Dear Friends,
We are excited to share with you the Winter/Spring 2020 issue of our Center for Language Science and Bilingualism Matters at Penn State newsletter. The theme for this issue, adult second language acquisition, is one that interests many of our researchers, and we think the information we’ve compiled for this issue will resonate with many of you as well. People often think that kids are much better than adults at learning a second language, but a “boxing match” piece by Katherine Kerschen and Juliana Cruz Martínez shows how kids and adults have different strengths in acquiring languages. Check it out to learn about ways you may actually be better than a young child at picking up a new language! In a featured partner piece by Allison Link, you’ll have the chance to meet researcher Holger Hopp, who studies second language acquisition in a European context where folks often interact with speakers of other languages. And don’t miss our featured research piece by Katherine Kerschen on the role of vocabulary learning in second language acquisition—there’s much more to it than just learning new words, and you’ll see how research on this topic actually teaches us a lot about how language works! We hope you enjoy this issue, and we look forward to your questions and comments—please do share them, and let us learn from you too!
Sincerely,
Frances Blanchette, Katherine Kerschen, Allison Link, Holly Zaharchuk, Estilita Cassiani Obeso, Juliana Cruz Martínez