A picture of Drs Tony Herdman and Sid Fels looking at a cap covered in electrodes on a research assistant.

Research

Research

Three Primary Pillars 

  1. Language, Sustainability, and Transnationalism 

    • explores the ways in which language shapes and is shaped by interactions between individuals and communities

  2. Communicating Mind and Body 

    • explores the physical and neural foundations of language

  3. Evolving Language in an Information Economy 

    • explores language’s role in information and technology

Five Grand Challenges 

Language Sciences focuses on five key research challenge areas for interdisciplinary research: 





Simulating Languaging Bodies

Investigating the neural and physical foundations of language.

 





Mapping Language Acquisition and Decline

Understanding how language is acquired and how it changes or declines over time.

 





Supporting Community-Engaged Language Survivance

Promoting community-led efforts to revitalize and sustain endangered languages. Learn more.

 





Enhancing Language and Literacy Education

Developing effective tools and strategies for language and literacy education in a multicultural and digital world.

 





Reimagining Public Discourse

Examining how language shapes public communication and discourse in society. Learn more. 

 

Overview of Our Research

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The Language Sciences Research Wheel includes research works that span the interdisciplinary field of language sciences, and cover key questions our members are working to answer. Our aim is to build a global network of scholars, teachers, and learners, who work with community partners to translate knowledge into practical results. Groups involved in language science research are distributed throughout UBC.

Click here to view Research groups.

Research News

  1. Quote from Dr. Monica Good: Reconnecting with my own Maya roots has profoundly shaped how I think about language revitalization. It is a way to recover ties with my ancestors who have passed and a responsibility to be the voice of my people—a principle I hope to honor in all of my work.
    November 19, 2025

    UBCO Spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Monica Good

    Dr. Monica Good is an Associate Professor of Teaching in Global Studies, Indigenous Knowledges, Languages and World Literatures, Spanish in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan. LangSci caught up with Dr. Good to learn more about her work on language revitalization and the…

    Learn more

First Nations land acknowledegement

We acknowledge that UBC’s campuses are situated within the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, and in the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.

UBC Language Sciences

2240 - 5955 University Blvd.
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Tel 604 822 7435
E-mail language.sciences@ubc.ca

Research Excellence Clusters at UBC Vancouver are funded through the Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters program.

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