Submitted by rlew on 19 May, 2011 - 14:48.
Post-doc position in
CNRS-affiliated laboratory
PARIS FRANCE
The VILLA project coordinated by the UMR 7023 CNRS laboratory in Paris,
France invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in language
acquisition (the language of study will be Polish) to begin 1 October 2011. The
VILLA Project has received funding for a three-year period (2011-2014) from the
Open Research Area of the Social Sciences in Europe, with contributions from
the national research agencies in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Scholars
in the UK are also involved in the project. VILLA, Varieties of Initial Learners in Language Acquisition:
controlled classroom input and elementary forms of linguistic organisation, will investigate and compare the acquisition of Polish by native speakers
of French, German, Dutch and English.
Applicants should be
linguists of Slavic languages with an expertise in Polish (not necessarily a
Polish native speaker) and should have knowledge of psycholinguistics and
language acquisition. They should be proficient in English and have good
communication skills in French. The appointment will be for 20 months, and
support will be 3700€/month before taxes and social charges (1900€ net). The post will be based in Paris (with some travel to partner countries), at the
following address:
CNRS & University Paris 8
UMR 7023
59 rue Pouchet
75017 Paris
The recipient will
advise project members on linguistic aspects of Polish and coordinate the
different operations involved in VILLA data collection: analyses of instructor
input, learner productions, and test results. The recipient will also maintain
relations between those collecting and analyzing data in the four countries and
organize the communication of results between the four teams. In addition, the
candidate will have the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research in one or
several of the investigation areas (phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax,
pragmatic utterance organization, L3 acquisition, individual differences, or
the interface between language teaching and acquisition) according to his/her
own scientific interests. S/he will be affiliated with the French CNRS (Centre
national de la recherche scientifique), in an “Unité mixte de recherche” (UMR)
that has been investigating aspects of language acquisition for over twenty
years, in an international context. (For more information on the research
laboratory, see: http://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/.)
The candidate must hold a PhD degree at the time of appointment.
Interested candidates should send a letter of application, a detailed
curriculum vitae (including a list of publications and research experience) and
a Doctoral
Thesis Defense Report to:
Marzena Watorek: marzenawatorek@yahoo.fr
Deadline for applications: 20 Jun 2011.
The following provides more information about the VILLA Project:
Varieties of Initial Learners in Language Acquisition:
controlled classroom input and elementary forms of linguistic organisation
(VILLA)
The global objective of the project is to provide a precise description
of the input processing of a novel language by adult learners under controlled
conditions. We expect the results of this project to lend themselves not only
to the theorization of current questions concerning second language (L2)
acquisition, but also to a reflection on the practical implications of this
empirical investigation. With regard to the theorization of our results, we
hope to inform the debate about the available initial state knowledge that
learners can use when processing input upon first contact with a new language.
The L2 initial state is the subject of much debate, in particular in
generative-theory based research. Our study, conducted within a functional
approach, will allow us to engage in this debate from a different perspective.
Studying the acquisition of a new language by adults, starting from “zero”
knowledge, poses a problem in third language (L3) acquisition. In today’s
society, when adult learners come to the acquisition process, they are generally
already familiar with at least one foreign language, usually English. Our study
allows for a deeper investigation into the role of other L2 knowledge in the
appropriation of an L3. With regard to the practical impact of our project, our
results will contribute to discussions about the elaboration of methods used
for teaching foreign languages. Currently, the question of the relation between
acquisition research and language pedagogy is often posed: What can help a
learner appropriate a foreign language? What methodological procedures are most
effective for language teaching? These questions are complex and are the
subject of much disagreement. This project proposes to address such questions
from two angles. On one hand, we wish to know what the learner actually does
with the specific content of a language lesson, that is, the linguistic input
of the instruction. On the other hand, we wish to know what effect the manner
in which this linguistic input is presented has on the learner’s performance.
These observations will include all levels of analysis that learners rely on to
process the foreign language input: phonological, lexical, morpho-syntactic,
and pragmatic.
