astronomy

Marjolijn Verspoor

Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor rather than just read about it. In short: Marjolijn Verspoor (born 11 March 1952) is a Dutch linguist. She is a professor of English language and English as a second language at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Marjolijn Verspoor (born 11 March 1952) is a Dutch linguist. She is a professor of English language and English as a second language at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. She is known for her work on Complex Dynamic Systems Theory and the application of dynamical systems theory to study second language development. Her interest is also in second language writing. She is one of the members of the "Dutch School of Dynamic Systems" who proposed to apply time-series data to study second language development along with Kees Bot, Paul Geert, and Wander Lowie.

Career

Verspoor obtained her PhD at Leiden University in 1990. The title of her thesis was Semantic Criteria in Complement Selection. Verspoor has published journal articles and edited several books on different areas of linguistics, including second language development, effects of bilingual education, effects of cognitive insights into second language development, cognitive linguistic approach to English complementation. Verspoor was appointed as a research assistant and teaching assistant in German at the German department of the Louisiana State University, The United States in 1973. In 1976, she was appointed as an instructor of German, French and English as a second language in the foreign language department at the Northeast Louisiana University. In 1989, she became an assistant professor at the English department of the University of Missouri where she was also the coordinator of 'Academic English for International students' program. Between 1991 and 1994, she was an instructor at the English department of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Between 1995 and 2005, she was appointed as the Chair National Exam Board (CEVO: VWO-HAVO) for English. She was responsible for content of national English exam. Since 1994, she has been a university lecturer at the English department of the University of Groningen. Between 2005 and 2009, she was appointed as the study advisor and coordinator MA program Applied Linguistics-Teaching English as a foreign language. In 2009, she was nominated for the University of Groningen Best Lecturer Award 2009. She is one of the members of the Solidarity Award Committee of the International Association of Applied Linguistics along with Kees de Bot and Rosa Manchón. In 2016, she was one of the keynote speakers at the EUROSLA26 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In July 2020, a book, entitled Usage-based Dynamics in Second Language Acquisition, was published to honour her work in the field of applied linguistics. The book was edited by her colleagues at the University of Groningen, including Wander Lowie. Among the contributors there are Ronald Langacker, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Luke Harding and Kees de Bot. The book was planned to be presented to her at the AILA conference in Groningen. However, the conference was postponed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Works Verspoor has published articles in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Journal of Second Language Writing, The Modern Language Journal, Language Teaching Research, and Language Learning. In 2004, she wrote a seminal article along with de Bot and Lowie on second language development, in which she applied the dynamic systems theory to study second language writing development. This was the first research paper in which time-series data were used to explicate changes in the development of second language writing. In 2015, Verspoor presented A dynamic perspective on developmental patterns in Finnish as an L2 at the ELC 4. Fourth International Postgraduate Conference on Language and Cognition at the University of Vigo. In 2017, Verspoor's first article was published in which she and her colleagues applied the Hidden Markov Model to simulate language development. She is also noted for her work on language complexity. She proposed the finite verb ratio index to measure general syntactic complexity and the average word length of content words to gauge lexical complexity in second language writing development.

Bibliography

Books Lexical and Syntactical Constructions and the Construction of Meaning (1997) Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics (1998) Explorations in Linguistic Relativity (2000) Second Language Acquisition: An Advanced Resource Book (2005) A Dynamic Approach to Second Language Development. Methods and Techniques (2011)

Articles Top 5 articles based on Google scholar.:

De Bot, K.; Lowie, W.; Verspoor, M. (2007). "A dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition". Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 10 (1): 7–21. doi:10.1017/s1366728906002732. S2CID 33567516. Verspoor, M.; Lowie, M.; van Dijk, M. (2008). "Variability in second language development from a dynamic systems perspective". The Modern Language Journal. 92 (2): 214–231. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2008.00715.x. Verspoor, M.; Lowie, W. (2003). "Making sense of polysemous words". Language learning. 53 (3): 547–586. doi:10.1111/1467-9922.00234. Spoelman, M.; Verspoor, M. (2010). "Dynamic patterns in development of accuracy and complexity: A longitudinal case study in the acquisition of Finnish". Applied Linguistics. 31 (4): 532–553. doi:10.1093/applin/amq001. Verspoor, M.; Schmid, M. (2012). "S., & Xu X. (2012). A dynamic usage based perspective on L2 writing". Journal of Second Language Writing. 21 (3): 239–263. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2012.03.007. hdl:11370/46f0d209-1fbb-4b17-9230-aa915e8c5898.

References

External links Professor Verspoor on the University of Groningen's website: https://www.rug.nl/staff/m.h.verspoor/ Professor Verspoor on the website of the Országos Doktori Tanács: https://doktori.hu/index.php?menuid=192&lang=HU&sz_ID=11909

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marjolijn Verspoor

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor

In research: Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor 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: Marjolijn Verspoor is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1952 births, Academic staff of the University of Groningen, Applied linguists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marjolijn Verspoor 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.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Marjolijn Verspoor in simple terms?

Marjolijn Verspoor (born 11 March 1952) is a Dutch linguist. She is a professor of English language and English as a second language at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

Why does Marjolijn Verspoor 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 Marjolijn Verspoor?

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 Marjolijn Verspoor.