Research Statement
Have you ever wondered how, when hearing a sentence, we can instantly grasp the main idea and get the most important parts? Or why we might focus on different parts of a sentence when watching a video versus just listening to the audio? I am fascinated by these questions, especially when comparing how native speakers, second language (L2) learners, and heritage speakers (HS) process language.
Beyond that, why do some people pick up a new language 'easily', while others struggle just to remember the pronunciation? Is there truly a dedicated 'language area' in the brain? Does the 'critical period' for learning really exist, and is language something we are born with or something we acquire? I have always been drawn to these profound mysteries, and they are exactly why I am pursuing my studies in linguistics—to investigate the science of human communication and find my own answers.
Research Areas
Speech Perception
Investigating the perception of sounds
Speech Production
the acoustic changes of sounds
Multimodality
investigate the beat gesture, head movement
L2 and HS
second language acquistion and heritage langauge acquistion
Current Projects
Linguistic complexity in the marking of new information (Anja Arnhold's SSHRC insight Grant project)
Investigates interactions and trade-offs between prosody and morpho-syntax in marking information structure in English
Research Interests
Speech perception and production; second langauge acquistion; L2 and Heritage speakers; Multimodal (e.g., beat gesture)