COLLOQUIA

There will be six thematic colloquia at SLRF 2010:

• Heritage Language Acquisition (Colloquium I, invited)
• Aptitude and Individual Differences in SLA (Colloquium II, invited)
• Language Testing and Assessment (Colloquium III, invited)
• L2 Processing (Colloquium IV, invited)
• Toward Embodied Language Learning (Colloquium V, refereed)
• Eye-tracking for SLA Research (Colloquium VI, refereed)

Colloquium I: Heritage Language Acquisition
Organizers: Dr. Silvina Montrul (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Dr. Maria Polinsky (Harvard University)

We will address heritage speakers’ knowledge of morphology, with the emphasis on inflectional morphology. Morphological deficits in heritage speakers are paradoxical from the standpoint of the input: although inflectional morphology is abundant in the input, it is not properly mastered. The panel will compare heritage speakers to L2 learners, and will deliberate on SLA theoretical accounts of morphological deficits can be extended to morphological deficits in heritage speakers.

• Silvina Montrul (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Maria Polinsky (Harvard University). Morphology, incomplete acquisition and attrition

• Silvina Montrul, Elabbas Benmamoun, and Rakesh Bhatt (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Nominal morphology in Spanish, Arabic and Hindi heritage speakers

• Maria Polinsky (Harvard University). Asymmetries in nominal and verbal morphology in heritage languages

• Donna Lardiere (Georgetown University). Closing Paper

Colloquium II: Aptitude and Individual Differences in SLA
Organizers: Dr. Catherine Doughty and Dr. Robert DeKeyser (University of Maryland)

After an introductory presentation on the academic, social, and political contexts in which research on aptitude for language learning has evolved, this colloquium will present a variety of empirical work on aptitude and related constructs in SLA, from development of aptitude measurements to the role of aptitude in various SLA contexts and its interaction with age and instructional treatments.

• Robert DeKeyser (University of Maryland). The trajectory of research on aptitude in SLA

• Catherine J. Doughty, Meredith  A. Mislevy, Jared A. Linck, Susan M. Campbell, Scott R. Jackson, Anita R. Bowles, Michael F. Bunting, Benjamin K. Smith, and Joel T. Koeth (Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland). Innovations in the measurement of high-level language aptitude

• Niclas Abrahamsson (Stockholm University). A role for language aptitude in nativelike language acquisition and use

• Roger Gilabert, Joan Carles Mora, and Carmen Muñoz (University of Barcelona). Phonological short-term memory and working memory capacity in foreign language acquisition

• Rebecca Sachs (Georgetown University). Aptitude-treatment interactions in an experimental study of visual feedback on reflexive binding

Colloquium III: Language Testing and Assessment
Organizers: Dr. John Norris (University of Hawaii) and Dr. Steven Ross (University of Maryland)

Over the past decade, authentic target communication tasks have come to play a crucial role in language assessments for a variety of purposes, from classroom uses to large-scale language proficiency testing to second language research. In this colloquium, presenters reflect on the incorporation of tasks into contemporary language assessment practice, and they offer research-based insights into previous and new issues with task-based assessment.

• James E. Purpura (Teachers College Columbia University). Assessing meaning in task-based language assessments

• Bart Deygers (Catholic University of Leuven). Language tasks and rating scales: A quest for authenticity

• Xiaoming Xi (Educational Testing Service). Reconciling the construct-based and task-based approaches in language assessment

• Robert J. Mislevy (University of Maryland). What is the construct in task-based language assessment?

Colloquium IV: L2 Processing
Organizers: Dr. Harald Clahsen (University of Essex) and Dr. Nan Jiang (University of Maryland)

Researchers have recently begun to investigate the L2 processing of sentences and morphologically complex words by using a variety of time-sensitive or “online” psycholinguistic methods including the measurement of comprehension or production latencies and physiological measures such as event-related brain potentials or eye-movements. Four talks will provide new insights from this line of L2 research.

• Kara Morgan-Short (University of Illinois at Chicago), Karsten Steinahuer (McGill University), Cristina Sanz (Georgetown University), and Michael T. Ullman (Georgetown University). Insights into L2 processing from an artificial language

• Kimmy Rehak and Alan Juffs (University of Pittsburgh). Native and non-native processing of morphology. A replication masked-priming experiment

• Harald Clahsen (University of Essex). The time course of L2 grammatical processing

• Paola (Giuli) Dussias (Penn State University). Grammatical gender processing in L2 Spanish: Eye-tracking evidence from L1 speakers of Italian and English

• Nan Jiang, Guiling Hu, Anna Lukyanchenko (University of Maryland), and Cai Yongheng (Beijing Foreign Studies University). Morphological processing by non-native speakers: Evidence from word monitoring

Colloquium V: Toward Embodied Language Learning
Organizer: Dr. Luca Onnis (University of Hawaii)

Research in embodied cognition has highlighted how embodied experience is intimately connected with how we learn, memorize and process language. Four talks contribute independent experimental evidence that embodied experience plays an important role in L2 by targeting specific hard-to-learn aspects of language, and proposing augmented learning and teaching strategies.

• Kenny Coventry (Northumbria University). Acquiring spatial language in first and second language

• Brian MacWhinney, Nora Presson, and Michael Heilman (Carnegie Mellon University). Embodied spatial language in L2 acquisition

• Luca Onnis (University of Hawaii), Michael Spivey (UC Merced), and Daniel Jackson (University of Hawaii). Perceptual simulations of idiomatic prepositional uses in L1 and L2

• Spencer D. Kelly, Sarah Malanowski, and Mohita Singh (Colgate University). Casting an eye on hand gestures in foreign verb learning

Colloquium VI: Eye-tracking for SLA Research: Applications, Outcomes, and Methodological Considerations
Organizers: Dr. Paula Winke and Dr. Susan Gass (Michigan State University)

This colloquium focuses on eye tracking in SLA. The themes are: 1) An overview of SLA eye movement studies 2) Spoken language processing research 3) Research on grammatical gender 4) Research on enhanced input 5) Methodological constraints and information on purchasing eye tracking equipment.

• Aline Godfroid (University of Brussels & Michigan State University) and Maren Schierloh (Michigan State University). The study of eye movements in SLA research: A review

• Paola (Giuli) Dussias (Penn State University). Using eye-tracking to research spoken language processing

• Patti Spinner, Susan Gass, and Jennifer Behney (Michigan State University). Using eye-tracking to research learners' use of morphosyntactic and morphophonological information in gender processing

• Shawn Loewen, Solene Inceoglu, and Paula Winke (Michigan State University). Using eye-tracking to investigate input enhacement

• Tetyana Sydorenko and Paula Winke (Michigan State University). Methodological constraints and information on purchasing eye tracking equipment