“The focus of my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) postdoctoral project, called SignBACK, lies on these little conversational cues that are so ubiquitous (and fascinating) in human communication, and more specifically on how and why they occur in signed language interaction,” Lepeut said in a phone call from the Netherlands, where she is on her secondment, a research stay part of the MSCA grant.
Signed versus spoken languages
“I’ve always loved looking at people’s interactions, and what they do with their hands and bodies when they communicate, starting with my own family and group of friends. After finishing my studies in Linguistics, I wrote a PhD proposal to compare what hearing and deaf people do when they interact. Since signed languages are natural, fully fledged languages just like spoken languages are, I wondered what the similarities and differences between the two were. This was the topic of my PhD, where I compared Belgian French and LSFB (French Belgian Sign Language).”
Perfect for a MSCA Fellowship
One of the key goals for any successful conversations is to achieve mutual understanding and build common ground. And “as humans, we provide constant conversational feedback cues such as ‘yeah’ and ‘mm mm’, as well as through our bodies like head nods, to the people we are talking to, so we can signal our attention and understanding and address communication problems when they arise. These misunderstandings occur once every 83 seconds on average. Given their essential role in human interaction, this seemed to be a very good topic to use in an application for a MSCA PF Fellowship, which gave me the chance to pursue my research career,” she said.
Possible to expand your CV
This was Lepeut’ second try for a grant after a first attempt in 2021.
“But I had already done all the work and had received a very good evaluation report from the experts with a seal of excellence. I wanted to apply for it a second time. I like the MSCA scheme because it gives you the opportunity to get the training needed to build your CV, whether in or outside academia. It doesn’t focus too much on the number of publications. That was what also motivated me,” she said.
Her main goal was to become a better researcher, and to be able to keep working closely with her supervisor here in Trondheim.
“And since I like the mountains and outdoors, Trondheim and Norway seemed like a nice place to be. This whole package made me apply.” Lepeut said that participating in the different grant-writing seminars and activities organized by the EU and NTNU are very helpful.
“Early on in the process, I did take part in the seminars that NTNU held for applicants, and I got a lot of good information and big help in the actual process from NTNU. They proofread my application and gave me the support I needed to submit my application.”
“Obtaining a grant as competitive and selective as the MSCA Post-Doctoral Fellowship represents an incredible opportunity to keep working on what I love and improve my training skills. Indeed, this MSCA-PF is my first long-term opportunity to conduct research at another institution in Europe. It builds on the expertise I have gained during my previous national and international research experiences,” Lepeut said.
Never give up
Her best advice to others is to not give up. “If you are not accepted the first time, try again and listen to the feedback to write better applications the next time. It is also possible to build on and expand the application for other grants,” she said.
Alysson Lepeut thinks her research with SignBACK will lead to a better understanding of the social structure of human communication and sociality in an understudied area of linguistics, with new information that can be used across disciplines such as human-computer interactions and clinical research investigating impaired social functioning.