehension and production. DISCOURS can be read in full on the portal Revues.org in the section "Cahiers" (http://www.revues.org). Submissions can be made at discours@revues.org
English Language Teacher Education and Development (ELTED) - ISSN 1365-3741 - is an annual peer-reviewed journal for the worldwide ELT community which is produced by the English Language Teacher Education and Development Research Group of the Centre for Applied Linguistics (formerly, CELTE), University of Warwick. It seeks to provide a medium for the exchange of ideas and information on issues pertaining to English language teacher education and development. The journal is targeted at all those involved in English language teacher education and development worldwide, for whom, at present, there are few published journals dealing specifically with this interest area. Recently we have made all back issues, and the current issue, available for free on the following website: www.elted.net Contributions to the journal on any aspect of English language teacher education and development, in the form of articles, reports, work-in-progress and letters or comments on previously published articles are always welcome. Please see the 'Information for contributors' section within the website. Contact Richard Smith R.C.Smith@warwick.ac.uk for further information.
Upcoming conferences, symposia and workshops
Australian Linguistics Society (ALS) Conference 2-4 July (to be held at University of Sydney as part of LINGFEST)
The theme of this year's ALS conference is "Southern Hemisphere Englishes", with plenary talks on Aboriginal English (Dr Diana Eades, UNE), Migrant English in Australia (Professor Ingrid Piller, MU) and New Zealand English phonology (Dr Jennifer Hay, University of Canterbury). Other varieties, registers and styles of English will be discussed in the presentations scheduled for the three days of the conference, as well as languages other than English, mostly within the Pacific region. Three specialised workshops will be held on 4 July, focusing on second language acquisition, conversation analysis and Japanese linguistics. There will also be book launches, a conference dinner in Newtown, and a special meeting of those interested in developing a national corpus of Australian English.
For more details, Click Here.
ISFC 2008, 21-26 July, 2008, to be held at Macquarie University, Australia.
For more information go to http://www.isfla.org/conferences/35th_ISFC_Call_for_Papers.pdf It also contains information about the pre-ISFC Institute, 14-19 July, 2008, which will be held at the University of New South Wales. The congress website is http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/isfc/index.html
The committee for the 35th International Systemic Functional Congress would also like to advise that refereed conference proceedings will be published for ISFC35. Go to http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/isfc/index.html for a style guide, template and important dates.
School of Languages & Cultures, School of Letters, Art, and Media, NSW Adult Migrant English Service are sponsoring LingFest ‘08, Linguistics in Sydney. Second Language Acquisition and pedagogy: bio-social approaches. A colloquium of the Australian Linguistics Society Conference
To be held on Friday July 4 2008, 10:00 – 1:30 in the Woolley Lecture Theatre N395, University of Sydney.
- Rod Ellis - Corrective feedback
- Gillian Wigglesworth - Pair interactions and mode of communication: Comparing face-to-face and Computer mediated communication
- Jennifer Philp – Focus on form in French classroom SLA
- Geoff Brindley– SLA and assessment
For further information contact: Bronwen Dyson bronwen.dyson@usyd.edu.au
New Publications
From Equinox Publishing Ltd - http://www.equinoxpub.com/
Continuing Discourse on Language: A functional perspective. (2008) Hasan, R., Matthiessen, C.M.I.M., & Webster, J. (Eds). Book URL: http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=88
'Continuing Discourse on Language' is published as a two volume set and offers the reader a selective account of the evolution of important aspects of M.A.K Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) over the last couple of decades. The range of topics covered includes not only certain fundamental concepts at the level of theory but also a account of the wide range of applications enabled by the descriptive framework that the theory has generated. Given its acclaimed perspective on language as social semiotic, SFL has always located semiotic activity in relation to human life: in the chapters of this book internationally recognised authors attempt to show the ways in which SFL relates to recent research on cognition, on socio-cultural contexts, and in computational linguistics. A theory is only as good as the description and application it enables: conceptualising the relations of theory and practice as a dialectic, SFL has created a framework for the analysis of language from the level of cultural context to that of the media for semiotic expressions.
'Continuing Discourse on Language' gives the reader an insight into the continuing evolution of the impressive range of frames of description and their applications: from typology to multi-modality, from models of discourse analysis to translation and stylistics, from the role of language in knowledge construal to language education, genre based pedagogy and web based learning, this collection provides a rich resource for students and researchers in language study.
From Routledge (Taylor and Francis) - http://www.routledge.com/
Montgomery, Martin. (2008). An Introduction to Language and Society. Book URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/An-Introduction-to-Language-and-Society-isbn9780415382748
In this new edition of the bestselling classic textbook, Martin Montgomery explores the key connections between language and social life. Guiding the student through discussions on child language, accent and dialect, social class and gender, as well as a number of other topics, Montgomery provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the function of language in modern society. This new edition includes:
- new sections on dialect levelling and estuary English; hip-hop and rapping as anti-language and 'crossing' between Creole, Panjabi and South Asian English
- new material on the Gulf war and the 'War on Terror'
- discussions on language in Internet usage and new technologies
- updated examples and references.
With detailed suggestions for further reading and practical work for each chapter, An Introduction to Language and Society is the ideal resource for students and teachers of Communication Studies and Language Studies.
Positions Vacant
Assistant Professor in First Nations language education - Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
The position is on a tenure-track and offers a lot of scope for research and collaboration with First Nations communities. Further details are available at: http://www.lled.educ.ubc.ca/firstnations.pdf If you are interested, please contact Geoff Williams, Professor and Head, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4. Ph: 604-827-5785 (Head's line), Fx: 604-822-3154. Email geoff.williams@UBC.CA
TEFL positions available – English Language Institute of Kanda University of International Studies
The English Language Institute of Kanda University of International Studies http://www.kuis.ac.jp/eli/ has openings for suitably qualified teachers of English as a foreign language. These lecturer positions are for a two-year period commencing April 2009. There may be an option to renew the contract for a further two years. The closing date for applications is September 1st, 2008.
Lingline can be accessed via the "News" link on the Linguistics Department website at:
All items for inclusion to be submitted by email to the editor Tessa Green: Enquiries by phone: (02) 9850-6875 This is not an official publication of Macquarie University. While every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information included in this newsletter, no responsibility is assumed for same. |