Kees de Bot


Cornelis Kees de Bot is a Dutch linguist. He is currently the Chair of Applied linguistics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and at the University of Pannonia. He is known for his work on second language development and the use of dynamical systems theory to study second language development.

Career

De Bot obtained his PhD degree in General Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in 1982 at the University of Nijmegen. His PhD research concerned the use of visualizations of intonation as a teaching aid.
In May 1994 he became Chair of Applied Linguistics and head of department at the University of Nijmegen. In November 2002 he became Chair of Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen. He is a trustee of the TESOL International Research Foundation and a member of the Program Committee of the Department of Modern Languages of Carnegie Mellon University.
He is co-editor of a series 'Studies in Bilingualism' from John Benjamins Publishing Company. He has published books and articles in the field of applied Linguistics. He is Chair of the Board of the School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences in Groningen. He recently acted as guest editor of a special issue on language attrition.of the journal Studies in Bilingualism
He is an Associate Editor of The Modern Language Journal, a peer-reviewed academic journal.

Research

He is one of the members of the "Dutch School of Dynamic Systems" who proposed to apply time-series data to study second language development along with van Geert, Lowie, and Verspoor. His research concerns a number of topics including foreign language attrition, language and dementia in multilingual settings, maintenance and shift of minority languages and the psycholinguistics of bilingual language processing, and more recently the application of Dynamic Systems Theory in SLA and multilingualism.
In 2015 de Bot's published his first article on circadian rhythms and second language development, followed by another co-authored article in 2017.

Works

In 2004 he wrote a seminal article along with Lowie and Verspoor on second language development which applied the dynamic systems theory to study second language writing development. This was the first research paper in which time-series data were used to explicate changes in the development of second language writing.
In an interview, published in Alkalmazott Nyelvtudomány, de Bot said that he is in interested in the application of circadian rhythm in second language acquisition.

Supervision

de Bot has supervised numerous PhD student including Wander Lowie, Tal Caspi, and Belinda Chan.

Awards