Dr Titia Benders is a Lecturer in Linguistics and Deputy-Director of the Child Language Lab at Macquarie University. Her main interest is in language acquisition by children between the ages of six months and six years who acquire one or more languages, with or without hearing loss.

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(1) In a nutshell, my job is to…
Discover aspects of how children aged 0 to 5 years learn to listen and speak the language(s) of their caregivers. My job is also to share the ins and outs of our theories and methods with students undertaking undergraduate, Master of Research, or PhD studies.

(2) The question I hear most often in my work is…
“Why is it so easy for a child to learn a language, while it’s so difficult for me?” One little piece of the puzzle may be that children spend a lot of time listening to infant-directed speech, whereas adult learners focus on speaking and don’t get the help from this special register.

(3) The thing I find most rewarding in my role is…
Helping students become independent researchers.

(4) This year I want to…
Sleep a minimum of eight hours every night (which is working wonders) and be able to do a full chin-up (which still requires a lot of practice).

(5) The bravest thing I’ve done is…
Move to Australia.

(6) A place that’s special to me is…
Amsterdam – where I was born, did all my growing-up and studies, and lived until I was 29. The longer I’m away, the more special it becomes.

(7) My mother/father always told me…
To eat well. In Dutch: “je moet goed eten”.

(8) My guilty pleasure…
Listening to Dutch pop music (in Dutch: “meezingers”, literally: sing-along-ers).

(9) My hidden talent is…
Doing little dance choreographies in lectures to give students extra mnemonics. I’m quite happy that the lectern recordings are audio only!

(10) A moment I’ll always remember…
When Katherine Demuth (my wonderful research mentor) asked me to become deputy-director of the Child Language Lab. It’s a great group of researchers and contributing to shaping all aspects of the lab is a very rewarding experience.