The Language Scientists

Today the Language Scientists are back to present the last episode of Series 3! It's been so interesting to have the chance to revisit some of the topics from this season. In this episode, we discuss some of our favourite insights and thoughts about this series. We discuss the differences in fluency a heritage speaker has in the home compared to their fluency in the majority language and how langu...

Why do “The Language Scientists” keep saying that Leicester is a great location to discuss multilingualism? In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Dr Michelle Harrison, a lecturer in French & Francophone studies at University of Leicester to discuss multilingualism in Leicester. In addition to discussing Dr Harrison’s experience working with Leicester’s Golden Mile and the many langua...

What does it mean to be "bilingual"? How can we encourage and support parents to raise children bilingually? In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta talks all-things-bilingual with Professor Antonella Sorace from the University of Edinburgh and Founding Director of "Bilingualism Matters", a non-profit organisation that brings bilingualism research findings to the general public. This episode pro...

In this episode Dr Marie-Josee-Bisson talks to Dr Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen about language choices in the family. How do parents decide which language they will speak to their children at home and are there rules to follow? Xiao Lan talks about Pride, Prejudice and Pragmatism and how these impact on family language decisions. Parents have a big role to play in...

As a language learner in the classroom, you may feel like you’re starting from no language skills and a lot of confusion. However, as Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta and Dr Tracey Costley discuss, even a new learner is bringing in language skills from other languages. When a language teacher encourages the use of other, non-target languages, they allow for "translanguaging". In these scenarios, translanguagin...

In this episode Dr Marie-Josee Bisson talks to Ellie Chettle-Cully about celebrating multilingual speakers in the primary classroom. Ellie is a teacher and language lead at one of our local primary schools in Leicester, a city that prides itself on its multilingualism. What is it like to hear multiple languages in the classroom? Ellie talks about nurturing a sense of pride in her student...

In this episode Dr Marie-Josée Bisson interviews Sajan Odedra from the  Jalaram Bal Vikas Gujarati language school  based in Leicester. They talk about the motivations for parents and children to learn more about their heritage language. Sajan explains how many secondary schools support pupils gaining extra qualifications in the heritage language. The discussion highlights that deve...

In this episode Dr Marie-Josée Bisson interviews Dr Marion Krauthaker about " La petite école de Leicester " a community language school project for French speakers. Celebratory of heritage language, this is a school designed for children coming from a French bilingual background. The episode discusses exposure to the French language and the value of children being engaged in a Fren...

What does it mean to be a "heritage speaker"? The answer is a bit complicated. In this episode Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta speaks with Professor Silvina Montrul on the topic of heritage language speakers and what language acquisition patterns may look like. How are heritage speakers like native speakers? How are they like second language learners? How may this affect language attainment? Join us as we del...

In this episode Dr Marie-Josée Bisson and Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta discuss raising children bilingually. Exposure to another language does not just occur in the classroom but may also occur in the home environment. This episode emphasises that individual experiences in speaking heritage languages in the home are unique, and that home exposure to heritage languages should be celebrated; even a litt...

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...

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...

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 inf...

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...

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 frequ...

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...

In this episode Dr Bisson interviews Dr Zavaleta about her research on speech errors (when you say cat instead of dog or "Platurn" instead of planet because you were also thinking of Saturn... ). Dr Zavaleta explains how speech errors are a normal occurrence especially when we learn another language. Things get muddled up and the wrong word comes out but speech errors are so interesting because th...

In this episode, Dr Bisson talks to Professor Matthew Inglis about the importance of randomised controlled trials in education research. In other words, why is it crucial to allocate pupils to an intervention randomly and at the pupil level (rather than, say, a whole class) in order to be able to draw strong conclusions from a research study. Join us as we discuss how to get teachers better inform...

In this episode Dr Bisson speaks with Dr Angelos Lengeris about phonological abilities and their importance for language learning. Join us to hear about how we can train our ear to hear sounds that do not exist in our native language and how this then helps us speak with a more "native-like" accent.  Can you help us by completing our survey? We would like to know what you liked abou...

In this episode Dr Zavaleta speaks with Dr Elizabeth Enkin about using virtual reality as a tool for language learning. Join us to hear research using virtual reality to help students speak in the target language whilst reducing feelings of anxiety, even using virtual sculpture making as a way of facilitating target language use. Can you help us by completing our survey? We would like to know what...

In this episode, Dr Bisson interviews Dr Alex Mangold from Aberystwyth University on the topic of creative assessment. They discuss the decline in uptake of modern foreign languages at University level and Alex explains how creative assessments could change that by allowing students to produce a creative piece rather than always being assessed through more formal essay writing. Alex gives examples...

In this episode Dr Zavaleta talks to Dr Ana Pellicer-Sanchez about learning vocabulary through reading as well as her research using films with bilingual subtitles. You will find out what Ana recommends to improve vocabulary knowledge in and out of the classroom: from reading a book to watching a film and using an app, her message is clear, enjoyment is key!  Can you help us by completin...

In this episode, Dr Bisson speaks with Professor Kathy Conklin about eye-tracking in language research. From archaic equipment with bite bar to newer online tools to track people's eyes, Kathy explains what eye-tracking can tell us about language processing and language learning. In particular, you get to hear about her fascinating research on binomials: What is so special about "fish and chips" c...

In this episode Dr Zavaleta talks to Dr Bisson about incidental learning and how we can use this type of learning to help us learn a language in and out of the classroom. Being exposed to a language can help you pick up new words, syntax and grammar even if you are engaged in another task. This can be something like playing a game with foreign language words, reading a book in the foreign language...

In this episode you meet us, your hosts for the series, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta and Dr Marie-Josee Bisson and we set the scene for what is to come.    We are both Senior Lecturers at De Montfort University and we conduct research on language learning.    Throughout the series we will be interviewing experts in the field of language learning and beyond to impart informativ...