International Summer School on Multilingualism 3–7 July 2023

Organised by the Centre for Research on Language, Culture & Heritage, University of Greenwich (UK) and the Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research (CLLEAR), University of Southampton (UK) with the collaboration of the Center for Language Science (CLS) from Pennsylvania State University (USA).

This school is funded by the Centre for Research on Language, Culture & Heritage at the University of Greenwich and the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH).

This international summer school offers an immersive learning experience on multiple facets on multilingualism facilitated by scholars internationally recognised, and the opportunity to access international networks. The course is highly interactive and takes a holistic approach, covering topics that range from the theoretical underpinnings of language analysis, development and processing, to the quantitative analysis of the data. Classes and workshops will be delivered online over the course of one week. Participants will receive a link to course documentation including key readings, some to prepare prior to the lectures.

Date: 3 –7 July 2023

Teaching language: English

Online delivery via Zoom - Delegates will be provided with class links

For enquiries email: multilingualism_school@greenwich.ac.uk

Book your place here

Participants will learn:

Topics include:

• Evidence in second language acquisition
• Native language attrition
• Heritage language acquisition
• Third language acquisition
• Syntactic analyses relevant to multilingualism research
• Quantitative methods

Participants will receive:

• A five-day immersive learning experience comprising different aspects of multilingualism
• Workshops on the quantitative analysis of data
• Invitation to an open public lecture on the last day of the course
• A certificate of attendance, upon active engagement throughout the week

Class materials and online links will be provided to participants

Who Should Attend?

The course is suitable for graduates who want to get a head start in postgraduate studies as well as masters or doctoral students interested in honing their knowledge and broadening their networks internationally. The course can also be attractive to language practitioners interested in getting an overview of current knowledge of language learning processes and how they are investigated.

Lecturers 

• Professor Laura Domínguez, University of Southampton (UK)
• Dr Eloi Puig-Mayenco, Kings College Univeristy of London (UK)
• Dr Natalia Mitrofanova, The Artic University of Norway (Tromsø)
• Dr Ana Paula Palacios, University of Greenwich (UK)
• Professor Michael Putnam, Pennsylvania State University (USA), University of Greenwich (UK)
• Professor Roumyana Slabakova, University of Southampton (UK), Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Dr Michael Wiper, University Carlos III (Spain)
• Montserrat Sanz Yagüe, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies (Japan)

Provisional timetable (BST Time Zone)

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*Open Lecture - Professor Roumyana Slabakova, University of Southampton (UK), Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Why do we need a native speaker control group in our experimental studies?

Abstract
There has been renewed debate recently (see https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/13914/the-notion-of-the-native-speaker-put-to-the-test-recent-research-advances) on whether we need control groups of native speakers in second language acquisition research, and what purposes they serve. In my presentation, I will review some opposing viewpoints and focus on the view from generative SLA. I will provide an extended example from an unpublished study on L2 Mandarin, which supports the view that control groups are necessary for two purposes: to validate the property under discussion and the test instrument. I will also argue that employing native speaker control groups does not constitute “monolingual comparative normativity” (Rothman et al. 2022).

About the speaker
Professor Roumyana Slabakova is the Chair of Applied Linguistics at the University of Southampton and Head of Research of the Modern Languages and Linguistics department. Professor Slabakova has published over seventy articles in first-tier scholarly journals and thirty chapters and has written four monographs and edited three volumes. Her research is grounded in generative linguistic theory and explores the second language (L2) acquisition process. Her theoretical focus is the acquisition of grammatical structure and its interaction with meaning.

Brief description of courses

Exploring L3 acquisition: from theoretical discussions to empirical investigations

Dr Eloi Puig-Mayenco, Kings College London (UK), Dr Natalia Mitrofanova, The Artic University of Norway (Tromsø)

The focus of this course is to present a critical overview of the field of L3/Ln acquisition with special emphasis on morphosyntactic transfer. We will first present some theoretical constructs relevant for the field, and then discuss the most recent theories and hypotheses with relevant empirical data that is available to date. We will specifically show how to design studies that allow us to test the most recent proposals, highlighting important methodological choices that one needs to bear in mind when designing and L3 study. We will finish the course with some discussion of potential directions for future research regarding both transfer selection and L3 developmental trajectories.

Cognitive science and second language acquisition

Montserrat Sanz Yagüe, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies (Japan)

Every process of second language acquisition (SLA) includes phenomena like the following: 1) A difference between the production and comprehension capacities, which is reversed over time; in the first stages of SLA, one can produce more than one can understand. After achieving an intermediate level, one can understand much more than one can produce. 2) stagnation at the low-intermediate level. These phenomena can be understood better if we resort to some discoveries of the language sciences: linguistic theory provides us with clues about the nature of language that explain some of the SLA phenomena. Numerous psycholinguistic studies help us understand the differences between production and comprehension mechanisms. Finally, this discussion is relevant in a reconsideration of the levels of mastery that are proposed in second language teaching. This course covers issues on linguistics and psycholinguistics that have an impact on our view of what it means to learn and teach second languages.

Diachronic change & change through contact: Similarities & differences

Professor Michael Putnam, Pennsylvania State University (USA), University of Greenwich (UK)

A growing trend in research on language contact and heritage bilingualism is to establish comparison between changes that have taken place over longer periods of time in diachrony with those that have been documented and studied in real-time over the last 2-3 generations in contact settings. In this mini-course, we revisit some of the similarities and differences that exist in these two domains of researchers and discuss potential collaborations and exciting paths forward on language development and change across larger time periods.

Input and language acquisition: focus on early and late bilingual speakers

Professor Laura Domínguez, University of Southampton (UK)

In this course we will investigate two main processes and outcomes of bilingual acquisition: heritage language acquisition and native language attrition. In both cases a speaker is exposed to input from two different languages but with different quantitative and qualitative properties. Some of the main characteristics and typical outcomes of bilingualism in these contexts will be explored using data from recent studies as evidence. You will be an opportunity to learn new material and consolidate any previous knowledge on these topics you may already have.

Statistical Analysis

Dr Ana Paula Palacios, University of Greenwich (UK), Dr Michael Wiper University Carloss III, Madrid (Spain)

This course revises some key ideas in statistical testing with application to linguistics including statistical logic (ideas of estimation hypothesis tests), testing for relationships and comparing groups (chi2 tests of association and independence) and linear models (ANOVA and regression).