Research Assistant position (Universities of Leeds and Manchester)

[Cecile De Cat]

Research Assistant position - Fixed term for 2 years, starting on 1 October 
2012 

Project title: Referential communication and executive function skills in 
bilingual children 

As one of two research assistants on this Leverhulme Trust-funded project, 
you will play a key role by (i) contributing to the creation of the 
experimental materials and parental questionnaires, (ii) liaising with 
schools to recruit child participants and organising the running of 
experiments, (iii) carrying out the experiments in schools and day-centres 
(with the help of another research assistant), (iv) transcribing and coding 
relevant portions of the data, (v) contributing to the analysis of results, 
(vi) taking part in dissemination and public engagement activities. 

With a PhD in language acquisition or a related discipline, you will be 
able to demonstrate excellent interpersonal and organisational skills. 

During the second year of the project, you will be working with both the 
University of Leeds and the University of Manchester. The work you will 
carry out will be split between the two sites and you will be employed 50% 
by the University of Leeds and 50% by the University of Manchester. 

*About the Project *

The main aim of this study is to bridge the gap between two independent 
lines of research: 

   - the study of executive functions skills as a function of language 
   experience; 
   - the investigation of the relationship between executive function 
   skills and children’s performance in referential communication tasks. 


More specifically we have three objectives, spanning (i) the cognitive 
development of different types of bilinguals, (ii) factors influencing 
cognitive and linguistic development in young bilinguals, and (iii) factors 
affecting monolingual and bilingual children’s use of referential 
expressions. We aim to: 


   1. extend previous findings on the relationship between key executive 
   function skills (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control and working 
   memory) and language experience to bilingual children who have unbalanced 
   exposure to two languages. 
   2. gather new information on the role played by language proficiency, 
   bilingual experience and SES (social/ economic status) on the above subset 
   of executive function skills and on referential abilities. 
   3. develop our understanding of the linguistic and non-linguistic 
   contextual variables affecting children's referential choices (visual 
   context, awareness of differences in perspective between speaker and 
   listener, and linguistic factors affecting a referent's prominence). 


*Post information:*
University Grade 7 (£30,122 - £35,938 p.a.) 
It is likely that an appointment will be made no higher than £32,901 p.a. 
since there are funding limitations which dictate the level at which the 
appointment can start. 

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Cecile de Cat, email c.decat at leeds 
ac uk 

Interviews are expected to be held in early September 2012.

Application URL: http://tinyurl.com/8utn2yk 
Reference number for Leeds HR website: ARTML0067. 

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