Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

Office:1706 UH
Phone: (312) 996-5743
Email: karams@uic.edu
Mailing Address:
601 South Morgan St. (MC 315)
Chicago, IL 60607

Curriculum Vita
Dissertation
Electrophysiology of Second Language Acquisition and Processing Research Group

Statement of Research Interests:
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The primary aim of Kara’s research agenda is to elucidate the neurocognitive processes underlying late-learned second language acquisition and processing. Informed by the fields of linguistics and cognitive neuroscience, her research explores the effects of explicit (classroom-like provision of rules) and implicit (immersion-like provision of meaningful examples) training conditions on adult second language acquisition and processing. In addition, her research considers whether the effects of explicit and implicit training are moderated by the linguistic form being acquired (e.g., lexical, syntactic) or by learners’ level of proficiency (e.g., low, intermediate, high). Behavioral and electrophysiological data are used in order to provide evidence regarding how these factors (i.e., explicit and implicit training, linguistic form and proficiency) may interact and lead to different patterns in language comprehension and production. More importantly, these complementary sets of data reveal the neurocognitive processes that underlie language use and are used to explore the engagement of the declarative and procedural memory systems in adult second language acquisition and processing.

A related area of Kara’s research addresses the issue of attention and awareness in adult second language acquisition. Concurrent verbal protocols (data about what subjects are thinking as they are engaged in a language learning task) are used to assess attention and awareness. Kara is also interested in the methodological issue of whether the use of concurrent verbal protocols is reactive, i.e., whether they affect the actual process that that are purportedly revealing. A final strand of Kara’s research examines the role of output practice, i.e., practice that requires the learner to produce the second language, in linguistic development.

In sum, Kara’s research agenda aims to lead to a better understanding of how adults learn language by examining how a range of factors (e.g., explicit and implicit training, linguistic form, level of proficiency, attention and awareness, output practice) affect the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie the use of late-learned language. Her research is expected to be informative to theoretical models of adult second language acquisition and to have implications for language teaching and learning.

Publications:
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Morgan-Short, K., Sanz, K., Steinhauer, K. & Ullman, M. T. (revised and resubmitted). Acquisition of Gender Agreement in Second Language Learners: An Event-Related Potential Study. Language Learning.

Potowski, K., Jegerski, J., & Morgan-Short, K. (in press). The Effects of Instruction on Linguistic Development in Spanish Heritage Language Speakers. Language Learning.

Morgan-Short, K., & Bowden, H. W. (2006). Processing Instruction and Meaningful Output-Based Instruction: Effects on second language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(1), 31-65.

Sanz, C., & Morgan-Short, K. (2005). Explicitness in pedagogical interventions: Input, practice, and feedback. In C. Sanz (Ed.), Mind and Context in Adult Second Language Acquisition: Methods, Theory, and Practice. Georgetown University Press.

Sanz, C., & Morgan-Short, K. (2004). Positive evidence vs. explicit rule presentation and explicit negative feedback: A computer-assisted study. Language Learning, 54(1), 35-78.

Leow, R., & Morgan-Short, K. (2004). To think aloud or not to think aloud: The issue of reactivity in SLA research methodology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(1), 35-57.