Johanne Paradis, University of Alberta

This course will serve as an introduction to the field of child bilingualism and to the methods used to study this population of language learners. First, participants will be presented with an overview of the current major topics and issues in the field of child bilingual research – both children with typical development and children with developmental language disorders.  Second, participants will learn about the elements of study design in child bilingual research: control/comparison groups, background variables, recruitment procedures and issues, use of parent questionnaires, testing at homes or schools, and offline task development. Third, participants will be introduced to language sampling as a method for gathering and analysing production data from children using the CHAT/CLAN system in CHILDES, and will be examining transcripts from bilingual children. Finally, participants will be given the opportunity to design a new study, or refine and get feedback on a study they have already been working on. It would be helpful if participants could bring their own laptop to the course.