CALM Seminar Series 2020-2021

Imagining inclusivity: The role of language in an increasingly diverse Ireland Thursday July 1, 2021, 10.00-13.00, online This workshop is designed to facilitate dialogue between academics, policymakers, practitioners, and NGOs in imagining a more inclusive Ireland, and the role that language plays in how we envisage this inclusivity. The event stems from the project ‘Languages, Families, and Society’ (LaFS) at NUI Galway, which uses an ethnographic approach to understand more about the everyday lived experiences families who speak Irish as a home language; Polish as a home language; and Kurdish as a home language, and how these experiences intersect with language policy and support (or lack thereof) at the wider level. The event is organised by Dr. Cassie Smith-Christmas of Roinn na Gaeilge, NUI Galway and Research Fellow with LaFS. It is hosted by the project ‘Languages, Families, and Society’ (Grant no.: 794800) at NUI Galway, in conjunction with the Moore Institute and the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism (CALM). Further information and registration link here. 

'Corpus linguistics tools in language acquisition research' Thursday, April 15th 2021 at 6pm online. This talk, by Prof. Anna Bączkowska (University of Gdansk), will explore the benefits of corpus linguistics tools in language teaching research and practice. Prof. Bączkowska will talk about the CHILDES database, which is a repository of transcripts of conversations held among adults and children.The data illustrate developmental changes occurring in language acquisition in monolingual and bilingual children. Some corpus and NLP tools which allow one to extract material from the database as well as some statistical information available through different software programs will be demonstrated. Examples will be shown and analysed by resorting to the data of bilingual and multilingual children.  The discussion will be chaired by Prof. Laura McLoughlin, Co-Director of CALM. This webinar is hosted by the Moore Institute. Please register in advance at this link: https://nuigalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yPRtvdodTxGmz-td5dEGnQ   

March seminar | Seimineár an Mhárta 'Prosody and Language Acquisition' Thursday March 18th at 6pm online In this seminar, Dr Francesca Nicora of NUI Galway will join CALM Co-Director Dr John Walsh to discuss the prosodic features of speech in the context of teaching and learning foreign languages, particularly regarding the role of intonation and its relevance in speech communication. She will also present the overarching conceptual framework underpinning the teaching of foreign language prosody, including current models of intonational analysis, second language theories as well as didactic methods and approaches. This webinar is hosted by the Moore Institute. Please register in advance at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t0uDlCNISo-nxYcAp1jvBg   

February seminar | Seimineár mhí Feabhra 'Mincéirí Tori: Conversations on Irish Traveller Language' Thursday 18th February at 6pm online Join Traveller activist and Gammon language advocate Oein DeBhairduin and John Walsh (Co-Director of CALM) as they explore the history, uses, evolving contexts and celebrations of Gammon-Cant, the Irish Traveller Language. This webinar is co-hosted by the Moore Institute and Galway Traveller Movement. Please register in advance at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Wt81-PsuTwaOx2FM7YwfXg

December seminar | Seimineár na Nollag 'Artificial intelligence approaches to multilinguality', 6pm, Thursday December 10th Dr John McCrae, Lecturer at Data Science Institute and Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUI Galway In this webinar, Dr John McCrae will talk about the use of artificial intelligence for issues in multilinguality. The talk will give an overview of AI applications, including machine translation, that are useful for this and a particular focus will be on the application of AI to minority languages and historical linguistics. We will also cover work on the development of computer-assisted language learning systems. Hosted by the Moore Institute. Please register in advance at this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KmOc_T10SQGIty9ukqyJog

November seminar | Seimineár na Samhna  ‘Making research meaningful for multilingual parents’, 6pm, Thursday November 19th Dr Mary-Pat O’Malley Keighran, Lecturer in Speech & Language Therapy, NUI Galway In this webinar, Mary-Pat will talk about ways in which research into multilingual speech and language development and disorders can be made accessible and meaningful to parents faced with persisting myths about raising multilingual children. For more information about Mary-Pat’s work, see www.talknua.com. Hosted by the Moore Institute. ‌Please register in advance at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ygXo5hNgRAS5zhFjCzLwxw

CALM Seminar Series 2020-2021 Our proposed seminar series was disrupted due to COVID-19 but we are delighted to announce a revised programme of events for this academic year. With the support of the Moore Institute, there will be 5 online seminars on topics of relevance to our research centre. Links to the events will be provided in individual posts on this site and on social media channels.