Georgette Ioup

Georgette Ioup
Born(1940-05-17)May 17, 1940
DiedMay 28, 2024(2024-05-28) (aged 84)
Burial place
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupationslinguistics professor and researcher
EmployerUniversity of New Orleans
Known forSecond-language acquisition research[1]

Georgette Ioup (May 17, 1940 – May 28, 2024) was an American linguistics professor and researcher. She examined the ways people learn new languages (called second-language acquisition), and one of her research papers was considered "one of the most impactful studies published in SSLA [Studies in Second Language Acquisition]", according to Cambridge University Press.[2]

Early life

Georgette Ioup was born May 17, 1940, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, to Elias George and Angeline (Kattouf) Ioup.[3] In 1958, she graduated from Altoona High School.[3] She earned a B.A. degree in classical languages from Wilson College in 1963, an M.A. in linguistics from New York University in 1973, and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center in 1975.[3]

Academic career

From 1985 to 2007, Ioup worked as a professor in the Department of English at the University of New Orleans.[3] Before joining the University of New Orleans, Ioup served as a professor at the American University in Cairo and the University of Washington in Seattle.[3]

During her career, Ioup's linguistics research was published in several academic journals, including Linguistics and Philosophy[4] and Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies.[5]

In 1987, she and linguistics researcher Steven H. Weinberger were co-editors of the book Interlanguage Phonology: The Acquisition of a Second Language Sound System (Newbury House Publishers). A 1990 review of this book in Second Language Research called it a "well integrated, comprehensive mixture of established and recent articles, covering all major issues of phonology."[6]

Ioup was the primary author of "Reexamining the Critical Period Hypothesis: A Case Study of Successful Adult SLA in a Naturalistic Environment," published in March 1994 in the journal Studies in Second Language Acquisition, which examined "the ability of adults to achieve nativelike competence in [a] second language" without the benefit of formal schooling. On May 22, 2018, Cambridge University Press released a video interview of Ioup discussing this article, as part of the press's series on "authors of key papers" talking about "their influential articles."[2] In the interview, Ioup explained that while teaching in Egypt, she had met a British student, Julie, who reported learning Egyptian Arabic "as an adult but in the manner of a child," meaning the student never had formal training in Egyptian Arabic and could only speak the language, not read or write it.[2] Ioup recounted that this student's ability to learn Egyptian Arabic led Ioup to reconsider the so-called critical period hypothesis, which claims that languages need to be learned at a young age (usually before puberty) in order to achieve nativelike fluency.[2][7]

Personal life

Ioup had two brothers: George E. Ioup (March 26, 1939 – January 20, 2016), a former professor of physics at the University of New Orleans, and William E. Ioup, a one-time president of Superior Tree Company in Arkansas.[3][8]

She had a son, Elias Z. K. Ioup, and a daughter, Carole Mashamesh.[3]

Georgette Ioup told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate that she left Seattle and relocated to New Orleans "because she wanted to raise her son near her kind-hearted brother [George]."[9]

Death

Ioup died May 28, 2024, at age 84.[3] She is buried at St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Singleton, David Michael; Lengyel, Zsolt (January 1, 1995). The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition: A Critical Look at the Critical Period Hypothesis. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 978-1-85359-301-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cambridge University Press (May 22, 2018). An interview with Georgette Ioup. Retrieved November 30, 2024 – via YouTube.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Obituaries: Dr. Georgette Ioup". Altoona Mirror. June 8, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  4. ↑ Ioup, Georgette (1977). "Specificity and the Interpretation of Quantifiers". Linguistics and Philosophy. 1 (2): 233–245. doi:10.1007/bf00351105.
  5. ↑ Ioup, Georgette (1984). "Is There a Structural Foreign Accent? A Comparison of Syntactic and Phonological Errors in Second Language Acquisition". Language Learning. 34 (2): 1–15. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1984.tb01001.x. ISSN 1467-9922. Archived from the original on December 1, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  6. ↑ Lowie, Wander M. (December 1, 1990). "Book reviews: loup, G. and Weinberger, S.H. (eds) 1987: Interlanguage phonology: The acquisition of a second language sound system. Cambridge, Mass.: Newbury House Publishers, 423 pp". Interlanguage studies bulletin (Utrecht). 6 (2): 159–167. doi:10.1177/026765839000600206. ISSN 0165-9960.
  7. ↑ Edwards, Jette G. Hansen; Zampini, Mary L. (2008). Phonology and Second Language Acquisition. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-4147-4.
  8. ↑ "Extended Obituaries - I". MIT Class of 1962. October 29, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  9. ↑ Reckdahl, Katy (January 25, 2016). "George Ioup, longtime physics professor at University of New Orleans, dies at 76". NOLA.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024.