Barb Shaffer

Barb Shaffer

Honor:

2017 Women In STEM research award winner

Title:

associate professor in the Department of Linguistics

Winning project:

Minority language development: How do children acquire grammar when exposure to language is limited?

 

Project focus:

Along with Naomi Shin and Jill Morford, the project examines children’s acquisition of two U.S. minority languages, Spanish and American Sign Language, and investigates whether acquisition of grammar is determined by amount of exposure to those languages or by cognitive maturation. The study is also designed to address parental concerns about whether and how often to speak to children in minority languages.