Research in linguistics at Macquarie University received a rating of 4 in ERA 2010 - 'performance above world standard'

4-rated discipline

Linguistics

Linguistics research is conducted across a number of disciplines and centres including linguistics, media, cultural studies, English, European and Asian languages, computer science and the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science - an ARC Special Research Centre. The CORE in Language Sciences adds further value to these areas.

Research within the Centre for Language Sciences was significantly enhanced in 2011 with the establishment of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, led by Federation Fellow and Distinguished Professor Stephen Crain.

Major areas of research strength are in applied and educational linguistics, sign language, and systemic functional grammar.

Australia's new hearing hub

Macquarie University received a $40 million grant for the Macquarie University Hearing Hub, which will bring together researchers in hearing, speech and language with Cochlear Ltd, Australian Hearing, the Royal Institute of Deaf and Blind Children and the Shepherd Centre.

A major lab for language acquisition research incorporates the world's first child Magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain imaging system, developed in partnership with the Kanazawa Institute of Technology.

World-leading researchers

• Associate Professors Trevor Johnston and Jemina Napier are two of the world's pre-eminent sign language researchers. Johnston, in particular, was responsible for the identification and international recognition of the Australian sign language (Auslan) as a legitimate language in its own right.
• Professor Stephen Crain is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
• Professor Tony Cousins, Emeritus Professor Tony Gibbs and Professor Virginia Blain are Fellows of the Australian Academy of Humanities. Cousins also received the Order of Australia for services to Literary Studies in 2006.
• Professor Anne Burns is a member of the TESOL international standing committee for research.
• Professor John Stephens received the International Brothers Grimm award in 2007.