Course Info: CS-0183

This course focused on the acquisition of two or more languages by both children and adults. We looked at how two or more languages are represented in the mind of an individual and attempted to elucidate the mental processes that allow individuals to produce and understand sentences in each language. Questions that we considered included: Who is considered bilingual and what are the criteria for 'knowing' a language? How does bilingualism influence linguistic and cognitive development? How does the cognitive system cope with the need to develop efficient processing mechanisms for two or more different languages and maintain separate access and representational mechanisms for each language? How is language represented in the bilingual brain?

The aim of this course was to become familiar with the tools of research used in psycholinguistics and with questions that motivate researchers in the field. Students were expected to complete several short-answer assignments based on journal articles that were designed to evaluate students' ability to quickly summarize and evaluate empirical research. They were also required to write a 5-8 page research proposal consisting of a literature review justifying or motivating their proposed research, a testable hypothesis, clear quantitative predictions that derive from that hypothesis, and a detailed description of an empirical study designed to test those predictions. Students were expected to demonstrate a clear grasp of the fundamentals of experimental design and of how quantitative methods can be used to answer behavioral questions.