Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science

​ I am currently a professor of English Linguistics in the Institute of Modern Languages at the University of Würzburg,> Germany. My research interests comprise experimental and empirical linguistics, with special focus on the> psycholinguistic and representational aspects of linguistic knowledge. I primarily work on phonology, phonetics, and> morphology with an emphasis on (i) how these components of grammar are acquired and processed, (ii) how they interact> with other components of grammar such as syntax and pragmatics, and (iii) how they change within and across life-spans.>>> Before coming to Würzburg, I worked as an assistant professor of English and General Linguistics at the University of> Konstanz, Germany (2005-2011). In Summer 2010, I became a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College, which allowed> me to have a research stay at the University of Oxford. During my assistant professorship, I substituted for a> professorship of English Linguistics and a professorship of Psycholinguistics at Konstanz.>>> During my graduate studies at the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Delaware (1998-2003), I had the> privilege to receive a competitive fellowship twice in a row, which allowed me to focus on my dissertation project. The> department also provided me with invaluable opportunities to teach my own courses and work as a research assistant, all> of which were highly beneficial for me to gain a wide range of academic and professional experience and build a strong> academic career. Immediately after my graduation from Delaware, I had the opportunity to work as a postdoctoral research> fellow within a special research unit titled ‘Variation and Evolution in the Lexicon’ funded by the German Research> Foundation, and was able to get on the professorial track within a short amount of time.​

I received an MA in Linguistics and Cognitive Science in 2011.  I am currently a PhD candidate at Radboud University Nijmegen and the International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences in the Netherlands. Unlike in the US, an MA or MSc degree is a prerequisite for starting a PhD in the Netherlands. This is also why PhD students can start with their own research projects right from the beginning. It usually takes four years to complete a PhD in the Netherlands.  During this period several research projects must be carried out in order to fulfill all requirements for the academic degree. For my dissertation, I investigate phonological development in monolingual and bilingual children. This means that besides typical tasks of a doctoral candidate like reading research articles, analyzing data and writing research articles, I spend a lot of time traveling through the Netherlands and Germany to collect data from preschool aged children. But there is of course even more to my job than research and this is also where my undergraduate background in management comes in handy: I write project plans; I manage a PhD budget, which involves acquiring external grant money; I organize speaker series; I visit conferences to present my own research and in 2013 I even organized the International Child Phonology Conference together with my research group. I also teach the undergraduate level course “Phonetics and Phonology” – in my native language German –  in the Department of German Language and Culture. As part of my PhD work, I recently spent one year as a Fulbright Fellow at the Center for Language Science at the Pennsylvania State University to use and improve a skill that I learned at UD: Studying language acquisition using event-related potentials. In the final year of my PhD contract, I am preparing my research articles for publication. My dissertation will consist of four research papers and will be defended in a very traditional and formal Dutch ceremony. With an undergraduate degree from Germany, a master’s degree from the United States and (soon) a doctoral degree from the Netherlands, I’m curious where it will take me next.

​Sarah completed a combined BS/MA in Cognitive Science in 2012 after completing a BS in Psychology and a BA in Philosophy in 2011. While at UD, she supplemented her coursework with research experience on neuroscience, perception, and language in the Psychology and Cognitive Science departments. After leaving UD, Sarah worked as a Research Assistant in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, where she examined the cognitive and neural processes underlying language comprehension. She is currently a PhD student working with Dr. Sharon Thompson-Schill at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is exploring how the brain supports the flexible use of language and concepts.​

​Hello! I graduated in May 2011 with a Bachelor's of Science in Cognitive Science with a concentration in Speech Pathology, and minors in Psychology and Disability Studies. After UD, I went on to get my Master's Degree in Speech-Language Pathology from CUNY Hunter College in New York, NY.  Since becoming a certified speech-language pathologist I have worked in skilled nursing facilities, sub-acute rehabilitation centers, and elementary schools. I have seen patients in all stages of life, from ages 1 to 103! I recently moved from New Jersey to Portland, OR, to work in at a Level I Trauma center. My responsibilities in this position include evaluating and treating patients who have had strokes or brain injuries resulting in aphasia (language disorder), cognitive-linguistic deficits, or dysphagia (swallowing disorder). It is a fast paced environment which relies on strong clinical skills and interdisciplinary teamwork. Every day I work closely with patients, families, doctors, nurses, physical and occupational therapists to increase patient safety and quality of life. One of the wonderful things about pursuing a career in speech pathology is that there are so many opportunities to work in a variety of different settings and with a variety of populations. It's a field in which you are constantly learning, problem solving, and most importantly, directly impacting the lives of others. 

My time spent at Delaware absolutely prepared me not only for graduate school, but also for my professional career. As SLPs, we constantly have to stay updated on the current research to guide our evidenced based practice. Through the University of Delaware's research opportunities I learned how to critically evaluate (and even conduct) research. The pre-requisites that I completed through the Cognitive Science and Linguistics department laid a wonderful academic foundation for graduate school, and extra curricular groups like NSSLHA inspired what has proven to be a wonderful career choice thus far. Go Blue Hens! ​

I am currently employed as a speech-language pathologist at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore, MD. I have the unique opportunity to work with both adult and pediatric populations in outpatient and acute care settings. The acute care setting provides a fast paced and collaborative environment where I feel I am challenged every day to continue to learn and hone my clinical skills. In the outpatient setting, I am able to collaborate with patients, their families, and other healthcare professionals to develop functional goals and treatment plans to ultimately bring about positive and impactful changes within patients' lives. I am particularly interested in augmentative and alternative communication devices, and I work closely with representatives from various companies to help obtain devices for the patients we treat at our facility.

Upon graduating from UD with a major in Cognitive Science and a concentration in Speech-Language Pathology, I attended the Master's of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program at Towson University. I was fortunate enough to obtain a graduate assistantship under the graduate program director. I also had the opportunity to participate in a graduate research project examining tongue and lip strength and became a member of the graduate NSSLHA executive board. Following graduation from my master's degree program, I completed my Clinical Fellowship at a pediatric private practice in Arlington, VA.

During my undergraduate years at UD I participated in several undergraduate research opportunities within the department. I assisted Dr. Arild Hestvik with collecting EEG data in his Experimental Psycholinguistics Lab. I also spent several semesters working with Dr. Roberta Golinkoff in the Infant Language Project. The individualized mentoring and hands-on experience provided by the department in conjunction with unique and thought-provoking courses thoroughly prepared me for graduate school and beyond. ​

Michelle Frankel is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) for the New York City Department of Education. She provides therapy in an elementary school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The majority of her therapy focuses on high-functioning students with autism. In order to pursue her passion to become a licensed SLP, Michelle continued her studies in the field and earned her Master's Degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Hofstra University. 

This profession offers employment in many different settings with a flexible schedule. In addition to working in the schools, Michelle is an Early Intervention provider. She provides speech-language therapy with birth to three year olds. She provides private speech therapy as well. 

During her undergraduate years at UD, Michelle helped facilitate the new speech pathology program in the Linguistics Department under the guidance of Nancy Schweda-Nicholson. Michelle was an executive board member of the UD's chapter of National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA). In addition to her linguistics, phonology and audiology courses, Michelle minored in Disabilities Studies. On campus, she was a research assistant at the "Infant Language Project" as well as the "Language and Cognition Lab". Michelle took it upon herself to voluntarily observe an SLP at the Early Learning Center on campus. Michelle's unwavering interest and commitment to the speech world was developed and was supported during her time at UD.

​Jeff Lidz is Professor and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland. Lidz received his PhD from the University of Delaware in the area of theoretical syntax, with a dissertation titled Dimensions of Reflexivity.  He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania from 1997-2000. He also held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratoire de Science Cognitive et Psycholinguistique in Paris in 1998. He was Assistant Professor at Northwestern University from 2000 until he moved to the University of Maryland in 2005.

Lidz’s research examines the relation between comparative syntax-semantics and language acquisition. This work examines the relative contribution of experience, extralinguistic cognition and domain specific knowledge in learners’ discovery of linguistic structure.

Lidz is also the  director of the Project on Children’s Language Learning at the Department of Linguistics at UMD. This project addresses fundamental questions about how language is acquired. Employing a variety of tasks, researchers in this group examine the acquisition and development of syntactic, semantic, phonological, and morphological knowledge in children ranging from 8 months to 6 years of age. The lab for this project is equipped with state-of-the-art technology for stimulus preparation, presentation and analysis in several research paradigms.  A large component of the research involves cross-linguistic comparisons. Researchers in the lab are currently examining language acquisition in children learning English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Malayalam, Mandarin, and Russian. The research team also examines language acquisition in abnormal development, focusing largely on Williams Syndrome, a genetic developmental disorder.

I am an assistant professor in the Department of English at East Carolina University in North Carolina. I am one of four linguistics professors, but the only one who works on theoretical linguistics.  One of my colleagues is a sociolinguist and two are TESOL experts. Due to our different areas of expertise, I get to teach all of our linguistics minors and some education students in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. I also often teach an introductory linguistics course for speech pathology majors and a general ‘language studies’ introduction aimed mainly at education and English students. Apart from teaching, I am in charge of scheduling all courses related to linguistics and TESOL, making sure that all needed classes are offered regularly, and advising those graduate students that are working towards their MAs with a concentration in TESOL or linguistics.  Between teaching and advising, I get to know many of our students very well, which is wonderful - especially when I see them graduate.

My research is still focused on the work that I started at UD: the interaction of syntax and semantics with a focus on German and English. A revised version of my dissertation has just been published by Peter Lang Publishing (“Applicative Argument A Syntactic and Semantic Investigation of German and English”). Besides further revising and improving my work on applicative arguments, I am now also collaborating with a colleague at Penn State on describing and analyzing the Pennsylvania Dutch/German progressive aspect. We hope that once we have a theory for this variant of German that we can extend it to other similar variants, such as Brazilian German. 

As a tenure-track professor, I have learned a lot about how academia works but UD and the opportunities it provided (being a TA, working in research labs, attending high quality colloquia, etc.) have prepared me well for the teaching, research and service aspects of my job.​