Dr E.A. Ormel (Ellen)
Assistant professor - Centre for Language Studies
Assistant professor - Department of Language and Communication
Erasmusplein 1
6525 HT NIJMEGEN
Postbus 9103
6500 HD NIJMEGEN
My research mainly deals with language processing and language acquisition in signers, in particular in deaf and hearing bimodal bilinguals of a signed and a spoken language. I examine the impact of modality on human language processing and language acquisition. I have a keen interest in the interaction between language use and other aspects of human cognition, in cross-language interactions, in the role of phonology and iconicity, and in bimodal bilingual (deaf) education.
I have a mixed background in Special Education, Psychology and Linguistics. In 2008, I finished my PhD on visual word recognition in deaf children who participated in bilingual deaf education programs, followed by a post-doc position during which I examined phonetic aspects of movements of the hands. In 2012, I started my personal NWO Veni project “Handy connection between signing and speaking”. The main aim of this project is to relate language use that evolves in deaf and hearing bimodal bilingual children to a range of cognitive abilities. I am also interested in the impact of early versus late exposure to a signed language and in the role of iconicity and phonological processing in deaf and hearing adults. Recently, I began participating in the NWO project Form Meaning Units (FMU), examining the scope of reoccurring form-meaning patterns in sub-lexical sign units. In addition, in our sign language team we are in the process of developing an extensive sign database in Sign Language of The Netherlands (“NGT SignBank”), a sign language assessment tool for second language users of NGT (“Sentence Repetition Test NGT”) and an informative website for parents of deaf children (“doofgewoon.nl”).