Language Science Outreach: Northwood High School Annual Visit to U-Maryland
Students enrolled in psychology classes at Northwood High School will be visiting campus on February 15, 2013. The students will attend a lecture by Jeff Lidz (LING) after which they are split into groups, and each group attending two lab presentations out of the thirteen available. The thirteen lab presentations are offered by language science students and they range from topics about Animal Communications to Baby Talk. For more information and the event schedule please see: http://www.languagescience.umd.edu/wiki/Northwood2013 
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Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.17.2013
Dear Winter Storm Participants, Congratulations! You've made it to the final day of Winter Storm!Events for Friday: 1/18/13 1. Language Analysis Workshop Language Analysis Workshop teams meet to prepare for presentations.2. Lunch: Special Interest Group Presentations The Special Interest Groups which have been meeting throughout Winter Storm present the results of their explorations.
3. Language Analysis Workshop: Presentations Teams from the Language Analysis Workshop present their results in describing different aspects of the Zazaki language with the aid of a native informant.4. Closing Colin Phillips leads a session and offers a few closing remarks at the end of Winter Storm 2013.Read More]
Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.16.2013
LOCATION CHANGE: Friday's presentations will now be held in MMH 1304. This is reflected on the website. LOST ITEM: Shevaun set out a pepper grinder with the wonderful lunch she prepared for us today. The pepper grinder has gone missing. If you have any idea about its whereabouts, please contact her at shevaun@umd.edu.Events for Thursday: 1/17/131. Python Raul Guerra leads a session reviewing the last two weeks of Python material, and introduces new python libraries.
2. Lunch Talk: Carol Espy-Wilson, Electrical Engineering Department Phonetic Features, Articulatory Phonology and Speech Variability: Accurate models of coarticulation and lenition should greatly improve the performance of speech recognition systems. Phonetic recognition in most systems is still poor so that there is still a heavy reliance on language modeling. In this talk, I ... [Read More]
Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.15.2013
Please note that changes have been made Wednesday's schedule. The entire week's schedule is viewable on the website. http://www.languagescience.umd.edu/wiki/WinterStorm. Highlights from Special Interest Groups: From Giovanna Morini, Less Is More SIG "We discussed a paper that relied on different methods (other than the commonly used SRT task) to examine implicit learning and language abilities. Data from this paper suggested that the ability to correctly reproduce auditory or visual sequences is highly correlated with a spoken language measure that assesses sensitivity to word predictability in speech. Given that we are interested in age-related changes associated with working memory and implicit learning, next time we will examine ways in which these types of tasks can be used with children."
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Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.14.2013
Please note that changes have been made to Tuesday and Wednesday's schedule. Up-to-date information is viewable on the website. http://www.languagescience.umd.edu/wiki/WinterStorm. Highlights from Monday: In the Professional Development session, Dr. Sunyoung Lee-Ellis discussed non-academic career paths that are relevant for Ph.D students, based on her and her colleagues' experiences. She compared and contrasted academic and non-academic jobs, with regard to hiring processes, job content and work styles. She also discussed the transferability of skills acquired during Ph.D program and how to stay academically relevant while working in a non-academic position.
The Language Analysis workshop continued with elicitation today, with each group attempting to gain the information necessary to describe a particular aspect of the Zazaki language. Then, ... [Read More]
Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.11.2013
Highlights from selected Special Interest Groups: From Chris Heffner, Word Segmentation "Today, the word segmentation group spent its time examining the "Possible Word Constraint", a proposed universal preference for listeners to posit word boundaries near vowels, based on the erstwhile constraint that absolutely every word in absolutely every language has a vowel in it. We also discussed a paper covering the PWC in Slovak, a language, like Croatian and Russian, where certain prepositions contain a single consonant and no vowel."
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Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.10.2013
Highlights from earlier WS events: From Yakov Kronrod: "The heritage and bilingual phonology group has been talking about potential experiments comparing phonological transfer from L1->L2 and vice versa in cases where the L1 and L2 representations of a contrast differ in terms of allophony, separate phonemes, or non-existent contrast. We are a small group and open to new participants, especially as we move through these weeks and set up the foundation of what is sure to be a great journal club in the coming years."From Scott Jackson: "Today's (Thursday) session focused on: (1) more examples of interpreting coefficients, (2) centering and other transformations, (3) contrasts and multiple comparisons, and (4) model building and beginnings of hypothesis testing. Topics for the last session (on next Tuesday) are still "attendee-driven", so if someone wants to talk about some specific or "advanced" issues they've been having, they are welcome to let me know so I can work it in!" Events for Friday: 1/11/13Read More]
Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.09.2013
Highlights from Wednesday: Mike Fetters and Dustin Chacón's group on Variation and Acquisition discussed some simple parameters that have been proposed and the precise mechanisms that a child might use in determining which kind of language she is learning.Josh Falk's group on Sign Language and the Syllable discussed David Perlmutter's theory of the sign language syllable, then turned to a discussion of sonority. Next, they will explore potential experiments which could elucidate whether segments having a steady state is necessary in a sonority peaks.From Alison Shell, Explaining the Critical Period in Second Language Acquisition "Based on our reading, we discussed the relationship between working memory, attentional control and implicit sequence learning. We attempted to connect this to the Less Is More theory and plan to look at the connection of these components with language next session."Events for Thursday: 1/10/13
Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.08.2013
Highlights from Tuesday:From Dustin Chacon: "The Language Analysis workshop discussed applications of field methodology to other domains of language science, and how other fields of language science can contribute to traditional fieldwork. We discussed basic properties of Zazaki Kurdish, and the participants split into groups and chose topics to prepare elicitations on. Elicitations begin on the next meeting." The Language Analysis workshop will meet again Thursday morning, from 10-12pm.
Events for Wednesday: 1/9/131. Python There will be an extra help session 9:30-10am to answer any questions on the first python session, the homework, or initial questions on materials for day2. Yakov Kronrod will be available during this time in the regular room, MMH 1304. Then at 10, Jiarong Jiang provides more practice with if-statements, for loops, ... [Read More]
Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.07.2013
Shota Momma (LING), (Working Memory and Sentence Production) reports that the group first had a overview on some prominent models of Working Memory and language production, and then discussed some empirical phenomena in which two systems apparently interact. They chose to look further into the grammatical encoding stage.Yuichi Suzuki (SLA) reports that the Critical Period in Second Language Acquisition group surveyed critical period effects in L2 and the "less is more" hypothesis, then discussed ways to address implicit learning in linguistically relevant areas such as artificial grammars.Dustin Chacon (LING) and the Theories of Language Variation and Acqusition SIG reviewed the logical problem of language acquisition, the genesis of Parametric Theory in generative linguistics, and how these two topics can relate variation and acquisition. Next meeting, they will discuss specific parameters, how parametric structure can aid the child, and discuss potential projects.Events for Tuesday: 1/8/13Read More]
Language Science Day 2012
The signature event of the language science community at UMd, Language Science Day, took place this year on September 12, from 11:45am to 5:30pm at the Nyumburu Cultural Center, followed by a dinner at 6:30pm. The goal of the event was to communicate research goals and opportunities for interdisciplinary connections. As last year, around 200 participants attended the event. Both students and faculty learned about research activities in other departments that they may not have encountered otherwise, whether or not they are new to the university. For additional details about the event please visit:http://www.languagescience.umd.edu/lsd2012 [Read More]
Welcome to six undergraduate summer research fellows
Welcome to Anna Bonnett, Morgan Moyer, Ilanna Newman, Emma Nguyen, Alex Ralph, and Sandy Wan – six undergraduate Linguistics majors who have been awarded funded research positions to work on language science projects this summer. Three students – Anna, Emma and Sandy – were awarded a Baggett Summer Scholarship (now in its seventh year, and going strong!). Anna will be working with Naomi Feldman and Shannon Barrios. Emma Nguyen and Sandy Wan will be working with Jeff Lidz, as well as Alexander Williams, in the baby lab.Three additional students – Alex, Morgan and Ilana – were awarded a brand new CASL-UMD Language Science Summer Scholarship (an award so new the name is still in flux). Alex Ralph will be working with Melinda Martin-Beltran (of the Education Dept., otherwise known as "Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership"). Ilanna Newman will be working with Jeff Lidz in the baby lab. And Morgan Moyer will be working with Valentine Hacquard and Jeff Lidz. Also new this year, the CASL-UMD program will be organizing a series of once-per-week lunchtime meetings where faculty mentors of the CASL-UMD program will each give a short presentation about their work. These ... [Read More]