In an effort to provide opportunities to listen to real English outside the classroom, the English Language Program, a part of the university’s Department of Foreign Language Education, offers lectures in the ELP Lecture Series. In this ongoing series, each lecturer chooses an accessible topic and explains it in English which is neither too difficult nor too easy.
The eighteenth lecture in the series, “Small Talk: Insights into Language from Children,” will be held on Wednesday, July 27. We enter the world vulnerable, with no way to meet our needs, surrounded by people we depend upon. Remarkably, this completely changes within six years. Babies with zero language grow into children who can communicate with little effort. How do they do it? Recent research gives us some interesting insights, both into how children learn language and into the nature of language itself. ELP teacher Nick DiNunzio has studied the topic extensively. Come and find out what he has learned with the help of his two research assistants: his children.

• For more information about the Lecture in Japanese, please click here.

The ELP Lecture Series is open to students, faculty, staff, and anybody else whose English skills could use a bit of a challenge. This is a great opportunity for you to have a little overseas study experience right here at home. The first fourteen lectures in the ELP Lecture Series can be watched here:

• ELP Lecture Series

• For more information about the ELP in Japanese, please click here.

The lecture will be in English with no translation. There is no fee to attend, and reservations are not necessary.