Research interests
- Phonetic and phonological acquisition in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual children
- Second-language speech perception and production
- First language attrition of speech
- Normal and disordered speech
- Phonetic and phonological aspects of language contact
Main Collaborators
- Dr Simona Montanari, California State University, Los Angeles, USA
- Dr Yvonne Wren, Cardiff Metropolitan University/ Bristol SLT Research Unit
2021 – 2022
(Awarded) Evidence review of universal, population and targeted interventions which support speech, language and communication (SLC) development in the early years (Consultant, with Dr Yvonne Wren (PI), Dr Rhonwen Lewis, Prof Susan Roulstone, Dr Sam Harding, Prof Cristina McKean, Ms Alison Williams)
Welsh Government tender (Children and Families Division)
(£24,999)
2021 – 2024
(Awarded) Speech Sound Perception and Production in Spanish/English Bilingual Preschoolers (Consultant, with Prof Simona Montanari (PI))
National Institutes of Health (NIH) R15 Grant
(US $438,000)
2021
(Awarded) A review of early language screening tools suitable for children in Wales (Consultant, with Dr Yvonne Wren (PI), Dr Rhonwen Lewis (consultant), Prof Susan Roulstone (consultant))
Welsh Government tender (Children and Families Division)
(£25,560.96)
2021– 2024
(Awarded) Gwerthusiad cymdeithasol o acenion Cymraeg [Social evaluation of Welsh accents] (Co-supervisor, with Dr Jonathan Morris and Dr Rees Iwan),
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, PhD Studentship
(ca. £55,000)
2020 – 2025
(Awarded)
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol,
Subject Grant: 75% of two full-time Welsh-medium lecturer posts in Speech and Language Therapy, Centre for Speech and Language Therapy and Hearing Science,
Cardiff Metropolitan University
(£240,000)
2020 – 2025
(Awarded) Research Capacity Building Collaboration (RCBC) Wales
(Co-applicant with Prof Joyce Kenkre, Dr Gina Dolan, Dr Roiyah Saltus, Ms Marina McDonald, Dr Louise Bright, Mr Henry Yeomans, Dr Sion Williams, Prof Daniel Kelly, Dr Paul Gill, Prof Jaynie Rance, Dr Joanne Pike; PI: Prof Martin Stegall)
Health and Care Research Wales: Research Development Infrastructure Grant (£996,157)
2020 – 2023
(Awarded) When your native language sounds foreign: Characterising foreign accent in first language attrition.
(Co-applicant with Prof Ineke Mennen (PI), University of Graz, Austria)
FWF [Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Austria]
Stand-alone Project Grant
(€398,436.53)
2017
(Awarded) When your native language sounds foreign: Characterising foreign accent in L1 attrition
(Co-applicant with Prof Ineke Mennen (PI), University of Graz, Austria)
Anbahnungsfinanzierung [Pump Priming Grant], University of Graz, Austria
(€ 12,000)
2015 – 2020
(Awarded)
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, Academic Staffing Scheme: 75% of Welsh-medium lecturer post in Speech and Language Therapy, Centre for Speech and Language Therapy and Hearing Science,
Cardiff Metropolitan University
(ca. £140,000).
2012 – 2014
(Awarded) Socio-phonetic variation in a language contact situation: The case of Welsh and Welsh English
(PI, with Prof Ineke Mennen (co-applicant))
British Academy Small Research Grant (SG111947)
(£7,533.80)
2010 – 2014
(Awarded) Early phonological development in Welsh-English bilingual children: A longitudinal study.
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol PhD Scholarship
(ca. £65,000)
Internal Grants
2019
(Awarded) How does stroke affect functional language use and identity in bilinguals? An exploratory study of Welsh-English bilinguals with aphasia.
(PI, with Dr Delyth James, Dr Abdul Seckam, Ms Katie Earing, Dr Harry Bowles (co-applicants))
R + I Pilot Fund, Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University (HRRI47)
(£4,545)
2007
(Awarded) An acoustic and articulatory investigation of the NURSE vowel in South Wales English.
(PI, with Dr Torsten Müller, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany)
For the latest updates,
please see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-Mayr
Wren, I., Bates, S.,
Knight, R.A. & Mayr, R.
(forthcoming). English English speech development. In McLeod, S. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in
Languages of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mayr, R., Lewis, R. & Wren, I. (forthcoming).
Welsh-English speech development. In McLeod, S. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mayr, R., Morris, J. & Montanari, S. (forthcoming).
The phonetics and phonology of early bilinguals. In Amengual, M. (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual
Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mayr, R., Morris, J. & Lewis, R. (forthcoming).
Phonological development in Welsh. In Chondrogianni, V., O'Toole, C. &
Thomas, E.M. (eds.), The acquisition of
Celtic languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zhao, F. & Mayr, R. (2021). Pure Tone Audiometry
and Speech Audiometry. In: Ball, M.J. (Ed.), Manual of Clinical Phonetics. (Series:
Language and Speech Disorders) (pp. 444-460). London: Routledge.
Petrie, A., Mayr, R., Zhao, F. & Montanari, S.
(2021). Parent-child interaction during storybook reading: A wordless narrative
book versus a book-with-text. Journal of
Child Language, accepted 25 October 2021, doi:10.1017/S0305000921000763.
Mayr, R. & Morris, J. (2021,
editorial). Social and psychological factors in bilingual speech production:
Introduction to the special issue. Languages
6: 155, published 28 September
2021, DOI: 10.3390/ languages6040155.
Li, J., Mayr, R. & Zhao, F. (2021).
Speech production in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants: A
systematic review. International Journal
of Audiology, DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2021.1978567
Mayr, R., Siddika, A., Morris, J.
& Montanari, S. (2021). Bilingual phonological development across
generations: Segmental accuracy and error patterns in second- and
third-generation British Bengali children. Journal
of Communication Disorders 63, 106140.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2021.106140
Reubold, U., Mennen, I., Mayr, R.,
Ditteweg, S. & Melker, S. (2021). “Triggered” phonetic interaction:
incremental shifts in English migrants to Austria within a code-switched
paradigm. (Special Issue: Social and Psychological Factors in Bilingual Speech
Production, ed. by R. Mayr & J. Morris), Languages 6(3), 114; DOI:10.3390/languages6030114
Montanari, S., Mayr, R. & Subrahmanyam, K.
(2021). Maternal acculturation and speech sound production in Spanish/ English
dual language pre-schoolers. (Special
Issue: Social and Psychological Factors in Bilingual Speech Production, ed. by R.
Mayr & J. Morris), Languages
6(2), 78, published 22 April 2021, DOI:10.3390/languages6020078
Mayr, R., Sanchez, D. & Mennen, I. (2020). Does
teaching your native language abroad increase L1 attrition of speech? The case
of Spaniards in the United Kingdom. (Special Issue: Exploring Cross-linguistic
Effects and Phonetic Interactions in the Context of Bilingualism, ed. by M.
Amengual), Languages 5 (4), 41,
published 22 October 2020, DOI:10.3390/languages5040041.
Montanari, S., Mayr, R. & Subrahmanyam, K. (2020).
Speech and Language Outcomes in low SES Spanish-English Bilingual Preschoolers:
Effects of Maternal Education. International
Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, first published 17 June
2020, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2020.1781780.
Mennen, I., Kelly, N., Mayr, R. & Morris, J. (2020). The
effects of home language and bilingualism on the realisation of lexical stress
in Welsh and Welsh English. Frontiers in
Psychology: Language Sciences, first published 22 January 2020, DOI:
10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03038.
Mayr, R., Roberts, L. & Morris, J. (2020). Can you
tell by their English if they can speak Welsh? Accent perception in a language
contact situation. International Journal
of Bilingualism 24 (4), 740-766. DOI: 10.1177/1367006919883035.
Mayr, R., López-Bueno, L., Vázquez Fernández, M. &
Tomé Lourido, G. (2019). The role of early experience and continued language
use in bilingual speech production: A study of Galician and Spanish mid vowels
by Galician-Spanish bilinguals. (Special Issue: Plasticity of Native Phonetic
and Phonological Domains, eds. E. de Leeuw & C. Celata), Journal of Phonetics, 72, 1-16, DOI:
10.1016/j.wocn.2018.10.007
Mayr, R. (2019).
Jitter and shimmer. In Damico, Jack & Ball, Martin J. (eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Human Communication
Sciences and Disorders. Los Angeles et al.: SAGE publishing.
Montanari, S., Mayr, R. & Subrahmanyam, K. (2018).
Bilingual speech sound development during the preschool years: The role of
language proficiency and cross-linguistic relatedness. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 61, 2467–2486.
DOI: 10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0393.
Mayr, R. & Siddika, A. (2018). Inter-generational
transmission in a minority language setting: Stop consonant production by
Bangladeshi heritage children and adults. International
Journal of Bilingualism, 22 (3), 255-284, DOI: 10.1177/1367006916672590.
Mayr, R., Morris, J., Mennen, I. & Williams, D.
(2017). Disentangling the effects of long-term language contact and individual
bilingualism: The case of monophthongs in Welsh and English. International Journal of Bilingualism,
21(3), 245-267. DOI: 10.1177/1367006915614921.
Morris, J., Mayr,
R. & Mennen, I. (2016). The role of linguistic background on sound
variation in Welsh and Welsh English. In Durham, M. & Morris, J. (eds.)
Sociolinguistics in Wales (pp.241-271).
London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Mayr, R. & Montanari,
S. (2015). Cross-linguistic interaction in trilingual phonological development:
The role of the input in the acquisition of the voicing contrast, Journal
of Child Language 42: 1006-1035.
Mayr, R., Howells, G.
& Lewis, Rh. (2015). Asymmetries in phonological development: The case of
word-final cluster acquisition in Welsh-English bilingual children. Journal
of Child Language 42: 146-179.
Mayr, R. & Montanari,
S. (2015). Differentiation and interaction in the vowel productions of
trilingual children, Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of
Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015), 10-14 August 2015, Glasgow.
Mennen, I., Mayr,
R. & Morris, J. (2015). Influences of language contact and linguistic
experience on the production of lexical stress in Welsh and Welsh
English, Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic
Sciences (ICPhS 2015), 10-14 August 2015, Glasgow.
Plumpton, H.
& Mayr, R. (2014). Morphology, In Whitworth, N. &
Knight, R.-A. (eds.) Methods in Teaching Clinical Linguistics and
Phonetics. J & R Press.
Mayr, R., Jones, D.
& Mennen, I. (2014). Speech learning in bilinguals: consonant cluster
acquisition, In: Thomas, E. & Mennen, I. (eds.) Advances in the
Study of Bilingualism. pp. 3-24, Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Mayr, R., Price, S.
& Mennen, I. (2012). First language attrition in the speech of
Dutch-English bilinguals: the case of monozygotic twin sisters, Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition 15 (4): 687-700.
Mayr, R. & Davies,
H. (2011). A cross-dialectal acoustic study of the monophthongs and diphthongs
of Welsh, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 41
(1): 1-25.
Thomas, E.M.
& Mayr, R. (2010). Children's acquisition of Welsh in a
bilingual setting: a psycholinguistic perspective, In: Morris, D. (ed.) Welsh
in the 21st Century. Cardiff: Cardiff University Press.
Mayr, R. &
Escudero, P. (2010). Explaining individual variation in L2 perception: rounded
vowels in English learners of German, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13
(3): 279-297.
Mayr, R. (2010). What
exactly is a front rounded vowel? An acoustic and articulatory investigation of
the NURSE vowel in South Wales English, Journal of the International
Phonetic Association 40 (1): 93-112.
Mayr, R. & Davies,
H. (2009). The monophthongs and diphthongs of North-eastern Welsh: an acoustic
study, Proceedings of the 10th Annual
Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech
2009), 6-10 September, Brighton, pp. 2315-2318.
Müller, T. & Mayr,
R. (2007). Speech rate, time pressure and emotion in English and
German football commentary, In: Weinert, R. (ed.) Spoken language
pragmatics: an analysis of form-function relations, Continuum, pp.
160-181.
