Marit Westergaard | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Norwegian |
Citizenship | Norway |
Occupation(s) | Professor, Department of Language and Culture; Director of AcqVa Aurora group |
Known for | Second language acquisition, third language acquisition, linguistics |
Title | Professor, Professor II |
Awards | Member of The NASL, Academia Borealis |
Academic background | |
Education | MA in Linguistics, UC San Diego, Cand. Phil in Linguistics and German, University of Tromsø, D.Phil in Linguistics, University of Tromsø |
Alma mater | University of Tromsø |
Thesis | The Development of Word Order in Norwegian Child Language: The Interaction of Input and Economy Principles in the Acquisition of V2 (2005) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Language Acquisitionist,Linguist |
Sub-discipline | Bilingualism and multilingualism |
Institutions | UiT The Arctic University of Norway |
Website | site.uit.no/maritwestergaard |
Marit Kristine Richardsen Westergaard (born 12 August 1956) is a Norwegian linguist,known for her work on child language acquisition and multilingualism.
She defended her PhD thesis The Development of Word Order in Norwegian Child Language:The Interaction of Input and Economy Principles in the Acquisition of V2 at the University of Tromsø in 2005. [1] She was hired as a professor at the University of Tromsø in 2009,and also has held an adjunct professor position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology since 2015. She has been a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2016. [2]
Much of Wetergaard's work has been focused on language acquisition and multilingualism. In her role as AcqVA (Acquisition,Variation,and Attrition) Aurora Center Director,she oversees projects on multilingual acquisition of gender (together with Terje Lohndal) [3] [4] [5] [6] and acquisition and processing of morphosyntax. [7] [8] [9] One of the most prominent areas of Westergaard's expertise is micro-variation and the role of micro-variation in multilingual context. Her work explores the nature of language acquisition as it relates to micro-variation as well as language change. [10]
Westergaard proposed an influential model of third language acquisition:the Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM). This model is based on property-by-property acquisition of the target language grammar,and it claims that the acquisition mechanism is based on the typological similarity between the target language property and the previous languages acquired by the language learner. [11] For example,a person who already speaks Russian is likely to transfer the Russian system of gender and the English article system while acquiring German. Westergaard's LPM model is closely related to other partial-transfer models (such as Slabakova's Scalpel Model [12] and Flynn's Cumulative-Enhancement Model [13] ) and stands in opposition to wholesale transfer models like Typological Proximity Model. [14] In 2020,Westergaard published a keynote article in SLR,arguing for what she called Full Transfer Potential (FTP),where rather than assuming that ‘everything does transfer’,she argues that ‘anything may transfer’. [15]
Westergaard is also the author of the Micro-cue Model of L1 acquisition,arguing that children are sensitive to fine distinctions in syntax and information structure from early on (micro-cues). The model has also been used to account for diachronic change. The model is currently receiving increased attention,resulting in invitations as keynote speaker and contributor to handbooks. [16] [17] [18]
In cooperation with Antonella Sorace and Bilingualism Matters at the University of Edinburgh,Westergaard runs an advice and information service called Flere språk til flere for bilingual families and the general public,based on current research in the field.
The idea of linguistic relativity,also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis,the Whorf hypothesis,or Whorfianism,is a principle suggesting that the structure of a language influences its speakers' worldview or cognition,and thus individuals' languages determine or shape their perceptions of the world.
In bilingual education,students are taught in two languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math,science,and history. The time spent in each language depends on the model. For example,some models focus on providing education in both languages throughout a student's entire education while others gradually transition to education in only one language. The ultimate goal of bilingual education is fluency and literacy in both languages through a variety of strategies such as translanguaging and recasting.
In linguistics,code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages,or language varieties,in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism in that plurilingualism refers to the ability of an individual to use multiple languages,while code-switching is the act of using multiple languages together. Multilinguals sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. Thus,code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax and phonology of each variety. Code-switching may happen between sentences,sentence fragments,words,or individual morphemes. However,some linguists consider the borrowing of words or morphemes from another language to be different from other types of code-switching. Likewise,code-switching can occur when there is a change in the environment one is speaking. Code-switching can happen in the context of speaking a different language or switching the verbiage to match that of the audience. There are many ways in which code-switching is employed,such as when a speaker is unable to express themselves adequately in a single language or to signal an attitude towards something. Several theories have been developed to explain the reasoning behind code-switching from sociological and linguistic perspectives.
A first language (L1),native language,native tongue,or mother tongue is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries,the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language or dialect of one's ethnic group rather than the individual's actual first language. Generally,to state a language as a mother tongue,one must have full native fluency in that language.
A heritage language is a minority language learned by its speakers at home as children,and difficult to be fully developed because of insufficient input from the social environment. The speakers grow up with a different dominant language in which they become more competent. Polinsky and Kagan label it as a continuum that ranges from fluent speakers to barely speaking individuals of the home language. In some countries or cultures which determine a person's mother tongue by the ethnic group they belong to,a heritage language would be linked to the native language.
Second-language acquisition (SLA),sometimes called second-language learning —otherwise referred to as L2acquisition,is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. The field of second-language acquisition is regarded by some but not everybody as a sub-discipline of applied linguistics but also receives research attention from a variety of other disciplines,such as psychology and education.
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language,either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue;but many read and write in one language. Multilingualism is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade,globalization and cultural openness. Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet,individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called polyglots.
Language attrition is the process of decreasing proficiency in or losing a language. For first or native language attrition,this process is generally caused by both isolation from speakers of the first language ("L1") and the acquisition and use of a second language ("L2"),which interferes with the correct production and comprehension of the first. Such interference from a second language is likely experienced to some extent by all bilinguals,but is most evident among speakers for whom a language other than their first has started to play an important,if not dominant,role in everyday life;these speakers are more likely to experience language attrition. It is common among immigrants that travel to countries where languages foreign to them are used. Second language attrition can occur from poor learning,practice,and retention of the language after time has passed from learning. This often occurs with bilingual speakers who do not frequently engage with their L2.
The generative approach to second language (L2) acquisition (SLA) is a cognitive based theory of SLA that applies theoretical insights developed from within generative linguistics to investigate how second languages and dialects are acquired and lost by individuals learning naturalistically or with formal instruction in foreign,second language and lingua franca settings. Central to generative linguistics is the concept of Universal Grammar (UG),a part of an innate,biologically endowed language faculty which refers to knowledge alleged to be common to all human languages. UG includes both invariant principles as well as parameters that allow for variation which place limitations on the form and operations of grammar. Subsequently,research within the Generative Second-Language Acquisition (GenSLA) tradition describes and explains SLA by probing the interplay between Universal Grammar,knowledge of one's native language and input from the target language. Research is conducted in syntax,phonology,morphology,phonetics,semantics,and has some relevant applications to pragmatics.
Language production is the production of spoken or written language. In psycholinguistics,it describes all of the stages between having a concept to express and translating that concept into linguistic forms. These stages have been described in two types of processing models:the lexical access models and the serial models. Through these models,psycholinguists can look into how speeches are produced in different ways,such as when the speaker is bilingual. Psycholinguists learn more about these models and different kinds of speech by using language production research methods that include collecting speech errors and elicited production tasks.
Michael Sharwood Smith,Emeritus Professor of Languages at Heriot-Watt University &Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh,is a researcher into multilingualism and the acquisition of non-native languages,a branch of developmental linguistics and cognitive science. He is a founding editor of Second Language Research,successor to the Interlanguage Studies Bulletin.
In linguistics,grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar,the goal of which is to formulate rules that define well-formed,grammatical,sentences. These rules of grammaticality also provide explanations of ill-formed,ungrammatical sentences.
The Competition Model is a psycholinguistic theory of language acquisition and sentence processing,developed by Elizabeth Bates and Brian MacWhinney (1982). The claim in MacWhinney,Bates,and Kliegl (1984) is that "the forms of natural languages are created,governed,constrained,acquired,and used in the service of communicative functions." Furthermore,the model holds that processing is based on an online competition between these communicative functions or motives. The model focuses on competition during sentence processing,crosslinguistic competition in bilingualism,and the role of competition in language acquisition. It is an emergentist theory of language acquisition and processing,serving as an alternative to strict innatist and empiricist theories. According to the Competition Model,patterns in language arise from Darwinian competition and selection on a variety of time/process scales including phylogenetic,ontogenetic,social diffusion,and synchronic scales.
Crosslinguistic influence (CLI) refers to the different ways in which one language can affect another within an individual speaker. It typically involves two languages that can affect one another in a bilingual speaker. An example of CLI is the influence of Korean on a Korean native speaker who is learning Japanese or French. Less typically,it could also refer to an interaction between different dialects in the mind of a monolingual speaker. CLI can be observed across subsystems of languages including pragmatics,semantics,syntax,morphology,phonology,phonetics,and orthography. Discussed further in this article are particular subcategories of CLI—transfer,attrition,the complementarity principle,and additional theories.
Heritage language learning,or heritage language acquisition,is the act of learning a heritage language from an ethnolinguistic group that traditionally speaks the language,or from those whose family historically spoke the language. According to a commonly accepted definition by Valdés,heritage languages are generally minority languages in society and are typically learned at home during childhood. When a heritage language learner grows up in an environment with a dominant language that is different from their heritage language,the learner appears to be more competent in the dominant language and often feels more comfortable speaking in that language. "Heritage language" may also be referred to as "community language","home language",and "ancestral language".
Translanguaging is a term that can refer to different aspects of multilingualism. It can describe the way bilinguals and multilinguals use their linguistic resources to make sense of and interact with the world around them. It can also refer to a pedagogical approach that utilizes more than one language within a classroom lesson. The term "translanguaging" was coined in the 1980s by Cen Williams in his unpublished thesis titled “An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Methods in the Context of Bilingual Secondary Education.”Williams used the term to describe the practice of using two languages in the same lesson,which differed from many previous methods of bilingual education that tried to separate languages by class,time,or day. In addition,Vogel and Garcia argued that translanguaging theory posits that rather than possessing two or more autonomous language systems,as previously thought when scholars described bilingual or multilingual speakers,bilinguals and multilingual speakers select and deploy their languages from a unitary linguistic repertoire. However,the dissemination of the term,and of the related concept,gained traction decades later due in part to published research by Ofelia García,among others. In this context,translanguaging is an extension of the concept of languaging,the discursive practices of language speakers,but with the additional feature of using multiple languages,often simultaneously. It is a dynamic process in which multilingual speakers navigate complex social and cognitive demands through strategic employment of multiple languages.
The interface hypothesis in adult second language acquisition is an attempt to explain non-target-like linguistic behavior that persists even among highly advanced speakers. The hypothesis was first put forward by Antonella Sorace.
Antonella Sorace,FBA,FRSE,FRSA,Professor of Developmental Linguistics,University of Edinburgh,since 2002;Founding Director,Bilingualism Matters,since 2008 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U294916 |website=Who's Who 2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=3 December 2022 |language=en |date=1 December 2022}}</ref>) is an experimental linguist and academic,specializing in bilingualism across the lifespan. Since 2002,she has been Professor of Developmental Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. She a Fellow of British Academy,a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts,Manufactures and Commerce.
Roumyana Slabakova is a linguist specializing in the theory of second language acquisition (SLA),particularly acquisition of semantics,and its practical implications for teaching and studying languages.
Suzanne Flynn is an American linguist and Professor of Linguistics at MIT who has contributed to the fields of second and third language acquisition. She has also investigated language disorders.