Supervisor: Carmel O’Shannessy

https://little-kids-learning-languages.net/

This project is an ARC Future Fellowship project ‘Tracking language development of Indigenous children in Central Australia’. In collaboration with Indigenous researchers, it aims to identify the language development paths of Indigenous children in Central Australia by examining the spoken language, sign and gesture of children’s early interactions.

We are looking for a self-motivated, enthusiastic person with interests in one of several areas of linguistics and language-in-interaction.

Tasks may include:

• Detailed transcription and coding of varieties of English
• Identification and coding of manual actions (e.g. gestures, hand movements) in recordings of English, Arrernte and/or Warlpiri
• Construction of databases and/or automation of workflows for different aspects of the project
• Preparation and/or phonetic analysis of naturalistic speech data.

This project would suit students with skills in linguistics, with a special interest in any of the following: language variation, phonetics, programming/coding, multimodal interaction, Australian languages. It may suit an Indigenous student with a connection to varieties of Aboriginal English, Arrernte or Warlpiri.