info-biling mailing list

Thu May 19 15:09:17 UTC 2005

Dear Colleagues,

Many thanks for Annick's points, which are well taken. Thanks also to 
Ginny Gathercole who pointed out that Jeff MacSwan already maintains 
such a bilingualism list, which I wasn't aware of ("BILING: Forum for 
Discussion of Research on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education" 
<BILING at ASU.EDU>). Given these considerations, I will take down the 
info-biling mailing list, and apologize to those who have already 
signed on.

With best wishes,

Ping

On May 19, 2005, at 3:23 AM, Annick De Houwer wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> It is true that not all L1 researchers will be interested in issues
> pertaining to bilingualism. Nor will all L1 researchers be interested 
> in all
> the topics that come up under 'L1 research'.
> I have for a long time been carrying out research on L1 acquisition -
> except, as it so happens, mainly in children with 2 L1's. In my 
> writings I
> have been stressing the point that many issues in L1 research can be 
> more
> successfully approached by taking the methodological decision to study
> children learning 2 L1's from birth (see also my upcoming contribution 
> to
> the Elsevier Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, where I spell 
> out the
> areas of research in monolingual L1 research that could particularly 
> benefit
> from insights gained into 'double L1' acquisition). When I first 
> started out
> doing research on bilingual first language acquisition, I was one of 
> the
> very few that were also trained in child language acquisition research 
> in
> general (i.e., in monolingual circumstances). I am convinced that my
> training in developmental psycholinguistics, in combination with my 
> training
> in sociolinguistics and contact linguistics, have both been equally
> important as backgrounds to my research. Whereas in the early 1980's 
> work in
> 'double L1' acquisition was rare at conferences devoted to child 
> language
> acquisition, this is no longer the case. IASCL conferences as well as 
> BU
> conferences regularly have a large portion of presentations relating 
> to 2x
> L1 acquisition. I strongly believe in the necessary cross-linking of
> research into how both monolingually and bilingually raised children 
> develop
> their language skills. In addition, I am sure we can learn from 
> processes of
> later L2 acquisition as well (at the next IASCL meeting, for instance, 
> there
> is going to be a panel with, amongst others, Jürgen Meisel and Lydia 
> White,
> relating to just this topic).
> I would find it a great pity if the chances for cross-over are limited 
> by
> dividing up communication channels. Outside the professional meetings 
> we go
> to, info-childes has been just the kind of perfect forum, I believe, 
> for
> this kind of much needed cross-over information. Personally, I find the
> volume of the forum quite manageable (unlike another list server I 
> briefly
> subscribed to (on bilingualism), with more than 70 postings a week!), 
> and it
> is easy for anyone to delete postings they find less central to their
> concerns.
> It would be a pity if once again, work on bilingual children is 
> commented on
> and discussed along the edges of the mainstream of child language 
> research.
>
> Very best regards,
>
> Annick De Houwer
> University of Antwerp
> Belgium
>
>
>> From: Ping Li <pli at richmond.edu>
>> Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:49:28 -0400
>> To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
>> Subject: info-biling mailing list
>>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> In light of the recent emails on L2 or bilingualism on this list, I
>> have created a new mailing list called info-biling analogous to
>> info-childes. I believe that there are many colleagues on this list 
>> who
>> are mainly interested in L1 issues, and thus it would be unfair to 
>> them
>> to have to see or delete unnecessary emails.
>>
>> Information about the info-biling mailing list is available at
>> http://lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/info-biling
>> and it should take you 1 minute to subscribe to the list from there.
>>
>> Some simple descriptions and ground rules are attached below.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Ping Li
>>
>>
>> The info-biling mailing list is created to enhance the rapid exchange
>> of information among researchers in bilingualism and second language
>> acquisition. The listserv works similarly as the info-childes mailing
>> list (maintained by Brian MacWhinney at CMU) with which many
>> acquisition researchers are familiar. There are also some differences
>> between the two. The general rules and the user privileges are:
>>
>> Users are encouraged to post inquries about or discussions on a
>> research question in L2 or bilingualism;
>> Users are encouraged to request information about references for a
>> specific research project on L2 or bilingualism;
>> Users are encouraged to announce conferences and job descriptions
>> related to L2 and bilingualism;
>> Users are allowed to announce their significant publications in
>> academic journals and books or other scientific outlets;
>> Users are allowed to post table of contents from their edited volumes
>> or journals;
>> Users will have access to a public database that contains APA-style
>> references in bilingualism research (under construction).
>>
>> In order to block email spams or viruses, only subscribed users can
>> post messages to the mailing list, and no attachments are allowed on
>> the list.
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Ping Li, Ph.D.
>> Associate Professor
>> Graduate Program Coordinator
>> Department of Psychology
>> University of Richmond
>> Richmond, VA 23173, USA
>> Email: pli at richmond.edu
>> http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
>> http://cogsci.richmond.edu/
>>
>> Bilingualism: Language and Cognition:
>> http://cogsci.richmond.edu/bilingualism/bilingualism.html
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>
----------------------------------------------------------

Ping Li, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Graduate Program Coordinator
Department of Psychology
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173, USA
Email: pli at richmond.edu
http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
http://cogsci.richmond.edu/

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition:
http://cogsci.richmond.edu/bilingualism/bilingualism.html
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