Roumyana Slabakova (
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
: Румяна Слабакова) is a linguist specializing in the theory of
second language acquisition
Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning — otherwise referred to as L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific dis ...
(SLA), particularly acquisition of semantics, and its practical implications for teaching and studying languages.
Early life and education
Slabakova was born in
Varna, Bulgaria
Varna ( bg, Варна, ) is the third-largest List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in the Northern Bulgaria region. Situated strategically in the ...
, where she received her first degrees (B.A. and M.A.) from
Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski" in English
Philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
There, she also specialized in linguistics of English as well as educational psychology.
She spent some years teaching English as a second language in Varna in the period when Bulgaria was establishing itself as an independent county. After that, Slabakova embarked on her PhD project at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
where she was advised by
Lydia White
Lydia White (born 1946) is a Canadian linguist and educator in the area of second language acquisition (SLA). She is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at McGill University. , a linguist who established
generative second language acquisition as a separate field. She wrote her thesis on acquisition of aspect, synthesizing recent development in semantic and syntactic theories of
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
(among them,
telicity
In linguistics, telicity (; ) is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as having a specific endpoint. A verb or verb phrase with this property is said to be ''telic''; if the situation it describes is ''not'' hea ...
). Slabakova conducted a number of experiments involving
ESL
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 (EF ...
learners in Varna to find out whether her results would support any of the theories of SLA which existed at the time. She published extensively on the topic of aspect in Slavic and Germanic languages and contributed to both SLA and syntax-semantics interface. Having graduated from McGill University, Slabakova took a position at
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
where she remained for 15 years.
Slabakova has mentioned that working with her colleague and mentor at Iowa, William Davies, has greatly influenced her demeanor and the way she pursues research.
Research
Over her career, Slabakova worked on a wide range of topics: from purely semantic or purely syntactic ones to functional morphology. In fact, her prominent Bottleneck Hypothesis for second language acquisition posits that functional morphology is the most difficult part of acquisition process. In her 2008 book, working on the Bottleneck Hypothesis, Slabakova explores how learners make meaning from the newly acquired words and sentences.
Slabakova has also made notable contributions to the field of third language acquisition (TLA). She collaborated with
Marit Westergaard in this field to investigate the accessibility of Universal Grammar in the acquisition process. In 2017, Slabakova proposed Scalpel Model which posed that the previous languages do play role in the transfer processes at the developmental stages of TLA. It has been pointed out that the Scalpel Model is an interdisciplinary one and draws heavily on neurobiology and experimental psychology in its predictive and descriptive power (unlike, for example,
Flynn
Flynn is an Irish surname or first name, an anglicised form of the Irish ''Ó Floinn'', meaning "descendant of Flann" (a byname meaning "reddish (complexion)" or "ruddy"). The name is more commonly used as a surname rather than a first name.
A ...
's CEM model).
Current contributions
Slabakova has contributed to a number of peer-reviewed journals. She co-founded ''Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism'' with her student Jason Rothman in 2010. Since then, Slabakova became co-editor of
SLR, one of the top-tier journals in the
SLA field. Lastly, she is a co-editor of ''Language Acquisition and Language Disorders'' series of
John Bemjamins with her doctoral advisor Lydia White. As of March 2021, Roumyana Slabakova has over 10,100 citations on Google Scholar, and her h-index is 35. In 2020, she published a new textbook focusing on generativity in SLA. Slabakova holds an adjunct position as a professor at
NTNU.
Selected bibliography
* Montrul, Silvina, and Roumyana Slabakova. "Competence similarities between native and near-native speakers: An investigation of the preterite-imperfect contrast in Spanish." ''Studies in second language acquisition'' (2003): 351-398.
* Slabakova, Roumyana. "Is there a critical period for semantics?." ''Second Language Research'' 22.3 (2006): 302-338.
* Slabakova, Roumyana. "What is easy and what is hard to acquire in a second language." ''Contemporary approaches to second language acquisition'' 9.5 (2013).
* Slabakova, Roumyana, Paula Kempchinsky, and Jason Rothman. "Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: A case of successful acquisition at the syntax–discourse interface." ''Second Language Research'' 28.3 (2012): 319-343.
* Slabakova, Roumyana. "Recent research on the acquisition of aspect: an embarrassment of riches?." ''Second Language Research'' 18.2 (2002): 172-188.
* Slabakova, Roumyana. "Semantic evidence for functional categories in interlanguage grammars." ''Second Language Research'' 19.1 (2003): 42-75.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slabakova, Roumyana
Living people
American women academics
British women academics
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women