School of Languages and Cultures

2023 Winter Research Program

Engage in a formal research project over the summer semester with the UQ Summer Research Program.

The UQ Winter Research Scholarship Program offers scholarships to students wishing to gain experience working alongside a researcher in a formal research environment in their area of interest at UQ.

Applications have closed

Each project will be offered for a period of four (4) weeks between Monday 26 June – Friday 21 July 2023.

Participation is open to undergraduate (including honours) and master by coursework students who are currently enrolled and will remain at UQ for the entirety of the research program.

Discover more about the Winter Research Program

  1. Memory discourses in letters to women who were executed and disappeared in Chile.
  2. How accurate is professional Mandarin/English interpreters' real-life telephone interpretations?
  3. Translating Testimony from Survivors of Enforced Disappearances in the Algerian War
  4. Multimodal public health communication
  5. Eye tracking in bilingualism research with less-commonly researched languages.
  6. Potential impact of learner background factors on their communication in a second language - Part 2
  1. Language use and story structure: Analysis of stories told by Russian-English bilingual children
  2. Socio-pragmatic understanding of (im)politeness in Korean discourse
  3. ChatGPT for schools – Curating a prompt taxonomy for AI in F-10 Education.
  4. Border-Crossing Australian and Japanese Literature: Literary Exchange as Cultural Diplomacy
  5. Empowering Asian language speakers to become language teachers in Australian schools

7. Language use and story structure: Analysis of stories told by Russian-English bilingual children

Project title: 

Language use and story structure: Analysis of stories told by Russian-English bilingual children

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

The project will be offered in hybrid mode with the possibility of participating online only. Expected work hours are 20 - 25 per week.

Description:

Our study aims to examine the effect of language exposure and experience on the discourse structure and linguistic features of narratives produced by bilingual children in their societal and family languages. We recorded both English and Russian stories by 75 children attending Russian community schools in Queensland as well as collected information about their language experience. The stories were elicited using picture books from the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) and transcribed. Winter scholars are invited to contribute to the ongoing analysis of this dataset.

Expected outcomes and deliverables:

Scholars will acquire practical experience working with English and/or Russian texts (depending on their language strengths) produced by bilinguals. This work will include identifying and coding specific linguistic features of the texts and analysing patterns observed against language experience information available. Scholars will develop skills in language data consolidation, coding and analysis following existing and co-developed protocols as well as broader skills of working in research team. Scholars will also be asked to produce a report and/or oral presentation at the end of their project. Depending on the skillset and aspirations of the scholars, they may have an opportunity to generate a conference presentation or publication from their research.

Suitable for:

This project is open to applications from students with native or near-native knowledge of English and/or Russian, preferably with a background in Linguistics or extensive language study experience. Familiarity with quantitative analysis is a plus.

Primary Supervisor:

Dr Anna Mikhaylova

Further info:

Applicants are encouraged to get in touch with Dr Mikhaylova prior to submitting and application at a.mikhaylova@uq.edu.au.