Conferences & Invited talks

Conference Presentations  & Workshops

2021

• Workshop: Studying children and adolescents in World Englishes: Rethinking paradigms and approaches. ISLE 6. online. (with Sarah Buschfeld & Mirjam Schmalz)

2019

• Automatic formant extraction in the study of vowels in New Englishes: A comparison of different methods. 24th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes. Limerick (with Philipp Meer)
• The vowel system of Botswanan English: An acoustic-phonetic analysis using an automatic segmentation and formant extraction tool”. 24th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes. Limerick.
• Automatic formant extraction. Methods used in the study of phonology and phonetics of New Englishes. Münster. (with Philipp Meer)
• Collecting speech data in a Cameroonian Primary School. New Englishes, New Methods, Bochum.

2018

• Sociodemographics first!: A new perspective on modelling the evolution of Ghanaian English. 5th Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English. London, 16-20/07.

• A new perspective on the evolution of Ghanaian English. International Congress of Linguistics 20. Cape Town, 02-06/07.

2017

• Workshop: "Collecting and analysing diachronic data in World Englishes", ISLE Summer School 2017: Variation in World Englishes: advanced issues in theory and methodology, Regensburg, 05-08/10.
• The future lies in the past – Diachronic approaches to the study of (post-)colonial Englishes, Simo Bobda International Symposium: Trends in English Language/Linguistics & Literature in an African & Global Perspective, Yaoundé, 05/04.

2016

• A real-time corpus-based study of the progressive in Ghanaian English. 4th Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English. Poznan, 19/09.

• Workshop: "Diachronic Change in New Englishes" (co-organised with Robert Fuchs and Ariane M. Borlongan), 4th Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English. Poznan, 19/09.

• A real-time analysis of lexical expansion in the Nativization phase of Ghanaian English. Sociolinguistics Symposium 21. Murcia, 16/06.

• Lexical expansion in Ghanaian English: A real-time analysis. ICAME 37. Hong Kong, 27/05.

2015

• Lexical innovation in the early nativization phase in Ghanaian English: a corpus-based analysis. 21st Conference of the International Association for World Englishes, Istanbul, 08/10.

• Lexical Innovation in the Nativization Phase of a New English. FJUEL 5.0. Bayreuth, 18/09.

2014

• Assessing the auditory and acoustic status of /t/ in three varieties of African Englishes: The case of Tanzanian, Ghanaian and Black South African English. 20th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes. Delhi, 20/12. (with Diana Gerhardt)
• Compiling a historical written corpus of Ghanaian English: Methodological and theoretical considerations. 20th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes. Delhi, 18/12.

2013

• /t/-affrication as a marker of Ghanainness: An auditory and acoustic comparison with final /d/ and /ts/. International Conference on Language Variation and Change in Postcolonial Contexts. Salerno, 18/04.

2012

• An Acoustic-Phonetic Analysis of the Ghanaian English Vowel System. 18th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes. Hong Kong/Guangzhou, 06/12.
•  Assessing the Status of /t/ in Ghanaian English: An Auditory and Acoustic-Phonetic Analysis. 18th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes. Hong Kong/Guangzhou, 06/12. (wirhSebastian Schmidt)

2011

• The effects of dialect contact on the accent of Aberdeen. UK Language Variation and Change 8. Ormskirk, 12/09.

2009

• The effects of migration and dialect contact on the Aberdeen English vowel system. Accents 2009: III International conference on native and non-native accents of English. Łodz, 11/12.
• The sociolinguistics of the Aberdeen vowel system. UK Language Variation and Change 7. Newcastle, 03/09.

2008

• The emergence of social varieties in Ghanaian English. Accents 2008: II International conference on native and non-native accents of English. Łodz, 12/12. (with Magnus Huber)

• Resistance and innovation in the accent of adolescents in Aberdeen. AILA 2008 - The 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics. Essen, 28/08.
• ‘You used to gerri’ in yer fishnets, now you only gerri’ in yer nightdress’: Regional and supraregional accents in English rock songs. The Thirteenth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology. Leeds, 04/08.
• T-glottaling in adolescents in Aberdeen. Sociolinguistics Symposium 17. Amsterdam, 03/04.
• ‘It’s jist, like, nae a posh language’: Migration, Dialect Contact and Constructions of Identity in Young Aberdonians. Copenhagen, 29/03.
• Migration - Dialekt - soziale Identität: Ein Blick auf Jugendliche in Aberdeen. Workshop Sprache - Literatur - Migration. Gießen, 16/01.

2007

• Language variation and social identity in adolescents in Aberdeen. UK Language Variation and Change 6. Lancaster, 12/09.
• Accent variation in adolescents in Aberdeen: first results for the variables (hw) and (th). 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Saarbrücken, 06/08.
• Language change in North-East Scotland: a study of HW-loss in adolescents in Aberdeen. 2nd Northern Englishes Workshop. Edinburgh, 15/03.
• Change in a traditional Scottish phoneme: HW-loss in adolescents in Aberdeen. 16. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Sprache und Sprachen. Bochum, 12/02.

2006

• ‘Our pupils do NOT speak Doric, they speak Aberdonian!’: First impressions of a sociophonetic study of adolescents in Aberdeen. University of Aberdeen. Aberdeen, 02/10.

Invited talks and guest lectures

2018

• Sociophonetics Workshop. University of Yaoundé I, 07-09/03

2017

• The Diachronic Turn in New Englishes. Universität Bayreuth, 21.11.

2015

• Sociophonetics Workshop. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 17-19/08.
• Tracing structural nativization in a New English: Insights from the compilation of the Historical Corpus of Ghanaian English. Technische Universität Chemnitz, 06/02.

2013

• Designing a historic corpus of a 'New English': a case study of English in Ghana. Technische Universität Dresden. Dresden, 13/11.

• The historic corpus of written Ghanaian English: an outline. Culture in Language: Language in Media, Variation in Research. Chemnitz, 18/07.

• The interplay of Scots and English in Glasgow and Aberdeen: a sociophonetic perspective. Universität Siegen. Siegen, 17/01.

2012

• Student Fieldwork in Ghana. Culture in Language: Language in Media, Variation in Research. Chemnitz, 13/07.

2011

• Innovation, Conservatism, Confusion? Trying to Untangle Accent Variation in Aberdonian. Culture in Language: Language in Media, Variation in Research. Chemnitz, 02/07.

2009

• Urban Voices: The interplay of Scots and English in Glasgow and Aberdeen. “Schlüsselthemen der Anglistik und Amerikanistik / Key Topics in English and American Studies”. Gießen, 22/04.

2008

• The Changing Face of Sociolinguistic Theory. Schlüsselthemen der Anglistik und Amerikanistik / Key Topics in English and American Studies. Gießen, 25/06.

2007

• Jugendkultur, Medien und Sprachwandel: Konstruktion sozialer Identität durch Sprache bei Jugendlichen in Schottland. Gießener Kulturwissenschaften heute und morgen: Eine Ringvorlesung und räumliche Zeitreise des kulturwissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Gießen, 09/05.
• ‘Fit like? - Arrah!’: Lehreransichten zum Gebrauch des lokalen Dialekts im Schulkontext. Ringvorlesung ‘Educational Linguistics - Neue Perspektiven’. Gießen, 08/05.

Conferences organised

2017

• ISLE Summer School 2017: Variation in World Englishes: advanced issues in theory and methodology, Regensburg (co-main organiser)

2012-2014

• Culture in Language: Academic English, Variation in Research, Chemnitz (committee member)

2010

• ICAME 31, Gießen (committee member)

2009

• Eight Creolistics Workshop, Gießen (committee member)

2008

• Norms in Educational Linguistics: Linguistic, Didactic and Cultural Perspectives – Normen in der Educational Linguistics: Linguistische, didaktische und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Gießen (main organiser)
• Workshop Sprache – Literatur – Migration, Gießen (committee member)

2007

• Seventh Creolistics Workshop, Gießen (committee member)

Conferences attended

2007

• 22. Kongress für Fremdsprachendidaktik der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung (DGFF), Gießen

2006   

• Dritte Arbeitstagung für den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs in der Fremdsprachenforschung, Frankfurt
• Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, Limerick
• 28. Jahrestagung der DGfS, Bielefeld