Dr Lucy Dipper

Overview

Professor Lucy Dipper is a linguist working in the field of Speech and Language Therapy, exploring the best ways to assess and remediate communication disorders.

She works with the language needed for communication in everyday life, such as storytelling and other forms of discourse, as well as with sentences and gesture. Everyday communication requires analysis and intervention at various levels of language including word, phrase, sentence and discourse structure levels, and Lucy's research is directed at creating feasible methods for clinicians to achieve this.

Lucy joined City, University of London in 2000, and previously worked at University College London. She studied Linguistics at Sussex University and then undertook both her Masters and PhD in Clinical Linguistics at University College London.

Lucy's research investigates the ways in which people use language and gesture to communicate meaning in everyday life, including ideas, experiences, interests, beliefs, opinions and other aspect of identity.

Qualifications

• PhD Language Sciences, University College London, United Kingdom, 1997 – 1999
• MSc Human Communication (distinction), University College London, United Kingdom, 1993 – 1995
• BSc (Hons) Linguistics, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, 1988 – 1991

Employment

• Professor of Clinical Linguistics, City, University of London, Jan 2022 – present
• Head of Department, City, University of London, Jan 2021 – present
• Head of Department - Language and Communication Science, City, University London, Jan 2021 – present
• Reader (Associate Professor) in Clinical Linguistics, City, University London, Sep 2018 – present
• Senior Lecturer - Clinical Linguistics and Child Language Development, City, University London, Sep 2009 – Sep 2018
• Lecturer - Clinical Linguistics, City, University London, Sep 1999 – Sep 2009
• Clinical Linguist (0.2. secondment), Connect - the communication disability network, 1999 – 2001
• Postgraduate Teaching Assistant, University College London, Jan 1997 – Jan 1999

Memberships of professional organisations

• Member, British Aphasiology Society
• Member, International Society of Gesture Studies
• Member, British Association of Clinical Linguists

Teaching

UndergraduateTeaching

- SL1005 Language Sciences (1)
I teach the Linguistics strand of this module

- SL2004 Language Sciences (2)
I teach the Language Development strand of this module

Postgraduate Teaching

- SLM003 Developmental Studies
I teach the Language Development strand of this module

- SLM001 Speech and Language Sciences
I am providing sabbatical cover for the Linguistics strand of this module

- HCM003 Cognitive and Communication Impairments
Module Leader, and cognition in aphasia teaching.

- HCM001 Acquired Language Impairments
Sentence and Discourse level assessment and therapy

Other teaching expertise

Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics.

Research Overview

Lucy's research interests include language and language disorder, with a particular interest in aphasia. Lucy and a colleague (Naomi Cocks - Curtin University, Perth, Austraia) recently completed a project funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust to explore the relationship between gesture and language skills in aphasia. Their results suggested that impairment to the language system (aphasia) is reflected in gesture, supporting the prevailing idea that language and gesture are strongly linked in processing terms. They also suggest that analysis of spontaneous co-speech is an important addition to the speech and language therapists' assessment toolkit.

Lucy and another colleague (Madeline Cruice - LCS, City University, London) are currently exploring the skills of people with aphasia across various communication genres. Supported by City University funds, they have carried out an exploratory analysis of the language used by people with aphasia when discussing their quality of life. This is an exciting new collaboration providing a unique opportunity to blend clinical linguistics with quality of life research. They found evidence for both intact and
impaired verb production in aphasia, with some surprising resilience in the range of meaning conveyed. There was also clear heterogeneity within both participant samples
challenges assumptions of normality and typicality.

Currently Madeleine, Lucy and Rachael Anne Knight are running a pilot project looking at language and communication in personal storytelling, and they will be seeking funding for a larger-scale version in 2015.

Research Areas

- Linguistics
- Communication Disorders

Research Centre

- LCS research group membership: Aphasia Research Group
- Assessment and Intervention in Children and Adults
- Deafness, Sign Language and Gesture
- Speech, Acoustics and Linguistics
- Quality of Life and Social aspects of Communication Disorders
- UCL research group membership: Aphasia Research Group

Collaborators

Madeline Cruice (LCS, City)
Rachael Anne Knight (LCS, City
Naomi Cocks (Curtin, Perth, Australia)
Gary Morgan (LCS, City)
Abigail Levin (LCS, City)
Nicola Botting (LCS, City)
Katerina Hilari (LCS, City)

Research students

2^nd supervisor

• Hongzhi Wang, Research Student

Publications by category