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SUMMARY:Starting Big: the importance of whole-to-part learning in language
  acquisition  - Professor Inbal Arnon\, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 
DTSTART:20250204T160000Z
DTEND:20250204T170000Z
UID:TALK220054@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise Gray
DESCRIPTION:*Abstract*:\n\nWhy are children better language learners than 
 adults despite being worse at a range of other cognitive tasks? Understand
 ing this can shed new light on the process of first language acquisition a
 nd how it differs from that of second language learning\, while also provi
 ding us with additional tools for teaching second languages effectively.  
 \n\nMany accounts focus on the cognitive or neurological differences betwe
 en children and adults\, which are in many ways irreversible. In my work\,
  I focus instead on the way prior knowledge impacts the linguistic buildin
 g blocks that children and adults use during learning\, and how those earl
 y building blocks impact learning outcomes. \n\nI propose and test the Sta
 rting Big Hypothesis: the idea that children's advantage is related to the
 ir greater engagement with whole-to-part learning. Specifically\, I propos
 e that children rely on both single words and multiword units during learn
 ing\, while adults do so less (because of their prior knowledge of words)\
 , and that this difference can explain (some of) adults' difficulty in lea
 rning the grammatical relations between words. I draw on developmental\, p
 sycholinguistic and computational findings to show that multiword units ar
 e integral building blocks in language\; that such units are facilitative 
 for learning certain grammatical relations\; and that adult learners rely 
 on them less than children\, a pattern that can explain differences betwee
 n L1 and L2 learning. \n\nI will end by discussing implications for models
  of L1 and L2 learning and the possible role of whole-to-part learning in 
 the emergence of linguistic structure. \n\n*Speaker bio*:\n\nProf. Arnon h
 as a PhD in Linguistics and Cognitive Science (2011\, Stanford University)
 \, and is currently a Full Professor of Psychology at the Hebrew Universit
 y. Her research program\, which lies on the interaction of Linguistics\, P
 sychology\, and Cognitive Science\, focuses on understanding human’s uni
 que ability to learn\, use\, and develop language\, and more specifically\
 , on understanding how children acquire language\, how they differ from ad
 ults in doing so\, and how learnability pressures shape the emergence and 
 structure of human language.\n\nProf. Arnon has worked extensively on firs
 t language acquisition\, developing a novel framework for understanding wh
 y children are better language learners than adults\, with applied implica
 tions for human and machine learning (The Starting Big Approach\, see Arno
 n\, 2021 for a review). In her current projects\, she asks whether learnin
 g pressures and constraints can explain why languages look the way they do
 \, how language evolved\, and how insights from child learning can be used
  to study non-human communication. 
LOCATION:Hybrid: in-person in Cambridge &amp\; online via Teams
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