Everything about language...The Cluster on Language Research Blog

Robert Bayley is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at UC Davis and an associate member of the Centre for Research on Language Contact at York University in Toronto. His research focuses on language variation and language socialization, especially in bilingual and second language populations.

On Wednesday, February 28th, 2024 the Davis Language Center (DLC), several language programs, and Academic Technology Services (ATS) joined forces to host the event “AI-Powered Language Instruction: Innovative Strategies and Applications” for the UC Davis community.

Dr. Rebecca Zhu is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, working with Dr. Mike Frank at the Language & Cognition Lab. Dr. Zhu holds a PhD from UC Berkeley, working with Dr. Alison Gopnik. In addition, she worked with Dr. Gopnik as a postdoctoral fellow. She also worked as a lab manager at Harvard University, working with Dr. Susan Carey.

Dr. Nora Beier is a postdoctoral scholar working with Dr. George Mangun and Dr. Tamara Swaab at the intersection of language and attention. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from UC Davis working with Dr. Fernanda Ferreira. Her postdoctoral research, funded by an NIH F32 grant, explores the neural correlates of attention during speech comprehension, measured through alpha oscillations and cortical tracking of speech using EEG.

Tripp Strawbridge holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics (University of Minnesota, 2020), with an emphasis in second language acquisition. His work examines how university students acquire Spanish as a second language in study abroad, and how this language learning is influenced by the nature of students’ social relationships. Prof. Strawbridge’s research also analyzes the way that university students learn Spanish through the use of technology (computer-mediated communication), particularly in video-based language partner exchanges. Prof.

Ingrid is Maya Kaqchikel/Q’eqchi from Iximulew (Guatemala) and a 2nd year PhD student in the Department of Native American Studies, UC Davis. She holds an M.P.H. in Global Health and a B.S. in Biology. Her scholarship focuses on recognizing the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems and languages as essential to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities. Last year, she piloted a literacy program in her community (with her mentor and community elder) to help Kaqchikel speakers gain literacy skills in their language.

Dr. Michelle Cohn is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the UC Davis Phonetics Lab, associated with the Department of Linguistics. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at UC Davis in 2018. Her postdoctoral training includes a 2.5 year Social, Behavioral, and Economics (SBE) Postdoctoral Fellowship through the National Science Foundation. Since 2022, Dr. Cohn has also been a Visiting Researcher with the Google Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technologies group. Dr.

Valeria Zunino Edelsberg is a Ph.D. student in the School of Education at UC Davis. Her research is focused on formative assessment, with a particular interest in studying the characteristics of effective and appropriate feedback for English learners and teachers’ preparation for implementing formative assessment.

Dr. Diana Ruggiero is an Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Memphis. Dr. Ruggiero recently gave a talk for the Cluster on Language Research to promote her new book, “Teaching World Languages for Specific Purposes: A Practical Guide”.

Dr. Santiago Barreda is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Davis and will be publishing a book in Spring 2023, along with Dr. Noah Silbert! The book is entitled “Bayesian Multilevel Models for Repeated Measures Data: A Practical and Conceptual Introduction in R”.

We interviewed Dr. Barreda to learn more about his research and about the content of his new book. The online version of the book can be viewed here: https://santiagobarreda.github.io/bmmrmd/.

Introduction:

Dr. Georgia Zellou is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Davis. Her research program is focused on understanding how phonetic detail is cognitively represented and how phonetic and phonological patterns develop, evolve and are used, socially and functionally, in linguistic communication.

Leeman and Serafini’s Sociolinguistics for Heritage Language Educators and Students: A Model for Critical Translingual Competence (2016, available here) pushes the envelope on traditional Heritage Language (HL) sociolinguistic notions that have dominated the field.