Masters in English Applied Linguistics
UAM
Seminar/Workshop in Research Methods
in Applied Linguistics
2011-2012
Schedule:
 22-Feb-2012: Optionality and pseudo-optionality in native and
nonnative grammars
 29-Feb-2012: Errores en los exámenes de traducción directa
(inglés/árabe-español) general y especializada: análisis,
tipificación e influencia de la lengua inglesa
 7-March-2012: Language variation, identity and creativity
 14-March-2012: Narrative, discourse & cognition: A Sociocognitive
& Contrastive Study in English & Spanish
 21-March-2012: UAM-CLIL Project
 28-March-2012: CLAN Project: Corpus of Language and Nature
All sessions will start at 5 p.m. (Room 101 IX).
Description of the Projects
Optionality and psuedo-optionality in native and nonnative grammars)
OPOGRAM. AMAYA MENDIKOETXEA, PAUL ROLLINSON, GEMA
CHOCANO
http://web.uam.es/proyectosinv/woslac/
The main objective of this project is to study the factors causing
optionality and pseudo-optionality in the non native grammars of L2
learners of English (L1 Spanish) and L2 learners of Spanish (L1 English) at
different proficiency levels. Our starting point is that optionality in non
native grammars is a particular case of variation in developing
grammars. Data is extracted from L2 English and L2 Spanish corpora, as
well as native corpora, and is analysed along with data elicited through
experimental techniques, such as magnitude estimation, which yields
subtler judgements than classical acceptatibility tasks. The objective is
to obtain converging evidence on which to base our results.
Masters in English Applied Linguistics
UAM
Errores en los exámenes de traducción directa (inglés/árabe-español)
general y especializada: análisis, tipificación e influencia de la lengua
inglesa. ESTHER VÁZQUEZ , JAVIER ORTÍZ
The Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid is both a source and object of
multiple intercultural relations, a consequence of the increasing
immigration from English and Arabic-speaking countries. The fruit of
these relations is the considerable number of English/Arabic-Spanish
translations in the Community. Regrettably, they do not always achieve
the necessary level of excellence. A methodology of teaching-learning
human translation (HT), based on error analysis by students of the
Translation and Interpreting Studies (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid),
has been used. This research has a double justification: theoretical and
pedagogical. This analysis uses translation exams and papers
(English/Arabic-Spanish) representing different text typologies and
subject areas of both general and specialised discourse. We aim not only
to classify the most frequent types of errors but also to analyse the
possible reasons for them. Our final aim is to acquaint the student and
the lecturer with the most frequent types of errors in the hope that this
will help them to avoid them. We also research an interesting aspect of
multiculturalism and interdisciplinariety: the influence of English as a
first foreign language on English-Spanish translations as well as on
Arabic-Spanish ones.
Language variation, identity and creativity. LAURA HIDALGO, JAVIER
ORTÍZ
The research team “Language Variation, Identity and Creativity” is an
interdisciplinary research group with scholars from the fields of applied
linguistics, translation and the psychology of creativity. Our main line of
research has to do with the study of how creativity, as a discursive and
psychological phenomenon, can be related to specific linguistic uses in
different genres and to different social practices. Our main lines of study
over the last three years have included the following: Intersubjective
positioning and identity in political discourse; Multimodal metaphor and
creativity in ICT advertising discourse; Metaphor and the communication
of new ideas in scientific discourse; Multimodal metaphor in creative
and artistic discourse (visual, musical); Metaphor in theories of
Masters in English Applied Linguistics
UAM
psychology; Evaluation of creativity in infants and children; The
translation of creative discourse and of identities; Creativity and
emotional intelligence.
Narrative, discourse & cognition: A Sociocognitive & Contrastive Study
in English & Spanish. MANUELA ROMANO, ANA MARTÍN ÚRIZ
This project develops an integrative and cross-disciplinary line of
research that approaches the study of natural narratives and discourse
(oral and written) within the socio-cognitive models of language. This is
an approach to language that promotes the integration of the cultural
component in the explanation of discursive dynamics. The data for the
empirical analysis comes from a corpus of spontaneous oral and written
narratives compiled for describing the differences between systems and
explaining the presence of recurrent patterns. The aim of the project is
twofold: on the one hand, a theoretical insight into the language, culture
and cognition interface in the study of natural occurring discourse. And,
on the other, an applied enquiry into the domains of (1) the crosslinguistic analysis of narrative strategies in English and Spanish; (2) the
processes involved in the acquisition and development in native and
non-native subjects; (3) the analysis of natural narratives in multimodal
discourse; and (4) socio-cultural and cognitive use of metaphorical
language.
UAM-CLIL Project. ANA LLINARES, RACHEL WHITTAKER, THOMAS
MORTON
http://www.uam.es/proyectosinv/uam-clil/
Content and Language Integrated Learning, or CLIL, is the term used for
the European version of bilingual education, an approach to foreign
language learning which is extending rapidly in Spain. The UAM-CLIL
research project has been designed to respond to the need for
information on this new teaching/learning situation, as it is being
implemented in our local state secondary schools. The project started in
the academic year 2005-06, and since that year we have collected
spoken and written data from CLIL classes, following the same students
throughout the four years of obligatory secondary education (ESO) in
Social Sciences, focusing especially on History. By recording examples of
classroom interaction on topics from the social science syllabus, and
analysing the spoken and written production of the students, as well as
Masters in English Applied Linguistics
UAM
the teachers’ language as they organized and ran the sessions, the aim
of the project has been to identify the linguistic needs of learners at this
level in this subject area. After analyzing different aspects of the
representation of content in the language of these classes, the latest
project (INTER-CLIL) focuses on the use of interpersonal language. Both
strands of empirical work contribute to the continuing research effort to
establish a conceptual base for the widespread but under-theorized
phenomenon of CLIL.
CLAN-Project (Corpus of Language and Nature). JESÚS ROMERO, SILVIA
RIESCO, KARINA VIDAL
www.clancorpus.net
The CLAN project describes the cognitive representation of landscapes in
speakers who live in intercultural contexts, and their subsequent
emotional responses via spoken language. The project describes the
reaction of speakers of English as a second or foreign language to the
perception of natural landscapes with the parameters of landscape
ecology. The objective of the project is to sketch out an atlas of linguistic
features that represents the different emotions manifested by landscape
preferences on the basis of cultural self-identifications.