prof. dr. W. (Wilbert) Spooren

Office hours: I am at the VU on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays I can be reached at home (++31.73.6135676).

Curriculum Vitae

Research interests

Language usage, specifically text structure, text optimalization, (acquisition and processing of) coherence relations, discourse perspective.

Teaching

I contribute to:

• Communication and Information Studies (BA, MA)
• Dutch Language and Culture(BA, MA)
• Linguistics (Research masterl)
• Journalism (MA)

Research

My research interests are:

• discourse structure
• cue phrases, connectives and coherence relations
• persuasion and text structure
• text optimalization

I participate in the research group Language, Cognition and Communication (Faculty of Arts, VU University Amsterdam), which is part of the interfaculty research institute Center for Advanced Media Research Amsterdam (CAMeRA).

Publications

Unpublished

• Hooijdonk, C. van & Spooren, W. (under review). The role of images in text comprehension: a review of research.
• Sanders, T. & Spooren, W. (under review). Causality and subjectivity in discourse: The meaning and use of causal connectives in spontaneous conversation, chat interactions and written text.
• Spooren, W., & Mulder, G. (2008). Negatief in het nieuws. De invloed van negatieve berichtgeving op het bedrijfsimago. Paper gepresenteerd op het Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap. Amsterdam, februari 2008.
• Stoffelsma, L. & Spooren, W. (under review). Reading and knowledge transfer in Ghana: the behaviour, attitudes and self- concepts of first year students in Bachelor of Education programmes.

2011

• Dubbeldam, I., Sanders, J., Meijman, F. & Spooren, W. (2011). Websites op consult. Zorgverleners over de inbreng van en verwijzing naar medische websites tijdens het consult [Websites at the doctor's. Caretakers on the importance of and reference to medical websites during doctor's visits].  Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing, 33(2), 166-186.
• Spooren, W. (2011). Sms-taal: + of - ? De invloed van nieuwe media op geletterdheid [The language of texting: + or -? The influence of new media on literacy]. Ons Erfdeel, 54(3), 54-61.

2010

• Spooren, W.P.M.S. & Degand, L. (2010). Coding coherence relations: Reliability and validity. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 6(2), 241-266.
• Spooren, W., Sanders, T., Huiskes, M., & Degand, L. (2010). Subjectivity and causality: A corpus study of spoken language. In S. Rice and J. Newman (Eds.), Empirical and Experimental Methods in Cognitive/Functional Research (pp. 241-255-14). CSLI/University of Chicago Press.

2009

• Sanders, T.J.M. & Spooren, W.P.M.S. (2009). Causal categories in discourse: Converging evidence from language use. In T.J.M. Sanders & E.E. Sweetser (Eds.), Causal categories in discourse and cognition (Cognitive Linguistics Research, 44) (pp. 205-246). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Sanders, T.J.M. & Spooren, W.P.M.S. (2009). The cognition of discourse coherence. In J. Renkema (Ed.), Discourse, of course (pp. 197-212-14). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
• Spooren, W.P.M.S. (2009). Bezorgde ouders? De relatie tussen chat en schrijfkwaliteit [Concerned parents? The relationship between chatting and writing quality]. In W.P.M.S. Spooren, M.G. Onrust & J.M. Sanders (Eds.), Studies in Taalbeheersing 3 (pp. 331-342). Assen: Van Gorcum.
• Spooren, W.P.M.S., Onrust, M.G. & Sanders, J.M. (Eds.). (2009). Studies in Taalbeheersing 3. [Studies in Language Use 3]Assen: Van Gorcum.
• Vis, K., Sanders, J.M. & Spooren, W.P.M.S. (2009). Subjectiviteit door de jaren heen: Conversationalisatie in journalistieke teksten [Subectivity through the years: Conversationalisation in journalistic texts]. In W.P.M.S. Spooren, J.M. Sanders & M.G. Onrust (Eds.), Studies in Taalbeheersing 3 (pp. 405-418). Assen: van Gorcum.   

Extensive list of publications

Other activities

I am one of the series editors of Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research (Benjamins, Amsterdam). I was one of the co-organizers of the international workshop Multiple Approaches to Discourse 2003, of the Second International Conference on Document Design (Tilburg, januari 2004) and of the 15th Annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse (VU University Amsterdam). I was one of the organizers of the international 3-year conference on language use Viot (Association of Interuniversity Collaboration on Language Use) (VU University Amsterdam, December 2008).

PhD supervisions

• B. Bekker (2006). De feiten verdraaid. Over tekstvolgorde, talige markering en sprekerbetrokkenheid. Dissertatie Universiteit van Tilburg (together with L. Noordman)
• A. Bolt. Grammatical metaphor and linguistic complexity. VU Amsterdam.
• T. van Charldorp. The interactional construction of the written report of a police interrogation (together with M. Komter). VU Amsterdam.
• I. Dubbeldam. Digital health communication (together with J. Sanders, M. van den Haak and F. Meijman). VU Amsterdam.
• M. Onrust. Het advies: vermijd de naamwoordstijl. VU Amsterdam.
• T. Pasma (2011). Metaphor and register variation: The personalization of Dutch news discourse (together with Gerard Steen)
• K. Sliedrecht. Advice and practice of advice on institutional conversations (together with M. Komter and F. van der Houwen). VU Amsterdam
• L. Stoffelsma. Reading Cultures in Ghana: cross-cultural research about reading skills and educational reform. (together with John de Jong). VU Amsterdam
• F.C.M. Straatsma (2009). Typically typographic: The effects of typographic layout on the processing of product advertisements. VU Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam).
• L.M. Tavecchio. (2010). Sentence patterns in English and Dutch: A contrastive corpus analysis. VU Vrije Universiteit (499 pag.) (Utrecht: LOT). (together with M. Hannay)
• C. Veugen (2011). Computer games as a narrative medium. VU University Amsterdam. (together with Ed Tan and Heidi de Mare)  
• K. Vis (2011). Subjectivity in news discourse. A corpus linguistic analysis of informalization (together with J. Sanders and G. Steen). VU Amsterdam.