Welcome to CLS
The Centre for Language Studies is a research institute dedicated to the understanding of language and the way we use it. Our researchers study this fascinating topic from different perspectives and in several contexts, using a variety of innovative research methods. CLS aims to conduct research that is also valuable for organisations and audiences outside the academic world.
Language is what makes us human
A deeper understanding of what underlies language systems, language processing, and language use is what we strive for: we aspire to optimize human communicative interaction by investigating language from single sounds to discourse, from speech and text to gestures, signs, and images. We focus on four research areas:
- Language systems and language variation
- Language processing and cognition
- Discourse and communication
- First and second language acquisition
Vici grant for Mirjam Broersma
Mirjam Broersma has received a Vici grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This will enable her to develop an innovative line of research into second language acquisition in refugees.
CLS impacts lives
At CLS we work on research which directly contributes to society. Results of our research include widely accessible datasets and corpora, improved methods for automatic speech recognition, and award-winning e-Learning systems. Results are applied in areas as language teaching, e-government, and health communication.
Centre for Language and Speech Technology
The Centre for Language and Speech Technology (CLST) is a centre that both supports and conducts contract research for societal institutions. CLST is active in the fields of research and application development, as well as consultancy in the fields of data mining, language learning and teaching, and communication in health care and forensics, amongst many others. The centre is embedded in CLS.
Participate in our research!
Would you like to contribute to our research as a participant? 
We investigate language use and processing by studying speaking, listening, reading, writing, and signing in several languages. As a participant, you can contribute to all kinds of studies at our state-of-the-art on-site labs or online.
Graduate school
The Graduate School for the Humanities (GSH) unites the graduate programmes of the Centre for Language Studies (CLS), the Radboud Institute for Culture & History (RICH) and the Research Institute for Philosophy, Theology & Religious Studies (PTRS). This community consists mainly of PhD candidates, but also of Research Master students and postdocs.