Dr Sarah Liszka

Contact:

Tel: Ext. 8994

Email: S.A.Liszka@gre.ac.uk

Room: KW331

Office Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 11-12.00 or by appointment

Biography

Dr Sarah Liszka was educated at University College, London and the University of Essex. She has been teaching Applied Linguistics and Language Acquisition at the University of Greenwich since January 2012. Prior to her arrival at Greenwich, she worked at the University of London Institute in Paris as a lecturer in Applied Linguistics and English. She has also worked as a lecturer for Brunel University.

Teaching and administrative activities 

Courses:

• Applied Linguistics (teaching + joint course coordinator)
• Language, Communication & Society (teaching + joint course coordinator)
• Introduction to Language teaching (teaching + course coordinator)
• Language Teaching: Design & Practice (teaching)
• Europe Without Borders (seminar leader)
• Foundations of Linguistics (acting course coordinator)
• Meaning in Language (acting course coordinator)
• Dissertation supervision

Administration:

• Admissions Tutor for the Department of Social, Political and Cultural Studies
• Joint Erasmus coordinator

MPhil/PhD supervision

I am particularly interested in supervising research students in projects on: issues in second language acquisition; the linguistic-pragmatic interface; tense and aspect.

Current research

Dr Liszka’s research focuses on adult second language acquisition. She investigates the role of the first language in syntactic and semantic development, the linguistic-pragmatic interface, whether or not a ‘critical period’ exists and the nature of ultimate attainment. She is particularly interested in the acquisition of tense and aspect.

• Individual project: Exploring the linguistic-pragmatic interface
• Collaborative project with Leah Roberts, University of York: L2 acquisition & L2 processing of tense and aspect

External activities:

• Member of the Editorial Board for the journal International Review for Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL). Mouton de Gruyter.
• Member of the Editorial Board for the book series of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA). John Benjamins.
• Reviewer for the journal Language Learning. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Member of the EUROSLA Scientific Committee.
• Member of the BUCLD Scientific Committee.

Recent publications:

Liszka, S.A. & Roberts, L (in progress) Interaction of L2 grammars and pragmatic processes: a study on the acquisition of the English present perfect by advanced Dutch, French and German learners.

Roberts, L. & Liszka, S.A. (submitted) Processing tense/aspect-agreement violations on-line in the second language: A self-paced reading study with French and German L2 learners of English.

Liszka, S.A. 2009: Associating meaning to form in advanced L2 speakers: An investigation into the acquisition of the English present simple and present progressive. In N. Snape, Y-K. I. Leung and M. Sharwood Smith (eds), Representational Deficits in SLA: Studies in Honor of Roger Hawkins; LALD Vol 47, pp. 229-246. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

Liszka, S.A. 2006a: Advanced Grammars and Pragmatic Processes: Exploring the Interface. In S. Foster-Cohen, M. Medvec Krajnovic and M. Djigunović (eds), Eurosla Yearbook 6, 79-99. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Liszka, S.A. 2006b: Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning. Academic Exchange Quarterly, Vol. 10,1; pp. 38-42.

Liszka, S.A. 2005: The second language acquisition of form-meaning relations of the English Present Perfect. In B. E. Wong (ed.), Second Language Acquisition: Selected Readings; pp 47-63.

Liszka, S.A. 2004: Exploring the effects of first language influence on second language pragmatic processes from a syntactic deficit perspective. Second Language Research, Vol. 20,3; pp 212-231.

Hawkins, R. & Liszka, S. 2003: Locating the source of defective past tense marking in advanced L2 English speakers. In R. Van Hout, A. Hulk, F. Kuiken & R. Towell (eds),The Lexicon-Syntax Interface in Second Language Acquisition, LALD Vol. 30, 21-44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Al-Hamad, M. Al-Malki, E. Casillas, G Francheschina, F. Hawkins, R. Hawthorne, J. Karadzovska, D. Kato, K. Liszka, S. Lozano, C. Ojima, S. Okuwaki, N. and Thomas, E. 2002: Interpretation of English tense morphophonology by advanced L2 speakers. In S. Foster-Cohen, T. Ruthenberg & M-L. Poschen (eds), Eurosla Yearbook 2, 49-69. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. .

Liszka, S. 2001: Explaining divergent tense marking in advanced L2 speakers. In D. Arnold, Franceschina & E. Thomas (eds), Essex Graduate Papers in Language and Linguistics, Vol. 3:59-69.