Dr Cindy Schneider

Biography

Cindy Schneider has 30 years of professional experience in language documentation and description (languages of the Pacific), sociolinguistics (language policy, planning, attitudes and practices), and applied linguistics (language and literacy teaching, intelligibility, language and the law).

She has conducted extensive linguistic fieldwork, mostly in the Pacific (Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea), but also in Maasailand (Kenya).

At the tertiary level, Cindy has taught English as an Additional Language (EAL) at universities in the USA, Mexico, and Australia (1996-2007). She also worked as a certified IELTS examiner for students applying for tertiary study in Australia. In the area of general English and equity services, she has taught adult literacy and EAL in Colorado and Oregon (1996-1998), and at the New England Institute of TAFE in Armidale (2002-2007).

After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute of Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University (now the Centre for Research on Language Diversity), she became a full-time academic at UNE in 2009.

Cindy completed a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 2023.

Qualifications

BS Business/Marketing, French minor (Delaware);
GrDip Linguistics (UNE);
MA Linguistics (Oregon);
PhD Linguistics (UNE);
LLB (UNE)

Awards

Teaching Commendation, 2023, LING244 Language and the Law

Teaching Commendation, 2022, LING544 Language and the Law

Teaching Commendation, 2022, LING244 Language and the Law

Teaching Commendation, 2011, LING101 Introduction to Linguistics

Teaching Commendation, 2011,  LING244  Language and the Law

Teaching Areas

LING101 Introduction to Linguistics
LING102 Foundations of Linguistics
LING244 Language and the Law
LING353/553 The English Language
LING369/569 Morphology and Syntax
LING371/571 Sociolinguistics and Language Ecology

Research Interests

Cindy's research and supervisory interests are in the following areas:

Language Description and Documentation

• Grammatical topics in Oceanic and Papuan Baining languages

• Linguistic and sociolinguistic issues in vernacular literacy

Language and the Law

• Language attitudes and practices in multilingual courtrooms
• Impact of language proficiency on access to justice

Intelligibility and Proficiency

• How well can speakers of closely related varieties understand each other?
• What linguistic and non-linguistic factors affect intelligibility between varieties?

Language Planning and Policy

• Relationship between policy, planning, attitudes and practices

Research Supervision Experience

Testing mutual intelligibility between Namakura, Nakanamanga, Lelepa, South Efate, and Eton (PhD), in progress

Mother tongue based multilingual education in Indonesia (PhD), in progress

How Sweary is Netflix? A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Taboo Language Use in the Platform’s Most Binged Series (MPhil), in progress

The Effectiveness Of A Reading Intervention Program To Improve Literacy Skills Of Adult Refugee English Learners (PhD), in progress

Perceptions of the Sandèrgèmerisch dialect held by the residents of Sankt Georgen in the Black Forest, Germany (PhD), in progress

Selected grammatical topics in Kairak, East New Britain, PNG (MA Honours), completed 2024

Concise Grammar of the Gela Language, Solomon Islands (MA Honours), completed 2023

Medevac legislation – its implementation and repeal (LLB Honours), completed 2022

The Language of Jury Directions in Criminal Trials in Victoria (MA Honours), completed 2020

Variation in Vatlongos Verbal Morphosyntax: speaker communities in Southeast Ambrym and Mele Maat (PhD), completed 2019

Languages in Education in Mewat:  Policy, Politics, Practitioners and Neoliberalism (PhD), completed 2019

Plurilingualism in TESOL Teaching – A Student Centred Approach (MA Honours), completed 2018

Sindhi in the Roman script: An investigation into community acceptance (PhD), completed 2017

A comparative study of the cultural relevance of prompts in teaching EFL to young Korean learners (BA Honours), completed 2013

A grammar of Barok (Papua New Guinea) (PhD), completed 2011

Language Use by Women with Power (BA Honours), completed 2001

Publications

Books

Schneider, C. (2010). A Grammar of Abma, a Language of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 271 pages.

Unpublished Monographs

Schneider, C. (1998). Property Concept Terms in Maasai. MA thesis, University of Oregon. 125 pages.

Refereed Journal Articles

Schneider, C. (2022). English and Bislama in the Vanuatu Supreme Court: a shallow equality. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law 29(2), 145-171.

Gooskens, C. & C. Schneider. (2019). Linguistic And Non-Linguistic Factors Affecting Intelligibility Across Closely Related Varieties In Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. Dialectologia 23.

Schneider, C. & C. Gooskens. (2018). A Follow-up Analysis of Listener (Mis)comprehension across Language Varieties in Pentecost, Vanuatu. Oceanic Linguistics 57(1), 144-176.

Schneider, C. (2017). Ideologies, practices, and their effect on dialect vitality: A case study from Vanuatu. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2017.1311904.

Schneider, C. & C. Gooskens. (2017): Approaching micro-level planning from an intelligibility perspective: a case study from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 38(6), 530-544.

Gooskens, C. & C. Schneider. (2016). Testing mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in an oral society. Language Documentation and Conservation 10. 278-305.

Schneider, C. (2016). Talking around the texts: Literacy in a Multilingual Papua New Guinean Community. Written Language and Literacy 19(1).

Schneider, C. (2015). Micro level planning for a Papua New Guinean elementary school classroom: ‘Copy-cat’ planning and language ideologies. Current Issues in Language Planning 16(3).

Schneider, C. (2011). Na passive and na- associative in Abma: Shared properties; shared origin? Oceanic Linguistics 50(2), 380–398.

Schneider, C. (2011). Why field linguists should pay more attention to research in second language acquisition and teaching. Australian Journal of Linguistics 31(2), 187–209.

Schneider, C. (2009). Information structure in Abma. Oceanic Linguistics 48(1), 1–35.

Schneider, C. (2008). The partitive marker in Abma. Anthropological Linguistics 50(2), 148–173.

Refereed Book Chapters

Hellwig, B., C. Schneider & T. Stebbins (to appear). Baining (New Britain). In N. Evans & S. Fedden (eds), The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schneider, C., & A. Gray (2015). Is it worth documenting "just a dialect"? Making the case for Suru Kavian (Pentecost Island). In A. François, S. Lacrampe, M. Franjieh, & S. Schnell (eds), The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 5. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics Open Access. 270 pages. ISBN 978-1-92-218523 5.

Schneider, C. (2015). Apma. In N. Grandi & L. Körtvélysessy (eds), Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. (Publication date October 2014) [0748681744, 9780748681747]

Schneider, C. (2013). Say it in Abma. In Radev, Dragomir (ed), Puzzles in Logic, Languages and Computation: The Green Book. Heidelberg: Springer. Pages 6, 96-97.

Schneider, C. (2007). Verb serialisation and incipient grammaticalisation in Abma. In D. Eades, J. Lynch, & J. Siegel (eds), Language description, history and development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley, (pp. 221–235). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Community Language Resources

Taba, V., E. Tawal & C. Schneider. (2018). Translation of 24 Year 1 Readers from Bislama into Suru Kavian.

Schneider, C. (2015). Ol samting blong solwota long ples blong yumi (Suru Kavian). [Our fish (Suru Kavian)]. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2015). Bilanda Ruwuruwan / Ol samting blong bus long ples blong yumi (Suru Kavian). [Our plants (Suru Kavian)]. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2015). Bilanda bweeil / Ol pijin blong ples blong yumi (suru kavian). [Our birds (Suru Kavian).] [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2015). Suru Kavian alphabet book. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2013). Nada bwihil nii / Ol pijin blong yumi (Sentrol Pentikos) [Our birds (Central Pentecost)]. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2013). Nada ik nii / Ol samting blong solwota long ples blong yumi (Sentrol Pentikos) [Our fish (Central Pentecost)]. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2013). Nada ruruwan nii / Ol wud blong yumi (Sentrol Pentikos) [Our plants (Central Pentecost)]. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2013). 'Apma alphabet' book. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. (2013). 'Apma alphabet' poster. [Printed and laminated by the author.]

Schneider, Cynthia. (2011). 'Apma Vowels and Consonants' poster. [Printed and laminated by the author.]

Schneider, C. (Ed.) (2008). Topnan vini nada [Stories of our place]. Illustrated storybook in Apma and English. 75 copies printed and distributed. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Schneider, C. with contributions from Andrew Gray and Catriona Hyslop Malau (Eds). (2008). An Apma – English Dictionary (2,132 entries). 100 copies printed and distributed. [Printed and bound by the author.]

Newspaper Columns

Schneider, C. (15 Oct 2014). ‘Tongue Talks: She’ll Be Right, Mate!’ The Armidale Express.

Schneider, C. (11 Sep 2014). ‘Tongue Talks: Language Change.’ The Armidale Express.

Schneider, C. (14 Aug 2014). ‘Tongue Talks: English Has No Future.’ The Armidale Express.

Schneider, C. (19 Jun 2014). ‘Tongue Talks: Spelling Reform.’ The Armidale Express.

Book Reviews

Schneider, Cindy. 2001. Linguist List book review of Crawford (2000) At War with Diversity: US Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety.

Community Literacy Workshops

Suru Kavian Workshop to develop 24 Year 1 readers (2 days), Pentecost, Vanuatu, 2018

Suru Kavian Orthography Workshop (1 day), Pentecost, Vanuatu, 2013

Kairak Reading development workshop (1 day), East New Britain, PNG, 2011

Kairak Orthography workshop (2 days), East New Britain, PNG, 2008

Memberships

Australian Linguistic Society

International Association of Forensic and Legal Linguistics

UNE Asia Pacific Network

UNE Southern Communities Research Group

External Profiles

• Google Scholar Profile
• Academia Profile
• ResearchGate Profile
• ORCid Profile