You are here

Profile

Prof. Lydia White

Affiliation

McGill University

Academy or College

Academy of the Arts and Humanities

Year Elected

2010

Areas of Interest

Second language acquisition, bilingualism, Universal Grammar, crosslinguistic influence

White, Lydia - Linguistics - McGill University
Lydia White is internationally recognized as a pioneering scholar in the field of generative second language acquisition. Her work has resulted in a new research framework, guided by the hypothesis that second language acquisition can be explained in terms of a combination of the operation of universal linguistic principles and mother tongue influence.

------------------

White, Lydia - Linguistics - McGill University Lydia White is internationally recognized as the leading scholar in the field of generative second language acquisition. Her pioneering work is acknowledged to have created a new framework for second language research, guided by the hypothesis that universal principles and parameters which underlie the acquisition of a native language apply also to the attainment of a non-native language by adult learners. In addition, her research has provided crucial theoretical and methodological tools for investigating how the native language may affect the learning of a second language. She has published more than 100 scholarly articles and is the author of two acclaimed textbooks that have influenced the training of researchers world-wide.