Enhancing Excellence and Engagement in the Final year

Project: The CALS Undergraduate Research Awards

Máiréad Moriarty & Helen Kelly-Holmes School of MLAL & CALS

Background

• UL is unique in offering the FYP to all students in all subjects

• Increasing number of students doing FYPs in areas related to CALS research strengths:

1. New Environments for Language Learning 2. Discourse, Society and Identity 3. Plurilingualism and Language Policy

• Many of our undergraduate FYPs are outstanding and involve extensive literature review, the collection of new data, and the development of new knowledge

Objectives

• Showcase excellent undergraduate research • Reward individual performance • Enhance links between research and teaching • Encourage greater engagement for all students in the

FYP process • Demonstrate how the FYP can be relevant to future

work, study etc. • Reframe the FYP as an undergraduate research

project/dissertation; enhance its status • Identify, mentor and train potential future researchers

Project Timeline Week/Semester Activity

Week 12/Autumn Call for entries sent to Faculty, CALS members, Fourth Year Class lists and posted on School and CALS websites

Week 2/Spring Deadline for submission of 300 word abstracts; students had to identify the relevance of the project to one of the research themes in CALS

Week 2/Spring Shortlisting was not required as all 13 entries were relevant with high quality abstracts; these finalists were notified

Week 5/Spring Finalists participated in a poster design workshop, worked on their posters over the next few weeks

Week 13/Spring Poster exhibition and awards held, attended by family and friends as well as Faculty; 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes presented for posters

Autumn Conferring Presentation of overall award based on grade and feedback for FYP

Title Student and programme Sueprvisor 1 The Representation of the Campaign for the Recognition of

Irish Sign Language as a Language Ideological Debate on Facebook and Twitter

Robyn Cunneen,B.A. Applied Languages Ethics reference no: 2015-09-17-AHSS

Dr. Máiréad Moriarty

2 A Complex and Problematic Relationship? Minority Languages and New Media.

Aoife Willis, BA Applied Languages

Prof. Helen Kelly Holmes

3 A corpus based linguistic analysis of male and female dialogue in the game of thrones

Ava Dooley, B.A. Applied Languages Dr. Elaine Vaughan

4 Aspiring multilinguists and the global hegemony of English Hazel Corbett, B.A. Applied Languages Ethics reference no 2015-12-23 AHSS

Prof. Helen Kelly Holmes

5 Self-perception and self-representation in Twitter biographies

Sarah Caulfield, B.A. in Applied Languages Prof. Helen Kelly Holmes

6 “Examining the efficacy of language learning methods relating closely to Instructed Language Acquisition versus Natural Language Acquisition”.

Eimear Murphy, B.A. in Applied Languages Ethics reference no: 2015_09_26_AHSS

Dr. Freda Mishan

7 Popular Young Adult Fiction: Are body image, mental health and sexual identity shaped by society and its traditions?

Caoimhe O’Sullivan , B.A. in Languages, Literature and Film

Dr. Carrie Griffin

8 ’Language & Gender in the Workplace: A Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis of The Apprentice’’

Lorna Brennan, B.A. Applied Languages Dr. Elaine Riordan

9 “Using Corpus Linguistics to explore Language Variation: A corpus-based study of lexical and grammatical features of Quebec French and Standard French and student perceptions.”

Alison Ahern, B.A. in Applied Languages Ethics reference no : 2015_09_19_AHSS

Dr Elaine Riordan

10 “Wir schaffen das”? An analysis of the prevalent discourses found on YouTube in response to Angela Merkel’s Flüchtlingspolitik

Laura Daly , B.A. in Applied Languages Prof. Helen Kelly Holmes

11 A Quantitative Study of Language and Gender in Disney Máiréad Long, BA Applied Languages Dr. Máiréad Moriarty

The Poster Exhibition

A CORPUS-BASED LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF MALE AND FEMALE DIALOGUE IN A GAME OF THRONES

OUTLINE

Why study fictional dialogue?

Why study fictional dialogue?

METHODOLOGY

RESULTS

Male keywords

Word comparisons

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

This study uses corpus analysis to examine the differences between male and female dialogue in A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Samples of spoken dialogue from three male characters and three female characters are made into two separate corpora. The results of the analysis are examined to determine how male and female dialogue compare. The theories of Lakoff (1973) regarding real-life gendered dialogue are also compared to the results.

What is corpus analysis? “the use of computers to rapidly search and analyse databases of real language. These databases are called corpora… and they can comprise any collection of written or transcribed spoken language” (Vaughan and O’Keeffe 2015, p.1)

CALS Annual Research Poster Display

Female … Male references

05

101520

Lakoff, R. (1973) ‘Language and Woman's Place’, Language in Society, 2(1), 45-80. Lowenthal, L. (1961) Literature, Popular Culture, & Society, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Vaughan, E. and O’Keeffe, A. (2015) ‘Corpus Analysis’ in Tracey, K., ed., The International Encyclopaedia of Language and Social Interaction, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1-17.

Based on frequency, there are few major lexical or grammatical differences between the male and female dialogue

Items that are more frequent (e.g. “Please” in the female corpus) are functionally similar in both dialogue corpora

Keyword lists and concordance views revealed more interesting perspectives on the detail of the dialogue → a focus on male characters

In both corpora, there is more reference to men and male characters than there is to women and female characters

Male…

Female corpus

No. of words

Male corpus

No. of words

Catelyn 1,012 Eddard 1,051 Daenerys 1,043 Jon 1,141 Sansa 1,093 Tyrion 1,023 Total 3,148 3,215

Two corpora:

Two reference corpora: Spoken and written frequency lists – British National Corpus

Corpus analysis software: AntConc

Researcher: Ava Dooley, B.A. in Applied Languages Supervisor: Dr. Elaine Vaughan

4. FINDINGS

Hedges, minimal responses, ‘sorry’ &

polite forms = more salient in womens speech.

Bill (boss), dominated the parole. Men interrupt women more than women

interrupt men. However, 2 females in final. Further Research- Did winner, Michelle,

adapt linguistic features typically associated with males? Gender Performance?

2. RESEARCH AIMS

Overarching aim= Analyse the

differences / similarities in male & female linguistic patterns in boardroom scenes.

Analyse linguistic items such as hedges, polite forms, ‘sorry’ and minimal responses in terms of gender and power.

Assess turn-taking and parole dominance

Examine overlaps and interruptions

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3. METHODOLOGY

Transcription of 8 boardroom scenes

in accordance with the L-CIE Specialised spoken corpus of 35,880

words. Amalgamation of quantitative and

quantitative research Corpus-based dicourse analysis Antconc, Wordsmith Tools Wordlist tool

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LANGUAGE AND GENDER IN THE WORKPLACE:

A CORPUS BASED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

OF THE APPRENTICE IRELAND

1. BACKGROUND

History of gender inequality in the

workplace Women = use more hedges, apologise

more, more polite. Deficit Model, Dominance Model, Two-

Cultures Model, Gender Performance Model.

The Apprentice= Reality TV series 16 candidates: 8 males, 8 females Each week = boardroom meeting, 1

candidate =fired

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Lorna Brennan, 12149454, Applied Languages, University of Limerick Acknowledgements: Supervisor Dr Elaine Riordan

Aspiring Multilinguists and The Global Hegemony of English

Student: Hazel Corbett BA Applied Languages Supervisor: Dr. Helen Kelly-Holmes (Ref: 2015-12-23-AHSS).

The aim of this project is to investigate the vastly growing phenomenon of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and the problems it poses for native English speakers who want to learn other languages. Native English speakers who aim to acquire one or more foreign languages are constantly faced with barriers to language acquisition but the one that is deemed most problematic is their native language. There is a fine line between being linguistically “privileged or cursed” (2010). The growing reach of globalisation is for now, inexorable and as a result the dominance of English is a phenomenon that is predicted to stay for the foreseeable future. Burns and Coffin (2001) predict, no other language will replace English as the global lingua franca in the next fifty years.

• Survey consisting of eight open ended questions (Ref: 2015-12-23-AHSS) • Circulated via two private Facebook groups in January 2016 • Applied Languages students studying at the University of Limerick • All between the ages of 19 and 23, native English speakers and residing in Ireland. • “purposefully selected” (Creswell 2009) • either their third or final year of their degree in Applied Languages, all completed mandatory Erasmus placement in a

non-native English speaking country research. • all students of languages

The survey responses were categorised into three main areas, triumphalism, instrumentalism and multiculturalism. The discourse of triumphalism explicitly casts the global hegemony of English as an affirmation of the power hierarchy of the core English speaking countries. It is seen as inevitable and natural. Instrumentalism is concerned with learning a foreign language in order to better one’s socio-economic position. Finally, the discourse of multiculturalism highlights the apparent cultural, intellectual and cognitive benefits of learning a foreign language (Demont-Heinrich 2010). The responses were examined in relation to the main intertwining research domains, namely, globalisation, ELF and language policing and some answers of significant interest will be studied.

Demont-Heinrich ‘s (2010) findings showed that the native English speakers in his study opined that it was not necessary for them to learn a foreign language which also was a common finding in this research project. However, contrary to Demont-Heinrich’s research findings, the results from this research project show that native English speakers who want to learn languages are negatively affected by the global hegemony of English.

“I found a lot of my French colleagues wanted to speak English with me to improve their own language skills”

“Being a native English speaker is a huge barrier as it is often the

easiest language for everyone to communicate in”

“English is so commonly spoken that it is not a necessity to speak a

foreign language”

“many students want to practice their English and will reply in

English of you speak their language”

“English makes it harder to not only practice a foreign language but also find the motivation to learn one”

“People are also very persevering when speaking to you in English, even when you

ask them to speak in their native tongue”

“English can be used by default as it's a lingua franca

so people assume you will have at least some knowledge

of it.”

The findings of this research project were compared and contrasted with those of Demont Heinrich and subsequent findings became apparent. However an unexpected tendency to name oneself as a barrier emerged. There were six instances where the respondents either entirely or partly blamed their own personality for not developing their language skills whilst abroad. Contrary to the aforementioned triumphalism discourse throughout the survey responses there were instances from participants that refuted this. An example of this was that native English speakers should learn a foreign as English will not remain as dominant as it is now. The results show that participants felt that they were constantly steered, sometimes insistently, towards speaking English whether they wanted to or not.

Name of Evaluator/s

Name of Presenter

Guideline questions Marks out of 5

The student has shown a high level of competence in their area of study

The student has developed a capacity for critical thinking

The student has actively engaged in data and research

The student shows strong levels of creativity and innovation

The student clearly recognises the local and global impact of their actions and decisions

The student is making contributions to society and the wider community

The student is capable of articulating his/her message to non-experts

The student has communicated clearly, effectively and professionally

Total /40

Reviewer’s Comments

Sarah Caulfield, Overall Winner of the CALS Undergraduate Research Award 2016

Reflections and future plans

• Some students decided not to take part in the poster competition (week 13!) – think about timing?

• Possibility of digital display/archive? • Feedback from finalists to see how to improve

/ change process • Roll out nationally? Open to all CALS members

outside UL.