Professor Ianthi Tsimpli

Language, Literacy and cognition, First and Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism, Language DisordersCurrent research: 

ESRC-DFID funded project Multilingualism and Multiliteracy: Raising learning outcomes in challenging contexts in primary schools across India.

Other recent projects were co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Programs: THALES and Excellence I. The THALES project (“Bilingual Acquisition & Bilingual Education: The Development of Linguistic & Cognitive Abilities in Different Types of Bilingualism”) investigates the interactions between bilingualism, literacy and non-verbal cognition. More than 700 children, 8-12 years old, monolingual and bilingual from Greece, Albania, Germany, UK and the US participated in this project. The aims were to examine the effects of bilingual education and biliteracy on non-verbal cognition as well as on language abilities.  The Excellence I Research Programme entitled “Individual Differences in Anaphora Resolution: Linguistic and Cognitive Effects” aims to shed light on the issue of individual differences observed in anaphora resolution among healthy adults, young and elderly. The factors examined include domain-specific, linguistic factors such as lexical, syntactic and pragmatic complexity, domain-general abilities such as executive control and fluid intelligence, aging and language experience measured through print exposure and education levels.