UTM Faculty Dr. Samantha Jackson and Derek Denis Publish their Research into Accent-Based Biases in the GTA

Postdoctoral Fellow of Language Studies at UTM, Dr. Samantha Jackson, and Associate Professor of Linguistics, Derek Denis, have recently published their work titled What I say, or how I say it? Ethnic accents and hiring evaluations in the Greater Toronto Area.

Jackson’s work, focusing on sociolinguistics, investigates how immigrants to Canada speaking with an identifiably non-Canadian accent are perceived by prospective employers. She investigates strategies to reduce such workplace discrimination and target other societal problems. 

Denis' interests follow variationist sociolinguistics (language change), and how human language faculty allows for variation both within the individual’s grammar and the larger context of the society in which it exists.

During their study, they recorded 12 women giving scripted 6 answers to interview questions, (3 good, 3 bad) and asked Human Resources students at universities and colleges in the GTA to rank the content of responses, as well as the employability of each voice. They were also asked to determine for which, if any, job interview to recommend these individuals. 

Jackson and Denis analyzed the results using conditional inference tree modeling and random forest analysis.

They found that the accent heard by participants affected their ratings of all these scripted responses, viewing Canadian accents as superior to those of non-Canadians – specifically, the most disadvantaged being Chinese, Nigerian, and German accents. These were least likely to be recommended for customer-facing and, importantly, higher-ranking jobs. 

Presented at online conferences in 2021 and 2022, in Germany and in Vancouver, a full thematic analysis of comments from the full study’s sample will be presented in June at the CLA (Canadian Linguistics Association) Conference, held in Ottawa. Watch out for WHITL’s coverage of that event, coming soon. 

As for this publication, major recommendations from the report include (1) adding language to the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s grounds for discrimination, among others, which can be found in their full published work. It will also be available in the June issue of Language. 

Though linguistic protection is an idea covered in sections 15 (Equality Rights), and 23 (Minority language and educational rights) of the Canadian Charter, Jackson and Denis’ work puts a spotlight on the need for specific and targeted legislation to protect Canadians with non-Canadian accents in the workplace.

Real change in public policy and legislation which emerges from projects like these are some of the most exciting moments we get to watch as they evolve. Looking forward to seeing this work at the CLA Conference in June.

An important p.s.: Dr. Jackson will join the UofT Department of Linguistics in January 2025. We can't wait!

Newest Faculty Member: Shohini Bhattasali!

In the Fall, we will be welcoming a new faculty member to the Department of Language Studies at UTSC! Shohini Bhattasali will be joining us as a computational linguist! We had the great pleasure of sitting down with her for an interview. Keep reading to learn more about her! 

What attracted you to the UofT linguistics department?

UofT has an incredible intellectual community and this is reflected through the research and the curriculum. I would love to help strengthen the computational linguistics program and I’m very excited to collaborate within Linguistics and with other departments (e.g. cognitive science, and information science). I also like how each campus has its unique identity but still makes up one cohesive whole. 

Do you have any expectations regarding the department? 

Everyone seems really welcoming and friendly. I am excited to see what everyone is working on and learn more about collaborative, interdisciplinary opportunities. The students at UofT seem very motivated and I’m excited to work with them and guide them along the way. I’m especially looking forward to working with students who want to incorporate computational modelling into their projects or are interested in the cognitive science of language and need guidance. 

You have taught/assisted many courses ranging from computational linguistics to Hindi to writing, which has been your favourite? 

Definitely the linguistics courses! They line up with my interests much more. While I was a teaching assistant for linguistics courses, I got to design tutorials. This was a great teaching experience as I got to see how the students were able to apply the theories they were learning. The writing courses were also great because I was able to design a course from scratch for first-year students. It was very fulfilling to see the students' trajectories as they improved their academic writing skills. These courses were the most rewarding in terms of seeing students improve and gain confidence in their writing! 

Do you notice any trends amongst your top students?

My top students are typically the ones who are engaged and ask questions in class. They are the ones who are not afraid to dive deeper into ongoing topics during class discussions. I know some students are shy and might be intimidated by speaking up in class, but they can still participate in tutorials and drop by during office hours. While it is hard to generalize, student engagement can often be an indicator of how they are doing. If they can relate their personal interests to the material, they will be more motivated and interested in learning. It is great to see students interested in what I am lecturing about and how it changes the way they see linguistics. Students coming from high school often don’t know much about linguistics so it's particularly enjoyable to observe the ah-ha moment where their interest is sparked and they figure out how linguistics isn’t centred around prescriptivism. 

What has been your most memorable research project? 

My dissertation was mainly based on a large-scale fMRI study. I had started grad school with an interest in computational linguistics and discovered neurolinguistics along the way. My advisor was starting a new cognitive neuroscience project and gave me an opportunity to be involved in this cross-linguistic fMRI study. He believes in experiential learning so it was a steep learning curve but I was involved in the experimental design, data collection, data analysis and then training other grad students and undergrad RAs. It was my first time working with neuroimaging data, but this experience really helped guide my research program. It took over a year to collect the brain data but the good thing with using continuous, naturalistic fMRI datasets is that it's not tailored to one research project and we can use it for many different research topics. I’m a big fan of naturalistic fMRI/EEG/MEG datasets for reusability and replicability purposes!

What are some of the issues you face in the field of computational linguistics?

In the last 10 years, the field has exploded and grown exponentially. It can be challenging to even define what “computational linguistics” is as the field is changing so quickly. Additionally, the line between natural language processing and computational linguistics is getting blurry. I personally see computational linguistics as a scientific study of language using computational tools, whereas natural language processing is more about engineering and building tools that are useful for language applications, e.g., Amazon Alexa (speech recognition) and Google Translate (machine translation). 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches have also become tremendously popular, but we need to be careful in applying these approaches blindly to neuroimaging data because there is still so much about the brain we don’t know. While we can use these new fancy tools to get good results on certain tasks, we cannot always rely on them to understand why we get the results we get. For example, a computational model like GPT-3 is very good at predicting the next word in a sentence, but we don’t fully know how the prediction is being generated. If we don’t fully understand the representations being learnt by these models, how can we use them to understand the representations that the brain is using? As scientists, we always critically think about the tools we use and this is just another tool we have at our disposal. Maybe in a few years, we will have a more in-depth understanding of these models, and we can leverage that to understand cognitive mechanisms behind language comprehension and production. I do use computational models in my work to operationalize and embody cognitive hypotheses but I always prefer using simple and interpretable models over these fancier, black-box models.

Do you have any hobbies / secret passions? 

I love reading! I also like to bake since it’s a great way to destress while still feeling productive. Dance and music have played a large role in my life. Growing up in India, I trained as a classical Indian dancer (Odissi) for 15 years and then, I was on my college dance team too. I also love attending classical music concerts and dance performances. I’m looking forward to attending more of those in Toronto! 

What are you most looking forward to about living in Toronto? 

Toronto is a big diverse city which is exciting! I grew up in a large city too, but I have mostly lived in smaller, college towns during undergrad and grad school so I’m very happy to be moving to an urban area. I’ve also heard a lot of good things about Toronto’s multicultural food scene which makes sense given the large immigrant population. I also love visiting museums, discovering local bakeries, and finding new go-to coffee spots. It will be interesting to see what I will find in Toronto! I’m also looking forward to exploring more of Ontario and Canada in general since I’ve only visited Quebec City. 

I will be going back and forth between the Scarborough and St. George campuses, and luckily for me I already have a few connections on all campuses which I’m excited about. Nathan Sanders  (Faculty) was actually my undergrad thesis advisor so it’s such a small world moment to now be his colleague! One of my best friends from grad school is a faculty in iSchool (Shion Guha) and another friend is joining UTM Language Studies (Lingzi Zhuang, new faculty member). Overall, I am excited to join UofT and am looking forward to creating a lab at the intersection of computational linguistics and cognitive neuroscience, meeting the students and making more connections here!

We would like to thank Shohini for taking the time out of her busy schedule to be interviewed! We look forward to seeing her on campus in the Fall! Feel free to connect with her on Twitter if you have any questions or if you want to introduce yourself! 

(Re-)Meet the Staff: Kai Herzog-Hara

While we are all familiar with the wonderful Kai Herzog-Hara (former Undergraduate Secretary), we thought it would be fun to re-introduce her in the blog as she has just taken the position of Graduate Office and Departmental Officer Assistant! Kai was able to fit in an interview with What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics where we go to learn much more about her! 

How are you liking your new position so far?

I like it a lot! I get to know a different side of the department which is great! I’m still learning the new parts of the job, but I really like it so far. 

Why did you decide to switch from undergrad admin to grad admin?

I really enjoyed working as the undergrad admin. I loved being able to help students plan and organize themselves to help them achieve their goals. When this position opened up, the department thought it would be a good idea for someone who already knew the department to take over. As I already had the experience of working as an undergrad admin, it just makes sense for me to take on this new role. 

When you finished your undergrad at UofT (in linguistics), why did you decide to work on the administration side of the department? 

During undergrad, I worked in Sali Tagliamonte’s (Faculty) lab and while I really liked it, I wasn't ready to go further into graduate school. I needed more time to get myself organized and manage my mental health. When the undergrad admin position opened up, Sali brought it to my attention, and again, it just made sense for me to apply! 

What is your favourite thing about working in the linguistic department? 

My favourite thing is being able to help students in the ways that I can. In undergrad, I majored in psychology and linguistics and I feel like both subjects are relevant to my work. I enjoy being able to help people achieve their goals! 

What was the most memorable moment from your time as an undergraduate student in the department?

I don’t have an exact moment. I would say the most memorable thing was the community. It was in my second year when I first felt that. The department has a really strong sense of community and that has to be the most memorable aspect.

Do you have any hobbies / secret passions?

Haha does Netflix count? In all seriousness, I do enjoy embroidery! I started during undergrad when some of my friends from back home (Ottawa) wanted to make matching sweaters. It was a cool thing for us to do all together. I will still embroider shirts and sweaters but now I do more patches. The motion is easier on patches. My least favourite part is finishing the edges to make it look nice, I have yet to complete one that I am happy with but it’s coming! I do like to have ​tv or movies on in the background. Currently, I am committed to a Marvel Universe binge. I made a bet that I would do it and now I’m stuck. At least I can embroider while they are playing! 

What is the best-kept secret in Toronto?

There are not many secrets in Toronto! But I do love going to parks around Toronto. Bickford Park might be a favourite because it's not exposed to the busyness of Bloor Street but is still so central. When someone is visiting or is new to Toronto, I take them to Toronto Island because it is great to explore! Some spots have more greenery and are great for a picnic while other spots are beautiful beaches. Plus, there is an amazing view of the Toronto shoreline you can see while on the ferry.

What is your favourite spot on campus?

When I was an undergrad, I would say it would be the top floor of Myhal for studying and the Cat’s Eye for socializing. I was a Victoria College student, so I spent a lot of time there. Now I’m in my Office (Fourth Floor of Sidney Smith) and I don’t get to move locations too much. In Autumn, I love going to Queen’s Park as it is beautiful at that time of year.

What is your dream travel destination? 

Oh, that is a lot to think about! I would love to go to Melbourne to visit friends! It’s far and it seems like a really good place. But my dream travel destination would depend on who I’m going with and what the purpose is. I like a resort vacation ​just as much as I like to go out and seeing things. Overall, I just need friends and sunshine and I’m happy. That's probably why I like bringing people to Toronto Island!

We would like to thank Kai for participating in an interview! It was great getting to know her some more! We will be waiting to see more of your fun embroidery! 

Radio 1 Interview with Sali Tagliamonte!

For those who have not heard yet, Sali A. Tagliamonte (Faculty) will be taking a Field trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario! As Tagliamonte and her students head up the north shore of Lake Superior, they will be interviewing locals for a dialect survey and for an accommodation study! 

RADIO 1 did a story on Tagliamonte's upcoming trip! In her interview, "A linguist dedicated to the language of Northern Ontarians",  she shared more details on the project and got to show off her French-speaking skills. 😉 

Be sure to check out the interview to learn more! They are always looking for participants, so if you know any born and raised locals in a Northern Ontario community, share this post with them! 😃

Interview with Tahohtharátye Joe Brant!

    We had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Tahohtharátye Joe Brant, one of our newest faculty members who is also cross-appointed in the Centre for Indigenous Studies. Keep reading to learn more about him!

What attracted you to UofT?    

UofT is a world-class facility with world-class people. I know Professor Ryan Decaire and the great work that he, and others, do at the Centre for Indigenous Studies and Department of Linguistics. When the opportunity to join UofT came up, it seemed like a really good fit. I get the opportunity to be surrounded by smart, like-minded people who can help in my community's language revitalization journey. 

 

Do you have any expectations about coming to UofT?   

I have high expectations for my work at UofT. I want to provide the best opportunities for students to learn and support them in reaching their goals. I especially want to inspire students to in Linguistics and Indigenous Studies to support communities and help the next generation of minority and Indigenous language learners. Being at UofT gives me great opportunities to learn with, and from great people.

 

You were a teacher, a principal, and a vice-principal at an Indigenous institution. What inspired you to work as an educator?   

I was born, raised, and reside on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, this will be my first job off the Territory. As I was grew up and went through school, I always wanted to be at home, in my community, to support our children. During my undergrad at the University of Ottawa, I was studying criminology, I thought that this was a good way to help. But, I realized there are ways to reach kids earlier, through the education system. For almost 20 years, I did what I could in education on the territory and now wish to follow another passion, Kanyen'kéha (Mohawk language) revitalization practice and research. I’m now going on a limb, moving to work outside of the Territory, but in this position, I am able to engage with my community and nation's language work. 

 

What did you enjoy most being an educator working with children / young adults?   

               

      Children and young adults often don’t get enough credit for how brilliant they are. They have an energy that desire to learn, question, and experience. I enjoy helping students in their learning journey and guiding them through the experience of learning. Normally, around this time of year, I would be at the elementary school, it would just be myself with a few other staff members. The school seemed so eerie without the children. Once the students, families, and teachers enter on the first day, the school would truly come to life. Seeing, hearing, and supporting that energy, the desire to learn and do, was what I enjoy most.    

 

What drew you into the field of linguistics? What made you go from elementary education to U of T?   

              When I was  growing up, I rarely heard the Kanyen'kéha (Mohawk language) in my family or throughout the community. There are many reasons for the current generational gap in Kanyen'kéha speakers. I started learning Mohawk in elementary school and in the 90s while there was huge surge Mohawk nationhood and sovereignty. I believe one of the greatest things that help perpetuate the vitalization of Mohawk nationhood and sovereignty comes in the normalization and active use of our language. When I was teaching, I strived for culturally inclusive learning and felt like I couldn’t teach this class properly without further knowledge of the language. That’s when I began to learn Kanyen'kéha as an adult. That’s what inspired me learn more about linguistics. I learned the language from amazing people and I have had many great mentors along the way. Now Mohawk is the primary language my family and I speak at home. When raising my children, I wanted to show them how important our language is. It ensures that we have a connection to each other as people and all natural elements of the world. We need to speak our language because language shapes our thoughts and actions. Tahohtarátye is the name, I was given in as a young adult. It translates to, "He comes along in conversation". Your name can be based on birth events, family tradition or as a match of personality or characteristics. Sometimes too, a name fits what you'll do throughout your life. I feel like I keep moving to fulfilling the responsibilities that come with my name.  

 

What makes learning / researching Indigenous languages unique?   

             There is a correlation between language revitalization, and the health and well-being of a person, community, and nation. There’s great strength in how languages perpetuate the living culture of a people. Learning Indigenous languages is a way forward. A way for people, communities, and nations to reconcile with the past and develop a brighter future. Working with Indigenous languages is more than learning sounds, it is about connecting with our people, our lands, and our ways of knowing and being in this world.   

 

What challenges do you face when researching Indigenous languages? What do you think can be done to ease these challenges?   

                The biggest challenges in learning comes from acknowledging where we are and making the best choices possible in moving forward.  What's interesting is that institutionalized education was used to take away language and now, we are relying on them to help our people learn. We, in Indigenous language revitalization, need to consider how language is and has been transmitted intergenerationally, for millennia. It’s important to look at the home and family as the base for language vitality. Having access to Indigenous languages is difficult. At home, there was a 60-year gap between first-language speakers of Mohawk. Ultimately, we need greater focus and development of informal language learning opportunities and to have access to hearing, seeing, and doing, in our language.   

             In terms of research, another challenge comes from sharing knowledge and resources. There are amazing people doing important work in many different communities, often accessing such great work is difficult. I feel that we are often quite protective of our resources, knowledge, and experience. Right now, we are in a time crunch. We need to accelerate Mohawk language acquisition, transmission, and learning. We need to come together to find what works and take steps to ensure our language is used for generations to come.

 

Since you have much experience as an educator, what advice would you give your incoming students? 

  

Come into class with an open mind, open ears, and an open heart. We need to listen, and read, to understand, not to simply respond. Take in the information and bring it into your world. Ask yourself how the material you are learning impacts you, your family, or your community. Never stop asking questions, but also, put your answers into action. I want my students to know that I also am a learner, I am coming into this new just like how my first-year students.

 

As the world is re-opening, what are you most looking forward to doing/trying?   

I am a BIG sports fan! Racetracks, golf, and lacrosse are open and hockey will be back soon. I want to go to sporting events. I have always had a love for sports and trying different sports. The love might not have been the sports themselves but the comradery that comes with sports. Even when you’re not playing and you’re just watching, there is just a great environment. I’m hoping everything goes well so we can get back being fans and spectators. 

 

 

We'd like to thank Tahohtharáte Joe Brant for taking the time to be interviewed and for sharing his experiences with us. The Department of Linguistics is excited to welcome you and we all wish you the best of luck here at UofT! Say tuned in to check out our other interviews to learn more about our faculty members! 

Interview with PhD Candidate Angelika Kiss

      This time we are pleased to feature Angelika Kiss (PhD Candidate). She has been working on semantics and pragmatics of biased questions in various languages, looking at the meaning of questions and the relation between form and meaning. If you are also interested in this area of study, you don't want to miss out on her interview!

 

What are you currently working on in the summer?

    Summer is the time when I'm submitting abstracts, but it is also a time to run experiments. I am working on a Cantonese production experiment on rhetorical wh-questions with a subject wh-phrase, which I co-author with an MA student in our department, Justin Leung, and Roger Yu-Hsiang Lo, a PhD candidate from UBC. We are also working on a similar study on Mandarin, but in this case, the wh-word is the object, not the subject (we've run this experiment with subject wh-words before). For both studies, we are looking at the question: are rhetorical questions produced differently from genuine questions? I've run a production experiment on the meaning and prosody of Russian declarative questions with Andrei Munteanu, who is also a UofT PhD candidate, and a perception experiment on Hungarian declarative questions with Ádám Szalontai from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Last but not least, I am part of a project on the semantics and pragmatics of the Italian discourse connective ma 'but' with my supervisor, Michela Ippolito and Will Williams (PhD student at UofT), this is something that is related to but not part of my thesis.

  I also have a side project that is dear to my heart, which is a psycholinguistic study involving silent gestures. It is related to word order (which was the topic of my second GP). And of course, I am also teaching LIN241 (Introduction to Semantics). 

What do you think about teaching at UofT under the online environment?

    Since I teach LIN241 asynchronously, I don't really get to see my students and their reactions, however, I think it goes well. It takes a lot of time to record and prepare the class material, it keeps me busy and I barely have a single moment of free time but I still enjoy it. As a semanticist, it is good to teach something that I am actually interested in!

How do you deliver content to your students? Would that be different if it is in person?

    I record myself in advance, I think this is more accessible for students that are located around the world, it would be harsh to make them wake up in the middle of the night or really early in the morning. I also set up discussion boards and office hours for my students, but they don't really use it/come. I expected more and thought it would be easier for students to get involved, but it is understandable too, because they might be shy to come and some of them are working in the summer, so it is not as easy as I thought it would be.

    I think an in-person class would probably be different. Seeing someone's face on a prerecorded video may not be enough to create the right atmosphere and does not necessarily make one approachable for them. I hope when it is in person, I could make students engage more in class.

Do you see any trend in your students?

    I can tell which students care about semantics based on their assignments and quizzes. I can tell who cared to do the readings by the questions they approach me with (some even ask for additional materials on a certain topic). It is really encouraging to see that because it shows that at least some of them can and are willing to do the work successfully. As for those who are not doing too well in class, I am not sure if it is the difficulty of the course or they are just too busy to put effort into this class to do well.

What attracted you to the UofT Linguistics Department?

    When I was applying for grad school, I was going to work on syntax (even though I switched to semantics now) and I knew that the UofT Linguistics Department is strong in syntax, that is why I came here. Also, I love that we can start the PhD program with a blank slate here in Canada, not necessarily knowing our thesis topic. This allowed me to explore other areas of linguistics.

What makes your experience in UofT different from the past?

    I am originally from Hungary and I found that PhD programs in North America are so different from the ones in Europe. In Europe, universities would tell what grad students can work on, so those programs are mostly thematic. The PhD supervisors will tell you the topic. But at universities in Canada, students do not necessarily have to know what exactly they want to work on when they apply, it is so different from European universities. On the other hand, I think that courses here are way more intense than what I did before in Hungary (MA in theoretical linguistics) or in the Netherlands (MA in Chinese linguistics), however, it is a good kind of challenge. Students in Europe are left alone (e.g. reading the textbook or essay and write a paper on it), while in Canada, it is more hands-on and may involve fieldwork. I like the involvement we got here, like having to present several times in the same class and doing assignments during the term.

You have released a few papers in the past, what did you gain from writing them?

    Writing these papers was useful in the development of my thoughts and projects, so I'm grateful that they are out, regardless of their actual quality or weight on the market.

After COVID, what do you want to accomplish or hope to do?

   There is nothing specific that I want to accomplish but I hope to visit home when things are back to normal. I am also hoping to do in-person experiments! I could not continue to do any due to COVID. For example, I'd really like to do an eye-tracking study using the visual world paradigm to work on  questions, common ground and word order.

    We would like to say thank you to Angelika for taking her time in this busy summer for our interview! It is our pleasure to hear a lot about her ongoing experiments and studies. To learn more about her and her work, please check her website.

Interview with PhD Candidate Katharina Pabst

 We are back with our series of interviews with course instructors this summer semester. This time, we are pleased to feature Katharina Pabst (PhD candidate) for our series of interviews. In this interview, she shared her study on language variation and change, especially in lifespan change. She also gave some great advice to our UofT linguistics students! Check this out!

Katharina Pabst and her rescue dog Cabbie

What are you working on in the summer?

    I am teaching LIN251 (Introduction to Sociolinguistics) and working on my dissertation, which I hope to finish this year. My dissertation looks at language variation and change in Aroostook County, Maine, which is an area that has not received much attention in dialectological work. Specifically, my project examines how Aroostook County English fits into the surrounding dialect regions and how speakers use linguistic features to show their alignment or disalignment with local values

The location of Aroostook County, Main

What makes you interested in this unique topic?

    I have a family connection in the area. When I first started visiting, I was fascinated by the dialect that I encountered. I had never seen it described anywhere, so I did a little it digging and discovered that Aroostook County had not received very much attention in the past. While the Linguistic Atlas of New England did interview a handful of speakers from northern Maine, the region isn’t even pictured on its maps. Instead, the speakers’ results can be found in the corner. The few sources that do discuss northern Maine variably associate it with three different dialect regions (Eastern New England, Western New England, and Atlantic Canada), but these claims have never been tested empirically. My goal was to do just that and put this variety ‘on the map.’

On top of dialectology, I am very interested in language variation across the lifespan and how people change the way they speak as they get older. Aroostook County has undergone drastic socio-economic change in the past few decades, which often leads to linguistic change. I am interested in documenting how life and language in the area have changed and how speakers experience this, so I hope that my dissertation will be the starting point of a long-term collaboration with the communities I have been working with.

What attracted you to UofT to continue your study in Linguistics?

    In 2015, I took Professor Sali Tagliamonte’s course on Variationist Sociolinguistics at the LSA Summer Institute. During that time, we started working on a research project together, which I really enjoyed, so I applied to U of T to continue working with her. Another reason that made U of T very attractive is that there were actually several experts in my area of study, which is not very common and made U of T the perfect place to pursue my Ph.D.

What makes UofT different from your previous experience in other institutions? What makes UofT special?

    Before coming to Canada, I studied linguistics in the US, where I also worked as a TA. In the departments I worked in, being a TA meant being a course instructor, but here at U of T, TAs teach tutorials instead. I am really grateful that I got to work with students in both of these capacities.

One thing that makes U of T special is that there are three campuses, with lots of linguists working on different areas. I really like this because we have experts specializing in many sub-disciplines of linguistics, which makes U of T an excellent place for collaborative work! There is a very active research culture as well. During the semester, we regularly have research groups, which folks from all three campuses attend. We also have members from other schools in the area, so there is a vibrant intellectual community.

Last but not least, there is a strong sense of community among the graduate students, which I greatly appreciate.

What do you gain from the teaching experience in teaching a course in the summer? Did you need to adjust anything due to the online environment?

    

    It is my second time teaching LIN251 online. Last year, I taught the course asynchronously, this year, both lectures and tutorials were delivered synchronously. Before last year, I had never taught online, so that was a big transition for me. I took advantage of the training offered by the Centre of Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) and the Teaching Assistants' Training Program (TATP) of UofT, whose webinars on online teaching were incredibly helpful. The biggest lesson I learned is how important it is to be very organized from the beginning, so students always know what they are expected to do. I am very deliberate about that. I always make an effort to combine short lectures with active learning activities that keep people engaged. I know it’s easy to get distracted when sitting at home in front of your computer, so I try to make things interesting. In my asynchronous course, I made frequent use of discussion boards to give students a chance to reflect on how the course material relates to their own lived experience, analyze data, and test their understanding. In my synchronous course this summer, we did all of this live. Students also got a chance to discuss questions in small groups, giving them an opportunity to get to know their peers and learn from each other. I have always valued hands-on activities and lots of interaction and will continue to do so, regardless of the mode of delivery.

     

    There are several other things that I also hope to continue doing in the future. For example, creating course tour videos or short modules introducing students to the course website and important policies. This ensures that every student has all the information they need to succeed. I am also committed to continuing to build flexibility into my course policies, especially my late work policy. It is important to recognize that students have lives outside of the university and that there are often legitimate reasons for having to shift things around. 

Do you see any trends in your students?

     

    In general, I notice that everyone is much more used to online learning by now. Both the students and I are more familiar with how videoconferencing platforms like Zoom or MS Teams work, so there are way fewer technical issues. My students this semester were very active so we had lots of exciting discussions. Generally, I find that the more everyone participates, the more they learn from the experience. That’s why I try to create an accessible classroom environment where everyone can participate in a way that feels most comfortable to them – that includes polls, practice quizzes, discussion boards, breakout rooms, and games in which students solve an issue of sociolinguistic relevance. I think that active participation is important to keep students motivated, as is showing them how the course material is relevant in their everyday lives.

Any advice to undergrad or fellow grad students?

     

  Try to find ways to get involved in your program! For example, becoming a member of a research lab really helped me to feel like being a part of the community and helped to solidify what I was learning in my courses because I was applying it in my research. I realize that depending on students’ circumstances, it might be difficult to find the time to get involved, but it doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment – some of the activities I have been involved in, such as designing outreach activities for Linguistics Rendezvous, only took a few afternoons of my time. 

    Personally, I have benefitted the most from study abroad, which is how I first came to North America. I realize that the pandemic has made it more difficult to pursue this at the moment, but if you get a chance to go abroad, I highly encourage you to do it. Meeting new people and studying in other places has definitely helped me reflect on my own positionality and appreciate different approaches to the study of language and linguistics.

After COVID, what do you hope to do or accomplish?

     

    I hope to go see my family and friends in Germany! I haven't seen them in one and a half years, so that will be the first thing I do once I feel like it is safe to do so. 

    Thank you Katharina for taking her time to be interviewed by us to share her experience at UofT and giving out such great advice to our fellow linguistics students. Stay tuned for more interviews in the future with our UofT linguists!