Lydia White

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Lydia White is a leading figure in the area of second language acquisition (SLA). She is the James McGill Professor of linguistics and currently chair of the Linguistics Department at McGill University.

Together with her students, she has created the leading movement in second language acquisition, namely generative second language acquisition. In this approach, Lydia White argues that second language acquisition is constrained by principles and parameters of Universal grammar (UG).

Lydia White has edited special issues of several leading journals in the field, and authored many articles in Language Learning, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Research, and Language Acquisition. She has also contributed several chapters to edited volumes. She is in the advisory committee of many of the leading journals in the field. Her 1989 book, Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition, is the definitive text in the field of SLA.

Lydia White is often recognized as the person who established the current theory of second language acquisition. Recently, a book named "Inquiries in Linguistic Development" (2006) was published "in honor of Lydia White." Some of her views about second language acquisition can be learnt by listening to the BBC's report on the subject.

[edit] Books

• "Grammatical Theory and Language Acquisition", 1982, Dordrecht: Foris
• "Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition", 1989, Amsterdam: John Benjamins
• "Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar", 2003, New York: Cambridge University Press

[edit] References

• Faculty profile at McGill
• The Reporter
• University of Illinois Page
• John Benjamins Page
• Biography at the University of Hawaii