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Miss Susannah Paice

Research student

School of English, Communication and Philosophy

cymraeg
Welsh speaking

Overview

I am a postgraduate researcher in the Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR), funded by the ESRC. Prior to beginning my PhD research, I completed my undergraduate degree in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Studies - Gaelic at the University of Aberdeen, followed by an MA in Information and Library Studies at Aberystwyth University, and an MA in Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University.

My research interests include second language acquisition and usage-based theory. These are combined in my PhD thesis which is focused on furthering our understanding of how usage-based theory can be applied to second language acquisition, using an online language learning platform, SaySomethingIn, as a case study.

Research

My research aims to investigate a radically usage-based approach to the learning of second languages (L2s), including Welsh as an L2. Usage-based theories of language and of language learning have become very influential over the past 15 years, including in explaining first language acquisition. However, its insights have not been widely applied to L2 learning where methodology still follows more traditional understandings of language learning. This project addresses this shortcoming by investigating how fully usage-based L2 learning would work.

It uses SaySomethingIn (SSi) as a case study of a potentially usage-based language learning programme to ascertain how the framework may or may not be an accurate and useful portrayal of second language acquisition. This will involve a mixed methods approach, including quantitative data from the SSi programme itself and qualitative data from participants using the programme.

Thesis

Usage-Based Language Learning: How it Works