BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16970-12ae397cda277572e933c1f31714b161@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20261013T052955Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220415T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220415T103000 SUMMARY:Stefanie Wulff (Univ. of Florida) DESCRIPTION: "Where Theory and Methods Meet: Examining Usage" \n\nDr. St efanie Wulff\, Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Florida \n\nFriday\, April 15\, 9:00–10:30 a.m. EDT\, via Zoom and in 127 Moore\n\nOver the past two decades\, linguistics researc h has become increasingly methodologically sophisticated\, owed to techn ological advances\, availability of unprecedented amounts of data\, and an infusion of complex statistical techniques previously used in other d isciplines. Critics of this development have argued that methods have be come an end in and of itself\, with mindless\, shallow number-crunching replacing properly informed\, deep analysis. Others lament that this att itude towards sophisticated methods create an anti-empiricist trend (Div jak\, Levshina\, &\; Klavan\, 2016). A third group of researchers\, m eanwhile\, notes that research continues to be published that demonstrab ly employs unsuitable or under-sophisticated methods\, limiting the cred ibility of reported outcomes (Gries\, to appear\; Gass\, Loewen\, and Pl onsky\, in press).\n\nIn Dr. Wulff's opinion\, there is a grain of truth in all three positions. In this talk\, she will seek a middle ground\, which is to embrace the commitment across contemporary theories of langu age to being empirically grounded whole-heartedly\, yet without losing s ight of the established body of knowledge that should guide our methodol ogical choices. In many cases\, methods need to better reflect what we a lready know to be true at a conceptual or theoretical level or what we a ssume as our working hypotheses until they are shown to be false. For ex ample\, we know that language is complex\, that it varies between and al so within individuals\, and we know that language is intertwined with co gnition at large. While in many cases\, this means that we need to up ou r methodological game and use methods that more adequately reflect the a ssumed complexity of the phenomenon we are investigating\, in many other cases\, selecting the right method does not mean selecting the more com plex method\, but one that more adequately reflects and/or approximates what we are trying to measure. In virtually all cases\, we need to devot e more effort to explaining and rationalizing our methodological choices \, and acknowledge shortcomings in finding the best match between theory and methods. For illustration\, she will critically discuss examples of research in second language and heritage language acquisition\, includi ng particle placement\, adverbial clause ordering\, and morpho-syntactic development.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/stefa nie-wulff-univ-of-florida/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

 "Where Theory and Methods Mee t: Examining Usage" 

Dr. Stefanie Wulff, Associate Pro fessor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Florida 

Friday, April 15, 9:00–10:30 a.m. EDT, via Zoom and in 127 Moore

Over the past two de cades, linguistics research has become increasingly methodologically sop histicated, owed to technological advances, availability of unprecedente d amounts of data, and an infusion of complex statistical techniques pre viously used in other disciplines. Critics of this development have argu ed that methods have become an end in and of itself, with mindless, shal low number-crunching replacing properly informed, deep analysis. Others lament that this attitude towards sophisticated methods create an anti-e mpiricist trend (Divjak, Levshina, & Klavan, 2016). A third group of researchers, meanwhile, notes that research continues to be published t hat demonstrably employs unsuitable or under-sophisticated methods, limi ting the credibility of reported outcomes (Gries, to appear; Gass, Loewe n, and Plonsky, in press).

In Dr. Wulff's opinion, ther e is a grain of truth in all three positions. In this talk, she will see k a middle ground, which is to embrace the commitment across contemporar y theories of language to being empirically grounded whole-heartedly, ye t without losing sight of the established body of knowledge that should guide our methodological choices. In many cases, methods need to better reflect what we already know to be true at a conceptual or theoretical l evel or what we assume as our working hypotheses until they are shown to be false. For example, we know that language is complex, that it varies between and also within individuals, and we know that language is inter twined with cognition at large. While in many cases, this means that we need to up our methodological game and use methods that more adequately reflect the assumed complexity of the phenomenon we are investigating, i n many other cases, selecting the right method does not mean selecting t he more complex method, but one that more adequately reflects and/or app roximates what we are trying to measure. In virtually all cases, we need to devote more effort to explaining and rationalizing our methodologica l choices, and acknowledge shortcomings in finding the best match betwee n theory and methods. For illustration, she will critically discuss exam ples of research in second language and heritage language acquisition, i ncluding particle placement, adverbial clause ordering, and morpho-synta ctic development.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/ev ent/stefanie-wulff-univ-of-florida/

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