#Multilingual families! Please consider taking part in this MSc student #research investigating how children’s friendships & family experiences with their home language are linked to how they feel about speaking that language...see the flyer & contact Isabelle for more info! Merci! Shukran! Danke!

Looking forward to welcoming Dr Gerardo Ortega to our Applied Linguistics seminar on Tues 27 January, 1-2pm GMT. All welcome online via: www.education.ox.ac.uk/event/the-ro... How do hearing adults with spoken L1 use existing knowledge of iconic gesture to acquire form-meaning links in signed L2?

The role of gesture in the acquisition of a sign language as a second language

education.ox.ac.uk

Thanks to @deevybee.bsky.social and colleagues for this careful, insightful piece of scholarship. It is a masterclass on how to scrutinise studies rigorously and appraise what valid/reliable evidence (if any!) exists, as well as being highly enjoyable to read. Bravo. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism

Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential studies underpinning these...

cell.com

so I just commented on that paper in Cell Host and Microbe that is cited as evidence that the autism/microbiome link is solid: pubpeer.com/publications... (not sure what the word “precision” is supposed to mean in the title) tldr; looks p-hacked 🫤 and I couldn’t find the ethics approval 🤔

Kevin Mitchell@wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Criticism of Autism-Gut Microbiome Research Sparks Pushback www.the-scientist.com/criticism-of...

Helpful umbrella terms or too broad to mean anything? 'Neurodivergent' and 'neurodiverse' as labels. theconversation.com/what-autisti...

What autistic people – and those with ADHD and dyslexia – really think about the word ‘neurodiversity’

A new UK survey of more than 900 neurodivergent adults has revealed strong feelings about the language of neurodiversity.

theconversation.com

I’m teaching #rstats to #appliedlinguists @education.ox.ac.uk so this is fr fr a vibe. Thanks @hadley.nz 🌟My fave is vibe_check() instead of mutate() 😂

John Paul Helveston @jhelvy.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Thanks to this bussin new #rstats 📦 by @hadley.nz, you can now yeet rows and vibe_check columns in your data frames, no cap hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

Have you heard about the UK Linguistics Olympics? The UK Linguistics Olympiad is a national language-analysis competition for students in KS2-KS5. Free to enter! Want to know more? Sign up to our webinar: Monday 10th November at 7:30: Book here: leedscityoflanguages.leeds.ac.uk/events/intro...

Our @education.ox.ac.uk Applied Linguistics Lunchtime Seminars continue Tues 4th Nov 13-14:00GMT with a review of the research on Arabic as an additional language by Drs @robertwoore.bsky.social and Anna-Maria Ramezanzadeh. Join us online via Teams - details: www.education.ox.ac.uk/event/review...

Reviewing Research on the Teaching and Learning of Arabic as an Additional Language: Challenges, Opportunities and Implications

education.ox.ac.uk

Who did this?!

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Thought-provoking piece by Kelly Webb-Davies about assessment in the age of AI. www.linkedin.com/pulse/proof-...

Proof or it didn’t happen: Assess it like it’s research

The views expressed here are my own and do not represent those of the University of Oxford. If assessment were a research paper most of our methods sections would get rejected.

linkedin.com

💬 Around 1 in 14 people live with Developmental Language Disorder. On #DLDDay, Natalie Waters shares how the Intervention Consensus for Language Disorder (TICLD) project is ensuring people with DLD have a voice in research. Read the blog: www.education.ox.ac.uk/news/you-can... #Edusky

How does movement shape learning and development in early childhood education? The latest Deanery Digest by Professor Iram Siraj shares insights from the MOVERS research, showing how movement-rich environments boost both cognitive & motor skills 🧠🤸 Read more ➡️ bit.ly/3KQmxj0 #Edusky #EarlyYears

✏️ Get your tickets: Preparing Children for Excellence in Learning Literacy in the Early Years. Join Professor Iram Siraj in a day of learning and exploring the evidence around the central role of oral language and how it underpins early literacy. 📅20 March 2026 Register: shorturl.at/ED4GX

This is very cool - @hwc001.bsky.social look: micro RCTs! (Not mirco - oops!)

Education Endowment Foundation@theeef.bsky.social · 10mo ago

📣Calling primary school teachers! We're looking for teachers to take part in a brand-new WhatWorked Education study to test the feasibility of a new research method – teacher-led micro RCTs. You'll test a spelling intervention and receive a tailored impact report. 👉 tinyurl.com/mrrm27zs

The Art Gallery game please, Santa. And a mini Egyptian cat.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford@ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social · 10mo ago

✨ Last chance to take 15% off our online shop ✨ Get a head start on your festive shopping with 15% off at the Ashmolean online shop - ends midnight on Sunday 19 October. Use the code 15EARLYBIRD25 at checkout. 🛒 Shop now: shop.ashmolean.org Ts and cs apply.

"The curriculum must be updated so that young people are well prepared - for their future lives but also the changes we already see around us in our climate, technology and world events." Prof Becky Francis writing in TES on forthcoming Curriculum Review www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Becky Francis: 5 reflections on the curriculum and assessment review

With the curriculum and assessment review due to publish its recommendations ‘very soon’, chair Becky Francis writes exclusively for Tes about what she has learned through the process

tes.com

The study found that when populations that speak unrelated languages have children together, their languages become 4 to 9 percent more likely to share linguistic features. www.scientificamerican.com/article/gene...

Languages Have Mixed through History. Our Genes Can Reveal How

New research shows that wherever human populations mix, their languages blend as well

scientificamerican.com

When is it appropriate to deviate from a pre-registration?" WRONG ANSWERS ONLY Cc @lakens.bsky.social

Jessie Baldwin@jessiebaldwin.bsky.social · 10mo ago

When is it appropriate to deviate from a pre-registration, and how should this be done? 🧐 Join us to find out from Daniël Lakens @lakens.bsky.social at the next ReproducibiliTea! October 28, 1pm GMT. Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/when-and-h... @tabeasch.bsky.social @reproducibilitea.org

It is not "attribution and sourcing" to generate post-hoc citations that have not been read and did not inform the student's writing. Those should be regarded as fraudulent: artifacts testifying to human actions and thought that did not occur. www.theverge.com/news/760508/...

Our first #appliedlinguistics lunchtime seminar @education.ox.ac.uk is on 21st Oct, 1-2pm, with @dkcayado.bsky.social talking to us about morphology in Tagalog. Join us in person or online! Details ➡️ www.education.ox.ac.uk/event/tracki...

Tracking the Untrackable: How the Human Mind Recognizes Broken, Obscured, and Shape-Shifting Morphemes in Tagalog

education.ox.ac.uk

Dr. Dave Kenneth Tayao Cayado@dkcayado.bsky.social · 10mo ago

I will be giving a talk at Oxford (@education.ox.ac.uk) on the 21st of October! Very excited! Drop by if you’re in the area. www.education.ox.ac.uk/event/tracki...

Great to see this new work on Arabic learners’ motivation published in System by my colleagues Anna-Maria Ramezanzadeh, @robertwoore.bsky.social and Lars-Erik Malmberg. 🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Imagining, believing and achieving in L2 Arabic: Motivational self-concepts and language outcomes in a multiglossic context

Drawing on Dörnyei's (2005) Second Language Motivational Self System and research on academic self-concept and achievement, this study explored curren…

sciencedirect.com

Teaching is the best job in the world, especially with such amazing colleagues and students @education.ox.ac.uk 🥰 Honoured to have my teaching recognised with this award, and looking forward to the new term starting!

Oxford Social Sciences Division@socsci.ox.ac.uk · 10mo ago

Congratulations Dr Catherine Hamilton @cateh.bsky.social @education.ox.ac.uk ) on receiving a #TeachingExcellence Award! 🌟Feedback from students highlights Dr Hamilton's engaging teaching style and the positive impact of her efforts on their learning outcomes. www.socsci.ox.ac.uk/article/winn...

I have just left a lengthy Pubpeer comment on the autism/Tylenol study being cited by the Trump administration. There appear to be a number of fairly straightforward errors in the paper. pubpeer.com/publications...

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN. It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package. Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

ggplot2 4.0.0

A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

tidyverse.org

How can we assess risk of bias in education research? ⚖️ Our free online course teaches all the basics of how to assess trustworthiness of experiments and quasi-experiments in education. Start the free training ➡️ bit.ly/RoBTraining #OxEdDeanery @theeef.bsky.social

Elevate your education practice with our part-time courses 🧑‍🏫 Our courses in Educational Assessment, Learning and Teaching, Teacher Education, Early Childhood Education and English as an Additional Language are open for Autumn 2025 entry. Apply now ➡️ www.education.ox.ac.uk/study/courses/ #Edusky

“Perhaps the methods that work best are not always the ones that make us feel that they work.“ This article really chimed with what I have found in my research too. Just because we believe songs are super effective for learning languages, does not mean they actually are - we should check!

Carl Hendrick@carlhendrick.substack.com · last yr.

*NEW POST* The Enduring Persistence of Neuromyths in Education A new study surveying over 3,000 Spanish teachers provides one of the most detailed snapshots to date. Fantastic work from @juanfernandez.bsky.social @ferreromar.bsky.social and colleagues open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...

I wrote about dictation again, based on my year 10 Germanists in the classroom today. I hope it is useful to some - and it's not just relevant to those teaching or learning German! learninglisteninglanguages.blogspot.com/2025/07/gett...

Getting dictatorial about dictation

My year 10 Germanists have their listening mock exam tomorrow, so they wanted to ‘do listening’ today. Poor sods not knowing this is my abso...

learninglisteninglanguages.blogspot.com

Do songs help primary school children learn French or are they just a bit of fun? Answers in a new Deanery Digest about my PhD project below! ⬇️ #primarymfl #songs #languagelearning

Department of Education, University of Oxford@education.ox.ac.uk · last yr.

Can songs, stories and chants help children learn languages in primary school? 🎶 In this new Deanery Digest, Dr @cateh.bsky.social shares findings from a randomised controlled trial comparing the impact of songs, chants, and stories on French language development. Read the digest ➡️ bit.ly/46oOC9H