Dr Louisa Willoughby
Qualifications and position
- BA(Hons), Monash University
- PhD, Monash University
- Lecturer
Background
My PhD thesis was in the area of language maintenance and shift and focussed on the linguistic practices and identities of a group of migrant-background students attending the same Melbourne high school.
I have a strong interest in language policy in health and education settings, particularly as they relate to speakers of minority languages. From 2007 to 2009 I taught in the School of Education at Deakin and held a concurrent role as a researcher for the Victorian Deaf Society. Projects undertaken include a report on the situation and needs of deaf people from migrant backgrounds living in Victoria and analysis of 2006 Australian census data on the education and employment outcomes of sign language users in Victoria. I joined Monash in a full-time lecturing role in 2010.
Current research includes a project exploring nicknaming practices among Australian high schools students (with Dr Donna Starks , Latrobe University and Dr Kerry Taylor-Leech, Griffith University) and an ARC Linkage project using the Xbox Kinect to teach Australian Sign Language vocabulary (with Monash colleagues Dr Kirsten Ellis, AProf Julie Fisher and AProf Nicole Rinehart and partner organisations Deaf Children Australia and the Victorian Deaf Society).
Research areas
- language maintenance and shift;
- language and identity;
- language policy (particularly in health and education);
- Deaf studies;
- heritage language education;
- languages and cultures in contact;
- language variation;
- applied linguistics.
Supervision
I have supervised students working in the following areas:- Language policy at a German university
- Phonological errors of Dyspraxic children
- Maintenance of Deitsch (Pennsylvanian German) among Mennonites in Ontario
- Features of tactile Auslan as used by native Deafblind signer
Recent publications
- 2012a. Nicknames in Australian secondary schools: Insights into nicknames and adolescent views of self. To appear in Names: A journal of onomastics [Starks, Taylor-Leech and Willoughby]
- 2012b. Language maintenance and the deaf child. To appear in Journal of Multilingualism and Multicultural Development.
- 2011. Sign language users’ education and employment levels: Keeping pace with changes in the general Australian population? Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 16.3: 401-413
- 2009a. Language choice in multilingual peer groups: Insights from an Australian high school. Journal of Multilingualism and Multicultural Development. 30.5: 421- 435
- 2009b. Linguistic diversity in Melbourne's south-east. People and Place , 17: 55-62. [Clyne, Willoughby and Bradshaw]
- 2009c. Deafness as a factor in language maintenance decisions – a case study approach. In Making a difference: Challenges for applied linguistics. Hong-Lin Chen and Ken Cruickshank (eds). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, pp 316-27.
- 2007a. Interethnic relations: a case study of senior students at an Australian high school. International Education Journal 8.1: 254-64
- 2007b. “Not ethnic, but ethics groups”: Friendship group formation at a Melbourne high school. Everyday Multiculturalism Conference Proceedings, Selvaraj Velayutham and Amanda Wise (eds). Sydney: Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University pp 1-10.
- 2007c. “Don’t be so loud – and speak English!”: School language policies towards Chinese international students. In Learning discourses and the discourses of learning. Eds H. E. Marriott, T. Moore & R. Spence-Brown Melbourne: Monash University E-Press.