Research
My Ph.D. research focused on L1 acquisition, more specifically the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of completive and inceptive particle verbs and their acquisition.
More recent work has been dedicated to L2 acquisition, in particular L2 writing, teaching and learning with technology, and English for professional purposes.
Recent and Ongoing Projects
Computer-assisted pronunciation training: Adapting the speech analysis software Praat to provide visual feedback on students' pronunciation, with Wai Ling Law (Ongoing, supported by inaugural CUHK Shenzhen Teaching Innovation Grant)
L2 English Transfer to L1 Chinese (Mandarin), with Lanxin Li (2019-20)
Past Projects
Essentials of Technical Writing for Engineers (Materials developed for Green International Affiliates, Inc., 2017)
Sharing Personal Writing Groups: An innovative Writing Center component for L2 Writing courses (Part of the WRT 1000 Grammar and Composition for Multilingual Students/FYW 1050 Introduction to College Writing for Multilingual Students sequence, developed in collaboration with the Writing Center at Merrimack College, 2012-17)
L2 English students in the Writing Center: Resources for Writing Center peer tutors, with particular reference to L1 Chinese- and Arabic-speaking students (Helpsheets prepared for the Writing Center at Merrimack College and aimed at student tutors without formal training or background in linguistics, 2016)
Mobile learning in the L2 Writing classroom: Using iPads and mobile apps to facilitate academic reading and writing skills for L2 English students (Part of the Mobile Merrimack initiative of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Merrimack College, 2016)
Selected Publications
2012. Teaching with TED talks: Authentic and motivational language instruction (with Monika Floyd). TESOL Video News, August 2012.
2009. Evidentiality vs. certainty: Do children trust their minds more than their eyes? (with Tom Roeper). Proceedings of the Third Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 3), eds. Jean Crawford et al., 107-115. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
2008. This Is Business: A High-Intermediate—Level C—Communication in Business Reader, Vol. 1 (with Marianne Borroff, Dan Finnegan, and LuAnne Sorenson). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
2008. This Is Business: A High-Intermediate—Level C—Communication in Business Reader, Vol. 2 (with Dan Finnegan and Luanne Sorenson). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
2008. This Is Business: A High-Intermediate—Level C— Communication in Business Reader, Vol. 3 (with Dan Finnegan and Eunita Ochola). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
2007. Education, Politics, and the Environment: An Intermediate—Level B— Integrated Skills Reader, Vol. 1 (with Amy Cournoyer, Dorothy Lynde, Stephanie Mikelis, and Shawn Morris). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
2007. Children’s comprehension of completive and inceptive particle verbs. In Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development 31, eds. Heather Caunt-Nulton, Samantha Kulatilake and I-hao Woo, 321-332. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
2007. The pragmatics of telicity and what children make of it. In Proceedings of the Second Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2), eds. Alyona Belikova, Luisa Meroni and ari Umeda, 180-187. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
2006. Children’s aspectual interpretations of particle verbs: A pilot study. In Current issues in first language acquisition: University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 34, ed. Tanja Heizmann, 51-76. Amherst, MA: GLSA.
2004. Coordination in Chechen. In Coordinating Constructions, ed. Martin Haspelmath, 241- 265. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins.
2003. What particle verbs have to do with grammatical aspect in early child English. In ZAS Papers in Linguistics 29, 119-131.