Language

A new study from MIT has found that piano lessons have a very specific effect on kindergartners’ ability to distinguish different pitches, which translates into an improvement in discriminating between spoken words.

How music lessons can improve language skills

Study links piano education with better word discrimination by kindergartners.

June 25, 2018

“I’ve always been interested in technology and in the different ways in which you can make people’s lives better through [technological] tools,” Rodríguez says.

William Rodríguez: Helping others broaden their horizons

MIT senior and Model UN leader William Rodríguez works to encourage the global exchange of ideas.

May 20, 2018

Cognitive scientists define critical period for learning language

Study shows children remain adept learners until the age of 17 or 18.

May 1, 2018

Research shows that students who fail to read adequately in first grade have a 90 percent probability of reading poorly in fourth grade, and a 75 percent probability of reading poorly in high school.

MIT and Harvard join forces to address early childhood literacy

Reach Every Reader aims to end early literacy crisis.

March 6, 2018

In the 13th district, the students discovered "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité," a building-mural designed by the artist Shepard Fairey, who gifted it to Paris after the attacks of 2015.

Outstanding MIT students of French explore "Paris et la rue"

In the January Scholars in France program, students discover behind-the-scenes Paris and the city's storied streets.

March 5, 2018

MIT cognitive scientists have found that conversation between an adult and a child appears to change the child’s brain.

Back-and-forth exchanges boost children’s brain response to language

Study finds engaging young children in conversation is more important for brain development than “dumping words” on them.

February 13, 2018

“The danger emerges when distrust undercuts the sources for truth in society,” says Justin Khoo, an assistant professor of philosophy. “You give up on the truth and retreat to subjectivism: ‘All I know is the content of my own mind.’ That’s paving the path to authoritarianism. The point of democracy is to think about issues yourself.”

Applying philosophy for a better democracy

In Justin Khoo’s new class, students explore how language affects censorship, dissent, truth, and propaganda.

February 9, 2018

Woodard is a co-founder of the MIT BoSTEM Scholars Academy. The four-week summer program gives high school students valuable experiences in STEM and aims to put them on the path to MIT and other universities. Woodard worked with his co-founder Javier Weddington to raise $18,000 to fund the program, which debuted the summer of 2017 and will continue in the coming summers.

Connecting through conversation

Whether in Cambridge or Shanghai, MIT senior Joshua Charles Woodard seeks to learn from others’ perspectives and challenge his own.

November 1, 2017

Google has teamed with Michel DeGraff's Kreyòl-based STEM education project in Haiti, to add scientific and technical terms to the Kreyòl module of Google Translate.

MIT-Haiti, Google team up to boost education in Kreyòl

Institute-led effort to create STEM lexicon is now available for global translation.

October 30, 2017

MIT researchers have found that languages tend to divide the "warm" part of the color spectrum into more color words than the "cooler" regions, which makes communication of warmer colors more consistent. From left to right, this chart shows the order of most to least efficiently communicated colors, in English, Spanish, and Tsimane' languages.

Analyzing the language of color

Cognitive scientists find that people can more easily communicate warmer colors than cool ones.

September 18, 2017

Members of the American Sign Language and Deaf Culture Club practice signs in a recent class.

American Sign Language at MIT

A new club is spreading awareness of Deaf culture and American Sign Language.

September 14, 2017

A new computer system can automatically screen young children for speech and language disorders and, potentially, even provide specific diagnoses.

Automated screening for childhood communication disorders

Computer system could help identify subtle speech, language disorders in time for early intervention.

September 22, 2016

Norvin Richards, professor of linguistics at MIT, and the cover of his new book, “Contiguity Theory,” recently published by the MIT Press.

Sound system

In new book, Norvin Richards explores how our voices shape the rules of grammar.

September 20, 2016

“Why Only Us: Language and Evolution” (MIT Press), by Robert C. Berwick (top left) and Noam Chomsky (bottom left)

Code of the humans

New book by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick explores how people acquired unique language skills.

March 1, 2016

Clockwise from top left: Professors Karl Berggren, Edmund Bertschinger, Victor Zue, and Gerald Fink have been named AAAS Fellows.

Four MIT faculty elected 2015 AAAS Fellows

Berggren, Bertschinger, Fink, and Zue are among those recognized for efforts toward advancing science.

November 23, 2015

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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