Our Team
Paola Escudero
Title: Professor in Linguistics, Project Leader and developer
Institution: The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University
Professor Paola Escudero is a CoEDL Chief Investigator based at The MARCS Institute. She is an expert in first and second language acquisition and a champion of Australia’s cultural diversity. Her interests include word learning and phonetic detail in multilingual communities. She collaborates with various world-wide experts in fields of statistical learning, multilingualism, phonetics and analysis techniques that can be applied to individual language learners. Paola was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship, which she started in 2017, and has received several research prizes, grants and recognitions. Paola has published over 100 scientific papers in the areas of linguistics, applied linguistics, bilingualism and sociolinguistics. Paola is a mum of a 5-year-old girl she is raising trilingually. For a full list of publications please see Paola’s personal publication page (opens in a new window).
Recent Publications
Escudero, P., Pino Escobar, G., Casey, C., & Sommer, K. (2021). Four-year-olds’ online versus face-to-face word learning via eBooks. Frontiers in psychology. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.610975
Paola Escudero, Criss Jones Diaz, John Hajek, Gillian Wigglesworth, and Eline Adrianne Smit. 2020. "Probability of Heritage Language Use at a Supportive Early Childhood Setting in Australia." Frontiers in Education. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00093.
Paola Escudero and Marina Kalashnikova. 2020. " Infants use phonetic detail in speech perception and word learning when detail is easy to perceive." Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104714
L Liu, Paola Escudero, C Quattropani, and R Robbins. 2020. "Factors affecting infant toy preferences: age, gender, experience, motor development, and parental attitude." Infancy. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12352.
Hannah Sarvasy, Jaydene Elvin, Weicong Li, and Paola Escudero. 2020. "An acoustic phonetic description of Nungon vowels." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Special Issue. 147 (4): 2891-2900. doi: doi.org/10.1121/10.0001003.
Marina Kalashnikova, Paola Escudero and Evan Kidd. 2018. "The development of fast-mapping and novel word retention strategies in monolingual and bilingual infants." Developmental Science. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12674
Paola Escudero, Karen Mulak, Charlene Fu and Leher Singh. 2016. "More limitations to monolingualism: Bilinguals outperform monolinguals in implicit word learning." Frontiers in Psychology. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01218
Gloria Pino Escobar
Title: Master of Science, PhD, Research Officer and co-developer
Institution: The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University
Gloria holds a PhD in psycholinguistics from The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University. Gloria has a Master of Science in Psycholinguistic research (2017) and a BA in Interpreting and Translation (2015). Gloria formerly worked as a lawyer but changed careers after experiencing motherhood. Gloria is raising two bilingual children and her role as a mother led her to study child communication, play and learning strategies (2010-2011) and parental speech therapies (2012). She holds a certificate in community language teaching (2018) and has completed several seminars about child and language development. Gloria and Paola have co-authored an article showing the cognitive and linguistic benefits of childhood bilingualism and are currently researching language learning and use in bilingual preschoolers. You can read the article here (opens in a new window).
Recent Publications
Escudero, P., Pino Escobar, G., Casey, C., & Sommer, K. (2021). Four-year-olds’ online versus face-to-face word learning via eBooks. Frontiers in psychology. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.610975
Gloria Pino Escobar, Marina Kalashnikova, and Paola Escudero. 2018. "Vocabulary matters! The relationship between verbal fluency and measures of inhibitory control in monolingual and bilingual children." Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 170: 177-189.
Gloria Pino Escobar, Josephine Terry, Buddhamas Kriengwatana, and Paola Escudero. 2016. "Speech normalization across speaker, sex and accent variation is handled similarly by listeners of different language backgrounds". In Proceedings of the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 161-164. Parramatta, Australia.
Gloria Pino Escobar, Marina Kalashnikova, and Paola Escudero. 2016. "The bilingual advantage in the language processing domain: Evidence from the Verbal Fluency Task". In Proceedings of the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 129-132. Parramatta, Australia.
Myra Luinge
Title: Master of Science, Research Assistant and co-developer
Institution: The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University
Myra holds two bachelor degrees: a bachelor in Pedagogical Sciences (University of Groningen) and a bachelor of Education in Primary Schools (Hanze University of Applied Sciences). Following her bachelor studies, she obtained her Master of Science degree in Educational Sciences at the University of Groningen in 2018. She also worked as a primary school teacher in the Netherlands. Within LMM, her role is to create a bridge between theory and practice in early childhood education.
Writings
Luinge, M. (2018). The Relationship between Motor Skills and Executive Functions in 3-6-year-old Children. Unpublished Master of Educational Sciences Thesis. The University of Groningen.
Luinge, M. (2017). Social Interaction between 4-6- year-old Primary School Children during Free Play. Unpublished Bachelor of Pedagogical Sciences Thesis.
Gillian Wigglesworth
Title: Professor in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, collaborator
Program: University of Melbourne
Professor Wigglesworth has expertise in first and second language acquisition, bilingualism and testing and assessment. She has worked extensively over the last 20 years with Indigenous children living in remote areas of Australia, recording and documenting the languages they use and the issues they face when they enter the predominantly English-only formal school system. She has a long-standing relationship with the Yirrkala community over the period where the school has been bilingual. She was the inaugural Director of the Research Unit for Indigenous Language (RUIL) at the University of Melbourne, is currently lead CI at the Melbourne node of CoEDL, as well as leader of the Learning research program. She is currently completing two ARC Discovery Project (DP) grants, both focused on remote Indigenous children in school contexts. She has published widely on Indigenous children’s language development and education.
Recent Publications
Paola Escudero, Criss Jones Diaz, John Hajek, Gillian Wigglesworth, and Eline Adrianne Smit. 2020. "Probability of Heritage Language Use at a Supportive Early Childhood Setting in Australia." Frontiers in Education. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00093.
Philip Thierfelder, Gillian Wigglesworth, and G Tang. 2020. "Sign Phonological Parameters Modulate Parafoveal Preview Effects in Deaf Readers." Cognition. 201
Kellie Frost, Joshua Clothier, Annemiek Huisman, and Gillian Wigglesworth. 2020. "Responding to a TOEFL iBT integrated speaking task: mapping task demands and test-takers’ use of stimulus content." Language Testing. 37 (1): 133-155. doi: doi/10.1177/0265532219860750.
Davidson, Lucinda, Kelly, Barbara, Wigglesworth, Gillian, and Nordlinger, Rachel. In press. “Input and Child Directed Speech in Australian Aboriginal Communities”. In Handbook of Australian Languages, OUP.
Gillian Wigglesworth, Amir Rouhshad, and Neomy Storch. 2016. "The nature of negotiations in face-to-face versus computer-mediated communication in pair interactions." Language Teaching Research. 20 (4): 514-534. doi: 10.1177/1362168815584455.
John Hajek
Title: Professor of Italian Studies, collaborator
Institution: University of Melbourne
Professor Hajek is an expert in multilingualism and language education in Australia, including in the early years, with extensive experience of the HL sector. He is director of the Research Centre for Multilingualism and Cross-cultural Communication (RUMACCC) at the University of Melbourne. Professor Hajek has successfully conducted numerous projects on different aspects of Multilingualism and language education, including on ELLA and other digital technology in early years. He is currently a co-CI on an ARC DP exploring successful early years language education in Australian primary schools.
Recent Publications
Paola Escudero, Criss Jones Diaz, John Hajek, Gillian Wigglesworth, and Eline Adrianne Smit. 2020. "Probability of Heritage Language Use at a Supportive Early Childhood Setting in Australia." Frontiers in Education. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00093.
Travis, Catherine, Hajek, John, Nettelbeck, Colin, and Woods, Anya Lloyd. 2014. "Introduction". In Practices and Policies: Current Research in Languages and Cultures Education, 1-5. Melbourne, Australia: Languages and Cultures Network of Australian Universities (LCNAU).
Catherine Travis, John Hajek, Colin Nettelbeck, Elizabeth Beckmann, and Anya Lloyd Woods. 2014. Practices and Policies: Current Research in Languages and Cultures Education. Melbourne, Australia: Languages and Cultures Network of Australian Universities (LCNAU).
Deborah Loakes, John Hajek, and Janet Fletcher. 2017. "Can you t[æ]ll I’m from M[æ]lbourne? An overview of the DRESS and TRAP vowels before /l/ as a regional accent marker in Australian English." English Worldwide. 38 (1): 29-49. doi: 10.1075/eww.38.1.03loa.
Mohd Hilmi Hamzah, Janet Fletcher, and John Hajek. 2016. "The role of closure duration in the perception of word-initial geminates in Kelantan Malay". In Proceedings of the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 85-88. Parramatta, Australia.
Chloe Diskin-Holdaway
Title: Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, collaborator
Institution: University of Melbourne
Dr Diskin-Holdaway is an expert in sociolinguistics and the acquisition of accents and dialects. She has worked extensively with migrant communities in Ireland and Australia to understand the social aspects of second language acquisition, particularly from the perspective of identity. Her most recent project, in collaboration with Professor Escudero, is a nationwide survey of people’s perception of the Australian accent. She has also collaborated with the LMM team on a national survey of the needs and challenges faced by multilingual families in Australia.
Recent Publications
Diskin-Holdaway, Chloé and Escudero, Paola. 2021. Don’t be afraid to pass your first language, and accent, to your kids. It could be their superpower. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/dont-be-afraid-to-pass-your-first-language-and-accent-to-your-kids-it-could-be-their-superpower-143093
Diskin-Holdaway, Chloé. 2021. You know and like among migrants in Ireland and Australia. World Englishes, Early View.
Diskin, Chloé. 2020. New speakers in the Irish context: Heritage language maintenance among multilingual migrants in Dublin, Ireland. Frontiers in Education, 4, 163.
Escudero, Paola; Jones Diaz, Criss; Diskin-Holdaway, Chloé; Hajek, John. 2019. Needs and demands for classroom and community-based support for home language maintenance in Australia: Findings from a large-scale online survey. Australian Linguistic Society Conference, Macquarie University, Sydney.
Diskin, Chloé & Regan, Vera. 2017. The attitudes of recently-arrived Polish migrants to Irish English. World Englishes, 36(2), 191–207.
Regan, Vera, Diskin, Chloé & Martyn, Jennifer (eds.) 2016. Language, Identity and Migration: Voices from Transnational Speakers and Communities. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Hong Cai
Title: Education Specialist
Institution: University of Adelaide
Dr Hong Cai is an Education Specialist at The University of Adelaide. She received a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Queensland. She is also a NAATI Certified Translator. Her research interests include Chinese linguistics, the acquisition of Chinese as a second language, translation and interpreting studies. She has published articles, textbooks and dictionary for learners of Chinese as a second language. As a recipient of the Stephen Cole the Elder Awards for Excellence, she has implemented innovative pedagogies to transform Chinese language learning in the Australian context. Due to her recent role in developing the Master of Interpretation, Translation and Transcultural Communication program at Adelaide, she has devoted much of her attention to translation and interpreting studies. However, as a linguist and a mum of two bilingual children, she is always passionate about languages and linguistics. For more information, please see https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/hong.cai
Recent Publications
Chen, M., & Cai, H. (2021). Translating anglophobia: Tensions and paradoxes of biliterate performances in Singapore [翻译恐英症新加坡实施双语政策时的紧张与矛盾]. Target: international journal on translation studies. Retrieved from https://benjamins.com/online/target/articles/target.25.2.04lee.zh
Cai, H., & Li, S. (2020). 隐喻是如何呈现于字幕中的[How metaphors are rendered in subtitles]. Target-International Journal of Translation Studies. Retrieved from https://benjamins.com/online/target/articles/target.16038.ped.zh
Dai, L., & Cai, H. (2019). Differences between linguists and subject-matter experts in the medical translation practice: An empirical descriptive study with professional translators. Target-International Journal of Translation Studies. Retrieved from https://benjamins.com/online/target/articles/target.14130.mun.zh
Cai, H. (2018). (Un)translatable Colours in Chinese: A Corpus-based Study on Honglou Meng and Its Two English Translations. In D. Gonigroszek, & A. Kwiatkowska (Eds.), Discourses on Colour (pp. 123-152). The Jan Kochanowski University Press.
