IFA Friday Lectures 23 March

IFA Friday Lectures

Room 601A 6 PM

23 March

dr Anna Ewert: Beyond transfer: L2 users' perceptions of L1 norms

dr Agnieszka Chmiel: The linguistic makeup of a conference interpreter - a post-doc research project progress report

dr Anna Ewert: Beyond transfer: L2 users' perceptions of L1 norms

It is assumed that the two languages are integrated in the bilingual mind (e.g. Cook 2002). Transfer from the L2 to the L1 has been well-documented (cf. Cook 2003). However, L2 knowledge and use seems to have an effect on the general rather than specific aspects of multilingual proficiency by affecting cognition and metalinguistic awareness (Cenoz 2003). This assumption will be tested in two studies, aiming to examine the effect of bilingualism on the acquisition of L1 morphosyntax and on judgements of accuracy of lexical borrowings from the L2. The results of these studies show that crosslinguistic interaction (CLIN) leads to differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in the acquisition and perception of L1 norms. These differences extend beyond transfer understood as incorporation of elements from one language to another.

dr Agnieszka Chmiel: The linguistic makeup of a conference interpreter - a post-doc research project progress report

In order to leverage the synergy effect of psycholinguistics and Interpreting Studies (including the latest research by Christoffels and de Groot (2006)), my interdisciplinary post-doc research project draws upon both fields to compare the performance and information processing of professional interpreters and interpreting trainees. A longitudinal study is conducted to compare the performance of the same trainees before and after two years of interpreter training to identify which cognitive variables predict their success in training and which linguistic skills develop considerably as a result of practice.

While conference interpreters are a special case of bilinguals (since they actively use their both languages in the very same context), EU staff interpreters are a special case of conference interpreters (since they work only into their mother tongue). Both of these groups of professionals will be examined to get more insight into the interlingual links between the working languages as a function of their specific unidirectional or bidirectional use. The project results may offer some contribution to interpreter training design, psycholinguistics, the study of bilingualism and theoretical models of conference interpreting (e.g. revision of Gile's Gravitational Model of Linguistic Availability (1995)).

Everybody is welcome!

Talk titles and summaries are updated regularly at:

http://wa.amu.edu.pl/~rlew/isd/ifalectures_2006_7.html