Cognitive and Brain Sciences Department
Subject: Novel Evidence for the Starting Big Appraoch to Language Acquisition
Advisor: Prof. Inbal Arnon
Abstract: My research investigates two untested predictions made by the Starting Big approach to language acquisition. This approach aims to explain the process of first language acquisition, and how it differs from second language learning. It emphasizes the role of multiword units as integral building blocks in language learning and use. One prediction that the research explores focuses on how multiword units are formed during first language acquisition. This part aims to provide novel evidence for a core developmental process predicted by the Starting Big Approach. The second prediction addresses the question why children, whose cognitive skills are less developed than adults, are better at language acquisition. According to the Starting Big approach, some of the differences between the two groups may lie not in the formation of multiword units but in what is learned from them, such that adults’ existing conceptual knowledge, as well as literacy, may create some of these differences. The two parts of the research will explore core, untested predictions of the Starting Big approach and are set to have important theoretical and practical implications for our understanding of language learning, and for developing more efficient language acquisition technics.
Bio: MA student in Cognitive & Brain Sciences. BSc in Psychology and Cognitive & Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
MA Honors 2023/24