This proposal requests support for a working conference, 'New Methods in Comparative Aphasiology,' which will bring together linguists, neurolinguists, and clinicians for an intensive week-long working session, to be held in conjunction with the Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic Society of America at the University of New Mexico during July 1995. 'New Methods in Comparative Aphasiology' is designed to bring together three groups of people; (1) a group of productive researchers in the comparative cross-linguistic study of aphasic speech and their current students, (2) linguistics interested in comparative aphasiology, (3) clinicians with multilingual/multicultural practices and students in speech-language pathology who wish to train to work in such practices. The goals of the conference are: (1) To enable a large group of linguists to appreciate the findings, issues, and theoretical implications of comparative aphasiology, and to involve them in the further development of research tools which will be likely to give rise to linguistically revealing results; (2) To share recent results and elicitation tools among the researchers; (3) To share the findings and their clinical implications with clinicians, and to obtain feedback from clinicians about the actural applicability of this work. The proposed working conference will be an essential part of the overall Institute cross-linguistic/cognitive agenda, since the present conference will focus on methods of cross-linguistic comparison of aphasic morphosyntax (including ASL aphasia). The Institute setting will provide an opportunity to attract a much larger audience of linguistics and linguistics students than usually attend neurolinguistics events. In order to also be attractive to clinicians, AHS continuing education units will be granted fro many of the Institute courses and conferences and additional clinical training events are planned. The Institute emphasis on ASL, American Southwest Hispanic, and Native American languages is expected to attract linguistics who do research on these languages and clinicians whose clients use them. Minority travel funds are being requested with the special goal of promoting an understanding by Hispanics and Native Americans of clinical reseach in comparative aphasiology and its implications for the multilingual clinic.
