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Language and Conceptual Systems Education in Math, Science, and Technology Foundations of Cognitive Science The Neural Theory of Language and Thought Perceptual Organization in Vision Metaphors in Language and Thought Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Cognition Crosslinguistic Studies of Early Language Development Understanding Explanatory Coherence Neuropsychological Studies of Mind and Brain |
Crosslinguistic Studies of Early Language DevelopmentCross-linguistic studies have been used to study early child language development (1-5 years) in a crosslinguistic framework. Prof. Slobin studies the relationship between language and thought by looking for universal and language-specific patterns in language development. His project involves collaboration with colleagues in linguistics, education, and anthropology, both on this campus and at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, Netherlands). At present the main focus of activity in his lab is on deaf children's acquisition of sign language as a first language in American Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands. Comparisons are made between families in which the parents are deaf and use a native sign language with their children, and families in which the parents are hearing, and are acquiring sign language as a second language. This work has consequences for early intervention with deaf children, as well as later development of literacy as a second language. (Prof. Slobin) (English in the US, Dutch in the Netherlands). It is supported by NSF, Linguistic Program.Professor Slobin from Psychology investigates how children learn and use different languages cross-culturally. His current project concerns how children describe a simple story -- the now-famous "Frog Story" -- told completely through pictures. Together with a host of graduate students and collaborators around the world, he has amassed a formidable data base of children's descriptions in English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Turkish, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and other languages. This data is used to formulate and test theories about how children acquire different languages and how difficulties in acquisition are related to differences in the languages being learned. This work crosses disciplinary boundaries by incorporating ideas from Linguistics, Psychology, and Anthropology to varying degrees. |