Videos

A 'vector', isn't that something for mathematicians and physicists? Linguist Weiwei Zhang (KU Leuven) proves the opposite. She uses vectors to study related words and synonyms that appear in different language variants, such as "subway" in American English and "underground" in British English.

People are very good at making analogies: our brains can very quickly see similarities between two things and then draw comparisons between them. We're so good at it that we do it unconsciously. Marie-Anne Markey (KU Leuven), with the help of Boris Johnson & Jane Austen, explains how this can be seen in our language...

You see the term "populism" popping up all over the press. But what exactly do Flemish journalists mean when they use that term? That's what communication scientist Jana Goyvaerts is figuring out in her doctorate. She lifts the veil in this video.

In this video, Elke Emmers (KU Leuven) takes you on a speed date with a real plot twist. In her research she tries to adjust the attitudes of teachers, remedial educationalists and other professionals towards persons with disabilities. 

Co- and teamteaching can be a real added value in education. However, this is not always a success: everything depends on good communication between co-teachers. That is what Mieke Meirsschaut tries to foster - in corona-free times- with amongst other her chat cards.

"You're a bad teacher and your class is absolute bullsh*t!". Novice teachers often do not know how to deal with this type of verbal-aggressive behavior, partly because it is not yet sufficiently addressed in their training. To tackle this, Delphine Franco is working on a solution.

Did you know that there are about 7,000 languages in the world? And that more than 2,600 of these languages are in danger of extinction? With every language that disappears, we lose a unique part of the rich diversity that exists in human languages. That's why Dana Louagie studies Aboriginal languages.

"5", "five" and "*****" are just the same, aren't they? Well, not exactly: while these symbolic and non-symbolic notations refer to the same magnitude, our brain processes the digit "5", the word "five" and the dot configuration differently. Mila Marinova looks into the psychology behind number processing. Such knowledge can help to make learning mathematics easier for children.