Page under construction (2025-07-14)
​Check back soon for updates!


Currently, our research is mainly organized around three main focus areas. Generally speaking, our research aims at better understanding the representations that learners create for the words and phonological units of the second language (L2), and how these representations  change over time.
We also examine the mechanisms of speech processing in both L1 and L2, and, in the case of L2, the factors that facilitate it (for instance by suppressing the interference from the first language).
Finally, we address the application of these findings in pedagogical contexts, with the goal of helping learners modify their representations and streamline their processing for their new language, which eventually helps them communicate more easily in the second language.
​This list is continually evolving, and we have recently started exploring how listeners deal with reduced speech when listening to L2 (with Bihua Chen), and to the role played by redundant cues in L2, where we find that cues otherwise "redundant" to L1 listeners can be essential for L2 listeners (with Keiji Iwamoto).
Clicking on each area will take you to more details about this research area and list some projects being conducted, with links to specific publications.
Click here for list of the lab's publications.
Do not hesitate to contact us for more details!  ​

Learning the sounds of words in a second language

Some of the questions we investigate in this research area:
  1. Which phonolexical representations do bilinguals create for the words of their L2?
  2. How do these representations change over time?
  3. Which factors matter to help learners establish accurate phonological lexical representations? (orthography, the timing of word learning...)  
Picture
This diagram provides a general idea of how spoken language is produced and processed. (Attribution: Image from collections of Yale University Library; Monica Ong Reed)

Phonological processing in L1 and L2

Some of the questions we investigate in this research area:
  1. How are the various elements and units of the phonological system(s) acquired and represented in the bilingual's mind?
  2. How do we recognize spoken words in a first and a second language?
  3. How does the L1 phonological grammar interfere with processing of L2?
  4. Which factors facilitate or hinder L2 phonological processing? (orthography, individual differences, executive functions...)
  5. How do the representations and processing change over time as bilinguals' proficiency develop? 

Effective methods to teach pronunciation and decoding

Some of the questions we investigate in this research area:
  1. Does pronunciation instruction actually improve acquisition (representations), comprehensibility and/or foreign accent?
  2. Which elements of L2 speech impact comprehensibility and/or intelligibility most?
  3. Which methods are most effective for learners?
  4. How can we best prepare teachers?
  5. Is it possible to train learners to listen? 
​