This past weekend, UIUC had a strong representation at the 18th Meeting of Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA-18). GASLA is a biennial conference where linguists present theoretically informed research on second language acquisition. This year, the conference was held at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and featured two special sessions on Theoretical Foundations and Language Learning and Teaching.
Many students, faculty, and alumni from UIUC traveled to the United Kingdom to present their research at the conference.
PhD Student Melika Rajabi presented her work on 'Differential Object Marking in Child and Adult Persian Heritage Speakers in the U.S.' with coauthor Silvina Montrul.
Tania Ionin presented work completed with PhD students Chae Eun Lee & Isela Silvera: 'Nominal vs. Verbal -s as a Cue to Number in L2-English.'
Amelia Tighe presented 'L1 Transfer Effects on Word Order in L2 English Reading,' with coauthor Tania Ionin.
And Amy Atiles presented 'The Benefits of Structured Input in a 6-week L2-English Article Intervention Study,' with coauthor Tania Ionin.
Top row, left to right: Melika Rajabi, Eleanor Sand, Tania Ionin; Middle row: Chae Eun Lee, Amelia Tighe, Martine Gallardo; Bottom row: Amy Atiles, Cory Lemke, all in-person presenters
There were also several posters from UIUC PhD students and faculty. Eleanor Sand presented 'I Can’t Get No Native-like Interpretation: Negative Concord in L2-English and L2- Russian' with coauthor Tania Ionin.
Chae Eun Lee presented the poster 'Second Language Acquisition of Optional Plural Marking in Korean' with coauthor Tania Ionin.
Martine Gallardo presented 'Grammatical Overlap and Verb Type in the L2 Acquisition of English Resultatives' with coauthor Silvina Montrul.
Cory Lemke presented 'First Language Retention in International Adoptees' with coauthor SIlvina Montrul.
Additionally, two UIUC Linguistics Alumni also presented their work. Aylin Coşkun Kunduz gave the talk 'Reactivation of Turkish Morphosyntax in Turkish-American and Turkish-German Returnees' with coauthor Silvina Montrul. And Walther Glödstaf presented the poster 'On Transmission Direction in L1-Change in Immigrant Communities' with coauthors Silvina Montrul & Jon Anthony Willits.
We congratulate all of these researchers for their excellent work!