People

Huige’s doctoral dissertation examines the relationship between native language background and the learning of a foreign language. The project involves three groups of participants, i.e., native speakers of Mandarin Chinese (a tonal language), Estonian (a partially tonal language), and English (a non-tonal language), and the learning of two typologically different languages, i.e., Mandarin Chinese and Estonian.

Pria’s MA thesis examines the learning of Estonian quantity among Estonian and Chinese native speakers. We want to see how Chinese speakers benefit from their native language experience in perceiving and learning the Estonian quantity, especially the tonal component therein.

Erik’s BA thesis investigates culture and language use. We adopt Hofstede’s collectivism-individualism cultural dimension and want to see how culture affects people’s lexical choice when praising themselves.

Juan is a PhD student at the School of Foreign Languages at Beihang University in Beijing, China. She is a guest researcher in our group for the period between August 2024 and August 2025.