Biography

Liliana Tolchinsky is an esteemed professor emerita of language and literacy at the University of Barcelona. Her research has significantly advanced our understanding of literacy acquisition, writing development, and the cognitive and linguistic processes underlying these skills. Tolchinsky’s work is characterized by its interdisciplinary approach, incorporating insights from linguistics, psychology, and education. Tolchinsky earned her PhD in Pedagogy from the University of Tel Aviv. Her early research focused on the early acquisition of writing in different writing systems, comparing how children learn to write in various orthographies. Over time, her interests expanded to embrace later language and literacy developments examining how school-age children and adolescents develop more sophisticated language skills, particularly in academic and formal contexts. Tolchinsky has been actively involved in international collaborations and projects, contributing to a broader understanding of literacy development across different languages and cultures. She has published extensively in both Spanish and English, and her work has been recognized with several prestigious awards. Her work has been influential in shaping educational practices related to literacy instruction, particularly in Spanish-speaking countries.

Representative Research Publications

   Tolchinsky, L., & Teberosky, A. (1998). The development of word segmentation and writing in two scripts. Cognitive development, 13(1), 1-24.
   Tolchinsky, L., Levin, I., Aram, D., & McBride Chang, C. (2011). Building literacy in alphabetic, abjad and morphosyllabic systems. Reading and Writing. An Interdisciplinary Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9334-7/
   Tolchinsky, L. (2003). The Cradle of Culture and What Children Know About Writing and Numbers Before Being Taught. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
   Tolchinsky, L (2005) Scope and nature of later language development. In R. Berman (Ed.) Later Language Development. TILAR Benjamin.
   Tolchinsky, L. (2020). Text Writing at the Core of Literacy Discourse. Reading-Writing Connections: Towards Integrative Literacy Science, 163-168. 
   Tolchinsky, L. & Stavans, A. (2023) Cultural shaping of standpoint and reasoning in analyticao writing. In Rogers, P., Russell, D., Carlino, P. & Marine, J. (Eds.). Writing as a human activity: Implications and applications of the work of Charles Bazerman (pp.143-166). The WAC Clearinghouse 
   Tolchinsky, L., & Berman, R. A. (2023). Growing Into Language: Developmental Trajectories and Neural Underpinnings. Oxford University Press.
   Tolchinsky, L., Rosado, E. & Aparici, M. (2024) Internal and external appraisals of analytical writing. A proposal for assessing development and potential improvement. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 62(1), 5-36.