Since  December 1 2012 I am working at Utrecht University, Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences. I will remain affiliated with the University of Amsterdam Linguistics Department as guest researcher.

My research

My primary interests have to do with language acquisition and some of the questions I am working on are:

• Why is one child more successful at learning language than another child?
• Why is one target language property easier to acquire than another target language property and to what extent can such variation be attributed to distributional properties of the input?
• How does children's language environment affect their language development and do environmental factors related to language influence children's cognitive development?
• Which mechanisms underlie language development, and what is the deficit that underlies language impairment?
• How can we identify language impairment in sequentially bilingual children and tease apart effects of impairment and bilingualism?

New research programme: Cognitive development in the context of emerging bilingualism: Cultural minority children in the Netherlands (2012-2017)

NWO Vidi grant

Early Language Skills of Immigrant Children (2009-2012)

The school success of immigrant children varies considerably across countries and cultures. Previous research has shown that language skills co-determine children's school success. In this study, my aim is to investigate sources of individual differences in the language skills of immigrant children, because this could bring us a step further in understanding why immigrant children across contexts differ in their academic achievements. This research was funded by the Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (IOF) and involved collaboration with colleagues at the University of Alberta.

Online comprehension versus oral production (BISLIPP - Bilingualism and SLI: Production and Processing 2008 - 2011)

Children acquiring a second language (L2) and children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI) omit grammatical morphemes in oral production. But do they also fail to recognise omissions while listening? Do comprehension data enable us to distinguish between the two learner groups? In a collaborative study with colleagues from the University of Reading, we compare the online comprehension and productionof grammatical morphemes in Dutch, English and Greek across L2 children and children with SLI . This research was funded by a research grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO for joint scientific thematic research on Language Acquisition and Multilingualism.

• NWO project website

L1 maintenance and L2 development in Dutch-English bilingual children (DELS - Dutch English Longitudinal Study)

This project followed naturally from our family staying for three years in Canada. We traveled to Alberta in the summer of 2008 when our youngest child was three and the oldest was seven. Both children were in different stages of their Dutch language development when English immersion started. I followed the two children and their skills in vocabulary, grammar, narration with six-month intervals in order to keep track of both their developments of L1 Dutch and L2 English. This is a collaborative studywith Johanne Paradis and Tamara Sorenson Duncan.

Most recent presentations

• November 2-4, 2012. Boston University Conference on Language Development   (BUCLD) , Boston University, US.
• July 5-8, 2012. SLI - Specific Language Impairment - diagnosis, prognosis, intervention. Warsaw.
• May 14-16, 2012. Meeting of the COST Action ISO804,Berlin.
• April 28-29, 2012. Multilingualism conference, Bangor.
• April 3-4, 2012. Workshop Reference and referentiality in learner grammars , Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies.
• March 9, 2012. Netwerk Eerste Taalverwerving (NET) , University of Amsterdam.

Posters

Apart from doing science I like the fine arts. Designing posters for a conference is one way to combine the two. Below are a number of posters from recent conferences.

• Berlin/Warsaw 2012

• Bangor 2012

• Boston 2011

• Madison 2011

• London 2010

Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (EMLAR)

In 2003, Sharon Unsworth and I organized the first Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research workshop. To our immense pleasure people liked it and EMLAR has now become an annual well-visited workshop.
In October 2010, a volume has been published largely based on lectures given at the workshops: Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (2010), Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
We are looking forward to the 10th EMLAR in 2014!

• EMLAR VIII

• Flyer Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research volume

Elma in the news

When I came back from Canada to the Netherlands, there was a heated debate on the Dutch article. Dutch has two definite articles: DE and HET. Second language learners of Dutch are on the safe side choosing DE, because DE is most frequent. HET is used with neuter singular nouns. Neuter nouns do not come in particular forms, shapes or meanings and you just have to learn them by heart. No surprise that learners of Dutch (irrespective of whether Dutch is their first or second language) find HET words hard. Why the heat? Linguists foresee that the difficulties with HET will lead to a disappearance of the article HET from Dutch, a prediction that raises worries. The upper three links below refer to this debate (in Dutch), the link at the bottom gives the answer to the question "Why do moms avoid "I" when talking about themselves to their babies?".

• Marieke Kolkman in Onze Taal (2011)

• Pieter Sabel in De Volkskrant (2 November 2011)

• Aleid Truijens in De Volkskrant (9 November 2011)

• Guusje Tromp in NRC Next (29 May 2009)

Previous research

I defended my doctoral dissertation in 2003 at Utrecht University. More information can be found on"My old website". For those who are interested: below is a direct link to the digital version of my doctoral dissertation and the ANELA/AVT jury report motivating why my dissertation was awarded with the dissertation prize for the year 2003.
Between 2003 and 2008, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Variation in Inflection project. In this period I collaborated with dr. Daniela Polisenska (2010), dr. Antje Orgassa (2009), and dr. Marian Erkelens (2009). Their dissertations can be consulted online via the LOT dissertation series; see link below.

• My doctoral dissertation

• ANELA/AVT jury report dissertation award

• My website (old)

• LOT dissertation series

• Variflex website (old)

Links

• CHILDES

• TST centrale

• COCAcorpus

• Information hub for researchers in bilingualism

• Linguist List

• Surrey morphology group

• Ethnologue

• Roman van eenkleuter (Van Ginneken, 1917)

Full CV information

Below, you can download a recent version of my full CV.

• Full CV Elma Blom

Higher education (brief summary)

• 1997 - 2003 PhD Psycholinguistics, Utrecht Institute for Linguistics OTS.
• 1990-1996  MA  Dutch language and literature (cum laude), Utrecht University. Specializations (1) Language and language structure, (2) Sociolinguistics.

Professional experience (brief summary)

• 2012 - ... Assistant professor, Utrecht University.
• 2008 - 2012. Senior research fellow and assistant professor, University of Alberta and University of Amsterdam.
• 2003 - 2008. Senior research fellow, University of Amsterdam.
• 1997 - 2003. Junior researcher and teaching assistant, Utrecht University.

Awards

• Vidi laureate. Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (2012-2017).
• Research grant "Learnability - Brain and Cognition research priority area". University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities ( 2012-2014).
• Marie Curie IOF Fellowship (2009-2012).
• Research grant for joint scientific thematic research "Language Acquisition and Multilingualism". Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (2008-2011).
• Niels Stensen Fellowship (2008-2009).
• Award of excellence, Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (twice: 2007, 2008).
• Best doctoral dissertation award, Anela/AVT (2004).

Books, Edited volumes & Special issues

• Blom, E. , Craats, I. van de, Verhagen, J. (in progress). Dummy auxiliaries in first and second language acquisition . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Edited volume.
• Blom, E. & S. Unsworth (2010). Experimental methods in language acquisition research . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishers. Edited volume.
• Blom. E. (2008). The acquisition of finiteness . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Monograph.
• Blom, E., D. Polišenská & S. Unsworth (2008). The acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch. Special issue of Second Language Research 24 (3).
• Blom, E. & A. Jansen (1998) Tijdperk Taal! Tien jaar linguïstiek in Utrecht . Den Haag: Holland Academic Graphics. Edited Volume.

• Flyer Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research

• Review of Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research in Studies in Second Language Acquisition by Claire Renaud

Publications in international peer-refereed journals (ERIH 2011; Thomson Reuters impact factor 2010)

• Blom, E. & Wijnen, F. (in press). The optionality of finiteness: Evidence for a No Overlap stage in Dutch child language. First Language. Accepted August 2012.
  
• Blom, E. & Paradis, J. (in press). Past tense production by English second language learners with and without language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research . Accepted May 2012. (INT1; 2.147)
  
• Blom, E. , Paradis, J. & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2012). Effects of input properties, vocabulary size and L1 on the development of third person singular -s in child L2 English. Language Learning , 62 , 3, 965-994. Published online 16 August 2012. (INT1; 1.494)
  
• Blom, E.  & Baayen, H. R. (2012). The impact of verb form, sentence position, home language and proficiency on subject-verb agreement in child L2 Dutch.  Applied Psycholinguistics . Published online 21 March 2012. doi:10.1017/S0142716412000021 (INT1; 1.068)
  
• Blom, E. & Vasić, N. (2011). The production and processing of determiner-noun agreement in child L2 Dutch. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism , 1-3, 265-290. (W)
  
• Blom, E. & De Korte, S. (2011). Dummy auxiliaries in child and adult second language acquisition of Dutch. Lingua , 121, 906-919 (INT1; 0.818).
• Blom, E. (2010) Effects of input on the early grammatical development of bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism 14-4, 422-446. (INT1; 0.862)
  
• Blom, E ., Polišenská, D. & Weerman, F. (2008). Articles, adjectives and age of onset: the acquisition of Dutch grammatical gender. Second Language Research 24 (3), 289-323. (INT2; 1.621)
  
• Blom, E. (2008) Book notice: Judith van Wijk, The acquisition of the Dutch plural. Studies in Second Language Acquisition . (INT2)
  
• Blom, E. (2007). Modality, infinitives and finite bare verbs in Dutch and English child language. Language Acquisition 14(1), 75-113. (INT1; 0.778)
  
• Blom, E. , Polišenská, D. & Weerman, F. (2006/2007). Effects of age on the acquisition of agreement inflection. Morphology 16, 313-336. (W)
  
• Blom, E. & P. van Geert (2004). Signs of a developing grammar: subject drop and inflection in early child Dutch. Linguistics 42(1), 195 - 234.

• Blom&Vasic (2011), Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism

• Blom&De Korte (2011), Lingua

• Blom (2010), International Journal of Bilingualism

• Blom (2007), Language Acquisition

Pubications in national peer-refereed journals (Dutch; ERIH 2011: NAT)

• Blom, E. (2012). Review of Maria Mos "Complex Lexical Items". Nederlandse taalkunde.
  
• Blom, E.  & De Korte, S. (2008). De verwerving van het Nederlands: dummies en Verb Second [the acquisition of Dutch: dummies and Verb Second]. Nederlandse Taalkunde 13(2), 133-159.
  
• Blom, E.  (2006). Review of Erica Thrift "Object drop in the L1 acquisition of Dutch". Nederlandse Taalkunde 4 (2006), pp. 376-379.
  
• Blom, E.  & E. Hoekstra (1996). IPP en werkwoordsvolgorde in het Achterhoeks. Taal & Tongval 48 (1), 72-83.

Publications in peer-refereed books & book chapters

• Jong, J. de, Blom, E. , & Orgassa, A. (to appear) Dummy auxiliaries in children with SLI - a study on monolinguals and bilinguals.In Blom,E., Craats, I. van de, & Verhagen, J. (Eds) Dummy auxiliaries in first and second language acquisition . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  
• Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (2010) Introduction. Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research, Blom, E. & Unsworth,S. (Eds). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins,pp.1-10.
• Unsworth, S. & Blom, E. (2010) ComparingL1 children, L2children and L2 adults. Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research, Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (Eds). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 201-222. 
• Blom, E. (2008). Testing the Domain-by-Age Model: Inflection andPlacement of Dutch Verbs. In: Current trends in child second language acquisition: A generative perspective, B. Haznedar& E. Gavruseva (Eds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. The appendix belonging to this chapter can be downloaded below!
• Don, J. & Blom, E. (2006). A constraint-based approach to morphological neutralization. Jeroen van de Weijer & Bettelou Los (Eds.) Linguistics in the Netherlands 2006 (AVT Publications 23), Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. 
• Blom, E. (2002). On the use and interpretation of root infinitives in Early Child Dutch. In: Barbiers,S., F. Beukema & W.van der Wurff (Eds.) Modality and Its Interaction with the Verbal System. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
• Kempen, M., Blom, E. , Gillis, S.&Wijnen, F. (1999). Do Dutch children learn root infinitives from their mothers? In: Verschueren, J.(Ed.) PRAGMATICS1998:Selected papersfrom the 6th International Pragmatics Conference, vol. 2. Antwerp: International Pragmatics Association.

• Prefinal version of De Jong, Blom&Orgassa (to appear)

• Prefinal version of Blom (2008), including Appendix!

Publications in books & book chapters non peer-refereed

• Vasić, N., Chondrogianni, V., Marinis, T. & Blom, E. (2012). Processing of gender in Turkish-Dutch and Turkish-Greek child L2 learners. Proceedings of BUCLD 36 , Medford (MA): Cascadilla Press.
• Vasić, N. & Blom, E. (2011). Production and Processing of Determiners in Turkish-Dutch child L2 learners. Proceedings BUCLD 35, Medford (MA): Cascadilla Press.
• Blom, E. (2008). Testing the Domain-by-Age model: Inflection and placement of Dutch verbs. Proceedings of GALA 2007, Cambridge UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.
• Blom, E. (2006). Agreement inflection in childL2 Dutch. In: Belletti, E. Bennati, C. Chesi, E. DiDomenico and I. Ferrari (eds.) Language Acquisition and Development. CambridgeUK :Cambridge Scholars Press.
• Blom, E. & Polišenská, D. (2006).Verbal inflection and verbal placement in first and second language acquisition. In: Maurice Vliegen (Ed), Linguistik International 16,Variation in Sprachtheorie und Spracherwerb; Aktendes 39. Linguistischen Kolloquiums in Amsterdam 2004, Amsterdam: Lang, p. 1-10.
• Blom, E. & Krikhaar, E. (2002). Where to use a nonfinite clause: an experiment on the use of early verb forms in Dutch and English child language. In: J. Costa and M-J. Freitas (Eds). Proceedings GALA 2001.
• Blom, E. , Krikhaar, E. & Wijnen, F. (2001) Root infinitives in Dutch and English child language: an experimental approach. In: A. H.-J. Do,L. Domínguez, and A. Johansen (eds.) Proceedings of the 25thAnnual BUCLD. Medford (MA): Cascadilla Press.
• Blom, E. & Wijnen, F. (2000). How Dutch children's root infinitives become modal.   In: S.C. Howell, S.A. Fish & T. Keith-Lucas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th AnnualBUCLD. Medford (MA): Cascadilla Press.
• Blom, E. , Kempen, M., Gillis, S.& Wijnen, F. (2000). What they hear is what you get?: Infinitives and modality in child language and child-directed speech. In: Perkins, M. &   S. Howard (Eds.) New directions in language development and disorders. New York : Kluwer/Plenum.
• Blom, E ., F. Wijnen, S. Gillis & M. Kempen (2000). Vorm verandert, betekenis blijft. Modale zinnen in Nederlandse kindertaal. In: Gillis, S., J. Nuyts &J.Taeldeman (Eds.) Met taal om de tuin geleid. Opstellen voor Georges de Schutter. Wilrijk (B.): Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen.
• Blom, E. (1998). Zijn kinderen lazy learners? In: Blom, E. & A. Jansen (Eds.) Tijdperk Taal! Tien jaar linguÏstiek in Utrecht. Den Haag: Holland Academic Graphics.
• Blom, E ., F.Wijnen & S.Gillis (1998). Modal infinitives in the speech of Dutch mothers and their children. In: Van der Auwera, J., F. Durieux & L. Lejeune (Eds.) English as a Human Language. To honour Louis Goossens.München: LINCOM Europa.
• Blom, E.  & M. Kempen(1998) Leren Nederlandse kinderen root infinitives van hun moeders? In: Zink, I. & Lejaegere, M.(Eds.) NET-Bulletin 1998, Bulletin van het 10e Symposium Netwerk Eerste Taalverwerving.KULeuven/UZ Leuven.
• Andeweg, A. & E. Blom (1995). Literatuurwijzer genderstudies in de neerlandistiek. Utrecht: Vakgroep VrouwenstudiesLetteren/Vakgroep Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde. (Bibliografische reeks Vrouwenstudies Utrecht; 8).

• Vasic et al (2012), BUCLD 36 proceedings.

Publications in non-scientific journals and books (Dutch)

• Blom, E. (2012) Hebben tweetalige kinderen een taalachterstand. In: Marianne Boogaard & Mathilde Jansen. Taalcanon. http://www.taalcanon.nl/vragen/hebben-tweetalige-kinderen-een-taalachterstand/

• Blom, E. (2011) Hoe komt het dat kinderen meer kunnen zeggen dan ze begrijpen, Absint (rubriek 101 vragen over taal). 
• Blom, E. (2009) Kinderen en meertaligheid, Kennislink, 29/03/2009. 
• Blom,E. (2007) Praatjesmakers en draaihoofden, Kennislink,  28/11/2007.
• Blom, E. (2007) Dan plif je de kamer. Hypothese, Februari 2007.
• Blom, E. (2006). 'Verschillende manieren van taalverwerving. In: Nicoline van de Sijs, Jan Stroop & Fred Weerman (Eds) Wat iedereen vanhet Nederlands moet weten en waarom. Uitgeverij Bert Bakker.
• Blom, E. & F. Breukels (1998). 'Hou je kaak', de complexe taal van allochtone jongeren in Nederland. In: KLEUR 1(februari), 24.
• Blom, E. & F. Breukels (1998). 'Asterix in het Twents is gewoon leuker', de omstreden opmars van het dialect in Nederland. In: Noordzee 1(1),23-25.
• Andeweg, A. & E. Blom (1995). Genderstudies in de Neerlandistiek: bibliografie. In: Lover 22 (4)(dec), 23-27.

• Kinderen en Meertaligheid - Kennislink

• Praatjesmakers en Draaihoofden - Kennislink

Publications in UvA-DARE

• Click here formy publications in UvA-DARE

Scientific collaborations

• Dr. J. Paradis (University of Alberta, Linguistics Department), dr. E. Nicoladis: A cross-context study of early language skills of immigrant children in Canada and the Netherlands .
• Dr. T. Marinis, prof. S. Edwards (University of Reading UK, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences), dr. V. Chondrogianni (University of Bangor UK), dr. N. Vasic, dr. J. de Jong, prof. A. Baker, prof. F. Weerman (UvA): When agreement doesn't agree: the production and processing of grammatical morphemes by L2 children and children with Specific Language Impairment and Cross-linguistic study on the production and processing of grammatical morphemes in L2 children compared to children with Specific Language Impairment . ("BISLIPP", BIlingualism and SLI: Production and Processing ).
• Dr. I. van der Craats (Radboud University Nijmegen), dr. J. Verhagen (Utrecht University): Dummy auxiliaries in first and second language acquisition. Workshop organized July 1-2 2010 + Edited volume in preparation for SOLA series (Mouton de Gruyter).
  
• Dr. Tuba Yarbay Duman (UvA): Executive functions in monolingual and bilingual children with SLI.
  
• Prof. H. Bennis, A. MacLean (Meertens Institute), prof. F. Weerman,  dr. D. Polišenská (University of Amsterdam): Research project Variation in Inflection (NWO grant 254-70-010).
• Prof. F. Weerman, prof. A. Baker, dr. J. de Jong, dr. A. Orgassa (University of Amsterdam): Research project Disentangling Bilingualism and SLI ( NWO grant 360-70-110).
• Prof. P. van Geert, E. Krikhaar (Groningen University): Experimental research with Dutch-speaking children.
• Prof. S. Gillis, M. Kempen (Antwerp University), prof. F. Wijnen (Utrecht University): Research project A data-driven model of language acquisition: Computational and psycholinguistic investigations (NFWO G.2201.96, NWO grant 200-41.031).
• Dr. S. Unsworth (Utrecht University ): Workshop Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (EMLAR) + Edited Volume Language Learning & Language Teaching series (Benjamins), Colloquium Second Language Acquisition of Dutch Gender (ISB6, Hamburg University ); Special Issue Second Language Acquisition of Dutch Grammatical Gender ( Second Language Research ).
• Prof. N. Hyams (University of California Los Angeles, US): Experimental research with English speaking children during an 8-month stay at University of California Los Angeles (US), Linguistics Department.

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