Past Event

Exploring the role of production in language development

Dr. Tania Zamuner
(University of Ottawa)

As children learn language, they spontaneously produce the speech of those around them. This work explores what function and impact these productions have for the development of learners’ phonological and lexical representations. One central issue is whether production is a mechanism that supports language learning. A second issue is whether production impacts learners’ representations. If so, this should be reflected in language processing. Learners should be faster or more accurate at perceiving words that they have produced. To examine these issues, I will discuss data from an experimental study looking at the impact of production on word learning, and discuss the issues from a psycholinguistics perspective. 

About the Presenter

Tania Zamuner received her PhD in linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2001. She specializes in psycholinguistics and first language acquisition, with a focus on lexical development and on speech perception and production.