{"id":47332,"date":"2020-01-06T10:47:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T15:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?page_id=47332"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:26:36","slug":"language-education-speaker-series","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/news\/language-education-speaker-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Language Education Speaker Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Language Education Speaker Series at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development brings well-known scholars in the field of applied linguistics to campus to discuss their work. These talks are open to all members of the BU community, as well as scholars and students of applied linguistics throughout the Greater Boston area.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Events<\/h3>\n

Bilingualism, Language Ability, and the Dynamics of Word Learning<\/em><\/h5>\n


\n<\/em>Dr. Kimberly Crespo<\/em><\/p>\n

Tuesday, February 24<\/strong>
\n5:00\u20136:30 pm (ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering
\n<\/span>610 Commonwealth Ave
\nRoom 101
\n<\/span>Boston, MA 02215<\/span><\/p>\n

Register to attend here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h3>\n

Word learning is a cornerstone of children\u2019s cognitive and linguistic development, supporting communication, conceptual growth, and academic learning. This talk examines how children acquire new words and how language experience and individual differences shape learning across monolingual and bilingual contexts. In the first part of the talk, I present a series of experimental studies using cross-situational word learning paradigms to investigate how children track statistical regularities across exposures to map words to meanings. These studies examine the role of bilingualism and language ability in supporting learning under uncertainty, demonstrating that bilingual experience can bolster children\u2019s word learning skills. In the second part of the talk, I turn to word learning in dual-language contexts, such as from code-switched input. I discuss evidence that bilingual children are sensitive to both linguistic and contextual cues in mixed-language input, and that variability in bilingual experience and language ability shapes how children attend to, interpret, and learn from their environments. Together, this work underscores the importance of considering both learning mechanisms and language experience in models of lexical development. I conclude by discussing implications for clinical assessment and intervention with bilingual children, as well as educational practices that better reflect the realities of dual-language learning environments.<\/p>\n

About Dr. Crespo<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kimberly Crespo, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences\u00a0at Boston University. Her program of research examines how language experience and cognition interact to shape learning and development in children, including those with neurodevelopmental disorders. Informed by her clinical training and practice as a Spanish\u2013English bilingual speech-language pathologist, her work seeks to explain developmental variability in language outcomes. Using a range of experimental methods, her research aims to identify child- and context-level determinants of language learning and to characterize trajectories of language impairment to improve early identification and intervention. Dr. Crespo\u2019s work has been supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH NIDCD) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation.<\/p>\n

\"Kimberly<\/p>\n

\n

Previous Events in the Series<\/h4>\n

October 23, 2025
\nRacial, Linguistic and Community Belonging: The Juxtaposition of Brown v. Board of Education, Lau v. Nichols and Plyler v. Doe
\n<\/strong>Dr. Morita-Mullaney<\/p>\n

February 25th, 2025
\nAlready Home: Unearthing Black World Language Teachers\u2019 Cultural, Linguistic and Professional Prowess
\n<\/strong>Dr. Tasha Austin, SUNY Buffalo<\/p>\n

February 8th, 2024
\n<\/strong>False<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Positives<\/strong>, Re-Entry Programs and Long-Term English Learners\u201d: Undoing Dichotomous Frames in U.S. Language Education Policy
\n<\/strong>Dr. Nelson Flores, University of Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

January 29, 2024
\nUnveiling Bias in Second Language Acquisition Research: A Critical Examination of Convenience Sampling and Implications for Generalizability
\n<\/strong>Dr. Aline Godfroid, Michigan State University<\/p>\n

October 24, 2023
\nUnderstanding Wampanoag Culture Through W\u00f4pan\u00e2ak Language
\n<\/strong>Dr. Nitana Hicks Greendeer, Brown University
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

October 5, 2023
\n\u00bfSoy Acaso Negra?: A Testimonio on the Erasure of Black Latines within, and beyond, Bilingual Education.
\n<\/strong>Dr. Mar\u00eda Cio\u00e8-Pe\u00f1a. University of Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

April 11, 2023
\n<\/strong><\/span>Researching Language Learning and Multilingualism: From Social Justice to a Decolonial Lens?
\n<\/strong><\/strong>Lourdes Ortega, Georgetown University<\/span><\/p>\n

April 3, 2023
\nNavigating language learning as a non-binary student: Insights into diverse experiences from participatory research with non-binary youth
\n<\/strong>Julia Donnelly Spiegelman, UMASS Boston
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

November 2, 2022
\n<\/strong>What Effect Do Heritage Languages Have on Majority English <\/strong>in Adolescent and Adult Heritage Speaker Bilinguals?
\n<\/strong>Shanley Allen,\u00a0University of Kaiserslautern<\/p>\n

September 26, 2022
\n<\/strong>Biliteracy as Property: The Promise and Perils of Seal of Biliteracy and Dual Language Programming through an Equity Lens
\n<\/strong>Chris Chang-Bacon, University of Virginia<\/p>\n

March 28, 2022
\nLanguage Learning Apps: Do They Really Work?
\n<\/strong>Shawn Loewen, Michigan State University<\/p>\n

February 22, 2022
\nEnacting a Critical Translingual Approach in Teacher Development
\n<\/strong>Kate Seltzer, Rowan University<\/p>\n

November 16, 2021
\nMeasuring L2 Grit Not Once, But Twice, and Exploring How Much Learners Need it to Succeed
\n<\/strong>Paula Winke, Michigan State University<\/p>\n

October 26, 2021
\nComplex Dynamic Systems Theory\u2014Learning-Centered Teaching
\n<\/strong>Diane Larsen-Freeman, University of Michigan<\/p>\n

February 8, 2021
\n<\/strong>Shifting the Discourse from Deficit to Difference: Understanding the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning in Bilingual Learners
\n<\/strong>Gigi Luk, McGill University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Language Education Speaker Series at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development brings well-known scholars in the field of applied linguistics to campus to discuss their work. These talks are open to all members of the BU community, as well as scholars and students of applied linguistics throughout the Greater Boston area. Upcoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11209,"featured_media":0,"parent":65559,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/no-sidebars.php","meta":[],"bu-publication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47332"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87088,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47332\/revisions\/87088"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=47332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}