ERC consolidator grant for language researcher Kristin Lemhöfer

Kristin Lemhöfer has been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant. The European Research Council granted her proposal for research into different ways to learn a second language. The grant consists of 2 million euro, to set up a new research project.

Learning a second language after early childhood is a challenge. It seems that there are differences not only in how well people learn a second language, but also in how they do so.

Different learning situations, for example learning a language in the classroom or through immersion, probably involve different processing mechanisms. However, we know almost nothing about these different routes to learning a second language. Memory research describes different ways in which our brains store and remember information.

Therefore, Kristin Lemhöfer wants to use theories and methods from memory research to investigate the hypothesis that there are several alternative routes in our brains to learn a second language and that it depends on the person and the situation which of these routes is preferred.