Marjolijn Verspoor (born 1952) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. She is a professor of

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

and

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. She is known for her work on

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory Complex Dynamic Systems Theory in the field of linguistics is a perspective and approach to the study of second, third and additional language acquisition. The general term Complex Dynamic Systems Theory was recommended by Kees de Bot to refer to bo ...

and the application of

dynamical systems theory Dynamical systems theory is an area of mathematics used to describe the behavior of complex dynamical systems, usually by employing differential equations or difference equations. When differential equations are employed, the theory is called '' ...

to study second language development. Her interest is also in

second language writing Second language writing is the study of writing performed by non-native speakers/writers of a language as second language, a second or foreign language. In addition to disseminating research through the ''Journal of Second Language Writing'', schol ...

. She is one of the members of the "Dutch School of Dynamic Systems" who proposed to apply

time-series data In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. Exa ...

to study second language development along with de Bot, van Geert, and

Lowie Lowie is a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname *Jules Lowie (1913–1960), Belgian racing cyclist *Robert Lowie (1883–1957), Austrian-born American anthropologist *Wander Lowie Wander Marius Lowie (born 14 Oc ...

Career

Verspoor obtained her

PhD Thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in 1990. The title of her thesis was ''Semantic Criteria in Complement Selection''. Verspoor has published journal articles and edited several books on different areas of linguistics, including second language development, effects of

bilingual education In bilingual education, students are taught in two (or more) languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The ...

, effects of cognitive insights into second language development, cognitive lingusitic approach to English complementation. Verspoor was appointed as a

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...

and

teaching assistant A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate stude ...

in German at the German department of the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

The United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1973. In 1976 she was appointed as an instructor of German, French and English as a second language in the foreign language department at the

Northeast Louisiana University The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Ce ...

. In 1989 she became an assistant professor at the English department of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, The United States where she was also the coordinator of 'Academic English for International students' program. Between 1991 and 1994 she was an instructor at the English department of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Between 1995 and 2005 she was appointed as the Chair National Exam Board (CEVO: VWO-HAVO) for English. She was responsible for content of national English exam. Since 1994 she has been a

university lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct res ...

at the English department of the

. Between 2005 and 2009 she was appointed as the study advisor and coordinator MA program Applied Linguistics-Teaching English as a foreign language. In 2009 she was nominated for the University of Groningen Best Lecturer Award 2009. She is one of the members of the Solidarity Award Committee of the

International Association of Applied Linguistics The International Association of Applied Linguistics (french: Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée), or AILA, was formed in 1964 as an association of various national organizations for applied linguistics. AILA has more than 8,000 m ...

along with Kees de Bot and

Rosa Manchón Rosa María Manchón Ruiz (born 1957) is a Spanish linguist. She is currently a professor of applied linguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain. Her research focuses on second language acquisition and second language writing. She was the edi ...

. In 2016 she was one of the keynote speakers at the EUROSLA26 at the

University of Jyväskylä The University of Jyväskylä ( fi, Jyväskylän yliopisto) is a research university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking Teacher Training College (the so-called Teacher Seminary), founded in 1863. Ar ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. In July 2020, a book, entitled Usage-based Dynamics in Second Language Acquisition, was published to honour her work in the field of applied linguistics. The book was edited by her colleagues at the University of Groningen, including Wander Lowie. Among the contributors there are

Ronald Langacker Ronald Wayne Langacker (born December 27, 1942) is an American linguist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He is best known as one of the founders of the cognitive linguistics movement and the creator of cognitive ...

Diane Larsen-Freeman Diane Larsen-Freeman (born 1946) is an American linguist. She is currently a Professor Emerita in Education and in Linguistics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. An applied linguist, known for her work in second language ac ...

Luke Harding Luke Daniel Harding (born 21 April 1968) is a British journalist who is a foreign correspondent for ''The Guardian''. He was based in Russia for ''The Guardian'' from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the UK on 5 February 2011, he was refus ...

and Kees de Bot. The book was planned to be presented to her at the AILA conference in Groningen. However, the conference was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Works

Verspoor has published articles in journals such as

Applied Linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, communication rese ...

, ''

Journal of Second Language Writing The ''Journal of Second Language Writing'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the fields of linguistics and language education. Its scope encompasses all aspects of second and foreign language writing, including writing instruction and assess ...

'',

The Modern Language Journal ''The Modern Language Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations. It covers research and discussion about the learning and teaching of f ...

, Language Teaching Research, and

Language Learning Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language (in other words, gain the ability to be aware of language and to understand it), as well as to produce and use words and sentences to ...

. In 2004 she wrote a seminal article along with de Bot and

on second language development, in which she applied the

dynamic systems theory Dynamical systems theory is an area of mathematics used to describe the behavior of complex dynamical systems, usually by employing differential equations or difference equations. When differential equations are employed, the theory is called '' ...

to study

development. This was the first research paper in which

were used to explicate changes in the development of second language writing. In 2015 Verspoor presented ''A dynamic perspective on developmental patterns in Finnish as an L2'' at the ELC 4. Fourth International Postgraduate Conference on Language and Cognition at the

University of Vigo The University of Vigo ( gl, Universidade de Vigo) is a public university located in the city of Vigo in the Province of Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. There are three campuses: * Campus of Vigo in Lagoas-Marcosende, between the municipalities of V ...

. In 2017 Verspoor's first article was published in which she and her colleagues applied the

Hidden Markov Model A hidden Markov model (HMM) is a statistical Markov model in which the system being modeled is assumed to be a Markov process — call it X — with unobservable ("''hidden''") states. As part of the definition, HMM requires that there be an o ...

to simulate language development. She is also noted for her work on language complexity. She proposed the finite verb ratio index to measure general syntactic complexity and the average word length of content words to gauge lexical complexity in

development.

Bibliography

Books

*''Lexical and Syntactical Constructions and the Construction of Meaning'' (1997) *''Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics'' (1998) *''Explorations in Linguistic Relativity'' (2000) *''Second Language Acquisition: An Advanced Resource Book'' (2005) *''A Dynamic Approach to Second Language Development. Methods and Techniques'' (2011)

Articles

Top 5 articles based on Google scholar.: * * * * *

References

External links

* Professor Verspoor on the University of Groningen's website: https://www.rug.nl/staff/m.h.verspoor/ * Professor Verspoor on the website of the Országos Doktori Tanács: https://doktori.hu/index.php?menuid=192&lang=HU&sz_ID=11909 {{DEFAULTSORT:Verspoor, Marjolijn 1952 births Living people Applied linguists Women linguists Linguists from the Netherlands Second language writing Verspoor, Marjolijn People from Leiden