معرفی
Dr. George Pontikas serves as a Lecturer at the University of Reading within the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. His academic responsibilities include module convenorship for PL3RES and PLMLAP, supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation projects, and leadership in assessment for Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) programmes.
His educational qualifications comprise:
- BA in English Language and Linguistics (Aristotle University Thessaloniki)
- MA in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (Aristotle University Thessaloniki)
- PhD in Psycholinguistics (University of Reading)
Specializing in psycholinguistics, Dr. Pontikas investigates real-time sentence processing across diverse populations including children, monolinguals, bilinguals, and individuals with dyslexia. His research employs eye-tracking methodologies to examine comprehension of complex syntactic structures, with particular focus on garden-path sentences and filler-gap dependencies. This work provides critical insights into how linguistic knowledge interfaces with cognitive mechanisms during online language processing under varying developmental and linguistic conditions.
Analysis of his publication trajectory reveals consistent methodological sophistication in studying bilingual children's sentence processing, with recent work (2023-2025) increasingly incorporating advanced quantitative techniques. His research bridges theoretical psycholinguistics with clinical applications, particularly in differentiating language impairment from typical bilingual development.
His scholarly recognition includes:
- Nomination for the Teaching Excellence Award (School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences)
As an academic supervisor, Dr. Pontikas mentors students across undergraduate and postgraduate levels in dissertation research. He actively contributes to multiple research initiatives including the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM), Language Sciences Research group, SLT research group, and Pedagogical Research and Education Scholarship group, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in language science education and clinical practice.
