Selected publications

• An Investigation of the Relationship Between Perceptual Sensitivity and Word Learning Performance for the Hindi Voiced Unaspirated Dental-Retroflex Contrast by English Speakers

  2025-09-02

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Adults' pre-existing perceptual sensitivity predicts their ability to learn new words involving novel lexical tone contrasts. Considering the importance of individuals’ pre-existing sensitivity, combined with the limited research on pre-existing sensitivity to consonant contrasts, we examine the role of perceptual sensitivity in the learning of the Hindi voiced unaspirated dental-retroflex contrast by English listeners with no prior experience. We ask [1] does pre-training perceptual sensitivity to this contrast predict word learning performance, and [2] do participants exhibit gains in perceptual sensitivity following word identification training? Our study involves four tasks: AX pre-test, word identification training, word identification test, and AX post-test. To address RQ1, we examined whether a positive correlation was observed between an individual’s pre-existing sensitivity to the contrast (AX pre-test) and their ability to learn Hindi-like minimal pairs involving the contrast (word identification test). We address RQ2 by comparing pre-word-learning to post-word-learning AX discrimination performance. While participants’ perceptual sensitivity improved following word identification training, we found no evidence of a relationship between participants’ pre-training sensitivity and performance on the word identification test. Additional research is needed to understand whether and how learners’ pre-training perceptual sensitivity relates to their word learning performance for difficult L2 consonant contrasts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Learners’ beliefs about teachers’ social characteristics influence their pronunciation preferences

  2025-11-26

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Learners’ beliefs about language and language users impact the inferences they make about linguistic structure as well as their learning outcomes (Ballard & Winke 2017; Falkert 2016; Hayes-Harb et al. 2022). Hayes-Harb et al. (2022) demonstrated that participants preferred speech samples exhibiting a pronunciation pattern that was associated with a “teacher” over that of a “student” in a simulated language classroom context, indicating that language learners differentially weigh their input based on characteristics of the speaker. We extend this work by investigating whether preferences for the teacher’s pronunciation could be modulated by attributing “favorable” versus “unfavorable” social characteristics to the teacher regarding their teaching experience, teaching effectiveness, and linguistic background. We found that participants still tended to prefer the teacher’s pronunciation, but that this preference was reduced when the teacher had been characterized unfavorably. We thus provide evidence that preferences for speech input from teachers are modulated by beliefs about the social characteristics of the teacher, contributing to our understanding of linguistic stereotyping and its impact on language teaching and learning.

  PublisherDOI

• The interacting effects of talker, contrast, and listener variability in cross-language speech perception

  JASA Express Letters · 2024-08-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Building on previous observations of variability in speech research, we examine variability in speech perception study materials associated with the specific talker and contrast under examination. English-speaking listeners completed a web-based auditory AXB task involving Hindi dental-retroflex stop contrasts produced by four talkers. Main effects of talker and contrast, as well as the interaction of the two, were observed. Further, there was a great deal of individual listener variation. These findings complicate our ability to characterize the difficulty that Hindi dental-retroflex contrasts pose for English speakers, and lead to critical questions concerning the generalizability of speech perception study findings.

  PublisherDOI

• Frontmatter

  Phonetica · 2024-04-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Phonological processing and the L2 mental lexicon

  Studies in Second Language Acquisition · 2024-12-05 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Twenty-five years ago, the publication of an article by Pallier, Colomé, and Sebastián-Gallés (2001) launched a new and rapidly evolving research program on how second language (L2) learners represent the phonological forms of words in their mental lexicons. Many insights are starting to form an overall picture of the unique difficulties for establishing functional and precise phonolexical representations in L2; however, for the field to move forward it is pertinent to outline its major emerging research questions and existing challenges. Among significant obstacles for further research, the paper explores the current lack of theoretical agreement on the concept of phonolexical representations and the underlying mechanism involved in establishing them, as well as the variable use of the related terminology (e.g., fuzziness and target-likeness). Methodological challenges involved in investigating phonological processing and phonolexical representations as well as their theoretical implications are also discussed. To conclude, we explore the significance of L2-specific phonological representations for the bottom-up lexical access during casual, conversational speech and how our emerging knowledge of L2 lexical representations can be applied in an instructional setting as two potentially fruitful research avenues at the forefront of the current research agenda.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Frontmatter

  Phonetica · 2024-06-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A guide for social science journal editors on easing into open science

  Research Integrity and Peer Review · 2024-02-15 · 24 citations

  letterOpen access

  Journal editors have a large amount of power to advance open science in their respective fields by incentivising and mandating open policies and practices at their journals. The Data PASS Journal Editors Discussion Interface (JEDI, an online community for social science journal editors: www.dpjedi.org ) has collated several resources on embedding open science in journal editing ( www.dpjedi.org/resources ). However, it can be overwhelming as an editor new to open science practices to know where to start. For this reason, we created a guide for journal editors on how to get started with open science. The guide outlines steps that editors can take to implement open policies and practices within their journal, and goes through the what, why, how, and worries of each policy and practice. This manuscript introduces and summarizes the guide (full guide: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/hstcx ).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The interacting effects of talker, contrast, and listener variability in cross-language speech perception

  2024-05-08

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Building on previous observations of variability in speech research, we examine variability in speech perception study materials associated with the specific talker and contrast under examination. English-speaking listeners completed a web-based auditory AXB task involving Hindi dental-retroflex stop contrasts produced by four talkers. Main effects of talker and contrast, as well as the interaction of the two, were observed. Further, there was a great deal of individual listener variation. These findings complicate our ability to characterize the difficulty that Hindi dental-retroflex contrasts pose for English speakers, and lead to critical questions concerning the generalizability of speech perception study findings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Frontmatter

  Phonetica · 2024-02-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Phonological processing and the L2 mental lexicon: Looking back and moving forward

  2024-11-05 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Twenty-five years ago, the publication of an article by Pallier, Colomé and Sebastián-Gallés (2001) launched a new and rapidly evolving research program on how second language (L2) learners represent the phonological forms of words in their mental lexicons. Many insights are starting to form an overall picture of the unique difficulties for establishing functional and precise phonolexical representations in L2; however, in order for the field to move forward it is pertinent to outline its major emerging research questions and existing challenges. Among significant obstacles for further research, the paper explores the current lack of theoretical agreement on the concept of phonolexical representations and the underlying mechanism involved in establishing them, as well as the variable use of the related terminology (e.g. fuzziness and target-like). Methodological challenges involved in investigating phonological processing and phonolexical representations as well as their theoretical implications are also discussed. To conclude, we explore the significance of L2-specific phonological representations for bottom-up lexical access during casual, conversational speech, and how our emerging knowledge of L2 lexical representations can be applied in an instructional setting as two potentially fruitful research avenues at the forefront of the current research agenda.

  PublisherDOI