Member Spotlights

How a child’s first language includes more than words

Author: Shannon Ward, University of British Columbia. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. This International Mother Language Day (Feb. 21), Canadians celebrated their multilingual heritage by recognizing…

When a virus is the cause, racism is often the symptom

‘When languages fade, so does the world's rich tapestry of cultural diversity’ - Celebrating International Mother Language Day

When languages fade, so does the world's rich tapestry of cultural diversity. That’s according to the United Nations, which declared February 21st is International Mother Language Day in 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. Language Sciences spoke with six bi…

Questioning the belief that English is a universal common language

Is English a universal language, proficiency in which guarantees a successful career? Or is this a language myth that needs to be set right? Language Sciences member and Department of Language and Literacy Education Professor Ryuko Kubota and her research team interviewed 50 transnational…

What if you could hear new music by Satchmo? Language Sciences members are working to understand how people speak

What if you could hear new music by Louis Armstrong? Language Sciences members in the Brain2Speech group are working together to understand how people speak.  

Addressing a critical shortage of teachers for D/deaf and hard of hearing students in BC

British Columbia needs qualified teachers of students who are deaf and hard of hearing, and a University of British Columbia program can help. Professor Janet Jamieson, a Language Sciences member and co-director of the Program in Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at UBC, explains how D…

Study prompted by Commander Hadfield comment finds gravity affects astronauts’ speech

“Right after I landed, I could feel the weight of my lips and tongue and had to change how I was talking. I didn't realize I had learned to talk with a weightless tongue." Science has studied the effects of lower gravity on the body, but this comment by Commander Chris Hadfield at a press…

UBC launches professional computational linguistics degree to meet industry demand

Photo credit: Vanessa Ho

Computers can work out your bus journey – and predict dementia

Computers can map your route to work, automatically turn speech into written text - and predict very early stages of dementia with more than 80 per cent accuracy. Language Sciences members Giuseppe Carenini, professor of Computer Science, Hyeju Jang, Computer Science postdoctoral fellow, and…

Language Sciences’ statement on the climate strike

On Friday 27th September, a global climate strike will be held to highlight the climate crisis. UBC students have planned an event from 11am to 12pm at the AMS Student Nest. After the UBC event, there are plans for people on campus to travel by bus and bike convoys to Vancouver City Hall, where…