Winter Storm Daily Digest - 01.14.2013

Please note that changes have been made to Tuesday and Wednesday's schedule. Up-to-date information is viewable on the website. http://www.languagescience.umd.edu/wiki/WinterStorm. Highlights from Monday: In the Professional Development session, Dr. Sunyoung Lee-Ellis discussed non-academic career paths that are relevant for Ph.D students, based on her and her colleagues' experiences. She compared and contrasted academic and non-academic jobs, with regard to hiring processes, job content and work styles. She also discussed the transferability of skills acquired during Ph.D program and how to stay academically relevant while working in a non-academic position.

The Language Analysis workshop continued with elicitation today, with each group attempting to gain the information necessary to describe a particular aspect of the Zazaki language. Then, during lunch there was a discussion session covering more general questions about field work, other language investigation techniques, and their applications. The groups then collaborated to solve some Zazaki grammar problems.

Events for Tuesday: 1/15/13
1. Python Alvin Grissom will lead students in a review of material covered thus far, then cover input/output redirection and file handling.
2. Lunch Talk: Gisela Granena and Michael Long, Second Language Acquisition Department Age of onset, length of residence, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment in three linguistic domains: A study was conducted to identify the scope and timing of maturational constraints in three linguistic domains within the same individuals, as well as the potential mediating roles of amount of second language (L2) exposure and language aptitude at different ages in different domains. Results for three learner groups defined by age of onset confirmed previous findings of windows of opportunity closing first for L2 phonology, then for lexis and collocation, and finally, in the mid-teens, for morphosyntax. All three age functions exhibited the discontinuities in the rate of decline with increasing AO associated with sensitive periods. Significant correlations were found between language aptitude, measured using the LLAMA test (Meara, 2005), and pronunciation scores, and between language aptitude and lexis and collocation scores, in the AO 16-29 group.
3. Python Help Participants can get extra assistance with Python in this help session led by Alvin Grissom.
4. Afternoon R Session Scott Jackson offers instruction in the free statistical computing environment R. The broad topic under discussion is mixed effects models, but participants are welcome to bring questions on other topics.
 If there is any information you would like included in a future Winter Storm daily digest, please forward this information to the WS Committee (igert-winterstorm@umd.edu). Thank you for your participation! The Winter Storm Committee