Tamara Sorenson Duncan
Associate Professor (Linguistics); Sabbatical July 1, 2025 鈥 June 30, 2026
- PhD (University of Alberta)
- 256 Paterson Hall, 杏吧原创 University
- 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
- Email Tamara Sorenson Duncan
My research program investigates language and literacy development in diverse populations. To date, this work has included children from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, children with developmental language disorder and children with autism spectrum disorder.
Recent News
New Evidence Illustrates Success of Minority-L1 Students in French Immersion
Congratulations to the collaborative research team, which includes SLaLS associate professor Tamara Sorenson Duncan, for their recent publication in the International Journal of Bilingualism. Their …
Beth MacLeod and Tamara Sorenson Duncan Receive SSHRC Insight Development Grants
Congratulations to Professors Beth MacLeod and Tamara Sorenson Duncan on receiving SSHRC Insight Development Grants in the February 2023 competition. Beth鈥檚 project 鈥淚ndividual variation in …
Students Share Practicum Experience in Speech-Language Pathology
The School of Linguistics and Language Studies proudly offers a practicum in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) through LING 4604. This field placement course allows students to …
Interested in Getting Involved With Research?
Do you have questions about how children learn a second language? Are you interested in collaborating on a project? Let鈥檚 work together!
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Current
Sarah Donnelly is completing her MA thesis where she will be looking at the language and literacy skills of children with special education needs in a bilingual education setting. This investigates how children with special education needs learn language in a bilingual classroom.
Former
Hesam Farahani completed his MA thesis investigating sources of individual differences in university students鈥 abilities to learn new words from written texts.
Yianna Georgopoulos completed her BA Honours Thesis titled 鈥淟2 Morphosyntactic Acquisition in Somali Refugee Children and the Language Socialization Practices of their Families鈥
Hikmet Mawi completed an independent research project, which investigated the experiences of bilingual families from immigrant and refugee backgrounds who have children with autism spectrum disorder.
Emma Bornheimer completed her BA honours thesis, which focused on netspeak (the language of the internet) in autistic individuals. She continued this line of research with the support of a FASS Summer Research award. You can learn a little more about her summer project .
Fatemeh Saadat completed her BSc thesis in Psychology at Dalhousie University. I co-supervised her work (with H茅l猫ne Deacon). Her thesis investigated the relations between sentence comprehension and reading comprehension across developmental time points.
Manasi Karkada completed her BSc. Honours thesis at Dalhousie University. I co-supervised her research with Isabel Smith. She also completed an independent study, which I co-supervised with H茅l猫ne Deacon. While at Dalhousie, her research focused on reading comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorder. She has since completed her MSc. in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at the University of Oxford.
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For the 2024-25 school year, I am teaching: ALDS/LING 2604 and ALDS/LING 3604.
I am also the coordinator for LING 4604: Practicum in Speech Language Pathology. If you are interested in learning more about this practicum course, please consult the聽information packet聽for ALDS and LING programs.
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Sorenson Duncan, T. (2021). Interview about . Put together by the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASTL) as part of their Languages Build series.
Sorenson Duncan, T. (2021). Interview about the role of language input from siblings in children鈥檚 second language acquisition. Host: Sharon Unsworth. Podcast: English edition of .
Sorenson Duncan, T. (2020). Language Development in children from immigrant and refugee backgrounds: What does it look like and why does it matter? Webinar for Speech-Language & Audiology Canada. (Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Canada (SAC) members/associates can view a recording of the webinar through , non-members can access the slides here)
Capozzi-Davis, O., C么t茅, E. Innes, O. & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2020). Can children with autism spectrum disorder be bilingual? Originally published in: Canadian Teacher Magazine, 8, Winter Issue, p. 32-33.
Sorenson Duncan, T. Kay-Raining Bird, E. & Smith, I.M. (2019) Webinar created for Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority.
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MacKay, E., Lynch, E., Sorenson Duncan, T. & Deacon, S.H. (2021). Informing the science of reading: Children鈥檚 awareness of sentence-level information is important for reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly.
Sorenson Duncan, T., Karkada, M., Deacon, S.H. & Smith, I.M. (2021). Building Meaning: Meta-analysis of Component Skills Supporting Reading Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Research.
Kay-Raining Bird, E., Genesee, F., Sutton, A., Chen, X., Oracheski, J., Pagan, S., Squires, B., Burchell, D., & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2020). Access and outcomes of children with special education needs in early French immersion. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education. .
Sorenson Duncan, T., Mimeau, C., Crowell, N. & Deacon, S. H. (2020). Not all sentences are created equal: Evaluating the relation between children鈥檚 understanding of basic and difficult sentences and their reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology.
Sorenson Duncan, T. & Paradis, J. (2020). Home language environment and children鈥檚 second language acquisition: the special status of input from older siblings. Journal of Child Language. First view:
Sorenson Duncan, T. & Paradis, J. (2020). How does maternal education influence the linguistic environment supporting bilingual development in child L2 learners of English? International Journal of Bilingualism, 24, 46-61 (first published as an online first in 2018).
Newman, J. & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2019). The subject of ROAR in the mind and in the corpus: What divergent results can teach us. Linguistica Atlantica, 37, 1-27.
Sorenson Duncan, T. & Paradis, J. (2019). Using television to boost native-speaker input for L2-learning children: A cautionary tale. BUCLD 43: Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, 639-652.
Sorenson Duncan, T., MacKay, E. & Deacon. S.H. (2018). Further implications of wearing literate glasses: Considerations for developmental research, psycholinguistics and clinical practice. Commentary in L鈥橝nn茅e Psychologique, 118, 377-382.
Paradis, J., Rusk, B., Sorenson Duncan, T. & Govindarajan, K. (2017). Children鈥檚 second language acquisition of English complex syntax: The role of age, input and cognitive factors. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 1-20.
Sorenson Duncan, T. & Paradis, J. (2016). English language learners鈥 nonword repetition performance: The influence of age, L2 vocabulary size, length of L2 exposure and L1 phonology. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 38-49.
Paradis, J., Schneider, P. & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2013). Discriminating children with language impairment among English language learners from diverse first language backgrounds. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56, 971-981.
Tessier, A., Sorenson Duncan, T. & Paradis, J. (2013). Developmental trends and L1 effects in early L2 learners鈥 onset cluster productions. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 16, 663-681.
Blom, E. Paradis, J. & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2012). Effects of input properties, vocabulary size and L1 on the development of third person singular 鈥搒 in child L2 English. Language Learning, 62, 965-994.
Paradis, J., Emmerzael, K., & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2010). Assessment of English language learners: Using parent report on first language development. Journal of Communication Disorders.43, 474-497.