Second Language Psycholinguistics Lab
The Second Language Psycholinguistics Lab at Indiana University studies how second language learners learn to perceive, pronounce and encode the sound system of the new language. The lab's research focuses on the mechanisms and architecture underlying speech processing, spoken word recognition and phonological acquisition. Our findings help us better understand the linguistic representations that multilinguals create for the words and the phonological units of each of their languages, and how the precision of these representations changes over time. The lab also addresses the pedagogical applications of these findings and explores which methods are most effective for helping learners improve their pronunciation, word learning, and listening in a second language.
Directed by Prof. Sun-Young Shin, the Language Assessment Lab (LAL) is devoted to the understanding and advancing of theory, research, and practice in second/foreign language assessment used for intended decisions to be made at a variety of educational and societal settings.
We are primarily interested in integrated assessment, L2 vocabulary assessment, L2 pragmatics assessment, ESP assessment, paired/group speaking test, and standard-setting methods. If you have any questions about our lab, please email our lab director, Prof. Shin.
Research in the SLA Lab focuses on the investigation of factors affecting second language acquisition that take place in instructed contexts. Our aim is to contribute to the body of knowledge that will lead to effective teaching methods as well as to understand how people learn an additional language under instructed conditions. In our projects, we have mostly focused on the acquisition of English, Spanish, and Turkish as second languages. If you are interested in participating in our lab activities, please contact Dr. Yucel Yilmaz.
Second Language (L2) Brain Lab
The Second Language (L2) Brain Lab supports L2 Acquisition and (Sentence) Processing research and is headed by Laurent Dekydtspotter.
We address cutting-edge research questions about the neurocognitive bases of second language systems, primarily through electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral approaches to sentence processing. Our current areas of focus include (A) the neurofunctional processes that implement basic language computations and (B) the encoding of novel features and expressions in second language acquisition. Our primary research methods include the analysis of oscillatory dynamics in various frequency ranges, broadband aperiodic activity, and functional connectivity. Under the view that the continued ability to acquire new languages across the lifespan reflects a central characteristic of language design, the L2 brain lab has a strong focus on syntax-semantics and morphosyntax in language externalization, as well as on the nature of the language faculty in the mind/brain to advance the biolinguistics enterprise.
Indiana University Multilingual Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Research Lab (IUMAPTRL)
Prof. Rex A. Sprouse has launched the Multilingual Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Research Lab (IUMAPTRL). The focus of the lab is the acquisition of Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages as nonnative languages and the acquisition of nonnative languages by Arabic, Persian, and Turkic speakers. A website for IUMAPTRL is under development. In the meantime, if you are interested in attending IUMAPTRL sessions, please contact Prof. Sprouse at rsprouse@iu.edu.
The College of Arts