News
Summer Research Program 2023
We would like to extend our gratitude to Janelle Beth Flores, MS, CCC-SLP for the summer she spent at the Bilingual Learning Lab participating in the collaborative Boston University - University of Houston Summer Research Program. Janelle is a second year PhD student in the Dual Lab directed by Dr. Anny Castilla-Earls. Her research interests center on cognition, assessment, and language development of linguistically and culturally diverse populations. This summer Janelle learned about eye tracking methods and experimental design. She also worked on projects examining the role of lexical competition and semantic knowledge in children's cross-situational word learning. Outside of the lab, she enjoyed exploring Boston and spending time with visiting family and friends!
Thank you for the time and expertise you have shared with us!
Successful Master’s Thesis Prospectus!
Congratulations Melanie Thomas on successfully delivering your master's thesis prospectus! We are incredibly grateful to the committee, Dr. Jennifer Zuk and Dr. Alyssa Boucher, for their insightful feedback and comments that will help strengthen the proposal.
ISB14 Early Career Keynote
Dr. Crespo attended the International Symposium on Bilingualism 14 (ISB14) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia! ISB is a biennial conference on a wide range of issues concerning bi/multilingualism. ISB has become the most significant conference in the field of bi/multilingualism with a strong focus on showcasing multidisciplinary research from a range of disciplines, including education, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology and sociology.
On Monday, Dr. Crespo presented a talk on the effects of input variability, bilingual experience and language ability on children's word learning. On Thursday, she presented as an Early Career Keynote where she shared her research on how exposure to code switching, dual language input, and other forms of input variability shape children's language and cognitive skills.
And no conference in Australia is complete without a little fun visiting the Featherdale Wildlife Park, Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Harbor and Bondi Beach!
UROP & Newbury Center 2023 Summer Research Recipient!
We are excited to share that one of our lab members, Renzo Quintero, has received funding from Boston University's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which supports undergraduates conducting research projects under faculty mentorship. Renzo also received the Newbury Center Summer Research Award to support summer housing costs. Under the direction of Dr. Crespo, Renzo will conduct a study to examine bilingualism, language ability, and variability effects in children's word-learning skills. Congrats, Renzo!
To learn more about BU's UROP program, visit https://www.bu.edu/urop/
SDSU Empowering Future Scholars
This past Friday, Dr. Crespo visited San Diego State University in San Diego, California. She presented her research and had lunch with doctoral students in the Joint Doctoral Program at San Diego State University and UC San Diego. She also met with master’s students involved with SDSU's National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) and discussed the clinical impact of her work as well as opportunities for clinicians to engage in research and advance science.
Welcome Dr. Gross
Colloquium Speaker: Dr. Megan Gross
Department of Communication Disorders, UMass Amherst
"Bilingual Development and Neurodiversity: Examining Children's Communication and Family/Clinical Perspectives"
Friday, April 7
4:00-5:00 pm
610 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA
Room 106B
We are excited to welcome Dr. Megan Gross from UMass Amherst to campus next week as part of BU's Research Colloquium Series! Dr. Gross is the director of the Bilingual Language Development Lab at UMass Amherst, and her work focuses on the intersection of bilingual development and neurodiversity in children, and her talk will incorporate family, clinician, and community perspectives related to bilingual language development. Please join us for her presentation discussing her research on Friday, April 7.
Volunteers in Training
Our research assistants have been hard at work learning about different assessment protocols used in our lab studies!
