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.
Organised by the Centre for Research and Enterprise in Language (CREL), 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).
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This school is funded by the Centre for Research and Enterprise in Language of 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. Registered participants will receive a link to course documentation including key readings, some to prepare prior to the lectures.
Date: 11–15 July 2022
Teaching language: English
Location: Online - class links will be provided to delegates
For enquiries email: multilingualism_school@greenwich.ac.uk
What 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
What Participants Will Get:
- 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
Participants will receive materials and links to courses
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 Evelina Leivada, Rovira i Virgili University
- Dr Ana Paula Palacios, University of Greenwich (UK)
- Dr Eloi Puig-Mayenco, Kings College Univeristy of London (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)
Provisional timetable (BST Time Zone)
Time | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
10:00-11:00 |
Input after migration: focus on heritage language speakers and their parents Professor Laura Domínguez | |||||
11:30-12:30 |
The impact of bilingualism on cognition Dr Evelina Leivada | |||||
13:00-14:00 |
A look at L3 acquisition: theories, methods and future directions Professor Roumyana Slabakova & Dr Eloi Puig-Mayenco | |||||
14:00-15:00 | LUNCH BREAK | |||||
15:00-17:30 |
The importance of contrasts in bilingual language developments Professor Michael Putnam
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Workshop on statistical analysis
Dr Ana P Palacios Dr Michael Wiper | Open Lecture
Professor Silvina Montrul | |||
Open Lecture: Professor Silvina Montrul, University of Illinois
Friday 15 July 2022, 4PM BST
Join Zoom Meeting here: https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/67733667985
Title: Supporting Heritage Language Acquisition When it Matters Most
Abstract
Heritage language acquisition is concerned with the developmental stages and outcome of learning a minority language as a first but secondary language in a bilingual context from childhood to adulthood, as well as the wax and wane of the heritage language in response to input factors. Most studies of heritage languages focus on adults, who are unbalanced bilinguals with stronger command of the majority language than of the heritage language, because the heritage language exhibits systematic differences in vocabulary, morphological knowledge and in certain discourse-pragmatic interfaces compared to baseline speakers. In this talk, I focus on recent studies of Spanish and other languages in school-age heritage speakers, because it is during late childhood and adolescence that input decreases substantially with effects in the still developing linguistic system. I will show that many of the apparent grammatical differences found in young adult heritage speakers can be traced back to protracted development in childhood. Two important factors that can be observed with this age group are the roles of parental input in heritage language development and of academic support of the heritage language. The emerging conclusions from recent studies are that 1) there is little relationship between the language of the parents and the patterns that emerge in the heritage language children, and 2) academic support of the heritage language during the entire school-age period is critical to maintain and develop the language to achieve fluent bilingualism.
About the speaker
Professor Silvina Montrul completed her undergraduate university education in Argentina and received a Masters in English from the University of Cincinnati and a PhD in Linguistics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Professor Montrul is a Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois. In 2010 she founded the University Language Academy for Children, an after school and summer camp Spanish program for 4–16-year-old children, which she directed until 2018. Professor Montrul’s research interests include second language acquisition, bilingualism and heritage language acquisition.
Brief description of courses
Input after migration: focus on heritage language speakers and their parents
Professor Laura Domínguez, University of Southampton (UK)
In this course we will investigate the role of linguistic input in 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 typical outcomes of bilingualism in these contexts will be explored using data from recent studies as evidence. This course will be an opportunity to learn new material and consolidate any previous knowledge on these topics you may already have.
The impact of bilingualism on cognition
Dr Evelina Leivada, Rovira i Virgili University
This course will discuss the impact of having two or more languages on various cognitive domains. I will first present well-established notions such as ´bilingual advantage´ and ´bilingual disadvantage´ and discuss the key theories that explain their existence. Against this background, I will then bring together several interrelated questions that often stay in the margins: 1) What factors drive the observed effects? 2) Under what conditions are cognitive adaptations to bilingualism expected to be found? 3) Why do these adaptations have the distribution they have?
A look at L3 acquisition: theories, methods and future directions
Professor Roumyana Slabakova (University of Southampton) and Dr Eloi Puig-Mayenco (Kings College London)
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 the most recent theories and hypotheses in the field and examine the relevant empirical data that is available to date. We will then discuss some methodological choices that one needs to bear in mind when designing a study with transfer as its main focus of study. The course will finish with the discussion of some potential directions for future research regarding both transfer selection and L3 developmental trajectories.
Statistical Analysis
Dr Ana Paula Palacios, Univeristy 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).
The importance of contrasts in bilingual language developments
Professor Michael Putnam, Pennsylvania State University (USA), University of Greenwich (UK)
Although bi/multilinguals share the same dynamic experience of juggling between two (or more) languages frequently throughout the course of their lives, the similarity (and lack thereof) between the structural properties of these source grammars may different substantially from one another, are not much at all. In these meetings we will explore how the notion of CONTRAST is of central importance in language development. In this mini seminar our primary empirical focus is on the phonological and morphological domain of heritage grammars, although these general concepts can be extended to other domains and other populations of bi/multilinguals.