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Virginia Valian
Ph.D., Northeastern University
Department of Psychology
Hunter College, Room 510 TH
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Tel: (212) 772-5557
Fax:(212) 650-3247
Email: virginia.valian@hunter.cuny.edu
Link to The Valian Lab Webpage
Link to The Language Acquisition Research Center
Link to The Gender Equity Project
Current Areas of Research:
Current research in my laboratory investigates two- and three-year-olds' knowledge and use of language, innateness of language, second language learners' performance on tasks similar to those we use with children, native speakers' performance, the role of input in syntax acquisition, and gender differences in achievement.
First and second language acquisition:
In first language acquisition, my laboratory investigates the nature of children's early syntactic knowledge, using a variety of methods and a variety of languages. We videotape and audiotape spontaneous speech, we ask children to imitate, comprehend, or act out sentences with different properties, and we analyze existing corpora. In second language acquisition, we ask many of the same questions, sometimes using very similar tasks and sometimes using tasks that only adults can perform.
Gender equity:
In gender equity, we develop web-based tutorials using voice-over narration with slides. We conduct research on who receives prizes and awards. We develop numerous how-to brochures to help graduate students, post-docs, and faculty be successful in academia, with an emphasis on the social and natural sciences.
We welcome students and interns in our lab. A willingness to work hard, consistently, reliably, and meticulously is the most important prerequisite. To find out more about what we are looking for in students and interns, please see our websites.
Selected Publications:
Valian, V., Solt, S., & Stewart, J. (in press). Abstract categories or limited-scope formulae? The case of children's determiners. Journal of Child Language.
Valian, V. (2009). Innateness and learnability. In E. Bavin (Ed.), The
Bencini, G. & Valian, V. (2008). Abstract syntactic priming in 3-year-olds. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 97-113.
Valian, V. (2007). Women in science – and elsewhere. In S. J. Ceci & W. Williams (Eds.), Why aren't more women in science? Top gender researchers debate the evidence (Ch. 1, pp 27-37).
Valian, V. (2006). Young children's understanding of present and past tense. Language Learning and Development, 2, 251-276.
Valian, V. (2005). Gender and women in academia. Hypatia, 20, 198-213.
