Research Interests

Second Language Acquisition Although it is obvious that second language acquisition differs from first language acquisition, it is not entirely unlikely that SLA and FLA may share some basic learning mechanisms and a unified model of language acquisition can apply to the learning of both first and second languages. MacWhinney (2004, p. 83), for example, has expressed a similar point before: “… rather than attempting to build two separate models of L1 and L2 learning, it makes more sense to consider the shape of a unified model in which the mechanisms of L1 learning are seen as a subset of the mechanisms of L2 learning. Although these L1 learning mechanisms are less powerful in the L2 learner, they are still partially accessible”. We are particularly interested in exploring what these L1 learning mechanisms are and whether and how they can be reactivated to support L2 learning. Understanding these learning mechanisms is essential for designing appropriate and effective learning programs for L2 students.

Language Production Spoken production is a process of turning thoughts into sounds. This process involves retrieving words from the mental lexicon that can convey one's ideas, putting them in a grammatical order, and retrieving and adjusting the sounds for those words (word-form encoding). Our work is concerned with the sound formation part in Chinese word production. We are especially interested in the roles of syllables and morphemes in this process, and how that is different from English word production. This interest also extends to bilinguals. Do the Chinese-English bilinguals maintain distinct word production systems for Chinese and English, or do they develop a hybrid system to handle both languages? Recently, we have also begun to examine handwritten and typewritten word production to explore how the nature of the output may constrain the planning unit when a word is being prepared for production.

Linguistic Relativity The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis states that different languages take on different lexical and grammatical forms and these can bias speakers’ attention towards different aspects of the world. Accordingly, speakers of different languages might develop somewhat different views of the world. We have been testing the Hypothesis with respect to tense/aspect, gender, and spatial metaphors of time. With respect to tense/aspect, we found that Chinese speakers seem to maintain an extended present that includes recent past and near future and that past, present, and future form a continuous flow of time. In contrast, English speakers seem to maintain a timeline along which past, present and future represent discrete points. With respect to the conception of time related to the use of spatial metaphors of time, we have not been able to obtain evidence to support the view that the frequent use of vertical spatial metaphors leads Mandarin Chinese speakers to conceptualize time vertically. We are currently considering reading direction and culture (Chinese vs. Western) as potential factors for the cross-linguistic differences observed by other researchers.

Technology and Cognition Human species benefit from continuous technological inventions, which not only extend our body but also our mind. The latter is particularly so in the digital and internet age. We are interested in understanding how technology changes the way our mind works. We have looked at how the use of different Chinese input methods (phonology-based versus orthography-based) might sensitize or desensitize the users with respect to the phonological and orthographic information of Chinese characters. We have also examined whether verbal working memory and visuospatial working memory might be loaded differently depending on whether the phonology-based input method or the orthography-based input method is being habitually used.