About

Stefanie Wulff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in English Linguistics from the University of Bremen. Her areas of interest and research include corpus linguistics, construction grammar, data-driven teaching, and second language acquisition. She is actively involved in the UF Corpus Linguistics Lab and serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, as well as Co-editor of Cognitive Linguistics in Practice. Her professional focus encompasses advancing understanding in these fields through her research and editorial activities.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Epistemology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Introducing TURLEC

  International Journal of Corpus Linguistics · 2026-05-07

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This paper provides a detailed account of the Turkish Learner Corpus (TURLEC). Building on the first author’s doctoral dissertation project, which aimed to identify proficiency descriptors for four skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) for learners of Turkish as a second language (L2) at various CEFR levels, the main motivation to build a learner corpus is to outline the language learners actually use at different proficiency levels. With the written and spoken texts of learners of Turkish L2 at university level coming from various countries with numerous L1 backgrounds, TURLEC comprises 735 texts and approximately 97,000 tokens. After rigorous anonymisation, annotation, and error-tagging efforts, TURLEC contains ~21,000 word forms with 3,561 lemmas, which will be profiled based on the CEFR levels. TURLEC is the first learner corpus built to offer a vocabulary profile for L2 Turkish, which is an ever-growing field of study with an increasing number of students.

  PublisherDOI

• Cognitive Second Language Acquisition: Quantitative Methods

  The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics · 2025-12-02

  other1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This entry focuses on quantitative methods in cognitive approaches to second language acquisition (SLA) (henceforth CogSLA). By quantitative methods, we herein refer to any and all methods used to design research, collect data, and analyze data numerically, mathematically, and/or statistically; typically implying that the data sample at hand is of sufficient size to allow generalizations of results to larger populations. By CogSLA, we refer to all approaches to SLA that embrace the idea that a wide variety of factors, including but not limited to linguistic internal and domain‐general cognitive ones, impact the development and ultimate attainment of L2 grammatical representations, real‐time production and comprehension as well as processing. We give the reader an overview of recent trends in quantitative methods in cognitive approaches to SLA and some practical guidance on how to “do” quantitative methods properly. We close by cautioning the reader to consider carefully the hypothesized causal relationships between variables in their research in order to select the most appropriate quantitative methods and encourage the use of visualization techniques such as D irected A cyclic G raphs (DAGs) to outline hypothesized relationships before conducting empirical research.

  PublisherDOI

• Modeling the Dative Alternation in English Early Child Language

  Open Mind · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract How do children develop syntactic ordering preferences, and what affects their syntactic choices? This study probes these questions with the English dative alternation as the test case. We built the largest-to-date dataset of the dative alternation that contains utterances produced by children and their parents, and subjected it to growth curve modeling and logistic regression analysis. Our results demonstrate: (1) the double object structure emerges slightly earlier than the prepositional object structure in child speech; (2) the production level of the double object structure is consistently higher and reaches maximum production growth at a later stage along children’s developmental trajectory; (3) length, givenness, nominal type, and structural persistence are among the most predictive factors of the ordering preferences in both child and parent production, revealing no pronounced difference in their effects dependent on the speaker role or children’s age; (4) children’s ordering preferences start becoming more parent-like as early as 18–24 months.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using NLI to Identify Potential Collocation Transfer in L2 English

  2025-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Identifying instances of first language (L1) transfer -the application of the linguistics structures of a speaker's first language to their second language(s) -can facilitate second language (L2) learning as it can inform learning and teaching resources, especially when instances of negative transfer (that is, interference) can be identified.While studies of transfer between two languages A and B require a priori linguistic structures to be analyzed with three datasets (data from L1 speakers of language A, L1 speakers of language B, and L2 speakers of A or B), native language identification (NLI) -a machine learning task to predict one's L1 based on one's L2 production -has the advantage to detect instances of subtle and unpredicted transfer, casting a "wide net" to capture patterns of transfer that were missed before (Jarvis and Crossley, 2018).This study aims to apply NLI tasks to find potential instances of transfer of collocations.Our results, compared to previous transfer studies, indicate that NLI can be used to reveal collocation transfer, also in understudied L2 languages.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Usage-Based Second Language Acquisition

  Elsevier eBooks · 2025-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Dichotomies as points of departure: A response to Truscott and Sharwood Smith (2024)

  Second language Research · 2025-11-02 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  We here respond to a 2024 discussion and commentary article entitled Dangerous dichotomies and misunderstandings in second language research by Truscott and Sharwood Smith (T&SS), who argue that several dichotomies pervade the field of second language acquisition (SLA) that negatively impact progress in the field. T&SS focus on four dichotomies, all of which imply an opposition of generative and usage-based approaches: (i) Cognitive vs. Generative, (ii) Usage-based vs. Generative, (iii) Dynamic vs. Static/Fixed, and (iv) Innatist vs. What? We find T&SS’s specific approach problematic as corrections are overly skewed towards a single side; some imprecisions are simply swapped for others; and at times, crucial developments in both generative and usage-based approaches are ignored. Thus, we – two usage-based and one generative language researcher – combine forces here to offer our perspective. For the ‘dangers’ that T&SS list regarding each of the four dichotomies they discuss, we provide a synopsis of where we agree with T&SS and where we do not; and, based on where we see contemporary generative and usage-based approaches stand with regard to these four dichotomies, we offer an alternative set of statements that we consider more balanced and nuanced than the ‘corrective statements’ initially offered in T&SS (2024).

  PublisherDOI

• Changes in referential production among Japanese-English bilingual returnee children: a five-year longitudinal study

  Bilingualism Language and Cognition · 2025-03-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract This study tracked the referential production of 25 Japanese-English returnee children for 5 years upon their return to Japan from an English-dominant environment (Mean age = 9.72 at the time of return) and compared their referential strategies to 27 Japanese monolinguals and 27 English monolinguals, age-matched to the returnee’s age at time of return. Returnees used more redundant noun phrases (NPs) in both languages to maintain references compared to monolingual peers. In English, no changes in NP use were noted over time, but increased exposure to English led to fewer redundant NPs when maintaining references. In their native Japanese (L1), returnees used less NPs for maintaining references and more NPs for reintroducing references, indicating improved reference tracking longitudinally. In sum, returnees’ referential production is more sensitive to L1 re-exposure effects than second language (L2) attrition and crucially, increased L2 exposure minimizes redundant referent production among bilingual returnee children.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Theories in Second Language Acquisition

  2025-05-07 · 1 citations

  bookSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2025-05-07 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Chapter 1 Introduction (Bill VanPatten, Jessica Williams, Gregory D. Keating, Stefanie Wulff) This chapter explores the nature of theories, models, and frameworks, emphasizing their purpose in research and in understanding observable phenomena. It also traces early theoretical work related to L2 acquisition prior to the 1990s, namely behaviorism and Monitor Theory. Importantly, the chapter also provides a list of ten well-documented phenomena in L2 acquisition that are in need of explanation by any theoretical approach or framework. In providing this list, readers will be able to see how the various theories, models, and frameworks in this volume are able to account for what we know about L2 acquisition.

  PublisherDOI

• Usage-Based Approaches to L2 Acquisition

  2025-05-07

  book-chapterSenior author

  Chapter 3 Usage-based approaches to L2 Acquisition (Nick C. Ellis, Stefanie Wulff) We present an overview of the cognitive underpinnings of usage-based approaches to second language acquisition (L2A). Not all constructions are equally learnable, even after years of (frequent) exposure. We present a usage-based analysis of this phenomenon in terms of fundamental principles of associative learning: Low salience, low contingency, and redundancy all lead to form–function mappings being less well learned. Compounding this, adult acquirers show effects of learned attention and blocking as a result of L1-tuned automatized processing of language.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative research: Evaluating a Data-Driven Approach to Teaching Technical Writing to STEM Majors

  NSF · $106k · 2017–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Stefan Τh. Gries

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  109 shared

• Anatol Stefanowitsch

  68 shared

• Anna Birmingham

  University of Florida

  66 shared

• Magali Mccauley

  Baidu (China)

  66 shared

• Santa Barbara

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  66 shared

• Martin Hilpert

  University of Neuchâtel

  66 shared

• Susanne Flach

  Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

  66 shared

• Florent Louvain

  Walter de Gruyter (Germany)

  62 shared

Labs

• UF Corpus Linguistics LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., English Linguistics

  University of Bremen