School of Languages and Cultures

Summer Research Program - 2022/23 Projects

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

The UQ Summer 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 for the 2022/2023 Summer Research Program have now CLOSED.

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 Summer Research Program

Applications have closed

Available 2022-23 Projects

  1. Communicating Public Health: Stories in the Time of COVID-19
  2. Brisbane’s voices: A pragmatic analysis of conversations in Spanish and Russian communities
  3. Mapping experiences of torture during Aceh’s separatist war
  4. Potential impact of learner background factors on their second language communication
  1. Peer Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) in Academic English MOOCs
  2. Socio-pragmatic understanding of (im)politeness in spoken Korean discourse
  3. Other Projects

2. Brisbane’s voices: A pragmatic analysis of conversations in Spanish and Russian communities

Project title: 

Brisbane’s voices: A pragmatic analysis of conversations in Spanish and Russian communities

Project duration, hours of engagement & delivery mode

  • 8 weeks (November 28 – December 9 & January 9 – February 17)
  • 36 hours per week
  • Applicants will be required to be on campus for the duration of the project. 

Description:

Australia is a multilingual society, however, we do not know much about how members of various speech communities interact with each other. In order to gain a better understanding of what it means to be a member of a non-mainstream Anglo community in Brisbane and to provide a voice to two distinct groups, this project aims to explore ordinary conversations between friends and family in two speech communities: Spanish (larger community, top 5 language used in home in Greater Brisbane) and Russian (smaller community, top 25 language). Drawing on the interactional pragmatics approach and engaging in a detailed analysis of verbal and embodied behaviours, the project will analyse how people construct meaning, relationships and identities through the way they use their heritage language in dyadic and multiparty interactions.

Expected outcomes and deliverables:

Scholars will gain skills in:

  • Interactional pragmatics methodology;
  • Academic articles’ synthesis;
  • Detailed data transcription;
  • Abstract writing;
  • Data analysis;
  • Findings’ presentation at the end of the project.

Scholars will have an opportunity to work alongside the supervisor and some of the supervisors’ PhD students as well as be involved in the data discussion sessions that are organised by the supervisor. All of the developed skills will be crucial for anyone who would like to do an Honours’ or Master’s thesis analysing social interaction or is planning to do a PhD.

Suitable for:

Given the specifics of the project, this opportunity is suitable for:

  • Speakers (native or near native) of Spanish or Russian;
  • 2nd-3rd -year undergraduate students or Master’s students that have some background in language and interaction, more broadly, or pragmatics, in particular;
  • Students who pay attention to detail and have good time management skills.

Primary Supervisor:

Dr Valeria Sinkeviciute

Further info:

Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr Valeria Sinkeviviute (v.sinkeviciute@uq.edu.au) prior to the application submission to discuss their interest in and eligibility to join the project.