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Professor David Singleton

Fellow Emeritus (C.L.C.S.)

 dsnglton@tcd.ie

 


Biography

I was born in Poole (Dorset) in 1948. I was educated at the local Catholic primary school and state grammar school. I took my primary degree (Moderatorship in Modern Languages - French and German -, Class I) at Trinity College Dublin and my doctorate (in French Linguistics) at the University of Cambridge. My first lecturing position was in the French Department of St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, but since 1980 I have been a member of staff of the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin. I have been deeply involved in various professional organizations - including the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (President 1982-85), the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée (Secretary General 1993-96) and the European Second Language Association (President 1999-2003).

Research Tags

  Immigration   Language Acquisition (first & second)   Multiculturalism

Languages

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
Dutch Medium Basic Basic
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Fluent Fluent Fluent
German Fluent Medium Medium
Polish Basic Basic Basic
Spanish Medium Basic Basic

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
Member of the Philological Society 1976
Member of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics 1977
Member of the National Committee of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics 1978 1988
President of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics 1982 1985
Member of the Executive Board of the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée 1984 1996
Deputy Secretary General of the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée 1987 1993
Secretary General of the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée 1993 1996
Member of the European Second Language Acquisition 1989
Secretary of the European Second Language Acquisition 1989 1993
President of the European Second Language Acquisition 1999 2003
Primary school learning: The general empirical picture and specific policy issues in the Irish context in, editor(s)Marianne Nikolov, Stela Letica Krevelj , Early Foreign Learning and Teaching: Evidence versus Wishful Thinking, Bristol, Multilingual Matters, 2025, pp292 - 307, [David Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Listening development and learner age in, editor(s)Wagner, E., Batty, A.O. & Galaczi E. , The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Listening, New York & London, Routledge, 2024, pp83 - 98, [Lesniewska, J. & Singleton, D.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Learning multiple languages in an instructional setting: insights from the study of affordances and from the conceptualization(s) of translanguaging in, editor(s)D. Gabrys-Barker & E. Vetter , Modern Approaches to Researching Multilingualism, Berlin, Springer, 2024, pp147 - 159, [Singleton, D. & Flynn, C. J.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
David Singleton, Justyna Lesniewska, The role of age in second language development, Language Teaching Research Quarterly, 39, (1), 2024, p359 - 371, Notes: [https://doi.org/10.32038/ltrq.2024.39.22,], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Pfenninger, S.E., Festman, J. & Singleton, D., Second Language Acquisition and Lifelong Learning, First, New York & London, Routledge, 2023, 1 - 242pp, Notes: [https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003168935], Book, PUBLISHED
Bilingualism and age in, editor(s)Carole A. Chapelle , The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, New York, Wiley, 2023, [David Singleton], Notes: [https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0097.pub2], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
David Singleton, Dorota Zaborska, Migrant and third-age language learners telling stories, Strani Jezici, 52, (1), 2023, p37 - 48, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Age in, editor(s)S. Li, P. Hiver & M. Papi , The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Individual Differences, London & New York, Routledge, 2022, pp251 - 265, [D. Singleton & S.E. Pfenninger], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Singleton, D. & Flynn C.J., Translanguaging: A pedagogical concept that went wandering, International Multilingual Research Journal, 16, (2), 2022, p136 - 147, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Grammatical questions: phraseological answers in, editor(s)A. Uberman M. Trinder , Text-sentence-word: Studies in English linguistics, Volume IV, Rzesow:, Wydawnicwo Universytetu Reszow, 2021, pp109 - 119, [David Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

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Singleton, D, Globalization, language, and national identity: the case of Ireland. CLCS Occasional Paper No.68, 11 pp., 2007, Working Paper, PUBLISHED
Harrington, S., Singleton, D., Henry, A, At the sharp end of language revival: English-speaking parents raising Irish-speaking children. (CLCS Occasional Paper 57), 12 pp. , 2000, Working Paper, PUBLISHED
Singleton, D., Lexical processing and the "language module" (CLCS Occasional Paper 53; ERIC Reports ED 421 856), 38 pp., 1998, Working Paper, PUBLISHED
Singleton, D., French: some historical background, Dublin, Authentik, 1992, 1 - 81pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Singleton, D., Singleton, E., University-level learners of Spanish in Ireland: a profile based on data from the TCD Modern Languages Research Project (CLCS Occasional Paper 35; ERIC Reports ED 354 781), 12 pp., 1992, Working Paper, PUBLISHED
Singleton, D., What can we do about vocabulary?, FTA Bulletin, Spring/Summer, 1990, p2 - 4, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Singleton, D., The TCD Modern Languages Research Project: objectives, instruments and preliminary results (CLCS Occasional Paper 26; ERIC Reports ED 333 723, 19pp. , 1990, Working Paper, PUBLISHED
Little, D., Devitt, S., Singleton, D., Learning foreign languages from authentic texts: theory and practice, Dublin/London, Authentik/Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, 1989, 1 - 122pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Success factors in the language classroom in, editor(s)O'Meadhra, B., Richardson, B., Ó Cuilleanáin, C. , Languages in the 1990s: proceedings of the MTLA's Third National Modern Language Convention, Dublin, Modern Language Teachers' Association/Dublin City University, 1989, pp118 - 123, [Singleton, D.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Setting the context: language learning, self-instruction and autonomy in, editor(s)Little, D. , Self-access systems for language learning, Dublin/London, Authentik/Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research , 1989, pp1 - 33, [Little, D., Singleton, D.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

  

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Awards and Honours

Award Date
Election to Fellowship of Trinity College Dublin 1994
Medal of Honour, University of Silesia 2013

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

My research interests have ranged from fairly theoretical areas of linguistics (e.g. lexical semantics and semantic change) to very practical and applied domains (e.g. second language syllabus design). In recent times most of my research activity and publications have been concerned with second language acquisition, and in particular (i) cross-linguistic influence in second language acquisition and processing, (ii) the second language mental lexicon, (iii) multilingualism and (iv) age-related factors in second language acquisition.