Prof. Dr. Pascale Engel de Abreu
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| Faculty or Centre | Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences | ||||||||
| Department | Department of Humanities | ||||||||
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Université du Luxembourg Maison des Sciences Humaines 11, Porte des Sciences L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette |
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| Campus Office | MSH, E03 15-020 | ||||||||
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| Telephone | (+352) 46 66 44 9779 | ||||||||
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Meet the scientists: Psychologist - Pascale Engel de Abreu
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| Speaks | English, French, German, Luxembourgish, Portuguese, Spanish | ||||||||
Head of the Language and Cognitive Development Group
About me
I am Associate Professor in multilingual cognitive development at the ECCS Research Unit.
I specialised in cognitive development in my PhD from the University of York (UK) and hold master's degrees in developmental psychology from the University of Durham (UK) and the Université Louis Pasteur (France). I have postdoctoral research experience from the University of Oxford (UK), the University of Princeton (US), and York University (Canada). I am also a registered child psychologist in Luxembourg and have worked with disadvantaged children in Africa, Bolivia, and Brazil.
My research
I am interested in understanding how children learn, why some children can have “specific learning disorders” (such as dyslexia) and how we can help children achieve their full potential at school. I study important cognitive processes that children need to learn to speak, read and write such as working memory, executive functions and phonological awareness. I am particularly interested in exploring these processes in multilingual speakers.
Most of my research is conducted in schools using diverse methodologies, including longitudinal, cross-sectional and intervention research. I often work with kids individually and use simple (and fun) games to find out more about how they think and learn.
My research has important theoretical but also practical implications. One of the major aims is to develop theoretically-driven assessment instruments and intervention programs that will help to alleviate children's learning difficulties and might prevent a downward spiral towards poor educational progress and its associated social problems.
Further information
- Language and Cognitive Development Group
- ResearchGate: Profile
- Academia: Profile
Last updated on: Tuesday, 14 April 2015
I study questions such as:
- How does a child’s environment influence his language and cognitive development?
- How can a “specific learning disorder” be detected in a multilingual child?
- What are the optimal conditions for becoming perfectly multilingual?
- How do children learn to read in a second language and how can this be made easier?
- Why do language-minority children struggle in the Luxembourgish educational system and what can we do to best support their learning?
- What are the effects of multilingualism on brain development?
Below is a short description of some of my recent projects:
- Preschool Oral Language Intervention for Language-Minority Children: The aim is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a mother-tongue based preschool language intervention program on the language and literacy outcomes for language-minority children growing up in Luxembourg using a randomised controlled study design. The program will run for 30 weeks in preschool across Year 1 (C1.1) and Year 2 (C1.2) and will mainly focus on developing children’s vocabulary knowledge as well as their narrative, listening and phonological skills.
- The Effects of Multilingualism and Socioeconomic Status on Children’s Cognitive Development: Executive functions - the set of cognitive processes that underpin our ability to control our thoughts, actions and emotions - are crucial for educational progress and success in later life. The major aim of this project is to advance the understanding of the extrinsic factors that can have an impact on children’s executive function development. The study is multinational involving Universities from Brazil (USP, UNIFESP), Germany (Universität des Saarlandes) and Portugal (University of Minho).
- Early Literacy Instruction in a Multilingual Setting: This project plans to foster the development of pre-literacy skills in young children in order to build a strong foundation for their subsequent reading development. We are developing a theoretically motivated language and pre-literacy program for children in Luxembourg. The program will systematically build up children’s phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge and broader oral language skills. It will be in Luxembourgish and will be multisensory.
- Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances: A Longitudinal Study of Children with Specific Language Impairment: Specific language impairment (SLI) is a clinical condition that is diagnosed when a child fails to acquire language normally, despite apparently typical development in other areas. The diagnosis of SLI in multilingual speakers is difficult because there is often a confusion between language “disorders” and “disadvantages”. The aim of this research is to identify markers for the early identification of SLI in multilingual children. We are exploring the hypothesis that tests of executive functions might distinguish typical from impaired language development in the context of multilingualism.
- The Development of Culture-Fair Assessment Tools for Testing Language and Cognition in Children: There is a need for unbiased tools for assessing language and cognition in multilingual children. The aim of this project is to develop phonological processing, lexical processing, working memory and general cognitive ability tasks that are not influenced by the cultural and linguistic elements that come with diverse populations.
Last updated on: 04 Sep 2014
Articles published in scientific periodicals
Preschool predictors of learning to read and spell in an additional language: a two-wave longitudinal study in a multilingual context.; ; ;
in Reading and Writing (2022)
Practices and experiences of distant education during the COVID-19 pandemic: The perspectives of six- to sixteen-year-olds from three high-income countries; ; ;
in International Journal of Educational Research Open (2021), 2(2), 11
Assessments of working memory: a tool for differentiating between language disorder and language difference in multilingual contexts?;
in ANAE: Approche Neuropsychologique des Apprentissages chez l'Enfant (2021), 33(171), 194-204
Évaluation de la mémoire de travail : un outil de différenciation entre trouble du langage et différence du langage dans des contextes multilingues ?;
in ANAE: Approche Neuropsychologique des Apprentissages chez l'Enfant (2021), 33(171), 194-204
Subjective Well-Being of Adolescents in Luxembourg, Germany, and Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic; ; ; ; ;
in Journal of Adolescent Health (2021)
Effects of an Early Literacy Intervention for Linguistically Diverse Children: A Quasi-Experimental Study; ;
in Frontiers in Psychology (2020), 11
Specific language impairment in language-minority children from low-income families; ;
in International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders (2014), 49(6), 736-747
Executive functioning and reading achievement in school: a study of Brazilian children assessed by their teachers as “poor readers”; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
in Frontiers in Psychology (2014), 5
Working memory screening, school context, and socioeconomic status: An analysis of the effectiveness of the Working Memory Rating Scale in Brazil; ; ; ; ; ;
in Journal of Attention Disorders (2014), 18(4), 301-311
Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural effects on verbal working memory and vocabulary: Testing minority-language children with an immigrant background; ; ;
in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing research (2013), 56(2), 630-642
Effects of impoverished environmental conditions on working memory performance; ; ; ;
in Memory (2013), Mar 26. [Epub ahead of print]
Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children; ; ; ;
in Psychological Science : A Journal of the American Psychological Society (2012), 23(11), 1364-1371
Executive and phonological processes in second language acquisition;
in Journal of Educational Psychology (2012), 104(4), 974-986
Working memory in multilingual children: Is there a bilingual effect?in Memory (2011), 19(5), 529-537
Disentangling the relationship between working memory and language: the roles of short-term storage and cognitive control; ;
in Learning and Individual Differences (2011), 21
Are working memory measures free of socio-economic influence?; ;
in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing research (2008), 51(6), 1580-1587
Scientific congresses, symposiums and conference proceedings – Papers published in a journal
Specific language impairment in language minority children from low-income families; ;
in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology (2014, May), 56(S3), 7-23
Contributions to collective works
Working memory and fluid intelligence; ;
in Alloway, T; Alloway, R. G. (Eds.) Working Memory the Connected Intelligence (2013)
Working memory and fluid intelligence: A multi-mechanism view; ; ;
in Sternberg, R; Kaufman, S (Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence (2011)
Adaptação Brasileira da AWMA, "Automated Working Memory Assessment";
in Ortiz; Zanotto de Mendonça; Foz; Batista Santos; Fuentes; Amaral de Azambuja (Eds.) Avaliação Neuropsicológica. Panorama interdisciplinar dos estudos atuais na normatização e validação de instrumentos no Brasil (2009)
E-Prints/Working papers – first made available on ORBilu
Covid-Kids II. Survey for children aged 6 to 16 about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic; ; ;
E-print/Working paper (2021)
Boosting Early Language as a Foundation for Literacy – Essential but neither Simple nor Easy;
E-print/Working paper (2016)
E-Prints/Working papers – already available on another site
Scientific congresses, symposiums and conference proceedings – Unpublished conferences
Promoting literacy development in linguistically diverse learners: an early-literacy intervention study; ;
Scientific Conference (2019, July)
Developing literacy in language-minority children: a pre-literacy intervention study in Luxembourg; ;
Scientific Conference (2018)
Learning to read in a foreign language - A longitudinal study of children from immigrant families; ;
Scientific Conference (2017, September 01)
Language promotion and language practices in early educational settings in Luxembourg: Research projects in the fields of non-formal and formal education; ;
Scientific Conference (2015, March 06)
The Cross-Linguistic Lexical Task in bilingual children from Luxembourg. Psychometric properties and clinical implicationsScientific Conference (2014, July 17)
Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLT) and word knowledge in monolingual children; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2014, July 17)
Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children; ; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2014, July 16)
Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Cultural Effects on Verbal Working Memory and Vocabulary: Testing Language Minority Children with an Immigrant Background; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2014, July 03)
Bilingualism enriches the poor: Enhanced cognitive control in low-income minority children; ; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2013, September 04)
Can measures of executive function disentangle language disorder and disadvantage; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2013, June 27)
Working memory, executive functions, language, and socio-economic status - A Latent Variable Study of Children From Brazil; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2011, July)
The development of working memory and related cognitive abilities - Environmental and schooling effectsScientific Conference (2011, June)
Cultural and language effects on measures of vocabulary and working memory;
Scientific Conference (2011, June)
Executive functions, language, and socio-economic status; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2011, June)
The development of working memory capacity and fluid intelligence in children; ;
Scientific Conference (2010, December)
WORKING MEMORY AND LEARNING: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF TRILINGUAL CHILDRENScientific Conference (2009, August)
Are working memory measures free of socio-economic and cultural influence?; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2008, January)
Links between working memory, phonological awareness, and language learning;
Scientific Conference (2007, September)
ARE WORKING MEMORY MEASURES FREE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES?; ; ;
Scientific Conference (2007, September)
Path between working memory, phonological awareness, and language: Evidence from children in a multilingual society;
Scientific Conference (2007, August)
Scientific congresses, symposiums and conference proceedings – Posters
Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children; ; ; ;
Poster (2013, June 24)
Executive functions in language-minority children with specific language impairment; ;
Poster (2013, May)
Poverty and executive functions A latent variable study of children growing up in enriched and deprived conditions in Brazil; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Poster (2013, April)
O EFEITO DO NIVEL SOCIOECONÔMICO NO DESENVOLVIMENTO COGNITIVO INFANTIL; ; ; ; ; ;
Poster (2011, May)
Working memory and learning: Evidence from a population of trilingual children;
Poster (2009, April)
Scientific presentations in Universities or research centres
D´Wuelbefanne vu Kanner a Pandemie-Zäiten. Resultater a Perspektiven;
Presentation (2021, November 18)
Présentation des résultats de l’étude COVID - KIDS menée par l’Université du Luxembourg et UNICEF Luxembourg;
Presentation (2021, May 05)
School experiences of children and adolescents in Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland during the first wave of the lockdown; ; ; ;
Presentation (2020, December 17)
Understanding the influence of COVID-19 on children’s and adolescents’ school experience and subjective well-being; ;
Presentation (2020, December 13)
COVID-KIDS. Predictors of subjective well-being. Children’s and adolescents’ homeschooling experience.; ;
Presentation (2020, October 21)
Cross national variation in the impact of COVID-19 on children and education; ; ;
Presentation (2020, July 07)
Working memory, executive functions, language, and socio-economical status: A latent variable study of children from Brazil; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Presentation (2012, June)
Language bias in nonword repetition: Towards a culture fair nonword repetition task;
Presentation (2012, May)
Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority ChildrenPresentation (2012, April)
Executive functions, language, socio-economical status, and multilingualism: How does it all relate?;
Presentation (2011, September)
Environmental effects on the development of crystallized and fluid cognitionPresentation (2011, February)
Expert Reports
External Reports
Doctoral Theses
Learning Materials – Other
Articles for the General Public
Conferences given outside the academic context
Multilingualism and Specific Language ImpairmentConference given outside the academic context (2014)
D‘Exekutivfunktiounen a spezifesch SproochentwécklungsstéierungenConference given outside the academic context (2013)
L'école luxembourgeoise: (quel) besoin de changement?;
Conference given outside the academic context (2012)
D’Exekutivfunktiounen an d’Sproochentwécklung bei jonken Immigrantekanner zu LëtzebuergConference given outside the academic context (2012)
Speeches
The Developing Child: Learning and Learning Difficulties in a Multilingual Context; ; ; ; ; ; ;
in The Developing Child: Learning and Learning Difficulties in a Multilingual Context (2016)
Diverse Speeches and Writings – Other
LESEN LERNEN IN EINER FREMDSPRACHE Prädiktoren des Lesens bei Kindern mit Migrationshintergrund; ;
Diverse speeches and writings (2016)
Aprendendo a ler em uma língua estrangeira - Preditores de leitura em crianças imigrantes de minoria linguística; ;
Diverse speeches and writings (2016)
