Postdoc Position: Creating a Prosodic Proficiency Test Battery at the Centre for Language Studies

Are you passionate about understanding how people produce word stress, intonation and rhythm in English? Do you thrive on tackling complex challenges through advanced programming? If so, this postdoctoral position in the NWO-funded project ‘It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it: Creating a Prosodic Proficiency Test Battery’ offers a rare and exciting opportunity to make a tangible impact on the future of language learning, teaching and research.

In this project, you will work together with Dr Lieke van Maastricht (principal investigator) and a research assistant to develop and validate the first-ever open-access online tool for assessing prosodic proficiency. This innovative tool will transform how language learners, teachers, clinicians and researchers evaluate and improve critical aspects of spoken language—rhythm, stress and intonation—which are essential for clear communication and effective second-language acquisition.

Why this project matters: Accurate prosody is key to reducing foreign accents, avoiding social stigma, and enhancing mutual understanding between speakers of different languages. Despite its importance, there is currently no efficient way to assess prosodic features in language education, clinical practice or research. This project will address this gap by creating the Prosodic Proficiency Test Battery —a comprehensive tool that provides rapid, automatic assessment of prosodic accuracy. Using this tool, learners can track their progress, teachers can tailor their instruction, and researchers can explore new dimensions of language development.

What this project entails: This project seeks to combine knowledge from the fields of linguistics, computational modelling and AI to attain two objectives:

1. To create the stimuli for the Prosodic Proficiency Test Battery and perform a pilot study to determine which automatic labelling tools for prosodic annotation are most suitable for the test.
2. To run a large-scale study to collect foreign-language proficiency data to assess the validity and reliability of the test items in the Prosodic Proficiency Test Battery.

Your role: As a postdoctoral researcher, you will take the lead in designing experiments, assessing the suitability of automatic annotation tools, conducting the large-scale study to test the validity and reliability of the Prosodic Proficiency Test Battery, and co-supervising the research assistant who will help execute the experiments. You will present your work at international conferences and publish your findings in scientific journals and/or at conferences.

Why this is a unique opportunity: This position offers a rare chance to work on a pioneering project that blends linguistics, AI, and language learning. Not only will you contribute to a tool with real-world applications, but you will also collaborate with prosody experts in the field, giving you the opportunity to contribute to the future of language education and research. Whether you are passionate about advancing theoretical knowledge or developing practical solutions for language learners worldwide, this project provides a platform to make a meaningful difference.

You can find more information about this project here or by contacting Dr Lieke van Maastricht (please see contact details below).

Requirements:

• You should hold a PhD degree in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, AI, psycholinguistics, or a related field.
• You enjoy reading and writing code and have demonstrable programming experience, for example in Python, C++, Matlab, Java, and/or HTML/CSS.
• You are a creative, critical and independent researcher who is motivated to take initiative when needed.
• You are a team player who not only provides constructive feedback but is also happy to receive it, who supports others, and who is keen to engage in scientific discussions. You enjoy supervising students.
• You are able to contribute to a collaborative work environment based on transparent communication and a positive and respectful attitude towards supervisors, colleagues and students.
• You have an excellent command of English (both spoken and written) and you have a good publication record.
• You possess excellent time management and organisational skills.
• Ideally, you also have expertise and hands-on research experience in prosody research, good skills in preparing and analysing speech-elicitation experiments, and demonstrable experience with R and Praat.

Salary Benefits:

• Your salary within salary scale 11 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. If you have not yet defended your PhD at the start of the contract you will start in salary scale 10. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• Depending on the researcher's salary, any configuration between 0,5 FTE for a year and 1,0 FTE for half a year is possible and will be decided on between you and the project principal investigator.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

19 - 40 hours per week

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