2026 Winter Research Program
Engage in a formal research project over the winter break with the UQ Winter 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.
Each project will be offered for a period of four (4) weeks between 29 June to 24 July 2026.
Successful applicants will receive a $2,000 grant.
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.
Please check your eligibility before submitting an application.
Applications will open on 23 March 2026 and will close on 12 April 2026.
Check out some testimonials from previous scholars.
7. How prior language experience shapes new language learning
Project title: | How prior language experience shapes new language learning |
Hours of engagement & delivery mode | Winter program: 29 June – 24 July 2026 Hours of engagement: 30 hours per week While occasional in-person meetings may be required, most of the work can be done remotely. |
Description: | The project investigates how prior language-learning experience influences the acquisition of an additional language, particularly when processing strategies align across languages. This remains under-researched because Second Language Acquisition has traditionally adopted a narrow view of transfer—primarily from one’s first language to a second language—which does not fully capture the complex, multilingual reality of many language learners today. We address this gap through psycholinguistic experiments grounded in cognitive-functional theories and designed to examine real-time sentence comprehension. In this Winter Research project, the student researcher will contribute to the development of experimental stimuli and assist in coding and implementing behavioural experiments using an online stimulus presentation platform. This project forms part of a broader initiative funded by the UQ–Emory Collaborative Research Partnership Grant. Student researchers will contribute to an international research collaboration at the forefront of research on bilingualism and multilingualism. |
Expected learning outcomes and deliverables: | Student researchers will gain hands-on experience in designing, coding, and conducting psycholinguistic experiments. They will develop skills in experimental programming and stimulus preparation while working closely with researchers. Scholars will assist in developing experimental stimuli and in programming and implementing the experiments using an online stimulus presentation platform, resulting in a study ready for data collection. |
Suitable for: | This project is suitable for advanced undergraduate, honours, and postgraduate students with a background in linguistics or psychology. A strong command of Japanese will be highly regarded. Successful candidates should be self-motivated and able to work independently, while maintaining strong attention to detail. As the experiment involves coordinating hundreds of audio and visual stimuli, strong organisational skills are essential. Experience with coding or experimental design will be advantageous but is not required. |
Primary Supervisor: | |
Further info: | Shortlisted applicants may be invited to a brief interview. |