THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT FACULTY OF MEDICAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Transcription

1 Ref : MHS Internal ref: MR THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT FACULTY OF MEDICAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH ASSISTANT (Polish Speaker) (Ref: MHS-05651) 1 The University invites applications for the above post which is tenable for a period of 36 months starting from 1 March Salary will be 25,513 to 27,864 per annum 3 Informal enquiries may be made to Prof. Elena Lieven, elena.lieven@manchester.ac.uk, or to Dr. Anna Theakston, anna.theakston@manchester.ac.uk 4 Applications should be made on line. If you are unable to apply on line please request an application form by ing the hrservices@manchester.ac.uk quoting reference number or by calling (HR team recruitment line number). The School of Psychological Sciences is committed to promoting equality and diversity, including the Athena SWAN charter for promoting women s careers in STEMM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) in higher education. The [School/Institute] received a Bronze Award in 2013 for their commitment to the representation of women in the workplace and we particularly welcome applications from women for this post. Appointment will always be made on merit. For further information, please visit

2 Job Title: Research Assistant (Polish Speaker) Contract Status: 36 month contract starting on 1 March 2015 Hours of Work: Salary: Location: Responsible to: Full-time 25,513 to 29,552 per annum School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester Prof. Elena Lieven & Dr. Anna Theakston Investigating the acquisition of morphological productivity cross-linguistically. The Post Applications are invited for a Polish-speaking postgraduate Research Assistant in the field of child language development research. This post offers the opportunity to join a thriving research group at the University of Manchester, and become a member of the new ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD), a multi-million pound collaboration between the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster. The successful applicant a native speaker of Polish will be based at the University of Manchester, and will regularly visit Poland in order to recruit and test children (aged 2-5 years) as part of a study investigating the acquisition of syntax and morphology. The project will use a range of different experimental methods (e.g., elicited production/imitation, forcedchoice pointing) and corpus analysis. You must be willing to travel to Poland for testing and recruitment, and to work occasional weekends and evenings. The aims of the project are to investigate (1) the distribution of syntactic and morphological cues to meaning in corpora of child-directed Polish speech, (2) children s productivity with inflectional morphology (both nouns and verbs) using elicited production/imitation, (3) children s understanding of case-marking and word order as cues to meaning in comprehension (using forced-choice pointing) and (4) how these cues can be overridden by discourse pragmatics. All studies will be conducted exclusively in Polish, with monolingual Polish-speaking children. The successful applicant will be required to work closely with a fellow Research Assistant conducting a similar set of studies in Finnish (based at the University of Liverpool) and with a Postdoctoral Research Associate who will be simulating the findings of both the Finnish and Polish studies using computational modelling. You will also be expected to work closely with our International collaborator, Dr. Grzegorz Krajewski, based at the University of Warsaw. Duties of the post To recruit parents and children to the Project To test the children using a range of methodologies (e.g., elicited production/imitation, forced-choice pointing) and to conduct corpus analysis.

3 To develop and maintain good relations with the schools, nurseries and parents throughout the course of the study (e.g. via newsletters, s, social networking sites). To liaise with other researchers working on the project (including a Finnish Research Assistant and a Postdoctoral Research Associate who will conducting computational modelling of the data). To manage confidential information provided by participants, and to deal with ethical and administrative issues relating to the Project. To assist in preparing the results for dissemination through conference presentations and academic publications To contribute to the LuCiD Centre s Impact Agenda, by assisting in disseminating the results of the project widely to non-academic partners (e.g. participant groups, childcare/health/education providers, and via local and national media). You may also be required to carry out such other duties, commensurate with the grading of the post, as may be assigned by the Investigators or their nominees. Supervision You will join a large project team, including a Finnish Research Assistant and a Postdoctoral Research Associate. You will be supervised directly by Prof. Elena Lieven & Dr. Anna Theakston, but will also be required to work under the supervision of other members of the research team, based in both Liverpool and Manchester. DBS Check Because the position involves working with children, the applicant will need to obtain an Enhanced Disclosure certificate (DBS check) from the Disclosure and Barring Service. Please see for more information. You will also be responsible for ensuring that you complete any additional checks required by Polish schools, nurseries, government agencies or any other relevant bodies in Poland. The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) The LuCiD Centre is a multi-million pound 5-year collaboration between the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster, and affiliated institutions abroad. The Centre will study how children learn to communicate with language, how the developing brain supports this process, and how it is affected by cross-linguistic, socio-cultural and individual variation. LuCiD s Research Agenda contains five research streams in the UK and abroad. The first four streams will address four key questions in language and communicative development: Environment: How do children integrate multiple sources of information? Knowledge: How do children build linguistic representations? Communication: How do children learn to use language structure to communicate effectively? Variation: How do children adapt to cross-linguistic and socio-cultural variation? The fifth stream, the Language 0-5 project, will provide the interconnection between the other four streams. It will follow 80 English-learning children from 6 months to 5 years to deliver the first data-intensive, cohort study on language development in UK children. LuCiD s Research Agenda will be complemented by: 1. a Technology Agenda that will create new integrated multi-method research designs and build technology products designed to be of direct benefit to language researchers and

4 healthcare and education practitioners, with commercial applications for business and publishers 2. a Communications Agenda for disseminating findings to commissioners and policymakers, healthcare and education professionals, parents and the public, and other key stakeholders. 3. a Capacity-Building programme that will develop future leaders, ensure that progress is maintained beyond the life of the Centre, and secure the future of UK research in the area. To apply you must have: A undergraduate degree at 2;1 or above in psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, or any related cognate discipline. An interest in and understanding of how case marking and word order operate in different languages. Person Specification: Qualifications/ Education Skills/Training Experience Essential A first class or 2;1 honours degree or equivalent in psychology, cognitive science, linguistics or a related discipline Proven ability to manage confidential information and deal with ethical issues Native or near-native command of English and a basic knowledge of linguistic terminology Native command of Polish and a basic understanding of Polish grammar at a descriptive level Experience of working with preschool children (between the ages of 0 and 5 years of age), ideally in a research setting Experience of conducting data analysis in Excel, SPSS or R Desirable A first class honours degree or equivalent in psychology, cognitive science, linguistics or a related discipline Experience in the use of elicited imitation/production methods, comprehension methods (e.g., forced-choice pointing) and naturalistic data analysis Ability to create experimental stimuli (e.g. animations, videos) using suitable software (e.g. Anime Studio Pro, E-Prime) and design experimental studies. Experience of contributing to highquality peer-reviewed research on child language development. Experience of publicising research work at national and international conferences Personal Attributes Proven ability to prioritise and time manage work activities, work to deadlines and demonstrate initiative Experience of communicating research successfully to nonacademic audiences. Knowledge of theories and research on child language acquisition Proven ability to work as part of a cooperative research team and Experience of conducting experimental studies (particularly

5 communicate findings to others studies of child language) in Polish Proven ability to recruit, and maintain good professional relationships with schools, nurseries, parents and children Willingness to travel to Poland to conduct the studies