Student Lecture Examines Writing Systems

Sep 23, 2011

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
SANDRA PAULSON, administrative assistant, Academic Affairs
(218) 299-4541
AMY KELLY, Media Relations director
(218) 299-3642

STUDENT LECTURE EXAMINES CHARACTER-BASED
AND ALPHABETIC-BASED WRITING SYSTEMS

      Concordia senior Anna Ingebretson and Katie Zetah ’11 will present the second lecture in the Student Lecture Series, “Does the Language You Use Affect How You Think? The Impact of Language Writing Systems on Visual Working Memory,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in Birkeland Alumni Lounge.
      In the U.S., only 20 percent of Americans speak more than one language, yet in the increasingly multicultural and globally oriented society, knowledge of multiple languages is vitally important in fields like education, communication and business. Unlike alphabetic writing systems, languages like Chinese and Japanese require recognition of thousands of characters for basic literacy. The study examined how backgrounds in specific language writing systems impact visual working memory in bilinguals.
      Dr. Susan Larson, associate professor of psychology, is the faculty sponsor. The lecture is free and open to the public.


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