Marilyn Shatz

Marilyn Shatz is an American scholar known for her work in language development and discourse. She holds the title of Professor Emerita of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, where she worked from 1977 until retiring in 2009.

Shatz investigated child development from a holistic perspective including cognition, social and linguistic influences. which is a type of prosodic-adapted speech used by adults when speaking to an infant. In her work, she defended the interplay of nature and nurture in language development. under the supervision of Rochel Gelman. Her Ph.D. dissertation was entitled "On Understanding Messages: A Study in the Comprehension of Indirect Directives by Young Children". On October, 1st, 1976, Shatz participated of the First Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, where discussed the role of maternal gestures in first language acquisition.

Shatz joined the Department of Psychology of the University of Michigan in 1977 as an assistant professor and she was continuously promoted to associate professor in 1979 and professor in 1984. During her career, she both published edited several articles and books. After retiring in 2009, Shatz moved to North Carolina and took a position as adjunct professor in the University of North Carolina Wilmington,

Research Shatz's research points to the interaction between nature and nurture in the process of language acquisition. and cross-linguistic

Shatz and her former doctoral advisee Erika Hoff

Language acquisition in the context of bilingual education is vastly discussed in Shatz's book The education of English language learners: Research to practice. In this volume, research-based evidence is presented to guide both educational practice and policy. The editors' organization of this volume implicitly argue for the richness and complexity of cognitive development in members of multilingual communities.

Awards

1980, J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship 1980, National Science Foundation 1985, Fulbright Award

Selected publications Books

Hoff, E. & Shatz, M. (Eds). (2007). Blackwell handbook of language development. Wiley-Blackwell. Shatz, M. (1994). A toddler's life: Becoming a person. Oxford University Press. Shatz, M., & Wilkinson, L. C. (Eds.). (2010). The education of English language learners: Research to practice. Guilford Press. Shatz, M., & Wilkinson, L. C. (2013). Understanding language in diverse classrooms: A primer for all teachers. Routledge.

Articles Shatz, M. (1978). On the development of communicative understandings: An early strategy for interpreting and responding to messages. Cognitive Psychology, 10(3), 271–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(78)90001-4 Shatz, M., Diesendruck, G., Martinez-Beck, I., & Akar, D. (2003). The influence of language and socioeconomic status on children's understanding of false belief. Developmental Psychology, 39(4), 717–729. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.39.4.717 Shatz, M. & Gelman, R. (1973). The development of communication skills: Modifications in the speech of young children as a function of listener. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38(5), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/1165783 Shatz, M., Tare, M., Nguyen, S. P., & Young, T. (2010). Acquiring non-object terms: The case for time words. Journal of Cognition and Development, 11(1), 16–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248370903453568 Shatz, M., Wellman, H. M., & Silber, S. (1983). The acquisition of mental verbs: A systematic investigation of the first reference to mental state. Cognition, 14(3), 301–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(83)90008-2