Heather Goad - Department of Linguistics - McGill University

Cognitive Plasticity and Language Acquisition: The Effects of Linguistic Environment (2020-2024)

Funding Agency: Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC)
Investigators: Heather Goad (PI), Fred Genesee, Gigi Luk, Stefano Rezzonico, Phaedra Royle, Karsten Steinhauer, Elin Thordardottir & Lydia White

This interdisciplinary research program examines effects of quantity, quality and timing of input on learner development in various groups: bilingual children, children with language impairment, internationally adopted children, heritage speakers and L2 learners. The emphasis is on determining the extent to which diverse groups exhibit effects of cognitive plasticity in their approaches to language learning, despite variation in input. Key questions include the following:

(i) What is the typical developmental trajectory for language learners under diverse learning conditions and how is this shaped by the input to which they are exposed? (ii) Which cognitive factors impact language acquisition and use, and is their impact the same under different input conditions? At the same time, we question whether monolinguals provide the appropriate benchmark for all learners. We expect that plasticity will be better recognized if groups are evaluated by means other than solely through comparisons with monolinguals. By focusing on multiple groups, we aim to show that learners are often successful in attaining a level of proficiency that allows for communicative competence, if not total grammatical accuracy.

Phonological Effects on Grammatical Representation and Processing (2015-2020)

Funding Agency: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Investigators: Heather Goad (PI) & Lydia White

This research program explores the relationship between phonology and other domains of the grammars of second language learners and bilingual speakers. We are investigating how this relationship accounts for knowledge and use of a second language from a variety of perspectives including:

(i) extending our Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis beyond production to include processing as well as various types of functional morphology in different combinations of languages; (ii) extending our work on parsing of ambiguous sentences, focusing on prosodic cues to syntactic constituency in a different range of constructions and a wider variety of languages; (iii) considering the role of prosody in determining how pronouns are (mis)interpreted; (iv) investigating prosodic realization of information structure, especially where the L1 and L2 differ as to whether certain aspects of information structure are realized prosodically or syntactically; and (v) identifying situations where the input available to learners, especially in classroom contexts, is potentially or actually misleading such that prosodic evidence might misguide the learner as to the appropriate representation for the target grammar.

Neurocognitive Perspectives on the Acquisition, Loss and Processing of Language (2015-2019)

Funding Agency: Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC)
Investigators: Lydia White (PI), Fred Genesee, Heather Goad, Yuriko Oshima-Takane, Phaedra Royle, Karsten Steinhauer & Elin Thordardottir

The overall objective of this research program is to investigate neurocognitive underpinnings of language acquisition and use amongst learners who are bilinguals, early or late L2 learners, or learners with language impairment.

The approach is interdisciplinary, embracing different theoretical and methodological perspectives, both linguistic and psycholinguistic. We measure linguistic behaviour, using off-line and on-line measures. We also use neuro-imagining methods in order to examine more directly the neural substrates implicated in–or affected by–language learning, language loss and language processing.

A number of projects are planned investigating a variety of linguistic phenomena and involving comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals, impaired and unimpaired language learners, early and late acquirers of second languages, and learners experiencing language loss at different ages.

Universal Biases in Vocal Sequence Learning (2014-2015)

Funding Agency: Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Research Incubator Award
Investigators: Jon Sakata (PI), Heather Goad & Lydia White

The hypothesis that languages share common organizing principles has stirred much debate about the extent to which innate neurobiological factors guide or constrain linguistic systems. This research program involves experimental manipulations of vocal sequence learning in songbirds, which share aspects of vocal communication with humans, to provide potential insight into such organizing principles and biases in language learning in humans.

Second Language Acquisition at the Phonology/Syntax Interface (2011-2014)

Funding Agency: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Investigators: Lydia White (PI) & Heather Goad

This research program extends our work on the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (PTH). The PTH argues for a prosodic account of L2 learners’ omission or mispronunciation of inflectional morphology and function words, such as tense, agreement, determiners, etc.

In particular, L2 learners are claimed to have difficulties constructing prosodic representations which are disallowed in the L1. In this program, we investigate additional L1/L2 combinations and new morphological domains.

A series of experiments will be conducted, investigating the performance of child and adult L2 learners, comparing spoken production of functional material with performance on a variety of other tasks, both online and offline.

Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (2011-2023)

Funding Agencies: Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) and Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC)

The Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music – CRBLM – is a strategic research group with a unique interdisciplinary focus on language, music, and their intersection.

Language and music are specialized human modes of communication, which at their core, involve perceptually discrete elements organized into hierarchically structured sequences that give rise to different degrees of meaning. Our global objective is to foster a research and training environment that supports innovative cognitive, cultural, and neuroscientific approaches that gather unique insights into the organization of the human brain for speech, language, music and communication.

Bringing together a critical mass of researchers with complementary interests and expertise in brain, language, and music, both human and animal models of their function and dysfunction, the CRBLM represents the largest concentration of basic and applied research internationally on this interdisciplinary enterprise.