Paweł Szudarski

Universities blame ‘societal shift’ for axing foreign language degrees Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says its app is most popular with young people

'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-dvscn-...
Delighted to share this podcast that I recorded with Prof. Susan Hunston, expert in #corpuslinguistics, English grammar, and former senior grammarian. We talked about the paper “Coming to Terms with Success” (1/3)

lancasteruniversity: Corpus linguistics and new technologies: data, language and society | edX In an era of AI and big data, understanding language through data is essential. This hands-on course from Lancaster University—a global leader in corpus linguistics—teaches you to build, query, and an...

Check it out - the corpus MOOC is back (15th September) on a new platform (edX) exploring new topics, including AI. One thing has not changed - it is still free to access 😁 Find out more here: www.edx.org/learn/social...

Missed out on #CL2025? Four of our wonderful plenary talks are now available to watch on demand!

YouTube links on conference website and in replies:

www.cl2025.co.uk/home

Bill Labov: Looking Back, Looking Forward Bill Labov passed away peacefully at home on December 17, 2024, with his wife and fellow Penn linguist Gillian Sankoff by his side. He leaves behind a legacy so large that it is hard to put into word...

@jslx.bsky.social are proud to publish an obituary for William Labov, written by three of Bill’s students @betsysneller.bsky.social, @laurelmack.bsky.social & M Tamminga. We are grateful to Bill’s colleagues and family for the OA costs onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @lhlew.bsky.social

Position Statement on Generative AI in teaching... Position Statement on Generative AI in teaching and research   The Linguistics Discipline in the Department of Languages and Cultures at La Trobe University have developed a discipline-specific posi...

The Linguistics Discipline at La Trobe University have developed a discipline-specific position statement on the role of generative AI in our classrooms.

www.superlinguo.com/post/7908973...

LOL

We are hiring 2 full professors in DH

Join our team @dhssfau.bsky.social @fau.de

2 full professorships in #DigitalHumanities

‼️ Professor in #DH with focus on #HCI

‼️ Professor in #DH with focus on #Place&Space

⏰ Deadline: 2 June 2025

www.fau.eu/people/worki...
@fauphil.bsky.social

Is the UK failing its graduates? Young people are bearing the brunt of a long-term slowdown in the labour market, data shows

'The evidence suggests a degree does still pay off over time, but that the path into well-paid work may be longer and bumpier than in the past.' Low number of graduate jobs, influx of AI cvs and online recruitment processes and shrinking graduate premium (esp. for young women) at issue.

For anybody interested in this topic, the review can be accessed via this link (it's open access):
academic.oup.com/eltj/advance...

This kind of wider discussion and engagement is exactly what I was hoping for when I was writing this review. I think it's important that as a field we consider the ethical and pedagogical uses of AI, calling all stakeholders, including reviewers and publishers, for more attention to this topic.

Benjamin Moorhouse and Hassan Nejadghanbar have just published a great response to my review of 'Vocabulary, corpus and language teaching, an AI-based book.

Thank you both for this response and for all the nice words.

academic.oup.com/eltj/advance...

Record number of universities in deficit Worsening cash crisis presents a ‘grave risk’ to the future of some institutions and courses, say MPs

Now approaching half of all Britain's universities in deficit. Still nothing is done. Every day without a plan will make the eventual reset even more expensive.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...

EUROCALL 2025 - Milano Università Cattolica | 27-30 August 2025

🎉 Registration for #EUROCALL2025 is now OPEN!
We’re heading to Milan this August—join colleagues from around the world for four days of talks, networking, and great Italian vibes 🇮🇹
📅 27–30 August 2025
🔗 Register now: eurocall2025.com
#ELT #appliedlinguistics #Edlang #CALL

International university students Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot again.

“To govern is to choose: my policy recommendation is that the government does not make the UK poorer by curtailing international student migration.”

Excellent piece from @timleunig.bsky.social & Public First colleagues here 👇

timleunig.substack.com/p/internatio...

Many congratulations!

"Discovering Statistics Using JASP": A Teaching Guide - JASP - Free and User-Friendly Statistical Software As the title suggests, the shiny new textbook “Discovering Statistics Using JASP” differs from “Discovering Statistics Using SPSS” mainly in the software that is being used. While the theory sections ...

Thinking of switching from teaching with SPSS to JASP in your stats course? We made a guide just for you. Same theory, simpler software, better teaching.

Discovering Statistics Using JASP
Blog: jasp-stats.org/blog/discove...

#statistics #teaching #JASP #openscience #edu

‘Stamp out paper mills’ — science sleuths on how to fight fake research A group of scientists who are experts at spotting fraudulent research outline five essential steps to combat industrialized scientific misconduct.

A group of scientists who are experts at spotting fraudulent research outline five essential steps to combat industrialized scientific misconduct

https://go.nature.com/4h78aSw

Many congratulations!

Baker & Brookes (2025) 'Masculinities and Language' in #openaccess

Schemas, Chunking and Working Memory - kirschner-ED How do we manage to process and retain complex or lengthy information—such as sentences, problem-solving steps, or visual configurations—when our WM capacity is so limited?

How do we manage to process and retain complex or lengthy information—such as sentences, problem-solving steps, or visual configurations—when our WM capacity is so limited?
Simple: We use cognitive schemas and chunking!
#EduSky
www.kirschnered.nl/2025/04/11/s...

I’m pleased to say that we’re advertising an open ended lectureship in Early Modern English Literature at Glasgow. Details here, and please share:

www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Preamble All research at our institution, from ideation and execution to analysis and reporting, is bound by the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. This code specifies five core values that organise and inform research conduct: Honesty, Scrupulousness, Transparency, Independence and Responsibility. One way to summarise the guidelines in this document is to say they are about taking these core values seriously. When it comes to using Generative AI in or for research, the question is if and how this can be done honestly, scrupulously, transparently, independently, and responsibly. A key ethical challenge is that most current Generative AI undermines these values by design [3–5; details below]. Input data is legally questionable; output reproduces biases and erases authorship; fine-tuning involves exploitation; access is gated; versioning is opaque; and use taxes the environment. While most of these issues apply across societal spheres, there is something especially pernicious about text generators in academia, where writing is not merely an output format but a means of thinking, crediting, arguing, and structuring thoughts. Hollowing out these skills carries foundational risks. A common argument for Generative AI is a promise of higher productivity [5]. Yet productivity does not equal insight, and when kept unchecked it may hinder innovation and creativity [6, 7]. We do not need more papers, faster; we rather need more thoughtful, deep work, also known as slow science [8–10]. For these reasons, the first principle when it comes to Generative AI is to not use it unless you can do so honestly, scrupulously, transparently, independently and responsibly. The ubiquity of tools like ChatGPT is no reason to skimp on standards of research integrity; if anything, it requires more vigilance.

A year ago our faculty commissioned & adopted guidance on GenAI and research integrity. Preamble below, pdf at osf.io/preprints/os..., text also at ideophone.org/generative-a...

Key to these guidelines is a values-first rather than a technology-first approach, based on NL code of research conduct

Learning to speak like a lawyer In her 2007 ethnographic study of eight US law schools, Elizabeth Mertz traces the process through which law students learn to “think like a lawyer” in order to become one. She shows how this proce…

New on Language-on-the-Move: for international students, bilingualism is an optional benefits that comes with the real risk of being seen as less competent

@lauraskh.bsky.social shares her latest research with aspiring migration agents
www.languageonthemove.com/learning-to-...

Exciting news. Many congratulations!

An AI generated colorful image, trying to catch the eye of potential PhD students.

Two Fully-Funded PhD positions at Auckland Uni!

Come help us understand the past and future of global cultural and linguistic diversity.

#linguistics #evolution #academia #phd

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

When did human language emerge? Humans' unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago, according to a survey of genomic evidence. As such, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago.

When did human language emerge? www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Timothy Snyder and Sławomir Sierakowski Are Raising Funds Towards an Armored Evacuation Vehicle | UNITED24 (Ukraine House DC Foundation) (Powered by Donorbox) Timothy Snyder, Sławomir Sierakowski, and UNITED24 Are Raising Funds Towards an Armored Evacuation Vehicle for UkraineAmerican historian Timothy Snyder, Polish journalist Sławomir Sierakowski, and UNI...

From the good news department: Thanks to the support of thousands of Poles, Slawek Sierakowski and I have reached the goal of funding one armored ambulance for Ukrainian medics — in one day. Today starting the drive for a second. Please help.
donorbox.org/armored-mede...

Do you speak other languages at home? This will not hold your child back at school It is common for parents to worry about raising a child to be multilingual. They may wonder, am I harming my child’s English if I speak another language at home?

Do you speak other languages at home? This will not hold your child back at school theconversation.com/...

On the responsibilities of intellectuals and the rise of bullshit jobs in universities You may never have considered yourself to be one. Why would you? But if you’re reading this, there is more than a likelihood that you are one. If you’re a

Very good on The Great University Disaster. Note it's *not* attacking administrators: indeed unis may be *under*-managed. The point is that extreme, inappropriate corporatization and bureaucratization has destroyed their very purpose, like a virus from within. (1/2)
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...