About me

As a bilingual speaker of Mandarin and Taiwanese who grew up in Taiwan — a multilingual environment — I am deeply intrigued by the nature of linguistic knowledge and the complex interactions among languages on the island. As a Mandarin Chinese linguist, I have observed that many scholars assume Taiwanese Mandarin and Chinese Mandarin are identical simply because their speakers can understand each other. However, such generalizations may lead to serious misconceptions, such as the belief that their differences are limited to the writing system.

Growing evidence suggests that, beyond phonetic differences, the two varieties also diverge in syntax and semantics (e.g., Her 2010, Chiang 2022, 2023). Additionally, the use of Taiwanese Mandarin is closely tied to identity (e.g., Her 2009), and its unique linguistic features have been gaining increasing attention. As a researcher specializing in Taiwanese Mandarin, my goal is to document these linguistic differences using diverse research methods and empirical evidence.

I am also interested in second language acquisition and heritage language bilingualism. As an SLA/bilingual researcher, my overarching goal is to investigate and understand the cognitive capacity of bi/multilingual speakers through the lens of various psycholinguistic methods, and to advocate for speakers who have been overlooked (e.g., heritage speakers) in the past, so they can receive language education tailored to their needs.