PhD in Psychology

With Wales being a bilingual society, it is common for many people to use both Welsh and English when interacting with other people. The project addresses the 'bilingual communication "paradox' and aims to study language choice and switching in more naturalistic bilingual contexts, focusing on Welsh-English bilinguals. It will examine how language choice and behaviour are shaped by factors related to the bilingual themselves (such as language preferences, age, regional location of origin and speed of lexical retrieval in each language) and by contextual factors (such as overall language environment and behaviour of the conversation partner). It will also examine how bilinguals use language control in informal spoken and digital communication, and how this is influenced by the factors mentioned above. The research aims to inform theories of language processes, feed into policy discussions, and highlight the importance of Welsh populations to bilingualism research. Potential societal consequences include implications for bilingual education and clinical language assessments (e.g., early dementia assessment). Location: Swansea.