Padraic Monaghan’s research focuses on language acquisition and language change, at the interface between linguistics, psychology and computer science. His research has addressed the way in which language is structured to facilitate its acquisition, dovetailing with the way in which information is represented and processed by the mind. He has also investigated the different profiles of language acquisition for monolingual and bilingual speakers, the importance of early language skills on reading development, and the cognitive effect of different reading interventions on reading processes.

As professor at the UvA, Monaghan will teach English linguistics, with a focus on varieties of contemporary English around the world. He will also contribute to courses on psycholinguistics, cognition, language acquisition, and language evolution. His research will continue to address the effects of psychological processes on the way in which language is acquired, how multiple languages affect learning of additional languages, and how these processes drive language change over time. He will also continue his work on literacy development, in particular the effect of early language skills on reading acquisition and the role of differences in language structure and writing systems on reading processes.

About Padraic Monaghan

Monaghan has been professor of Cognition at Lancaster University since 2007. He is also co-director of the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development and research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Between 2008 and 2009, he was an honorary research fellow at the UvA’s Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC). From 2003 to 2007, he held a post as lecturer at the University of York and as research fellow at York Neuroimaging Centre.

Monaghan has published extensively in various international peer-reviewed journals, including Cognition, Cognitive Science, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Journal of Memory and Language, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.