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CURRENT RESEARCH
Usage-based theories of language posit that linguistic input influences language usage and processing in real-world contexts. The idea is that language users create mental distributions that reflect the statistical frequencies of grammatical pattern. If this is true, could we dissect the characteristics of text that language users consume and determine whether their experience with varying grammatical constructions makes it easier or more difficult to subsequently process those constructions? My collaborators and I specifically investigate to what extent digital text exposure affects language processing using NLP tools and a battery of cognitive ability tasks.
What's in an acoustic cue? While the role of prosodic information in the speech stream has been studied extensively, researchers still have not reached a consensus on the physical characteristics of these cues, whether they are absolute or relative or whether they exist on a binary or gradient, etc. I seek to explore how the contrastive pitch accent (e.g., We took Bethany's car but not CHRIStopher's car) is realized by native speakers and learners.
Phrasal verb construction is second nature to native speakers but tends to lead to difficulties for learners. I am interested in learner use of multi-word constructions and how these forms are acquired and represented for learners versus native speakers.
DISSERTATION (University of Florida)
Second language production and processing of phrasal verb constructions: A priming study (August 2017)
MASTER'S THESIS (University of Florida)
Effects of training of non-native perception and production of Mandarin speech (August 2014)