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Welcome! I’m a Professor, Research Degrees Programme Leader, and Director of the Phonetics, Acquisition & Multilingualism Lab (PAMLab) in the Department of Linguistics and Translation at City University of Hong Kong. I am a Laureate of the Chao Prize in Language Science, and serve on the editorial boards of Second Language Research and the Korean Journal of Linguistics. My pronouns are the ‘he’ series (he/him/his).
My research generally concerns the relationship between linguistic experience and phonological knowledge over the lifespan. Much of my previous and ongoing research addresses two central questions in the study of the acquisition and attrition of sound systems:
- How is acquisition of a new language sound system influenced by the learner’s experience with a previously-learned sound system, such as that of their native language (L1)?
- How does phonological acquisition of a new language affect the learner’s knowledge and use of their previously-learned language(s)?
I approach these questions primarily by examining the processing, representation, and development of speech sounds in the context of second language (L2) and additional language (Ln) learning, multilingualism, and language contact. This empirical focus leads to work that is strongly cross-linguistic in nature, that uses a variety of experimental techniques and quantitative methods, and that examines both the individual learner (including individual differences) and the speech community.
For links to downloadable publications, click here. For links to downloadable handouts or slides from talks/posters I’ve given, click here. You can also find me on Google Scholar, OSF, ORCID, ResearchGate, or Academia.edu.