Language Science Lunch Talk - Min Wang
Language Science Lunch Talk - Min Wang
Sequential Organization in Written Word Production
Abstract: Mastering the orthographic knowledge of a written language is an essential index for successful literacy. In this talk, we will present a most recent line of research in my lab that investigates the role of writing sequence/motor information involved in retrieving orthographic representation in learning to write a new language. Our work seeks to understand whether orthographic information is sequentially organized or whether orthographic representation is holistic or analytic. Using a delayed copy paradigm, our data suggests that learners are sensitive to orthographic sequence and visual complexity of the stimuli plays an important role. Learners’ previous language experiences influence their sensitivity to the writing sequence. Our findings provide theoretical insights into orthographic representation in a new language and practical guidance for improving second language instruction, mitigating the orthographic challenges second language learners encounter and enhancing their literacy skills.
Lunch served at 12:15 PM.
About: Dr. Min Wang received her Ph.D. in Applied Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto in 2000. Upon graduation she completed her post-doctoral training at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, funded by a fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She became a member of the Faculty of Human Development at the University of Maryland in 2002. Dr. Wang’s research interests are in the area of language and reading development. Specifically, she is interested in how cross language and writing system differences impact learning to speak and read in a first and second language. Her recent work has mainly focused on Chinese-English, Korean-English, Spanish-English bilingual children and adults, funded by NIH/NICHD, NSF, and Spencer Foundation. Dr. Wang is also interested in extending her work to other bilingual populations involving various languages and writing systems in the world. Dr. Wang has been serving on the editorial boards of Applied Psycholinguistics, Writing Systems Research, Contemporary Educational Psychology, and International Multilingual Research Journal. She has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in her department and the Executive Committee of the NSF-IGERT program at the University of Maryland in Biological and Computational Foundations of Language Diversity.