Brian MacWhinney facts for kids

Brian James MacWhinney (born August 22, 1945) is a Professor of Psychology and Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University. He is an expert in how people learn their first language and second languages. He also studies how language works in our brains (this is called neurolinguistics).

Professor MacWhinney has written many books and articles about these topics. He is famous for his competition model of language learning. He also created two big language databases called CHILDES and TalkBank. These databases help researchers study how people use language. He also helped create computer programs like PsyScope and E-Prime. These programs are used for running psychology experiments.

About Brian MacWhinney

Brian MacWhinney earned his first degree in rhetoric and geology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965. He was 19 years old at the time. Later, he earned his master's degree in speech science in 1967. He then got his Ph.D. in psycholinguistics in 1974, also from UC Berkeley.

Before becoming a full-time professor, he worked as an elementary school teacher. He also did research at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. In 1974, he became a psychology professor at the University of Denver. In 1981, he moved to Carnegie Mellon University. He has been teaching and researching there ever since. In 2001, he was a special visiting professor at Hong Kong University.

Many groups have recognized Professor MacWhinney for his excellent research. These include the International Association for the Study of Child Language. He has also helped guide many professional groups and academic journals. He is a member of important societies like the American Psychological Society.

Professor MacWhinney is married and has two sons. He can speak six languages fluently. These include English, Hungarian, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. He has shared his research in many countries around the world.

How We Learn Language: The Competition Model

Professor MacWhinney created a way to understand how we learn our first and second languages. It's called the competition model. This model suggests that language learning happens through a kind of "competition." Words, sounds, and grammar patterns in our minds compete with each other. The ones we hear most often and that work best become stronger.

This model shows that learning language forms depends on hearing words and patterns many times. We learn them in different situations. Research in psycholinguistics (how our minds use language) supports the ideas of the competition model.

CHILDES and TalkBank Projects

Professor MacWhinney also created and leads the CHILDES and TalkBank projects. These are two very popular databases for studying how people learn language. He also works on FluencyBank, which is part of TalkBank.

The CHILDES system gives researchers tools to study how people talk to each other. It has a huge collection of written conversations (transcripts). It also has computer programs to analyze these conversations. The database includes transcripts from children learning language. Most of these are everyday conversations. There are also transcripts from children who speak two languages. It includes older kids, adults learning a second language, and people with language difficulties. The database has data on learning 26 different languages!

TalkBank includes all the data from CHILDES. It also has more language data from older children and adults. This includes people with aphasia (language loss due to brain injury). It also has data from second language learners, adult conversations, and classroom language learning.

These important databases are supported by groups like the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Understanding Language and the Brain

Recently, Professor MacWhinney has been looking at how we learn second languages. He also studies how language works in the brain. He looks at children who have had brain injuries and how they recover language.

He is exploring a new idea called "linguistic functionalism." This idea connects how we use language to how we understand things from different viewpoints. Our minds build a picture of the world based on what we hear and see. Grammar helps us show changes in our viewpoint. For example, words like pronouns (like "he" or "she") and voice (like active or passive) help us shift perspective. A big goal of this research is to understand how our brains make these perspective shifts happen.

Honors and Awards

Professor MacWhinney has received many honors for his work, including:

• President of the International Association for the Study of Child Language (1999–2002)
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
• Fellow, American Psychological Association
• Director, Child Language Data Exchange System (since 1984)

See also

• Competition model
• CHILDES
• TalkBank
• PsyScope
• System for Teaching Experimental Psychology
• International Association for the Study of Child Language