Examining Multilingualism in the Intersection of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Education
Gigi Luk (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University)
Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) talk and workshop
Tuesday 17th October, 1-3pm
Multilingualism is an interactional experience between an individual and her environment through multiple languages. Research in multilingualism involves multiple disciplines. In this presentation, I will present an overview of my research program in psychology, neuroscience, and education. First, I will illustrate how linguistic diversity in a child’s proximal and distal environment shapes language acquisition. From this interactive perspective, I will show how language development and learning reveal in neuroimaging data among adolescents. Connecting these findings to the broader educational context, I will demonstrate how these findings are related to state-level education data, as well as considerations on conducting language assessments on multilingual children. Finally, I will share how research in multilingualism can benefit from a transdisciplinary perspective by integrating ecologically grounded questions and laboratory-based research approaches.
During the second hour of the meeting, I will have a conversation with students and emerging researchers about professional development, including conducting and disseminating transdisciplinary research and academic publishing. If time allows, we will do a quick exercise on dissecting an empirical research paper. This session is expected to be informal. Students and emerging researchers from all levels are welcome to join.