Campion Hall 332c
Telephone: 617-552-6222
Email: foleycw@bc.edu
Linguistic theory and first language acquisition; Acquisition of languages beyond the first; Methodology in language acquisition research; Research-practice partnerships
Claire Foley brings a background in developmental linguistics to her work at the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children. She is the Associate Director of both the Center and of City Connects, a research-practice partnership that implements and studies an evidence-based way for schools to address the out-of-school factors that affect how children learn and thrive.
In linguistics and language acquisition, her research investigates the way children acquire the grammar underlying complex sentences in different languages, with a particular interest in the theory and acquisition of clausal architecture and its relationship to embedded verbal inflectional systems. Drawing on her research experience in language development and cognitive science, she contributes to the theoretical, empirical, and practice-related work of City Connects and the Walsh Center for Thriving Children, seeking to advance the collaboration among researchers and practitioners.
A Research Professor, she is an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Formative Education, Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She is also a Lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences.
Dye, C., and Foley, C. 2021. Elicited imitation in first language acquisition research: Cognitive grounding and cross-linguistic application. Martohardjono, G., and Flynn, S., eds., Language in development: A cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Blume, M., Pareja-Lora, A., Flynn, S., Foley, C., Caldwell, T., Reidy, J., Masci, J., and Lust, B. 2020. Enabling New Collaboration and Research Capabilities in Language Sciences: Management of Language Acquisition Data and Metadata With the Data Transcription and Analysis Tool. In Pareja-Lora, A., Blume, M., Lust, B., and Chiarcos, C., eds., Development of Linguistic Linked Open Data Resources for Collaborative Data-Intensive Research in the Language Sciences. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Dearing, E., Walsh, M., Sibley, E., Lee-St. John, T., Foley, C., & Raczek, S. 2016. Can community and school-based supports improve the achievement of first-generation immigrant children attending high-poverty schools? Child Development 87(3), 883-897.