Torgersen, Eivind Nessa

Fagområde

 English language and linguistics

Undervisning og veiledning

I teach English language and linguistics and second language acquisition to first, second and third year students on the GLU programme.

Forskning

 I was previously a senior research associate at Lancaster University in the UK working on the Economic and Social Research Council-funded project Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition and diffusion of a new variety. I also worked on the project Linguistic Innovators: The English of adolescents in London. These studies dealt with both phonological and grammatical variation in the capital.

 Most of my language variation research has concentrated on vowel changes in south-east England, but I have also been working on a study on indefinite articles and pragmatic markers in London English funded by the British Academy.

 My other research interests are in experimental phonetics and speech processing, especially models for word recognition. My PhD (Temporal and semantic factors in perception of the voicing contrast: Processing strategies in L1 and L2, University of Reading, 2004) was a psycholinguistic study on speech processing strategies in second language learners and native speakers of English. In particular it examined how language learners use phonetic and semantic information very early in time after the information was received.

Faglige prosjekter

Multilingualism in Trondheim public schools: Raising teacher awareness in the English as a Foreign Language classroom (with Anna Krulatz (Sør-Trøndelag University College) and Anne Dahl (NTNU))

Increasing teacher awareness about the positive impact of multilingualism on the acquisition of English (with Anna Krulatz (Sør-Trøndelag University College))

Publications

Book

Torgersen, E., Hårstad, S., Mæhlum, B. and Røyneland, U. (eds.) (2015). Language Variation – European Perspectives V [Studies in Linguistic Variation 17]. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Journal articles

Révész, A., Ekiert, M. and Torgersen, E. (2014). The effects of complexity, accuracy, and fluency on communicative adequacy in oral task performance. Applied Linguistics. DOI:10.1093/applin/amu069

Cheshire, J., Fox, S., Kerswill, P. and Torgersen, E. (2013). Language contact and language change in the multicultural metropolis. Revue Française De Linguistique Appliquée 18(2): 63-76.

Torgersen, E. and Szakay A. (2012). An investigation of speech rhythm in London English. Lingua 122(7): 822-840.
DOI:10.1016/j.lingua.2012.01.004

Cheshire, J., Kerswill, P., Fox, S. and Torgersen, E. (2011). Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2): 151-196.
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00478.x

Torgersen, E., Gabrielatos, C., Hoffmann, S. and Fox, S. (2011). A corpus-based study of pragmatic markers in London English. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 7(1): 93-118.
DOI:10.1515/CLLT.2011.005

Gabrielatos, C., Torgersen, E., Hoffmann, S. and Fox, S. (2010). A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of indefinite article forms in London English. Journal of English Linguistics 38(4): 297-334.
DOI:10.1177/0075424209352729

Kerswill, P., Torgersen, E. and Fox, S. (2008). Reversing ‘drift’: Innovation and diffusion in the London diphthong system. Language Variation and Change 20(3): 451-491.
DOI:10.1017/S0954394508000148

Torgersen, E. and Kerswill, P. (2004). Internal and external motivation in phonetic change: Dialect levelling outcomes for an English vowel shift. Journal of Sociolinguistics 8(1): 23-53.
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00250.x

Book chapters

Krulatz, A. and Torgersen, E. (in press). The role of the EFL classroom in maintaining multilingual identities: Issues and considerations in Sør-Trøndelag public schools. In C. Amanti, J. A. Álvarez Valencia, S. Keyl and E. Mackinney (eds.) Qualitative Research Approaches: Critical Views on Teaching and Learning Global Englishes. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Kerswill, P and Torgersen, E. (in press). Cockney in the twentieth century: stability or cycles of contact-driven change? In R. Hickey (ed.) Listening to the past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kerswill, P., Cheshire, J., Fox, S. and Torgersen, E. (2013). English as a contact language: The role of children and adolescents. In D. Schreier and M. Hundt (eds.) English as a contact language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 258-282.

Torgersen, E. (2012). A perceptual study of ethnicity and geographical location in London and Birmingham. In S. Hansen, C. Schwartz, P. Stoeckle and T. Streck (eds.) Dialectological and folk dialectological concepts of space. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. 75-95.

Fox, S., Khan, A. and Torgersen, E. (2011). The emergence and diffusion of Multicultural English. In F. Kern and M. Selting (eds.) Pan-ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 19-44.

Cheshire, J., Fox, S., Kerswill, P. and Torgersen, E. (2008). Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of dialect change: Linguistic innovation in London. Sociolinguistica 22: 1-23.

Torgersen, E., Kerswill, P. and Fox, S. (2006). Ethnicity as a source of changes in the London vowel system. In F. Hinskens (ed.) Language Variation - European Perspectives. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 249-263.

Working papers

Torgersen, E. and Szakay A. (2011). A study of rhythm in London: Is syllable-timing a feature of Multicultural London English? University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 17(2): 165-174.

Torgersen, E. (2002). Phonological distribution of the FOOT vowel in young people’s speech in south-eastern British English. Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 6: 25-38.

Conference proceedings

Szakay, A. and Torgersen, E. (2015). An acoustic analysis of voice quality in London English: The effect of gender, ethnicity and F0. Proceedings from the 18^th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow.

Torgersen, E. (2003). Temporal and semantic factors in perception of the voicing contrast: Different processing strategies in L1 and L2. Proceedings from the 15^th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona. 2897-2900.

Torgersen, E. (2002). Temporal factors in perception of the voicing contrast: Immediate semantic effects on speech processing and the L2 learner. Proceedings from Temporal Integration in Speech. 50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Torgersen, E. (2001). Context effects of phonemic categorisation in foreign languages – implications for language teaching. Proceedings from the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference 2001. 59-62.

Styrer, råd og utvalg

Chair, Norwegian National Academic Council for English Studies