From macw at cmu.edu Mon Dec 3 15:15:31 2001 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:15:31 -0500 Subject: joining IASCL Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES, After I posted the message about the first volume on bilingualism edited by Cenoz and Genesee, a couple of people asked me what IASCL was and how one could join it. IASCL is the International Assocation for the Study of Child Language. It has met once every three years since 1975 at different locations around the globe. The last meeting was in San Sebastian in the Basque Country in 1999 and was attended by about 600 researchers. The next meeting is in Madison, Wisconsin. You can find out more information about the International Association, the next meeting, the book series, and such, by going to http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/html/sites.html or http://cnts.uia.ac.be/iascl/ The procedure for joining is explained at this last link. Click on the words "new members: registration" --Brian MacWhinney From shanti at unitel.spb.ru Tue Dec 4 09:42:27 2001 From: shanti at unitel.spb.ru (Victoria Ryskina) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 12:42:27 +0300 Subject: sli and late-talkers Message-ID: Dear all, we are speech-therapists from Russia have some questions about SLI and late-talkers definition : - Can all late-talkes be as at risk for SLI? What age? - If not all of them, which criteria for classifing for at risk SLI? - Which criteria for late-talkes befoer 3 age? - What is IPS test? Which subtests it contains? We understend that questions are rather intricate and will be very grateful for your opinions and reference. Thanks in advance. Alisa Ovsepian, Victoria Riskina Early Intersention Institute- S-Peterburg From Roberta at UDel.Edu Tue Dec 4 17:48:22 2001 From: Roberta at UDel.Edu (Roberta Golinkoff) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 12:48:22 -0500 Subject: Job possibility In-Reply-To: Message-ID: OUTSTANDING JOB POSSIBILITY Do you know any graduating seniors who want to go to graduate school but would like to take a year or two off first and work in the field? Starting soon after graduation this Spring, I will need a full-time research assistant to run my lab (funded by NSF) to work on word learning. I treat this person as my intellectual colleague and greatly enjoy collaboration. In addition to being very smart and a self-starter, the individual must have excellent people skills since he or she would supervise the many students who work in the lab and interact with the parents and babies who visit. When they finish their stint with me, my lab coordinators have gone on to do PhD's at some of the best institutions in the country. Please have anyone who is interested call me at (302- 831-1634) or better yet, write me email at Roberta at Udel.edu. Thanks so much for your help! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D. H. Rodney Sharp Professor School of Education and Departments of Psychology and Linguistics University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 Phone: (302) 831-1634 Fax: (302) 831-4445 E-mail: Roberta at udel.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alleng at msu.edu Tue Dec 4 23:12:55 2001 From: alleng at msu.edu (George D. Allen) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 18:12:55 -0500 Subject: Nellish, again Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, Some months ago, when I was putting together materials for my phonetics class, I asked you all if you knew of any discussions of Nellish, the language that Jodie Foster is said to have invented for the movie, "Nell," in which she played a sort of "wolf child." My request fell on deaf ears, as I received zero responses. It is normal in any field of science for questions outside of the main areas of interest to receive little comment. Thus, I conclude that Nellish is not a hot topic. On the other hand, pedagogy is always relevant in the academy, and any time that there is a useful classroom prop available for setting the context of a topic, teachers are usually eager to make use of it. Thus, I showed several scenes from the excellent DVD of "My Fair Lady" on the first day of phonetics class, to excellent effect. It also seemed to me that Nell-the-movie could serve as the same sort of springboard into talking about certain important issues in language development -- even if Nellish, itself, isn't particularly interesting. For example, one could ask the students to determine what there is about Nellish that makes it less than interesting for paedolinguistic scholars. So I find the apparent *total* lack of interest amongst you concerning Nellish to be something of a "puddlement" (that's Nigel Smith as the King of Siam talking). Any comments? George D. Allen Michigan State University College of Nursing A230 Life Sciences Bldg., E Lansing, MI 48824-1317 Voice: (517) 353-5976; Fax: (517) 353-9553 "What am I on? I'm on my bike 6 hours a day... What are you on?" -- Lance Armstrong From wexler at PSYCHE.MIT.EDU Wed Dec 5 19:22:31 2001 From: wexler at PSYCHE.MIT.EDU (Ken Wexler) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:22:31 -0500 Subject: Assistant Professor Position in Linguistics at MIT (Interdiscipinary area) Message-ID: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MIT, LINGUISTICS (INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA) The Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT invites applications for a tenure-track position at the assistant professor level, starting September 1 2002. The appointment will be made in an interdisciplinary area integrating linguistic theory with one of the following research specializations: computational linguistics, language acquisition, language impairment, language processing, neurolinguistics, phonetic science. We seek applicants whose research is informed by linguistic theory and who will enhance the breadth and depth of the department in its research, teaching, and advising mission at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Applicants should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, copies of research papers, evidence of teaching ability, and three letters of reference to: Chair, Linguistics Search Committee Department of Linguistics and Philosophy MIT/E39-245 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Application Deadline: February 1, 2002 Departmental representatives will be present at the LSA meeting in San Francisco to conduct preliminary interviews. Women and members of under-represented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. MIT is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer Ken Wexler Professor of Psychology and Linguistics MIT NE20-409 Cambridge, MA 02139 617-253-5797 (office phone) From Coreda at aol.com Wed Dec 5 19:34:54 2001 From: Coreda at aol.com (Coreda at aol.com) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:34:54 EST Subject: Language Acq in adopted children Message-ID: Hello all - I'm Cynthia Core, mother of a recently adopted one-year-old from China. I'm a doctoral candidate in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Florida, and I received the following question from one of the parents I traveled with. I have some ideas about responding to her, but I was very curious to see what this particular group of researchers would have to offer. < From mcginnis at ucalgary.ca Wed Dec 5 20:23:03 2001 From: mcginnis at ucalgary.ca (Martha McGinnis) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 13:23:03 -0700 Subject: Language Acq in adopted children In-Reply-To: Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2768 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kpollock at memphis.edu Thu Dec 6 04:43:05 2001 From: kpollock at memphis.edu (kpollock at memphis.edu) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 22:43:05 -0600 Subject: Language Acq in adopted children Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Coreda at aol.com Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2001 1:34 pm Subject: Language Acq in adopted children >> I would appreciate any input that you all can offer. Also, I >> would like any >> leads on researchers who are currently addressing the issue of >> language >> change in children adopted from non-English speaking countries. >> Thank you. >> Cynthia Core > I responded to Cynthia earlier privately, but also thought that I should share this with the entire group. I am also the mother of an adopted daughter from China, and am currently involved in a series of studies addressing speech-language acquisition in children adopted from China. The goals of these studies are to obtain normative information on speech-language acquisition (taking into account factors such as age at time of adoption and number of months post-placement), identify risk factors that may predict later language outcome, and determine the overall incidence, nature, and extent of speech-language problems that persist beyond the early years following placement. The first three studies are currently underway; the fourth is still in the planning stages. Here's an overview of the studies. 1. A nationwide longitudinal survey of speech-language acquisition in children between 9 and 42 months of age who have been home less than one year. Parents are being asked to complete a survey every three months until their child reaches three years of age. 2. A local longitudinal study (in the Memphis, TN area) of children from 9 to 30 months of age at time of placement, beginning in the third month home and continuing until three years of age. Data includes a combination of measures based on standardized tests, parent interviews, and direct observation. 3. A two-site (Philadelphia and Memphis) cross-sectional study of children from 3 to 8 years of age who have been home more than one year. This study is being done in collaboration with Jenny Roberts, Rena Krakow, and Paul Wang at Temple University. We are administering a full battery of tests measuring articulation/phonology, receptive and expressive language, cognition, preliteracy skills, and hearing. 4. A nationwide survey of children over three years of age who have been home at least two years. The purpose will be to obtain information from a much larger group of children than in study 3, using a parent questionnaire (under development now). The Temple group (Roberts, Krakow, & Wang) also have some other projects in the works. I'll let them post about those themselves, so as not to misrepresent their research. It is far too early to comment on the results of any of these studies, but I think it is safe to say that many of the children we have seen so far are doing exceptionally well, despite frequent early delays in many areas (presumably due to lack of stimulation/interacton in the orphanages). Karen Pollock, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor School of Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology The University of Memphis From kgilbride22 at hotmail.com Thu Dec 6 07:45:00 2001 From: kgilbride22 at hotmail.com (Karla Gilbride) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 02:45:00 -0500 Subject: audio samples of 12-to-24-month-olds Message-ID: Hello, My name is Karla Gilbride, and I am a senior at Swarthmore college cuently working on an undergraduate thesis in linguistics. I am investigating the possible facilitative effects of Motherese prosody on lexical acquisition and the development of pragmatic competence, and I was hoping to supplement my literature review with an analysis of some audio samples featuring spontaneous interactions between English-speaking parents and their infants at 12 through 24 months of age. What I was hoping to do was compare the prosodic characteristics of the parent's speech over several samples taken at different child ages and then look for any correlations between the types of prosodic characteristics used and the amount of lexical acquisition, (particularly of focally stressed words), and pragmatic competence, (e.g., percentage of parental utterances followed by topically appropriate responses or expansions), shown by the child as he/she gets older. In order to have some basis for comparison, I was hoping to look at at least two parent-child dyads. I have some software, called PROT, which is supposed to do pitch tracking and other types of analyses on digitzed sound files, but unfortunately I haven't had a chance to use it yet because I haven't been able to find any files in the audio corpora in the CHILDES database involving children at the ages I am interested in studying. Does anyone on this list have ideas of where I could find sound files of English-speaking parents interacting with their 12-to-24-month-old children, particularly any longitudinal samples that you know of that include multiple recordings of the same child at different ages? Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help, Karla Gilbride Karla Gilbride Swarthmore College 500 College Ave. Swarthmore, PA 19081 (610) 690-3877 kgilbri1 at swarthmore.edu "All the Declaration of Independence guarantees is the pursuit of happiness. You have to catch up with it on your own."--Benjamin Franklin _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp From rberman at post.tau.ac.il Thu Dec 6 08:49:47 2001 From: rberman at post.tau.ac.il (Ruth Berman) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:49:47 +0200 Subject: Research on development of speech acts Message-ID: A student of mine is doing a comparative study of speech acts in normal and aphasic adults (Hebrew speaking) and is interested in extending this to children. We would appreciate any references to work on acquisition and development of speech acts in comprehension and production. Please send responses to: Gila Batori thanks a lot for your cooperation and help Ruth Berman From a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk Thu Dec 6 09:27:32 2001 From: a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:27:32 +0000 Subject: second language Message-ID: A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having speech therapy for English? Any advice most welcome. Annette -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 fax: 0207 242 7717 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm ________________________________________________________________ From brent at cs.wustl.edu Thu Dec 6 11:53:25 2001 From: brent at cs.wustl.edu (Michael Brent) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 05:53:25 -0600 Subject: audio samples of 12-to-24-month-olds Message-ID: Hi Karla, Check out the recordings (sound and transcripts) at http://lsrg.cs.wustl.edu/ --- I think they may be just what you're looking for. If you want the original DAT tapes instead of the mpegs on the web I might be able to leng them to. Good luck, Michael Karla Gilbride wrote: > Hello, > > My name is Karla Gilbride, and I am a senior at Swarthmore college cuently > working on an undergraduate thesis in linguistics. I am investigating the > possible facilitative effects of Motherese prosody on lexical acquisition > and the development of pragmatic competence, and I was hoping to supplement > my literature review with an analysis of some audio samples featuring > spontaneous interactions between English-speaking parents and their infants > at 12 through 24 months of age. What I was hoping to do was compare the > prosodic characteristics of the parent's speech over several samples taken > at different child ages and then look for any correlations between the types > of prosodic characteristics used and the amount of lexical acquisition, > (particularly of focally stressed words), and pragmatic competence, (e.g., > percentage of parental utterances followed by topically appropriate > responses or expansions), shown by the child as he/she gets older. In order > to have some basis for comparison, I was hoping to look at at least two > parent-child dyads. I have some software, called PROT, which is supposed to > do pitch tracking and other types of analyses on digitzed sound files, but > unfortunately I haven't had a chance to use it yet because I haven't been > able to find any files in the audio corpora in the CHILDES database > involving children at the ages I am interested in studying. > > Does anyone on this list have ideas of where I could find sound files of > English-speaking parents interacting with their 12-to-24-month-old children, > particularly any longitudinal samples that you know of that include multiple > recordings of the same child at different ages? Any suggestions you might > have would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks in advance for your help, > Karla Gilbride > > Karla Gilbride > Swarthmore College > 500 College Ave. > Swarthmore, PA 19081 > (610) 690-3877 > kgilbri1 at swarthmore.edu > > "All the Declaration of Independence guarantees is the pursuit of happiness. > You have to catch up with it on your own."--Benjamin Franklin > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp From bpearson at comdis.umass.edu Thu Dec 6 13:27:40 2001 From: bpearson at comdis.umass.edu (Barbara Zurer Pearson) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 08:27:40 -0500 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Annette K-S, I did NOT want to spend time on Infochildes today, but yours is the 4th (!) query this morning that is right down my alley and it's barely 7 am! I'm of course, tremendously prejudiced in favor of helping children be bilingual, and I've always shared Lucy Wong Fillmore's outrage at telling people not to speak the language they can have the best relationship possible with their children in. On the other hand, I'm uncomfortable going against the grain of clinicians' advice--even in cases as this is, where there is no scientific evidence that children with speech "problems" shouldn't be bilingual, if their environments are. Clinicians, though, usually have a pretty good sense of things, and so while I think there's no evidence against, there's also no good evidence the other way, to tell us that we introduce the two languages with impunity for *all* children. You seem to intimate that your grandchild has an articulation problem, so I don't think if one's careful, there will be any issue of cognitive overload. And if the child's hearing is less than perfect, it may mean that his command of French pronunciation will be less than native-like. (However, that shouldn't be a problem, because kids can get away with a lot.) If it were my grandbaby, I would suggest introducing French, but somewhat carefully. The child's 4, so your daughter can discuss it with him, explain it, get him to notice things etc. She can start with games and songs and the other things of cultural exchange. (What about Tintin? Or Asterix? Are they still around? Do they have modern counterparts?) See how those go down. Then the next step will be the playgroup. But it is possible that the child will not pick up the language like most children do, and it could be frustrating for him, but less so, if it's anticipated and prepared for. And who knows, it could work beautifully--especially if there are *children* he admires who speak French, too. I will close with one "clinical experience" we had in our Miami study of the bilingual babies (some of whom we followed until they were past 5). I hope I get the details right. and that I don't violate any privacy concerns. The story gets a little long, so I'll understand if many readers don't make it to the end. It is unbelievable to me, but there was one child whom we recorded monthly for the 2nd year, and quarterly thereafter, who became deaf under our noses. (Her parents were graduate students and very aware, and she also became deaf under their noses, without their catching on. I can at least report that it was our lab that eventually sent her for hearing tests at age 5--our last screening for hearing had been when she entered the study at 3 months. And in Kim Oller's lab, no less!) Anyway, the child had been exposed to mostly Spanish early on, and so in the graphs of her in our mid-90's studies, she's the 85/15 exposure girl. At 2, she was average in Spanish (not stellar, as one might have expected in hindsight), and she also knew some English. (Her dad was a "gringo", but he had learned Spanish at least at the 2-year-old level and was comfortable with the wife's project to make the kids bilingual.) At 2, a sibling was born and they wanted the child to start daycare--in English. She did it, but she didn't really catch on to the English like one would have expected. The mother had nieces and nephews who became bilingual with much more ease than this child. We noticed that in the recording sessions the child was pleasant enough, but not particularly cooperative. She also had a low-pitched (Tallulah Bankhead?) voice. It was so cute: an adorable red-head, who spoke "sexy" Spanish. At about 30 months, they saw that she had fluid, and so they put the tubes in her ears. Still no dramatic progress in English; she remained more comfortable in Spanish, although I'm dying to have someone go back to her 2 and 3 year old tapes to evaluate the Spanish carefully. For the next 2 years, she spoke passable Spanish and gibberish English. We decided that she had decided that English was gibberish and so that was all one was required to output. It seemed to us a "pragmatic" decision on her part. FINALLY, at 5 (!), a hearing test revealed a progressive neuro-sensory loss. She was given hearing aids and switched to "English- only", given how much lost time she had to make up in English. When I see the parents, as I occasionally do, they say she is doing "fine." But since I'm not in Miami anymore (except to visit MY grandson, who despite being Cuban-American, does not seem to be becoming bilingual, alas), I haven't been in a position to follow up. I'm pretty sure we could still find the family. The sibling born when this child was 2 had the same neuro-sensory loss, but with earlier onset, so when he didn't have any words at 2+ (when L was 5), he got hearing aids etc. at the same time as his sister. And he has been exposed to English-only. I believe also that his speech is much more impaired than his sister's, as she seems to have had "enough" input in those first 2 years to get the basic rhythms and pitch of what it means to speak. Now that I tell this, it sounds like your grandson will have a breeze in French (by comparison), and it's criminal that we never wrote this up. Maybe this will be the first step towards such a case study. Bonne chance--and all that. Barbara At 09:27 AM 12/6/2001 +0000, you wrote: >A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having speech therapy for English? >Any advice most welcome. >Annette >-- >________________________________________________________________ >Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >Institute of Child Health, >30 Guilford Street, >London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >tel: 0207 905 2754 >fax: 0207 242 7717 >http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >________________________________________________________________ ******************************************** Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D. Research Associate, Project Manager NIH Working Groups on AAE Dept. of Communication Disorders Arnold House, 117 UMass-Amherst 01003 413.545.5023 fax: 545.0803 bpearson at comdis.umass.edu http://www.umass.edu/aae/ From a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk Thu Dec 6 14:29:31 2001 From: a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 14:29:31 +0000 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011206073207.00ad3b60@mailsrv-unix.oit.umass.edu> Message-ID: Oh dear, sorry to have contributed to your email deluge today! But thank you so much for your thoughts on this. Kyra's "mother tongue" has now *become* English after university and living here for so long, so she has always spoken to Misha in English. But they go to France often and she'd like him to get used to hearing French. My feeling was that it would not have a detreimental effect at all on his developing English. I just wanted to know what others thought before responding to her request for advice. Thanks again, best wishes Annette At 8:27 am -0500 6/12/01, Barbara Zurer Pearson wrote: >Dear Annette K-S, >I did NOT want to spend time on Infochildes today, but yours >is the 4th (!) query this morning that is right down my alley >and it's barely 7 am! > >I'm of course, tremendously prejudiced in favor of helping >children be bilingual, and I've always shared Lucy Wong >Fillmore's outrage at telling people not to speak the language >they can have the best relationship possible with their >children in. On the other hand, I'm uncomfortable going against >the grain of clinicians' advice--even in cases as this is, where >there is no scientific evidence that children with speech "problems" >shouldn't be bilingual, if their environments are. Clinicians, though, >usually have a pretty good sense of things, and so while I >think there's no evidence against, there's also no good evidence the >other way, to tell us that we introduce the two languages with >impunity for *all* children. > >You seem to intimate that your grandchild has an articulation problem, >so I don't think if one's careful, there will be any issue of >cognitive overload. And if the child's hearing is less than >perfect, it may mean that his command of French pronunciation >will be less than native-like. (However, that shouldn't be a >problem, because kids can get away with a lot.) > >If it were my grandbaby, I would suggest introducing French, >but somewhat carefully. The child's 4, so your daughter can >discuss it with him, explain it, get him to notice things etc. >She can start with games and songs and the other things of cultural >exchange. (What about Tintin? Or Asterix? Are they still >around? Do they have modern counterparts?) See how >those go down. Then the next step will be the playgroup. >But it is possible that the child will not pick up the language >like most children do, and it could be frustrating for him, >but less so, if it's anticipated and prepared for. And who knows, >it could work beautifully--especially if there are *children* he >admires who speak French, too. > >I will close with one "clinical experience" we had in our >Miami study of the bilingual babies (some of whom we followed >until they were past 5). I hope I get the details right. and that >I don't violate any privacy concerns. The story gets a little >long, so I'll understand if many readers don't make it to the >end. > >It is unbelievable to me, but there was >one child whom we recorded monthly for the 2nd year, and >quarterly thereafter, who became deaf under our noses. (Her >parents were graduate students and very aware, and she >also became deaf under their noses, without their catching on. >I can at least report that it was our lab that eventually sent >her for hearing tests at age 5--our last screening for hearing >had been when she entered the study at 3 months. And in >Kim Oller's lab, no less!) > >Anyway, the child had been exposed to mostly Spanish early on, >and so in the graphs of her in our mid-90's studies, she's the >85/15 exposure girl. At 2, she was average in Spanish (not >stellar, as one might have expected in hindsight), and she also >knew some English. (Her dad was a "gringo", but he had learned >Spanish at least at the 2-year-old level and was comfortable >with the wife's project to make the kids bilingual.) > >At 2, a sibling was born and they wanted the child to start >daycare--in English. She did it, but she didn't really catch on >to the English like one would have expected. The mother had >nieces and nephews who became bilingual with much more >ease than this child. > >We noticed that in the recording sessions the child was >pleasant enough, but not particularly cooperative. She also >had a low-pitched (Tallulah Bankhead?) voice. It was so >cute: an adorable red-head, who spoke "sexy" Spanish. >At about 30 months, they saw that she had fluid, and so they put >the tubes in her ears. Still no dramatic progress in English; >she remained more comfortable in Spanish, although I'm >dying to have someone go back to her 2 and 3 year old >tapes to evaluate the Spanish carefully. For the next 2 years, >she spoke passable Spanish and gibberish English. We >decided that she had decided that English was gibberish >and so that was all one was required to output. It seemed to >us a "pragmatic" decision on her part. FINALLY, >at 5 (!), a hearing test revealed a progressive neuro-sensory >loss. She was given hearing aids and switched to "English- >only", given how much lost time she had to make up in >English. When I see the parents, as I occasionally do, >they say she is doing "fine." But since I'm not in Miami >anymore (except to visit MY grandson, who despite being >Cuban-American, does not seem to be becoming bilingual, >alas), I haven't been in a position to follow up. I'm pretty >sure we could still find the family. > >The sibling born when this child was 2 had the same >neuro-sensory loss, but with earlier onset, so when >he didn't have any words at 2+ (when L was 5), he got >hearing aids etc. at the same time as his sister. And >he has been exposed to English-only. I believe also that >his speech is much more impaired than his sister's, >as she seems to have had "enough" input in those first >2 years to get the basic rhythms and pitch of what it >means to speak. > >Now that I tell this, it sounds like your grandson will >have a breeze in French (by comparison), and it's criminal >that we never wrote this up. Maybe this will be the >first step towards such a case study. > >Bonne chance--and all that. > >Barbara > >At 09:27 AM 12/6/2001 +0000, you wrote: >>A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is >>almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a >>slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems >>to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He >>had a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears >>far better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like >>her son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should >>continue speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup >>he could now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time >>in his environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for >>him to start hearing another language at this time, when he is >>still having speech therapy for English? >>Any advice most welcome. >>Annette >>-- >>________________________________________________________________ >>Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >>Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >>Institute of Child Health, >>30 Guilford Street, >>London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >>tel: 0207 905 2754 >>fax: 0207 242 7717 >>http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >>________________________________________________________________ > >******************************************** >Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D. >Research Associate, Project Manager >NIH Working Groups on AAE >Dept. of Communication Disorders >Arnold House, 117 >UMass-Amherst 01003 > >413.545.5023 >fax: 545.0803 > >bpearson at comdis.umass.edu >http://www.umass.edu/aae/ -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 fax: 0207 242 7717 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm ________________________________________________________________ From genesee at ego.psych.mcgill.ca Thu Dec 6 15:28:24 2001 From: genesee at ego.psych.mcgill.ca (Fred Genesee) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:28:24 -0500 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Annette: There is, as Barbara points out, no research evidence concerning bilingual/second language acquistion of children with speech impediment so it is difficult to be conclusive about how such children would fare if introduced to a second language around 4; but, it is also the case, that there is no evidence to suggest that all such children would be burdened or slowed down by L2 exposure once the L1 is in place. I think an additional factor to consider is exposure -- how much French and for how long would your grandson be exposed to French? In particular, is there real incentive value for his learning it -- that is, would French be useful for him in his extended family or neighborhood so that his French language learning would be supported more broadly? Simply exposing children to some L2 when it is not likely that their exposure will be rich or long enough for them to become competent in it may not be advisable, especially when children have language-related impairments, not because such children cannot cope with an L2 but because a little bit of language exposure may be a waste of time and cause some frustation. It is a matter of WHY would the child learn French. In Montreal, for example, where both French and English are useful on a daily basis with most people, there is considerable merit in giving all children the opportunity to learn French and English; to not do so would deprive some of them of a life-skill. This means that there are children with impairments who might be exposed to an L2 with good reason in Montreal, but not so in a monolingual setting. My own professional and personal experience over many years suggests to me that bilingual acquisition and second language acquisition need to be taken seriously and dabbling in other languages may not be useful -- I do not wish to imply that this is the case with your grandson; this is a more general comment. In fact, it sounds like your grandson could have some opportunities to use French with cousins on his mother's side. If this is true, then it makes French daycare more meaningful and useful. For me, this could be the deciding factor since there are no a priori reasons to think that he would have serious linguistic or cognitive problems with French. With respect to the mother's language, many children are very resistant to parents changing their languages since they have established an initimate bond with the parent, and language is a fundamental part of that relationship -- thus, changing the language used by the mother with the child can upset the relationship. Knowing another language is often a life-long advantage, but one has to look at the immediate circumstances when ascertain whether exposure to an L2 is sufficient and meaningful enough to make the decision to exposure young children to another language after their L1 is in place. Fred At 09:27 AM 12/6/01 +0000, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: >A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is >almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a >slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems >to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had >a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far >better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her >son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue >speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could >now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his >environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to >start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having >speech therapy for English? >Any advice most welcome. >Annette >-- >________________________________________________________________ >Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >Institute of Child Health, >30 Guilford Street, >London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >tel: 0207 905 2754 >fax: 0207 242 7717 >http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >________________________________________________________________ > Psychology Department phone: (514) 398-6022 McGill University fax: (514) 398-4896 1205 Docteur Penfield Ave. Montreal, Quebec Canada H3A 1B1 From a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk Thu Dec 6 16:49:51 2001 From: a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 16:49:51 +0000 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: <200112061532.KAA27164@ego.psych.mcgill.ca> Message-ID: Dear Fred, Thank you so much for those very thoughtful comments. No, Kyra is not planning to change her linguistic interaction with Misha. English has now become her native tongue too. But the playgroup may just expose his ear to French and be useful for their summer holidays with Kyra's father in France. Kyra was worried about any possible effects on his now rapidly improving English. Thanks again, Annette At 10:28 am -0500 6/12/01, Fred Genesee wrote: >Annette: > >There is, as Barbara points out, no research evidence concerning >bilingual/second language acquistion of children with speech impediment so >it is difficult to be conclusive about how such children would fare if >introduced to a second language around 4; but, it is also the case, that >there is no evidence to suggest that all such children would be burdened or >slowed down by L2 exposure once the L1 is in place. > >I think an additional factor to consider is exposure -- how much French >and for how long would your grandson be exposed to French? In particular, >is there real incentive value for his learning it -- that is, would French >be useful for him in his extended family or neighborhood so that his >French language learning would be supported more broadly? Simply exposing >children to some L2 when it is not likely that their exposure will be rich >or long enough for them to become competent in it may not be advisable, >especially when children have language-related impairments, not because >such children cannot cope with an L2 but because a little bit of language >exposure may be a waste of time and cause some frustation. It is a matter >of WHY would the child learn French. In Montreal, for example, where both >French and English are useful on a daily basis with most people, there is >considerable merit in giving all children the opportunity to learn French >and English; to not do so would deprive some of them of a life-skill. This >means that there are children with impairments who might be exposed to an >L2 with good reason in Montreal, but not so in a monolingual setting. > >My own professional and personal experience over many years suggests to me >that bilingual acquisition and second language acquisition need to be taken >seriously and dabbling in other languages may not be useful -- I do not >wish to imply that this is the case with your grandson; this is a more >general comment. In fact, it sounds like your grandson could have some >opportunities to use French with cousins on his mother's side. If this is >true, then it makes French daycare more meaningful and useful. For me, this >could be the deciding factor since there are no a priori reasons to think >that he would have serious linguistic or cognitive problems with French. > > With respect to the mother's language, many children are very >resistant to >parents changing their languages since they have established an initimate >bond with the parent, and language is a fundamental part of that >relationship -- thus, changing the language used by the mother with the >child can upset the relationship. > > Knowing another language is often a life-long advantage, but one has to >look at the immediate circumstances when ascertain whether exposure to an >L2 is sufficient and meaningful enough to make the decision to exposure >young children to another language after their L1 is in place. > >Fred > >At 09:27 AM 12/6/01 +0000, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: >>A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is >>almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a >>slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems >>to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had >>a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far >>better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her >>son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue > >speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could >>now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his >>environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to >>start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having >>speech therapy for English? >>Any advice most welcome. >>Annette >>-- >>________________________________________________________________ >>Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >>Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >>Institute of Child Health, >>30 Guilford Street, >>London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >>tel: 0207 905 2754 >>fax: 0207 242 7717 >>http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >>________________________________________________________________ >> >Psychology Department phone: (514) 398-6022 >McGill University fax: (514) 398-4896 >1205 Docteur Penfield Ave. >Montreal, Quebec >Canada >H3A 1B1 From macw at cmu.edu Thu Dec 6 18:49:36 2001 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 13:49:36 -0500 Subject: audio samples of 12-to-24-month-olds In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Karla Gilbride, If you go to http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/media/ you will find directories for about 8 datasets that have CHAT transcripts linked to audio which you can also download. Currently, only the Bernstein and MacWhinney folders have audio for monolingual English-speaking children. There is also a large and impressive data set from Brent, but there are currently some problems with the links in that data set. But the Bernstein and MacWhinney data definitely match your requirements. We also have several other major English corpora for which there are transcripts and digitized audio, but not yet links between the two. They include Sachs, Bloom's Peter, Snow, Hall, Feldman, Peters, Korman, and Van Houten. We can make these files available if you go through the transcripts to determine exactly what you want. Also, you might want to consider using PRAAT instead of PROT for your prosodic analysis. --Brian MacWhinney, CMU From mariamanolitsi at yahoo.co.uk Thu Dec 6 19:01:47 2001 From: mariamanolitsi at yahoo.co.uk (=?iso-8859-1?q?maria=20manolitsi?=) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 19:01:47 +0000 Subject: Assistant Professor Position in Linguistics at MIT (Interdiscipinary area) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: # COuld you please send me information and application forma about Language impairment? MANOLITSI MARIA KENNEDY COURT 19, ROOM 3 UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE WALL HALL CAMPUS ALDENHAM, WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE WD2 8AT ENGLAND --- Ken Wexler wrote: > > ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MIT, LINGUISTICS > (INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA) > > The Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT > invites applications > for a tenure-track position at the assistant > professor level, starting > September 1 2002. The appointment will be made in an > interdisciplinary > area integrating linguistic theory with one of the > following research > specializations: computational linguistics, language > acquisition, > language impairment, language processing, > neurolinguistics, phonetic > science. > > We seek applicants whose research is informed by > linguistic theory and > who will enhance the breadth and depth of the > department in its > research, teaching, and advising mission at the > graduate and > undergraduate levels. > > Applicants should send a letter of application, > curriculum vitae, > copies of research papers, evidence of teaching > ability, and three > letters of reference to: > > Chair, Linguistics Search Committee > Department of Linguistics and Philosophy > MIT/E39-245 > 77 Massachusetts Avenue > Cambridge, MA 02139 > > Application Deadline: February 1, 2002 > > Departmental representatives will be present at the > LSA meeting in San > Francisco to conduct preliminary interviews. > > Women and members of under-represented minorities > are especially > encouraged to apply. > > MIT is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action > Employer > > > Ken Wexler > Professor of Psychology and Linguistics > MIT NE20-409 > Cambridge, MA 02139 > > 617-253-5797 (office phone) > > > ________________________________________________________________ Nokia 5510 looks weird sounds great. Go to http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/nokia/ discover and win it! The competition ends 16 th of December 2001. From jrober05 at astro.temple.edu Fri Dec 7 18:14:54 2001 From: jrober05 at astro.temple.edu (Jennifer Roberts) Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:14:54 -0500 Subject: Adopted children from China Message-ID: In response to the recent questions about whether there is any research being done on adopted children from China, Rena Krakow, of Temple University, and Paul Wang, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and I have been investigating the language development of a 2 groups of adopted children for the past 6 months. So far, the results of one of our studies, conducted in collaboration with Karen Pollock of Memphis State University, indicates remarkably good English language skills in a group of 3-8 year old children, average or above average in most areas. All of the children have been exposed to English for at least 2 years, and some for substantially longer. There is a smaller group of children who score one to two standard deviations below the mean on a variety of standardized tests. These children are among the youngest studied. Interestingly, their profiles resemble that of children typically diagnosed with SLI, including difficulties with morphosyntax and sentence repetition. At this preliminary point, we believe this reflects a normal delay in the acquisition of a new "second" language, and we intend to follow these children for an additional year to see how these problems resolve. In a second study of younger children aged 16-26 months, we have found considerable variation in lexical acquisition using parent-report measures of vocabulary, with some of the children performing much like native-born children, and others showing delays. Of considerable interest is the variation seen in a subset of 6 children, all adopted from the same orphanage on the same date and at approximately the same age. The six children are now all two years old. Three of these children are showing very typical vocabulary development, whereas three others are significantly delayed. We are examining a number of factors to try and identify the sources of variation in the sub-group and in the group as whole. Overall, we feel that the results of these studies will be a significant addition to the literature on the language status of internationally adopted children, and represent a much more positive outcome than that which has been reported previously about some internationally adopted children. Recent research conducted by Sharon Glennen of Towson University also finds primarily positive outcomes in a group of children adopted from Eastern European countries. Jenny ________________________________ Jenny Roberts, Ph.D. Department of Communication Sciences Temple University phone: (215)-204-1871 fax: (215) 204-5954 e-mail: jrober05 at astro.temple.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Katherine_Demuth at Brown.edu Tue Dec 11 21:57:39 2001 From: Katherine_Demuth at Brown.edu (Katherine Demuth) Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:57:39 -0500 Subject: Graduate Support, Brown University Message-ID: Dear all, Students interested in pursuing statistical and/or computational approaches to language learning are especially encouraged to apply. Katherine > > LEARNING AND ACTION IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAINTY > Brown University Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program > > Deadline for Applications: January 1, 2002 > >Brown University is actively recruiting graduate students for an >NSF-supported Interdisciplinary Graduate Education, Research and >Training (IGERT) program in "Learning and Action in the Face of >Uncertainty: Cognitive, Computational and Statistical Approaches". > >The use of probabilistic models and statistical methods has had a >major impact on our understanding of language, vision, action, and >reasoning. This training program provides students with the >opportunity to integrate a detailed study of human or artificial >systems for language acquisition and use, visual processing, action, >and reasoning with appropriate mathematical and computational >models. Students will be enrolled in one of the three participating >departments (Applied Mathematics, Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, >or Computer Science) and will follow an interdisciplinary program of >courses in topics such as statistical estimation, cognitive >processes, linguistics, and computational models. The aim of this >program is to provide promising students with a mix of mathematical, >computational and experimental expertise to carry out >multidisciplinary collaborative research across the disciplines of >Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Cognitive and Linguistic >Sciences. > >Interested students should apply to the participating department >closest to their area of interest and expertise, and should indicate >their interest in the IGERT training program in their application. >These NSF funded positions are restricted to US citizens and >permanent residents. Brown University is an Equal >Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. > >For additional information about the program, application >procedures, and ongoing research initiatives please visit our >website at: http://www.cog.brown.edu/IGERT > >or download our brochure at: http://www.cog.brown.edu/IGERT/IGERT-flyer.pdf > >or contact: > >Prof. Julie Sedivy >Department of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences >Brown University, Box 1978 >Providence, RI 02912 >USA > >Julie_Sedivy at brown.edu -- ***************************** Katherine Demuth, Professor Dept. of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences Brown University, Box 1978 Providence, RI 02912 TEL: (401) 863-1053 FAX: (401) 863-2255 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From macw at cmu.edu Thu Dec 13 18:06:39 2001 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 13:06:39 -0500 Subject: Stanford abstract reminder Message-ID: The next STANFORD CHILD LANGUAGE RESEARCH FORUM will take place on: April 12-14, 2002 (Friday-Sunday) TOPIC: SPACE IN LANGUAGE - LOCATION, MOTION, PATH, AND MANNER How are these notions packaged? What is easy vs. hard to acquire? What is the major order of acquistion by language type? Are there differences between intransitive and caused motion? Differences in comprehension and production? Differences between oral and signed languages? What range of spatial terms can be extended to time? To other domains? What crosslinguistic comparisons are available? What interdisciplinary studies of language and spatial concepts? The Organizing Committee for the Stanford Child Language Research Forum has made several changes. The current plan is to meet every couple of years, instead of annually, and we decided to choose a specific topic for each meeting, and therefore solicit papers and posters on that topic only (but construed broadly). Space in Language is the topic for 2002. Abstracts are DUE on or before January 1, 2002 (we will take account of post office delays, up to Jan 10); submitters will be informed of all decisions by February 15, 2002. Format for abstracts: please submit 2 copies x one page half- or double- spaced; do not include the author's name since abstracts are reviewed anonymously. Attach a separate 3x5 card with (a) author's name, (b) affiliation and address, (c) email, (d) abstract-title. From aproctor at uiuc.edu Thu Dec 13 18:24:07 2001 From: aproctor at uiuc.edu (Adele Proctor) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 12:24:07 -0600 Subject: Stuttering and African Americans Message-ID: We are completing a study on prevalence of stuttering among African American preschoolers. I have often heard that there is a higher prevalence for stuttering in African American males than other populations and have had this reported to me by other SLPs. However, I cannot find data to substantiate this apparent clinical observation . Does anyone know of specific references where this is printed? thanks, Adele Adele Proctor, Sc.D. 217.244.2554 (Office) Associate Professor 217.244.2235 (Fax) Department of Speech & Hearing Science 217.244.9073 (TTY) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign aproctor at uiuc.edu 901 South Sixth Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 From psp631 at bangor.ac.uk Fri Dec 14 11:30:52 2001 From: psp631 at bangor.ac.uk (Seren Haf Roberts) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 11:30:52 +0000 Subject: email address Message-ID: I am a postgraduate student studying categorization across languages. I would like to contact John A. Lucy regarding his work on Yucatec and English. Does anyone have his current email address? Thanks Seren From arestrep at coe.uga.edu Sun Dec 16 05:05:20 2001 From: arestrep at coe.uga.edu (Adelaida Restrepo) Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 00:05:20 -0500 Subject: Stuttering and African Americans (fwd) Message-ID: >From my colleague here at UGA. From: Anne Cordes Bothe Subject: Re: Stuttering and African Americans (fwd) There are many reports of variations in the prevalence and incidence of stuttering that attribute this variation to different ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds. The problem in interpreting any of these reports is that there is a huge amount of variation among ALL reports of the prevalence and incidence of stuttering -- i.e., Bloodstein's tables list prevalence estimates between 0.30% and 2.12%, all for groups described as "American school children." The more you dig into this literature, the more you find major differences in methodology that probably have more influence on the results than any other factor -- i.e., observer bias, questionnaire design, survey vs. speech samples, definition of "stuttering", etc. I think the general "sense" that people seem to have of relatively high stuttering among persons of African American descent probably comes from one of two places. First, there are a few old reports of high prevalence rates among speakers in Nigeria and in West Africa -- see Cooper & Cooper's chapter on stuttering in Battle's book ("Communication disorders in multicultural populations" -- I have 1993, though isn't there a new edition?). Those are "balanced," however, by a report of very low stuttering prevalence among the Bantu in South Africa (Aron, 1962, JSHD, 27, 116-128). Second, there were several decades in the history of stuttering research when the family's "upward mobility" or "social class" was considered to be relevant, so a series of studies compared African American vs. white children with some of those quaint little social stereotypes in mind -- and several reports claimed that African American children stuttered more, but there were probably an equal number that found no difference. Van Riper's pretty classic conclusion (in "The Nature of Stuttering") was that the common belief of more stuttering among African Americans is not supported by the data. Sources: I'd recommend Van Riper's (1971/1982) prevalence chapter (in "The Nature of Stuttering"), and I'd recommend the Cooper and Cooper chapter I cited above -- especially their conclusion that cultural factors are not enough to explain stuttering, which is clearly a universal problem among speakers of all languages, ethnicities, etc. The "Bloodstein" book that I referred to above is one of our classic sources for references in stuttering ("A Handbook on Stuttering" -- the most current edition is 1995, from Singular). Finn and Cordes (1997, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 22, 219-236) also did a nice little review of multicultural issues in stuttering (if I do say so myself.... :). Hope that helps -- of course the answer is that nothing is ever as simple as we would like.... Anne ********************************************* Anne Cordes Bothe, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders 556 Aderhold Hall The University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 (706) 542-0436; fax (706) 542-5348 ********************************************* > We are completing a study on prevalence of stuttering among African > American preschoolers. I have often heard that there is a higher prevalence > for stuttering in African American males than other populations and have > had this reported to me by other SLPs. However, I cannot find data to > substantiate this apparent clinical observation . Does anyone know of > specific references where this is printed? thanks, Adele > > Adele Proctor, Sc.D. 217.244.2554 (Office) > Associate Professor 217.244.2235 (Fax) > Department of Speech & Hearing Science 217.244.9073 (TTY) > University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign aproctor at uiuc.edu > 901 South Sixth Street > Champaign, Illinois 61820 > > > > From jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu Tue Dec 18 17:24:03 2001 From: jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu (Judith Becker Bryant) Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 12:24:03 -0500 Subject: equipment advice Message-ID: Colleagues: Could anyone recommend equipment for recording child speech? We are seeking advice regarding FM (cordless) microphones and a recorder. Any ideas will be appreciated. Judy Bryant Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D. Professor & Associate Chair Department of Psychology, PCD 4118G University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620-7200 Phone: (813) 974-0475 Fax: (813) 974-4617 From sqb4972 at nyu.edu Wed Dec 19 22:50:12 2001 From: sqb4972 at nyu.edu (Shoba Bandi-Rao) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:50:12 -0500 Subject: gender agreement in adjectives derived from nouns! Message-ID: Dear Info-Childes Readers, As in several languages of the world, French adjectives agree in gender and in number with the nouns they modify (e.g., les feuilles vertES). However, French adjectives derived from nouns do not seem to take the gender and number morphemes (e.g., les tables marron). Other adjectives include 'orange' and 'rose'. I am interested in learning about such examples from other languages. Thank you in advance! Best, Shoba ************************************************************ Shoba Bandi Rao Doctoral Student/ Applied Linguistics New York University Work: (212) 998-5685 http://pages.nyu.edu/~sqb4972 ************************************************* From lise.menn at colorado.edu Fri Dec 21 04:43:01 2001 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 21:43:01 -0700 Subject: Bill Bright's response to 'gender agreement in adjectives derived from nouns' Message-ID: (in response to Shoba Bandi-Rao, from William Bright, to whom I forwarded her query - LM) hello shoba; other romance languages have much the same phenomenon as in french. but in spanish, for instance, it's even more conspicuous, e.g. (in mexico) _los calzones rosa_ 'the pink panties'. as i'm sure you know, hindi and other indo-aryan languages have two large classes of adjectives; one agrees with nouns, the other does not, e.g. _acchaa aadmii_ 'good man', _acchii aurat_ 'good woman', but _hindustaanii aadmii_ 'indian man', _hindustaanii aurat_ 'indian woman'. i don't know the detailed history of this; but from a descriptive viewpoint, it seems to me that the division of hindi adjectives into 2 classes is similar to that in romance, except of course that in hindi the "genderless" class is much larger. happy holidays! bill --------------------------------- Beware Procrustes bearing Occam's razor. Lise Menn office phone 303-492-1609 Professor home fax 303-413-0017 Department of Linguistics UCB 295 University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0295 Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm From Frank.Wijnen at let.uu.nl Sun Dec 23 20:02:14 2001 From: Frank.Wijnen at let.uu.nl (Wijnen, Frank) Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 21:02:14 +0100 Subject: announcement: Annual Review of Language Acquisition #1 Message-ID: Annual Review of Language Acquisition Volume 1 (2001) Edited by Lynn Santelmann, Maaike Verrips and Frank Wijnen Portland State University / Utrecht University The Annual Review of Language Acquisition (ARLA) is devoted to research in the domain of first language acquisition, i.e., the process of acquiring command of a first language. It focuses on research that has been reported in recently defended PhD theses. The contributions in ARLA consist of edited summaries or excerpts from dissertations addressing issues in first language acquisition. These contributions are written by the original author of the dissertation and conform to the format of a journal article. ARLA publishes reports of original research pertaining to various approaches to first language acquisition: experimental, computational, clinical or theoretical. Contributions by: Jill G.de Villiers; Mitsuhiko Ota; Joan Sawyer; Marja van Helden-Lankhaar. Annual Review of Language Acquisition, 1, 2001. Pb ii, 190 pp. 90 272 5461 3 EUR 40.84 1 58811 129 6 USD 41.00 For subscription rates with full electronic access please refer to: www.benjamins.com/jbp From macw at cmu.edu Mon Dec 3 15:15:31 2001 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:15:31 -0500 Subject: joining IASCL Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES, After I posted the message about the first volume on bilingualism edited by Cenoz and Genesee, a couple of people asked me what IASCL was and how one could join it. IASCL is the International Assocation for the Study of Child Language. It has met once every three years since 1975 at different locations around the globe. The last meeting was in San Sebastian in the Basque Country in 1999 and was attended by about 600 researchers. The next meeting is in Madison, Wisconsin. You can find out more information about the International Association, the next meeting, the book series, and such, by going to http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/html/sites.html or http://cnts.uia.ac.be/iascl/ The procedure for joining is explained at this last link. Click on the words "new members: registration" --Brian MacWhinney From shanti at unitel.spb.ru Tue Dec 4 09:42:27 2001 From: shanti at unitel.spb.ru (Victoria Ryskina) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 12:42:27 +0300 Subject: sli and late-talkers Message-ID: Dear all, we are speech-therapists from Russia have some questions about SLI and late-talkers definition : - Can all late-talkes be as at risk for SLI? What age? - If not all of them, which criteria for classifing for at risk SLI? - Which criteria for late-talkes befoer 3 age? - What is IPS test? Which subtests it contains? We understend that questions are rather intricate and will be very grateful for your opinions and reference. Thanks in advance. Alisa Ovsepian, Victoria Riskina Early Intersention Institute- S-Peterburg From Roberta at UDel.Edu Tue Dec 4 17:48:22 2001 From: Roberta at UDel.Edu (Roberta Golinkoff) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 12:48:22 -0500 Subject: Job possibility In-Reply-To: Message-ID: OUTSTANDING JOB POSSIBILITY Do you know any graduating seniors who want to go to graduate school but would like to take a year or two off first and work in the field? Starting soon after graduation this Spring, I will need a full-time research assistant to run my lab (funded by NSF) to work on word learning. I treat this person as my intellectual colleague and greatly enjoy collaboration. In addition to being very smart and a self-starter, the individual must have excellent people skills since he or she would supervise the many students who work in the lab and interact with the parents and babies who visit. When they finish their stint with me, my lab coordinators have gone on to do PhD's at some of the best institutions in the country. Please have anyone who is interested call me at (302- 831-1634) or better yet, write me email at Roberta at Udel.edu. Thanks so much for your help! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D. H. Rodney Sharp Professor School of Education and Departments of Psychology and Linguistics University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 Phone: (302) 831-1634 Fax: (302) 831-4445 E-mail: Roberta at udel.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alleng at msu.edu Tue Dec 4 23:12:55 2001 From: alleng at msu.edu (George D. Allen) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 18:12:55 -0500 Subject: Nellish, again Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, Some months ago, when I was putting together materials for my phonetics class, I asked you all if you knew of any discussions of Nellish, the language that Jodie Foster is said to have invented for the movie, "Nell," in which she played a sort of "wolf child." My request fell on deaf ears, as I received zero responses. It is normal in any field of science for questions outside of the main areas of interest to receive little comment. Thus, I conclude that Nellish is not a hot topic. On the other hand, pedagogy is always relevant in the academy, and any time that there is a useful classroom prop available for setting the context of a topic, teachers are usually eager to make use of it. Thus, I showed several scenes from the excellent DVD of "My Fair Lady" on the first day of phonetics class, to excellent effect. It also seemed to me that Nell-the-movie could serve as the same sort of springboard into talking about certain important issues in language development -- even if Nellish, itself, isn't particularly interesting. For example, one could ask the students to determine what there is about Nellish that makes it less than interesting for paedolinguistic scholars. So I find the apparent *total* lack of interest amongst you concerning Nellish to be something of a "puddlement" (that's Nigel Smith as the King of Siam talking). Any comments? George D. Allen Michigan State University College of Nursing A230 Life Sciences Bldg., E Lansing, MI 48824-1317 Voice: (517) 353-5976; Fax: (517) 353-9553 "What am I on? I'm on my bike 6 hours a day... What are you on?" -- Lance Armstrong From wexler at PSYCHE.MIT.EDU Wed Dec 5 19:22:31 2001 From: wexler at PSYCHE.MIT.EDU (Ken Wexler) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:22:31 -0500 Subject: Assistant Professor Position in Linguistics at MIT (Interdiscipinary area) Message-ID: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MIT, LINGUISTICS (INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA) The Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT invites applications for a tenure-track position at the assistant professor level, starting September 1 2002. The appointment will be made in an interdisciplinary area integrating linguistic theory with one of the following research specializations: computational linguistics, language acquisition, language impairment, language processing, neurolinguistics, phonetic science. We seek applicants whose research is informed by linguistic theory and who will enhance the breadth and depth of the department in its research, teaching, and advising mission at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Applicants should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, copies of research papers, evidence of teaching ability, and three letters of reference to: Chair, Linguistics Search Committee Department of Linguistics and Philosophy MIT/E39-245 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Application Deadline: February 1, 2002 Departmental representatives will be present at the LSA meeting in San Francisco to conduct preliminary interviews. Women and members of under-represented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. MIT is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer Ken Wexler Professor of Psychology and Linguistics MIT NE20-409 Cambridge, MA 02139 617-253-5797 (office phone) From Coreda at aol.com Wed Dec 5 19:34:54 2001 From: Coreda at aol.com (Coreda at aol.com) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:34:54 EST Subject: Language Acq in adopted children Message-ID: Hello all - I'm Cynthia Core, mother of a recently adopted one-year-old from China. I'm a doctoral candidate in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Florida, and I received the following question from one of the parents I traveled with. I have some ideas about responding to her, but I was very curious to see what this particular group of researchers would have to offer. < From mcginnis at ucalgary.ca Wed Dec 5 20:23:03 2001 From: mcginnis at ucalgary.ca (Martha McGinnis) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 13:23:03 -0700 Subject: Language Acq in adopted children In-Reply-To: Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2768 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kpollock at memphis.edu Thu Dec 6 04:43:05 2001 From: kpollock at memphis.edu (kpollock at memphis.edu) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 22:43:05 -0600 Subject: Language Acq in adopted children Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Coreda at aol.com Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2001 1:34 pm Subject: Language Acq in adopted children >> I would appreciate any input that you all can offer. Also, I >> would like any >> leads on researchers who are currently addressing the issue of >> language >> change in children adopted from non-English speaking countries. >> Thank you. >> Cynthia Core > I responded to Cynthia earlier privately, but also thought that I should share this with the entire group. I am also the mother of an adopted daughter from China, and am currently involved in a series of studies addressing speech-language acquisition in children adopted from China. The goals of these studies are to obtain normative information on speech-language acquisition (taking into account factors such as age at time of adoption and number of months post-placement), identify risk factors that may predict later language outcome, and determine the overall incidence, nature, and extent of speech-language problems that persist beyond the early years following placement. The first three studies are currently underway; the fourth is still in the planning stages. Here's an overview of the studies. 1. A nationwide longitudinal survey of speech-language acquisition in children between 9 and 42 months of age who have been home less than one year. Parents are being asked to complete a survey every three months until their child reaches three years of age. 2. A local longitudinal study (in the Memphis, TN area) of children from 9 to 30 months of age at time of placement, beginning in the third month home and continuing until three years of age. Data includes a combination of measures based on standardized tests, parent interviews, and direct observation. 3. A two-site (Philadelphia and Memphis) cross-sectional study of children from 3 to 8 years of age who have been home more than one year. This study is being done in collaboration with Jenny Roberts, Rena Krakow, and Paul Wang at Temple University. We are administering a full battery of tests measuring articulation/phonology, receptive and expressive language, cognition, preliteracy skills, and hearing. 4. A nationwide survey of children over three years of age who have been home at least two years. The purpose will be to obtain information from a much larger group of children than in study 3, using a parent questionnaire (under development now). The Temple group (Roberts, Krakow, & Wang) also have some other projects in the works. I'll let them post about those themselves, so as not to misrepresent their research. It is far too early to comment on the results of any of these studies, but I think it is safe to say that many of the children we have seen so far are doing exceptionally well, despite frequent early delays in many areas (presumably due to lack of stimulation/interacton in the orphanages). Karen Pollock, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor School of Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology The University of Memphis From kgilbride22 at hotmail.com Thu Dec 6 07:45:00 2001 From: kgilbride22 at hotmail.com (Karla Gilbride) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 02:45:00 -0500 Subject: audio samples of 12-to-24-month-olds Message-ID: Hello, My name is Karla Gilbride, and I am a senior at Swarthmore college cuently working on an undergraduate thesis in linguistics. I am investigating the possible facilitative effects of Motherese prosody on lexical acquisition and the development of pragmatic competence, and I was hoping to supplement my literature review with an analysis of some audio samples featuring spontaneous interactions between English-speaking parents and their infants at 12 through 24 months of age. What I was hoping to do was compare the prosodic characteristics of the parent's speech over several samples taken at different child ages and then look for any correlations between the types of prosodic characteristics used and the amount of lexical acquisition, (particularly of focally stressed words), and pragmatic competence, (e.g., percentage of parental utterances followed by topically appropriate responses or expansions), shown by the child as he/she gets older. In order to have some basis for comparison, I was hoping to look at at least two parent-child dyads. I have some software, called PROT, which is supposed to do pitch tracking and other types of analyses on digitzed sound files, but unfortunately I haven't had a chance to use it yet because I haven't been able to find any files in the audio corpora in the CHILDES database involving children at the ages I am interested in studying. Does anyone on this list have ideas of where I could find sound files of English-speaking parents interacting with their 12-to-24-month-old children, particularly any longitudinal samples that you know of that include multiple recordings of the same child at different ages? Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help, Karla Gilbride Karla Gilbride Swarthmore College 500 College Ave. Swarthmore, PA 19081 (610) 690-3877 kgilbri1 at swarthmore.edu "All the Declaration of Independence guarantees is the pursuit of happiness. You have to catch up with it on your own."--Benjamin Franklin _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp From rberman at post.tau.ac.il Thu Dec 6 08:49:47 2001 From: rberman at post.tau.ac.il (Ruth Berman) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:49:47 +0200 Subject: Research on development of speech acts Message-ID: A student of mine is doing a comparative study of speech acts in normal and aphasic adults (Hebrew speaking) and is interested in extending this to children. We would appreciate any references to work on acquisition and development of speech acts in comprehension and production. Please send responses to: Gila Batori thanks a lot for your cooperation and help Ruth Berman From a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk Thu Dec 6 09:27:32 2001 From: a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:27:32 +0000 Subject: second language Message-ID: A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having speech therapy for English? Any advice most welcome. Annette -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 fax: 0207 242 7717 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm ________________________________________________________________ From brent at cs.wustl.edu Thu Dec 6 11:53:25 2001 From: brent at cs.wustl.edu (Michael Brent) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 05:53:25 -0600 Subject: audio samples of 12-to-24-month-olds Message-ID: Hi Karla, Check out the recordings (sound and transcripts) at http://lsrg.cs.wustl.edu/ --- I think they may be just what you're looking for. If you want the original DAT tapes instead of the mpegs on the web I might be able to leng them to. Good luck, Michael Karla Gilbride wrote: > Hello, > > My name is Karla Gilbride, and I am a senior at Swarthmore college cuently > working on an undergraduate thesis in linguistics. I am investigating the > possible facilitative effects of Motherese prosody on lexical acquisition > and the development of pragmatic competence, and I was hoping to supplement > my literature review with an analysis of some audio samples featuring > spontaneous interactions between English-speaking parents and their infants > at 12 through 24 months of age. What I was hoping to do was compare the > prosodic characteristics of the parent's speech over several samples taken > at different child ages and then look for any correlations between the types > of prosodic characteristics used and the amount of lexical acquisition, > (particularly of focally stressed words), and pragmatic competence, (e.g., > percentage of parental utterances followed by topically appropriate > responses or expansions), shown by the child as he/she gets older. In order > to have some basis for comparison, I was hoping to look at at least two > parent-child dyads. I have some software, called PROT, which is supposed to > do pitch tracking and other types of analyses on digitzed sound files, but > unfortunately I haven't had a chance to use it yet because I haven't been > able to find any files in the audio corpora in the CHILDES database > involving children at the ages I am interested in studying. > > Does anyone on this list have ideas of where I could find sound files of > English-speaking parents interacting with their 12-to-24-month-old children, > particularly any longitudinal samples that you know of that include multiple > recordings of the same child at different ages? Any suggestions you might > have would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks in advance for your help, > Karla Gilbride > > Karla Gilbride > Swarthmore College > 500 College Ave. > Swarthmore, PA 19081 > (610) 690-3877 > kgilbri1 at swarthmore.edu > > "All the Declaration of Independence guarantees is the pursuit of happiness. > You have to catch up with it on your own."--Benjamin Franklin > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp From bpearson at comdis.umass.edu Thu Dec 6 13:27:40 2001 From: bpearson at comdis.umass.edu (Barbara Zurer Pearson) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 08:27:40 -0500 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Annette K-S, I did NOT want to spend time on Infochildes today, but yours is the 4th (!) query this morning that is right down my alley and it's barely 7 am! I'm of course, tremendously prejudiced in favor of helping children be bilingual, and I've always shared Lucy Wong Fillmore's outrage at telling people not to speak the language they can have the best relationship possible with their children in. On the other hand, I'm uncomfortable going against the grain of clinicians' advice--even in cases as this is, where there is no scientific evidence that children with speech "problems" shouldn't be bilingual, if their environments are. Clinicians, though, usually have a pretty good sense of things, and so while I think there's no evidence against, there's also no good evidence the other way, to tell us that we introduce the two languages with impunity for *all* children. You seem to intimate that your grandchild has an articulation problem, so I don't think if one's careful, there will be any issue of cognitive overload. And if the child's hearing is less than perfect, it may mean that his command of French pronunciation will be less than native-like. (However, that shouldn't be a problem, because kids can get away with a lot.) If it were my grandbaby, I would suggest introducing French, but somewhat carefully. The child's 4, so your daughter can discuss it with him, explain it, get him to notice things etc. She can start with games and songs and the other things of cultural exchange. (What about Tintin? Or Asterix? Are they still around? Do they have modern counterparts?) See how those go down. Then the next step will be the playgroup. But it is possible that the child will not pick up the language like most children do, and it could be frustrating for him, but less so, if it's anticipated and prepared for. And who knows, it could work beautifully--especially if there are *children* he admires who speak French, too. I will close with one "clinical experience" we had in our Miami study of the bilingual babies (some of whom we followed until they were past 5). I hope I get the details right. and that I don't violate any privacy concerns. The story gets a little long, so I'll understand if many readers don't make it to the end. It is unbelievable to me, but there was one child whom we recorded monthly for the 2nd year, and quarterly thereafter, who became deaf under our noses. (Her parents were graduate students and very aware, and she also became deaf under their noses, without their catching on. I can at least report that it was our lab that eventually sent her for hearing tests at age 5--our last screening for hearing had been when she entered the study at 3 months. And in Kim Oller's lab, no less!) Anyway, the child had been exposed to mostly Spanish early on, and so in the graphs of her in our mid-90's studies, she's the 85/15 exposure girl. At 2, she was average in Spanish (not stellar, as one might have expected in hindsight), and she also knew some English. (Her dad was a "gringo", but he had learned Spanish at least at the 2-year-old level and was comfortable with the wife's project to make the kids bilingual.) At 2, a sibling was born and they wanted the child to start daycare--in English. She did it, but she didn't really catch on to the English like one would have expected. The mother had nieces and nephews who became bilingual with much more ease than this child. We noticed that in the recording sessions the child was pleasant enough, but not particularly cooperative. She also had a low-pitched (Tallulah Bankhead?) voice. It was so cute: an adorable red-head, who spoke "sexy" Spanish. At about 30 months, they saw that she had fluid, and so they put the tubes in her ears. Still no dramatic progress in English; she remained more comfortable in Spanish, although I'm dying to have someone go back to her 2 and 3 year old tapes to evaluate the Spanish carefully. For the next 2 years, she spoke passable Spanish and gibberish English. We decided that she had decided that English was gibberish and so that was all one was required to output. It seemed to us a "pragmatic" decision on her part. FINALLY, at 5 (!), a hearing test revealed a progressive neuro-sensory loss. She was given hearing aids and switched to "English- only", given how much lost time she had to make up in English. When I see the parents, as I occasionally do, they say she is doing "fine." But since I'm not in Miami anymore (except to visit MY grandson, who despite being Cuban-American, does not seem to be becoming bilingual, alas), I haven't been in a position to follow up. I'm pretty sure we could still find the family. The sibling born when this child was 2 had the same neuro-sensory loss, but with earlier onset, so when he didn't have any words at 2+ (when L was 5), he got hearing aids etc. at the same time as his sister. And he has been exposed to English-only. I believe also that his speech is much more impaired than his sister's, as she seems to have had "enough" input in those first 2 years to get the basic rhythms and pitch of what it means to speak. Now that I tell this, it sounds like your grandson will have a breeze in French (by comparison), and it's criminal that we never wrote this up. Maybe this will be the first step towards such a case study. Bonne chance--and all that. Barbara At 09:27 AM 12/6/2001 +0000, you wrote: >A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having speech therapy for English? >Any advice most welcome. >Annette >-- >________________________________________________________________ >Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >Institute of Child Health, >30 Guilford Street, >London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >tel: 0207 905 2754 >fax: 0207 242 7717 >http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >________________________________________________________________ ******************************************** Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D. Research Associate, Project Manager NIH Working Groups on AAE Dept. of Communication Disorders Arnold House, 117 UMass-Amherst 01003 413.545.5023 fax: 545.0803 bpearson at comdis.umass.edu http://www.umass.edu/aae/ From a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk Thu Dec 6 14:29:31 2001 From: a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 14:29:31 +0000 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011206073207.00ad3b60@mailsrv-unix.oit.umass.edu> Message-ID: Oh dear, sorry to have contributed to your email deluge today! But thank you so much for your thoughts on this. Kyra's "mother tongue" has now *become* English after university and living here for so long, so she has always spoken to Misha in English. But they go to France often and she'd like him to get used to hearing French. My feeling was that it would not have a detreimental effect at all on his developing English. I just wanted to know what others thought before responding to her request for advice. Thanks again, best wishes Annette At 8:27 am -0500 6/12/01, Barbara Zurer Pearson wrote: >Dear Annette K-S, >I did NOT want to spend time on Infochildes today, but yours >is the 4th (!) query this morning that is right down my alley >and it's barely 7 am! > >I'm of course, tremendously prejudiced in favor of helping >children be bilingual, and I've always shared Lucy Wong >Fillmore's outrage at telling people not to speak the language >they can have the best relationship possible with their >children in. On the other hand, I'm uncomfortable going against >the grain of clinicians' advice--even in cases as this is, where >there is no scientific evidence that children with speech "problems" >shouldn't be bilingual, if their environments are. Clinicians, though, >usually have a pretty good sense of things, and so while I >think there's no evidence against, there's also no good evidence the >other way, to tell us that we introduce the two languages with >impunity for *all* children. > >You seem to intimate that your grandchild has an articulation problem, >so I don't think if one's careful, there will be any issue of >cognitive overload. And if the child's hearing is less than >perfect, it may mean that his command of French pronunciation >will be less than native-like. (However, that shouldn't be a >problem, because kids can get away with a lot.) > >If it were my grandbaby, I would suggest introducing French, >but somewhat carefully. The child's 4, so your daughter can >discuss it with him, explain it, get him to notice things etc. >She can start with games and songs and the other things of cultural >exchange. (What about Tintin? Or Asterix? Are they still >around? Do they have modern counterparts?) See how >those go down. Then the next step will be the playgroup. >But it is possible that the child will not pick up the language >like most children do, and it could be frustrating for him, >but less so, if it's anticipated and prepared for. And who knows, >it could work beautifully--especially if there are *children* he >admires who speak French, too. > >I will close with one "clinical experience" we had in our >Miami study of the bilingual babies (some of whom we followed >until they were past 5). I hope I get the details right. and that >I don't violate any privacy concerns. The story gets a little >long, so I'll understand if many readers don't make it to the >end. > >It is unbelievable to me, but there was >one child whom we recorded monthly for the 2nd year, and >quarterly thereafter, who became deaf under our noses. (Her >parents were graduate students and very aware, and she >also became deaf under their noses, without their catching on. >I can at least report that it was our lab that eventually sent >her for hearing tests at age 5--our last screening for hearing >had been when she entered the study at 3 months. And in >Kim Oller's lab, no less!) > >Anyway, the child had been exposed to mostly Spanish early on, >and so in the graphs of her in our mid-90's studies, she's the >85/15 exposure girl. At 2, she was average in Spanish (not >stellar, as one might have expected in hindsight), and she also >knew some English. (Her dad was a "gringo", but he had learned >Spanish at least at the 2-year-old level and was comfortable >with the wife's project to make the kids bilingual.) > >At 2, a sibling was born and they wanted the child to start >daycare--in English. She did it, but she didn't really catch on >to the English like one would have expected. The mother had >nieces and nephews who became bilingual with much more >ease than this child. > >We noticed that in the recording sessions the child was >pleasant enough, but not particularly cooperative. She also >had a low-pitched (Tallulah Bankhead?) voice. It was so >cute: an adorable red-head, who spoke "sexy" Spanish. >At about 30 months, they saw that she had fluid, and so they put >the tubes in her ears. Still no dramatic progress in English; >she remained more comfortable in Spanish, although I'm >dying to have someone go back to her 2 and 3 year old >tapes to evaluate the Spanish carefully. For the next 2 years, >she spoke passable Spanish and gibberish English. We >decided that she had decided that English was gibberish >and so that was all one was required to output. It seemed to >us a "pragmatic" decision on her part. FINALLY, >at 5 (!), a hearing test revealed a progressive neuro-sensory >loss. She was given hearing aids and switched to "English- >only", given how much lost time she had to make up in >English. When I see the parents, as I occasionally do, >they say she is doing "fine." But since I'm not in Miami >anymore (except to visit MY grandson, who despite being >Cuban-American, does not seem to be becoming bilingual, >alas), I haven't been in a position to follow up. I'm pretty >sure we could still find the family. > >The sibling born when this child was 2 had the same >neuro-sensory loss, but with earlier onset, so when >he didn't have any words at 2+ (when L was 5), he got >hearing aids etc. at the same time as his sister. And >he has been exposed to English-only. I believe also that >his speech is much more impaired than his sister's, >as she seems to have had "enough" input in those first >2 years to get the basic rhythms and pitch of what it >means to speak. > >Now that I tell this, it sounds like your grandson will >have a breeze in French (by comparison), and it's criminal >that we never wrote this up. Maybe this will be the >first step towards such a case study. > >Bonne chance--and all that. > >Barbara > >At 09:27 AM 12/6/2001 +0000, you wrote: >>A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is >>almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a >>slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems >>to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He >>had a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears >>far better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like >>her son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should >>continue speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup >>he could now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time >>in his environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for >>him to start hearing another language at this time, when he is >>still having speech therapy for English? >>Any advice most welcome. >>Annette >>-- >>________________________________________________________________ >>Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >>Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >>Institute of Child Health, >>30 Guilford Street, >>London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >>tel: 0207 905 2754 >>fax: 0207 242 7717 >>http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >>________________________________________________________________ > >******************************************** >Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D. >Research Associate, Project Manager >NIH Working Groups on AAE >Dept. of Communication Disorders >Arnold House, 117 >UMass-Amherst 01003 > >413.545.5023 >fax: 545.0803 > >bpearson at comdis.umass.edu >http://www.umass.edu/aae/ -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 fax: 0207 242 7717 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm ________________________________________________________________ From genesee at ego.psych.mcgill.ca Thu Dec 6 15:28:24 2001 From: genesee at ego.psych.mcgill.ca (Fred Genesee) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:28:24 -0500 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Annette: There is, as Barbara points out, no research evidence concerning bilingual/second language acquistion of children with speech impediment so it is difficult to be conclusive about how such children would fare if introduced to a second language around 4; but, it is also the case, that there is no evidence to suggest that all such children would be burdened or slowed down by L2 exposure once the L1 is in place. I think an additional factor to consider is exposure -- how much French and for how long would your grandson be exposed to French? In particular, is there real incentive value for his learning it -- that is, would French be useful for him in his extended family or neighborhood so that his French language learning would be supported more broadly? Simply exposing children to some L2 when it is not likely that their exposure will be rich or long enough for them to become competent in it may not be advisable, especially when children have language-related impairments, not because such children cannot cope with an L2 but because a little bit of language exposure may be a waste of time and cause some frustation. It is a matter of WHY would the child learn French. In Montreal, for example, where both French and English are useful on a daily basis with most people, there is considerable merit in giving all children the opportunity to learn French and English; to not do so would deprive some of them of a life-skill. This means that there are children with impairments who might be exposed to an L2 with good reason in Montreal, but not so in a monolingual setting. My own professional and personal experience over many years suggests to me that bilingual acquisition and second language acquisition need to be taken seriously and dabbling in other languages may not be useful -- I do not wish to imply that this is the case with your grandson; this is a more general comment. In fact, it sounds like your grandson could have some opportunities to use French with cousins on his mother's side. If this is true, then it makes French daycare more meaningful and useful. For me, this could be the deciding factor since there are no a priori reasons to think that he would have serious linguistic or cognitive problems with French. With respect to the mother's language, many children are very resistant to parents changing their languages since they have established an initimate bond with the parent, and language is a fundamental part of that relationship -- thus, changing the language used by the mother with the child can upset the relationship. Knowing another language is often a life-long advantage, but one has to look at the immediate circumstances when ascertain whether exposure to an L2 is sufficient and meaningful enough to make the decision to exposure young children to another language after their L1 is in place. Fred At 09:27 AM 12/6/01 +0000, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: >A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is >almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a >slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems >to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had >a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far >better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her >son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue >speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could >now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his >environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to >start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having >speech therapy for English? >Any advice most welcome. >Annette >-- >________________________________________________________________ >Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >Institute of Child Health, >30 Guilford Street, >London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >tel: 0207 905 2754 >fax: 0207 242 7717 >http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >________________________________________________________________ > Psychology Department phone: (514) 398-6022 McGill University fax: (514) 398-4896 1205 Docteur Penfield Ave. Montreal, Quebec Canada H3A 1B1 From a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk Thu Dec 6 16:49:51 2001 From: a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 16:49:51 +0000 Subject: second language In-Reply-To: <200112061532.KAA27164@ego.psych.mcgill.ca> Message-ID: Dear Fred, Thank you so much for those very thoughtful comments. No, Kyra is not planning to change her linguistic interaction with Misha. English has now become her native tongue too. But the playgroup may just expose his ear to French and be useful for their summer holidays with Kyra's father in France. Kyra was worried about any possible effects on his now rapidly improving English. Thanks again, Annette At 10:28 am -0500 6/12/01, Fred Genesee wrote: >Annette: > >There is, as Barbara points out, no research evidence concerning >bilingual/second language acquistion of children with speech impediment so >it is difficult to be conclusive about how such children would fare if >introduced to a second language around 4; but, it is also the case, that >there is no evidence to suggest that all such children would be burdened or >slowed down by L2 exposure once the L1 is in place. > >I think an additional factor to consider is exposure -- how much French >and for how long would your grandson be exposed to French? In particular, >is there real incentive value for his learning it -- that is, would French >be useful for him in his extended family or neighborhood so that his >French language learning would be supported more broadly? Simply exposing >children to some L2 when it is not likely that their exposure will be rich >or long enough for them to become competent in it may not be advisable, >especially when children have language-related impairments, not because >such children cannot cope with an L2 but because a little bit of language >exposure may be a waste of time and cause some frustation. It is a matter >of WHY would the child learn French. In Montreal, for example, where both >French and English are useful on a daily basis with most people, there is >considerable merit in giving all children the opportunity to learn French >and English; to not do so would deprive some of them of a life-skill. This >means that there are children with impairments who might be exposed to an >L2 with good reason in Montreal, but not so in a monolingual setting. > >My own professional and personal experience over many years suggests to me >that bilingual acquisition and second language acquisition need to be taken >seriously and dabbling in other languages may not be useful -- I do not >wish to imply that this is the case with your grandson; this is a more >general comment. In fact, it sounds like your grandson could have some >opportunities to use French with cousins on his mother's side. If this is >true, then it makes French daycare more meaningful and useful. For me, this >could be the deciding factor since there are no a priori reasons to think >that he would have serious linguistic or cognitive problems with French. > > With respect to the mother's language, many children are very >resistant to >parents changing their languages since they have established an initimate >bond with the parent, and language is a fundamental part of that >relationship -- thus, changing the language used by the mother with the >child can upset the relationship. > > Knowing another language is often a life-long advantage, but one has to >look at the immediate circumstances when ascertain whether exposure to an >L2 is sufficient and meaningful enough to make the decision to exposure >young children to another language after their L1 is in place. > >Fred > >At 09:27 AM 12/6/01 +0000, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: >>A personal question to blingualism experts please. My grandson is >>almost 4. He is for the moment monolingual - English - and has a >>slight speech impediment for which he has speech therapy. It seems >>to be entirely at the articulatory level as far as I can see. He had >>a hearing problem for some time and now has grommets and hears far >>better. My daughter is bilingual French-English and would like her >>son to learn French too. She feels that she herself should continue > >speaking English to him. But there is a French playgroup he could >>now join and he does anyway hear French from time to time in his >>environment. The question is would it be wise/unwise for him to >>start hearing another language at this time, when he is still having >>speech therapy for English? >>Any advice most welcome. >>Annette >>-- >>________________________________________________________________ >>Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, >>Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >>Institute of Child Health, >>30 Guilford Street, >>London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >>tel: 0207 905 2754 >>fax: 0207 242 7717 >>http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/units/ncdu/NDU_homepage.htm >>________________________________________________________________ >> >Psychology Department phone: (514) 398-6022 >McGill University fax: (514) 398-4896 >1205 Docteur Penfield Ave. >Montreal, Quebec >Canada >H3A 1B1 From macw at cmu.edu Thu Dec 6 18:49:36 2001 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 13:49:36 -0500 Subject: audio samples of 12-to-24-month-olds In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Karla Gilbride, If you go to http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/media/ you will find directories for about 8 datasets that have CHAT transcripts linked to audio which you can also download. Currently, only the Bernstein and MacWhinney folders have audio for monolingual English-speaking children. There is also a large and impressive data set from Brent, but there are currently some problems with the links in that data set. But the Bernstein and MacWhinney data definitely match your requirements. We also have several other major English corpora for which there are transcripts and digitized audio, but not yet links between the two. They include Sachs, Bloom's Peter, Snow, Hall, Feldman, Peters, Korman, and Van Houten. We can make these files available if you go through the transcripts to determine exactly what you want. Also, you might want to consider using PRAAT instead of PROT for your prosodic analysis. --Brian MacWhinney, CMU From mariamanolitsi at yahoo.co.uk Thu Dec 6 19:01:47 2001 From: mariamanolitsi at yahoo.co.uk (=?iso-8859-1?q?maria=20manolitsi?=) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 19:01:47 +0000 Subject: Assistant Professor Position in Linguistics at MIT (Interdiscipinary area) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: # COuld you please send me information and application forma about Language impairment? MANOLITSI MARIA KENNEDY COURT 19, ROOM 3 UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE WALL HALL CAMPUS ALDENHAM, WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE WD2 8AT ENGLAND --- Ken Wexler wrote: > > ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MIT, LINGUISTICS > (INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA) > > The Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT > invites applications > for a tenure-track position at the assistant > professor level, starting > September 1 2002. The appointment will be made in an > interdisciplinary > area integrating linguistic theory with one of the > following research > specializations: computational linguistics, language > acquisition, > language impairment, language processing, > neurolinguistics, phonetic > science. > > We seek applicants whose research is informed by > linguistic theory and > who will enhance the breadth and depth of the > department in its > research, teaching, and advising mission at the > graduate and > undergraduate levels. > > Applicants should send a letter of application, > curriculum vitae, > copies of research papers, evidence of teaching > ability, and three > letters of reference to: > > Chair, Linguistics Search Committee > Department of Linguistics and Philosophy > MIT/E39-245 > 77 Massachusetts Avenue > Cambridge, MA 02139 > > Application Deadline: February 1, 2002 > > Departmental representatives will be present at the > LSA meeting in San > Francisco to conduct preliminary interviews. > > Women and members of under-represented minorities > are especially > encouraged to apply. > > MIT is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action > Employer > > > Ken Wexler > Professor of Psychology and Linguistics > MIT NE20-409 > Cambridge, MA 02139 > > 617-253-5797 (office phone) > > > ________________________________________________________________ Nokia 5510 looks weird sounds great. Go to http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/nokia/ discover and win it! The competition ends 16 th of December 2001. From jrober05 at astro.temple.edu Fri Dec 7 18:14:54 2001 From: jrober05 at astro.temple.edu (Jennifer Roberts) Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:14:54 -0500 Subject: Adopted children from China Message-ID: In response to the recent questions about whether there is any research being done on adopted children from China, Rena Krakow, of Temple University, and Paul Wang, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and I have been investigating the language development of a 2 groups of adopted children for the past 6 months. So far, the results of one of our studies, conducted in collaboration with Karen Pollock of Memphis State University, indicates remarkably good English language skills in a group of 3-8 year old children, average or above average in most areas. All of the children have been exposed to English for at least 2 years, and some for substantially longer. There is a smaller group of children who score one to two standard deviations below the mean on a variety of standardized tests. These children are among the youngest studied. Interestingly, their profiles resemble that of children typically diagnosed with SLI, including difficulties with morphosyntax and sentence repetition. At this preliminary point, we believe this reflects a normal delay in the acquisition of a new "second" language, and we intend to follow these children for an additional year to see how these problems resolve. In a second study of younger children aged 16-26 months, we have found considerable variation in lexical acquisition using parent-report measures of vocabulary, with some of the children performing much like native-born children, and others showing delays. Of considerable interest is the variation seen in a subset of 6 children, all adopted from the same orphanage on the same date and at approximately the same age. The six children are now all two years old. Three of these children are showing very typical vocabulary development, whereas three others are significantly delayed. We are examining a number of factors to try and identify the sources of variation in the sub-group and in the group as whole. Overall, we feel that the results of these studies will be a significant addition to the literature on the language status of internationally adopted children, and represent a much more positive outcome than that which has been reported previously about some internationally adopted children. Recent research conducted by Sharon Glennen of Towson University also finds primarily positive outcomes in a group of children adopted from Eastern European countries. Jenny ________________________________ Jenny Roberts, Ph.D. Department of Communication Sciences Temple University phone: (215)-204-1871 fax: (215) 204-5954 e-mail: jrober05 at astro.temple.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Katherine_Demuth at Brown.edu Tue Dec 11 21:57:39 2001 From: Katherine_Demuth at Brown.edu (Katherine Demuth) Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:57:39 -0500 Subject: Graduate Support, Brown University Message-ID: Dear all, Students interested in pursuing statistical and/or computational approaches to language learning are especially encouraged to apply. Katherine > > LEARNING AND ACTION IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAINTY > Brown University Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program > > Deadline for Applications: January 1, 2002 > >Brown University is actively recruiting graduate students for an >NSF-supported Interdisciplinary Graduate Education, Research and >Training (IGERT) program in "Learning and Action in the Face of >Uncertainty: Cognitive, Computational and Statistical Approaches". > >The use of probabilistic models and statistical methods has had a >major impact on our understanding of language, vision, action, and >reasoning. This training program provides students with the >opportunity to integrate a detailed study of human or artificial >systems for language acquisition and use, visual processing, action, >and reasoning with appropriate mathematical and computational >models. Students will be enrolled in one of the three participating >departments (Applied Mathematics, Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, >or Computer Science) and will follow an interdisciplinary program of >courses in topics such as statistical estimation, cognitive >processes, linguistics, and computational models. The aim of this >program is to provide promising students with a mix of mathematical, >computational and experimental expertise to carry out >multidisciplinary collaborative research across the disciplines of >Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Cognitive and Linguistic >Sciences. > >Interested students should apply to the participating department >closest to their area of interest and expertise, and should indicate >their interest in the IGERT training program in their application. >These NSF funded positions are restricted to US citizens and >permanent residents. Brown University is an Equal >Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. > >For additional information about the program, application >procedures, and ongoing research initiatives please visit our >website at: http://www.cog.brown.edu/IGERT > >or download our brochure at: http://www.cog.brown.edu/IGERT/IGERT-flyer.pdf > >or contact: > >Prof. Julie Sedivy >Department of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences >Brown University, Box 1978 >Providence, RI 02912 >USA > >Julie_Sedivy at brown.edu -- ***************************** Katherine Demuth, Professor Dept. of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences Brown University, Box 1978 Providence, RI 02912 TEL: (401) 863-1053 FAX: (401) 863-2255 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From macw at cmu.edu Thu Dec 13 18:06:39 2001 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 13:06:39 -0500 Subject: Stanford abstract reminder Message-ID: The next STANFORD CHILD LANGUAGE RESEARCH FORUM will take place on: April 12-14, 2002 (Friday-Sunday) TOPIC: SPACE IN LANGUAGE - LOCATION, MOTION, PATH, AND MANNER How are these notions packaged? What is easy vs. hard to acquire? What is the major order of acquistion by language type? Are there differences between intransitive and caused motion? Differences in comprehension and production? Differences between oral and signed languages? What range of spatial terms can be extended to time? To other domains? What crosslinguistic comparisons are available? What interdisciplinary studies of language and spatial concepts? The Organizing Committee for the Stanford Child Language Research Forum has made several changes. The current plan is to meet every couple of years, instead of annually, and we decided to choose a specific topic for each meeting, and therefore solicit papers and posters on that topic only (but construed broadly). Space in Language is the topic for 2002. Abstracts are DUE on or before January 1, 2002 (we will take account of post office delays, up to Jan 10); submitters will be informed of all decisions by February 15, 2002. Format for abstracts: please submit 2 copies x one page half- or double- spaced; do not include the author's name since abstracts are reviewed anonymously. Attach a separate 3x5 card with (a) author's name, (b) affiliation and address, (c) email, (d) abstract-title. From aproctor at uiuc.edu Thu Dec 13 18:24:07 2001 From: aproctor at uiuc.edu (Adele Proctor) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 12:24:07 -0600 Subject: Stuttering and African Americans Message-ID: We are completing a study on prevalence of stuttering among African American preschoolers. I have often heard that there is a higher prevalence for stuttering in African American males than other populations and have had this reported to me by other SLPs. However, I cannot find data to substantiate this apparent clinical observation . Does anyone know of specific references where this is printed? thanks, Adele Adele Proctor, Sc.D. 217.244.2554 (Office) Associate Professor 217.244.2235 (Fax) Department of Speech & Hearing Science 217.244.9073 (TTY) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign aproctor at uiuc.edu 901 South Sixth Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 From psp631 at bangor.ac.uk Fri Dec 14 11:30:52 2001 From: psp631 at bangor.ac.uk (Seren Haf Roberts) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 11:30:52 +0000 Subject: email address Message-ID: I am a postgraduate student studying categorization across languages. I would like to contact John A. Lucy regarding his work on Yucatec and English. Does anyone have his current email address? Thanks Seren From arestrep at coe.uga.edu Sun Dec 16 05:05:20 2001 From: arestrep at coe.uga.edu (Adelaida Restrepo) Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 00:05:20 -0500 Subject: Stuttering and African Americans (fwd) Message-ID: >From my colleague here at UGA. From: Anne Cordes Bothe Subject: Re: Stuttering and African Americans (fwd) There are many reports of variations in the prevalence and incidence of stuttering that attribute this variation to different ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds. The problem in interpreting any of these reports is that there is a huge amount of variation among ALL reports of the prevalence and incidence of stuttering -- i.e., Bloodstein's tables list prevalence estimates between 0.30% and 2.12%, all for groups described as "American school children." The more you dig into this literature, the more you find major differences in methodology that probably have more influence on the results than any other factor -- i.e., observer bias, questionnaire design, survey vs. speech samples, definition of "stuttering", etc. I think the general "sense" that people seem to have of relatively high stuttering among persons of African American descent probably comes from one of two places. First, there are a few old reports of high prevalence rates among speakers in Nigeria and in West Africa -- see Cooper & Cooper's chapter on stuttering in Battle's book ("Communication disorders in multicultural populations" -- I have 1993, though isn't there a new edition?). Those are "balanced," however, by a report of very low stuttering prevalence among the Bantu in South Africa (Aron, 1962, JSHD, 27, 116-128). Second, there were several decades in the history of stuttering research when the family's "upward mobility" or "social class" was considered to be relevant, so a series of studies compared African American vs. white children with some of those quaint little social stereotypes in mind -- and several reports claimed that African American children stuttered more, but there were probably an equal number that found no difference. Van Riper's pretty classic conclusion (in "The Nature of Stuttering") was that the common belief of more stuttering among African Americans is not supported by the data. Sources: I'd recommend Van Riper's (1971/1982) prevalence chapter (in "The Nature of Stuttering"), and I'd recommend the Cooper and Cooper chapter I cited above -- especially their conclusion that cultural factors are not enough to explain stuttering, which is clearly a universal problem among speakers of all languages, ethnicities, etc. The "Bloodstein" book that I referred to above is one of our classic sources for references in stuttering ("A Handbook on Stuttering" -- the most current edition is 1995, from Singular). Finn and Cordes (1997, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 22, 219-236) also did a nice little review of multicultural issues in stuttering (if I do say so myself.... :). Hope that helps -- of course the answer is that nothing is ever as simple as we would like.... Anne ********************************************* Anne Cordes Bothe, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders 556 Aderhold Hall The University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 (706) 542-0436; fax (706) 542-5348 ********************************************* > We are completing a study on prevalence of stuttering among African > American preschoolers. I have often heard that there is a higher prevalence > for stuttering in African American males than other populations and have > had this reported to me by other SLPs. However, I cannot find data to > substantiate this apparent clinical observation . Does anyone know of > specific references where this is printed? thanks, Adele > > Adele Proctor, Sc.D. 217.244.2554 (Office) > Associate Professor 217.244.2235 (Fax) > Department of Speech & Hearing Science 217.244.9073 (TTY) > University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign aproctor at uiuc.edu > 901 South Sixth Street > Champaign, Illinois 61820 > > > > From jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu Tue Dec 18 17:24:03 2001 From: jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu (Judith Becker Bryant) Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 12:24:03 -0500 Subject: equipment advice Message-ID: Colleagues: Could anyone recommend equipment for recording child speech? We are seeking advice regarding FM (cordless) microphones and a recorder. Any ideas will be appreciated. Judy Bryant Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D. Professor & Associate Chair Department of Psychology, PCD 4118G University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620-7200 Phone: (813) 974-0475 Fax: (813) 974-4617 From sqb4972 at nyu.edu Wed Dec 19 22:50:12 2001 From: sqb4972 at nyu.edu (Shoba Bandi-Rao) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:50:12 -0500 Subject: gender agreement in adjectives derived from nouns! Message-ID: Dear Info-Childes Readers, As in several languages of the world, French adjectives agree in gender and in number with the nouns they modify (e.g., les feuilles vertES). However, French adjectives derived from nouns do not seem to take the gender and number morphemes (e.g., les tables marron). Other adjectives include 'orange' and 'rose'. I am interested in learning about such examples from other languages. Thank you in advance! Best, Shoba ************************************************************ Shoba Bandi Rao Doctoral Student/ Applied Linguistics New York University Work: (212) 998-5685 http://pages.nyu.edu/~sqb4972 ************************************************* From lise.menn at colorado.edu Fri Dec 21 04:43:01 2001 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 21:43:01 -0700 Subject: Bill Bright's response to 'gender agreement in adjectives derived from nouns' Message-ID: (in response to Shoba Bandi-Rao, from William Bright, to whom I forwarded her query - LM) hello shoba; other romance languages have much the same phenomenon as in french. but in spanish, for instance, it's even more conspicuous, e.g. (in mexico) _los calzones rosa_ 'the pink panties'. as i'm sure you know, hindi and other indo-aryan languages have two large classes of adjectives; one agrees with nouns, the other does not, e.g. _acchaa aadmii_ 'good man', _acchii aurat_ 'good woman', but _hindustaanii aadmii_ 'indian man', _hindustaanii aurat_ 'indian woman'. i don't know the detailed history of this; but from a descriptive viewpoint, it seems to me that the division of hindi adjectives into 2 classes is similar to that in romance, except of course that in hindi the "genderless" class is much larger. happy holidays! bill --------------------------------- Beware Procrustes bearing Occam's razor. Lise Menn office phone 303-492-1609 Professor home fax 303-413-0017 Department of Linguistics UCB 295 University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0295 Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm From Frank.Wijnen at let.uu.nl Sun Dec 23 20:02:14 2001 From: Frank.Wijnen at let.uu.nl (Wijnen, Frank) Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 21:02:14 +0100 Subject: announcement: Annual Review of Language Acquisition #1 Message-ID: Annual Review of Language Acquisition Volume 1 (2001) Edited by Lynn Santelmann, Maaike Verrips and Frank Wijnen Portland State University / Utrecht University The Annual Review of Language Acquisition (ARLA) is devoted to research in the domain of first language acquisition, i.e., the process of acquiring command of a first language. It focuses on research that has been reported in recently defended PhD theses. The contributions in ARLA consist of edited summaries or excerpts from dissertations addressing issues in first language acquisition. These contributions are written by the original author of the dissertation and conform to the format of a journal article. ARLA publishes reports of original research pertaining to various approaches to first language acquisition: experimental, computational, clinical or theoretical. Contributions by: Jill G.de Villiers; Mitsuhiko Ota; Joan Sawyer; Marja van Helden-Lankhaar. Annual Review of Language Acquisition, 1, 2001. Pb ii, 190 pp. 90 272 5461 3 EUR 40.84 1 58811 129 6 USD 41.00 For subscription rates with full electronic access please refer to: www.benjamins.com/jbp