Speech Lab Groningen
Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen
What is language variation and how do you investigate it? That’s what Speech Lab Groningen aims to discover. The researchers introduce the general public to research on language variation in all its facets, especially speech production and dialect research. Entertaining public information and creative media productions enable them to interest young and old in their professional field.
The Speech Lab’s initiatives often combine public information with data collection. For example, the researchers collected information on children’s articulation at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, as well as teaching the children something about speech by means of a quiz. At other public events, children were given a printed echo of their tongue. The general public are also playfully informed about speech research, but at the same time, the researchers are learning something about them, for example at Lowlands Science and by means of a highly appreciated Groningen dialect game app, which was distributed during local public events.
In addition to these activities, the research group has published a comic about dialect research and developed an online game to introduce primary-school pupils to Groningen dialect. The aim of all these efforts is to introduce the general public to speech research and to show them the beauty of language variation.
The grant from the Rewarded! Fund will be used to produce and promote a board game that offers children and adults an insight into the process and results of linguistic research.
Websites:
Speechlab Groningen
Coordinator:
Martijn Wieling, bijzonder hoogleraar
Other group members:
Teja Rebernik, promovendus
Jidde Jacobi, promovendus
Martijn Bartelds, promovendus
Raoul Buurke, promovendus
Wietse de Vries, promovendus
