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Office Number:
Education 3127
Phone Number:
(805) 893-7078
E-mail:
education.ucsb.edu kyratzis
Amy Kyratzis
Associate Professor, Ph.D. (Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York)
Emphasis:
Child and Adolescent Development, Cultural Perspectives & Comparative Education, Teaching & Learning
Research Interests:
language development; bilingual language development; language socialization; socialization of gender and bilingual practices in children’s peer interactions; children’s narrative and emergent literacy
Biography:
My training is in language development and sociolinguistics and I teach in the emphases in Child and Adolescent Development and Cultural Perspectives and Comparative Education. I offer such courses as Infancy and Early Childhood Development, Language Development, Gender Development and Language Socialization, and Bilingual Language Development. I began my research career being interested in aspects of cognitive and language development, such as how children learn to use grammatical forms in specific discourse contexts, and how language and culture shape thought. In the course of examining children’s language uses in naturally occurring peer interactions, I became interested in how children socialize one another and support one another’s learning through language.
My research and that of my students focuses on children's discourse in naturally-occurring contexts such as friendship groups within nursery school classrooms and peer cooperative learning groups within elementary school classrooms. Specific research topics include examining how young children socialize gender practices among themselves, and how peer culture routines support first language learning in early care settings. A current project examines how preschool-aged bilingual immigrant Spanish-English speaking children use language and code-switching between their two languages in their peer play interactions to negotiate their footings and identities in play, and how their peer interactions and peer culture goals support their story-telling, literacy, and second language learning. Through understanding children’s peer interactions in the classroom, educators may be in a better position to promote gender equity and improve the engagement of girls and boys of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in classroom interaction and learning.
Recent Publications:
Kyratzis, A. “He take one of my tools!” vs. “I’m building”: Transitivity and the grammar of accusing, commanding, and perspective-sharing in toddlers’ peer disputes. In J. Guo, E. Lieven, N. Budwig, S.M. Ervin-Tripp, K. Nakamura, & S. Ozcaliskan (Eds.), Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Study of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 2009. [Book Chapter]
Kyratzis, A. & Ervin-Tripp, S. Sociolinguistic diversity. In R.A. Shweder, T.R. Bidell, A.C. Dailey, S.D. Dixon, P.J. Miller & J. Modell (Eds.), The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2009. [Book Chapter]
Kyratzis, A. & Cook-Gumperz, J. Language socialization and gendered practices in childhood. In P.A. Duff & N.H. Hornberger (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 8: Language Socialization (pp. 145-159). New York: Springer Science + Business Media LLC. 2008. [Book Chapter]
Kyratzis, A. Using the social organizational affordances of pretend play in American preschool girls’ interactions. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 40(4), 321-352. 2007. [Journal Article]
Goodwin, M.H. & Kyratzis, A. Children Socializing Children: Practices for Negotiating the Social Order Among Peers. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 2007. [Edited Special Issue]
Affiliations:
American Anthropological Association
International Association for the Study of Child Language
International Pragmatics Association
