Gülsen Yılmaz
Ph.D., Applied Linguistics, Groningen University, The Netherlands, 2013
M.A., Foreign Language Education, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2006
B.A., Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 1997
Gülsen Yılmaz is an assistant professor at the Department of Foreign Language Education, Boğaziçi University. Before coming to Boğaziçi, she taught at Groningen, Konstanz and Humboldt University. She currently teaches courses on language awareness and applied psycholinguistics. Her research interests include first language attrition, bilingual development of adult immigrants and heritage speakers and sociolinguistics. She has publications in international journals and books and she has been acting as a reviewer for prominent journals.
Psycholinguistics, bilingualism, language attrition, heritage language development, and sociolinguistics.
Yılmaz, G. & Sauermann, A. (2023). Complete acquisition in the heritage language: Evidence from indefiniteness in Turkish. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, (33), 813-847. DOI: 10.29000/rumelide.1286008
Schmid, M.S. & Yılmaz, G. (2021). Lexical Access in L1 Attrition—Competition versus Frequency: A Comparison of Turkish and Moroccan Attriters in the Netherlands. Applied Linguistics, doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab006.
Yılmaz, G. & Schmid, M.S. (2019). Language contact and language attrition. In J. Darquennes, J. Salmons & W. Vandenbussche (eds.), Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science (HSK) (198–209). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
Yılmaz, G. (2019). Integration: L2 acquisition and L1 attrition. In M.S. Schmid & B. Köpke (eds.),
Handbook on Language Attrition. Oxford University Press.
Yılmaz, G. & Schmid, M.S. (2018). First language attrition and bilingualism. In D. Miller, F. Bayram, J. Rothman & L. Serratrice (eds.), Bilingual Cognition and Language: The State of the Science across its Subfields (225-250). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Schmid, M.S. & Yılmaz, G. & (2018). Predictors of language dominance: An integrated analysis of first language attrition and second language acquisition in late bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:1306.
Yılmaz, G. & Schmid, M.S. (2015). Second language development in a migrant context: First generation Turks in the Netherlands. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 236, 101–132.
Yılmaz, G. (2013). Bilingual language development and first language attrition among Turkish migrants in the Netherlands, PhD thesis, Groningen University, the Netherlands.
Yılmaz, G. & Schmid, M.S. (2012). L1 accessibility among Turkish-Dutch bilinguals. Mental Lexicon, 7(3), 249-274.
Yılmaz, G. (2011). Complex embeddings in free speech production among late Turkish-Dutch bilinguals. Language, Interaction and Acquisition, Special Issue on Language Attrition, 2(2), 251-275.
Gürel, A. & Yılmaz, G. (2011). Restructuring in the L1 Turkish grammar. Effects of L2 English and L2 Dutch. Language, Interaction and Acquisition, Special Issue on Language Attrition, 2(2), 221-250.
Yılmaz, G., de Bot, K. & Schmid, M.S. (2009). Multilingualism and attrition: Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. In A. Backus, M. Keijzer, I. Vedder & B.Weltens (eds.), Anela van de Zesde Anela-conferentie (183-191). Eburon Delft.
Yılmaz, G. (2006). L2 acquisition of the English article system by Turkish learners. M.A. thesis, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Çetin, Ş. & Yılmaz, G. (under review-Journal of the European Confederation of Language Centers in Higher Education). Foreign language enjoyment and anxiety in a high-risk context: Turkish learners of English at a university preparation class.
Conference Presentations
Mar 2020 Workshop at the 42nd annual conference of the German Linguistics Society (DGfS): Variation in heritage languages: Language contact vs. internal developments, Hamburg, paper presentation with Onur Özsoy: Causes of disfluencies in the heritage language: Cognitive, semantic or both
Jun 2019 International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB), Alberta, paper presentation: An intergenerational look into referentiality: the bare object in Turkish
Jun 2019 International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB), Alberta, paper presentation with Antje Sauermann: Complete acquisition in the heritage language: Evidence from indefiniteness in Turkish
Feb 2018 Linguistic Evidence - Experimental data drives linguistic theory, hosted by the SFB 833 'The Construction of Meaning', Tübingen, poster presentation with Antje Sauermann: The interpretation of indefiniteness by Turkish heritage speakers: Is there transfer from the dominant language?
Sep 2017 Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition conference (GALA 13), Palma de Mallorca (Spain), paper presentation: Semantic universals in the article choice of heritage speakers
Jun 2017 International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB), Limerick, paper presentation: Do heritage speakers have a native-like representation of the article system?
Jan 2017 Heritage languages in children and adults (workshop), Leibniz-ZAS, Berlin, project presentation: Variability in the expression of definiteness and specificity in Turkish heritage speakers: The role of presuppositionality (partitivity)
Aug 2016 The European Second Language Association Conference 26 (EuroSLA), Jyväskylä, paper presentation: Variability of the article system in heritage language grammar
Jun 2015 The Turkish and Multilingualism Workshop, Uppsala, paper presentation: Additive bilingualism at the crossroads of family and school: Impact of the first language on the second among early bilinguals
Jun 2015 Thinking, Doing, Learning: Usage-based Perspectives on Second Language Learning (TDL2), Groningen, project presentation: Additive bilingualism at the crossroads of family and school: Impact of the first language on the second among early bilinguals
Sep 2013 Multilingualism: The Key Debates, Leeuwarden, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid: The relation between L2 development and L1 maintenance among long-term migrants
Jun 2012 Tabu Dag, Groningen, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid: L1 accessibility among Turkish-Dutch bilinguals
Jun 2011 International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB), Oslo, paper presentation: L2 development and L1 maintenance among long-term migrants
Sep 2010 The European Second Language Association Conference 20 (EuroSLA), Reggio Emilia, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid and K. de Bot: Attrition in the L1 system of Turkish late bilinguals
Aug 2010 Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies (MIMS) Hamburg, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid: Attrition in the L1 system of Turkish late bilinguals
Aug 2010 International Conference on Turkish Linguistics 15 (ICTL), Szeged, paper presentation with
M.S. Schmid: Attrition in the L1 system of Turkish late bilinguals
Nov 2009 Cognition Autumn School, Nijmegen University poster presentation: L1 syntactic complexity in the context of migration
Sep 2009 The European Second Language Association Conference 19 (EuroSLA), Cork paper presentation with M.S. Schmid: Multilingualism and attrition: Bilingual lexical access in Moroccan Arabic and Turkish
May 2009 Anela De Nederlandse Vereniging voor Toegepaste Taalwetenschap, Kerkrade, paper presentation M.S. Schmid and K. de Bot: Multilingualism and attrition: Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands
Jul 2009 International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB), Utrecht, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid: Multilingualism and attrition: Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands
Mar 2009 Exploring the Relationships between L1 and L2, Oxford, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid and K. de Bot: Multilingualism and attrition: Lexical access among Moroccans and Turks in the Netherlands
Sep 2008 The European Second Language Association Conference 18 (EuroSLA), Aix en Provence, paper presentation: Multilingualism and attrition: Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands
Aug 2008 Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée (AILA), Dusseldorf, paper presentation with M.S. Schmid: Multilingualism and attrition: Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands
Sep 2006 The European Second Language Association Conference 16 (EuroSLA), Antalya, poster presentation: L2 acquisition of the English article system by Turkish learners
Invited Talks
- Limits of variation in contact situations: Turkish heritage speakers in Germany. Talk at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales)/Sorbonne University, 18 Mar 2019, Paris)
- First language development among the first and second generation immigrants. Talk at Humboldt University, 8 Jul 2017, Berlin
- First language attrition, bilingualism and biculturalism: Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. Talk at Boğaziçi University, 20 Oct 2016, Istanbul
- Cognitive benefits of multilingualism and competition between languages. Talk at the International School Groningen/Maarteenscollege, 27 May 2016, Groningen
- First language attrition. Can you ever forget your mother tongue? Talk at the University of Konstanz, 22 Oct 2015, Konstanz
