Viola Wiegand
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violawiegand.bsky.social
Viola Wiegand
@violawiegand.bsky.social
860 followers 1.1K following 140 posts
corpus & applied linguistics, TESOL, discourse analysis, surveillance discourses

Coordinator MSc TESOL (Online) University of Stirling (@stirtesol.bsky.social)

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violawiegand.bsky.social
The autumn semester has started for our MSc TESOL programme and I did the first session!
How are we suddenly in autumn 😁🍁
#TeamStirling @stirtesol.bsky.social
Photo showing the entrance to the university of Stirling with people going in and an autumnal tree Slide stating „welcome to Stirling“, showing the loch and the university building Slide for Viola‘s module TESP001 week 1: „Introduction to principles of (second) language learning and teaching
September 22, 2025 at 9:45 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Went on a short trip this week to Anstruther in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland, and finally got to see some puffins on the Isle of May (~8km off the coast)! We didn’t realise they’re already leaving again, so we only saw a handful on the ground but some more flying around and in the water ☺️
A puffin sitting on the ground on the Isle of May and looking to the side so that its beak is visible
July 26, 2025 at 1:24 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
The UAM corpus tool is now available online - so we can save different projects on a server - and it is possible to run frequencies and keywords on entire subcorpora, files, or - and this is interesting - annotated segments! #ISFC50
Keywords screen as part of the Lexis tab in the UAM corpustool
July 5, 2025 at 11:59 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Conferencing continues - I’m lucky that I am based not far from the #ISFC50 venue - currently attending Mick O‘Donnell‘s pre-congress institute workshop “Using UAM Corpustool for Critical Discourse Analysis” 😊
A laptop in a lecture theatre with the screen showing the menu for adding a new layer in the UAM corpus tool Screen showing a simple appraisal system for practice in the UAM corpus tool
July 5, 2025 at 11:57 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
The data is actually part of my forthcoming book, ”Exploring Meaning in Surveillance
Discourses through Corpora“ - available to pre-order now (with a discount code 😉 😇), and coming out in March 2026 (so stay tuned ☺️)

#cl2025 @cl2025.co.uk @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
EXPLORING MEANING IN SUPVEILLANCE DISCOURSESCORPORA BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Pre-order now at 35% off: Exploring Meaning in Surveillance Discourses through Corpora Viola Wiegand This book takes a fresh perspective on surveillance, examining how it is defined, discussed, and negotiated in different domains of public discourse Use the following discount code to save 35% on bloomsbury.com/9781350501515: BLOOM-CONF-26 March 2026 Situated at the interface of corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and surveillance studies, this book focuses on how surveillance is defined, discussed, and negotiated in public discourses. It analyses different meaning components of the cultural keyword of surveillance - inherently linked to power relations - in ongoing debates of public discourses. The author looks at the representation of surveillance in different discourse domains through three different studies - the prime academic joural in surveillance studies (Surveillance & Society), The Times newspaper, and the signage of public spaces. The first two studies illustrate implementations of a novel method of 'co-occurrence comparisons' in diachronic analyses of collocation. The final study integrates cutting-edge research on the multimodal representation of surveillance in public spaces. Adopting the sociolinguistic framework of 'surveillant landscapes' from mediated discourses analysis, this analysis reveals how surveillant practices are signalled in public environments. To capture the textual and material representation of surveillance in a collection of photographs from public spaces in multiple cities across Europe, North America, and Asia, the study presents a novel methodology combining corpus and qualitative methods for the analysis of multimodal data. Viola Wiegand is Lecturer in Education (TESOL) at the University of Stirling, UK.
July 2, 2025 at 1:38 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
On my way to a quick visit at #CL2025 to talk about a corpus linguistic approach to surveillant landscapes (in the final slot on Thursday at 2.00pm) … on a rather fittingly surveilled train 😁
Photo showing the title slide for the presentation ,„Identifying discourses within multimodal surveillant landscapes through automatic text extraction from urban signage: A corpus-assisted discourse analysis“ by Viola Wiegand, University of Stirling Screen on an Avanti West Coast train stating „Onboard CCTV For your safety and security CCTV images are being recorded on this train.“ alongside a video display from the CCTV camera itself that shows Viola taking a photo of the screen
July 2, 2025 at 1:28 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Just saw I totally slipped into some odd form of pronouncing/thinking in German in one of the English emails I sent just now (am afraid it’s a sign that my brain dealt with way too many emails, messages, and phone calls today 😅) #summerweather #Sommerwetter
Email stating: „Have a lovely evening, too, and enjoy the last few days of the summer wetter“ [German for weather]
May 21, 2025 at 4:42 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
So glad I get to attend Evan Frendo’s #IATEFL2025 talk “Teaching the language of leadership in the business English class”. Great insights into leadership discourse as relational + transactional talk, or navigating a lack of clarity who is in charge in a meeting. Fantastic speaker! www.e4b.de
Outline for Evan Frendo’s IATEFL 2025 “Teaching the language of leadership in the business English class”, with lots of interesting authentic examples of leadership language and some practical activities Relational talk e.g. building trust, using humour, offering encouragement Leader Transactional talk e.g. giving directives, resolving problems, clarifying roles Discursive leadership *Leadership is a process that emerges in a particular situation® -... leadership... is contested and emerges through the collective identities of the actors involved* Walker, R., & Aritz. ). (2014). Leadership talke A discourse approach to leader emergence. Business Expert Press.
April 10, 2025 at 9:58 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Love that Stirling uni had lots of localised signage related to Scottish culture 😊 (this is at the „Scran“ food outlet on Campus Central)
„The scone of destiny… and other treats“ - sign on the university of Stirling campus that plays a pun on the Stone of Destiny from the small place called Scone, not far from Stirling, near Perth in Scotland
April 2, 2025 at 1:07 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
The final #RC21Symposium session by @nfdykes.bsky.social & @michamahlberg.bsky.social - wrapping up the 3-day event with a case study
RC21 PROJECT SYMPOSIUM Patterns of narrative fiction in English and German Nathan Dykes & Michaela Mahlberg Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg A case study: insights from concordances? • Yesterday - technical FlexiConc • Python library to support the way we can look at concordance lines o CLiC illustrating how FlexiConc can be implemented • Wednesday's training day o we'read' concordances to find out about meanings and functions in textual data o hands-on - examples to illustrate functionalities of FlexiConc • Now - a case study: o what can we find out about body language in English and German when we look at concordance lines? The RC21 Project: Methods and Tools for Concordance Reading
March 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
I think every research project should aim to „minimise the risk of total failure“ 😊
Marc Kupietz, @idsmannheim.bsky.social
#RC21Symposium
IDS MAIN PROJECT AIMS • minimize the risk of total failure: • strategy: focus on features complementary to COSMAS II • suspicion: a single tool that fulfils all wishes is inpossible • rather many of them complementing each other • core-sustainability for >20 years • realistic extensibility with important features • always meet the requirements of a scientific tool Marc kupietz • Scaling Concordancing • RC21 Project Symposium • EAU, Erlangen - 2025-03-21 19 / 85
March 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Interesting that several #RC21Symposium speakers have suggested starting with qualitative concordance analysis, followed up by quantitative analysis, @anteangaeile.bsky.social and Valentin Werner @jlpopculture.bsky.social from his 2020 article fis.uni-bamberg.de/entities/pub...
Case study II: Telecinematic language by Valentin Werner, University of Bamberg Concordance lines informing quantitative follow-up analysis: Standard vs. non-standard (prescriptively sanctioned) variants gonna (vs. going to); n = 463,294 gotta (vs. got to); n = 90,263 wanna (vs. want to); n = 188,449 oughta (vs. ought to); n = 1,433 lemme (vs. let me); n = 37,377
March 21, 2025 at 1:43 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
If I can find the time, I‘m tempted to feed some of Yukio Tono‘s #RC21Symposium tips on accessible concordancing for L2 learners into my corpora as a resource and DDL sessions on our @stirtesol.bsky.social Technology in Language Education module in the next 2 weeks ☺️
How to help L2 learners with concordance reading - Use online dictionaries while reading concordances - Provide easy-to-read concordances 1. Graded readers approach 2. Text filter approach How to make concordance more accessible Graded readers approach - Provide learners with vocabulary-controlled concordances - How? - Provide corpora of graded readers, textbooks, retold materials - Create easy-to-read texts or examples for pedagogical purposes - Al-generated vocabulary-controlled texts How to make concordance more accessible Text filter approach - Provide learners with concordance lines filtered by different levels of text difficulty - How? - Filter the concordance lines: GDEX by Sketch Engine - Filter the web texts while making web corpora using CEFR-J resources
March 21, 2025 at 9:16 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Very exciting to see the @dhssfau.bsky.social updates to CLiC at #RC21Symposium, now incorporating FlexiConc clustering of concordance lines and more, especially having been involved in @michamahlberg.bsky.social‘s team for the prior CLiC 2.0 release myself ☺️
clic-fiction.com
Photo of Alexander Piperski (presenting with Stephanie Evert, out of the frame) on the CLiC and FlexiConc integration, showing an analysis tree to document queries
March 20, 2025 at 2:17 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
@lanthony.bsky.social suggesting ways of using AI to help with concordance query formation.. great ideas!
#RC21Symposium
Concordancing with Al Concordance search query formulation • Standard searches • Language teaching - "weather", "reservation", "hobbies" • "List up the formal equivalents of "and", "so", and "but" in academic writing?" • Syntax - "Give me all the inflections of the word 'go'" - "Give me a list of common phrasal verbs starting with 'go""' - "Give me a list of common coordinating conjunctions" • Discourse - "What phrases can be used to say 'hello'? - " What phrases can be used to say 'I agree'?
March 20, 2025 at 8:54 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Another day of concordance fun at #RCSymposium21 in Erlangen. @lanthony.bsky.social starts us off with taking concordances into the AI age
Laurence Antony with the title slide for the presentation „Al-Assisted Concordancing: From Search Support to Pattern Profiling“ at the Reading concordances in the 21st century symposium at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
March 20, 2025 at 8:38 AM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Have been looking forward to hearing all about FlexiConc!
#RC21Symposium
Title slide of the presentation „First steps in FlexiConc“ by Nathan Dykes & Alexander Piperski at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
March 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
And just in time for the talk by @schtepf.bsky.social 😊

#RC21Symposium
Title slide of Professor Stephanie Evert‘s presentation on mathematical and algorithmic foundations of concordance reading
March 19, 2025 at 12:10 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Made it to #RC21Symposium in sunny Erlangen 😊☀️
Photo of the RC21 project symposium programme at FAU, Erlangen-Nürnberg, and my name tag, Viola Wiegand, University of Stirling Project poster of the Reading concordances in the 21st century project symposium at FAU in Erlangen, displayed on an entrance door in the sunshine
March 19, 2025 at 12:09 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
At the launch of the Language and Society Scotland network, at Glasgow uni today but bringing together researchers across Scotland. Today’s event focuses on surveillance & securitisation (surveillance discourses being a major research interest of mine I’m very pleased 😊)
Slide from the launch event of the Language and Society Scotland network bringing together (socio)linguists and others interested in everything language and society, today’s event focusing on surveillance & securitisation
March 14, 2025 at 3:20 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
And this time I am also co-presenting at #IATEFL2025, with Vilda Kiaunytė on supporting students in their preparation for writing under exam conditions (focusing on a Lithuanian school context) & a pop-up presentation with Adnan Yilmaz about our @stirtesol.bsky.social programmes ☺️
Poster for IATEFL 2025 in Edinburgh showing some attendees, the IATEFL 2025 logo with the Edinburgh skyline and the text “I’m presenting” 8-11 April, Pre-Conference Events 7 April, www.iateflconference.org
March 7, 2025 at 2:56 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
🥰😊 one of my favourite Irn Bru memory was spotting this truck within my first three weeks of starting at the University of Stirling ☺️ (haven’t seen it since then but I hope it still comes..)
Irn Bru truck delivering Scottish soft drinks to the University of Stirling campus
February 28, 2025 at 2:43 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
And why isn’t Irn Bru on the list? Definitely a popular choice on @stir.ac.uk campus and elsewhere here in Scotland
An open can of the Scottish soft drink Irn Bru (sugar free version)
February 28, 2025 at 1:18 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
Lovely day on @stir.ac.uk campus; the sunshine is outweighing the clouds, and spring is in the air
Photo of the Loch on the campus of the University of Stirling, showing a swan flipping its wings, and in the background a bridge and hills, as well as clouds in the sky
February 28, 2025 at 12:54 PM
violawiegand.bsky.social
I treated myself to Stirling colleague Josh Thorpe’s (@joshthorpe.bsky.social) new book on AI for students (and educators) to read over the holidays - but I may already read it over the weekend, it looks really fun and yet thoughtful!
Cover page of a paper back book by Josh Thorpe titled “AI for students: Creative hacks for academic success - An illustrated guide” with a cartoon version of the author asking “Hey, can we use AI tools to make study more fun and effective?” And a computer answering “OK, I can help with that” Photo of the blurb on the back of the book: “This book is great! I really like the gentle humour and the illustrations. #hasjust the right tone, structure, and content to help students get to grips with Al as a leaming tool. -Steve Rolfe, Lecturer, university of stirling Generative Al has shaken up education, leaving some excited and others uneasy. But fear not! This engaging, comic-style book reveals practical secrets to making Al a fun, healthy, and effective learning tool. With Al for Students, anyone in school, college, or university can use tech like ChatGPT to improve their academic work - and enjoy it more. You'll learn to: • Collaborate with Al chatbots: Gain practical 'prompt-engineering' secrets to work smarter with ChatGPT, Copilot, and similar tools. • Boost performance: Do better work without cheating or outsourcing your brain. • Build healthy habits: Blend Al with study, reading, writing, planning, and brainstorming, while increasing your autonomy and critical thinking skills. • Stay ahead of the curve: Get involved, get confident, and get creative while the tech is still fresh. This guide is a must for anyone looking to stay competitive while staying calm in today's tech-driven academic world. Perfect for students and educators alike, this book is your ticket to harnessing Al while keeping academic integrity and creativity intact. Josh Thorpe is a lecturer, writing instructor, and academic advisor. He has worked with students and teachers from all over the world at University of Toronto, University of Stirling, Glasgow Caledonian University, and Glasgow School of Art. Thorpe is also a writer, artist, and musician living in Glasgow.”
December 20, 2024 at 1:38 PM