Newcastle University

Research Interests

My research interests are primarily in Bilingual Cognition, Language and Thought, and Language Acquisition. I am particularly interested in the dynamic relationship between language acquisition and conceptual development, and the extent to which learning novel lexical and/or grammatical categories leads to cognitive restructuring in the mind of the L2 user. I apply an experimental approach to these topics, using linguistic, behavioural and more recently neurophysiological measures. My recent research programmes have examined grammatical number marking and object classification preferences, as well as the influence of language on perceptual categories such as colour and facial expression of emotion.

Funding

Swedish Research Council Grant. January 2011 - December 2013. £270000 (approx) awarded for the project 'Temporal language and thought. Language-specific spatial interference in time estimations.' (in collaboration with Manne Bylund).

Strategic Development Grant. September 2011 – September 2012. £1300 awarded by the Centre for Research in Language and Linguistics for the project ‘An investigation of structural priming in young children using mouse tracking’ (in collaboration with Nick Riches).

Research Development Grant. March - September 2010. £2600 awarded by the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism for the project: ‘Language Diversity and Thought: Motion Events in Language, Memory, and Cognition.’ (in collaboration with Manne Bylund and Guillaume Thierry)

Research Development Grant. October 2008-January 2009. £3100 awarded by the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism for the project: ‘A systematic investigation of Welsh colour terms and their semantic extension on colour space.’ (in collaboration with Guillaume Thierry)

Projects

• Temporal Language & thought in bilinguals
• Temporal language and thought in bilinguals

• Module leader of the following postgraduate modules:

-       Cross-Cultural Cognition and Bilingualism

-       Introduction to Psycholinguistics

-       Research Methods in Cross-Cultural Communication (Semester 1)

 I also contribute towards the module ‘Research Methods in Applied Linguistics for Doctoral Students’.

• PhD Supervision:

1.    Fatimah Almutrafi, ‘The effect of grammatical gender on object perception in Arabic and English’.

2.  Fraibet Aveledo, ‘The development of the conceptualization of motion events in Spanish and English speaking children: a comparison between two typologically different languages’.

3.    Ifigeneia Athanasiadou, [Erasmus Internship Scheme] ‘Conceptualization and expression of count and mass nouns: An experimental investigation in Language Acquisition’. 

4.  Bastien Boutonnet, [2nd supervisor] ‘Investigating Linguistic Relativity in Bilingualism: The case of grammatical gender and object categorisation’.

 5.  Alina Schartner, ‘Adjustment issues, cross-cultural effectiveness and friendship patterns of international students at a UK University’.

• Athanasopoulos P, Bylund E. Does grammatical aspect affect motion event cognition? A cross-linguistic comparison of English and Swedish speakers. Cognitive Science 2012. In Press.
• Athanasopoulos P, Aveledo F. Linguistic relativity and bilingualism. In: Altarriba, J. & Isurin, L, ed. Memory and Language: Theoretical and Applied Approaches to Bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. In Press.
• Athanasopoulos P. Linguistic relativity and second language acquisition. In: Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. In Press.
• Athanasopoulos P. Linguistic relativity in SLA. Thinking for speaking [book review]. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 2011, 14(5), 621-625.
• Baker C, Athanasopoulos P. Bilingualism and Cognition. In: Baker, C, ed. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2011, pp.138-162.
• Athanasopoulos P. Cognitive restructuring in bilingualism. In: Pavlenko, A, ed. Thinking and Speaking in Two Languages. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2011, pp.29-65.
• Athanasopoulos P. Colour and bilingual cognition. In: Cook, V.J., Bassetti, B, ed. Language and Bilingual Cognition. Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 2011, pp.241-262.
• Athanasopoulos P, Kasai C. Effects of second language on cognition in English users of L2 Japanese. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 2011, 8, 13-27.
• Athanasopoulos P, Damjanovic L, Krajciova A, Sasaki M. Representation of colour concepts in bilingual cognition: The case of Japanese blues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2011, 14(special issue 1), 9-17.
• Athanasopoulos P, Dering B, Wiggett A, Kuipers J, Thierry G. Perceptual shift in bilingualism: Brain potentials reveal plasticity in pre-attentive colour perception. Cognition 2010, 116(3), 437-443.
• Damjanovic L, Roberson D, Athanasopoulos P, Kasai C, Dyson M. Searching for happiness across cultures. Journal of Cognition and Culture 2010, 10(1), 85-107.
• Athanasopoulos P. Cognitive representation of colour in bilinguals: The case of Greek blues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2009, 12(1), 83-95.
• Athanasopoulos P, Wiggett A, Dering B, Kuipers J, Thierry G. The Whorfian Mind: Electrophysiological evidence that language shapes perception. Communicative & Integrative Biology 2009, 2(4), 332-334.
• Thierry G, Athanasopoulos P, Wiggett A, Dering B, Kuipers J. Unconscious effects of language-specific terminology on pre-attentive colour perception. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2009, 106(11), 4567-4570.
• Athanasopoulos P, Kasai C. Language and thought in bilinguals: The case of grammatical number and nonverbal classification preferences. Applied Psycholinguistics 2008, 29(1), 105-123.
• Athanasopoulos P. Universal and language-specific patterns of categorisation. Glossa 2008, 4, 51-72.
• Athanasopoulos P. Do bilinguals think differently from monolinguals?. In: Selected Papers on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. 2007, Thessaloniki, Greece: Monochromia.
• Athanasopoulos P. Interaction between grammatical categories and cognition in bilinguals: The role of proficiency, cultural immersion, and language of instruction. Language and Cognitive Processes 2007, 22(5), 689-699.
• Uther M, Uther J, Athanasopoulos P, Singh P, Akahane-Yamada R. Mobile adaptive CALL (MAC). A lightweight speech-based intervention for mobile language learners. In: International Speech Communication Association: 8th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech 2007. 2007, Antwerp, Belgium.
• Hawkins R, Al-Eid S, Almahboob I, Athanasopoulos P, Chaengchenkit R, Hu J, Rezai M, Jaensch C, Jeon Y, Jiang A, Leung I, Matsunaga K, Ortega M, Sarko G, Snape N, Velasco-Zarate K. Accounting for English article interpretation by L2 speakers. EUROSLA Yearbook 2006, 6(1), 7-25.
• Athanasopoulos P. Effects of the grammatical representation of number on cognition in bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2006, 9(1), 89-96.