Late Acquired Language Phenomena and their Role for Success in School
Research Question
Why are some language phenomena acquired so late, and what is their relation to academic success in school?
Project Description
Although children are very good at learning languages, some language phenomena are acquired remarkably late. At the same time, academic success is often tied to mastering the ‘difficult’ language required in school settings. This projects aims at unifying these two perspectives of language acquisition and education. It investigates which properties cause lateness in acquisition and how these correspond to the language challenges present in the school context. By considering monolingual as well as bilingual children, these results will provide a novel foundation for characterizing language prerequisites for children’s academic success and for choosing suitable topics for language assessment.
Selected Publications
Sanfelici, E. & Schulz, P. (2021). Can frequency account for the grammatical choices of children and adults in nominal modification contexts? Evidence from elicited production and child-directed speech. Languages, 6, 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010035
Schulz, P. & Grimm, A. (2019). The age factor revisited: Timing in acquisition interacts with age of onset in bilingual acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:2732. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02732
Grimm, A. & Schulz, P. (2014). Specific Language Impairment and early second language acquisition: The risk of over- and underestimation. Child Indicators Research, 7, 821-841.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-013-9230-6