Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

COST A33 - Crosslinguistically Robust Stages of Children's Linguistic Performance

Cooperative project with over 20 participating countries. We coordinate semantic-pragmatic experiments on language acquisition in the 20 languages.

Action A33 set out with the practical goal of helping European children with language impairments. One important way to help such children is to diagnose cases of language-specific impairment and normal non-verbal intelligence. Children with language-specific problems require a different kind of support from children with more general cognitive impairments. Specifically, the action proposed to provide recommendations for a design of an unbiased, trans-European language assessment tool.  To accomplish the goal, the action coordinated a comparative investigation of child language across the more than 25 participating languages. Initial meetings were used to pin down areas of investigation and specific experimental items what could be translated and could be expected to be equally difficult for children across all the participating languages. Simultaneously researchers had to find additional resources to conduct the experimental investigations required for the action goals.  The main result of the action are a set of unique experiments and results that compare the linguistic performance of children speaking such different languages as Basque and Finnish, Hebrew and Portuguese.  A set of high-profile publications presenting these results and the methods developed in the action are appearing in 2010 and 2011.  Because the study conducted by the action is the first of its kind world-wide, we expect international interest to be high. On the basis of the results, the targeted recommendations can be made for language assessment across the European languages.  The action was successful in at least four other ways: 1) At least 10 associated new projects were launched with funding from either national or European agencies.  2) Of the more than 80 STSM missions funded by the action, already three led to publications in international journals.  3) The two training schools and also many of the STSMs transferred much of the expert knowledge of the action members to the next generation of researchers across Europe.  4) And finally, the action led to the recognition of specific language impairment in at least two European countries where the concept had not been recognized in the past.  In this way, the action already helped a number of European children receive the support they need.

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Members of the Action

Chair

Ulrich Sauerland

Germany

ZAS Berlin

WG5

Vicechair

Heather van der Lely

GB

Harvard, UK

WG3 (WG2)

Working Group Coordinators

Spyridoula Varlokosta

Greece

U. of Aegean

WG1 (WG5)

Angeliek van Hout

Netherlands

U. Groningen

WG2 (WG5)

Naama Friedmann

Israel

Tel Aviv U.

WG3 (WG1)

Sharon Armon-Lotem

Israel

Bar-Ilan U.

WG4 (WG3)

Kenneth Drozd

Denmark

Aarhus U.

WG5 (WG1)

Coordinator of STSM

Ewa Haman

Poland

Warsaw U.

WG5 (WG4)

 

Further Members of the Management Committee

Wolfgang Dressler

Austria

Vienna U.

WG2 (WG5)

Bettina Fürst
(starting 2008)

Austria

Vienna U.

WG2

Hubert Haider

Austria

Salzburg U.

WG3 (WG2)

Hristo Kyuchukov

Bulgaria

Veliko Tarnovo U.

WG3 (WG2)

Melita Kovačević

Croatia

Zagreb U.

WG2 (WG3)

Jelena Kraljević (Kuvač)

Croatia

Zagreb U.

WG2 (WG3)

Chrisa Nitsiou

Cyprus

Intercollege

WG3 (WG4)

Kleanthes Grohmann

Cyprus

Cyprus U.

WG1 (WG3)

Filip Smolik

Czech Republic

AV ČR Praha

 

Kristine Jensen de López

Denmark

Aalborg U.

WG4 (WG3)

Sirli Parm

Estonia

Tartu U.

WG5

Maigi Vija
(on leave)

Estonia

Tartu U.

WG5 (WG1)

Reili Argus

Estonia

Tallinn U.

WG2 (WG3)

Matti Leiwo
(till 2008)

Finland

Jyväskylä U.

WG4

Sari Kunnari
(starting 2008)

Finland

Oulu U.

WG4

Heikki Lyytinen

Finland

Jyväskylä U.

WG4

Celia Jakubowicz
(till 2008)

France

CNRS

WG3 (WG1)

Ira Noveck

France

ISC Lyon

WG5

Laurice Tuller
(starting 2008)

France

U. Tours

WG3

Susan E. Gathercole

GB

Newcastle U.

 

Natalia Gagarina
(starting 2007)

Germany

ZAS Berlin

WG2

Jürgen Weissenborn

Germany

Humboldt U.

WG1 (WG5)

Stavroula Stavrakaki

Greece

Thessaloniki U.

WG3 (WG1)

Maria Teresa Guasti

Italy

U. Milano-Bicocca

WG3 (WG5/1)

Ingrida Balčiūnienė

Lithuania

Vytautas Magnus U.

WG5 (WG4)

Ineta Dabašinskienė

Lithuania

Vytautas Magnus U.

WG5 (WG4)

Daniela Gatt

Malta

U. of Malta

WG2 (WG5)

Helen Grech

Malta

U. of Malta

WG2 (WG5)

Jan de Jong

Netherlands

Amsterdam U.

WG2

Arve Egil Asbjørnsen

Norway

Bergen U.

WG3 (WG2)

Arild Hestvik
(till 2007)

Norway

Bergen U.

WG3

Janne Cecilie von Koss Torkildsen (starting 2008)

Norway

Bergen U.

WG (WG)

Magdalena Smoczynska

Poland

Jagellonian U.

WG4 (WG5)

João Costa

Portugal

Lisbon U.

WG3 (WG1)

Larisa Avram

Romania

U. of Bucharest

WG2 (WG3)

Darinka Andjelković

Serbia

Belgrade U.

WG5 (WG2)

Nadezda Krstić

Serbia

Belgrade U.

WG5 (WG2)

Svetlana Kapalkova

Slovac Republic

Comenius U., Bratislava

WG3 (WG4)

Daniela Slancova

Slovac Republic

Presov U.

WG3 (WG4)

Anna Gavarró

Spain

Autònoma Barcelona U.

WG1 (WG3)

María-José Ezeizabarrena Segurola

Spain

Pais Vasco U.

WG1 (WG3)

Gisela Håkansson

Sweden

Lund U.

WG3 (WG2)

 

       

Members of Working Groups

Napoleon Katsos

GB

Cambridge U.

WG5 (WG1)

Marcin Szczerbiński

GB

U of Sheffield

WG4

Dagmar Bittner

Germany

ZAS Berlin

WG2

Barbara Höhle

Germany

Potsdam U.

WG3 (WG5)

Christina Kauschke

Germany

Marburg U.

WG3

Petra Schulz

Germany

Frankfurt a.M. U.

WG3 (WG2/5)

Kazuko Yatsushiro

Germany

ZAS

WG5 (WG4)

Jeannette Schaeffer

Israel

Ben-Gurion U.

WG3 (WG2)

Fabrizio Arosio

Italy

U. Milano-Bicocca

WG2 (WG3)

Adriana Belletti

Italy

Siena U.

WG3 (WG1)

Bart Hollebrandse

Netherlands

U. Groningen

WG2 (WG5/3)

Dorota Kiebzak-Mandera

Poland

Jagellonian U.

WG2 (WG5)

Maria Lobo

Portugal

Lisbon U.

WG1 (WG3)

Publications

To appear:

Grohmann, Kleanthes K. To appear. Some directions for the systematic investigation of the acquisition of Cypriot Greek. In Esther Rinke & Tanja Kupisch (eds.), The development of grammar: Language acquisition and diachronic change — Volume in honor of Jürgen M. Meisel. (Hamburg Series on Multilingualism 11). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kambanaros, Maria & Kleanthes K. Grohmann. Forthcoming. Patterns of object and action naming in Cypriot Greek children with SLI and WFDs. In Katie Franich, Lauren Keil, Kate Iserman & Jane Chandlee (eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Boston University Child Language Development — Supplement.

Kambanaros, Maria & Kleanthes K. Grohmann. To appear. Patterns of naming objects and actions in Cypriot Greek children with SLI and WFDs. In Anastasios Tsangalides (ed.), Selected papers from the 19th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics — Thessaloniki, 4–6 May 2007. Thessaloniki: Monochromia.

Published:

Katsos, Napoleon, Clara Andrés Roqueta, Rosa A. C. Estevan & Chris Cummins. 2011. Are children with Specific Language Impairment competent with the pragmatics and logic of quantification? Cognition 10.1016 / j.cognition.2010.12.004

Friedmann, Naama, Adriana Belletti & Luigi Rizzi. 2009. Relativized relatives: Types of intervention in the acquisition of A-bar dependencies. In: Lingua 119: 67-88.

Costa, Joao & Naama Friedmann. 2009. Hebrew and Arabic children going Romance: On the acquisition of word order in Semitic and Romance. In E. Aboh, J. Quer, P. Sleeman & E. van der Linden (eds.), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2007: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' Amsterdam 2007. (Current issues in linguistic theory series). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Guasti, Teresa, Stavroula Stavrakaki & Fabrizio Arosio. 2008. Number and case in the comprehension of relative clauses. Evidence from Italian and Greek. In Anna Gavarro & M. Joao Freitas (eds.), Language acquisition and development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press/CSP.

Events

January 21-23, 2010
Final Conference
location: London, UK
local organizer: Heather van der Lely

October 8-9, 2009
Seventh General Meeting
location: Athens, Greece
local organizer: Spyridoula Varlokosta

July 27 - August 7, 2009
COSTA33/EGG summer school
location: Poznan, Poland
Lecturers for the COST section are: Natalia Gagarina, Ewa Haman, Bart Hollebrandse, Stavroula Stavrakaki & Uli Sauerland.

March 30 - April 3, 2009
COST Training School in Language Acquisition Methods
location: Berlin, Germany
local organizer: Natalia Gagarina, Mechthild Bernhard, Anja Hubert & Uli Sauerland

March 19-21, 2009
Sixth General Meeting
location: Cambridge, UK
local organizer: Napoleon Katsos

October 2-4, 2008
Fifth General Meeting
location: Aalborg, Denmark
local organizer: Kristine Jensen de López

May 1-3, 2008
Fourth General Meeting
location: Warsaw, Poland
local organizer: Ewa Haman

October 25-27, 2007
Third General Meeting
location: Limassol, Cyprus
local organizer: Kleanthes K. Grohmann

February 15-17, 2007
Second General Meeting
location: Berlin, Germany
local organizers: Uli Sauerland & Jürgen Weissenborn

July 6-8, 2006
First General Meeting
location: Lissabon, Portugal
local organizer: João Costa

January 31st, 2006
Kick-Off Meeting in Brussels