Corpora: Job offer

[Angela Hahn]

WANTED: Graduate (Languages/Linguistics/Teaching/...) with good
Internet-computing skill

The English Linguistics department at the Chemnitz University of
Technology is looking for someone to join an on-going research
project. The post would be initially for 18 months, with a possibility
of an extension if there is a further phase of the project,  starting
on 1st June 2000 or as soon as possible thereafter. Payment is on the
Bat IIa (Ost) scale, with the salary level dependent on age and
experience. The project, "Learner Behaviour in the Internet Grammar",
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/InternetGrammar/, is part of an
inter-disciplinary research group "New media in everyday life", funded
by the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft).

What is the Internet Grammar?
We are building a grammar-learning environment, accessible using a
web-browser, for advanced learners of English. We are using material
from a variety of corpora, including our own English-German
Translation Corpus, to provide examples and material for exercises
wherever possible. The software infra-structure which we have designed
makes it possible to track user behaviour in great detail, and we are
hoping to discover how different types of learners interact with
language teaching material presented on the Web.

What would you do?
We need someone to take over the care of our software infra-structure
and help us to develop it further. You would work with the other
members of the team, who are responsible for designing and writing
content and, in part, for preparing it for insertion in the grammar.
Your tasks would be: (a) to maintain the existing structures, which
involve cgi scripts, corpus search facilities and interactive
animations, as well as the more conventional elements of a web-site;
(b) to assist with the extraction and analysis of learner data; (d) to
help extend the functionality of the grammar, both for users and
researchers, through the development of new features and the
improvement of existing ones.

Qualifications:
You will have a degree in a relevant subject and be able to show
possession of the necessary software skills - such as cgi and perl or
javascript, in addition to html - or a willingness to acquire them
very rapidly. You should also have an interest in the use of the Web
and corpora for language teaching and learning. You should enjoy
working in a team and value the opportunity to help with the further
development of our project. The working language of the project is
English, so fluency would be an advantage.

Working in Chemnitz?
Apart from the satisfaction of helping to see an exciting research
project to its completion, you would have the advantage of a
stimulating university environment in a city which is growing and
changing every day. Low rents for well-equipped apartments in elegant
newly restored houses; leafy suburbs, beautiful countryside; a varied
and vigorous cultural life (opera, world-class art exhibitions,
cabaret . . . ); all these in one of the most enterprising and
economically active cities in the "new" German states.

Please send a CV and covering letter as soon as possible to:
Prof. Dr. Josef  Schmied
Englische Sprachwissenschaft
Technische Universität Chemnitz
D-09107 Chemnitz, Germany.
e-mail to : realcentre at phil.tu-chemnitz.de
For more information about the project:
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/InternetGrammar/
Dr. Angela Hahn
English Language and Linguistics
Chemnitz University of Technology
Tel. +49/371/531-4286 or 4279