Languages across the disciplines laboratory

Working against the notion that "one size fits all," AUP's Writing Lab embraces individual differences and language confusions. What we do in the Writing Lab is as varied as the students who come in for appointments.

Our concerns go beyond working on one particular paper. Although we are happy to work with you on ideas, organization, argument, sentence structure, grammar, etc, in a particular writing assignment or project, we have in mind larger issues about argumentation, critical thinking and style. As a result, conferences are highly interactive. We will focus on problems in a short period of time and teach you skills which will serve you during your career at AUP. The more you work with us, the more confidence and independence you will gain in your college writing.

Come by our ARC offices to meet us and make an appointment. So that we can use our time efficiently, bring drafts of your work, note cards and class notes, the course syllabus or assignment, anything you have which can help us during our time together. But you don't have to be finished — or even started — with a paper to come for an appointment.

For more information please contact Professor Edith Taieb »

Depuis février 2011, 6 étudiant(e)s d’AUP, Undergraduates et Graduates, participent à une expérience de Tandems libres avec des étudiant(e)s de Télécom ParisTech (Grande Ecole d’Ingénieurs). L’échange en Tandem libre permet aux étudiant(e)s volontaires inscrit(e)s à cette expérience de fonctionner en toute autonomie avec leur partenaire. Les étudiant(e)s décident de leur modalité de fonctionnement sans aucune contrainte. Chacun des deux partenaires est responsable de son propre apprentissage. Il choisit lui-même ce qu’il veut apprendre, comment il veut l’apprendre, quand il veut l’apprendre et le type de soutien qu’il souhaite obtenir de la part de son partenaire. Le but étant qu’elles/ils se rencontrent au moins une fois par semaine pour un échange de conversation français/anglais/français dans notre cas. Elles/ils décident ensemble du lieu et de la forme de cette rencontre qui peut aussi bien s’organiser autour d’une sortie (cinéma, théâtre, exposition, musée, café ou fête, etc.). Par cette expérience, les étudiant(e)s pourront perfectionner leur compétence de communication dans la langue maternelle de leur partenaire, approfondir leurs connaissances sur la personnalité et la culture de leur partenaire et profiter des connaissances et des expériences de ce dernier. Nous espérons pouvoir continuer cette expérience le semestre prochain (Fall 2011) et la développer à une plus grande échelle avec d’autres Grandes Ecoles ou Universités parisiennes à condition que nos calendriers académiques puissent coïncider.

Lire un témoignage d’une étudiante d’AUP « en tandem » avec un étudiant de Télécom Paris Tech »

Language acquisition research made its mark in North America and Europe in the 1960s and 70s with the debate in first language acquisition over whether children learn more from experience (Roger Brown, Eve Clark, Dan Slobin) or whether children have an innate capacity for learning language (Noam Chomsky, Jerry Fodor, Eric Lenneberg). Whereas the latter perspective became dominant in North America, the former found its place in Europe. Shortly thereafter, second language acquisition research was faced with similar questions, and, not surprisingly, research conducted in North America leaned heavily on nativist theory, while considerable European research adopted an empiricist or functionalist approach.

Two major European projects in second language acquisition, conducted in the 1970s, set the stage for future research of this kind in Europe: the Heidelberger Forschungsprojekt Pidgin-Deutsch: Sprache und Kommunikation auslandischer Arbeiter (HPD) and the Zweitspracherwerb italienischer, portugiesischer und spanischer Arbeiter (ZISA).

In the 1980s, a more extensive European collaboration was heavily supported by a European Science Foundation (ESF) grant and found its home at the Max-Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The ESF project resulted in an enormous database of untutored second language acquisition collected by research groups in five European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Sweden). The data were collected during individual conversations and exchanges between forty adult immigrant workers living in Western Europe and native speakers in the respective host countries over a period of three years. For each target language (Dutch, English, French, German and Swedish), two source languages were selected: Punjabi, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Finnish. This later grew into the project, The Structure of Learner Varieties (cf. www.learner-varieties.eu).

After almost 30 years of support, the management of the Max-Planck Institute has decided that language acquisition research is now sufficiently prepared to make its own way in Europe and has asked its researchers to find a new support system. At a recent meeting in Nijmegen, a new structure was agreed upon, the Language Acquisition Network in Europe (LANE). A steering committee was formed, of which AUP Professor Rebekah Rast is a member, and proposals for funding are currently under discussion.

An outcome of the new network is a project initiated by several members of LANE, including Professor Rebekah Rast, entitled “Varieties of Initial Learners in Language Acquisition (VILLA): Controlled classroom input and elementary forms of linguistic organization.” The project aims to better understand both the processes underlying language learning and the influence of specific pedagogical approaches on these learning processes. These goals are articulated within the context of increasing communication and migration across countries and linguistic territorial lines in today’s world. As a consequence, a growing number of speakers must use a second/foreign language on a daily basis, and much hinges on their success. The language-learning problem is, hence, becoming more and more urgent.

Professor Rast would like to bring VILLA to AUP (or AUP to VILLA), working with interested students and faculty on relevant questions of language learning and pedagogy. Contributions could take a variety of forms: developing interesting research questions with AUP students in mind; thinking about how best to respond to these research questions; collecting and analyzing information and data; publishing and disseminating results.

If you are interested in getting involved or knowing more about the project, please contact Professor Rebekah Rast »

A research project on Paris' endangered languages was launched as part of one of Professor Rebekah Rast's courses. Some of the students in the class have written this short report.

For more information please contact Professor Rebekah Rast »