Research

Photo of Lecture at The Second Heritage Language Summer Institute, Harvard University, June 2008

Major Research Interests

  • Theoretical linguistics applied to adult second language acquisition
  • Bilingualism and first language loss in children and adults
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Acquisition of syntax, morphology, lexical-semantics, syntax-pragmatics
  • Spanish and other Romance languages
  • Research and teaching of heritage languages (Spanish and other languages)

 

Go to the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism (SLAB) Lab for a list of current research projects.

      Research Description

Grounded in linguistic theory and using psycholinguistic methodologies, my research explores the following theoretical issues: 1) the linguistic nature of interlanguage and bilingual grammars, 2)  the role of the “other” language in the acquisition or loss of a language, 3) the reasons why some L2 learners/bilinguals reach the level of proficiency and linguistic knowledge of native speakers while others fall short of that level even when optimal conditions for learning are provided, 4) the linguistic selectivity of acquisition and loss, or why linguistic “success” or “failure” affects certain grammatical areas (vocabulary, sounds, meaning, verb endings, and discourse) but not others (sentence structure), and 5) the differences and similarities between linguistic processes attested in second language acquisition and bilingualism and other developmental processes typical of historical language change and first language acquisition.

Photo of Lecture at The Second Heritage Language Summer Institute, Harvard University, June 2008