CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

Functions

Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

Current Research Projects

Current PhD projects

Previous Ph.D. projects with publication details

FUNCTIONS

• Chair of Psycholinguistics, Language Pathology and Nederlandse Gebarentaal (Sign Language of the Netherlands)
• Head of the co-ordinating committe for the BA and MA teaching programs in linguistics and sign linguistics. 
• President of the international Sign Language Linguistics Society (SLLS)

CURRICULUM VITAE

Anne Baker was born on August 7th, 1948, in Bournemouth , UK . She obtained her BA (Honours) from Keele University (UK) in French, German, Psychology and Computer Sciencein 1971 and a teaching qualification (B.Ed.)in the same year.. She completed her Ph.D. at York University in the field of Linguistics in 1975and then in 1985 her Habilitation at Tübingen University ( Germany ) where she was lecturing. Both books were in the area of language acquisition. She then worked in York (UK) as a senior lecturer from 1986 to 1988 when she was appointed chair of Psycholinguistics, Language Pathology and Sign Linguistics in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam . She served on the Faculty Board as vice-dean (1994-1997) and was director of the research institute Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication (2002-09). She was also a member of the Flemish Scientific Council from 2003-09), She is currently on the board of the Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam. She also serves on the scientific committee of NIAS. She is president of the Sign Language Linguistics Society.

Anne Baker's research is in the field of psycholinguistics, specifically language acquisition of spoken and signed languages and developmental language pathologies. Her particular interest is in cross-linguistic investigation of acquisition and the relationship between language and cognition. Current projects involve the study of Specific Language Impairment in bilingual children, the acquisition of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) and the relationship between language acquisition and executive functions. Twenty-six

Ph.D. dissertations have been completed under her supervision and she is currently supervising 8 more. Her work has been published in many different international edited volumes and journals including Sign Language and Linguistics and Journal of Child Language. She has been awarded several national and international grants and was a NIAS Fellow in 1990-1991 and 2005-2006.

A full cv is available as pdf.

TEACHING

BA Taalwetenschap, traject Taalwetenschap

In dit programma zijn er onder andere modules over psycholinguistiek,taalverwerving en taalstoornissen. 

BA Taalwetenschap, traject Gebarentaalwetenschap (Sign Linguistics)

General information on the modules of this traject can be found by using the sites mentioned below. The programme for students who have followed the interpreter training or teacher training NGT at the Hogeschool Utrecht is given under the link Schakelprogramma.

MA Linguistics

In this programme there are,amongst others, specialisations in Sign Linguistics, Language Acquisition and Language Pathology. Both one-year and two-year programs are possible. 

Brain and Cognitive Science

in this research master two year programme there are several tracks but the closest to linguistics is Cognitve Science.  

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Language development in a sign language

This research is beingdonein collaboration withDr. Beppie van den Bogaerde. Using a longitudinal database (0-8 years) of six children (3 deaf, 3 hearing)learning Sign Language ofthe Netherlands (NGT) in their deaf families we study the language choice made over time, the development of syntax and morphology, lexical development and turn-taking behaviour. We have shown thus farthat the children use different modalities in their communication with the deaf children using more NGT than the hearing children. Both groups of children are becoming bilingual.

Multiilingualism and Specific Language Impairment

A project funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (2004-2008) led by Anne Baker,and Fred Weerman with co-workers Dr. Jan de Jong (post-doc) and Antje Orgasssa (Ph.D. student, see below) examined the effects of being bilingual and having SLI in the same child (Dutch -Turkish) from both atheoretical and practical perspective. Thisproject is being followed up by a second NWO project (2008-2010) on production and processing in bilingual and SLI children.

Currently a PhD project (Aude Laloi) is considering multilingualism and Executive functioning in SLI.

A four-year COST action (IS0804) Multilingualism and Language Impairmenthas also started in 2009 with involvement from Jan de Jong, Anne Baker and Fred Weerman.

NGT-OP: Development of an Assessment instrument for sign language acquisition

The NGT-OP is a checklist that has beencompiled for the early communicative and sign language development of young deaf children in the Netherlands. It includes sections on general communication, lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax and a little pragmatics. The instrument has been tested for its usability and reliability. This work has been done in collaboration with the Effatha-Guyot group of schools for the Deaf, in particular with Sonja Jansma. More informationabout this instrumentand the guidelines for use can be obtained from Anne Baker. The instrument and guidelines are in Dutch. It has also been reviewed in an article by T. Haug on Sign Language Instruments in Sign Language andLinguistics  (2005). Further work is being carried out on the use of a  non-sign repetition task to usewith deaf children to detect problems in acquisition.

Bi-modal language in children and adults

This research is also being done in collaboration with Dr. Beppie van den Bogaerde and is the result of work being carriedout on language development (see above). We are interested in the combinations of signs and spoken forms in children learning a sign language and in the status of these forms in adults. We hope to show which constraints exist on such forms and the processes involved in their acquisition by studyingspontaneous language ininteraction between deaf adults and their deafand hearing children. Results thus far indicate a strong influence of thehearing status of thechild andthat there constraints exist on the type of bi-modality to be found. Publication of recent results can be found on the page Publications .

Part of this project is also being carried out as part of the Windows on Language Genesis project running in 2005-06 at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar.

Language in children with psychiatric disturbance

This work is being carried out incollaboration with various institutions including prof. Jan Buitelaar (Radboud University Nijmegen) for ADHD and Sint Marie, Einhoven for autistic children. The aim of this work is to describe in greater detail the linguistic profiles of children with psychiatric disturbance with the aim of finding the underlying mechanisms in their language acquisition and the realtionship to executive functions. Results thus far (e.g. PhD.dissertation Blankenstijn & Scheper 2003, see below) show a very high instanceof language problems in both morpho-syntax (80%) and semantics/pragmatics (100%). A current Ph.D. project is working on the profile for ADHD (Esther Parigger, see below).

CURRENT Ph.D. PROJECTS please look at the individual homepages for more information on these projects and the related publications

Esther Parigger Language development in children with ADHD: a linguistic profile, co-supervised with Dr. Jan de Jong

Akke de Blauw Investigating the precursors of narrative ability

Aude Laloi SLI and executive functioningin the context of multilingualism co-supervised with Jan de Jong (Amsterdam) & Marie-Therese LeNormand (Paris)

Marcel Giezen Speech and sign comprehension in children with a cochlear implant co-supervised with Dr. Paola Escudero.

Joke Schuit   A description of Nunavut Sign Language co-supervised with Roland Pfau.

Michele Brunelli Antisymmetry and Sign Languages (A comparison between NGT and LIS)   co-supervised with Roland Pfau (Amsterdam) and Guigliemo Cinque (Venice). Co-tutelle with the University of Venice.

Brendan Costello The use of space in Spanish Sign Language (LSE). co-supervised with Roland Pfau (Amsterdam) and Alazne Landa (University of the Basque Country)

Vadim Kimmelmann Information structure in NGT and Russian Sign Language,   co-supervised with Roland Pfau (Amsterdam).

PREVIOUS PH.D. PROJECTS WITH PUBLICATION DETAILS

Many Ph.D. theses have been publishedin the LOT dissertation series and these are available via the LOT website under the heading LOT publications. The details for other dissertationsare given below.

Antje Orgassa

2009 Distentangling Bilingualism and SLI : insights from the Dutch data.  LOT series, No.220

Marian Erkelens

2009 Learning to categorize verbs and nouns . LOT series No. 211.

Margot Rozendaal

2008 The acquisition of reference, University of Amsterdam.Published in LOT series No. 197.

Bernadet Hendriks

2008 Jordanian Sign Language: aspects of grammar from a cross-linguistic perspective. University of Amsterdam . Published in the LOT series, No. 193.

Victoria Nyst

2007 The structure of Adamarobe, a Ghanian Sign Language,  Universiteitvan Amsterdam. Published in the LOT series, No. 151. 

Ceske Niewold

2006 Spontane herstel in afasie (Spontaneous recovery in Aphasia), Published in the LOT dissertation series, No.126.

Annerieke Boland

2006  Aspect, tense and modality: theory, typology and acquisition. Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 124.

Chris Clement

2004   Development of vocalisations in deaf and normally hearing infants.  Universiteit van Amsterdam. Publishedin the LOT dissertation series, No. 100.

Ingeborg van Gijn

2004. The quest for syntactic dependency: sentence complementation in Sign Language ofthe Netherlands (NGT). Universiteitvan Amsterdam. Published in the LOT dissertationseries, No. 89.

Inge Zwitserlood

2003. Classifying hand shapes in Nederlandse Gebarentaal (SignLanguage of the Netherlands) University of Utrecht. Published in the LOT dissertation series,No. 78.

Erica Thrift

2003. Objectdrop in the L1 acquisition ofDutch. Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published inthe LOT dissertation series, No. 80.

Connie Fortgens

2003. Taalkeuzevan dove kinderen (language choiceof deaf children) Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published by Koninklijke Auris groep, Gouda.

Claudia Blankenstijn & Annette Scheper

2003. Language development in children with psychiatric disturbance. Universiteitvan Amsterdam. Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 82.

Els van der Kooij

2002. Phonological categories in Sign Langauge of the Netherlands (NGT). The role of implementationand iconicity. University of Leiden. Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 55.

Margriet Heim

2001. Nauwelijks sprekendveel te zeggen: een studie naar de effecten van hetCOCPprogramma (Study on the effects ofthe COCP program) Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 43. Contact with the author see link.

Beppie van den Bogaerde

2000. Input and interaction in deaf families. Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 35.

Rocky Meade

2000. Acquisition of Jamaican Phonology . Universiteit van Amsterdam.Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 41.

KinoJansonius

1999. Twee jaar spraak en taal bij schisis (Two years speech and language with a cleft palate) Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published in the LOT dissertation series, No. 17.

Ingrid van Alphen

1999. Variatie in verbale interactie (v/m). Een sociolinguistisch onderzoek naar de functie van het taalgebruik van adolescente meisjes en jongens. (Variation in verbalintraction (f/m). A sociolinguistic study into the formandfunction of adolescent boys and girls), Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published by Academische Pers, Amsterdam. Contact I.C.vanAlphen@uva.nl .

Marja Roelofs

1998. Hoe bedoel je? De verwerving van pragmatische vaaridgheden (What do you mean? The acquisition of pragmatic skills), U niversiteit van Amsterdam. Published in LOT dissertation series, No. 5. .

Maaike Verrips

1996. Potatoes must peel. Acquisition of the Dutch passive. Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published in HIL dissertation series, ICG, Dordrecht.  

Mieke Beers

1995. The phonology ofnormally developing and language impaired children. Universiteit van Amsterdam.Published in IFOTT dissertation series, No. 20. Contact ACLC office: aclc-fgw@uva.nl . Contact with author at w.beers@lumc.nl .

Suzanne Luderus

1995. Language choice and separation in Alzheimer patients. Universiteit vanAmsterdam. Published inIFOTT dissertation series, No. 20. Contact ACLC office: aclc-fgw@uva.nl

Dorian de Haan

1994. Deep Dutch. School language abilities in second language learners of Dutch. Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published in IFOTT dissertation series, No. 9. ContactACLC office: aclc-fgw@uva.nl

Marianne Verhallen

1994. Lexicale vaardigheid in Turkseen Nederlandsse kinderen (Lexical abilities in Turkish and Dutch children), Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published in IFOTT dissertation series, No. 7. Contact ACLC office: aclc-fgw@uva.nl

Heike Behrens

1992. The acquisition of tense, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Published by Koninklijke Woehrmann, Zutphen. Contact the author.

Hans van Balkom

1991. The communication of language-impaired children.  Universiteit van Amsterdam. Swets & Seitlinger, Amsterdam. Contactthe author.

Jane Coerts

1990. Non-manual markers in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), Universiteit van Amsterdam. Printed by Universiteit van Amsterdam. Contact the author.

Barbara Ornellas

1985. Phonological development in German . Universitaet Tuebingen, Germany. (not published)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS IN PRESS OR IN PREPARATION

Comments very welcome on those texts provided in pdf format. Please send these to the author(s). Do not quote without permission. Other texts not provided can be requested by the authors.

Phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density in (non) word processing: evidence from typical and disorderd populations

This article (Rispens, Baker & Duinmeyer) considers the effect of the two variables neighbourhood density and phonotactic probability. Younger children were more affected by neighbourhood density and less by phonotactic probabilty. These effects shifted with development. Children with SLI and a reading problem scored lowest of the ttasks indicating an important sub-group in the SLi population.

Effect of hearing impairment and sound perception on the rapid learning of minimally different words

This article (Giezen, Escudero, & Baker) considers rapid word learning in a population of Dutch children with a CI. T he results show that lexical representations continue to develop beyond the sixth year of life in typically developing children and are sensitive to task demands. Importantly, CI children have more difficulty in accurately mapping sound contrasts to novel meanings thanNH children, presumably due to the fragile nature of their lexical representations.

Non-word repetition: the contributory factors

This article (Rispens & Baker) reports the contributions made by phonological short termmemory and lexical redistribution to performance in Non-Word Repetition and shows that both contribute but the influence of the two shifts over time and according to thetype of child (typically developing versus language-impaired). 

Sign Linguistics - An Introduction

This text book edited by Anne Baker, Beppie van den Bogaerde, Roland Pfau & Trude Schermer is aimed at all those interested in the linguistics of sign languages. It is illustrated with examples from many different sign languages to illustrate linguistic aspects of sign languages. It addresses questions such as the structure of sign languages, the variation that can ocuur within a sign language and between sign languages and the acquisition of sign languages.

Communicative Interaction

This chapter (Baker & van den Bogaerde) of the Mouton Handbook on Sign Languages (eds. Pfau, Steinbach & Woll) deals with interaction in sign languages covering topics such as turn-taking, co-operation principle, cohesion and coherence and pragmatic adequacy.  

The acquisition of subject-verb inflection in Turkish and Dutch in SLI: what is vulnerable?

This paper examines the evidence for various theoretical explanations of the weakness of verb inflection in SLI children and then confront those theories with evidence from Turkish-Dutch bilingual typically developing and SLI children.W e have shown how SLI children whether bilingual or monolingual are far better at producing verb inflection in verb final contextx(embedded clauses) than in verb-second (main clauses) due to the complexity of the additional verb movement operation. This supports Bishop's Vulnerable Feature Hypothesis.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Publication list and full text

A publication list and some texts are available through the Data archiving system - DARE - see link below. Others are available directly through the on-line journals.

2012 Linguistics. A student textbook.

The English book Linguistics is now out: A.E. Baker & K. Hengeveld (eds) (2012) Linguistics Wiley-Blackwell. 475 pages.

This is a complete revision and translation of the Dutch book Taal en Taalwetenschap  (2002) Appel, Baker, Hengeveld & Kuiken (eds) Blackwell. 

2010 Measuring the linguistic behavior of deaf learners

This paper sets out the main methodological issues involved in studying the language behavior of children with a hearing impairment both in spoken and sign languages. The article (Baker & van den Boagaerde) appeared in Elma Blom & Sharon Unsworth (eds.) Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research John Benjmains, pp. 245-268..

2010 Pragmatic aspects andthe influence of language input

This paper deals with the acqusition of the pragmatic aspects relevant in reference, namely given/new distinction and listener's perspective. It appears that children aquire given/new relatively quickly (2;6) and mark this distinction in their use of articles and pronouns. However the disitnction is marked earlier in determiners than pronouns. Listener's perspective takes longerand is notfully acquired by 3;3. This paper (Rozendaal and Baker) is available on line in the Journal of Pragmatics.

2010 The acquisition of Turkish in the Dutch context

This paper (de Jong, Cazife & Baker) is a chapter in the bookedited by M. Topbas & M. Yavas (eds) Communication disorders in Turkish. in series Communication Disorders across Languages.Multingual matters Bristol.   It shows that nominal morphology, in particular case marking, from narratives in Turkish is affected in SLI children.

2010 Bimodal language acquisition in young codas

This paper explores the bimodality of young hearing children of deaf parents and seeks for explanations of the found variation. The paper (Van den Bogaerde and Baker) appeared in  M. Bishop &SherryL. Hicks (eds) hearing, Mother Father Deaf. Hearing People in  Deaf Families. (Sociolinguistics of Deaf Communities series Vol. 14, pp.99-131), Gallaudet University Press.

2009 Precursors of narrative ability: nonpresent talk and fantasy talk in spontaneousparent-child interaction

A. de Blauw & A.E. Baker (2009),  Backus, A., Keijzer, M., Vedder, I., Weltens, B. ed.) Artikelen van de Zesde Anela-conferentie: 43-51. Delft: Eburons. This article describes the early production of non-present talk in three children and their parents from the age of 1;3 to 3;3 tracing the development of the various kinds of NPT and fantasy talk.  

2008 A cross-linguistic investigation of the acquisition of the pragmatics ofindefinite and definite reference in two-year-olds

M.R. Rozendaal & A.E. Baker Journal of Child Language 35: 773-807 . This paper dealswiththesyntax-pragmatics interface in reference from a  crosslinguistic perspective and indicatesaninteraction between the acquisition of syntax (determiners) and pragmatics (referential functions).

2008 Codemixing in signs and words in input to andoutput from children

A.E. Baker & B. van den Bogaerde (2008) in C. Plaza Pust & E. Morales Lopez (eds.) Sign Bilingualism: Language Development,Interaction and Maintenance in Language Contact Situations . pp. 1-27. Amsterdam, John Benjamins.

2008 SignLanguage Acquisition

(eds) Anne Baker & Bencie Woll, Bejamins, Amsterdam pp.162). ISBN 9789027222442.

How children acquire a sign languageand the stages of sign languagedevelopment are extremely important topics in sign linguistics and deaf education, with studies in this field enabling assessmentof an individual child's communicative skills in comparisonto others.Inordertodoresearch in thisarea it is important to use the right methodological tools. Thecontributions in this volume address issues covering the basics of doing sign language acquisition research, the use of assessment tools, problems of transcription, analysing narratives and carrying out interaction studies. it serves as a reference source for any researcher of student of sign languages who is planning to do such work.

2008 Gebarentaalwetenschap -een inleiding

(eds. Anne Baker, Beppie van den Bogaerde, Roland Pfau & Trude Schermer, Van Tricht, Deventer, pp. 328). ISBN 9789077822333. 

This book is intended as an introduction to the study of the linguistics of sign languages. Examples are used from many different languages to illustrate linguistic aspects of sign languages. It addresses questions such as the structure of sign languages, the variation thatcan ocuur within a sign language and between sign languages and the acquisition of sign languages. An adapted English version of this book should appear in 2009..

2007 Spontane Taal Analyse Procedure (STAP): verantwoording van het instrument

Dit verslag (Verbeek, Van den Dungen& Baker, 2007) bevat alle gegevensdie nodig zijn omte begrijpen en evaluerenhoe het STAP-instrument geconstrueerd is (Van den Dungen & Verbeek 1999).  Het verslag verantwoordt de keuzes van de STAP-variabelen en geeft ook veel gegevens over de taalontwikkeling van kinderen tussen 4 en 8 jaar.Dit verslag,net als het STAP-instrument,wordt gepubliceerd door Taalwetenschap, Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen,Universiteitvan Amsterdam.Het is te bestellen door contact op te nemenmet het secretariaat, tel. +31-20-5253864 of via e-mail : taalwetenschap-fgw@uva.nl .  

2006 NGT is geen Nederlands met je handen

A.E. Baker In F. Weerman, N. van der Sijs en J. Stroop (eds) Wat iedereenmoetweten over het Nederlands   en waarom  Bakker. pp. 43-52

2006 Code mixing in mother-child interaction in deaf families

B. van den Bogaerde & A.E. Baker Sign Language and Linguistics, Vol. 8, 1/2: 155-178 .

2006 Methods and procedures in sign language acquisitionstudies

A.E. Baker, B. van den Bogaerde & B. Woll  Sign Language and Linguistics Vol.8, 1/2 : 7-59.

2006 Taalontwikkelingsstoornissen ten gevolge van visusproblemen

( Developmental language disorders inchildren with sight problems) A.E. Bakert section B.8.1.4.3 in H.M. Peters (red.) Handboek Stem-spraak- en taalpathologie Bohn Stafleu en van Loghum: Houten. p.1-16

2006Oeih, dat is een koekje. De verwerving van de referentiele functies van lidwoorden en pronomina door Nederlandstalige kinderen

(Oh, that's abiscuit. The acquisition of referential functions of articles and pronouns in Dutch children) Margot Rozendaal&Anne E. Baker Taal en Taalwetenschap in Artikelen: 29-41

PUBLICATIONS up to 2008in pdf form

THE ACQUISITION OF GENDER 1986

This book was published by Springerin 1986 under my former name of Anne Mills. It is now out of print and can be downloaded here as a pdf.

FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN GERMAN. A PARALLEL STUDY 1977

This book is an edited version of my Ph.Thesis (university of York, UK) and waspublishedinthe series Ludwigsburg Studies in Language and Linguistics. It was published underthe name of Mills.

REPORTS

Meer dan een gebaar

Report published in 1997 on the recognition of Sign Language of theNetherlands (NGT) as an official language commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Scienceand the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Sport of the Dutchgovernment. The report was written by A.E.Baker, A.Hendrikx, H. Knoors. T. van der Lem, W.J.M. Levelt, M. Schadee, and J. Wesemann and published originally by SDU publishers,The Hague, in Dutch but is now sold out in hard copy (170 pages). An English summary isalsoavailable (21 pages).

Update of Meer dan een gebaar 1997-2001

An update of the situation regarding the officialrecognition of  NGT was written for the Dutch government by the Platform Erkenning NGT (Platform for the Recognition of NGT) for the period 1997-2001.

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

Since these presentations cover work in progress, all comments are welcome to the authors but please do not quote without permission .

Onderzoek met STAP (Research using STAP) 2012

This presentation was given to the STAP training course on March 10th, 2012 run by Barbara Wegener Sleeswijk and Gertje Wijkersloot.

The STAP instrument is a profiling instrument for the spontaneous language of Dutch children between the ages of 4 and 8. This presentation (in Dutch) explains the research basis for the instrument and briefly disucsses more recent research using the instrument.

Language problems in relation to problems in other areas of cognition 2012

This plenary lecture was for the Grote Taaldag in Utrecht, February 4th, 2012. It gives an overview of the realtionship between langauge problems and problems in Executive Functioning.

Ernstige Spraak/Taal Moeilijkheden - niet kunnen - of niet willen - zien? 2011

Ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van Theo van Munnen van Auris is deze lezing (Utrecht, 16 maart 2011) geven over het belang en de status van ESM. 

Locative expressions in the language acquisition of blind children 2010

This presentation was given to a workshop in Paris (07-12-2010) on language and cognition in the blind child. It will result in a  publication (in preparation).

Studying children learning a sign language 2010

This presentation was for the EMLAR conference in Utrecht February 2-4th, 2010.

Children who have limited access to spoken language frequently learn a signed language. Studying these languages in acquisition presents its own challenges. The subjects concerned are quite heterogeneous and the input they are exposed in both spoken and signed variants is also very varied. The issue of children with a Cochlear implant are also addressed. The methods of finding subjects, recording data and materials also require attention to specific issues such as culturaldifferences between deaf and hearing, privacy involved in video- material and material bias. Analyzing acquisition data in a signed language also requires attention to aspects related to the modality. A particular challenge is the simultaneity of the output - signed languages allowing more to occur in terms of non-manual behavior including mouth movements at the same time as manual behavior. All these issues are discussed and illustrated using video-clips and short exercises.

Nonpresent talk in spontaneous parent-child interaction and its relation to narrative ability at age 7 2009

In this presentation (de Blauw & Baker) to IAIMTE conference, Toronto, Canda in June and to the International Association of Pragmatics, Melbourne, July 2009, an increase is shown in the numberof nonpresent interactions is shown between 1;9 and 2;9. All three children studied increase the frequency and diversity of types of interaction. They do differ at this age but not greatly and at age 7 they are all quite advanced in their narrative ability. 

Turkish nominal inflection in bilingual children with Specific Language Impairment 2009

This poster presentation (Cazife, de Jong & Baker) to the International Bilingusal Conference (ISB7) in Utrecht, July 2009, shows how the dative case and genetive-posssive construction are more difficult for children with SLI,sometimes in accuracy but always in the fact that fewer contextsare produced. The typically-developing bilingual group do not show these effects and are comparable to the monolingual Turkish children. These features can probably be considered martkers of SLI in Turkish.

Phonological and lexical processes innovel word learning byCIchildren

 This poster was presented to the SCIC conference in Seattle in June 2009 by Marcel Giezen, Anne Baker & Paola Escudero. The CI children show difficulty in using weak phonological representations to make phonological-lexical contrasts, especially in word intial consosonants. Normally hearing children also show difficulty in learning minimalpairs. At thesign level there is considerable varying ability.  

Why is Subject verb agreement vulnerable in SLI? 2009

Paper by Anne Baker, Jan de Jong, Antje Orgassa & Fred Weerman to theEuropean group on Child Language Disorders (EUCLDIS) in Dubrovnik, June 2009. It shows that the verbal agreement paradigm of Dutch is acquired to a high degree by both monolingual and bilingual SLI children learning Dutch. The paradigm itself is not vulnerable butthe context of using the paradigm is since it involves verb movement. This suggests that aspects of load are important in explaining this feature of SLI, atleast in some languages.

Sounds and words in CI and hearing children 2008

Poster by Paola Escudero, Marcel Giezen & Anne Baker at IASCL, Edinburgh, July 2008 . Available on request.

Bootstrapping of a lexicon by Dutch CI children 2008

Paper by Marcel Giezen, AnneBaker & Paola Escudero to International Clinicla Phonetics and Linguistics Association meeting in Istanbul, June 2008. Paper available on request.

Case marking in Turkish-Dutch children with SLI: a clinical marker? 2008

Paper by Jan de Jong, Antje Orgassa, Anne Baker & Fred Weerman to International Clinical Phonetics & Linguistics Association meeting (ICPLA), Istanbul, June 2008. Paper can be obtained on request.

This paper shows that case marking is not generally affected in SLI children in Turkish. However the context of object marking in the marked word order is affected.

Dutch agreementinflection in SLI, L2 and L2-SLI 2008

Paper by Antje Orgassa, Jan de Jong, AnneBaker & Fred Weerman to the International Congres of Clinical Phonetics & Linguistics Association (ICPLA) in Istanbul, June 2008. Paper can be obtained on request.

This paper indicates that adjectival agreement is most strongly affected qualitatively and quantitively in L2 adults. The children show quantitive effects suggesting more problems with intake than a deficiency ingrammar in this area. The SLI-L2 children do show a cumulative effect here of being SLI and L2.

Is Specific Language impairment so specific? 2008

Lecture to the Brain and Cognition students June 2008.

An alternative explanation for SLI? 2008

Presentation to the ACLC/ILLC seminar on 11 april 2008 from the research group LEXEF in which the ACLC and ILLC collaborate.

Non-present talkand narrative ability in young Dutch children 2008

Paper by Akke de Blauw and Anne Baker presented to the Netwerk Eerste Taalverwerving, the annual workshop on child language research in the Netherlands and Belgium, February 22nd, 2008.

The paper presents the firstfindings fromAkke de Blauw's Ph.D. project and focuses on the role onNon-Present alk in terms of the frequency ofits occurrence in children up to the age of four years and their parents, the roles of the conversation partners and the occurrence of scaffolding. There is a clear increaseto be seen in Non-Present Talk overtime. The events referred to become increasingly further removed from the present but the children's prodcution remainsheavily scaffolded by the parents. Fantasy isthe one category wherethe children take initiative and are less scaffolded.

Children's sensitivity to listener's knowledge: evidence from theuse of morphosyntactic forms for referent introductions2007

Paper by Margot Rozendaal and Anne Baker to the Swedish Language and Cognition Conference.Lund, December 2007. Requests for paper to first author.

The natureof bilingual Specific Language Impairment 2007

Plenary lecture to the Child LanguageSeminar, Reading, July2007 with Jande Jong in collaboration with A. Orgassa, N. Cavus & F. Weerman.

Determiner Omission in child language: a pragmaticexplanation? 2007

Paper to the Child Language Seminar, Reading, UK, July 2007, by Margot Rozendaaland Anne Baker.

Thispaper exploresthe relationship between the omission of determiners inFrench, Dutch and English in relation to the various pragmatic functions involved in reference. There are some suggestions of relationships but the evidence is not strong that pragmatics is relevant here.

Verb agreement inTurkish-Dutch children with SLI2007

presentation to the European Group on Child Language Disorders, Cork, Eire by Jan de Jong, Antje Orgassa, Naz Cazife, Anne Baker & Fred Weerman.

The acquisition of themorphosyntax and pragmatics of reference 2007

Presentation to conference of the International Pragmatics Asociation in Goteborg, Sweden,. July 2007 by MargotRozendaal and Anne Baker.

This paper addressesthe use of determiners and pronouns in various pragmatic functionsrelated to reference in English showing how the development of both the functions and the formsare closelylinked.

Verb agreement in Turkish-Dutch children with SLI 2007

Presentation to the ISBBD conference in Hamburg, May 2007.

This paper addressesthe question of which type of SLI theory is most appropriatefor explainingthe data from bilingual SLIchildren (Turkish/Dutch) on the basis of data on verb agreeement from both languages. A strict representational account is not supported, a processing account is.

Meertaligheid en SLI - een dubbele belasting? 2007

Plenary presentation to symposium at SintMarie Institute for children with language impairments, Eindhoven. Farewell symposium for Dr. Kino Jansonius, March 2007. 

The talk addresses the issue of language problems in children growing up bilingually withSLI. Preliminary results from the BISLI project examining inflection inDutch-Turkishchildren are presented. (Dutch text).

Turntaking in signed and spoken languages 2007

Invited talk to DCAL, University College London, February 2007.

This talk addressedthe issue ofcultural differences in spoken languages and in signed langauges. The acquisition pattern of turntaking was examined in NGT, which shows a development towards shared floor at around age 6 years..

Turntaking and cultural differences 2007

Invited lecture to University of Utrecht.

This talk covers a comparison of turn taking patterns in different cultures: specifically in Dutch and Swedish adults. The role of vision in turntaking is also explored in a study of blind adults in the two cultures. Furthermore the development of turntaking patterns is examinedin Dutch blind and sighted children. Blind adults reflectmore the pattern of their sighted peers within their own culture than a universal 'blind' pattern. Nevertheless certain characteristics such as long turns are a general characteristic. 

Modality dominance:the timing of early signing and speaking revisited 2006

Presentation to the Cradle of Language conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, November 5-10th, 2006, and also to the NIAS Windows on Language Genesis final conference, May 19-20, 2006, in Wassenaar.

This paper explores the questionswhether youngchildren learnign a sign langauge simultaneously combine the visual/manual modalitywith theauditory/vocal modality from the earliest communications and whether in such combinations one modality dominates. Theresults indicate that simultaneouscombinations are learned behaviour. Hearing and deaf children show different patterns suggesting a role of hearingstatus and disconfriming any idea that there may be a universal realtionship between the two modalities on the basis of evolution.

Specific Language Impairment in a bilingualcontext:the acquisition of grammar in Turkish-Dutch children 2006

Jan de Jong, Antje Orgassa, Anne Baker &Fred Weerman CPLOL, Berlin, September.

NGT-OP An instrument for measuring communicativeand language development in youngdeaf children 2006

Anne Baker & Beppie van den Bogaerde A presentationto the ESF funded meeting on Sign Language Assessment held inZurich,  Switzerland, 14-17September. This talk reported progressonthe NGT-OP, a screening instrument for young children up to 5 yearslearning NGT. It also covers early communicative abilites as well as NGT specific skills. It is in the form of a questionnaire to be completed by teachers who know the child.

Narrative Abilities in children with ADHD 2006

Esther Parigger, AnneBaker & Jan de Jong Child Language Seminar, Newcastle, UK.July.

Turn-taking in deaf and hearing children in NGT 2006

Anne Baker & Beppievan den Bogaerde Child Language Seminar, Newcastle, July.

A crosslinguistic investigation of referent introductions 2006

Margot Rozendaal & Anne Baker Child Language Seminar, Newcastle, UK. July.

Acquisition of verb inflection in L2 in SLI 2006

Antje Orgassa, Jan de JOng, Nazigfe Cavus, Fred Weerman, AnneBaker12th International Morphology meeting, Budapest, July.

Een bijzondere tweetaligheid 2006

A presentation to Bessensap , Science meets journalism, organized by NWO inNemo, Amsterdam, May 23rd, 2006.

Acquiring a signedlanguage as a firstlanguage2006

Presentation to Brookes College, Oxford, UK, February 2006

Sign Languages as a Window on Language Genesis 2005

Presentation by Anne Baker & Bencie Woll for theNetherlands Institute for Advanced Study,Wassenaar, The Netherlands, November 2005.

Eye gaze in Turntaking in sign language acquisition 2005

Presentation by Anne Baker and Beppie van den Bogaerde to International Conference for the Education of the Deaf (ICED), Maastricht, The Netherlands, July 2005 and to theInternational Associationfor the Study of ChildLanguage(IASCL). Berlin, Germany, July 2005.

MISCELLANEOUS TEXTS

What is language?

In variousadvertisements for theUniversity of Amsterdam Ihave formulated someof my views on language. Thesecan be seen in the files below.

Interview withSpui magazine Taalwetenschap kan levensredden 2006

In an interview with the alumni magazine of the Universiteit van Amsterdam Iexplain my views on the role of linguisticresearch in society.

Levenredden Algemeen Dagblad

Text of the new paragraph

grapjes in NGT

Deze korte rapportage voor de Wereldomroep is gemaakt door o.a. 3 studenten van de UvA: Richard Cokart, Sara de Visser en Loes Verloop in 2011. Stemover en Engelse onderdertiteling.

My name sign in NGT

NGT at the Universiteit van Amsterdam

The Faculty of Humanities, section Language and Literature, offers a BA track called Gebarentaalwetenschap within the course Taalwetenschap and a specialization within the MA General Linguistics and the Research MA for Sign Linguistics. See links below for further information (in Dutch for the BA, English for the MA). The language teaching of NGT is done by Joni Oyserman and Marijke Scheffener.

Research on NGT is carried out within the Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication. The researchers are prof. dr. Anne Baker and Dr. Roland Pfau. This research is done in close collaboration with dr. Beppie van den Bogaerde from the Hogeschool Utrecht.

NGT teacher and interpreter training at the Hogeschool Utrecht

The Hogeschool Utrecht has a BA course for training interpreters and teachers of NGT. This is a professional training course and therefore different in orientation from the BA offered at the Universiteit van Amsterdam which is academic in orientation. The Hogeschool also offers a Master in Deaf Studies (in Dutch).

Sign Language research elsewhere inthe Netherlands

Work on phonology and the ECHO project are being carried out at the Radboud University Nijmegen.

The Dutch Sign Language Centre (Nederlandse Gebarencentrum) works on the NGT lexicon and teaching materials. On this site you will also find the digital NGT dictionary consisting of 5000 NGT signs (click on gebarendatabank from the NGc homepage). But note that all information and glosses are in Dutch.

Schools for the deaf do some applied research on NGT. These include the Effatha-Guyot group, the Koninklijke Auris group and Viataal. Their websites are mainly in Dutch.

The European Union for the Deaf (EUD) produces documentation on education issues including recognition of sign languages across Europe.

The Dutch Foundation for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Child (NSDSK) does some research involving NGT. This includes a project on children with a Cochlear implant and a project oncomputer programs to teach NGT vocabulary involving also sign recognition (ELo). Further research on the diagnosis of hearing problems and language problems is carried out.

Culture in NGT

Theatre in NGT is done by amongst others the Handtheater in Amsterdam.

Interpretation of music in NGT is done by Talking Hands.

Poetry is available on video and DVD.

Schools for the deaf do some applied research on NGT. These include the Effatha-Guyot group, the Koninklijke Auris group and Viataal. Their websites are mainly in Dutch.

The European Union for the Deaf (EUD) produces documentation on education issues including recognition of sign languages across Europe.

The Dutch Foundation for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Child (NSDSK) does some research involving NGT. This includes a project on children with a Cochlear implant and a project oncomputer programs to teach NGT vocabulary involving also sign recognition (ELo). Further research on the diagnosis of hearing problems and language problems is carried out.

Culture in NGT

Theatre in NGT is done by amongst others the Handtheater in Amsterdam.

Interpretation of music in NGT is done by Talking Hands.

Poetry is available on video and DVD.

The Dutch Foundation for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Child (NSDSK) does some research involving NGT. This includes a project on children with a Cochlear implant and a project oncomputer programs to teach NGT vocabulary involving also sign recognition (ELo). Further research on the diagnosis of hearing problems and language problems is carried out.

Culture in NGT

Theatre in NGT is done by amongst others the Handtheater in Amsterdam.

Interpretation of music in NGT is done by Talking Hands.

Poetry is available on video and DVD.

Culture in NGT

Theatre in NGT is done by amongst others the Handtheater in Amsterdam.

Interpretation of music in NGT is done by Talking Hands.

Poetry is available on video and DVD.