24.4204, Support: General Linguistics, Language Documentation/South Africa

Thu Oct 24 15:11:42 UTC 2013

LINGUIST List: Vol-24-4204. Thu Oct 24 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.4204, Support: General Linguistics, Language Documentation/South Africa

Moderator: Damir Cavar, Eastern Michigan U <damir at linguistlist.org>

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Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin Madison
Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin Madison
Mateja Schuck, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 11:03:03
From: Mark De Vos [m.devos at ru.ac.za]
Subject: PhD/MA/MSc Student, Rhodes University, South Africa

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 Institution/Organization: Rhodes University 
Department: English Language and Linguistics 
Web Address: http://www.ru.ac.za/englishlanguageandlinguistics/research/sandisaimbewu/callforapplications/ 

Level: Open 

Duties: Research

Specialty Areas: General Linguistics; Language Documentation 
Literacy 

Description:

The Department of English Language and Linguistics at Rhodes University invites applications from excellent prospective postgraduate students for full-time study of the linguistics of literacy in the foundation phase. 

The following scholarships are available for 2014:
1. One PhD scholarship (R100 000 for 2 years).
2. Three Masters Scholarships (R70 000 for 2 years).

South African foundation-phase literacy is in a deep crisis – especially literacy in languages of the Bantu language family (http://www.ru.ac.za/englishlanguageandlinguistics/research/sandisaimbewu/).  Although this is a multifaceted problem, this project focusses on the specific contributions that can be made by linguists including but not limited to:
- Sociolinguistic-dialectological dimension: the interaction of standardization, L1 and languages of teaching and learning.
- Morpho-syntactic dimension: mapping between psycholinguistic and orthographic representations of words and morphemes with the attendant need for thorough linguistic analysis of African languages within descriptive and theoretical frameworks.
- Extending phonological, morphological, syntactic awarenesses to Bantu languages in ways that take the linguistic structures of these languages into consideration e.g. is morphological awareness necessarily the same thing in English vs. isiZulu given the different morphological structures and how these are mapped orthographically.
- Semantics: the development of productive and receptive capacities for entailed and presupposed meaning in children and how these interact with text.

Eligibility: 
This funded, three-year, multi-disciplinary research project welcomes applications from anybody who has an interest in the specific contributions that Linguistics can make to early literacy, especially, but not exclusively as they relate to African languages.  Suitable background includes any type of linguistics (including descriptive linguistics, formal/theoretical/generative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, applied linguistics etc.) or cognate field. Competence in or willingness to study a language of the Bantu language family would be an advantage but is not a requirement.   Preference will also be given to students who provide a coherent proposal and/or intend to stay in town for at least the first academic year.

Curriculum:  
Postgraduate degrees usually consist of a combination of thesis and coursework modules.  There are also opportunities for fieldwork, community engagement, conference attendance, as well as teaching and tutoring to develop your academic profile.  Although all students must be registered full-time, it is possible to study from off-campus and travel to Grahamstown for specific coursework modules and supervision. 

To apply, please send an email to Mark de Vos (m.devos @ ru.ac.za) containing your name and contact details, an initial title of your research project/dissertation and a short outline or proposal of what you envisage your research to be.  The proposal/outline should be one page of text (A4 or Letter, 12-point, single spaced, Times New Roman with normal margins) and, if necessary, a further page for references, data, notes etc. Note that this is simply an initial outline and that your research topic may change substantially over time as you develop as a postgraduate student. 

Application Deadline: 25-Nov-2013 

Mailing Address for Applications:
	Attn: Dr Mark De Vos 
PO Box 94 
Department of English Language and Linguistics, Rhodes University 
Grahamstown Eastern Cape 6140 
South Africa 

Web Address for Applications: http://www.ru.ac.za/englishlanguageandlinguistics/research/sandisaimbewu/callforapplications/ 

Contact Information: 
	Dr Mark De Vos 
m.devos at ru.ac.za  

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