Home / CLS Research Groups / By Field: Second Language Acquisition / Processing
The Comparative Communication Laboratory
Fields: First Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition
Faculty: Dan Weiss
Graduate Students: Aaron Mitchel, Myro Joy Olida Lee, Katie Chapman
One of the main goals of the Comparative Communication Laboratory is the study of the mechanisms underlying language acquisition. These include statistical learning mechanisms that have been implicated in the early acquisition of phonetic categories and word boundaries, rule learning, and generalization of learning. Our approach compares the performance of human infants and adults, as well as nonhuman primates (hereafter primates) on a variety of behavioral tasks in order to identify the underlying similarities and differences both between species and within humans across stages of development. In addition, we are interested in studying select topics pertaining to cognition and conspecific communication in primates.
Eye-tracking Laboratory
Fields: Second Language Processing, Linguistics
Faculty: Giuli Dussias
Graduate Students: Tracy Cramer Scaltz,
David Counselman ,
Rosa E. Guzzardo ,
Jorge Valdés Kroff
Second Language Acquisition Group
Fields: Second Language Acquisition
Faculty: Nuria Sagarra
Second Language Processing Laboratory
Fields: Second Language Acquisition
Faculty: Carrie Jackson
The Language and Cognition Laboratory (The Purple Lab)
Fields: Second Language Acquisition
Faculty: Judith F. Kroll
Research Coordinators: Angelique Blackburn, Jason Gullifer, Rachel Johnson, Marck Minnick
Graduate Students: Susan Bobb, Jared Linck, Tyler Phelps, Cari Bogulski
The Language Development in Diverse Contexts Laboratory
Fields: Second Language Acquisition, Atypical Populations
Faculty: Carol Scheffner Hammer
Graduate Students: Megan Dunn Davison, Roxana Botezatu
The Language Development in Diverse Contexts Laboratory houses video- and audio-taping equipment for collecting language samples and for studying interactions between caregivers and their children. It also contains computer stations equipped with transcription machines for analyzing data. SALT, a computer software program that is useful in the study of child language, OCS, a computer program used to analyze parent-child interactions, and software to analyze qualitative data are available in the lab. The laboratory functions as a site for investigating the language and literacy development of bilingual Hispanic children, African American children, and children with SLI, and for studying parental beliefs and parent-child interactions.
The Child Phonology Laboratory
Fields: Second Language Acquisition, Atypical Populations
Faculty: Adele Miccio
Graduate Students: Lindsey Corbin, Shelly Scarpino, Alison Vargo
Undergraduate Students: Alexis Rabine, Anne Rohan
The Child Phonology Laboratory houses facilities for studying speech sound production in children. The laboratory contains seven computer workstations and additional hardware and software for transcription and analysis of speech samples from audio and video. The laboratory also houses software for advanced training in clinical phonetics and phonology. Current projects focus on assessing phonological development, emerging literacy skills of bilingual children, and treatment efficacy. Both undergraduate and graduate students are involved in laboratory activities.
The Brain, Language, and Literacy Laboratory
Fields: First Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition, Atypical Populations
Faculty: Maya Misra
Research coordinator: Joyce Tam
Graduate students: Alice Kramer and Kristen Mettley
Undergraduate students: Doreen DiGangi, Beth Friedman, Liz Willis, and Bridgid Zvirblis
The Brain, Language, and Literacy Laboratory uses converging behavioral and neuroscience methods to study the processes underlying the development of speech and reading. This laboratory houses a 64-channel EEG/ERP system as well as facilities for cognitive behavioral testing and administration of standardized tests. Research in the laboratory focuses on neurocognitive correlates of language processing, emphasizing component skills in reading, automaticity of orthographic and phonological processing, subtypes of developmental dyslexia, and language selection mechanisms used by bilingual speakers.