Prof Erika Hoff Seminar
Date: Monday 23rd July 2018, 2.00pm - 3.00pm
Venue: The Australian Hearing Hub, Level 3, Room 3.610, Macquarie University
Speaker: Professor Erika Hoff, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University
Venue: The Australian Hearing Hub, Level 3, Room 3.610, Macquarie University
Speaker: Professor Erika Hoff, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University
Host: Professor Katherine Demuth
Abstract
All normal children in normal environments acquire language, but not all children in normal bilingual environments acquire two languages. This talk will present data from longitudinal studies of US-born Spanish-English bilingual children and data from US-born Spanish-English bilingual adults that begin to explain why this is the case. The evidence will argue that the rate and ultimate achievement of language depends on the quantity of input, the quality of input, and language use. Further, the evidence will argue that while early experience is important, the language skills seen in adulthood depend on continued exposure and use.
Bio
Erika Hoff is Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. Her research addresses the relations among properties of children’s early environments, their language experience, and their language development. She has studied effects of maternal education and effects of dual language exposure on children’s language growth. Her recent work focuses on the language development of children from Spanish-speaking homes in South Florida, in the US. She is a member of the US Bridging the Word Gap Research network, which focuses on interventions to remedy SES-related disparities in children’s early experience and language skills. She is Principal Investigator of a NICHD-funded longitudinal study of Spanish-English bilingual children in South Florida. She is the author of numerous articles and chapters and the editor of multiple books on early language development, including Research Methods in Child Language and, with Peggy McCardle, Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy through School Age.
Topic: What bilingual children teach us about language development
Abstract
All normal children in normal environments acquire language, but not all children in normal bilingual environments acquire two languages. This talk will present data from longitudinal studies of US-born Spanish-English bilingual children and data from US-born Spanish-English bilingual adults that begin to explain why this is the case. The evidence will argue that the rate and ultimate achievement of language depends on the quantity of input, the quality of input, and language use. Further, the evidence will argue that while early experience is important, the language skills seen in adulthood depend on continued exposure and use.
Bio
Erika Hoff is Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. Her research addresses the relations among properties of children’s early environments, their language experience, and their language development. She has studied effects of maternal education and effects of dual language exposure on children’s language growth. Her recent work focuses on the language development of children from Spanish-speaking homes in South Florida, in the US. She is a member of the US Bridging the Word Gap Research network, which focuses on interventions to remedy SES-related disparities in children’s early experience and language skills. She is Principal Investigator of a NICHD-funded longitudinal study of Spanish-English bilingual children in South Florida. She is the author of numerous articles and chapters and the editor of multiple books on early language development, including Research Methods in Child Language and, with Peggy McCardle, Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy through School Age.