We offer a 3-year postdoctoral researcher position in the project ‘Learning to read better through software that listens and gives feedback’ which is funded by the Netherlands Initiative for Educational Research (NRO), part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
This project aims at investigating how reading software with automatic speech recognition (ASR) can best be developed and implemented in school practice and at home, to improve reading skills in primary school pupils. A design research methodology will be employed using ASR-based reading software designed on the basis of the needs and requirements of teachers, students and parents.

Design ideas and prototypes will be repeatedly tested and evaluated with students, teachers and parents throughout the design process. Design and implementation will be done in close cooperation with educational publisher Zwijsen and speech technology company NovoLanguage, whose educational platform will be used. Effectiveness experiments will be performed to investigate the effects of ASR-based software at school and at home. The collaboration with NovoLanguage and Zwijsen is one of the attractive aspects of this project.
The research will have to be documented in scientific publications in appropriate journals and relevant conference proceedings.

You have experience with practice-based research and effectiveness studies on educational technology and have conducted research in cooperation with teachers. In the project, you will focus on the needs and requirements in educational practice and on effectiveness experiments.

You should fit the following profile:

• PhD degree in Education Science, Linguistics, or a related discipline;
• expertise in research related to one or more of the following: reading instruction, phonological development, child language acquisition, digital literacies, intervention research, effectiveness studies on educational technology or practice-based research;
• demonstrated expertise in qualitative and/or quantitative research methods including survey design, data interpretation and statistical analyses;
• strong analytical, interpersonal and organisational skills;
• excellent verbal and written communication skills in Dutch and English;
• an emerging record of publications in refereed journals.

• employment: 0.4 FTE
• a maximum gross monthly salary of € 4,852 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• duration of the contract: you will be appointed as a Researcher for an initial period of 2 months starting from January 2019, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended to the end date, 1 January 2022
• classification in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO): Researcher, Level 3.
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation

Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts consists of ten departments in the areas of Language and Culture, History, History of Arts, Linguistics, and Communication and Information Studies, which together cater for about 2,400 students and collaborate closely in teaching and research.

Research at the Faculty of Arts is embedded in two research institutes: the Institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (HLCS) and the Centre for Language Studies (CLS).
You will be hosted at the Centre of Language and Speech Technology (CLST).
 
Further information on Centre for Language and Speech Technology
Further information on Faculty of Arts