With the Summer 2022 semester coming to an end and preparations for Fall 2022 in full swing, it's time to reflect on the accomplishments of the department over the past few months. From multiple convocation ceremonies to in-person conferences, and publications to student led ESL classes, there is a lot to celebrate. Here's to more success in the coming semester.
Convocation
S This spring we saw not one, but two in person convocation ceremonies to celebrate graduates. In May 2022, the Welcome Back Graduands ceremony celebrated past graduates from 2020 and 2021 who had completed their degrees from home. The June 2022 ceremony celebrated those who had completed their degrees in the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters. Congratulations to all the Linguistics students who received their degrees this summer!
> JUNE 2022 FEATURED GRADUATES
Awards
S Congratulations to PhD student TASNIM ABEDALQADER who received a Graduate Travel and Research Award. Tasnim will be using this financial opportunity to implement an exploratory, qualitative, macro-sociolinguistic approach to investigate in greater depth the spread, functional range, and domains of English use in the multilingual country of Jordan.
S Congratulations Professor MAITE TABOADA for being honoured as a 2022 Distinguished SFU Professor. The Distinguished SFU Professorship recognizes faculty members who have sustained records of exemplary accomplishments in their scholarly work throughout their career. Dr. Taboada is the second member of the Department of Linguistics to receive this title, following professor MARIANNE IGNACE who became a Distinguished SFU Professor in 2021.
> Read SFU's story about the 2022 Distinguished SFU Professors
S Congratulations Professor YUE WANG for being elected as a 2022 Acoustic Society of America Fellow. Dr. Wang was recognized for studies of the behavioural and neural mechanisms underlying speech learning and processing.
> Read about Dr. Wang and the LAB Lab's research
Publications
S Professor JOHN ALDERETE and colleague PADRAIG O'SÉAGHDHA published an article reviewing evidence from under-studied languages about the nature and mechanisms of phonological encoding.
Alderete, J. & O'Séaghdha, P. (2022). Language generality in phonological encoding: moving beyond Indo-European languages. Language and Linguistic Compass, 16(7).
S The latest Blackfoot graphic novel, Anno Kitsiksááhkominnon (This is Our Land), was published by the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth. Lecturer HEATHER BLISS collaborated with Ikinómo'tstaan Noreen Breaker and Natóópi Lee Breaker to integrate the Blackfoot language into the script and coached voice actors on their Blackfoot pronunciation.
> Find the graphic novel
> Watch a video version of graphic novel
S Lecturer MEG GRANT was part of a team of linguists across Canada who recently published the second edition of Essentials of Linguistics. The new version of this Open Educational Resource includes an accessible multimedia format, a special section on teaching Mohawk, is easily searchable and editable, and is freely and widely available.
> Find the second edition of Essentials of Linguistics
S PhD candidate LAUREN SCHNEIDER published two articles looking at Hul'q'umi'num' serial verb constructions.
Schneider, L. (2022). Expressing associated motion using hul'q'umi'num' Salish SVCs. Proceedings for the 57th International Conference for the 57th International Conference on Salish and Neighboring languages. UBCWPL.
Schneider, L. (in press). Using Hul'q'umi'num' directional SVCs to express path and manner. Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle of the University of Victoria. WPLC Vol. 32.
S Professor YUE WANG has a new publication with collaborator MAKIKO AOYAGI at Dokkyo University. This new article investigates the ability of Japanese listeners to identify the English fricatives /f/ and /h/.
Aoyagi, M. & Wang. Y. (2022). Who is Fu? Perception of L2 sounds that are partially neutralized in L1. Journal of Phonetics, 34.
Presentations
S There were two presentations given at the International Congress of Infant Studies this summer by the Language Learning and Development Lab. Lab Manager, ELISE MCCLAY and Postdoctoral Researcher ANDREW CHENG presented in the conference held July 7-10.
Yeung, H. H., McClay, E. K., Cebioglu, S., & Brosech, T. (2022). Exploring the rhythm of mothers' speech to infants across Canada and Vanuatu. Poster presented at the Internation Congress of Infant Studies (ICIS 2022).
Cheng, A., Lai, A., & Yeung, H. H. (2022). The influence of bilingualism on pitch in infant-directed speech. Poster presented at the International Congress of Infant Studies (ICIS 2022).
S Professor YUE WANG and colleagues presented at the 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America which took place in Denver, Colorado from May 23-26.
Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Cheng, B., & Wang, Y. (2022). Audiovisual high variability phonetic training promotes second language lexical tone learning: An event-related potential study. Presented at the 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Denver, USA.
Events
S Postdoctoral Fellow ANDREW CHENG ran a series of events for the Korean Heritage Language research group (KoHL) over the summer. Dr. SARAH SOK will present the final talk of the series, "Soy Coreana Pero Nunca Viví en Corea”: A Case Study of Cultural Identity and Heritage Language Maintenance Among Koreans in Spanish-Speaking Nations, on Wednesday, September 7th at 2pm Pacific Time.
> Find out more about the KoHL Summer Research Meetings
S In May, Postdoctoral Fellow LEANNE BARTLEY, along with the Transitivity in Courtroom Language: A Unified Solution (TICLAUS) research team, organized and ran the Language, Law & Justice workshop. This three day workshop included linguists, criminologists, legal experts and exonerees who shared their research and/or experiences of social justice issues including, but not limited to, crimes of sexual assault and cases of wrongful conviction.
> Read more about Leanne Bartley's work and the LLJ Workshop
S Professor DONNA GERDTS and her students were involved in changing the former Woodbank Primary School in Cedar, British Columbia to the Snuneymuxw Learning Academy (SLA). The SLA was created to help foster the knowledge and recognition of the relationship between language, land, and culture.
The academy will host the SFU Indigenous Languages Program Hul'q'umi'num Certificate in Indigenous Language Proficiency 2022-23 cohort.
> Read more about the SLA opening ceremony held in July
S Throughout the first half of the summer semester, members of the Department of Linguistics got together to share brief talks about recent teaching and research work. These flash talks included updates from faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and visiting scholars Dr. HONGYIN TAO and Dr. FRIEDEMANN VOGEL.
Defences
Congratulations to the five graduate students who successfully defended their graduate work both online and in person this summer!
S On July 22nd, ROSEMARY WEBB successfully defended their MA thesis "Hul'q'umi'num' storytellers' use of gestures to express space and viewpoint." Their examining committee members included supervisor Dr. Donna Gerdts, committee member Dr. Nancy Hedberg, and external examiner Dr. Terry Janzen of the University of Manitoba.
S On July 29th, KEITH LEUNG successfully defended his PhD dissertation "Perception-production relationship of lexical tones." His examining committee members included supervisor Dr. Yue Wang, committee members Dr. Murray Munro and Dr. Henny Yeung, and external examiner Dr. Chao-Yang Lee of Ohio University.
S On August 4th, BINGQING YU successfully defended her MA thesis "The IF0 Effect in the Hong Kong Cantonese tone system." Her examining committee members included supervisor Dr. Murray Munro, committee member Dr. Henny Yeung, and external examiner Dr. Stephen Winters of the University of Calgary.
S On August 5th, JESSE WEIR successfully defended his MA thesis "Imperative Phonetic Analysis." His examining committee members included supervisor Dr. Chung-hye Han, committee member Dr. Yue Wang, and examiner Dr. Rejean Canac-Marquis of SFU's Department of French.
S On August 19th, LYDIA CASTRO successfully defended their MA thesis "Handshape markedness in American Sign Language." Their examining committee members included supervisor Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble, committee member Dr. Henny Yeung, and external examiner Dr. Kathleen Currie Hall of the University of British Columbia.
Undergraduate Achievements
S Ten SFU Linguistics graduands will be starting in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) programs across three Canadian Universities this fall. Congratulations to all of our students starting in SLP programs in September.
> Read about the experiences of the 2022 SLP program admits
S This summer, some of Senior Lecturer CLAUDIA WONG's students have been teaching 4 ESL classes for 100 Ukrainian newcomers to Canada. This is the first time the Progressive Community Services Society (PICS) and the department have organized this program for Ukrainians. This proved to be a great opportunity for students to reach out to the community and apply their linguistic and TESL knowledge to reality. Dr. Wong will be recruiting more student helpers for the upcoming cohort starting in mid-September. Here is what the SFU student instructors had to say about their experiences teaching these classes:
> "My experience was rewarding and a lot of fun. Creating lessons online can be a challenge but working together, we have managed to be creative and keep students engaged each week. I'm grateful to have had this opportunity to help." - Jamie Sawyer
> "Teaching has been challenging and fulfilling at the same time. Trying to come up with appropriate lessons for intermediate learners has been the hardest part for my first time teaching. But seeing the students learn and grow has been worth the struggles." - Kevin Wong
> "Being of Ukrainian heritage myself, I had a very deep connection to this program and it gave me confidence that the individuals arriving from Ukraine are getting the assistance they required. I was able to use my cultural experiences and assist other to ensure their needs were met which was great. Seeing all the progress throughout the program is wonderful!" - Natalia Lupynis
> "Being from Kazakhstan, the war in Ukraine has had a great personal impact on me as our countries have shared common history. I've met many great Ukrainians through my studies in Canada, and got to witness first-hand how the situation affected them personally, financially and emotionally. Incidentally, It was around the same time when I started to have doubts about my future in the TESL field. Having this opportunity reminded me of why I started teaching English; building bridges beween cultures and helping people adapt to new places. When signing up to this program, I expected a more guided environment where I would have opportunities to just observe the class which is taught by an experienced teacher. Later I found out that most of the work would be on volunteer teachers. While it worried me a little in the beginning, it actually turned out to be a valuable experience. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to those who haven't completed the practicum. Depending on my availability, I am definitely interested in participating in this program in the future again." - Timur Rakhmetov