People

Shaohan’s doctoral dissertation is entitled “Pitch Processing Capability across a Pitch Status Spectrum: Cases from English, Estonian, Japanese, and Mandarin L1 Speakers.” We are examining how pitch status differs across English, Estonian, Japanese, and Mandarin and how the difference affects the respective native speakers’s pitch perception ability.

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.