Lancaster University was established in 1964. Organised into eight undergraduate, and one postgraduate colleges, and four academic faculties, it hosts approximately 13,000 students on the Lancaster campus. Eighty-nine per cent of students are full-time and 28 per cent are postgraduate. Of more than 2,860 employees, 42 per cent are teaching and research staff. The university aims to engage locally, nationally and internationally in important issues and debates, and to provide the ‘highest quality research and teaching ‘that ‘informs and changes practice worldwide’. Lancaster is ranked in the UK Top 10 in both the Guardian and the Complete University Guide. The University is also ranked No.1 in the North West of the UK, and is in the Top 1% of universities globally. Lancaster also rose to 121st in the QS World University Rankings 2015-16, and 130th in the THE World University Rankings 2015-16. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework, 83 per cent of its research was deemed internationally excellent and 35 per cent world-leading.
The Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University is ranked 19th in the world for Linguistics in the International QS rankings 2017, 4th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide Subject Ranking, and 5th in the UK in the 2016 Complete University Guide. The department’s specialisms include Corpus Linguistics; Discourse Studies; Language Teaching, Learning and Assessment, Literacy Studies and many others. Over 70% of our undergraduate students attain a graduate level position 6 months after graduating. The department offers many popular postgraduate programmes, onsite and distance.
The Department of Linguistics and English Language has over 30 years of experience of being involved in international and European Union funded collaborative research and teaching-related projects. The latest example for such a project is the Dystefl (Dyslexia for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) funded by the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning program. It ran between 2013 and 2015 and was awarded the British Council’s Excellence in Course Design prize.
The Lancaster team brings its expertise in the field of dyslexia and second language learning and teaching and computer assisted language teaching to the project. Professor Judit Kormos is a well-known researcher in the field of second language acquisition who investigates the impact of specific learning differences on the processes of language development. She has also developed the successful Dyslexia and language teaching massive open online learning course and has run teacher training workshops worldwide. Dr. Marije Michel has published widely on using computer-based tools to enhance language learning and has been involved in training teachers of German and Dutch as a second language. Dr. Uschi Maiden-Weinberger, who is the research associate of the Lancaster team, has experience in teaching German as a foreign language and using corpus-based tools in language teaching.
Participating staff
Dr. Uschi Maden-Weinberger