English Language & Linguistics BA (Hons)
Graduated from York St John University in 2010.
Went on to complete M.Sc in Developmental Linguistics at University of Edinburgh in 2011 and Ph.D in Cognitive Science of Language at McMaster University in 2016.
Currently living in Canada, appointed researcher in the McMaster English Language Development Diploma (MELD), an intensive pre-sessional English programme.
”The programme introduced me to a discipline I have been working within and around for almost a decade since graduating.”
My time studying Language and Linguistics at York St. John was transformative for me. The programme introduced me to a discipline I have been working within and around for almost a decade since graduating. I can attribute much of my passion for conducting scientific research to Dr. Christopher Hall’s ‘Language and Mind’ module. This class opened up a door for me to the world of psycholinguistics and human cognition. I found these classes incredibly stimulating, not just by virtue of the topic, but by the way it was taught by Dr. Hall. His classes seamlessly merged cutting-edge theoretical work with its practical application to the world.
”Beyond formal classes, the regular colloquium series and accompanying pub nights are where I learned the most about the diverse disciple of linguistics, and about the lives of language scientists who conduct research for a living!”
Beyond formal classes, the regular colloquium series and accompanying pub nights are where I learned the most about the diverse disciple of linguistics, and about the lives of language scientists who conduct research for a living! This is when I felt I was most challenged, when I was most encouraged, when my mind was changed, and when true life-long friendships were forged!
”I then moved to Canada to start my PhD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.”
Since graduating from York St John, I completed an MSc. in Developmental Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. I then moved to Canada to start my PhD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. My PhD work concerned individual differences in morphological processing during naturalistic reading. The goal of this research was to understand how a dynamic and growing lexicon affects how humans learn, store and retrieve morphologically complex words from memory.
After completing my PhD in 2016, I have taken two post-doctoral fellowship appointments. My first was at the Complex Cognition Lab in the Psychology Department at the University of Alberta. There, I worked on problems related to how the mental process of conceptual combination can be understood through empirical observations about how humans comprehend morphologically complex words from printed text.
”This work continues an interest in researching individual differences in language processing, a line of research I have been interested in since my dissertation project at York St. John.”
My current post-doctoral appointment is as a researcher in the McMaster English Language Development Diploma (MELD), an intensive pre-sessional English program. Here I use psycholinguistic and quantitative methods to conduct quality assurance and language development research. This work continues an interest in researching individual differences in language processing, a line of research I have been interested in since my dissertation project at York St. John. I also do corpus linguistics research, and teach university undergraduate courses in statistics, and computational linguistics research methods.
of Daniel’s recent collaborations here: National character stereotypes mirror language use: A study of Canadian and American tweets. Bryor Snefjella , Daniel Schmidtke, Victor Kuperman, 2018