It is with deep gratitude that we announce that Dr. Janet Werker has departed from the role of Language Sciences Co-Director, and as of July 1st, 2023, the Language Sciences Co-Directors are Dr. Bryan Gick and Dr. Christine Schreyer.
Dr. Werker has served as a founding co-director of the Language Sciences Institute since its inception in 2015. During her time with Language Sciences, Dr. Werker has led four successful GCRC applications, and designed and co-taught the course, Living Language: Science and Society, which through her leadership was approved through Senate and taught to students spanning six Faculties. Among her many other accomplishments, she also led the SSHRC Partnership Grant, as well as the successful proposal for the Language Sciences Institute to become a recognized Global Research Excellence Cluster.
Dr. Werker’s work on language sciences-related areas at UBC goes back to her days in graduate school. She is currently Director of the Infant Studies Centre in the department of Psychology, where she describes her research as follows:
“We investigate the multitude of factors – perceptual, conceptual, and cultural – that contribute to monolingual and bilingual language acquisition. In our work on perceptual foundations, we seek to characterize the biases infants have from birth for processing language, and when and how initial sensitivities are changed as a function of experience with different languages. We study not only how infants perceive the sounds of speech, but also how they use and integrate the information they see in talking faces and the feedback they get from their own oral-motor movements. Current studies also examine how these changing sensitivities facilitate acquisition of the grammar of the native language and direct the segmentation and learning of words. In our work on conceptual underpinnings, we examine the expectations infants have about the potential meaning of words, how words are represented in the early lexicon, and how bilingual vs. monolingual acquisition might impact these conceptual biases. To study the role of culture, we examine how language is used in different cultural contexts, and explore whether infants growing up bilingual use expressions of culture beyond language to help keep their two languages distinct. Because we want to understand all of these interacting processes at many levels of analysis, we use both behavioural and neuroimaging techniques.”
While we are sad to see Dr. Werker leave Language Sciences, we are so grateful for her years of tireless work that have positioned the institute for continued growth, and we sincerely thank her for her steadfast leadership.
Please join us in thanking Dr. Werker for her long-lasting contributions to Language Sciences!