We are thrilled to announce the first edition of the truly global /L+/ international summer/winter school on language acquisition.

WHEN: 16-20 August 2021 (Online) at three different time zones: 1. UTC+8 (Singapore time), 2. UTC (GMT), 3. UTC-4 (Amazon time).

WEBSITE: https://www.dpss.unipd.it/summer-school-2021/home

REGISTRATION: https://lilia.dpss.psy.unipd.it/summer-school-2021/

AIM: The First truly global /L+/ international summer/winter school on language acquisition aims to promote knowledge about language acquisition and establish a global network of collaboration with mutually beneficial exchanges for researchers and students. Students will acquire knowledge regarding current theories and controversies in first language acquisition, and will learn basic experimental methods to implement in their research studies.

MOTIVATION: Although the ability to use language is universal in human cultures, there is a long-standing debate as to whether language develops in similar ways or whether it  varies across populations and, if so, why. This debate would benefit from more studies including a variety of languages. However, less than 5% of published studies deal with acquisition in non-European languages. This gap is exacerbated by the fact that many talented students, teachers and researchers in underrepresented areas do not have access to specialist literature, research equipment, or international collaborative networks. The online L+/International summer/winter school on language acquisition aims at contributing to reducing this gap.

TUITION: Participation in the School is free of charge.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE: Students at all levels (BA – PhD.) and early career researchers from all regions, but particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and South and Central America, are encouraged to participate. There are no prerequisites in terms of specific knowledge or skills.

TOPICS: The lecture topics are organized into four different streams: 

1. Phonological development

2. Lexical development

3. Morphosyntax development

4. Effects of the environment on development

Each stream will consist of five lectures that will be taught by instructors with extensive expertise in theory and methods in these different subfields of language acquisition.

STRUCTURE: The activities will develop in a purely online format that will combine synchronous (live) and asynchronous (pre-recorded) events in order to encourage the participation of students and researchers in their time zone. 

The schedule is structured for attending two streams. When registering, participants will be asked to choose two streams. In each stream, we will also mark one lecture and discussion as our recommendation (taster) for participants who would like to get a taste of the streams that they did not choose. However, everyone is welcome to attend more than two streams. For this case, during the registration, they should indicate if there are other streams they are also interested in.

APPLY: You can apply for participation with a brief motivation statement (100 words) following this link https://lilia.dpss.psy.unipd.it/summer-school-2021/

CONTACT: language1.summerschool.dpss@unipd.it

We are looking forward to receiving your registrations! 

Best wishes, 

The Organization Team

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• Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo (University of Ilorin)

• Silvia Benavides-Varela (University of Padua)

• Natalie Boll-Avetisyan (University of Potsdam)

• Paulina Aravena Bravo (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, University of Chile)

• Alex Carstensen (Stanford University)

• Alejandrina Cristia (Ecole Normale Supérieure)

• Margaret Cychosz (University of Maryland, College Park)

• Rodrigo Dal Ben (Concordia University)

• Yatma Diop (Michigan State University)

• Ilse van den Dobbelsteen (Max Planck Institute-Nijmegen)

• Rowena Garcia (Max Plank Institute-Nijmegen)

• Mulat Asnake Goshu (Addis Ababa University)

• Naomi Havron (University of Haifa)

• Leticia Schiavon Kolberg (State University of Campinas)

• Hiromasa Kotera (University of Potsdam)

• Ronel Laranjo (University of Philippines Diliman)

• Catherine Mbagaya (Maseno University)

• Bhuvana Narasimhan (University of Colorado)

• Ramona Kunene Nicolas (Wits University)

• Paul Okyere Omane (University of Potsdam)

• Jayson Petras (University Philippines Diliman)

• Caroline Rowland (Max Planck Institute-Nijmegen)

• Andrew Ssemata (Makerere University)

• Suzy Styles (Nanyang Technological University)

• Catherine Urban (Ecole Normale Supérieure)

• Fei Ting Woon (Nanyang Technological University)