In celebration of the MEDAL Summer School in Experimental Linguistics, two language arts lectures for high school students will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25! The first lecture is about how children learn language and the second about how the body is used to communicate in sign languages. In between there will be a break with coffee and tea. You are welcome to attend either or both of the two lectures.
Workshop 1: Talk to the hand! How sign language uses the body
14:00 - 15:20 uur
When we think of language, we usually think of sounds and letters. But what about sign languages, the languages used by deaf communities? There are several sign languages, each with its own grammar and conventions. They also bear remarkable similarities to spoken languages. If hands are the means of expressing sign language, how does this work? How can hand movements refer to abstract things? Accents and dialects exist in spoken language, do they also exist in sign language? How do children and adults learn a language that is perceived through the eyes rather than the ears? Is sign language processed in the brain in the same way as spoken language? In this lecture you will find out about the fascinating world of sign languages, their structure and how one can learn and perceive such a visual language.
This workshop will be given in accessible English by linguist Gerardo Ortega, affiliated with the University of Birmingham, UK.
Workshop 2: Crafts with Language? This is what we all do! *ONLY IN DUTCH LANGUAGE
15:40 - 17:00 uur
Did you know that the average person knows about 42,000 words and that all those words are made up of different building blocks?
Now it's hard to imagine ever having to learn a language. Young children are often so good at tinkering with language that they quickly master a language (or several languages). Researchers naturally want to know how they do that, but they also want to know why some children have trouble learning language.
One way we do such research is by having children practice with so-called “fantasy languages. These are languages that, just like a real language, consist of different building blocks. By puzzling with these building blocks, you eventually find out how the language works.
Would you like to help us? During this workshop you will learn about the building blocks of language, our research and we ask for your help in analyzing the results. At the end of the workshop you will have a good idea of language research with children and maybe you will be inspired to do your own research. Will we see you there?
This workshop is given by Renske Sakalis, researcher at Radboud University Nijmegen.