What We Do
The Language Development and Experimental Syntax Lab explores how people develop the ability to build sentences out of words throughout our lives. We study both children and adults, as well as speakers of one language and multiple languages, to uncover shared processes and differences across groups. Our goal is twofold: to advance scientific understanding of what language is and how it develops, and to apply our findings to support multilingual development in children and adults in communities and educational settings.
Current Projects
Asking and Understanding Questions in Tagalog
Children ask a lot of questions. Asking a question, and having the ability to do so, is an important part of child development. But question sentences in Tagalog/Filipino follow surprisingly complicated grammar. In this study, we investigate 3- to 6-year-old children’s ability to ask and understand questions in Tagalog through "language games." This study is a collaboration between Dr. Nozomi Tanaka and Dr. Elaine Lau at Tung Wah College.
Sentence Evaluation by Japanese Speakers
This web-based study investigates how Japanese speakers in various regions (e.g., Japan, Korea, U.S.) evaluate naturalness of different types of Japanese sentences. This study is a collaboration between Dr. Nozomi Tanaka and Dr. Boyoung Kim at Sungshin Women's University. If you are Japanese speakers/learners in Korea or the U.S. and are interested in participating in the study, please contact Dr. Nozomi Tanaka.