Directory of Experts
Details for Dr Talia Isaacs
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| Name | Dr Talia Isaacs | ||||||
| Job title | Lecturer in Education - TESOL / Applied Linguistics |
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| Department | Graduate School of Education University of Bristol |
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| Personal web page | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/people/talia-isaacs/index.html | ||||||
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| Qualifications | BA, MA, PhD (McGill University) | ||||||
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| Membership of professional bodies | American Association of Applied Linguistics British Association for Applied Linguistics Canadian Association of Language Assessment (Founding Member) European Association for Language Testing and Assessment International Association of Applied Linguistics International Association of Qualitative Inquiry (Founding Member) International Language Testing Association |
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| Keywords | applied linguistics educational assessment second language acquisition foreign accents intelligible pronunciation oral communication language tests social integration |
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| Areas of expertise | My research centres on the assessment of second language (L2) speaking and listening (particularly of pronunciation and fluency), with a focus on developing and validating rating scales, examining how listener perceptions align with L2 speech productions, and oral communication breakdowns and strategies in contexts where the stakes for achieving successful communication are high (eg workplace and academic settings). My currently funded projects broadly examine how communicative efficiency is mediated by listener perceptual and attitudinal variables, with the overall goal of reducing language barriers and improving newcomers' oral communication skills to facilitate their social integration. |
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| Languages (other than English) |
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| Media experience | - Results from published paper in "Bilingualism: Language & Cognition" (2012, with co-author, Pavel Trofimovich, Concordia University, Canada) were reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and my French language interview was streamed on Radio Canada International (RDI). Topic: Teasing apart the aspects of speech that, while noticeable or irritating, do not actually interfere with listeners' understanding of foreign accented speech versus those that genuinely impede communication - Interview with Boni Sones (OBE) following the invited seminar "How do examiners reach judgements?" at Cambridge Assessment. Topic: the influence of individual differences in raters' musical ability and other cognitive variables on their judgements of second language speech |
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