Research
Research Themes
Phonological and phonetic variation in bilinguals' speech
My research focuses primarily on language variation and change in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals. A number of societal developments in the twentieth century have changed the demographics of Welsh speakers. Firstly, inward migration and language shift have resulted in a decline in the number of speakers who acquire Welsh in the home, particularly in traditionally Welsh-speaking areas. Secondly, the establishment of Welsh-medium education has meant an increase in ‘new speakers’ of Welsh across Wales. The aim of my research has been to examine the extent to which linguistic and extra-linguistic factors (such as sex, proportion of Welsh speakers in the community, and home language) influence phonetic and phonological variation in both English and Welsh. The work therefore takes a sociolinguistic approach to bilingualism and second language acquisition and compares how speakers produce their two languages. More recently, I have been looking at how speakers evaluate Welsh accents.
The sociology of bilingualism
I am also interested in the sociology of language. I have published on attitudes towards Welsh and use of the language amongst young people in two towns in North Wales and I was part of a Welsh Government-funded research project on the transmission of Welsh. Another focus of this research strand is how identities intersect. For example, I have been working on a project which examines the experiences of LGBTQ+ speakers of Welsh and the way in which their identities influence each other.
The acquisition of Welsh as a second language
I published an article on Welsh for Adults tutors' attitudes towards learners' speech (with Iwan Wyn Rees) and have also examined speech production in adult learners. More broadly, I am interested in the influence of social and psychological factors on second language acquisition among children and adult learners of Welsh.
Resources and digital infrastructure
I have worked on a number of projects which have created Welsh-language resources and contribute towards digital infrastructure in the language. I have also led on projects to create Welsh reading and spelling tests as well as a digital thesaurus.
Current Projects
Phonological and phonetic variation in bilinguals' speech
My research focuses primarily on language variation and change in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals. A number of societal developments in the twentieth century have changed the demographics of Welsh speakers. Firstly, inward migration and language shift have resulted in a decline in the number of speakers who acquire Welsh in the home, particularly in traditionally Welsh-speaking areas. Secondly, the establishment of Welsh-medium education has meant an increase in ‘new speakers’ of Welsh across Wales. The aim of my research has been to examine the extent to which linguistic and extra-linguistic factors (such as sex, proportion of Welsh speakers in the community, and home language) influence phonetic and phonological variation in both English and Welsh. The work therefore takes a sociolinguistic approach to bilingualism and second language acquisition and compares how speakers produce their two languages. More recently, I have been looking at how speakers evaluate Welsh accents.
The sociology of bilingualism
I am also interested in the sociology of language. I have published on attitudes towards Welsh and use of the language amongst young people in two towns in North Wales and I was part of a Welsh Government-funded research project on the transmission of Welsh. Another focus of this research strand is how identities intersect. For example, I have been working on a project which examines the experiences of LGBTQ+ speakers of Welsh and the way in which their identities influence each other.
The acquisition of Welsh as a second language
I published an article on Welsh for Adults tutors' attitudes towards learners' speech (with Iwan Wyn Rees) and have also examined speech production in adult learners. More broadly, I am interested in the influence of social and psychological factors on second language acquisition among children and adult learners of Welsh.
Resources and digital infrastructure
I have worked on a number of projects which have created Welsh-language resources and contribute towards digital infrastructure in the language. I have also led on projects to create Welsh reading and spelling tests as well as a digital thesaurus.
- National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh (led by Dawn Knight)
- ACC: Welsh Automatic Text Summarisation with Dawn Knight and Mo El-Haj and Ignatius Ezeani (Lancaster).
- Central South Consortium Welsh Reading Test with Rosanna Stenner , Geraint Palmer, and Dylan Foster Evans.
- Watch Your Welsh website with Leandro Beltrachini, Mara Cercignani, Iwan Wyn Rees, Andreas Papageorgiou, and Ivor Simpson (University of Sussex).
Current Projects
- Stylistic variation in Welsh and the acquisiton of sociolinguistic competence with Mercedes Durham and Katharine Young.
- The perception of pre-aspiration in Welsh speech with Míša Hejná (Aarhus).
- The social evaluation of Welsh accents with Robert Mayr (Cardiff Met), Iwan Wyn Rees and Nia Eyre.
- Social and psychological factors influencing Welsh learners' attitudes with Charlotte Brookfield (Cardiff).
- Intersectional identites: LGBTQ+ Speakers of Welsh with Sam Parker (Birmingham City University) and other celtic languages with John Walsh (NUI Galway) and Michael Hornsby (AMU Poznań).
- The Anatomy of Welsh: Welsh language pronunciation visualised with MRI with Leandro Beltrachini, Mara Cercignani, Iwan Wyn Rees, Andreas Papageorgiou, and Ivor Simpson (University of Sussex).
- ThACC: Online Thesaurus of Contemporary Welsh with Dawn Knight, Mo El-Haj (Lancaster) and Elin Arfon.
- Central South Consortium Welsh Spelling Test with Rosanna Stenner , Geraint Palmer, and Dylan Foster Evans.
