Language Education Speaker Series
The Language Education Speaker Series at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development brings well-known scholars in the field of applied linguistics to campus to discuss their work. These talks are open to all members of the BU community, as well as scholars and students of applied linguistics throughout the Greater Boston area.
Upcoming Events
Bilingualism, Language Ability, and the Dynamics of Word Learning
Dr. Kimberly Crespo
Tuesday, February 24
5:00–6:30 pm (ET)
Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering
610 Commonwealth Ave
Room 101
Boston, MA 02215
Register to attend here.
Abstract
Word learning is a cornerstone of children’s cognitive and linguistic development, supporting communication, conceptual growth, and academic learning. This talk examines how children acquire new words and how language experience and individual differences shape learning across monolingual and bilingual contexts. In the first part of the talk, I present a series of experimental studies using cross-situational word learning paradigms to investigate how children track statistical regularities across exposures to map words to meanings. These studies examine the role of bilingualism and language ability in supporting learning under uncertainty, demonstrating that bilingual experience can bolster children’s word learning skills. In the second part of the talk, I turn to word learning in dual-language contexts, such as from code-switched input. I discuss evidence that bilingual children are sensitive to both linguistic and contextual cues in mixed-language input, and that variability in bilingual experience and language ability shapes how children attend to, interpret, and learn from their environments. Together, this work underscores the importance of considering both learning mechanisms and language experience in models of lexical development. I conclude by discussing implications for clinical assessment and intervention with bilingual children, as well as educational practices that better reflect the realities of dual-language learning environments.
About Dr. Crespo
Kimberly Crespo, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Boston University. Her program of research examines how language experience and cognition interact to shape learning and development in children, including those with neurodevelopmental disorders. Informed by her clinical training and practice as a Spanish–English bilingual speech-language pathologist, her work seeks to explain developmental variability in language outcomes. Using a range of experimental methods, her research aims to identify child- and context-level determinants of language learning and to characterize trajectories of language impairment to improve early identification and intervention. Dr. Crespo’s work has been supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH NIDCD) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation.
Previous Events in the Series
October 23, 2025
Racial, Linguistic and Community Belonging: The Juxtaposition of Brown v. Board of Education, Lau v. Nichols and Plyler v. Doe
Dr. Morita-Mullaney
February 25th, 2025
Already Home: Unearthing Black World Language Teachers’ Cultural, Linguistic and Professional Prowess
Dr. Tasha Austin, SUNY Buffalo
February 8th, 2024
False Positives, Re-Entry Programs and Long-Term English Learners”: Undoing Dichotomous Frames in U.S. Language Education Policy
Dr. Nelson Flores, University of Pennsylvania
January 29, 2024
Unveiling Bias in Second Language Acquisition Research: A Critical Examination of Convenience Sampling and Implications for Generalizability
Dr. Aline Godfroid, Michigan State University
October 24, 2023
Understanding Wampanoag Culture Through Wôpanâak Language
Dr. Nitana Hicks Greendeer, Brown University
October 5, 2023
¿Soy Acaso Negra?: A Testimonio on the Erasure of Black Latines within, and beyond, Bilingual Education.
Dr. María Cioè-Peña. University of Pennsylvania
April 11, 2023
Researching Language Learning and Multilingualism: From Social Justice to a Decolonial Lens?
Lourdes Ortega, Georgetown University
April 3, 2023
Navigating language learning as a non-binary student: Insights into diverse experiences from participatory research with non-binary youth
Julia Donnelly Spiegelman, UMASS Boston
November 2, 2022
What Effect Do Heritage Languages Have on Majority English in Adolescent and Adult Heritage Speaker Bilinguals?
Shanley Allen, University of Kaiserslautern
September 26, 2022
Biliteracy as Property: The Promise and Perils of Seal of Biliteracy and Dual Language Programming through an Equity Lens
Chris Chang-Bacon, University of Virginia
March 28, 2022
Language Learning Apps: Do They Really Work?
Shawn Loewen, Michigan State University
February 22, 2022
Enacting a Critical Translingual Approach in Teacher Development
Kate Seltzer, Rowan University
November 16, 2021
Measuring L2 Grit Not Once, But Twice, and Exploring How Much Learners Need it to Succeed
Paula Winke, Michigan State University
October 26, 2021
Complex Dynamic Systems Theory—Learning-Centered Teaching
Diane Larsen-Freeman, University of Michigan
February 8, 2021
Shifting the Discourse from Deficit to Difference: Understanding the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning in Bilingual Learners
Gigi Luk, McGill University