Centre for Research on Bilingualism in Theory & Practice

Name:

Dr Enlli Thomas

Position:

Senior Lecturer in Education

Email:

Location:

Stables, Normal Site

Phone:

+44 (0)1248 383962

Biography

Dr Enlli Thomas is an expert in Welsh first language and Welsh-English bilingual acquisition, and is a leader in bilingual teaching at HE. The theoretical core of her research explores children’s acquisition of complex structures in their first language, and the factors that contribute to successful bilingual acquisition. Some of this work has been published in high-quality psycholinguistic and bilingualism journals.

Together with Professor Gathercole, Dr Thomas has been awarded a number of prestigious research grants over the past few years. She is currently co-author of an ESRC grant (£750k) that was awarded for a study of the cognitive effects of bilingualism across the lifespan. This work explores the potential differences between different types of bilinguals and a set of age-matched monolinguals on tests of Executive Functioning, and will examine further the impact of any differences across the whole of an individual’s lifespan.

Dr Thomas is also interested applying theory into practice. She was recently involved in a research project commissioned by the Welsh Language Board (awarded to Gathercole, Thomas, Deuchar & Williams - £93k) to study language transmission practices in the home in Wales. The outcome of that project accumulated in a substantial volume which will be used as a consultation document to inform language planning in Wales. In collaboration with Professor Gathercole, Dr Thomas is also in the process of developing standardized assessment tools for use with bilingual populations. This work stems from a three year project developing standardised assessment tools for measuring linguistic abilities of Welsh-speaking children and young adults, awarded to Gathercole & Thomas by the Welsh Assembly Government (£90k), in addition to a series of projects developing a neuropsychological assessment for use with Welsh-speaking adults in Wales (NW Committee - £5k awarded to Thomas, Clare, Woods & Jones; NWW North West Wales NHS Trust Research and Development Grants Awarding Committee - £5k awarded to Clare, Thomas, Woods, & Jones). Some of these studies have already led to presentations at national and international conferences, as well as to the generation of high quality research papers.

Dr Thomas is also a collaborator on two of the research projects conducted at the new Centre for Bilingualism in Theory and Practice at Bangor University. Some of these studies have to do with potential transfer effects between the two languages of a bilingual speaker, and will involve collaboration with researchers in Patagonia (Spanish-Welsh population) and Miami (English-Spanish/Spanish-English population).

Research interests

Selected Publications

Martin, C., Thomas, E. M., & Thierry, G. (submitted). Full-scale semantic priming in both the “active” and the “inactivated” language of early bilinguals.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, & Thomas, E. M. (submitted). Bilingual first language development: dominant language takeover, threatened minority language take-up.Submitted to Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E. M., & Hughes, E. (in press). Designing a normed receptive vocabulary test for bilingual populations: A model from Welsh. Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education.


Leek, E. C., Schiemenz, S., Roberts, J.R., Wyn Jones, E., Thomas, E., Gathercole, V.C. & Tainturier, M.J. (in press). Independent retrieval of number and grammatical gender in spoken language production. Brain and Language.


Thomas, E. M. (2007). Natur prosesau caffael iaith gan blant: marcio cenedl enwau yn y Gymraeg. Gwerddon, 1, 58 –94.


Thomas, E. M., & Gathercole, V. C. Mueller (2007). Children’s productive command of grammatical gender and mutation in Welsh: an alternative to rule-based learning. First Language, 27 (3), 251-278.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E.M., Deuchar, M., & Williams, E. (2007). Language Transmission Among Bilingual Parents in Wales: Background. In V.C.

Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E.M., Deuchar, M., & Williams, E. (2007). Multi-faceted Approach to the Study of Current Transmission Practices: Overall Design. In V.C. Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, & Thomas. E, M. (2007). Factors Contributing to Language Transmission in Bilingual Families: The Core Study--Adult Interviews. In V.C. Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Gathercole. V. C. Mueller, & Thomas, E. M. (2007). A Closer Look at Parent Language Ability: Welsh and English Vocabulary. In V.C. Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Thomas, E. M., & Gathercole, V. C. Mueller (2007). Beyond the General Patterns: Interesting Cases Revealing Exceptional Circumstances. In V.C. Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Thomas, E. M. (2007). The Role of the Child in Language Transmission: Child Interviews. In V.C. Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E.M., Deuchar, M., & Williams, E. (2007). Evidence-based Practice: Policy Implications for Wales. In V.C. Gathercole and E. M. Thomas (Eds.), Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales – Trosglwyddo Iaith mewn Teuluoedd Dwyieithog yng Nghymru. Welsh Language Board.


Thomas, E. M. (2006). Teaching and assessing psychology through a minority language: lessons from Wales. In R. Wilkinson, V. Zegers, & C. van Leeuwen (eds.), Bridging the Assessment Gap in English-medium Higher Education. Fremdsprachen in Lehre und Forschung 40, Bochum: AKS-Verlag.


Tainturier, M. J., Leek, E. C., Schiemenz, S., Williams, C. A., Thomas E., & Gathercole, V. C. (2005). Access to lexical phonology does not predict retrieval of grammatical gender in Welsh: implications for theories of language production. Brain and Language, 95, 52-53.


Thomas, E. M. & Gathercole, V. C. Mueller (2005). Obsolescence or survival for Welsh in the face of English dominance? In J. Cohen, K. T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, & J. MacSwan (eds.), Proceedings of 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Cascadilla press.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, & Thomas, E. M. (2005). Minority Language Survival: Input Factors Influencing the Acquisition of Welsh. In J. Cohen, K. T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, & J. MacSwan (eds.), Proceedings of 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Cascadilla press.


Gathercole. V. C. Mueller, Laporte, N. I., & Thomas, E. M. (2005). Differentiation, Carry-over, and the Distributed Characteristic in Bilinguals: Structural "Mixing" of the Two Languages? In J. Cohen, K. T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, & J. MacSwan (eds.), Proceedings of 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Cascadilla press.


Spencer, L., Edwards, M., Prys, D., & Thomas, E. (2004). Geiriadur Termau Seicoleg/ Dictionary of Terms for Psychology. Prifysgol Cymru Bangor. ISBN: 1 84220 0283. Thomas, E. M. (2004). Addysgu trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg mewn seicoleg/Welsh-medium teaching in psychology. Psychology Learning and Teaching, 4 (1), 11-14.


Francis, L. & Thomas, E. M. (2004). Personoliaeth a chrefydd ymysg siaradwyr Cymraeg 9 –11 mlwydd oed. Welsh Journal of Education, 12 (2), 99-110.


Francis, L. & Thomas, E. M. (2003). Cysondeb a dilysrwydd Graddfa Francis o Agwedd Tuag at Gristnogaeth ymysg siaradwyr Cymraeg 9 – 11 mlwydd oed. The Psychologist in Wales, 16, 9-14.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E. M., & Laporte, N. I. (2001). The acquisition of grammatical gender in Welsh. Journal of Celtic Language Learning, 6, 53-87.
Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E. M., & Evans, D. (2000). What’s in a noun? English-, Welsh-, and Spanish-speaking children see it differently. First Language, 20, 55 – 90.


Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E. M., & Kim, S. (1999). Cue coordination: An alternative to word meaning biases. In B. A. Fox, D. Jurafsky, & L. A. Michaelis (Eds.) Cognition and function in language. CSLI Publications.

Other information

Click here for additional personal page.