Mgr. Nikola Paillereau, Ph.D.

Institute of Psychology
The Czech Academy of Sciences
Pod Vodárenskou věží 1143/4
182 00 Prague 8
Phone: +420 266 053 855
E-mail: Paillereau@praha.psu.cas.cz

Research interests

My research area includes phonetic acquisition of mother tongue and foreign language. I am currently focusing on how new-born babies and several months old babies perceive human speech. It is generally stated that after birth children are universal listeners because their perception is not yet influenced by the language environment surrounding them. However, recent research studies reveal the influence of the mother tongue during the prenatal period. The question is what the child has learned when she was in the womb, and to what extent she is really a universal listener right after birth. In an effort to answer these questions, we examine what language input foetuses are exposed to (acoustic analysis of the mother's speech) and how they respond to the phonological contrasts of the mother tongue after birth (neuroscience research based on EEG of neonates). Next, we try to find out how perception progresses during the first year of life (behavioural approach, where we perform perceptual tests of infants).

Education

2016: Qualification to the position of “Associate professor” (maître de conférence)
Approved by the National Council of Universities, France, Section 07 – Language Sciences
2008-2015: PhD in Language Sciences, specialization Phonetics (summa cum laude) Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University, Laboratory of Phonetics and Phonology, France
Ph. D. thesis: Perception and Production of French Oral Vowels in Pre-Service Czech Teachers of French as a Foreign Language (FFL)
Supervisor : prof. Jacqueline Vaissière Jury : M. Adda-Decker, J.-Y. Dommergues, T. Duběda, P. Hallé, R. Sock, J. Vaissière, F. Wioland
2010: Habilitation to correct written and oral tests of DELF DALF exams, levels B1, B2, C1 et C2
International Centre for Educational Studies, France
2009-2010: Complementary course in Didactics of French (University degree)
Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University, France
2006-2008: Master degree in Language Sciences, specialization Phonetics and Phonology
Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University, France
2002-2006: Degree in Language Sciences, specialization Languages and Models
Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University, France

Employment

since 07/2018: researcher - Institute of Phonetics, Centre for Human Studies, Charles University, Faculty of Arts
from 05/2018: post-doc researcher - Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
2017: post-doc researcher - Université Lumière Lyon 2, Excellent Laboratory - Advanced Studies of Language Complexity (LabEx - ASLAN)
2016 - 2017: post-doc researcher - CNRS / Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, Paris, Excellent Laboratory - Empirical Basics of Linguistics (LabEx - EFL)
2008 - 2012: research assistant - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, Department of French as a Foreign Language
2008 - 2012: teaching assistant, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, Department of French as a Foreign Language and Institute of General and Applied Linguistics and Phonetics (ILPGA)

International Organizational Activity

2024: Member of the organizing team of the international congress IASCL, Prague
2023: Member of the organizing team of the international congress ICPhS, Prague
2015 - nyní: Member of the Phonetics Institute, Sorbonne University, Paris

Funding

2024 - 2028: The effect of bilingualism on speech perception and production in the first year of life (investigator)
2024 - 2026: Prosodic expression of utterance information structure in Czech (team member)
2021 - 2023: Diagnostic tool for assessment of communicative development in Czech children from 8 to 30 months (investigator)
2021 - 2023: Learning to recognize words: A developmental cross-dialectical (co-investigator)
2018 – 2022: The effect of talker accent on speech sound acquisition (team member)
2008 – 2012: Scholarship from French government for doctoral project in phonetics (PI)

Selected Publications

Jarůšková, L., Sloupová, T., Smolík, F., Chládková, K., Oceláková, Z., & Paillereau, N. (2024). Developing Dovyko I: The Czech adaptation of the MacArthur-bates communicative development inventory. Československá psychologie, 68(2), 174-185.
Paillereau, N., & Chládková, K. (2024). Infants' reliance on rhythm to distinguish languages: A critical review. Infancy, 29(6), 842-876.
Jarůšková, L., Smolík, F., Chládková, K., Oceláková, Z., & Paillereau, N. (2023). How to build a CDI: Insights from 43 adaptations. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(6), 2095–2117. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00591
Paillereau, N., Podlipský, V. J., Šimáčková, Š., Smolík, F., Oceláková, Z., & Chládková, K. (2021). Perceptual sensitivity to vowel quality and vowel length in the first year of life., JASA Express Letters 1, 025202. https://doi. org/10.1121/10.0003369
Paillereau, N., Podlipský, V. J., Smolík, F., Šimáčková, Š., & Chládková, K. (2021). The development of infants' sensitivity to native versus non- native rhythm. Infancy: the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, 26(3), 423–441. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12395
Canault, M., Yamaguchi, N., Paillereau, N., Krzonowski, J., Roy, J. P., Dos Santos, C., & Kern, S. (2020). Syllable duration changes during babbling: a longitudinal study of French infant productions. Journal of child language, 47(6), 1207–1227. https://doi.org/10.1017/S030500092000015X
Chládková, K. & Paillereau, N. (2020). The what and when of universal perception: a review of early speech sound acquisition. Language Learning, 70(4). doi: 10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9922.

Applied Research Results

Methods for objective assessment of language development in infants and toddlers between the ages of 8 and 30 months:

Paillereau, N., Smolík, F., Sloupová, T., Chládková, K., Jarůšková, L., Fialová, T., Dvořáková, B., Oceláková, Z., Ungrová, V., Kynčlová, K., Pešek, & J., Kadavá, Š. (2023). Dovyko I a Dovyko II: Dotazníky pro screening jazykového vývoje u dětí od 8 do 30 měsíců. Příručka. [Dovyko I and II: Questionnaires for language-development screening in children aged 8 to 30 months. Manual.] https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0350793. [Online].
Paillereau, N., Smolík, F., Sloupová, T., Chládková, K., Jarůšková, L., Fialová, T., Dvořáková, B., Oceláková, Z., Ungrová, V., Kynčlová, K., Pešek, & J., Kadavá, Š. (2023). Dovyko I: Dotazník pro sreening jazykového vývoje u dětí od 8 do 18 měsíců. Normy. [Dovyko I: Questionnaire for language-development screening in children aged 8 to 18 months. Norms.] https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0350799 [Online].
Paillereau, N., Smolík, F., Sloupová, T., Chládková, K., Jarůšková, L., Fialová, T., Dvořáková, B., Oceláková, Z., Ungrová, V., Kynčlová, K., Pešek, & J., Kadavá, Š. (2023). Dovyko II: Dotazník pro sreening jazykového vývoje u dětí od 16 do 30 měsíců. Normy. [Dovyko II: Questionnaire for language-development screening in children aged 16 to 30 months. Norms.] https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0350800 [Online].
Paillereau, N., Smolík, F., Sloupová, T., Chládková, K., Jarůšková, L., Fialová, T., Dvořáková, B., Oceláková, Z., Ungrová, V., Kynčlová, K., Pešek, & J., Kadavá, Š. (2023). Dovyko I: Dotazník pro screening jazykového vývoje u dětí od 8 do 18 měsíců. [Dovyko I: Questionnaire for language-development screening in children aged 8 to 18 months.] https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0350916 [Online].
Paillereau, N., Smolík, F., Sloupová, T., Chládková, K., Jarůšková, L., Fialová, T., Dvořáková, B., Oceláková, Z., Ungrová, V., Kynčlová, K., Pešek, & J., Kadavá, Š. (2023). Dovyko II: Dotazník pro screening jazykového vývoje u dětí od 16 do 30 měsíců. [Dovyko II: Questionnaire for language-development screening in children aged 16 to 30 months.] https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0350917 [Online].