The Language Scientists De Montfort University

In this Episode, Dr Bisson talks to Professor Emma Marsden about a really important change coming to the French, German and Spanish curriculum in England. There is going to be a more defined and constrained list of words that students have to learn and that are allowed to be on the GCSE exams. Is this going to make a difference to the number of students that choose to study languages at secondary schools? We think so! Join us to find out how many words are on the list and how this change came about.
To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU.
Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson
Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk
Links to some of the initiatives mentioned in the podcast
Oasis research summaries: read one-page accessible research summaries
LP Pedagogy resources: access over 1000 language resources, schemes of works and word lists
Multiling Profiler: check that a text meets the language knowledge of your learners
 

In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Professor Neil Kenny, Professor of French at University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow in All Souls College, and Lead Fellow for Languages for the British Academy. This episode addresses one of the central motivations for the podcast: how to increase the number of language learners in the UK. In his role as Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, Professor Kenny has developed initiatives to encourage language learning and he describes a few of these initiatives, as well as why it is so important to learn a language.
To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU. 
Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson
 Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk
 To follow the British Academy and hear more about their work, they are on Twitter: @BritishAcademy_
 To read more about Professor Kenny's work at the British Academy: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/towards-national-languages-strategy-education-and-skills/
 
Links to some of the resources in the podcast
The Languages Gateway: the UK's portal for languages
Association for Language Learning: organisation for school resources
University Council of Modern Languages: organisation for higher education language learning
World of Languages and Languages of the World (WOLLOW): resources for encouraging children to learn languages

In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Dr Jiayi Wang, about those "unwritten" rules of language use, which are known as "pragmatics". What's really interesting about pragmatics is that they aren't really reflected in textbooks the way we originally learn a language. Dr Wang discusses research into English learners and their use of language in emails.
To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU.
Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson
Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk
Link to Dr Wang's webpage
Dr Wang's research:
Wang, Jiayi and Halenko, Nicola (2022a). “Mind your language”: L2 English emails during study abroad. In Halenko, Nicola and Wang, Jiayi (eds.) Pragmatics in English Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 29-56.

In this episode, Dr Marie-Josee Bisson asks Dr Walter Van Heuven about language organisation in the brain. How does the brain cope with having words in different languages and how come we don't make lots of mistakes when we speak (for example saying a word in French in the middle of a conversation in English!). Listen to the episode to find out! 
To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU.
Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson
Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk
Link to Dr Van Heuven's research lab: https://waltervanheuven.net/
Example article about Dr Van Heuven's research:
van Heuven, W.J.B., Schriefers, H., Dijkstra, T., & Hagoort, P. (2008). Language conflict in the bilingual brain. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 2706-2716.https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhn030

In this Episode, we welcome you to Season 2 of the Podcast and talk about how the language that we know can influence the way we learn other languages.
In particular, some foreign language words look really different compared to words in our native language. It may be that they include a combination of letters that are not possible in our native language. For example, "llw" in Welsh is quite frequent but for a speaker of English that will look quite unusual.
How does this impact the learning of words? Join Dr Kaitlyn and Dr Marie in this episode to learn more about it (and we revisit incidental learning which is Marie's favourite topic!).
To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU.
Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson
Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk
Link to our research lab the Language Lab
A recent publication on Marie's work:
Bisson, M-J. (2022). Learning words with unfamiliar orthography: The role of cognitive abilities. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263122000390
 

In this episode, Dr Zavaleta speaks with Dr Anue Kukona about psycholinguistic research. In particular, they discuss conduction research over the internet and the advantages that come with that in terms of a more diverse sample of participants, mouse-tracking as an alternative to eye-tracking, as well as predictions in language that goes at three times the normal speed! Join us for an interesting episode! 
Can you help us by completing our survey? We would like to know what you liked about this episode, what you would like to hear about next and also whether you have encountered any barriers in your language learning journey. Click here for the link to this 5-minute survey. 
Follow Dr Zavaleta on twitter:  @dr_klzavaleta  
Or get in touch with her via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk   
 
The Language Scientists Podcast website: languagescientists.our.dmu.ac.uk 
 
Follow Dr Kukona on Twitter @AnueBK 
Or get in touch via email: a.p.bakerkukona@greenwich.ac.uk or Dr Kukona's webpage 
 
Link to an article on mouse-tracking as mentioned in the episode:  
Kukona, A., Jordan, A. Online mouse cursor trajectories distinguish phonological activation by linguistic and nonlinguistic sounds. Psychon Bull Rev (2022). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02153-6