The majority of research in this UoA is officially classified as world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
The following academic units form the submission to UoA 28:
Research in CRiLLS cuts across the conventional school structure. CRiLLS acts as an inclusive platform for all research-active staff in linguistics across: the School of English Language, Literature and Linguistics (SELLL); School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences (ECLS); and School of Modern Languages (SML). CRiLLS has particular strengths in:
theoretical and descriptive linguistics
language acquisition
applied linguistics
clinical linguistics
International impact
Our research in this area is making a positive impact on a global scale:
Improving language development in children
The following case studies demonstrate the impact of our research:
Reading the Past: facilitating Protestant communities in interpreting their medieval heritage
The Protestant convents in Northern Germany present the unique chance for a medievalist to work with the immediate successors of women who wrote manuscripts before the Reformation. These women are keen to gain access to the rich heritage resources, not just for their own understanding of medieval devotion but to share this with the wider community.
Professor Henrike Lähnemann's research has inspired new museum displays for the thousands of tourists visiting the convents, and workshops on liturgical singing and calligraphy, which has led to a markedly different presentation of the pre-Reformation heritage in preparation for the jubilee of the Lutheran Reformation (2017).
Impact of communication changes in Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative neurological disorder which is estimated to affect 6.3m people worldwide, including 1.2m people across Europe and 120,000 people in the UK. Most people with Parkinson's (pwP) experience negative changes to their voice, speech, language and swallowing.
The underpinning research delivered the first concrete and specific insights into service organisation, content and provision for people with Parkinson's (pwP). As a result, the research has been able to directly influence and inform government and professional body aims, policies and guidelines, and inform educational and clinical practice. The research has therefore contributed to the wellbeing of pwP in the UK and across Europe.
Giving poets an international voice via research-led translation
Dr Francis Jones's English translations, influenced by his poetry-translation research, expertly and innovatively communicate Bosnian, Serbian and Dutch poetry to publishers, editors, critics, poets and audiences in the UK, US and worldwide. This gives previously-unknown poets global status, enriching English-reading audiences' cultural experience, but also enhancing Bosnian/Serbian/Dutch poetry-lovers' pride in their literary heritage.
In 2008-2013, Dr Jones's translations inspired events celebrating these poets, were used in other publications and websites, and were ‘translated onward’ into other languages. The research also underpins Dr Jones's expert-seminar leadership and translator assessment work, influencing other translators' working methods and enabling them to communicate more foreign poets to more audiences.
Transforming clinical practice in aphasia: The Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT)
The CAT is a unique clinical assessment for people with aphasia, combining assessment of language, cognitive skills and consideration of the wider effects of aphasia on people's lives. It has well designed sections based on current theoretical understanding. It is widely used by Speech and Language Therapists nationally and internationally and has been translated into several languages. It is being used within clinical trials and projects investigating the relationship between language difficulties and lesion sites; these projects will extend the evidence base for aphasia treatment and will influence clinical practice.
The Talk of the Toon: enhancing the linguistic cultural heritage of North East England
Talk of the Toon is an online resource that preserves the cultural heritage of North Eastern English dialects giving users unprecedented access to multimedia material spanning five decades. Researchers collaborated with regional museums in this initiative during the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (DECTE) project (2010-2012), thereby providing them with new avenues for the public to benefit from their collections.
The pedagogical resources generated have significantly benefitted primary and secondary education. Building on regional engagement initiatives through targeted national/international workshops, the impact has also reached beyond the HEI and region to a wider range of educators and students worldwide.
Trouble talking: increasing understanding of delayed language development in young children and its implications for intervention
Delayed language development is common in young children, affecting up to 20% of children at school entry rising to 40% in the most disadvantaged populations. Many of these children go on to struggle with reading and writing and other academic subjects and many underachieve throughout their schooling and into the work force.
Research at Newcastle has extended the range and quality of evidence in this field via intervention evaluations and through exploring the link between speech, language and communication needs in children and social disadvantage and. Research evidence has influenced and informed key policy debates, such as parliamentary enquiries, with a view to influencing practice amongst speech and language therapists, commissioners, teachers, early years workers and other practitioners.
