Staff Profile
Dr Nikki Swift
Associate Head, Language and Linguistics
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BA (Leeds), MA (York), PhD (York), Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (York St John), SFHEA
I have been teaching linguistics at York St John since 2000. Between 2007 and 2014 I was Head of Programme for the undergraduate BA English Language and Linguistics. I then spent two years as Head of Learning and Teaching in the Business School. In September 2016 I returned to leading the Linguistics programmes as Director of Linguistics. In December 2019 I was appointed as Associate Head: Language, a role I share with Dr Leesa Clarke. This involves overseeing curriculum development, quality assurance and the student experience in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Languages and Linguistics. These programmes include the BA English Language and Linguistics, TESOL and languages programmes at undergraduate level, and our postgraduate programmes in TESOL and Languages. I teach articulatory and practical phonetics, phonetics and phonology, and child language acquisition.
I was awarded a University Senior Teaching Fellowship in 2010, and I have been a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2015.
I am a member of the School of Education, Language and Psychology Academic Leadership Team, a validation panel chair, Chair of the University Programme Amendment Scrutiny Panel (PASP), and a member of the University Quality and Standards Committee (QSC).
- School – School of Education, Language and Psychology
- Email – n.swift@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 781
Further information
Teaching
I teach on the undergraduate linguistics modules.
I specialise in Phonetics and Phonology; my interests in are in the impact of exposure to multiple dialects during childhood on a person’s phonological system, development of idiosyncratic vowel systems, and the acoustics of children’s vowels. I teach level 4 (first year) phonetics (articulatory and practical phonetics), Phonetics and Phonology at level 5, and Child Language Acquisition at level 6.
I have also contributed to the University’s Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Bahrain) in the areas of assessment and technology enhanced learning.
Professional Activities
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a mentor and assessor for members of staff seeking fellowship of the HEA through the University’s dialogic route.
Research & Publications
Research
My PhD research looks at the phonological acquisition of children growing up in multi-dialectal environments. I am particularly interested in how having parents who speak a different variety from the local dialect manifests itself in a child’s accent, and how this changes over time.
Selected conference presentations
- 2022 –[ˈsʌkəz and ˈsʌ̹kəz]: Acquisition of strut in a Multidialectal Environment. Building Linguistic Systems, University of York.
- 2017 –Teaching Phonetics to Visually Impaired Students (with Martin, Pennington, Sztencel, Whisker-Taylor), ALVIS Workshop, York St John University.
- 2012 –Technology to Support the Transition from Paper to Electronic Assessment (with Dransfield), e-Assessment Scotland.
- 2006 –TH-fronting in Hull: Investigating the Inland Revenue! Sociolinguistics Symposium 16.
- 2006 –Sound FX in Writing: Representing speech in online discourse. (with Goddard) World Congress on the Power of Language, Bangkok, Thailand.
- 2005 –Getting a Voice: Perceptions of the use of technology in learning and teaching phonology. (With Goddard) ALT-C (Association of Learning Technology).
Publications
2007 Working With Texts. 3rd edn. London: Routledge
Co-Authors: R Carter, A Goddard, D Reah, K Sanger & N Swift Edited by Adrian Beard
2007 TH-fronting in Hull: Investigating the Inland Revenue. In York Papers in Linguistics. Co-Authors: K Whisker, AJ Merrison & N Swift
