Daniel Ozernyi
Please provide the tile and a brief summary of your research/conference presentation.
(1) L1 vs. L2 vs. L3 transfer: grammatical gender and determiner acquisition in sequential quadrilinguals (January 2021, Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America).
Looking at how trilingual (Russian-Ukrainian-English) student acquire gender and definiteness in their L4 French I argue that language learning is cumulative, and all previous languages (L1, L2, L3) can influence acquisition of L4. The paper is accessible at https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v6i1.4891, the slides at my website dozernyi.com.
(2) “The crossroads of four languages: the complexity of language identity of quardilinguals in central Ukraine” (Mar 2021, UofBergen, Norway).
This paper was about the “foreign language effect” (it is easier for people to talk about “difficult”, “stressful” topics in a foreign language, foreign language mitigates aversion). I search for this foreign language effect in quadrilinguals, and I successfully find it.
(3) Vocabulary profiling of Polish “Matura”: corpus-based inquiry into content validity for high-stakes Central European state ESL examination (Oct 2021, Midwest Association of Language Testers).
I look at lexical composition of reading tasks in a Polish state exam of English as a second language. Using a levelled corpus of English lexicon, I establish that Polish exam is neither reliable nor valid measure of English proficiency: the lexical items in the reading tasks are far more advanced than they can be for the level the exam claims to test.
(4) EVP as a tool for evaluating the CEFR level-appropriateness of ESL reading examinations: corpus analysis of Ukrainian state assessment (Oct 2021, English Language Testing Society).
Similar to (3), but about Ukrainian state assessment. I found that Ukrainian exam is even less reliable and less valid.
(5) (with Soe Young Lee) Developing a binary-branching decision-tree rubric for assessing speaking: case of ENGin program (Oct 2021, East Coast Organization of Language Testers).
In this talk, we talk about the process of creating a rubric of assessing speaking proficiency tailored to specific needs of ENGin program (a non-profit which pairs up Ukrainian teenagers with native speakers of English). We go through development and validation research on the rubric.
*upcoming*
(6) Linguistic transfer, or there and back again: A chronological study of terminological meandering (Jan 2022, Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America).
I investigate the history of the term “transfer” in linguistics: a long journey from 1890s to present day only to conclude that “transfer” does not have a definition and ought to be abandoned in favor or more formally rigorous definitions.
(7) “Dostoevsky and Ukrainian Literature: Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries Concordances and Tensions” (Mar 2022, Northeast Modern Language Association).
I talk about the influence of Dostoevsky on Ukrainian literature focusing on early modern Ukrainian writing (1910s-1930s), and the dim view Ukrainian writers took of Dostoevsky, yet referring to the motives of his prose. I go through some of the writings of Ivan Franko, Mykola Khvuliovyj, and Oles’ Honchar.
(8) “Teaching British Poetry in a Ukrainian ESL Classroom: Reasons, Results, and Lessons to be Learnt” (Mar 2022, Northeast Modern Language Association).
I look at the potential concordances between modern theories of second and third language acquisition and teaching poetry in classroom. I overview my experience teaching British and American poetry in Ukraine and conclude with subjective recommendations apropos of what is to be avoided while using the poetry in an ESL classroom, and what can be a useful tool.
(9) (with Soe Young Lee) “Evaluating Lexical Resource of Spoken English With Vocabulary Profiling” (Mar 2022, International TESOL Convention).
We look at the potential of automated tool of vocabulary profiler (an instrument which analyzes transcribed speech by level of “advanceness” vocabulary in it). Based on our data and analysis of a corpus of such transcribed speech, we conclude that polysemy and lack of ability to identify lexical mistakes renders automated lexical profiling an utterly unsuccessful tool for assessing second language speech.
(10) “On initial state, initial stages, other fantastic beasts, and where to find them” (Annual Linguistics Symposium at UC Berkeley organized by the Society of Linguistics Undergraduate Students).
What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
First of all, I am thankful to people who helped me on the way — they made sure not to stop me from submitting, and didn’t get too grumpy when I didn’t make sense (in some areas, I still don’t). In high school, I reached out to Prof. Suzanne Flynn (MIT Linguistics) and she could have totally ignored my email (being a pretty famous professor) — but she replied, we met, and we’ve been in constant touch for two years now. She influenced me significantly. She acquainted me with Megan M. Brown (BU Lingusitics) who has been of incredible assistance — I know that when I have an abstract I think doesn’t make sense (and it usually doesn’t), a review with language that is too strong (and it usually is…, I got my opinions…), need a quick consult on particular subfield, I can always reach out to her. She’ll be completing her PhD soon, and I’m excited about the work she does. Lastly, a really important, crucial, vital, existential thing for me is to have a teacher who shares my view of language and whose knowledge and opinion I value, but who can and will change and challenge the ways I think about problems in language and language acquisition. This is such a rare find. When I came to NU, I was coming knowing that there’s one such person at this university — and I’m all too giddy that I get to learn from him. From Prof. Masaya Yoshida, that is. I’ve only known him for a quarter, but I already learnt more syntax than in all my life previously (roughly). There are other people who I met at some point of my journey and who helped me, of course, but these three are (and will be) key, I feel.
In terms of why I’m doing this: I deathly love language and principled inquiry into language. I generally work within many areas — language acquisition, language assessment, language teaching, even literary theory occasionally — but I focus mostly on generative (viz. Chomskian) language acquisition. I try at all times to emphasize the value of other fields for language acquisition.
We have learned so much since Chomsky (1955), but so much more work needs to be done! It is very important to realize the multidimensionality and multifaceted-ness of limitations of research that can be done in language acquisition. Very little can be done that is meaningful, in my view — despite the abundance of the questions which are unanswered. The current research does not seem to be acknowledging this — they acquisitionists should talk to syntactitians and get some picture of what’s happening in real world.
What conference(s) did you present at and how did you find out about them?
For the list of conferences, see the list of the presentations above. In terms of learning about them, listservs mostly, such as LinguistList. The people who are doing LinguistList pro bono are really doing a great service for a big international community of linguists, both experienced ones, and the ones who are starting out — like me.
What was it like presenting at a conference? Anything that you didn’t expect?
Yes, I didn’t expect people to be friendly. But it depends on the kind of conference: if you’re presenting at a conference with a very narrow focus and everyone knows each other, then things will probably get rough. This hugely depends on the field as well. If, however, you are going to something a big field-general conference, in all likelihood you won’t meet another person from your exact area. I was the only L3 person in LSA’s Annual Meeting in 2021 (I think). This year, a friend of mine from BU is going to be the only one there presenting on L3 acquisition. But conferences are for networking, really — talk to people, get to know them, ask questions. The research communities are usually very welcoming and helpful!
Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in presenting at a conference one day?
Don’t be afraid to submit. Those presentations above are accepted ones, but I’m not going to tell you how many I had rejected. Don’t be shy and remember that everyone has an impostor syndrome: you know your topic better than anyone at that conference.
Do you have a podcast/documentary/piece of shareable media related to your research?
My website, dozernyi.com and links there provide some more information about the things I do, viz. full abstracts, slides, previous work, etc.
If you had unlimited time, money, resources, support, etc. what is something you would research?
Frankly, I’d share resources with syntactitians so that they can do some work in order to advance our knowledge of language faster and in a collegial manner. I’ll discriminate and only share resources with those strictly within Chomskian tradition, ahah. I don’t really think other ways of inquiry have much to offer. External language is, to our inquiry, so to speak, at best marginal, and perhaps not empirically meaningful at all. Understanding of syntax is necessary in order to do work in acquisition, etc.
If I had to point to an area, I guess one would be language processing. The current work on processing gapping is very exciting, and should be extended to other languages, other modalities, multilingual contexts. The only concern is that — once again — very little *meaningful* work can be done without comprehensive successes in adjacent areas. For example, not having carefully investigated phenomenon A in both Japanese and English you cannot do any studies on acquisition or bilingual/ second language processing, etc of A. Syntax is core, really. Wherever you look.
Favorite breakfast food?
Sleep.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned/read about/listened to this week?
I listen to a lot of rock (or so Spotify told me quite recently). I read papers, they are always stirring — sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. But come to think about it, St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument from the Logic class was fun this week (credits to Dr. Sean Ebels-Duggan here).