Marit Westergaard Explained

Marit Westergaard
Birth Place:Tromsø municipality
Nationality:Norwegian
Citizenship:Norway
Occupation:Professor, Department of Language and Culture; Director of AcqVa Aurora group
Known For:Second language acquisition, third language acquisition, linguistics
Professor, Professor II
Awards:Member of The NASL, Academia Borealis
Website:site.uit.no/maritwestergaard
Alma Mater:University of Tromsø
Thesis Title:The Development of Word Order in Norwegian Child Language: The Interaction of Input and Economy Principles in the Acquisition of V2
Thesis Year:2005
Discipline:Language Acquisitionist, Linguist
Sub Discipline:Bilingualism and multilingualism
Workplaces:UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Marit Kristine Richardsen Westergaard (born 12 August 1956) is a Norwegian linguist, known for her work on child language acquisition and multilingualism.

She defended her PhD thesis The Development of Word Order in Norwegian Child Language: The Interaction of Input and Economy Principles in the Acquisition of V2 at the University of Tromsø in 2005.[1] She was hired as a professor at the University of Tromsø in 2009, and also has held an adjunct professor position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology since 2015. She has been a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2016.[2]

Research

Much of Wetergaard's work has been focused on language acquisition and multilingualism. In her role as AcqVA (Acquisition, Variation, and Attrition) Aurora Center Director, she oversees projects on multilingual acquisition of gender (together with Terje Lohndal)[3] [4] [5] and acquisition and processing of morphosyntax.[6] [7] [8] One of the most prominent areas of Westergaard's expertise is micro-variation and the role of micro-variation in multilingual context. Her work explores the nature of language acquisition as it relates to micro-variation as well as language change.[9]

The Linguistic Proximity Model of third language acquisition

Westergaard proposed an influential model of third language acquisition: the Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM). This model is based on property-by-property acquisition of the target language grammar, and it claims that the acquisition mechanism is based on the typological similarity between the target language property and the previous languages acquired by the language learner.[10] For example, a person who already speaks Russian is likely to transfer the Russian system of gender and the English article system while acquiring German. Westergaard's LPM model is closely related to other partial-transfer models (such as Slabakova's Scalpel Model[11] and Flynn's Cumulative-Enhancement Model[12]) and stands in opposition to wholesale transfer models like Typological Proximity Model.[13] In 2020, Westergaard published a keynote article in SLR, arguing for what she called Full Transfer Potential (FTP), where rather than assuming that ‘everything does transfer’, she argues that ‘anything may transfer’.[14]

The Micro-cue Model of first language acquisition

Westergaard is also the author of the Micro-cue Model of L1 acquisition, arguing that children are sensitive to fine distinctions in syntax and information structure from early on (micro-cues). The model has also been used to account for diachronic change. The model is currently receiving increased attention, resulting in invitations as keynote speaker and contributor to handbooks.[15] [16]

Cooperation and contributions

In cooperation with Antonella Sorace and Bilingualism Matters at the University of Edinburgh, Westergaard runs an advice and information service called Flere språk til flere for bilingual families and the general public, based on current research in the field.

Honors and awards

Selected bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2016-04-13. Professor til Videnskaps-akademiet. 2021-03-24. itromso.no. nb.
  2. News: Professor til Videnskapsakademiet. iTromsø. 14 April 2016. Norwegian.
  3. Lohndal. Terje. Westergaard. Marit. 2016-03-16. Grammatical Gender in American Norwegian Heritage Language: Stability or Attrition?. Frontiers in Psychology. 7. 344 . 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00344. 27014151 . 4793186 . 1664-1078. free.
  4. Mitrofanova. Natalia. Rodina. Yulia. Urek. Olga. Westergaard. Marit. 2018-10-11. Bilinguals' Sensitivity to Grammatical Gender Cues in Russian: The Role of Cumulative Input, Proficiency, and Dominance. Frontiers in Psychology. 9. 1894 . 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01894. 30364150 . 6193086 . 1664-1078. free.
  5. Web site: MultiGender: A Multilingual Approach to Grammatical Gender. 2021-03-08. CAS. 3 October 2017 . en.
  6. Jensen. Isabel Nadine. Slabakova. Roumyana. Westergaard. Marit. Lundquist. Björn. 2019-02-28. The Bottleneck Hypothesis in L2 acquisition: L1 Norwegian learners' knowledge of syntax and morphology in L2 English. Second Language Research. 36. 1. 3–29. 10.1177/0267658318825067. 0267-6583. 10037/18039. 151194074 . free.
  7. Wolleb. Anna. Sorace. Antonella. Westergaard. Marit. 2018-11-02. Exploring the role of cognitive control in syntactic processing. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. 8. 5. 606–636. 10.1075/lab.17002.wol. 54028600 . 1879-9264. 20.500.11820/1b92ad6a-ca5d-4f4e-876f-f048266819f1. free.
  8. Web site: PoLaR lab. 2021-03-08. en-US.
  9. Web site: Marit Westergaard. 2021-03-09. scholar.google.com.
  10. Westergaard. Marit. Mitrofanova. Natalia. Mykhaylyk. Roksolana. Rodina. Yulia. December 2017. Crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of a third language: The Linguistic Proximity Model. International Journal of Bilingualism. en. 21. 6. 666–682. 10.1177/1367006916648859. 1367-0069. 10037/10725. 102492313 . free.
  11. Slabakova. Roumyana. December 2017. The scalpel model of third language acquisition. International Journal of Bilingualism. en. 21. 6. 651–665. 10.1177/1367006916655413. 20549795 . 1367-0069.
  12. Flynn. Suzanne. Foley. Claire. Vinnitskaya. Inna. January 2004. The Cumulative-Enhancement Model for Language Acquisition: Comparing Adults' and Children's Patterns of Development in First, Second and Third Language Acquisition of Relative Clauses. International Journal of Multilingualism. en. 1. 1. 3–16. 10.1080/14790710408668175. 146563649 . 1479-0718.
  13. Rothman. Jason. January 2011. L3 syntactic transfer selectivity and typological determinacy: The typological primacy model. Second Language Research. en. 27. 1. 107–127. 10.1177/0267658310386439. 145722158 . 0267-6583.
  14. Westergaard. Marit. 2019-11-12. Microvariation in multilingual situations: The importance of property-by-property acquisition. Second Language Research. 37 . 3 . en. 379–407. 10.1177/0267658319884116. 0267-6583. 10037/16671. 210529591 . free.
  15. Westergaard. Marit. 2014-01-01. Linguistic variation and micro-cues in first language acquisition. Linguistic Variation. en. 14. 1. 26–45. 10.1075/lv.14.1.02wes. 2211-6834. 10037/7185. free.
  16. Book: Westergaard, Marit. The Acquisition of Word Order. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2009. 978-90-272-5528-0. English.
  17. Web site: Exciting news: Marit Westergaard receives highly regarded research award « AcqVA: Acquisition, Variation & Attrition. 2021-03-23. en-US.
  18. Web site: Medlemmer Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi. 2021-03-23. www.dnva.no.
  19. Web site: Gruppe III Språkvitenskap. 2021-03-23. DKNVS. nb-NO.
  20. Rodina. Yulia. Kupisch. Tanja. Meir. Natalia. Mitrofanova. Natalia. Urek. Olga. Westergaard. Marit. 2020-03-11. Internal and External Factors in Heritage Language Acquisition: Evidence From Heritage Russian in Israel, Germany, Norway, Latvia and the United Kingdom. Frontiers in Education. 5. 10.3389/feduc.2020.00020. 2504-284X. free. 10037/18623. free.
  21. Leivada. Evelina. Westergaard. Marit. 2019-08-01. Universal linguistic hierarchies are not innately wired. Evidence from multiple adjectives. PeerJ. 7. e7438. 31396461. 10.7717/peerj.7438. 6679903 . 2167-8359. free.
  22. ANDERSSEN. MERETE. LUNDQUIST. BJÖRN. WESTERGAARD. MARIT. 2018-07-10. Cross-linguistic similarities and differences in bilingual acquisition and attrition: Possessives and double definiteness in Norwegian heritage language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 21. 4. 748–764. 10.1017/s1366728918000330. 1366-7289. 10037/13634. 150315084 . free.
  23. Wolleb. Anna. Sorace. Antonella. Westergaard. Marit. 2018-11-02. Exploring the role of cognitive control in syntactic processing: Evidence from cross-language priming in bilingual children. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. en. 8. 5. 606–636. 10.1075/lab.17002.wol. 54028600 . 1879-9264. 20.500.11820/1b92ad6a-ca5d-4f4e-876f-f048266819f1. free.
  24. RODINA. YULIA. WESTERGAARD. MARIT. 2015-09-18. Grammatical gender in bilingual Norwegian–Russian acquisition: The role of input and transparency. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 20. 1. 197–214. 10.1017/s1366728915000668. 1366-7289. 10037/8525. free.
  25. Rodina. Yulia. Westergaard. Marit. 2012. A cue-based approach to the acquisition of grammatical gender in Russian. Journal of Child Language . 39 . 5 . 1077–1106 . 10.1017/S0305000911000419. 22261116 . 0305-0009. 10037/5578. free.

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