Isabelle Barriere
Assistant Professor
Speech Communication Arts and Sciences
Location: 2149a Ingersoll Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x3061
Fax: 718.951.4167
Email:
Isabelle Barriere's research has been funded by European (UK ESRC) and American grant-giving organizations (NSF, NYC-Board of Education) and focuses on the acquisition of different languages (English, French, Haitian-Creole, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish); dual language learning; early literacy; typical and impaired development; intervention and the link between theories, education and the clinic. In addition to her position at Brooklyn College, she is a research associate of the Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society; a member of the doctoral faculty of Language, Speech and Hearing Sciences at the Graduate Center and of the Psychology Department at Brooklyn College; and co-director of Yeled V'Ylada Research Institute, located in the largest Head Start program in New York.
Education:
Ph.D., Birkbeck College, University of London - 2005 (Applied Linguistics)
Areas of Expertise:
Acquisition of different spoken (English, French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish) and signed languages by children; dual language learning; emergent literacy; acquisition of English and of the home language; Head Start and Early Head Start; development of culturally and linguistically appropriate assessments for speakers of minority languages and members of different cultures; the link between theoretical research and clinical and educational policies.
Books and Publications
Legendre, G., E. Zaroukian, L. Hsin, J. Culbertson, I. Barrière and T. Nazzi. "Is Children's Comprehension of Subject-verb Agreement Universally Late? Comparative Evidence From French, English and Spanish." Lingua. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2013
Barrière, I. and M.M. Monéreau-Merry. "Trilingualism of the Haitian Diaspora in NYC: Current and Future Challenges." Bilingual Community Education for American Children: Beyond Heritage Languages in a Global City. Multilingual Matters. Eds. O. Garcia, B. Otcu and Z. Zakharia. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2012
Legendre, G., I. Barrière, L. Goyet and T. Nazzi. "On the Acquisition of Implicated Presuppositions: Evidence From French Personal Pronouns." Proceedings of GALANA. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2012
Barrière, I., L. Goyet, T. Nazzi, S. Kresh and G. Legendre. "The Representation of Subject-Verb Agreement in French-learning Toddlers: New Evidence From the Comprehension of an Infrequent Pattern of Pseudoverbs." Proceedings of the 35th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, Mass.: Cascadilla Press. In press. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2011
"L'Haïtianophonie aux Etats-Unis" (The Haitianophone World in the United States). Haiti-Liberté 4.3, December: 18-19. Original French version accessible at: http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-23/The_Book/index.html; http://www.tnh.ht/actua/culture/l'haitianophonie%20aux%20usa.htm. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2010
"The Vitality of Yiddish Among Hasidic Infants and Toddlers in a Low SES Preschool in Brooklyn." Yiddish -- A Jewish National Language at 100. Proceedings of Czernowitz Yiddish Language 2008 International Centenary Conference, Jerusalem-Kyiv, 2010. Jews and Slavs series, Volume 22: 170-96. Ed. W. Moskovich. Accessible at: http://www.yeled.org/ArticleFiles/YiddishCzernowitzchapter.pdf. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2010
Barrière, I., G. Legendre, T. Nazzi, L. Goyet and S. Kresh. "L'acquisition de l'accord sujet-verbe par les jeunes francophones natifs entre 14 et 30 mois: préférence, compréhension, et environnement linguistique." Actes du Congres CMLF 2010?2ème congrès mondial de linguistique française. Eds. F. Neveu, V. Muni Toke, T. Klingler, J. Durand, L. Mondada and S. Prévost. Published online at www.linguistiquefrancaise.org. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2010
Legendre, G., I. Barrière, L. Goyet and T. Nazzi. "Comprehension of Infrequent Subject-Verb Agreement Forms: Evidence From French-Learning Children." Child Development: 1859-1875. Available at: http://www.yeled.org/ArticleFiles/French%20Child_Dev_2010[1].pdf. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Legendre, G., J. Culbertson, I. Barrière, T. Nazzi and L. Goyet. "Experimental and Empirical Evidence for the Status and Acquisition of Subject Clitics and Agreement Marking in Adult and Child Spoken French." Movement and Clitics: Adult and Child Grammars. Eds. V. Torrens, L. Escobar, A. Gavarro and J.G. Mangado. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 336-60. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2010
Legendre, G., L. Goyet, I. Barrière, S. Kresh and T. Nazzi. "Sensitivity to Irregular French Subject-Agreement at 18 Months: Evidence from the Head Turn Preference Procedure." Proceedings of Boston University Language Development Conference 34. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2010
DeBey, M. and I. Barrière. "Globalization, Technology and the Education of Young Children: Understanding the World in Two Languages." Globalization, Technology and Curriculum. Eds. S.A. O'Connor-Petruso and F. Girelli-Carasi. Boston: Pearsons. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2009
Morgan, G., R.C. Herman, I. Barrière and B. Woll. "The Onset and Mastery of Spatial Language in Children Acquiring British Sign Language." Cognitive Development 23: 1-19 (with a commentary by Dan I. Slobin). Accessible at: http://www.yeled.org/ArticleFiles/COGDEV2911.pdf
Commentary accessible at: http://www.yeled.org/ArticleFiles/Slobin%20-%20commentary%20on%20Morgan%20et%20al1.pdf. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Morgan, G., R.C. Herman, I. Barrière and B. Woll. "The Onset and Mastery of Spatial Language in Children Acquiring British Sign Language." With commentary by Dan I. Slobin. Cognitive Development 23: 1-19. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Legendre, G., T. Nazzi, I. Barrière, J. Culbertson, M. Lopez-Gonzalez, L. Goyet, and E. Zaroukian. "Acquiring Subject-Verb Agreement in French: Evidence for Abstract Knowledge from Comprehension." Proceedings of Boston University Language Development Conference 31, Vol. 2. Eds. H. Caunt-Nulton, S. Kulatilake and I. Woo. 370-81. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2007
Morgan, G., I. Barrière and B. Woll. "The Roles of Modality and Typology in the Acquisition of Verb Morphology in British Sign Language." First Language 26.1: 19-43. Accessible at: http://www.yeled.org/ArticleFiles/1stlg1.pdf. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Barrière I., G. Morgan, B. Woll and S. Hurren. "Les noms et les verbes dans l'acquisition de la Langue des Signes Britannique (BSL) comme langue maternelle: influences de la modalité visuo-gestuelle et des traits typologiques." Surdité et société : perspectives psychosociale, didactique et linguistique. Eds. A.-M. Parisot and D. Daigle. Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, Collection: Santé et Société. 157-76. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2005
Barrière, I. and M.P. Lorch. "Premature Thoughts on Writing Disorders." Neurocase 10.2: 91-108. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2004
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Since 2005: The nature of first word combinations: insights from the comprehension and production of subject-verb agreement and tense-marking by native French-speaking children.
Principal Investigator: G. Legendre, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University.
Co-Principal Investigator: I. Barrière, YvY Research Institute.
Co-Investigator: T. Nazzi, CNRS laboratory Cognition & Development, Paris.
National Science Foundation grant- Division of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences- Linguistics Program and Office of International Science and Engineering. Amount: $300,000. Award number: 0446954. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
Research Activities
Co-supervised doctoral dissertation, "Characteristics of the Morphosyntax of Heritage Speakers of Haitian," by Marie-Michele Monereau, Language Speech and Hearing Sciences Department, CUNY Graduate Center. 2010
Supervised project on "Emergent Literacy in Monolingual and Bilingual Hebrew/English-speaking Children." Research site: YVY Head Start program. 2010
Supervised the development of an assessment tool for Haitian-learning infants and toddlers. Research Site: YVY Early Head Start and Head Start program and other local preschools. 2010
Data collection site: YVY Early Head Start Yiddish-speaking subgroups
Identifying Developmental Phases in the Acquisition of Yiddish as an L1
Amount: $4,500; PSC-CUNY Award# 601083940
2nd Phase of Project, 2005-09
The adaptation of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory--Words & Sentences--to Yiddish
Official exclusive Yiddish adaptation of the Communicative Development Inventory screening instrument for speech and language pathologists, granted by the MBCDI board; http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/cdi/announcements.htm. Initiative praised by New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Program Monitoring and Quality Improvement Early Intervention Program Review 2006. 2009
Principal Investigator, 2007-08
Data collection site: YvY Early Head Start and Head Start 2006-07
Co-Principal Investigators: G. Martohardjono, RISLUS and Department of Linguistics, CUNY Graduate Center, and G.V. Ellis, Yeled v'Yalda Research Institute
Research Assistant: Tomonori Nagano, Graduate Student in Computational Linguistics, CUNY Graduate Center
Funded by RISLUS (Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society), CUNY Graduate Center: Early Childhood Interfaces: Analyses of Demographic, Cognitive, Socio-emotional, Linguistic, Behavioral, Educational and Medical data collected on YvY population (> 2,000 low SES children ages 0 to 5, using more than 15 languages, > 10% with Individualized Education Plan) in 2006-07. 2008
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
Mor, T. and I. Barrière, with M. Alda, N. Baine, Y. Faour, R. Fallas, L. Gez, S. Hazan, S. Oved and B. Royston. "Emergent Biliteracy Skills in Hebrew-English Speaking Preschoolers." 3rd Annual Conference on Communication Disorders in Multilingual and Multicultural Populations." Hadassah Academic College. Jerusalem. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
"Developing Assessment Tools for Yiddish-English Dual Language Learners in Early Head Start and Head Start: Challenges and Solutions." Conference of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education: Achieving a Lifetime of Bilingualism From Early Childhood to Higher Education. Long Island, N.Y. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Language Acquisition in a Diverse World: Progress and Challenges." Student Research Poster Day. Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences, CUNY Graduate Center. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"The Emergence of Grammar in Toddlers: Evidence From Different Languages, Modalities and Contexts of Acquisition." Studies on Normal and Impaired Language Acquisition in Monolingual and Bilingual Children and Adults. University of Konstanz, Germany. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
Abakina, Y., V. Midyany and I. Barrière. "Attrition and Code-Switching in the Language Production of Dominant Bilingual English-Russian speaking University Students." International Linguistic Association. Borough of Manhattan Community College. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
Barrière, I. and M.M. Monéreau-Merry. "Trilingualism of the Haitian Diaspora in NYC: Current and Future Challenges." Conference of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education: Achieving a Lifetime of Bilingualism From Early Childhood to Higher Education. Long Island, N.Y. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
Barrière, I., T. Mor, M. Alda, N. Baine, Y. Faour, R. Fallas, L. Gez, S. Hazan, S. Oved and B. Royston. "Emergent Biliteracy Skills in Hebrew-Speaking Dual Language Learners." 11th Head Start Research Conference. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
Nazzi, T., L. Goyet, I. Barrière, S. Kresh and G. Legendre. "New Evidence of French-Learning Infants' Sensitivity to Irregular Subject-Verb-Agreement at 18 Months." Presentation accepted as part of the Early Acquisition of Morpho-Syntax: Categories, Dependencies and Movement Symposium, SCRD 2011 Biennial Meeting. Montreal, March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"The Acquisition of Yiddish by Hasidic Toddlers and Preschoolers: Insights Into Bilingualism From a Natural Psycholinguistic Experiment." Judaic Studies Program, Drexel University. Philadelphia. November. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
Barrière, I., G. Legendre, T. Nazzi, L. Goyet and S. Kresh. "L'Acquisition de l'Accord Sujet-Verbe par les Jeunes Francophones Natifs entre 14 et 30 mois: Préference, Compréhension et Environnement Linguistique." 2nd World Congress of French Linguistics, New Orleans. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Barrière, I., G. Legendre, T. Nazzi, L. Goyet and S. Kresh. "L'acquisition de l'accord sujet-verbe par les jeunes francophones natifs entre 14 et 30 mois: préférence, comprèhension et environnement linguistique." 2nd World Congress of French Linguistics. New Orleans. July.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Barrière, I., Y. Blum, C. Buchman, D. Barnett, R. Miles, S. François and A. Guttierez. "Developing Culturally Sensitive Language Assessments With EHS and HS Professionals and Parents to Inform a Dual Language Policy Adapted to Your Populations: Insights for a Project on Yiddish, Spanish and Haitian Dual Language Learners." Head Start 10th National Research Conference: Research on Young Children and Families -- Launching the Next Decade for Policy and Practice. Washington. June. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Barrière, I., Y. Blum, C. Buchman, D. Barnett, R. Miles, S. François and A. Guttierez. "Developing Culturally Sensitive Language Assessments with EHS and HS Professionals and Parents to Inform a Dual Language Policy Adapted to Your Populations: Insights from a Project on Yiddish, Spanish and Haitian Dual Language Learners," Head Start 10th National Research Conference: Research on Young Children and Families: Launching the Next Decade for Policy and Practice. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Barrière, I., Y. Blum, L. Gillig and S. Kresh. "Changing the Cultural and Communicative Status of Yiddish in the Hasidic Community by Investigating Its Acquisition," Bloomsbury Round Table in Culture, Communication and Cognition. Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Legendre, G., I. Barrière, L. Goyet and T. Nazzi. "On the Acquisition of Implicated Presuppositions: Evidence From French Personal Pronouns." Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America. Toronto, September. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
Legendre, G., I. Barrière, T. Nazzi and L. Goyet. "French Personal Pronouns and the Acquisition of Implicated Presuppositions." Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting. Baltimore. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Impaired Language, Cognitive and Communication Development in Dual Language Learners." New York Neuropsychology Bilingual Task Force, March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
"The Distinction between Low Percentage of Exposure and Language Impairment: Insights from the Acquisition of Yiddish and English." Bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
Barrière, I., Y. Blum and L. Gillig. "Word-Order, Pro-Drop and Auxiliary Selection in Varieties of Contemporary Brooklyn Yiddish." Conference on Yiddish Language Structures. University of Regensburg, Germany. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Legendre, G., L. Goyet, I. Barrière, S. Kresh and T. Nazzi. "Sensitivity to Irregular French Subject-Verb Agreement at 18 Months: Evidence from the Head Turn Preference Procedure." Boston University Conference on Language Development. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Legendre, G., L. Goyet, T. Nazzi and I. Barrière. "Sensitivity to Subject-Verb Agreement at 18 Mmonths: Evidence from Head Turn Preference" poster. Scientific symposium in honor of Celia Jakubowicz ?Syntactic Theory and (a) Typical Acquisition of Language. Paris University, France. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
"The Vitality of Yiddish among Hasidic Infants and Toddlers in a Low SES Preschool in Brooklyn." 2008 Czernowitz Yiddish Language International Centenary Conference. Czernowitz, Ukraine. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
Barrière, I., G. Martohardjono and G.V. Ellis. "Language(s) and Pre-Literacy Skills in Low Income Pre-Schoolers in New York City." Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society, CUNY Graduate Center, New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
Barrière, I., S. Frenkel, F. Halbertsam, S. Smedesdran, E. Bergelson and J. Chen. "Quantitative Effects on Yiddish/English Bilingual Development." 33rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
Legendre, G., I. Barrière, T. Nazzi, and L. Goyet. "The Nature of First Word Combinations: Evidence from the Sensitivity to Subject-Verb Agreement in 18- and 24-Month-Olds Acquiring French." 11th International Conference of the International Association for the Study of Child Language. University of Edinburgh, Scotland. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2008
Legendre, G., I. Barrière, T. Nazzi, L. Goyet and Culbertson. "On the Status of Subject Clitics in Child French: New Experimental Evidence." Meeting clitics, University of Barcelona. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
Professional Leadership
Development and implementation of Yeled V'Yalda Early Hhead Start and Head Start Dual Language Policy that impacts more than 2,000 children in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Policy available at: http://www.yeled.org/ArticleFiles/2009YVY%20Dual%20Lg%20policy.pdf. (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2009
Community Activities
First event organized in the context of YVY New Head Start Dual Language Policy, B. Zurer-Pearson, University of Massachussets (February). What parents need to know about being and becoming bilingual (What their childcare center needs to help them know.)
Participants: Yeled V?Yalda Early Head Start and Head Start Directors, Special Education Directors and Speech Language Pathologists, CUNY faculty and graduate students. 2009
Hands-on Dual Language Policy Workshop II for Yeled V Yalda Early Head Start and Head Start Teachers and Directors, December. 2009
May: Presented New Brigance Forms and Profile & Progress of YvY Children for ACF Head Start teachers at the Borough Park Professional Development Day.
March: Presented Profile & Progress of YvY Children for Head Start and Early Head Start teachers at the Staten Island Professional Development Day at Silver Lake I & II. 2008
"Talk to Me: Helping Families and Their Young Children to Engage in Communication." Families as Partners: Strategies for Effective Early Intervention Partnering Conference. Brooklyn College and New York University. 2007
Recent findings on emergent speech, language and communication. Families as Partners: Strategies for Effective Early Intervention Partnering Conference. Brooklyn College and New York University. 2007
Screening and assessments of young children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Brooklyn Special Education cluster, New York. 2007
Other Professional Activities
Director, Policy for Research & Education, Yeled V'Yalda Early Childhood Center (one of the two largest Head Start Programs in New York) (www.yeled.org); co-founder and co-director, Yeled v'Yalda Research Institute (www.yeled.org/res.asp). 2004-present. 2009
