Project Scholarships are made available through research-related funding. Please make contact with the listed Lead Supervisor to have a discussion about the project prior to applying.
Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects: A computational approach
This PhD project is part of a funded ARC Discovery Project entitled Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects. Summary of the Discovery project: This project will provide a unifying theory of how subsequent languages are acquired after mastering two languages or dialects. Expected outcomes include a deep understanding of how multilingual and multidialect mastery proceeds, how these are represented in the brain, and how they manifest in communicative contexts.
The PhD candidate will work on connecting the project's computational model with the corpus testing, including linguistic and statistical analysis and write-up of journal articles and a PhD thesis. They will also assist with data management and corpus cleaning. They will also conduct online testing for 250 sessions spread over years 1 and 2, including participant recruitment, and therefore the PhD candidate should have experience with conducting either computational and empirical studies and be interested in learning one of the two methodologies if they do not have experience with it.
Primary supervision will be provided by Professor Paola Escudero Lead CI of the ARC Discovery project, with external co-supervision by co-CI A/Prof Chloe Diskin-Holdaway, PI Dr Kakeru Yazawa and postdoctoral fellow Dr Jooyoung Lee.
What does the scholarship provide?
Domestic candidates will receive a tax-free stipend of $35,188 (AUD) per annum for up to 3 years to support living costs, supported by the Research Training Program (RTP) Fee Offset.
International candidates will receive a tax-free stipend of $35,188 (AUD) per annum for up to 3 years to support living costs. Those with a strong track record will be eligible for a tuition fee waiver.
International candidates are required to hold an Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) insurance policy for the duration of their study in Australia.
Eligibility criteria
We welcome international applicants with a background in computational, statistical and corpus linguistics with demonstrated skills in computational programming languages for linguistic analysis.
The successful applicant should:
Hold qualifications and experience equal to one of the following in the are of Corpus or Computational Linguistics:
an Australian First Class Bachelor (Honours) degree,
coursework Masters with at least 25% research component,
Research Masters degree, or
equivalent overseas qualifications.
Demonstrate strong academic performance in Computational and Corpus Linguistics.
Ability to program in a variety of computational languages.
Have an understanding of the importance of computational and corpus methods for analysing linguistic data.
Be willing to learn to program and conduct computational and empirical experiments to collect linguistic data.
Be enthusiastic and highly motivated to undertake further study at an advanced level.
Applications close: 30 June 2026 Reference: PS2026_023_CS0801950_MARCS
Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects: A computational approach
This PhD project is part of a funded ARC Discovery Project entitled Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects. Summary of the Discovery project: This project will provide a unifying theory of how subsequent languages are acquired after mastering two languages or dialects. Expected outcomes include a deep understanding of how multilingual and multidialect mastery proceeds, how these are represented in the brain, and how they manifest in communicative contexts.
The PhD candidate will work on connecting the project's computational model with the corpus testing, including linguistic and statistical analysis and write-up of journal articles and a PhD thesis. They will also assist with data management and corpus cleaning. They will also conduct online testing for 250 sessions spread over years 1 and 2, including participant recruitment, and therefore the PhD candidate should have experience with conducting either computational and empirical studies and be interested in learning one of the two methodologies if they do not have experience with it.
Primary supervision will be provided by Professor Paola Escudero Lead CI of the ARC Discovery project, with external co-supervision by co-CI A/Prof Chloe Diskin-Holdaway and PI Dr Kakeru Yazawa.
What does the scholarship provide?
Domestic candidates will receive a tax-free stipend of $35,188 (AUD) per annum for up to 3 years to support living costs, supported by the Research Training Program (RTP) Fee Offset.
Support for conference attendance, fieldwork and additional costs as approved by School/Institute.
Eligibility criteria
We welcome applicants with a background in computational, statistical and corpus linguistics with demonstrated skills in computational programming languages for linguistic analysis.
The successful applicant should:
Hold qualifications and experience equal to one of the following in the are of Corpus or Computational Linguistics:
an Australian First Class Bachelor (Honours) degree,
coursework Masters with at least 25% research component,
Research Masters degree, or
equivalent overseas qualifications.
Demonstrate strong academic performance in Computational and Corpus Linguistics.
Ability to program in a variety of computational languages.
Have an understanding of the importance of computational and corpus methods for analysing linguistic data.
Be willing to learn to program and conduct computational and empirical experiments to collect linguistic data.
Be enthusiastic and highly motivated to undertake further study at an advanced level.
Applications close: 31 July 2026
Reference: PS2025_CS0550452_MARCS
Research Scholarships
Visit the GRS Research Scholarship page for more information on Research Scholarships offered by the University.
