Why do we need a native speaker control group in our experimental studies?
Professor Roumyana Slabakova, University of Southampton,Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Date: Friday 7th July 2023
Time: 3:00-4:00pm BST
Location: Online via Zoom, https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/69263224222
This open lecture will close the third edition of the Online Multilingualism Summer School organised by the Centre for Research in Language and Heritage (University of Greenwich), the Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research, University of Southampton, with the collaboration of the Center for Language Science from Pennsylvania State University (USA).
Abstract
There has been renewed debate recently (see https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/13914/the-notion-of-the-native-speaker-put-to-the-test-recent-research-advances) on whether we need control groups of native speakers in second language acquisition research, and what purposes they serve. In my presentation, I will review some opposing viewpoints and focus on the view from generative SLA. I will provide an extended example from an unpublished study on L2 Mandarin, which supports the view that control groups are necessary for two purposes: to validate the property under discussion and the test instrument. I will also argue that employing native speaker control groups does not constitute “monolingual comparative normativity” (Rothman et al. 2022).
About the speaker
Professor Roumyana Slabakova is the Chair of Applied Linguistics at the University of Southampton and Head of Research of the Modern Languages and Linguistics department. Professor Slabakova’s research is grounded in generative linguistic theory and explores the second language (L2) acquisition process. Her theoretical focus is the acquisition of grammatical structure and its interaction with meaning.
