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Code-switching and executive functions in German-English bilinguals

This placement involves transcription and coding of German-English code-switching data and addresses the relationship between code-switching and executive functions

Department: Clinical Language Sciences

Supervised by: Professor Theo Marinis

The Placement Project

This is a research placement within the field of bilingualism in adults. Bilinguals often code-switch between languages when they speak with other bilinguals who use the same languages. Research has shown that code switching is not random; instead bilinguals use a variety of different types of code switching behaviour, for example, alternating between two languages, inserting a word from one language into a sentence in another language, and dense code switching. The code switching types bilinguals use depend on a variety of factors. This placement investigates code switching in German-English bilinguals and is part of Julia Hofweber’s PhD project. The PhD project addresses the relationship between code switching and executive functions using a variety of code-switching and executive function tasks. One of the code-switching tasks is a sentence repetition task that was administered to German-English bilinguals. Participants had to repeat pre-recorded sentences that included instances of different types of German-English code-switching in order to find out how accurate bilinguals are in the repetition of different types of code-switching. High/low accuracy would indicate preference/avoidance of the specific code-switching type. The PhD project is in its final stage. The only task that needs to be analysed is the sentence repetition task. The student will transcribe the sentence repetition task data and analyse the data for accuracy and error types. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses will be conducted to assess differences between the code-switching types and correlations between the results from the sentence repetition task and the executive function tasks that have already been analysed.

Tasks

This research project explores the relationship between code-switching in German-English adult bilinguals and executive functions. To address this issue, several code-switching and executive function tasks have been conducted as part of a PhD project. The student will analyse a portion of the code-switching data that were generated using a sentence repetition task. The student will listen to audio files using Audacity and will transcribe the data in excel (weeks 1 - 3). After the transcription is completed, the student will analyse the data for accuracy using excel formulas (weeks 4-5). Descriptive and basic inferential statistical analyses will be conducted to assess differences between code-switching types and correlations between participants’ performance at the sentence repetition task and their performance on executive function tasks (week 6). This position will be based at the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. The student will gain key linguistic research skills, such as real-time speech transcription. Moreover, they will get hands-on experience using the audio software (Audacity) to achieve the research goals. They will gain experience using excel to transcribe the data and different excel functions, like filters, formulas, and pivot tables to analyse the data. They will also gain basic insight in using the SPSS statistical software as a tool for conducting descriptive and inferential statistics. More generally, assisting on this project will enhance their team working, communication and time management skills. Project results will be summarised in a conference poster. This will train the research student’s ability to summarise the key findings of a complex project and present them to a lay audience using a clear and coherent layout. The results are likely to lead to a research publication together with data from other tasks. The student will be included in this publication as a co-author.

Skills, knowledge and experience required

Essential: As the project involves working with bilingual German-English data, it is essential that the student speaks both German and English. Furthermore, the student needs to have good communication and time management skills and be able to work collaboratively in a team. Desirable: A knowledge of basic linguistic concepts, experience with excel and SPSS are desirable, as is previous experience transcribing real-time speech data.

Skills which will be developed during the placement

Assisting on this project will enable the student to develop excel skills, such as filters, formulas, pivot tables to analyse data, as well as statistical skills by using SPSS to conduct descriptive and inferential statistics. The placement will also enhance the student’s team working, communication and time management skills. The project results will be summarised in a conference poster. This will train the student’s ability to summarise the key findings of a complex project and present them to a lay audience using a clear and coherent layout.

Place of Work

School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences

Hours of Work

7 hours a day

Approximate Start and End Dates (not fixed)

Monday 03 July 2017 - Friday 18 August 2017

How to Apply

Please express your interest to Professor Theo Marinis by Wednesday 14th June.


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