Research and Teaching Interests

• Second language acquisition and research; child language acquisition; cross-linguistic transfer in L2 acquisition and creolization; L2 lexical acquisition; L2 learnability issues; language awareness; input processing; language and power; academic writing and Web-based research.

Some Recent Publications

SLA, creolization, & transfer

• Helms-Park, R. (2004). From a serializing L1 to a non-serializing L2: A preliminary discussion of transfer and Tense-driven restructuring in language contact situations. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics (University of Toronto), 22, 41-51.
• Helms-Park, R. (2003). Transfer in SLA and creoles: The implications of causative serial verb constructions in the interlanguage of Vietnamese ESL learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge University Press), 25, 2, 211-244.
• Helms-Park, R. (2002). The need to draw second language learners’ attention to the semantic boundaries of syntactically relevant verb classes. Canadian Modern Language Review (University of Toronto Press), 58, 4, 576-598.
• Helms-Park, R. (2001). Evidence of lexical transfer in learner syntax: The acquisition of English causatives by speakers of Hindi-Urdu and Vietnamese. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge University Press), 23, 1, 71-102.

Second-language writing & electronic literacy/Miscellaneous

• Helms-Park, R., Radia, P., & Stapleton, P. (2007). A preliminary assessment of Google Scholar as a source of EAP students' research materials. The Internet and Higher Education , (Elsevier), 10, 1.
• Stapleton, P., Helms-Park, R., & Radia, P. (2006). The Web as a source of unconventional research materials in second language academic writing. The Internet and Higher Education, 9, 1, pp. 63-74.
• Stapleton, P., & Helms-Park, R. (2006). Evaluating Web sources in an EAP course: Introducing a multi-trait instrument for feedback and assessment. English for Specific Purposes (Elsevier), 15, 4, 438-455.
• Helms-Park, R., & Stapleton, P. (2006). How the views of faculty can inform undergraduate Web-based research: Implications for academic writing. Computers and Composition (Elsevier), 23, 4, pp. 444-461.
• Helms-Park, R., & Stapleton, P. (2003). Questioning the importance of individualized voice in undergraduate L2 argumentative writing: An empirical study with pedagogical implications. Journal of Second Language Writing (Elsevier), 12, 3, 245-265.
• Helms-Park, R. (2000). Two decades of heritage language education. In J. Teixeira & V. Da Rosa (Eds.), The Portuguese in Canada (pp. 127-144). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Articles submitted/in preparation

• Helms-Park, R. Article on the retention of transferred features in SLA and creolization.
• Helms-Park, R. (with Paul Stapleton). Article on growing verb classes in English.
• Helms-Park, R. (with Maria Claudia Petrescu, Vedran Dronjic, Claudette D'Souza, & Ellen Moore). Various articles on the cognate facilitation hypothesis (based on an on-going study investigating the acquisition of English cognates and non-cognates by speakers of Romanian, with Vietnamese speakers as the comparison group).

Some Recent Grants

• SSHRC Standard Research Grant (2004-7): “Transfer in second language acquisition and creolization: L1/substrate influence in emergent and stable grammars.”
• Connaught New Faculty Match-Up Grant (2002-4): “An empirical study of the divergent roles of voice and content in second-language academic writing.”
• Teaching Enhancement Grants, Teaching and Learning Services, UTSC

2005-6 (with P. Radia). On an explicit pedagogy in classroom-based genre analysis.
2004-5 (with P. Radia). On the use of the Internet in undergraduate research.
2002-4 On peer review in undergraduate academic writing.

Courses Taught Recently

• Graduate
  CTL3004 Language Awareness
  HDP1299 First Language Development
  CTL3010 Second Language Learning
  CTL3799 Special Topic: Second Language Lexical Acquisition
• Undergraduate
  PLIB25 Second Language Acquisition
  PLIC34 Developmental Psycholinguistics
  PLIC35 Reading in a First or Second Language
  PLID44 Acquisition of the Mental Lexicon
  LGGA11 Canadian Culture & Society: A Course for Non-Native Speakers of English

Special Interests

• Classical music; concerts & shows; book learning; gardening; travel outside North America; museums; politics; any local, national, & global effort to minimize inequity or environmental degradation; animals & the wilderness; meaningful discussions
  
  

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