The Language Development Laboratory

PI: Ianthi Tsimpli Research
September 2012 – August 2015
Budget: 600.000€
Project Code: 85514

AIM

The main aim of the project is to include the factors of monolingual / bilingual education and type of bilingualism in the detailed investigation of the interaction between linguistic and cognitive abilities. Linguistic abilities are differentiated in terms of level of linguistic analysis, such as vocabulary, syntax, pragmatics in order to identify the ones which may be affected in bilingualism. Accordingly, the project seeks to identify potential correlations among (i) types of bilingualism, (ii) types of education (mono- or bi-literacy), (iii) aspects of language knowledge and processing and (iv) cognitive abilities. The outcome of the study will shed light on the nature of the cognitive and linguistic interaction in different types of bilingualism and the effects of literacy development on this interaction. The outcome of this project will provide useful guidelines on the educational scheme which enhances bilingualism and bilingual literacy development most.

EXPECTED RESULTS

The project will provide:

1. Profile description of simultaneous and successive bilingualism in relation to a combined measurement of input properties and age of onset characteristics.
2. Detailed description of the monolingual and bilingual educational frames available to bilinguals and monolinguals in Greece.
3. Analysis of the interaction between language and cognitive abilities per type of bilingualism and educational frame.
4. A database of bilingual data on linguistic performance (production and comprehension).
5. A database of bilingual data on cognitive abilities (memory, executive functions).
6. A global cognitive, linguistic and educational perspective on bilingual child profiles.
7. A website informing academics, researchers, educators, parents/guardians of bilingual children and adult bilinguals on bilingualism’s advantages.

IMPLEMENTATION POSSIBILITIES

The target groups that have an active interest for these deliverables are a) parents of children from immigrant and/or minority groups but also parents of monolingual or bilingual children who belong to the dominant social group: making the findings of the project accessible to them will enable parents to form a justified choice of educational frame; b) educators in monolingual or bilingual educational frames (in Greece and in Greek schools abroad) will benefit from the information regarding the effects of bilingual literacy development as well as possible short-term problems in the academic performance of late successive bilingual children (mostly from minority or immigrant groups); c) local authorities and the State since the measurable outcomes of the examined correlations between cognitive and linguistic abilities and educational settings will allow them to introduce or establish educational policies which will encourage monolingual and bilingual literacy development through different schooling types; d) the international academic community investigating similar questions regarding the cognitive and linguistic profiling of bilingual children and the role of education on this profile.

EVENTS

Workshop, Language Knowledge and Development in native and non-native speakers, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 2/05/2014

RESEARCH VISITS

Albania

• Arsakeio, Greek-Albanian College (Primary School), Tirana, May 2014

USA

• Socrates Academy, Primary School, North Carolina, Charlotte, February 2014

Germany

• Greek afternoon classes in Cologne, March 2013
• Greek Primary School in Dusseldorf, November 2013
• Greek Primary School in Wuppertal, November 2013
• German Public High School in Krefeld (Gesamtschule Kaiserplatz), March 2013, October 2013

Greece

• Athens: St. Catherine's British Embassy School and Campion School, February 2013, May 2013
• Thessaloniki: German School of Thessaloniki (Deutsche Schule), February 2013
• In Greek public primary schools

CONFERENCES

Tsimpli I. Profiling child bilingualism: Linguistic and cognitive abilities. 12^th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference, University of Florida, USA, 26-28/4/2013.

Tsimpli I. Literacy effects on oral and written language measures in bilingual children. 34^th Annual Meeting on Greek Language, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 16-18/5/2013.

Andreou M., E. Knopp, C. Bongartz & I. Tsimpli. Syntactic complexity and discourse reference in Greek-German bilingual children’s narratives. 23^rd Conference of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA), Amsterdam 28-31/08/2013.

Tsimpli I., M. Andreou, E. Agathopoulou & E. Masoura. Narrative production, bilingualism and working memory capacity: A study of Greek-German bilingual children. 11^th International Conference on Greek Linguistics, Rhodes, 26-29 September 2013.

Tsimpli I. Language and Memory Measures in Greek-German Bilingual Children. International Conference on Language Diversity, The Arctic University of Norway, 6-8/11/2013.

Tsimpli, I. Aspects of meaning in the bilingual mind. Lecture on Semantic Uniformity and Diversity: Evidence from the Pacific Northwest, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto, 7/02/ 2014.

Tsimpli, I. & M. Andreou. Bilingual acquisition in different contexts: home vs. majority language. NIAS, Amsterdam, 10-11/04/2014.

Andreou M. & I. Tsimpli. Language dominance in child bilingualism: Effects οn narrative production and syntactic complexity. Workshop Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research, Utrecht, 14-16/04/2014.

Andreou M., I. Dosi & M. Kaltsa. Lexical and syntactic abilities in bilingual children: effects of language dominance and crosslinguistic influence. Workshop, Language Knowledge and Development in native and non-native speakers, Thessaloniki, 2/05/2014.

Andreou M. Η κατάκτηση της ονοματικής συμφωνίας στον γραπτό και τον προφορικό λόγο από δίγλωσσα παιδιά. 35^η ετήσια Συνάντηση Τομέα Γλωσσολογίας, Α.Π.Θ. Θεσσαλονίκη, 8-10/05/2014.

Dosi I., D. Papadopoulou & I. Tsimpli. Aspects on the acquisition of aspect in Greek-English bilingual children. The Expression of Temporality by L2 Learners of French and English: Acquisition of Time, Aspect, Modality, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, 22-24/05/ 2014.

Tsimpli I., E. Peristeri & M. Andreou. Narratives in specific language impairment. 5^th International Conference on Language Disorders, Limassol, Cyprus 30-31/05/2014.

Andreou M. & I. Tsimpli. Character Reference: A study of Greek-German and Greek-English bilingual children. International Conference, Olinco, Olomouc 5-7/06/2014.

Dosi I., D. Papadopoulou & I. Tsimpli. Aspects on the acquisition of aspect in Greek-English bilingual children. 13^th International Congress for the Study of Child Language (IASCL), University of Amsterdam, 14-18/07/ 2014.

Tsimpli I. & M. Kaltsa. Grammatical gender in monolingual and bilingual acquisition: New approaches in new contexts. 13^th International Congress for the Study of Child Language (IASCL), University of Amsterdam, 14-18/07/ 2014.

Kaltsa M. & M. Andreou. Gender Agreement in Greek-English & Greek-German Bilingual Children. AILA World Congress, Brisbane 10-15/8/2014.

Andreou M., C. Bongartz & E. Knopp. Salience in oral and written narratives of young Greek-German-English Bilinguals. AILA World Congress, Brisbane 10-15/8/2014.

Bongartz C., T. Marinis & I. Tsimpli. Literacy effects on the acquisition of grammatical gender across bilingual settings in Germany and Greece. AILA World Congress, Brisbane 10-15/8/2014.

Andreou M., I. Dosi & D. Papadopoulou. Lexical and grammatical aspect in bilingual children: evidence from production and comprehension tasks. 24^th annual conference of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA), University of York, 3-6/9/ 2014.

Kaltsa M., M. Andreou, T. Marinis & I. Tsimpli. Differential effects of input on clitics and gender agreement in bilingual children. 24^th annual conference of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA), University of York, 3-6/9/ 2014.

Bongartz C., I. Tsimpli, M. Andreou, E. Knopp & M. Kaltsa. The role of accessibility in bilingual referential cohesion. XLVIII Congresso Internazionale Di Studi Societ Di Linguistica Italiana, Udine, 25-27/09/2014.