Faculty Research Strengths and Focus
Research Strengths
- Extends research on narrative comprehension from the school-age population to preschoolers and toddlers
- Developed and utilizes innovative tools for measuring preschool children's oral story comprehension
- Research may improve understanding of the factors that influence reading ability in young children
- Expertise in language testing and measurement issues
- Strong research collaborations and interdisciplinary partnerships
- Extensive study of models of human health and disability
Current Research Focus
- Preschool-age children's narrative comprehension
- Developing methods of testing early story comprehension
- Examining constructs underlying early narrative comprehension
- Nature of the young child's early narrative representations and developmental changes
- Clinical Issues in early language assessment
- Examining assessment practices from perspective of a disability model
- Measurement issues: Examining validity of tests of early language ability
- Links between early oral story comprehension and later literacy skills
Research Strengths
- Psycholinguistics and neurocogntion of language; examining the syntax-semantics interface, especially with regards to anaphora, quantification and modal auxiliaries in discourse.
- Other interests: Bilingual syntactic processing; Hindi syntax-semantics; cerebral lateralization of prosody.
Current Research Focus
- Establishing nationally funded (CFI and SSHRC awards) neurocognition of language lab
- Investigation of quantifier ambiguity using behavioural and neurophysiological methods. Other syntax-semantics interface issues to be addressed: processing type-shifting verbs, negative polarity items
- Extending empirical findings in the visual modality to auditory investigations
- Hindi clause structure
Research Strengths
- Focus on:
- reflective practice for language teachers
- language teacher education
- language teacher development
- language teaching methodology
Current Research Focus
- Working on several projects related to Reflective Practice for Language teachers
- Working on Language Teacher Research project
Research Strengths
- Strong international research partnerships in South and Southeast Asia, particularly Sri Lanka, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
- An international reputation in implementation of systemic change in educational systems.
- Expertise in qualitative research methods, particularly life history research.
- Research with non-native speaking teachers of English in state educational systems in non-western countries: a counterbalance to the native-speakerism of much academic research in TESL.
- Published edited books in the areas of teacher and teacher-trainer development for TESL; also articles in refereed journals such as ELT Journal, System, and Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice on teacher development, primary English language teaching and curriculum change, and aspects of the lives and careers on non-native speaking teachers of English
Current Research Focus
- In-service teacher education program evaluation in Korea: a research project with the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation
- Curriculum change and primary English language teaching: a research project with the Ministry of Education and Training/British Council, Vietnam.
- An investigation of attitudes to and use of the English language in Thailand (a pilot project to be extended to other countries in South and Southeast Asia)
- The lives and careers of non-native speaking teachers of English in government schools in Sri Lanka and Thailand: an ongoing life history research project
Research Strengths
- Functional linguistic theories in syntax and semantics and pragmatics, focusing on language universals through typological studies and crosslinguistic comparison, especially that between English and Chinese
- Application of functional linguistics to second language acquisition
- Adoption of quantitative as well as qualitative approaches to linguistic and applied linguistic topics
- Corpus-based research
- Rich experience in international academic co-operation, including appointed visiting professorship in three Chinese universities, giving plenary speeches at international conferences, and collaborative research projects
Current Research Focus
- Continued research in ESL acquisition of high- digit numerical expressions that involves investigation of the relevant linguistic structure, L2 acquisition phenomena, and pedagogic applications
- Ethnographic research on linguistic preferism with a view to linguistic relativism, to investigate use of linguistic expressions which are sociolinguistically favoured by being homophonous with other expressions whose meanings are socio-culturally propitious
- L2 literacy study on significant grammatical and/or discoursal features that distinguish between strong and weak ESL writers.
Research Strengths
- Carrying out data-driven studies
- Collaborating with Canadian and international colleagues to secure funding, develop projects and disseminate research findings
- Working with children, adolescents and adults
Current Research Focus
- Writing development in adolescents and adults
- Exploiting computer technology to promote writing development and SLA
- Teaching writing; focus on academic writing
- ESL teacher (metalinguistic) knowledge
Research Strengths
- Long-standing international and intercultural professional relationships
- Member, Registry of CLB Experts, Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks
Current Research Focus
- Linguistic and cultural facets of learner and teacher transitions
- Culturally responsive teaching and professionalism
- Freinet pedagogy and its implications for materials design, methodology, and professional development
Research Strengths
- Extensive clinical experience in Speech-Language Pathology from which to derive research questions
- Broad network of colleagues with whom to collaborate
- Expertise in Amer-Ind Gestural Code (Skelly, 1979)
Current Research Focus
- Age-related changes to cognitive-linguistic abilities
- Discourse comprehension skills of adults with and without a variety of neurologically-based cognitive-linguistic disorders (e.g., aphasia, Alzheimer disease, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson disease)
- Comprehension of Amer-Ind and other gestures by older adults with Alzheimer disease
- Influence of speech-accompanying gestures on the cognitive-linguistic skills of adults with Alzheimer disease
- Professional preparation of Speech-Language Pathologists
Research Strengths
- L2 speech perception and production
- Development of L2 oral fluency
- Professionalism in TESL
- Data driven, empirical research
Current Research Focus
- Interaction of L1/L2 phonological systems
- Role of attention in L2 phonological acquisition
- Computer-mediated approaches to pronunciation instruction
Research Strengths
- Qualitative research utilizing the following methodologies:
- Life History research
- Oral History
- Phenomenologically oriented research involving the sociocultural and ethical dimensions associated with academic literacy/health literacy
Current Research Focus
- Life History Research
- Currently examining the professional development of ESL/EFL teachers;
- Sociocultural dimensions associated with academic literacy for First Year University Students in Transition;
- Ethical /Sociocultural issues associated with health literacy in adults with intellectual disabilites
Research Strengths
- Strong research partnerships and collaboration with researchers from other institutions
- Research in areas that are just beginning to gain attention (auditory-verbal therapy)
- Research in both normal perception and development as well as with clinical populations (hearing loss, traumatic brain injury)
- Work with both child and adult populations
Current Research Focus
- Modality preferences in children with hearing loss participating in different forms of therapy (auditory-verbal, auditory-oral, total communication)
- Bimodal perception of visual and auditory cues of emotion across the lifespan
- Developing new paradigms to examine perception of vocal affect
- Developing treatment programs for affect recognition deficits in adults with traumatic brain injury
- Examining whether affect recogntion treatment programs created for adults with traumatic brain injury can also be used with adults with autism spectrum disorder
- Linking perception of visual and auditory cues to social interaction deficits experienced by various populations in various age groups
Departmental Events
Departmental News
- Libraries
- Careers @ Brock
- my.brocku.ca
- Staff & Faculty Directory
- Newsroom
- Accessibility
- Website Comments
- Employee Login
© 2010 Brock University.