Research Interests:
- Second language phonology and processing
- Acquisition of phonology
- Native and non-native accents
- Speech perception
- Spoken word recognition
- Pronunciation teaching
- Second language listening
Isabelle Darcy is Professor of Second Language Studies, where she teaches courses on second language (L2) phonological acquisition and processing, experimental methods in L2 laboratory phonology, and methods for teaching pronunciation. Her research focus is the acquisition of second language phonology, pronunciation instruction, speech perception and word recognition in a first and in a second language.
Her specialization is in second language phonology, cognitive science, speech perception, spoken word recognition, the bilingual mental lexicon, and pronunciation instruction.
We also examine the mechanisms of phonological processing in a L2, and the factors that facilitate it (for instance by supressing the interference from the first language).
Currently (2021), our research is mainly organized around three main focus areas as shown below:
- Phonological processing and spoken word recognition in L1 and L2
- The bilingual mental lexicon
- Pronunciation instruction and teacher training
With a background in linguistics, cognitive science and experimental psycholinguistics, we focus on the mechanisms and architecture underlying phonological processing and phonological acquisition - be it the native or a second language, adults or children, simultaneous or successive bilinguals; our work integrates different methods of investigation from perception and production, lexical access and word recognition.
At the moment, we are particularly interested in understanding how phonological knowledge interacts with word recognition and word encoding in a second language.
Research Interests: psycholinguistics; phonology; native and non-native speech processing; word recognition; first and second language acquisition of phonology; foreign accent
