Our Research

L2TOR: Second Language Tutoring using Social Robots

The project aims to design a child-friendly tutor robot that can be used to support teaching preschool children a second language. It is funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission.

     Project managers: Aylin Küntay, Tilbe Göksun

     Project members:  Junko Kanero, Cansu Oranç, Sümeyye Koşkulu

BebeGöz: Infants’ Development, Learning and Cognitive Processes

BebeGöz is a multicultural scientific study conducted jointly with Hamburg University. It investigates the development, learning and cognitive processes of infants from 8 to 18 months. The project is funded by TÜBİTAK.

     Project manager: Aylin Küntay

     Project members:  Hilal Şen, Ebru Ger, Seda Akbıyık, Merve Ataman, Berna Uzundağ, Sümeyye Koşkulu

KULLDD: Koç University Longitudinal Language Development Database

Recorded between 2001 and 2004, a corpus initially funded by TUBA and by Eurocores, ESF, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Sophie Kern at Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage at University of Lyon II. attempts to document changes from babbling to first words, and early grammar and social-pragmatics. In 2014, the corpus received funding from the ERC project ACQDIV, and became a sub-corpus of ACQDIV  corpora (“Acquisition processes in maximally diverse languages: min(d)ing the ambient language”, grant no. 615988, PI Sabine Stoll, University of Zürich). The corpus consists of 370 hours of recordings of 8 children who were recorded from 8- to 36-months of age. 1.000.000 words are transcribed in CHAT format, out of which 250.000 words are morphologically glossed.

     Project manager: Aylin Küntay

     Project members: Dilara Koçbaş, Süleyman S. Taşçı

Turkish Communicative Development Inventory (TİGE)

This project adapted and validated Bates MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories to Turkish. It was supported by TÜBİTAK.

     Project managers: Ayhan Aksu-Koç, Aylin Küntay, Funda Acarlar, İlknur Maviş, Hatice Sofu, Seyhun, Topbaş, Figen Turan

     Project members: Burçak Aktürk Arı

     Publication information: Aksu-Koc, A., Acarlar, F., Küntay, A., Mavis, İ., Sofu, H., Topbaş, S., Turan, F., Aktürk-Arı, B. (2019). Türkçe İletişim Gelişimi Envanteri (TİGE) El Kitabı. Detay Yayıncılık. 

Turkish Early Childhood Ecologies (TEÇGE)

It is a 5-year longitudinal study on school readiness and adjustment of 3-year-old Turkish-learning children and their families in Turkey. Supported by TÜBİTAK.

     Project managers: Nazlı Baydar, Aylin Küntay, Zeynep Cemalcılar, Fatoş Gökşen, Bilge Selçuk

     Project members: Nagihan İmer, Berna Akçınar, Zeynep Civelek, Mehmet Eren Yılmaz, Deniz Özkan Göktürk