Johanne Catherine Paradis
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics,
4-46 Assiniboia Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2E7
1 (780) 492-0805
E-mail: johanne.paradis@ualberta.ca


My education: I did my PhD in Psychology at McGill University (1998), and my MA and BA in Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. I did postdoctoral studies at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University before accepting a position at the University of Alberta in 2000.

My research: I study bilingual language acquisition, second language acquisition, and specific language impairment in children. One of my research programmes concerns children learning English as a second language and how their linguistic characteristics overlap with those of monolingual children the same age with specific language impairment.  Such an overlap has implications for theoretical accounts of second language and impaired acquisition, as well as for clinical practices in the effective identification of language-impaired children in a multilingual context.  I am currently undertaking a project to develop a web-accessible database of language measures from ESL children aimed at assisting speech-language pathologists in the assessment of children in multilingual settings (see research project summaries below).  Another research programme concerns the language development of French-English bilingual children: How their development compares with their monolingual peers in each language and the implications this has for nativist and non-nativist theoretical accounts (see research project summaries below). My research is/has been supported by funding from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Reseach (AHFMR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), and the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLNet).  I am the recipient of an AHFMR Health Scholar Award.

Language Acquisition Lab:  My research has always been conducted in collaboration with numerous undergraduate and graduate students.  Students have been involved not only in collecting data, but also in analysing data and in co-authoring presentations and written publications.  I believe that including students directly in on-going research projects is an important component of their training.  To date, I have co-authored 17 presentations and 7 written publications with current and former students. The Language Acquisition Lab at the University of Alberta includes two MSc students, three PhD students, and one post-doctoral fellow.  In addition to lab meetings about current research projects, I meet with students individually on a regular basis.  We have an Acquisition Reading Group in the department that meets once a month to discuss articles or book chapters selected by the students.

Associations: I am a member of the International Association for the Study of Child Language.   http://iascl.talkbank.org/       
I am affilated with the Prairie Metropolis Centre: A Centre of Excellence
for Research on Immigration, Integration and Diversity. http://pcerii.metropolis.net/
I am a member of the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth and Families. http://www.cup.ualberta.ca/

Links on my website:
Last updated:  November 12, 2009