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Lydia White (born 1946) is a Canadian linguist and educator in the area ofsecond language acquisition (SLA).[1] She isJames McGill Professor Emeritus ofLinguistics atMcGill University.[2][3]
She received her BA in Moral Sciences and Psychology fromCambridge University in 1969 and PhD inlinguistics fromMcGill University in 1980.[3][4]
Her PhD dissertation, published in book form asGrammatical Theory and Language Acquisition, concernsthe theoretical problem of first language acquisition from the perspective ofgenerative grammar. Her 1989 survey of SLA research,Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition, has become a standard textbook in many university level SLA courses.[5] The book puts particular emphasis on research which explores the implications that the theory of linguistic universals (theUniversal Grammar theory) has had upon second language acquisition approaches. In 2003, Lydia White published the bookSecond Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar, which extends the claims that the process of second language acquisition is guided and constrained byUniversal Grammar.
In 2010 she was elected as a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Canada in the Academy of Arts and Humanities.[6] In 2012, she received theQueen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.[7]
She currently serves on the editorial boards of the journalsLanguage Acquisition,Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, andSecond Language Research.[3] Together withRoumyana Slabakova, she is also co-editor of the book seriesLanguage Acquisition and Language Disorders.[3][5]
AFestschrift in her honor,Inquiries in Linguistic Development, was published in 2006.[8]
Lydia White has edited special issues of several leading journals in the field, and authored many articles inLanguage Learning,Studies in Second Language Acquisition,Second Language Research, andLanguage Acquisition.[9] Some notable examples include the following:
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)McGill University.James McGill / William Dawson Programme. McGill University, Associate Provost (Planning and Budgets). Retrieved on April 19, 2009
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