astronomy

Lydia White

Lydia White is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lydia White rather than just read about it. In short: Lydia White (born 1946) is a Canadian linguist and educator in the area of second language acquisition (SLA). She is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at McGill University.

Key takeaways

Lydia White belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lydia White to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lydia White from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lydia White (born 1946) is a Canadian linguist and educator in the area of second language acquisition (SLA). She is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at McGill University.

Biography She received her BA in Moral Sciences and Psychology from Cambridge University in 1969 and PhD in linguistics from McGill University in 1980. Her PhD dissertation, published in book form as Grammatical Theory and Language Acquisition, concerns the theoretical problem of first language acquisition from the perspective of generative grammar. Her 1989 survey of SLA research, Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition, has become a standard textbook in many university level SLA courses. The book puts particular emphasis on research which explores the implications that the theory of linguistic universals (the Universal Grammar theory) has had upon second language acquisition approaches. In 2003, Lydia White published the book Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar, which extends the claims that the process of second language acquisition is guided and constrained by Universal Grammar.

Honors and distinctions In 2010 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in the Academy of Arts and Humanities. In 2012, she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Language Acquisition, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, and Second Language Research. Together with Roumyana Slabakova, she is also co-editor of the book series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders. A Festschrift in her honor, Inquiries in Linguistic Development, was published in 2006.

Selected publications

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

Articles 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. Some notable examples include the following:

Prévost, Philippe and Lydia White. 2000. "Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement." Second Language Research 16: 103-133. White, Lydia. 1991. "Adverb placement in second language acquisition: Some effects of positive and negative evidence in the classroom." Second Language Research 7: 133-161. White, Lydia. 1985. "The "pro-drop" parameter in adult second language learning." Language Learning 35: 47-62.

References

Sources

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

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lydia White

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lydia White claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lydia White before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lydia White ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lydia White

In research: Lydia White appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lydia White in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lydia White is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1946 births, Academic staff of McGill University, Bilingualism and second-language acquisition researchers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lydia White outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lydia White in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lydia White means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lydia White out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lydia White in simple terms?

Lydia White (born 1946) is a Canadian linguist and educator in the area of second language acquisition (SLA). She is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at McGill University.

Why does Lydia White matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lydia White?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lydia White.