Details

Open Date 06/20/2024

Requisition Number PRN38928B

Job Title Post Doc Res Assoc w/Ret

Working Title Post Doc Res Assoc w/Ret

Job Grade A00

FLSA Code Administrative

Patient Sensitive Job Code? No

Standard Hours per Week 40

Full Time or Part Time? Full Time

Shift Day

Work Schedule Summary

M-F

VP Area Academic Affairs

Department 01499 - 2nd Language Teach & Res Ctr

Location Campus

City Salt Lake City, UT

Type of Recruitment External Posting

Pay Rate Range 55000 to 65000

Close Date

Open Until Filled Yes

Job Summary

The Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC: http://l2trec.utah.edu) at the University of Utah invites applications for a full-time post-doctoral position, up to 3 years, in Corpus Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. L2TReC is a vibrant hub for faculty and students with research interests in Second Language Acquisition and L2 pedagogy. It coordinates research based on data generated by the State of Utah’s ambitious Dual Language Immersion Program (http://www.utahdli.org), delivers intensive language courses to military personnel, provides support and training for L2 instructors at all levels, and administers the statewide Bridge Program-Advanced Language Pathway for high school students graduating out of Utah’s Dual Immersion Program and heritage language learners who pass the AP Exam (http://l2trec.utah.edu/bridge-program/index.php).

Responsibilities

We are seeking a post-doctoral fellow with a background in corpus linguistics, preferably with hands-on experience in corpus building and pedagogical applications of corpora. The successful applicant will oversee continued development of the Center’s Multilingual Corpus of Second Language Speech and the Corpus of Utah DLI Writing .

To date, the spoken corpus contains samples from over 500 child and adult speakers of Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and the written corpus contains approximately 5 million words of Chinese, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Speech samples have been transcribed and tagged according to CHILDES protocols. There is no expectation that applicants will have had prior experience working with CHILDES , but the successful candidate is expected to gain the requisite expertise upon joining our team.

Strong text processing skills using a scripting language (Python, Perl, etc.) and up-to-date knowledge of statistics are required. It will be the responsibility of the successful applicant to lead further additions and improvements to the corpora and to participate in the development of corpus-based pedagogical materials for use in DLI classrooms. This will require training and supervising a cadre of student research assistants in the corpus languages (Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish) and collaborating with foreign language teachers.

The ideal candidate will have native or near-native proficiency in one of the corpus languages as well as English. Applicant must be self-motivated, resourceful, very organized, able to multi-task and prioritize and possess strong quantitative and analytic skills. Strong writing ability is required, as applicant will be expected to contribute to grant writing efforts in support of corpus development and to write academic articles using the corpus data.

Minimum Qualifications

Required Qualifications :

• PhD in related field.

• Sound knowledge of corpus linguistics (annotation, text processing, pedagogical applications) and quantitative analysis of corpus data and full proficiency in a scripting language (e.g., Python).

• Ability to acquire new technical and/or theoretical knowledge as needed.

• Native or near-native proficiency in spoken and written English.

• Ability to coordinate day-to-day business with the PIs and research assistants to ensure that project goals and deadlines are met.

• Excellent communication skills, including strong writing skills, and the ability to work well in a team.

• A high level of proficiency in one of the corpus languages (Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

Preferences

• Sufficient structural knowledge to perform analytical and corpus-based work in one or more additional languages in the corpus.

• A record of published journal articles on corpus linguistics.

Type Benefited Staff

Special Instructions Summary

• Desired starting date August 1, 2024 (flexible). Salary is commensurate with experience and qualifications.

• Review of applications begins on July 16, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants should provide a cover letter, CV, and a writing sample. Applicants should identify three references on their CV who may be contacted to provide letters of recommendation.

• If you have questions about this position, please contact Dr. Jane Hacking: j.hacking@utah.edu.

Additional Information

The University is a participating employer with Utah Retirement Systems (“URS”). Eligible new hires with prior URS service, may elect to enroll in URS if they make the election before they become eligible for retirement (usually the first day of work). Contact Human Resources at (801) 581-7447 for information. Individuals who previously retired and are receiving monthly retirement benefits from URS are subject to URS’ post-retirement rules and restrictions. Please contact Utah Retirement Systems at (801) 366-7770 or (800) 695-4877 or University Human Resource Management at (801) 581-7447 if you have questions regarding the post-retirement rules.

This position may require the successful completion of a criminal background check and/or drug screen.

The University of Utah values candidates who have experience working in settings with students and patients from all backgrounds and possess a strong commitment to improving access to higher education and quality healthcare for historically underrepresented students and patients.

All qualified individuals are strongly encouraged to apply. Veterans’ preference is extended to qualified applicants, upon request and consistent with University policy and Utah state law. Upon request, reasonable accommodations in the application process will be provided to individuals with disabilities.

The University of Utah is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer and does not discriminate based upon race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, or protected veteran’s status. The University does not discriminate on the basis of sex in the education program or activity that it operates, as required by Title IX and 34 CFR part 106. The requirement not to discriminate in education programs or activities extends to admission and employment. Inquiries about the application of Title IX and its regulations may be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, to the Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, or both.

To request a reasonable accommodation for a disability or if you or someone you know has experienced discrimination or sexual misconduct including sexual harassment, you may contact the Director/Title IX Coordinator in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action ( OEO /AA). More information, including the Director/Title IX Coordinator’s office address, electronic mail address, and telephone number can be located at: https://www.utah.edu/nondiscrimination/

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